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jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8283

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 USW Stornoway Grey

Alive tuning Remap & intercooler upgrade

I had finished my soft-top conversion over 18mths or so ago now. It was converted to make something a little different for driver training, and it certainly fulfils that role but I have also found it makes a great everyday vehicle. It was/is up for sale but to be honest its priced high as I don’t want it to go, it just ticks so many boxes and having owned a few different Land Rover models this one just seems to slot in very well. It’s a great off roader, its good on the school run and its fantastic in the summer! So the mods just seem to keep coming!
All the Tdcis I have owned have had a map of some description on them. The soft top was totally standard tune due to its predominate use for driver training and not really needing it! Plus I wanted to get to know the vehicle. 18ths or so on now its been reliable and worked well so with more miles being covered in it than initially expected it was time for some engine modifications.

A remap seemed a good way forward and to look after the engine a bigger intercooler to help reduce EGTs wouldn’t be a bad idea either!

I went through the usual google and tried four well-known companies in the tuning industry. Three of whom I have spent a small fortune with in the past. Out of interest two are still yet to respond! Despite having maps with other tuners it was Alive tuning that came back trumps on what they could offer for us. I was looking at a better flowing exhaust, larger intercooler and a remap with ITG air filter. In addition to the day to day use it gets we also do a fair amount of medium weight towing (2.5T) most weekends so a low down torque gain and greater spread would be ideal. Callum at Td5 Alive was good to deal with coming back quickly on emails and answering my questions. Most of it was pretty much straight forward, the only really question was which intercooler? I have used Allisport Intercoolers in the past and they have all been superb (TGV, Tdi, TD5s and Tdci) but I thought going the whole Alive package may not be a bad way to do it, their Ultimate intercooler is an off-road intercooler. This is a cast product, reducing the tendency for welding to crack under pressure it also has 3 years warranty which is no bad thing.

So products ordered and time to wait…. But not long, the next day a lovely little package arrived, it was then just a case of finding time to get it in the workshop!

The Ultimate Intercooler is 330mm x 590mm and 50mm deep, the standard one being the same width of fins but only 215mm high and 40mm deep. Volume and Surface area were on the up!

Click image to enlarge

Trying to fit in the time with limited time meant then intercooler and exhaust system went in on first afternoon. All very straight forward, the exhaust needed a new gasket on the rear joins and I did have a bit of an issue at first that I attributed to one of the front joins, but it wasn’t in fact anything to do with the new parts, during fitting them I had obviously disturbed the turbo to exhaust manifold fitting resulting in a gas leak, new seal was duly ordered up and fitted with exhaust paste to help the seal. The manifold to turbo 3 nuts all surprisingly came off now problem. I did reuse the same nuts and studs although you are meant to change them. Time will tell if it works!

Click image to enlarge

The intercooler is very simple to change over, just adopt a logical approach. Not having AC helps giving you more space to play with. Removing the old is very straight forward.

Don’t forget to take the radiator plastic moulding off to the larger intercooler and fit without touching the radiator.

Click image to enlarge

Fitting the pipes to the new one (I used the existing pipes) is probably the trickiest part. I have found it easiest to connect the RHS hose first (as you look at the engine bay) then mount the intercooler in its mounts, then connect the LHS hose with it in situ. They are tight around the cut out in the plastic rad ends and you won’t get the intercooler in place if you fit both hoses first then try to mount it.

I also remounted the front bonnet slam support bars. They did clear the intercooler but there wasn’t a massive amount of clearance. I simply remounted the bottom section to the front edge of the chassis tab rather than the rear edge where they were fitted. Hopefully the pictures show the difference.

Click image to enlarge

and in front

Click image to enlarge

With time running out I then had a 40mile or so drive with the vehicle in still in standard tune. Yes it did make a difference, louder on the exhaust which was not something I really wanted but I was prepared to put up with it for the quicker pick-up, plus the vehicle ‘felt’ like it had more drive-ability to pull gears from slightly lower down.

Click image to enlarge

A few days later (after having already downloaded and emailed Callum my original engine file when the parts arrived) and having had the remapped file sat around since then I got around to uploading the tune.

Click image to enlarge

I also opted for the EGR off (which has solved my erratic idle problem), speed limit removal. The former also required the fitted of an EGR blank plate as recommended by Callum. I thought this may be a bit of a pain to do, access is limited and the bolts are not the easiest to get to, i didn't want to shear one! But 10mins and it was done, worrying about doing it took longer than the actual job!

Click image to enlarge

I had asked for something to give me more low down torque/’grunt’ to hold the gears longer and help with towing. Well that’s certainly what I have got. Alive Tuning have certainly pulled out the stops, it’s a great piece of work. The vehicle pulls really well, I would go as far as to say two gears higher than where it was if pushed, but certainly one gear higher than before no problem. She burns smoke free under all conditions from what I can, pulls like a train and is a real joy to drive with power pickup coming so much quicker. I have been lucky enough to drive over 200bhp td5s that didn’t pull as well as this map (granted we used to change the td5 engines frequently when running them like that!). Its certainly more flexible and driveability is greatly improved. In fact so much so I am thinking of taking a map off a Tdci to replace with another one of these! Well done Callum and team a top result and a very happy customer. Thank you.

Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

4th Oct 2017 3:34pm

custom90

Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20858

Glad you are all sorted and the Idle issue is gone too.

What map was it you went for Stage 1? _\Hennessey|Venom| F5/___
___\âï¸Lone|Star|State/___
____\We|Will|Win/___
____/ðŸ‡¬ðŸ‡§ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸\____
_//*â›½ï¸ðŸ›¢ï¸âš™ï¸ðŸ§°*\\_

4th Oct 2017 3:41pm

jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8283

2 / 3 with the intercooler and exhaust options Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

4th Oct 2017 6:43pm

custom90

Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20858

Ah good, I thought it must be more with the intercooler as I'm running standard but just with a Stage 1.

_\Hennessey|Venom| F5/___
___\âï¸Lone|Star|State/___
____\We|Will|Win/___
____/ðŸ‡¬ðŸ‡§ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸\____
_//*â›½ï¸ðŸ›¢ï¸âš™ï¸ðŸ§°*\\_

4th Oct 2017 6:54pm

JOW240725

Member Since: 04 May 2015
Location: Suffolk
Posts: 7926

2012 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Orkney Grey

That is lovely!

James
MY2012 110 2.2TDCi XS SW Orkney Grey - http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic43410.html
MY1990 110 200TDi SW beautifully faded Portofino Red - https://www.defender2.net/forum/post743641.html#743641
MY1984 90 V8 Slate Grey - https://www.defender2.net/forum/post744557.html#744557
Instagram @suffolk_rovers

4th Oct 2017 8:29pm

Coatesyyy

Member Since: 07 Sep 2017
Location: Knutsford
Posts: 423

Great upgrade, think the EGR blanking is something I'll be tackling soon too!

4th Oct 2017 11:30pm

jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8283

It was alot simpler than i expected to block the EGR physically (having had the software disable it) Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

5th Oct 2017 8:36am

jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8283

26.2mpg on first fill since remap running 255.85MTs and 4hrs of off roading in there to, plus a fair bit of loud pedal to make sure it work! Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

5th Oct 2017 9:48am

gross

Member Since: 01 Mar 2017
Location: AKNZ
Posts: 14

2012 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Alaska White

Brilliant post James. You’ve got me all enthused to do the same.

5th Oct 2017 10:45am

jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8283

just a little update, i fitted this 719 miles ago and to say it still brings smiles per mile is an understatement. it does pull like a train. on short journeys between fills (8mile rounds trips) it last did 30.5mpg. up from 28.5 for similar. Towing & mixed driving (1t trailer) mpg is up to 28.02 on last fill (local roads) up from 25.2mpg.

So its pulls better, is more flexible and uses less fuel -

Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

1st Nov 2017 8:58pm

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