New member saying hi and history of problems and successes with our beloved fourby.
Hey all, my name is Sim and I live on the northern beaches... In Sydney.
I have been offroading for three years so far and just got around to registering to the forum...bout time I guess.
As for vehicles, we have three... One GQ td42 (used to be rd28), one GQ rb30 (selling, to fuel hungry) and Toyota 80 series 4.2 turbo diesel (I recover it all the time in the td42 aha, still good car though).
So three years ago my father had a breakdown, due too stress and overworking. I started reading 4wd magazines...My father would grab a copy and read it before going to bed which inspired him to buy our first four wheel drive, not realizing that the bug had been caught he asked me to source out our first fourby.
After spending countless hours searching car sales and researching nissans and toyotas I found a mint condition 1997 RX rd28 GQ patrol for sale with only 160,000 k's on the engine for $11,500. Being on a budget this was a great find as there was no panel damage, no strange noises and completely stock standard, almost as if it had come straight from the showroom floor (yes that neat).
First thing we did was have a mechanic take a look and go over the truck with a fine tooth comb. first thing we had to replace was the clutch, still standard, after the clutch was the timing belt/chain. that is when we had recieved a call from the mechanic informing us of the common problem with this engine... and so began the bottom end bearing crankshaft replacement.
After all was fixed I headed straight to the watagans for some fun and my first ever real experience offroad. My father (Brett) and I spent a fair bit of time learning how to 4wd safely and even managed to squeeze in some group days to learn even more from experienced drivers.
After six months of learning as much as we could the modifying bug bit my father and I square on the rear-end.
First thing we purchased was a jerry can, I know it is not so much a mod but it was exciting for us, then came the first ARB snatch strap that would be the first and most used accessory in our recovery arsenal. After attempting to flush out the radiator for the first time I managed to crack the cylinder head.... MY BAD!!! Lesson learnt.... do not attempt while engine hot ahhhhh.
After replacing the cylinder head (should have just done the conversion then to TD42), I headed down to mansfield to see Mill at Millweld to get our 4inch stainless steel snorkel.... nice guy and quality work. After snorkel was on, went for a drive through howqua hills area to see sheepyard flat and enjoy the sound the new snorkel made while breathing new life into the truck. Upon leaving Mansfield the truck sounded different and kept overheating on the freeway on my way home. After numerous stops on the way home to keep truck from overheating, the mechanic gave us the all clear and told us the engines cooling system had to be flushed from oil residue left behind from the cracked cylinder head... I would have replaced the radiator when the head had cracked, but anyway.
Blocked off the egr on the little diesel that tried and made small improvements, in terms of cleaner air being sucked in and a small power increase...very small.
Next mod was a 2.75" beaudesert exhaust... nice increase in flow with noticable power gains...still no dyno tune or power figures.
Deciding then to give it a mild tune and swapping the standard 31" AT's to 33" AT's saw a mild increase in clearence, as well as adding a set of 50mm spacers for that extra bit of height. these few mods saw Jack (the trucks name, after our grandfather who passed away that year), turn into a more capable truck. After you put a set of spacers in, the urge to go bigger was eating at our excitement.
Turning to suspension... we acquired another GQ patrol with a full 4" lift...incl Snake racing dropped radius arms, adjustable upper/lower control arms at the rear, 4" coils and all other neccesary parts required to keep geometry intact and ended up swapping suspension from one car to the other. Pyro gauge and Boost gauge installed to keep an eye on the engines health on trips.
This brought us to planning our very first trip into the aussie outback. Starting at sydney and heading west. First stop... dubbo then onto broken hill. on the way to broken hill, the engine temp and egt were skyrocketing while pulling a Cub Camper behind us. Sitting at 80k/h and egt's at 450c started to see us becoming frustrated and while at broken hill decided on replacing the radiator with a copper brass unit to help with the cooling issues. Though when the old radiator was dismantled, the amount of sludge blocking the passages internally was ridiculous, oil and gunk was choking the cooling capacity of our dear little engine.
As we continued on to the flinders ranges the temps seemed to have dropped, but only a little and the decision to change our diff ratios from 4.65 to 4.88's saw towing and temps drop even further which helped reduce major concerns regarding overheating. Hawker Repco sorted that out for us and were extremely helpfull even flushing the engine block and radiator out again for us just to be safe. As the trip continued up to arkaroola then lake eyre and onto lyndhurst saw temps stablizing enough to continue up the strezleki track and onto cameron corner.
On arrival to cameron corner, the car was showing signs of damage which one of the blokes who worked on the station there took a look for us and confirmed that 6th cylinder had lost compression and 4th cylinder had low compression and the injector were lacking pressure due to contaminated fuel.
Limping home from cameron corner on pretty much 5 cylinders was a horrible trip, temperatures were hitting critical and top speed was now 60k/h sitting at 500egt.
When home from our problem riddled trip saw our RD28 needing a rebuild after 12 months of owning. always late in a 2.8!
The mechanic who was working on our truck said he had a TD42 block gear box and transfer case which we jumped at to replace the retired 2.8.
The engine TD42 currently powering our truck was almost finished a year and a half later.... a long time for a conversion!! I KNOW.
We have had problem after problem with the mechanic we are using as so far, the fully rebuilt TD42 has been rebuilt once since the initial recondition and the problems have not ended there.
TD42 Vehicle Specs:
Black top Td42, Ported to match inlet and exhaust manifolds, built turbo spec.
GU pump 11mm plunger W/ compensator.
Garret T28 high flow BB turbo Running 13psi , custom piping.
2.75" straight through exhaust.
Top mount intercooler W/fairline fibreglass large scoop.
33"Cooper STT's on 15" Steel King Rims.
ARB Winch bar W/Kingone 12,000p winch steel cable.
ARB brush bars and Bolt on side steps.
Kaymar rear bar W/tyre carrier and jerry can holder.
Snake racing weld on pumpkin protector.
ARB air lockers both ends, running 4.35 ratios...Genuine.
Pro Vent oil catch can.
4" Lovells coils HD.
Koni Heavy track shocks, possibly Fox 2.0 depending on a few things as they are being installed this very moment.
Whiteline 24mm front swaybar...18mm rear swaybard W/6" disconnects.
Air assisted bags W/ceramic protective sleeves.
Dual battery setup in engine bay x2 optima blue tops W/1 Deep cycle 100AH 3rd battery in the rear of truck.
ARB air compressor for lockers and connected to 9gallon tank in the rear.
ARB 40L fridge.
Autron 3 pillar pod inc Autron gauges oil/water, Boost/EGT and Dual battery.
Steel Roof rack W/Rooftop tent and side awning with 2 rack mounted camp lights.
22" LED light bar of front bar.
Lightforce XGT spotties, front bar.
40" LED lightbar on Roof.
Upcoming Mods in the next coming months:
Plazmaman inlet manifold.
Plazmaman 650HP W2A intercooler.
PWR radiator W/ twin thermo fans inc bypass override switch.
PWR overflow tank for radiator... no more cracked plastic crap.
New air con condensor.
New heater core.
New slotted discs.
Aftermarket Alloy Airbox.
Viper smart start Alarm W/GPS.
Rear fuse box where standard jack goes...Custom.
Rear storage system.
Dash pod.
Rear cargo barrier.
Rock Lights.
Visiondrive Incar DVR front and rear cameras.
Diff bracing and diff axle stripped and powdercoated.
Chrome alloy CV's front.
Will continue post later.... got a few things to do... AKA washing car and cleaning ahhhhh the joys.
New member saying hi and history of problems and successes with our beloved fou
Welcome mate, surely the best forum on the net. If you need it, you can get it, if you want to know it, just ask it.
Enjoy the sights and sounds of the greatest show on earth.
