Waterproofing a Td5?

[muddy]

Evening folks, I'm thinking about upgrading from a 300 to Td5 and having been through the rigmorall of getting it waterproof for wading, I am wondering what's involved in doing similar to a td5.

I would be fitting either a proper type safari or Southdown snorkel and removing the Water drain etc, but how much sealing does the rest of the intake system take, and what about the ecu, I believe andazer (sp?) found enough slack to move them upto the rear bulkhead wich I guess waterproofs it up to that level? Do the crank and cam sensors need waterproofing ect or will a smear of Vaseline do the job?

I'm just trying to outline the work required to get a td5 up to the same level of prep that I have now. Use would be trialing, occasional laneing and general running about.

Will.

[FridgeFreezer]

Fit a V8 and megasquirt!

Sorry, just couldn't resist turning the tables!

[LandyManLuke]

I believe it's relatively common on challenge trucks to use a traditional throttle pedal and cable and put the TD5 throttle pot on the end of the cable, in a waterproof box on the bulkhead.

It's possible the pot design has improved. Does anyone know if they suffer still?

[SteveG]

All sensors have waterproof connectors on

The one way valve on air intake works fine, but if you don't trust them also extend fuel tank breather as that has a one way valve on too.

Air intake box has an EGR outlet - if EGR was removed make sure this is blanked off ok

Extend axle breathers

As for the ECU, it depends how deep you want to go. You can waterproof ECU seat box, and as long as you are not in really hot temps all of the time you can seal breather holes in ECU and this will suffice.

If you want to regularly have water over the seat boxes, then yes you can move ECU, but you'll also need to move 10AS too, something that most people seem to overlook surprisingly. Also if you are going to do this on a regular basis I'd recommend moving both fuse boxes higher up as the relays are not up to regular immersion.

Cheers

Steve

[Mo Murphy]

A good thick coat of dubbin is what you need !

[Les Brock]

Loads of spray silicoln grease on all the connections (Male & Female) will help

Depends on how often you wish to dunk it as in submerge it (rather than the odd bit of spray etc) and how deep ! - compared to effort to move eveything

[muddy]

Thanks for all the replys they have been most useful.

The scenario I envisage is failing,stalling or getting stuck on section where a water section is about side repeater depth, never really an issue until you stop and can be sat there for 5+mins cursing the thing watching the ****ty water make its way into every nook and crannie whilst recovery takes place.

Will.

[RedLineMike]

if you seal the holes on the rear of the td5 ecu that is a step in the right direction for waterprrofing it, also if you give the throttle pedal a spray of wd40 etc & same with the relays, it all helps,

i have the ecu in the roof of my challenge truck & the throttle pedal is on top of the dash being driven by a cable from the pedal box, the only thing thats lower than chest height is the standard relays & fuse box which can be reasonably waterproofed in standard form, or swap out the relays to waterproof ones & pack the fuses with silicone grease

[Tanuki]

If you're actually worried about ECU-flooding to the point where you're going to do something about it, I hope you're also equally worried/going-to-do-something-about about the location of the battery/the under-the-drivers-seat relays-and-fuseboxes, and also do something about the "you-stall-and-water-cools-the-silencers-causing suck-back-so-water-floods-up-the-exhaust-pipe-preventing-restarting" issue.

In recent floody-months I've had to deal with some Defenders/Discoveries that got drowned in the local ford. None had been disabled by water-in-the-ECU or water-up-the-air-intake problems. Two had exhaust-systems full of water and one had a transmission that had gained several pints of muddy water which caused the torque-converter to scream like someone trying to jump-start a baby from the mains.

--Tanuki.

"These nipples fill me with dread and horror".

[muddy]

I was under the impression that you moved the entire contents of the drivers seatbox onto the rear bulkhead?

Battery/batterybox can be steamed out as can the fusebox to an extent although I would have a smear of Vaseline on there.

I'd cross the water up the exhaust problem when it arose, I've never found it an issue so far.

Thanks for all the advice, assuming the sale of my 300 goes through I may be back on this topic.

Will.