GU ZD30 sudden loss of power

[trekster]

Hello gurus!


I'm asking this for my father-in-law as he isn't very tech savvy at these forum shenanigans.

So the story goes, they left from Coffs heading South at the start of the year, went past Sydney etc got to a few of their parts they were intending on getting to when the car starting having issues as if the clutch was slipping (Towing I think a 2.5T van on the back as well) So they got back as far as Goulburn and my brother-in-law had to take his new td42 gu down there and swap cars to get it back to Sydney. Got it into the mechanics and $2700 later a new organic clutch and solid flywheel was fitted to the beast.

All good so far, They then travelled south again but because of the awesome bushfires we have been having they were evacuated and decided to come home. This is were the problems start, The only way they could get the van up hills was to drive it in 1st gear

It had no power up hills but was fine on the flats, they got it home drinking about 24L/100, Took it to a diesel mechanic and 1st thing he said was to replace fuel filter, This got done but no improvement to the problem.

Now this car itself has 240k on the clock but the motor has 160k on it due to the lovely nissan big bang theory, Nissan fixed it all up for them, but we are thinking that when they did this they possibly just put the old injectors etc back in, only other thing new at that time was the turbo.

We are going to clean the maf sensor as per the little tutorial on the site :thumbup:


But besides that and possibly injectors is there anything else we should look at before he bites the bullet and just decides to get it fixed by a mechanic, he did say the car was blowing a bit of black smoke on the way home as the stoneguard on the caravan was black, but now due to new filter he reckons there is no more smoke.


Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Eric.

[boots]

My old mans symptoms were similar , would idle and rev fine parked stationary but in motion no joy . injector pump failure was the cause for him . fingers crossed its just a MAF sensor .

[trekster]

My old mans symptoms were similar , would idle and rev fine parked stationary but in motion no joy . injector pump failure was the cause for him . fingers crossed its just a MAF sensor .

Thanks boots, It drives ok with no load, but with the van on its got as much power as a bike with a 2stroke motor strapped onto it!


Hoping its the maf too, hes gonna go buy the cleaner tomorrow and try and give it a go this weekend time/weather permitting!

[Morton]

get the maf tested aswell, if it is failing they usually totally fail but some play up first & cleaning doesnt make a difference but alway try the cheaper options first & hope it nails it, maybe look at the cat, its maybe blocked or starting to block or fail, good luck bud, hope it is easy & more importantly a cheap fix

[trekster]

get the maf tested aswell, if it is failing they usually totally fail but some play up first & cleaning doesnt make a difference but alway try the cheaper options first & hope it nails it, maybe look at the cat, its maybe blocked or starting to block or fail, good luck bud, hope it is easy & more importantly a cheap fix


Thanks Morton, If they have to they will throw money at it to get it fixed as they love the car. (You can tell when they spent $2700 on the clutch lol) They Bought it as an ex-cop car and have had it for over 10years now.

When we clean it, we will do the multimeter test etc as well.


Regards,
Eric.

[WYLD333]

Look for leaks around the intercooler and hoses m8. Do you know how much boost the car is making?

[patroljock52]

You have many similar symptoms as I have had with my 2001 ZD30 engine. After 14 months of trying allsorts after fitting a new Dualmass flywheel and new clutch after failure (lucky I could do the work myself as the local Nissan dealer wanted an 'arm&a leg' for the job) I have been swapping parts from my other Patrol to try out different tests with no result - recently found out that there are small changes to my other ZD30 which has not helped when swapping parts - engine management light comes on a lot when we swap parts -
Anyway fitted a new core to the MAF sensor as a gamble (£40 sterling on ebay) - had tried cleaning existing - new joy -
BINGO the new MAF did the trick - back to towing etc without any problem
YES I have chucked loads of dosh and time at my truck as I love it - now working a dream - but for how long ?????

[threedogs]

Heaps of black smoke will mean its over fueling/, really time to NAD your ride to monitor whats going on
Rear hose on IC has a habit of popping off, if you have no boost .maybe a Vacuum line is off or split.
Really recommend fitting EGT and Boost guage to see what motor is doing, even block the EGR
and have manual boost controll IMO,
PM MUDSKI if a new MAF is required

[trekster]

Thanks Threedogs, Tomorrow father-in-law is going to get some cleaner then coming to my house for a little tinker, will get that maf out and give it a good clean, might even do mine if he has some spray left :D I did think about checking all hoses/plugs etc, I will have a good look tomorrow.


Cheers,
Eric.

[mudski]

As TD said. Black smoke is a sign of too much fuel. Check all the hoses to the intercooler, and vac hoses. I just spent an hour replacing every vac hose on my car with silicone vac hose. Some of the vac hoses under the IC were not looking too crash hot...
And yeah. Really recommend getting the boost and EGT gauges fitted.

[trekster]

Update: Cleaned the maf today, it was dirty but not to the point of being putrid, once he cleaned it we put it back in and as he was I had a look towards the ic/turbo, I said to him "I don't believe this line should be off here" Pointing to the vac line that runs to the actuator on the turbo, I pushed it back on and it felt tight, he said when he went up a hill near his house that in 3rd it was going hard and accelerating up the hill, whereas before when the problem arose he needed to use 2nd to get up it, (previous to the issue 3rd was always good for the hill)

So he's got a couple of days of driving it around to see if its fixed, on wednesday he has to tow the van into town to get some things sorted on it, so that will be the test to see if it is well and truly fixed!


Thanks for the replies guys,
Regards,
Eric.

[macca86]

That'll be the problem 7/10 times its cooler or vaccum lines