brand new engine lacks power up hills

[portsteve]

1 year ago I had a new 4d56 turbo charged deisel engine instaled in my 92 delica l300. It purrs like a kitten, never stalls, doesn't smoke, etc. But it is a dog up hills. Nn the flat she will do 110 km/hr at about 2900 rpm and will accellerate reasonably well.
The problem is Mt Washington hill. I manually gear down to second and max out at 35km/hr at 2400 rpm, floored. Even if i get a run at it she quickly runs out of power.
Here is the history of the maintenance and trouble shooting we have done:
Tranny flush and tune
New muffler with 2" pipe, piped out the drivers side
new fuel filter, fuel lines from filter to ip.
unbolted ehaust pipe from manifold to look for obstruction. Nada
- I have just finished the my last experiment, bypassing the fuel tank. Rigged up a gerry can in the passenger seat, ran a fuel line from the gerry can into the fuel pump. no improvement
What did happen though is i used a ton of fuel. I went through 6 litres of fuel in 15km, in other words i drained the gerry can, NO LEAKS. I have a theory but would love to have any input from team Delica.ca

[rezdiver]

air filter?
Mt Washington is a pretty tough hill, what size tires do you have on the van? larger tires than stock can greatly affect transmission shift points and RPM power range on a hill like that.

[portsteve]

New air filter, 15" tires

[rezdiver]

I assume you mean 15 inch rims, but what size tires on the rims.

[portsteve]

LT 215/75.

[rezdiver]

thats the stockish size so that should not be affected.

regarding your jerry can fuel milage, out of curiosity did you hook up the return line from the injection pump back to the jerry can you were using for the test. if not, the majority of the fuel you used would have returned back to your stock tank via the return line. the injection pump pumps way more fuel than what is actually used by the motor and is returned back to the fuel tank.

[nxski]

When you're taking a run at the hill do you keep the revs above 3000. Once the engine slows down and the revs get to about 2500 drop it into 2nd and keep the revs above 3000. You should be able to keep the van going at 50-60 km/hr up that hill. If you're flooring it at 2400 rpm's in second you'll be on here again soon saying the head on your brand new engine just cracked!

[jessef]

There's nothing wrong with you Delica.

Mine did exactly the same up Mt. Washington every time. A bit better in the summer but barely.

You're fine.

[portsteve]

For rezdiver. I didn't put the return back to the gerry can. I figured that deisel was heading back to the tank, cheers for that.
To nxski, I think you are right that the van should be able to do better up the hill but unfortunately 2500 in 2nd is the maximum rpm I can get up the steep pitches. Maybe I should try first just to see if i can keep the revs up over 3000+
my boost guage sits at about 7-8 at 2500 rpm in 2nd

[thedjjack]

do you have a pyro? flooring it past the point of speed makes heat lots of it.

What is the turbo boosting and exhaust temps?..

I climbed up Seymour today 2 and 3rd gear (5speed) between 45-60km/h and 800 degrees. Sure I could go faster but like to keep it cool. The 4D56 is not a fast engine pushing a Delica.

[portsteve]

No Pyro, only have a boost guage that usually reads around between 7-8.5 whether i am on the flat or up a hill. The higher the rpm the lower the guage reads. Thedjjack, what does your guage read? Thanks everyone for the feed back:)

[jessef]

Don't use the boost gauge as a reference for how fast/rpm going up hill. You can grenade your engine that way.

A pyro is the best way to get that information and if you're doing lots of climbing hills with it, a pyro is a must.

Not sure if you caught my last post but when I was in Nanaimo and headed up Mt. Washington in the winters with my L300, I was usually in 2nd for the 1st 1/3 and then had to drop down to L (1st gear) on the auto to keep the revs up and the engine from glowing red and blowing up.

The speed/rpm you are seeing is normal for that stretch of climbing.

[portsteve]

I appreciate the reply jfarsang. If i need 3000rpm i will need to drop into first for sure. That will be extremely painful; however, I guess necessary. I wonder why the tranny doesn't shift down on its own. I would have thought that mitsubishi would have figured that one out. But thats another topic that i will save for another day.