JX recommended mods for a better hill experience

[Zeb]

Hi all, I am seeking advice on the best way to get a little more power from a well fettled JX; this is purely aimed at improving the experience when it sees a hill as I am more than happy with the acceleration generally. The engine has done about 80k, valves and timing correctly adjusted, recon turbo, oil cooler, air intercooler and also has an oil temp gauge fitted.

Boost and/or governor mod?

There is plenty of info on the web to do both on a 1.6td but usually from Golf owners; I would appreciate advice from anyone who has had the patience to investigate through trial and error in these vans.

My thoughts were to add one of Baxters dual guage ashtray pods for mounting the oil temp and a dual EGT/boost pressure gauge. This is to avoid having three gauges if I really need to monitor all three for reliability, shame though as the dual gauge is a tad modern looking for my liking and I would prefer to have just the 2 traditional vdo gauges.

Boost pipe and grainger valve with pressure just below BOV, 10-11psi?
Increase the fuel a little with acceptable smoke levels?
Recommended grainger valve to buy and best position? (Brickwerks have the pipe only)

Governor mod looks simple enough but I would rather fit a stiffer spring (green one available anywhere if correct?) rather than adding spacers, is it worth doing anyway?

Thanks for any advice that will stop me from killing a perfectly performing reliable JX as I am no hurry for an AAZ or Tdi; its a 1990 California in amazing condition so I am keen to keep it as "original" as possible unless it goes bang!

Cheers

Zeb

[rett]

Hi zeb
Have a jx in my van
I see your running a inter cooler on yours what if anything did it make to the overall running
Have read a few write ups ,but a tad conflicting
Cheers
Adam Tqy Devon

[clift_d]

You sound like you're a couple of steps ahead of us.

Our JX has been pretty much rebuilt but we still need to fit our oil cooler and charge cooler - I'm just trying to source a suitable radiator. After we've done all that we'll probably end up taking our van down to regcheeseman in north Devon. Apparently he has a pump mod and some tweaks he can do to a JX to get a bit more out of it without thrashing it. If I recall correctly he said he needed a boost gauge fitted but an EGT gauge was not necessary although would be sensible.

If you really want to go whole hog then an AAZ head gasket and ARP head bolts should probably also be on the menu, but if you're going that far and want to stay with a 1.6 IDI then you'd probably be better off finding a nice Golf Mk2 GTD SB/ RA engine and fitting that instead.

[Zeb]

Hi, I didn't notice any difference in power from the intercooler except a whistle from either the turbo or piping. It is a smart car air to air intercooler with a fan which fits perfectly in front of the engine bulkhead behind the electrical connection box. Without retuning I didn't expect any change in power but hopefully lower EGT's. I will also fit boost and egt gauges to check levels before any further tinkering. I would like to know what Is deemed a safe level of boost but may just start by ensuring that is maximised before the BOV activates. I would also like to know if a small led egt gauge is available in the UK to keep it as discreet as possible; I can only find the in the states?
Cheers
Zeb