Trooper 3.1TD Engine Heater

Agreed. I have only had mine for 18 months but it has performed faultlessly. It does need both batteries, though, as I found out recently when one died. Even then it did not leave me stranded.

Ditto, apart from having to replace a couple of glow plugs - in nearly 4 years and over 65K miles.

Cheers Andrew

This question has intrigued me so I decided to RTFM (in this case, the workshop manual).

It seems that the switch is for a ceramic heater which supplements the car heater when it is cold. It does not heat the engine in any way. There are also some conditions that have to be in place for this heater to work. Not all of these are in the driver's handbook. I quote from the manual (n.b. this is for a 1999 3.0 litre Diesel Trooper):

Ceramic Heater

When the fan control knob (fan switch) turns on with the temperature control knob set to "FULL HOT" (full hot switch "ON), the ceramic heater in the heater unit gets hot, thus causing the heater blow temperature of diesel vehicle to get high to improve the heating performance (since the engine coolant temperature of diesel vehicle is low, it's blow temperature is also low).

There is then a diagram which shows that:

Glow plug must be off Heat switch must be set to full on Fan switch must be on Engine coolant must be below 80C Engine heater switch set to on

and then the ceramic heater will operated.

I must admit that I was not aware of the heater's true purpose. I understood that it was sensitive to the temperature of the engine coolant but was blissfully unaware of the other conditions that must be met. I have therefore probably never felt the benefit of the heater. I am now looking forward to some cold weather to try it our properly.

First of all this is news here in the Isuzu group, which I've been following for years. Secondly which tech was that, do you have a link? Could this have been an attempt to get people to by US vehicles?

actually they're called a "Jacobs Compression Brake" aka a "Jake Brake" and they're capable of upwards of 1000 redarding HP, depending on the engine. in the US I'd say it's more like 75% of medium duty trucks and 100% of heavy duty trucks have them.

-Bret

message

Injector sleeves just for a start

could loose him his means to pay the bills

I'm not disputing what you say but, up to press, I've only heard rumour & nothing definite. Is there anything public about it (on the web) that you can point me towards?

I don't really think that engine warranty claims are what killed the Trooper. Fundamentally, even though its a great vehicle, it has fallen behind its main competitors. For a few years now, every magazine roadtest has concluded that it is worthy but boring.

I wouldn't try to - at least not unless you were planning on buying a LR Discovery. :-)

Cheers Andrew Kay

Heh heh . . . . so the "Quick warm up" is referring to people, not the engine.

I MUST try that. I bet its never been on before .........

Yes - and so am I. You live and learn ..............

Cheers Andrew Kay

Retarding HP is a measure of a diesel engine's ability to absorb energy and to slow the truck.... For light duty and lighter medium duty trucks it's done by using an exhaust brake... i.e. one that closes a valve in the exhaust.. this system is limited by the amount of backpressure the engine can handle w/o stalling. these make a hissing sound when actuated. usually the max you can get out of them is around 150 retarding HP. Heavier medium duty and heavy trucks use an "engine retarder" or "compression release brake" which opens the exhaust valve a few degrees before TDC and dumps off enough cylinder pressure so the cylinder won't fire giving a two fold benefit.... energy absorbtion on compression and no power stroke. the bled off pressure is what gives the compression release brake it's distinctive stacatto sound. On common (in the US anyways) engines like the Cat C12 and C14, Cummins N14 and 50 series detroit engines braking figures of between 350-and

450 HP are common. jake brakes on huge offroad diesels (like in CAT 7- series haul trucks) can absorb 1000HP plus.

for more info check out

-Bret

the Cummins N14 is a 14 liter engine the 50 series was a typo, I actually ment the 60 series 12.7l Detroit diesel. about the biggest engine you'll find on a highway truck in the US would be a 16 liter.

-Bret

Yep 14 litre known over here as N855 or NT or NTA

From what I understand the problems have been traced to the new deisgn of injectors, there should be a TSB or recall to replace the injectors with a different tip, some other bits and to change the pressure lines.

rhys

Their is no proposed plan to issue any TSI for replaceing injectors. There are ongoing investigations on injectors fitted to Euro III (02 model year) vehicles at the moment with regard to oil dilution due to ingress of diesel fuel in the engine sump.

Isuzu have issued a serrvice campaign relating to injector sleeves for pre-02 models.

Unfortunately, Catapillay - who make the injectors- are having difficulties testing the injectors due to lack of test equipment.

Hope this clears any 4JX1 engine concerns.

anything

The older 2.8 was a direct injection engine while the 3.1 is an indirect injection engine so the whole top end is different including the combustion chambers and pistons, also the fuel system and service requirements. All in all, although they may share a similar block dimension, they are totally different engines.

Huw

against them

This is not new news. It is common knowledge and has been for several years now. These engines are way below average in reliability.

Since I do not believe a diesel version is available in the USA and that US SUV's don't sell squit in Europe then it is hardly relevant.

Huw