My GQ engine dilemma

[Chiro]

Hi,

I'm a newbie on here.

I bought my first 4x4 around a year and a half ago. This is it http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...e-introduction

It's done 323,000km. It had one elderly owner prior to me that had it serviced every 5000km with oil and filter. Log books all stamped up until they ran out of pages. I've done 28,000km in it myself. Just recently the RD28 has either done a the head or a head gasket. I needed a weekly commute until the end of the year so the cooling guy recommended we try Fiberlock http://www.crcindustries.com.au/prod...ket-repair-new get me through to the end of the year. So far so good, it's been running cooler than ever with no problems. The temp has only just reached just over the half way point on the gauge which is coorect according to cooling guy so I have never cooked it. I have maintained it well with oil and filter every 5000Km. Had timing belt done at 300,000 with new water pump, had all new hoses put on, had cooling system flushed (cooling guy said it was as clean a whistle). I've spend a few dollars on the old girl since original pics I've added Cd player, Safari snorkel, tinted the windows and brand new large brass radiator as the original nissan plastic one got brittle and broke while taking the radiatior hose off to replace it. I was hoping to add some black kings rims and bigger exhaust then dyno it until the head problem arose.

Well the RD28 is pretty gutless. I don't do any serious 4x4 work just a little beach work and a bit of light 4x4 up some hillsides. No need to tow anything. So here is my dilemma. What do I do now? I have really grown to like the car and have spent a few $ on it. In my mind I'm thinking why spend money fixing a slug of a motor put it toward a conversion. From my research options are either.

- RB30 EFI out of VL. Pros and cons. More power but disliking higher rev range, little gain in torque. Will bolt straight in, relatively cheap, heavy on fuel.

- TD42 conversion. Pros and cons. Lost of $$ and stuffing around, Then have to turbo it ~4-5K on top of that. Lucky dip on how engine condition is.

- TD42 body swap. Spoke to engineer $650 for engineers cert. Legally can be done. No mucking around with welding mounts, changing diff flanges, cross members and all other things that go with the conversion as all running gear is there. Also a lucky dip on how engine condition is. Then still have to turbo it ~4-5K on top of that again.

- Fix what I have and put up with a slug. Quoted $2100 worse case scenario.

- Sell the car with disclosure of damaged head/head gasket and spend some bigger money and get a factory TD42t.

I would love to convert to TD42 but I know I'll be over capitalizing and there is no insurance on how good the TD42 that would replace the RD28 would be. If it needed rebuilding= more $$ big fail.

Are there any other options to get good power without over capitalizing?

Thoughts?

[threedogs]

You might want to look at a LS1 conversion, but it all depends on your budget
Have you thought about fitting a manual boost controller??

[Chiro]

You might want to look at a LS1 conversion, but it all depends on your budget
Have you thought about fitting a manual boost controller??

LS1 would cost me ~15k. I'd never get near my money back if I sold it.

Haven't thought about putting a manual boost controller in. What are the benefits of this mod?

[threedogs]

You can up the boost, have a search foe Siberian Patrol ,,,Matt just installed one for an up coming cross country trip.
He is over the moon how it has transformed his ride, same as you ,,he has a rd28

Give mudski a PM and have a yak, very cheap mod for a good increase in power

[Chiro]

Ok I'll do a search. Thanks