Modifications to D24 NA for Mountain Driving?

[DieselScout]

I just completed an 8,000 mile road trip across 22 US States and 1 Canadian Province. The rebuilt NA engine on the car performed wonderfully with no faults. The only item that broke was a hood hinge at the Grand Canyon, which I was able to replace at a pick-n-pull in Las Vegas.

Coolant Temps never went above 205F and the oil usually hovered around 220F with some time around 250F during mountain highway driving.

It was pretty peppy at the upper altitudes (Above 4,000 feet) for an NA diesel, but it was noticeably slower than at sea level and some of the mountain driving was pretty much capped at speeds around 55mph.

Oil consumption averaged 1,333 miles per quart (total of 6 quarts added, most of which burnt off in the mountains)

So this brings up a couple of thoughts...

Would it be advantageous to add an oil cooler to a NA engine for mountain driving to keep oil temps closer to 200-220F?

Would adding a turbo be a good idea for cross-country driveability or is adding a turbo to an NA engine likely to cause rapid piston, ring, bore and/or other wear and tear?

[ngoma]

Originally Posted by DieselScout

Would adding a turbo be a good idea for cross-country driveability or is adding a turbo to an NA engine likely to cause rapid piston, ring, bore and/or other wear and tear?

+T would immensely improve driveability in most all conditions you can imagine!

Properly tuned, the lower end should be OK if it already in good condition, and you keep up on maintenance, run full synthetic oil, keep the cooling system in tiptop condition.

For frequent mountainous high-load driving you can install a lower temperature thermostat to help the cooling system get a head start keeping the temperatures lower during high load conditions.

[DieselScout]

Originally Posted by ngoma

+T would immensely improve driveability in most all conditions you can imagine!

Properly tuned, the lower end should be OK if it already in good condition, and you keep up on maintenance, run full synthetic oil, keep the cooling system in tiptop condition.

For frequent mountainous high-load driving you can install a lower temperature thermostat to help the cooling system get a head start keeping the temperatures lower during high load conditions.

Apart from modifying the oil pan with an oil return port, would any other modifications/fabrications have to be made, or are the rest of the parts swappable/bolt-on?

Can the oil pan be tapped for a port, or does it require a port to be welded in place on the passenger-side?

[ngoma]

Main items are:

• Turbo IP w/ LDA
• Turbo oil feed (part of the oil cooler/heater assy)
• Turbo oil return

The oil return line is not pressurized so can either drill/tap a fitting into the N/A pan or can weld one on. Here is an example:

https://d24t.com/showthread.php?t=41