PDI Recommended VDJ79 Upgrades
The PDI front mounted intercooler for the VDJ79 is designed to be the best fitting and most efficient intercooler you can fit the 79 series. When told by workshop that our products rate very well by customers and he “had never heard a bad thing” and “are more popular with the end users than with workshops” it was an both good and worth thinking about. It seems that this is because workshops can make more money pushing other products that are easier to fit. Yes the workshop gets charged out by the hr, but as a package deal, there is more profit in “turbo and tune” upgrades as most tunes (once developed) can be dumped straight into the ECU with a near 100% success and we know some turbo swaps can be completed in a short amount of time.
If interested in parts for your VDJ79 (78 or 76) we can supply.
PDI front mounted Intercooler. Click HERE
3.55 diff gears to reduce cruising RPM and longer gears for town driving. Click HERE
Torsen mechanical LSD diffs for those interested in better traction through front and rear axles.. Click HERE
Upgraded dual diaphragm brake booster (with 50% increase). Click HERE
Short Shifter gear stick upgrade to reduce gear lever throw by 60%. Click HERE
Auto transmission conversion to a 6 speed 6R80 gearbox – its been a long time coming and we still think it’s the best option out there.. Coming SOON
Why consider a PDI front mount for you V8 Landcruiser?
The air at the front is always higher flow than through the slot in the bonnet and being a heat exchanger, air flow is critical. Not having a heat source directly below it is also important.
The bottom of the intercooler sits above the lower crossmember so no bullbar mods required.
Its situated high so minimal chance of damage from sticks and with more than half of the radiator and condenser exposed below the intercooler, it still gets plenty of air flow
The main engine fan helps to pull air through for improved results at low speed.
3” outlets up near the headlights making it suitable for RHD and LHD installations.
Option of dual entry (with butterflys and EGR in place) or single entry adapter.
No thermos fans required.
Has been shown to make intake air temps 45degC cooler under load for a mildly modified (chip only) when compared to both either fan or replacement top mounted kit with fans.
Background and considerations.
When upgrading performance on the common rail 4.5L 1VD-FTV, the first port of call is going to be a re-flash of the ECU. The VNT turbo design allows the boost at all rpm and load points to be adjusted, which is very different to traditional wastegate turbos where a maximum boost is set that can be achieved at any RPM. The point here is that the boost can be raised to significantly at lower RPM, and coupled with fuel increases you get a huge improvement in low end torque. Done correctly, this is a more robust solution that adding a chip (module) and the reflash with result in more power and torque, as well as getting better fuel economy. Due to the size of the factory turbo it can be told to make more boost at low RPM and that boost must be reduced as RPM (and therefore bulk air flow) increases.
On Toyotas common rail engines, an EGT probe/gauge isn’t really required, since the engine management system does this through IAT mapping and fuel corrections.
What to upgrade.
The next step really depends on how you use the vehicle. We are focusing on maximum “bang for your buck” in the suggestions below.
User A - You want it to continue pulling as the engine RPM increases. Drive it like you stole it. Don’t mind power dropping when working under sustained conditions
Reflash, with a turbo upgrade (with bigger internals and higher flow capability).
Then if you want more, injectors can be considered and boost raised higher. Combating rising intake temps should be done with a front mount unless you don’t do sustained high load driving.
Safari ARmax with high flow input to factory airbox – great upgrade which also provides a sealed snorkel and better dust control at forward facing snorkel head. Other changes to the airbox is done primarily to fix distorting of box, which results in dust ingress when travelling on gravel roads.
Once pushing past 200kW a high flow pipe from airbox to turbo (such as the GTurbo Powerpipe) should be considered. 1300nm or 1600nm clutch installed
Exhaust upgrades to get better flow. Exaust mods before this are done foe sound, as the $ per kW is lower than for other mods.
User B – Don’t rev the engine hard, but want more torque and better towing capability.
Remove OEM top mount interheater and fit the PDI front mounted intercooler, then have it dyno tuned with a reflash.
Turbo upgrades and injector swaps can be considered next if more power is needed. Once doing injectors then need to consider snorkel with airbox mods and a higher torque rated clutch.
User C – Expects the best results under all conditions.
Work out what your goals are and then we can suggest a list of mods that will achieve this. PDI front mount, high flow VNT turbo, high flow injectors, larger snorkel and airbox, plus clutch and larger piping from airbox to turbo. A higher flowing exhaust is a good thing, but would come after the intercooler and turbo has been upgraded. Then ECU reflash to maximise the results from these parts.
How to precede.
Interestingly, most tuners with their own workshops will pitch the sale based on least amount of labour since it provides the greatest return to the shop/owner. We understand full well that good workers are hard to come by and it is much more work to fit a front mounted intercooler than to fit a set of fans, but we also know how much better the cruiser can perform on the road. If a front mount doesn’t make it into the sales pitch, then its worth asking “if I fit a PDI intercooler myself, will it be better”. We have heard it from many shops “its great, we can start tuning on the dyno and do run after run and power, torque and air fuel ratios are constant”, which is in contrast to top mounted setups, where they do 3 loaded runs and then need to let it cool down at least 5 minutes to continue tuning. They definitely let it cool down for the last power run to give the most impressive before and after graphs.
The final power figure for many setups is a bit artificial if your cruiser is upgraded, heavy, tows a load or is driven hard. We’ve seen tunes where the max output is 900nm, but due to the top mount interheater getting hot, on the 3rdand 4th run the max torque is now only 650nm. This is simply that the ECU has pulled fuel out, based on IAT (Inlet air temperature) and is trying to control combustion chamber temperatures.