300Tdi Performance head

[toenden]

Hi Guys,

I have a 300Tdi which I am planning on fitting in my challenge truck. The engine has a broken cylinder head and I am therefore looking in the market for a new one. I have seen Turner Engineerings "performance heads" which, as I understand it, is basically a ported cylinder head. It does give some sence to me to put one of these on when I need a new one after all, but I was a bit curious about the possible power improvements on a standard engine, that Turner Engineering writes about on their website.

So have anybody fitted a ported head to a 300Tdi, and what is your opinion about it, is it worth looking deeper into or should I take a stock item?

Regards Mads, Denmark

[bishbosh]

Not that I know anything at all about fettling an engine to increase performance, but "300TDi" and "performance" in the same sentence just made me laugh!

Now Turners are a reputable company so there must be something in it, but for a challenge truck I would have thought you would get more return on your money spending it on other aspects of your truck, like tyres, cage, winches, axle internals etc. etc.

Just my 2p.

[Daan]

In my experience, the moment you throw a turbo charger in the equasion, those kind of mods dont do a lot for you. If it is normally aspirated, it would be a different matter. But no real life experience on a 300 tdi.

Daan

[elbekko]

In my experience, the moment you throw a turbo charger in the equasion, those kind of mods dont do a lot for you. If it is normally aspirated, it would be a different matter. But no real life experience on a 300 tdi.

Inlet, sure, but exhaust flow should still make a difference I'd say.

On that thought though, I'm not too sure where it could be ported at all. It looks fairly well-flowing already, it'd probably help more to get rid of all the soot in there than to fit a ported head.

[rusty_wingnut]

my mate has driven one and he was very impressed. He works with Land Rovers so obviously drives a fair few!

[reb78]

I'm going to get it done to my 200tdi at some point. Turners always seem very honest about the gains - i.e. they are modest, but they are difficult to quantify because there are so many other factors involved (especially with our trucks). However, one way to look at it is that if you have done the other stuff - intercooler, upped the boost and fuelling, porting the head will help a great deal with removing the hot exhaust gases and allowing the cooler inlet gases in faster thus increasing longevity. So even if there are no direct performance improvements, it will still have benefits.

I dont know if there is any point doing anything to gas flow the manifolds as well (especially exhaust)?? I already have an uprated intercooler, increased fuel and boost and bigger bore stainless exhaust, so the head and the manifolds are the only thing left at the moment. That is until i persuade myself to spend some silly money on a uprated turbo.

[toenden]

Yes I know that 300Tdi and performance might be two opposite worlds, but some increase in power would be "performance"?

The plan is to further devellop my old truck (2.5TD WITH intercooler though!! ) at the moment, so even a 300Tdi in standard trim is "Performance"

I was planning to do some Intercooler, fueling and boost upgrades and my thought was that a ported head might help in low boost situations aswell as at the end of the torque curve. But that was only the theory in my head so I therefore hopped somebody had tried them. Good point with the heat though, that might be a aspect that would be improved aswell.

Mads

[cackshifter]

I have done some mild mods to the the 300tdi head; I don't claim to have done what Turners do (I am not even sure exactly what they do do), but then again I didn't have to buy it. Anything you can do that'll make the old girl flow more air has to be worthwhile; turbochargers are only pumps after all and while they can mask poor flowing parts, they must either flow less or consume more energy to get the same result as if the flow capability was good. So having said that, I made sure the valves (which have huge seats machined on them) were smoothed out on the backs and seating correctly, the inlet ports were matched, and just smoothed where there were bits of flash etc sticking up ( I didn't dowel the manifolds which would have been ideal but I didn't want to drill through somewhere important), smoothed out sharp edges and corners in the inlet manifold and widened and smoothed the entry of the 'restrictor' stub that the inlet hose goes on - probably put about 3mm on the bore diameter of that. The exhaust ports I took flash and bumps off, and smoothed the valves but left them unmatched as a step can sometimes prevent back flow. Also I removed a decade's worth of EGR crud. It wasn't a proper gasflowing, and I have no flowbench figures. It already had an allisport full width intercooler, but smoked madly with the fuelling turned to allisports recommendation, and a lot of that smoke went afterwards, so I do think more air was getting through. I didn't up the boost. Did it make any difference to driving? I like to think it did, especially if you clog it in 2nd gear, and it feels much smoother (even SWMBO remarked). But I have no measurements to back it up. On the basis of all that, I'd imagine a Turners head would make more of a difference with some pump tweaks (and maybe a hybrid turbo!); they claim a power increase (but I can't quite see how that can happen without a fuelling increase, unless just on the basis of reduced pumping losses), and I guess a new head will make an improvement anyway. But I would imagine you will see some improvement over a standard head, just don't expect a snarling beast.Maybe for a challenge truck it's not radical enough.

Nigel

[jil6939]

Yes. I run a fully flowed head and complete rebuilt motor from ACR in my challenge truck. Why would you not if your head is scrap?

[toenden]

My head is scrap, I was just trying to find out if it was an upgrade I a ported head was a thing I wanted to look deeper in to while rebuilding, and it seems like I will. Thanks guys.