Toyota Landcruiser 200 series, VDJ200R V8 4.5 litre Commonrail 1VD-FTV Diesel EGR Blank/Delete/Reduce...High altitude power loss and water temperature was up 2 notches on the gauge!

My VDJ200R had done 90k miles and I've been having this "power loss" at high altitude problem.

My last two posts of discovering problems with the MAP sensor that was fed boost from the intake manifold and subsequent replacement of the MAP sensor hoses and air/oil filter did not completely resolved the problem!

It did help in restoring the car to shift earlier and was very good at close to sea-level cruising with the auto trans engaging, IMO, correctly!

Just yesterday, I returned from another high altitude trip and this time I nailed another clue! At the point of experiencing power loss I noticed my water temp gauge was up a notch or two! As soon as I gently give the LC200 a chance to let the temperature drop back down two notches, the car regained power!


I thought about the thermostat, first thing!

Viscous heater pump with magnetic clutch removed...after this it was easy to get at two bolts securing the steel pipe ending at the left hand side(view from front to rear of vehicle) of the thermostat housing. I did not even have to remove the thicker serpentine belt as the two bolts (12mm metric) securing the radiator steel pipe were accessible without too much difficulty!

Never having taken off the thermostat before, I thought that the removal was easy peasy until I discovered that the housing was built in to the water pump! In retrospect I would not have needed to removed any of the pipes on the right(view from the above!) of the thermostat housing! After removing the smaller width belt, the viscous heater pump assembly (see top pic) was removed.

Part No.16321 (Steel pipe) has two bolts top and bottom along the pipe(in addition to the other two at the thermostat flange)...loosen them and the pipe can be wiggled to remove the thermostat without having to remove the serpentine belt and other stuff.

This golden radiator steel pipe is your easiest path to removing the thermostat short of having to remove the entire water pump plus the serpentine belt and a whole host of other stuff!

Jiggle the radiator steel pipe a little and the thermostat was removed. Part of the rubber lips were deteriorated and missing! In the engine block I presume. There should also be a rubber gasket surrounding this thermostat. Buy a new one!

Boiled a kettle of hot water and poured it into a container with the old thermostat.

Dead thermostat. It didn't move much.

My thinking was that the water temperature played an important part in the safety feature of this 1VD-FTV. When temperatures get abnormally high, the ecu cuts injector duration or pressure, either way to save the engine!

At least that's what I think....now before jumping to conclusion I'll like to fit everything back plus a new thermostat and give it another high altitude run!

Check back later....

Toyota Landcruiser 200 series, VDJ200R V8 4.5 litre Commonrail 1VD-FTV Diesel EGR Blank/Delete/Reduce...High altitude power loss...

I did mentioned that I had earlier trouble with power loss at high altitude (above 1000m) of the 1VD-FTV.

Symptoms are next to no boost and lack of response. At sea-level, the 4.5litre V8 may hide somewhat the power loss given its reasonable torque even normally aspirated. One can notice that gear changes will be at higher rpm though. Only at high altitude would one really feel that power loss as the car would be "anemic" and your foot would be on the floor just to keep the car crawling.

So I decided to take off the intercooler and check again...and the first thing I noticed was that the boost feed going to that little plastic oil filter had a rather halfway inserted loose connection. Yes...it was leaking from a loose hose connection.

Check this oil filter to ensure that it is not cracked anyway. It may be hard to see. I had mine replaced.

From engine intake is this boost hose that goes to the MAP sensor.

Moral of this story...ensure the rubber/silicone/vaccum/boost hose is long enough and tight fitting enough both coming from the engine intake and passing the filter and going into the MAP sensor. Power was restored like new.

Stage 3: Toyota Landcruiser 200 series, VDJ200R V8 4.5 litre Commonrail 1VD-FTV Diesel EGR Blank/Delete/Reduce

Yo...it's been a while since I last posted on this topic.

My LC200 had been behaving reasonably since my last mod.

1) I did get the warning lights(similar to when EGR flow was insufficient) come on a couple of times late last year(2015)when cold starting but they go out on the next and sometimes next couple of restart which means it was not related to the ecu throwing a CEL. I discovered that it could have been caused by my two 12V batteries which were close to two years old. After changing the batteries to new ones, I have not had a recurrence of warning lights coming on at cold start for a good four months straight to-date!

2) On the rare occasion of going into higher altitudes(above 1000m) I suddenly discovered that the LC200 1VD-FTV was down on power! Uncharacteristically and in a very bad way! Car would be overtaken by any old bus trailing behind! On checking I discovered that the MAP(manifold absolute pressure) sensor which is fed boost through a plastic oil filter from behind the two throttle bodies had a leak. Yes, my plastic oil filter was cracked. Small little filter was changed and power was restored.

3) Discovered that my LC200 came pre-fitted with not four catalytic converters (two per bank of the v8) but six. Yes, three per bank. Had them removed and the turbo down-pipe re-fabricated straight through for better flow. I did not bother with mandrel bent pipes as other portions of the factory pipes were not so! Car was perceptibly louder with a swirly exhaust note at idle.

4) I do not like the EGR situation one bit! Throwing all that carbon infested air into my intake does it no good! And I still suspect that my EGR valves with the current restricted flow may have been leaking somewhat due to insufficient flow/clogging. I say this because I have not had time to take them out for cleaning and that the high altitude power although restored wasn't like before! I know my qualitative power analysis through seat of the pants may not be all that accurate but something is off!!

I had finally found somebody who could do some real problem solving for me! An ecu reflash through the obd port. Yup, fair dinkum. :-)

Check this out! https://www.facebook.com/Y3Tuned/


I did a short interview by posting some questions:

I especially like that portion where he can alter duration and timing of injection albeit by a little bit! Interesting info on the auto trans lockup. That's besides the EGR removal.


More to come...meanwhile I've removed all my previous mods and return my car back to stock conditions except for the slight EGR reduction and the free flow exhaust.

Theory: Toyota Landcruiser 200 series, VDJ200R V8 4.5 litre Commonrail 1VD-FTV Diesel EGR Blank/Delete/Reduce.

Why I did what I did or the theory behind it.

Mine is a story of failed-forum-read-theory mixed with courage-through-impulse-driven-mods plus blessings-in-hiding situation. On hindsight, I would have data-logged live readings using the Toyota Intelligent Tester II(A borrowed unit with limited time) before believing any of these forum materials.


Fully blanked the EGR feed pipe:

1) There was a Mitsubishi Pajero forum and others as well telling of how drilling the throttle plate a 12mm dia. hole allows the MAP sensor(fitted behind throttle...i.e. on the intake valves side) to be fed very slight positive boost pressure from the VNT turbo at idling, thereby fooling the ecu into thinking that EGR is feeding(thereby neutralising) the vacuum conditions of partially closed throttle.
Some took this on to be applicable to the Toyota VDJ200R (Without having tried it themselves).
This was on the premise, I thought, that EGR wasn't going to be related to MAF readings. So on the 1VD-FTV twin throttle, I estimated that two 9mm holes was somewhat in the ballpark figure given the engine capacity differences. I still wanted the throttle-smooth-kill-engine function.
The VDJ200R (07MY) threw CELs after about 30 minutes on the road. Reset CEL.
Engine kill was still smooth.

2) I plugged in the Toyota Intelligent Tester II and saw that my MAP was reading 99 kPa vs atmospheric of 100kPa. Very slight vacuum. Perhaps moving the MAP sensor to before the throttles would solve the problem. Drilled the intercooler and fitted the M4x0.8 push-in air-hose fitting as well as routing the feed to the MAP. Toyota Intelligent Tester II confirmed that the MAP was reading 100kPa at idle and would show boost with the slightest touch of the throttle. Of course, any boost at idle would have bled through the drilled throttles to the humongous 4.5 litre vacuum pump behind.
The VDJ200R(07MY) threw CELs after about half hour on the road. Reset CEL.
BTW the car was super responsive off the line and one could hear the VNTs come on a lot sooner. I wouldn't call it surging as it didn't have the wavy note but rather a healthy indication of propensity to boost!

3) Now my initial suspicions were all confirmed. EGR and MAF(Not just MAP...few others too) are related which means fully deleting the EGR is no monkey business! My appetite for chasing down the road this madness is just so much stronger having felt the new found torque with CELs blinking like crazy! The logical path was to bypass the MAF somewhat the amount equivalent to the factory EGR rate which with transient driving conditions is impossible to data-log and neither do I have the patience :-(. I did read that EGR is maximum at light cruising and goes off at full throttle conditions. Well, I was dreaming of programming an Arduino module to pick up readings from MAP, rpm, temp, EGR valve and MAF with a team of data-logging friends to cheat the factory ecu but alas, I'm just like a monkey on the floor with a cordless drill :-(!
Finally, I decided to compromise, and so I drilled to bypass air around the MAF with 2 sets of 12mm push-in fittings and air-hose(probably 10mm internal diameter) and wouldn't you know it? Car threw CELs in same time frame, almost. Oh hey, performance off the line and torque feel, although somewhat diminished, was still good! Better than the lethargic stock!

4) Since I've already compromised(lowered..) somewhat my MAF readings I was adamant there has to be a way I could survive all this! I would not bleed my MAF anymore lest I become like a slow loris off the line :-(! I still believe that the Toyota EGR valve is but a dumb device with no pressure sensing feedback other than the solitary MAP (There's another built-in on the car ecu for ambient pressure).

And so back to a partial blank at the EGR feed pipe:

1) Instead, I decided to try 6.5mm dia. hole vs the 10mm hole known to work. Voila! it worked! Through my earlier unsuccessful trials at a full blank, I had wrought the conditions to allow an even lower EGR rate than the advertised 10mm dia. hole blank without throwing any CELs!

2) With the two 9mm holes in the throttle plates, the EGR rate should, by right be lesser than before.

Drilled hole size in EGR pipe blank:

• 10mm -> area = 79 sq.mm
• 6.5mm -> area = 33 sq.mm
• 5mm-> area = 20 sq.mm
• 4mm -> area = 13 sq.mm

Next trial, I'll try 4mm dia hole in the EGR blank perhaps and that would be exciting, to say the least.

So here ends the story of my saga through the EGR dilemma of the Toyota VDJ200R(07MY).

Check back soon cause you want to know if the 4mm does work or not! If it does, the lower EGR rate would up my MAF readings a touch for that magical ever so slight an increase in response!

Stage 2: Toyota Landcruiser 200 series, VDJ200R V8 4.5 litre Commonrail 1VD-FTV Diesel EGR Blank/Delete/Reduce

Been reading forums all over, especially the land down under and of today nobody has successfully fully blanked the Toyota 1VD-FTV V8 diesel's EGR completely without causing it to throw a CEL(Check Engine Light)! In this case the 4Lo, Engine, Traction off, Check VSC Warning+++ altogether.

Toyota 1VD-FTV engine. Only visible externals mods are the blue push-in air hoses.

Let me be very clear, my car was a 2008 registered sample and Toyota Intelligent Tester II tells me mine was "07 MY".

My first full blank with no other mods caused CELs as mentioned.
Investigating with the Toyota Intelligent Tester II shows a P0401 Exhaust EGR Flow Insufficient.

By the way, if you're a home mechanic without the Intelligent Tester II be assured you can reset the engine ecu by disconnecting the two batteries for 5 minutes to clear the CELs.

There's talk of an electronic/digital device to cheat the Toyota ecu/ecm but I've not heard further and am left without a clue as to who makes one.

The EGR blanks are usually made with a fully blanked gasket piece( eBay has plenty) installed to cover the EGR pipe feeding into the siamesed intake collector behind the two throttle bodies.

Toyota 1VD-FTV EGR feed pipe under the intercooler.

Of course eBay also sells the blanking plate with a 10mm hole drilled in the middle. This one apparently works without throwing any CEL and yet returns "performance" of the forum variety! I've not tried it but had mine made from a 34mm engine block "freeze" plug that I hammered squarely into one end(nearer the radiator!) of the EGR pipe. I did have to drill a 9mm hole.

Old 9mm hole 34mm block freeze plug pried from the EGR pipe to make way for a new one.

Apparently drilling any smaller diameter holes will throw CELs. Mine didn't at 9mm for the longest time I could remember...2 years maybe.


Anyway this post came about because I got curious for a smaller diameter hole blank!

Let me just give a list of things I've done:

1) Drilled a 9mm hole in each of the throttle plates of the dual throttle bodies.

Toyota 1VD-FTV Throttle body. There's two of these.

2) Plugged the factory MAP sensor feed hole of the siamesed intake collector behind the throttles bodies.

3) Fed the MAP sensor pressure from before the throttle by drilling and tapping the intercooler (do flush it with some petrol and air):

A 4mm push-in air-hose fitting with M4x0.8 threaded end fitted to intercooler. Factory oil-separator reused.

4) Reduce MAF(Mass airflow) readings by bypassing the airflow with 12mm push-in fittings and air hoses. Two in my instance.

12mm push-in air hoses from the airfilter box to...

To bypass the MAF!...

As to the theory of the above...later!

I then drilled the blanking plug hole to 6.5mm diameter...voila! no CEL!....so far! and performance was "definitely"(by the seat-of-the-pants feel) better than stock. Response was instantaneous and feel of the torque pull was "utterly" satisfying :O!

By the way, a 10mm hole gives an area of 25xPi = 79(sq.mm) and a 6.5mm hole gives an area of less than half at 33(sq.mm). That should somewhat reduce EGR rate effectively entering the intake system by a bit.

When I get tired of my new found performance :-) I will then try to reduce the diameter of the EGR bleed hole further...perhaps to 4mm diameter.

This post is Stage 2 with Stage 1 being the 9mm diameter hole I have tried before.

Enjoy and do check back just in case I've decided to try to reduce further the EGR rate!