My Class 8 Extreme 4WD MK Patrol

[Steve879]

Hi guys, I posted this on the introductions page, thought i would put it up here so i can update it over time, its a 1985 MK patrol, Originally a L28, now runs an Injected 308. I race in the NSW Offroad Racing Championship, i plan this year running 4 events, Crookwell, Griffith, Milbrodale and Colo.

I bought the old girl as a half built race truck in 2009. I was just starting to build up a MQ from stock when i stumbled onto this one, it already had the Carby 308 installed and the cage was in but not certified, seats where in but thats about it.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/22445_301467014814_782124814_4776133_1235875_n.jpg

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/22445_301467019814_782124814_4776134_877083_n.jpg

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This is where i started from and with very little experience but alot of thoughts i set ipon building the old girl to race.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/IMG_5350.jpg

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http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/30631_455675699814_782124814_6112696_2867783_n.jpg

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[Steve879]

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/30631_455675759814_782124814_6112704_6315713_n.jpg

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/38085_467518154814_782124814_6418370_2969023_n-1.jpg

My first race was at the Australian round at Griffith in 2010, this was also run as a NSW round and that is what i entered, the car went well until during the first lap on the sunday the front diff cover seal cracked and we lost oil, resulting in blowing the front diff, we removed the tail shaft and got going to only 500 metres later rip the front brake line of the car and lose all brakes, we managed slowly finish the lap with only some rear brakes and that was out first race!!

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/946807928_LnKpR-X22223.jpg

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Race 2 was a disaster, this was Warialda 2010. The car from the moment we took it off the trailer had issues, the major being overheating, the second was just the unreliable Holley that was on the car, we ended up blowing the radiator up! but managed with a bit of bush mechanics to get a bt more racing in before packing up and heading home very disapointed!

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/66909_10150097657364815_782124814_7420257_4599920_ n.jpg

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It was the this point i decided that a major upgrade was required and this is where began the upgrade to injection, as well a better cooling system. The cooling system was first and we ran Crookwell 2011 with the radiator and fan setup and it was a massive improvement, no longer was the car running hot, it would run hard all day and not have any cooling issues, the race though was the last straw for the Holley, it caused us issues all weekend and stopped us completing full race distance. I came home, pulled the Holley off the car and put it on ebay!! then once they were gone i went about finding the injection kit and working how it was going to all work! After a bit of study i found out that the injection top end is a straight forward bolt on to the old school 308, mine being a 1974 example, i found a kit and went about fitting it up.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/IMG_9018.jpg

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[Steve879]

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/motor1.jpg

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/motor2.jpg

We raced at the 2011 Milbrodale Mountain Classic in August, the Patrol was now injected, the cooling system was done and i also had dropped from 33 inch Claws down to 31 inch Mickey Thompson MTZ's. The car was fantastic, other than a broken engine mount needing some welding, the car all weekend against some tuff competiton in the Extreme 4WD class, in the End we won out class, a top effort and was very happy after all the hard work i had put in. That is pretty much where the car is now.

Im in the process of some upgrades for this season, i have a brand new Pair of 2.5 inch Remote shocks for the rear and are moving my Fox 2 inch remotes to the front,so will have dual 2 inch with a Hydraulice Bump stop on the front, and the 2.5 inches on the rear, i also have new front shackles coming, and im about to change the front diff as i bent it having a little test at my mates property, ill post the video as well!!

My next race will be Crookwell in April. If anyone is interested in coming out and you live in the area, let me know and ill tell you all about where it is!

Ill keep on updating as i change and break things in the Future!!

Steve

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/879%20Offroad%20Racing%20Patrol/milbrodalecloserollover.jpg

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http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/Crookwell10.jpg

[Bigrig]

Seen it all twice now ... and still love it!!!

[oldcarsmaniac]

Great rig! And red, too! :)

[GQUTERUS]

Looks very very cool, i love the 2nd last pic with the massive roost from the ass!

[rusty_nail]

aweseom thread! tops pics love the project car mate looks top shelf!!!

[White Elephant]

Awesome thread! Awesome pics! Awesome Rig! Nuff said!

[Tweakedoffroad]

Looks Evan better second tIme round lol how do you find the injector set up

[Steve879]

Thanks guys, the injection is just the top end of a VS 5 Litre, the block is technically the same, so all you need to turn your old 308 into an injected 308 is change the heads, cam, and manifold, wire up the computer and off you go! Trust me, its not a hard job, im not a mechanic but love to have a go! it started first go, and has had hell since! This motor is ran hard, i hate going slow so when im racing its pushed!

[Steve879]

Picked up my new front diff and new 2.5 inch Remote shocks for the rear! Going to be a pretty big few weeks to get it all in before my next race!!

[msw21]

thats tuff mate

[Steve879]

Well it as a few big nights on the welder but we have made huge progress! The new front diff we welded up the ends with some tabs to make it alot stronger, at the same time installed the new bottom mounts for the dual shocks and base for the new Hydraulic bump stops. Next was the rear end and it is now running the 2.5 inch shocks mounted up to the cage, looks very cool!, the differnce in ride between a 2 inch and 2.5 inch shock is huge!!!, we then went back to the front and completed the mounts for the dual shocks, which are now in and have made the front alot stronger! we didn't get the bump stops in for this weekend which is our first race at Crookwell for the year! If anyone is in the ACT or southern NSW and wants to come out and have a look it will be worth your while! there will be about 8-10 tin tops racing, and about 20 buggys.

Ill post up some pics of the new shocks shortly!

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/04/44.jpg

[Silver]

thanks for the update, and good luck!

[Kimberley Mob]

That thing is awesome and looks tuff as to
Good luck with the racing

[Steve879]

Well we had a ball racing! other than some minor electrical problems... well, i kinda overloaded the main feed into my fuse block.... resulted in not blowing a fuse but melting a bit... lost all power and took too long to locate so got a DNF for the first race, then was hammering all the rest of the weekend till i ran out of fuel on the last lap of the weekend!! 50 metres past the start finish line in front of the crowd and commentators... got a bit of a ribbing over that one! used 120 litres of Fuel to cover about 180km!! Fuel ecconomy is not one of its good points!! The new suspension was fantastic! the front handled the bumps much better and rear was just awesome, i could jump the car with confidence and nothing seemed to faze the old girl! Ive got 2 videos to post up, the first is of the prolouge where i neally end for ended the car.... in the video it looks quite mild but in the car it was on its nose for a long time.... i have played it back frame for frame and it went along way on its nose!!! the second is just a lp of the track... its hard to see how rough the track is and the feeling of speed is also hard to judge, pretty much all the track in 2nd and 3rd, 4th flat on the downhill straight, we had a GPS for 1 lap and it was giving us a average speed of about 60km/h.

Next race is Griffith in July, then its up to Milbrodale in August.

Steve


http://youtu.be/m2by5zXb52M


http://youtu.be/Eqor64yt5Hg

[Steve879]

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/9ecf5cf4.jpg

This is a test to the strength of the Mickey Thompson mtz. This rim and tyre clipped a rock at one stage, the rim is bent as you can see near the valve, what you can't see is the hit the tyre took, there is a tear and some good marks but it held and I finished the weekend on it, it will now become a spare and I'll have to get another.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/1ad70474.jpg

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/de49927a.jpg

These are as it raced so please ignore the cable ties in the last shot!! Bloody tubes kept working loose.

[Steve879]

Bit of an update, have a little bit of work to do before the next race in Early july at Griffith. I need a new sunrasier rim after bending my front, and also need to remove and get the rear shocks seals done as they are leaking. we are going to try and finish the front end by putting some hydraulic bump stops in, i really need to get some for the back as well to try and stop some of the bounce im getting once the car hits the rubbers, After Griffith will be up to Milbrodale, where the tuff truck is held for round 5.

[Steve879]

And i have also put a new eprom chip in the computer to try and get a few more ponys out of the motor, need to get out and give it test to see if it improves it at all.

[Steve879]

Decided to do a rotor and pad change after having crap brakes for the last race, what a huge job to do rotors! But I glad I did, bearings were in good condition but gave thm a good repack while all was apart.

[Steve879]

Well what a disaster the Griffith 350 was. After working for weeks to get the car ready, my weekend just didn't go to plan. Car got passed all ok and we headed out for our recon lap. Well about half way round it just stopped dead... towed back to the pits to try and work out what was wrong.. after a little while we finally worked out the high pressure fuel pump had packed it in, was running but not pumping. lucky someone else had a spare and we replaced it and got ready to prolouge, with about 200 metres to go in the lap, we missed a caution and hit a pretty large hole with the left front, the end result was a broken leaf spring, the then let the diff move back hitting the guard and also breaking the top of 1 of my race shocks... we packed up and headed back into the Grffith to my mates place to try and patch it up, we managed to find a similar leaf pack and pulled mine apart and replaced the broken leaf.

Headed back to the track for the next days racing, lined up for the 4 laps of the 33km track. First lap in was abotu 28mins which i was pretty happy with, about mid pack with quite a few buggys behind us. After about half the 2nd lap the engine started to knock and but and was losing power, nav was a bit slow in letting me know the temp gauge was very hot... i switched on the thermos and coasted for a while hoping to get it to cool down a bit... well it wouldnt and the knocking and power loss was getting bad so pulled over to check, well the motor stopped and that was it... jumped out to find we had ripped a radiator hose off and had now well and truly cooked the poor old 308! So that was that.... back on the trailer and headed home after only a disapointing 50km or less of racing.

Managed to get it started when i got home to run it into the shed, it is done good and proper, running like a dog and has a huge knock and can hear compression going somewhere it shouldnt, and the smell... the wife is not happy with me as its made the house stink!!!

Now i guess im in the market for a new motor... not exactly what i wanted to have to do in the middle of the year.. and a new leaf spring... the bush fix will not last the hell i give them.

Also worked out that our top speed would not be much over 130-140km/h, we had the GPS in the car and it was reading about 120km/h or so on the straights but we had a fairly bad vibration as we got over 4000rpm so was stopping about there, its a shame really as we could have topped it out a bit more if not for the vibration. I think we might also need to look for a 5 speed box to try and get a bit more speed out of the old girl.

Next event was going to the be the Milbrodale Mountain Classic but that is not really looking very good at the moment.

Big shout out to Intellifleet in Wagga for the new VDO gauges! they worked a treat!!! also to the Boys at Motor Spares in Mitchell for the brake stuff i needed.

[Steve879]

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k193/goanna_2006/556613_445961118759595_650153903_n.jpg

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And a lap of the Griffith Prolouge if you're interested.

http://youtu.be/I6-XDSM6u2M