Do people give up on the zd30 way to quickly

[onlyme376]

Hi
Ok so I want to pose the question are people way to quick or eager to give up on their zd30 and do a conversion. The reason I ask is I had been on the hunt for a spare engine and a manual gearbox to convert mine to manual as I just don't like the auto and i just picked up an engine and gearbox with heaps of spares for $1500 they put in an ls1 auto. they had spend a heap of money on it before the conversion, reconditioned gearbox and new clutch reconditioned injection pump and brand new alternator. then it blew a heap of smoke and a racket so they assumed it had cracked a piston and didn't bother diagnosing. So I got it home and started checking thee engine over and all that was wrong was a blown turbo the bearing in completely gone pistons are fine the bores are perfect not even a ridge and you can still see the hone marks no head cracks so for the sake of checking it they have just tossed it and done the conversion. Good pick up for me and a big waste of money for them. some people just seem to not even give them a chance due to all the bad things that get said about them.
what are your thoughts anybody else seen this happen on some of the facebook pages people just convert them for the sake of it they expect it to fail at some point so they just dump it

[Sir Roofy]

mate ive read so much doom and gloom about these 3l motors, we have one a 2002 gu limited edition
had it 3yrs now and still going strong 260 xxx plus at present weve done the simpson qld meet up act 3times and to tarree and beyond
lot of the high country there a strong motor if you give it a bit of respect but its still in the back of my mind that it could go any time
if it happens then ive had a good run out of it and will just have to try and rebuild or replace I like it runs well fuel is good regular oiland filter changes and keeping temps down should help to go a bit longer

[SG1]

Know someone who is in a process of a conversion, had got near 300 tho out the original engine and then its gone and cracked a head, had a heap of extras on it and not even 12 months ago spent over 4g on it with rebuilt turbo ect ect(which didn really need doing), now he is doing a conversion to a TD42, I asked him why not just get another cheap ZD30 engine and prob be all done pretty cheap as some are almost giving them away, he wouldn hear of it, oh well.. Kinda thought 300tho was pretty good since he pretty much flogged it everywhere.

[the evil twin]

If the ZD30 is any good why did you want a spare engine?

Personally I think most, but certainly not all people who do a conversion do so because it is an opportunity to offset rebuild or repair costs against the purchase of an engine that is more reliable or more powerful or whatever other quality they are chasing.

Lets face it, a ZD30 isn't exactly a good performer in a Patrol.
I had a CRD for 5 years (one of 6 Patrols I have owned) and I quite like it but it didn't have the reliability or torque band of say a TD42.
If it had of crapped out from say Pump and Rail and I had of wanted to keep it I certainly would have converted it rather than reco the ZD30

[onlyme376]

yeah exactly my 06 has 275000 on it and still going strong but i wanted an engine as a base for a rebuild for just in case and the one i got is in pretty good nick apart from the turbo which if you don't mind a cheap one you can get for $400 on ebay a bit like the one with a cracked head you can get a new head off ebay with valves for about $1200 that's a lot cheaper than a conversion

[Sir Roofy]

if the zd30 is any good why did you want a spare engine?

Personally i think most, but certainly not all people who do a conversion do so because it is an opportunity to offset rebuild or repair costs against the purchase of an engine that is more reliable or more powerful or whatever other quality they are chasing.

Lets face it, a zd30 isn't exactly a good performer in a patrol.
I had a crd for 5 years (one of 6 patrols i have owned) and i quite like it but it didn't have the reliability or torque band of say a td42.
If it had of crapped out from say pump and rail and i had of wanted to keep it i certainly would have converted it rather than reco the zd30

all true but they where built for the european market as a passenger car hence 7seater
if i had a choice at the time id probably have a 4.2 but if you ease up on the 3l and not treat it as a big motor it should last a while we live in hope

[Rock Trol]

LOL. I know what you mean about assuming the worst about the ZD30. A friend was on a club trip when his GUIII started blowing smoke and losing power. It would suddenly come good and run well then start acting up again until it pretty much stopped working. They called the RAA who came around to pick it up. The guy said Yup, its a grenade. You need a full rebuild etc. Seen it all before, this is the sixth this month etc.

Anyway, when he got it checked out it was the injector pump. Nothing wrong with the internals. Pump was fixed up and car runs normally. Even the so called experts get it wrong about this motor. There were clues that it had not grenade as it would run ok for short periods of time. But as far as he was concerned, ZD30 must mean its a grenade.

[onlyme376]

[QUOTE=the evil twin;578321]If the ZD30 is any good why did you want a spare engine?


I figured it can't hurt to have spares and i wanted to rebuild and engine ready to put in so it's fresh before the one in it gets tired. I got the car about 10k cheaper than most around at the time in the knowledge i might need to rebuild the engine if you listen to all the hype about them but so far mine has been good the only thing I don't really like about mine is the auto but I got the spare engine a recon gearbox and most of the bits i need to change it to manual

[happygu]

Seen it about three or four times, where someone is immediately convinced, or the mechanic says it is terminal, only to be an easy fix...... and most people dont even investigate the problems.....

[4bye4]

It would be interesting to actually see the percentage of grenade 3l DIs. Mine (GU4) has 180 ishk's and no sign of anything. Sure it happens but I think its a bit overstated and many small problems are just assumed to be grenades. What about the 3l CRD. If you go on whats on this and other forums they all develop water leaks behind the timing cover.
Like everything in life, the bad things get the publicity and the good things don't. Peeps who have 3 l motors and no problems don't write into forums, tweet or go on FB about it.
Anyway as you indicate, it may mean that there are a few second hand, good, cheap 3l out there if we (I) need one.