At the 2024 Perth 4WD show I got to catch up with Micheal from Off Road Images at the ARB stand. He has had a long relationship with ARB and does most of their photography. His new VDJ79 Facelift cruiser on site, all decked out and coffee machine turned on.
I had been talking to him at previous events and we had spoken about upgrades to his old VDJ79, but he was happy with the build and left it alone. It was a tidy rig with all the gear, including portal axles and a decked out canopy.
When I asked what he thought of the new rig and how it went he went on to say “I still have the old VDJ79, but can’t believe how much better the new one goes”, “the new build made 900Nm on the dyno, and the old one makes 800Nm. but it feels like so much more”.
I was able to respond and say that it wasn’t surprising, since if looking at dyno figures you would expect to be able to feel it on the road but not see a huge change, but thats where a PDI front mount shows its true colours.
Lots of tuners have reported that when tuning after fitting a PDI front mount, that they can do run after run with both the torque and Air fuel ratios remaining stable. This is noticeably different to top mounted intercoolers and poorly placed front mounts that can heat soak quickly and can only do around 3 runs (lasting less than 10 seconds) before needing time to cool down. If not allowed to cool down, we’ve seen data where the torque has dropped from 900Nm to 650Nm.
Basically when he hits the beach or working up a long hill his 800Nm build probably had less than 650Nm available due to ECU corrections so when comparing to the PDI front mount setup its more like a difference of 300Nm not the 100Nm as shown on the paperwork and considering how much money is spent to get up to the 800Nm, its a disappointing result for those making their 4WD work.