If you like reading then this is the introduction for you!
G'day folks,
I've been a member of this forum since I was in high school and was dreaming of doing up my old man's 1996 extra cab chop Td42. I was always on the internet and had my head in magazines thinking up how I was going to trick it out for some serious off road action. Fast forward several years and I that patrol unfortunately is long sold, much to my disappointment, and I am near on finishing my mechanics apprenticeship.
A couple of years ago I had a Nissan Skyline which was giving me engine dramas (had to rebuild it) and so I bought a VX commodore as a run around. I was always on gumtree browsing and saw a SWB TB42 GQ come up for swaps, the bloke was looking for a 4 door as he had a bub on the way. After exchanging messages and pictures we agreed to meet in Dongara, he lived in Geraldton. The shorty was 1988 and pretty rough around the edges, but I was keen and willing to see where I would take the build. I had it for a couple of months at most and it was absolutely plagued with mechanical and cosmetic issues, so when I saw a cheap RD28 GQ LWB I asked the seller if he would consider swaps. He was quite urgent about the sale as he had lost his license and his Mrs could only drive auto. I didn't mention the shorty was auto! So I went around and we took his new Bighorn 33's off the RD28 and onto the shorty and went separate ways (After we both drove each others cars of course).
At first I was really wrapped with the swap, thinking I had definitely come out on top.. On the drive home the temp gauge sky rocketed and I pulled over to see a radiator hose had burst under the bonnet. Didn't think too much of it and got a mate to come out with a : and tow it. New hose fitted and was on my way, but in the end after a couple more days figured out the motor was passing combustion gases into the coolant/using coolant as well. A bit of a bummer but I had done some research and saw how easy it was to fit an RB25 Petrol motor from a Nissan Skyline to an RD28 Patrol, that I decided to go down that route. It was quite a good learning experience and challenge, a lot of hours and money went into making it happen but it was well worth it when boosting past street cars and seeing their reaction !
I could go on into detail about the good and bad times with the rb25det in the patrol, but I will fast forward to the present. The RB25DET's life was cut short early due to a "technicality", and at that point I knew it was time to do what I'd always wanted... Td42ti conversion :D Found a whole donor car with a rusted body but mechanically sound drivetrain in Lancelin, North of Perth and called him up and told him it was sold. After doing a few prepartory bits and pieces on the body of my GQ, adding the turbo components to the TD42, I dropped the motor and gearbox in. I am nearly ready to finish it, just waiting on intercooler piping and electrical which I am doing this week. Which brings me here to the trusty patrol forum, as I've misplaced my hard copy of the gregory's manual, so I will download the manual to give my auto sparky the diagrams.
If you read through that long winded post well thanks for taking the time, if you didn't, I don't blame ya! But either that's my intro hope it does the job cheers !:smiley_thumbs_up:
