Thanks Dumbdunce, but I've never really made a secret of the fact that the scoops are there for looks, and that to make them look less "wannabe" I intended to cut the bonnet and put the inline water cooler for the turbo in there, so that people can see they aren't just ornamental poser carp. I hate the thought of them looking like wannabe poser stuff.
However, it now appears that we have found a much more likely cause of the overheating, which when dealt with probably means we'll likely end up, after all the work that has been done to date, with more cooling than we'll ever need.
For all who've contributed ideas, thoughts and suggestions, here's a little update.
The very first job we got done was to have the fuelling checked, as it was the most likely cause at over 20L/100Kms just driving lightly around town unladen. Based on advice from a forum I asked for the Fuel flow rate to be checked and they found that and the turbo boost to be correct.
Due to this we then dismissed the high fuel use as due to the fact that it's a 3tonne vehicle with an auto transmission and a huge high roof to push through the air, and then looked elsewhere for other causes.
However, I have since been reliably informed that that is not enough to cause that sort of fuel use and to get the fuelling checked again. But this time with better instructions as to what to get the company doing the check to actually do. This diagnosis was further confirmed when we had to remove the turbo overpipe yesterday and found traces of fuel residue all the way up to the pressure sensor for the boost gauge. It must be overfuelling insanely.
It is now booked in for a full service focussed on the fuel system, work that was sposed to have been done in the very beginning but that I didn't know how to ask for. Queanbeyan Diesel (highly regarded) will be pulling the whole fuel pump off and giving it a thorough test along with many other diagnostics including dynoing, EGT, particulates, etc etc etc.
I am told here and elsewhere that overfuelling is a major cause of overheating, and since it's the only remaining cause, it's got to be high on the suspects list. It was right from the start, but I didn't explain correctly what I wanted the company that did the first check to actually do.
I apologise to the many who suggested this as a cause, but I didn't follow it up. I was doing so based on the mistaken idea the system was checked before we did anything else to the vehicle. If someone says to check what you've already had checked, you tend to overlook that suggestion.
Though this is without a doubt this cars last chance to behave. If this fails, then it goes to a wreckers as I will not palm it off onto some other poor soul. And I'll applaud and whistle and cheer as it gets crushed into a cube.
So let's hope this time we have the
actual cause, and I can look forward to doing more than 420Kms on 90 litres of fuel.
Gee - I might not even have to carry a jerry can with me just for a trip to the local shop soon

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