Damo's GU IV 4.2 STS

I've been playing around a little bit lately with the old girl.

I've been tuning up the injector pump a bit by tuning the boost compensator to deliver a little bit more fuel pre boost and a fair bit more fuel when boost is building up to encourage quicker spool up. She goes a lot better now. Pretty close to back to how it went pre modification, ie tyres, roof rack, lift, lots of extra weight. The EGT temperatures are still ok by a long way.

I also added some more LED strip light inside cargo area. Pics don't show do it justice. I still have the existing LED's on the barn doors, just need to dim them down a bit.

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Had a bit of a play on an easy track near home the other day. First real chance to flex up the big girl. I'm very happy with the flex with both sway bar still connected. I'll have to do it again soon with them disconnected to see the difference. Apparently it is significant.

I know they are poser shots but I had fun. I guess technically I was exploring an unknown track (unknown to me) in 4WD Low. (all 4 pics in same spot).

Front end

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Rear end

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looks good there damo.

A few pics of a trip I did with another forum, it's not cheating is it? ;)

It was at Chichester State Forest in the Hunter Valley NSW. Not too muddy but the holes were deep. Never got stuck myself but every Toyota in the group did in one way or another. :) hehehe

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Thats a sweet looking rig. One day I hope to build mine up similar. Great pics too.

I've always wanted a set of rock sliders for my patrol, ever since my first patrol. The re-assurance of the added strength over the standard steps totally rules out any negative impact of the added weight for me.

I sourced some strong 50mm gal pipe with 5mm wall and some 50mm square tube 5mm wall steel years ago to build sliders for my first patrol. I decided to keep the steel when I sold my first patrol having never completed the DIY job.

Now I have my GU IV Patrol I thought I best get around to building a decent set of sliders to protect my expensive little toy. Over a period of a few months I have finally finished and fitted. Here's a bit of a run down of the project.

I used the following materials:

Main slider material
2 x 50mm gal pipe 5mm wall (cant remember how long)
2 x 50mm square tube 5mm wall
4 x support tubes about 190mm long, cut on angle and notched for joint

Support brackets
4 x 50mm square tube, about 190mm long – centre and rear support from slider to chassis bracket.
2 x 50mm x 75mm RHS, about 270mm long – front support from slider to body mount section
4 x 100mm flat bar 5mm x 500mm – wrap around chassis as U-brackets
6 x M10 x 110mm high tensile fine thread bolts.
2 x 8mm plate for gussets cut into 4 triangles

Hoops tacked onto square double checking fitting.
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and then welded up
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looking good
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Checking alignment with makeshift chocks!
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Cut and notched supports. Makes for a lot stronger weld and very tidy. I used a holesaw in a drill press and clamps. A real pain but worth the effort.
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Making chassis brackets. I heated the steel till cherry red and bent using the vice and a little elbow grease. Turned out really well i think. The middle chassis bracket needs to be bent in the shape you can see as the chassis on the patrol bends here and gains some width.
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Brackets attached. I mounted the brackets to the chassis and chocked up the sliders into the correct position and triple checked alignments. Then I tack welded them together before carefully removing the unit as one and welded everything up on the bench. Once cooled I then refitted to the chassis to double, triple, quad ripple check everything was aligned ok.
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Gussets attached. These increase strength and rigidity significantly. (I have found since fitting the complete sliders that welding these on did distort the brackets slightly. It has bent the sliders up a little too close to the sill panel. I'll have to come up with a solution.)
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Welds tidied up and ready for painting
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Oh yer, looking good baby. These were sprayed in automotive paint with a coat of special primer to stick to the gal and the first black coat put on wet primer to dull down the gloss apparently. In reality I got someone else to do this. :)
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Job done, only been 6 years in the making!
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I cannot take all the credit for these sliders. First of all I had a lot of help in the way of a PDF document I came across on the NissanPatrol forum. A huge thanks to Lieney for producing and sharing this how to guide. This was a huge assistance to me in the design stage of this project. Although I used a hydraulic bender to shape the round pipe and used square tube as the main rail, I did use the measurements and instructions for the support brackets to chassis to make mine.

The thread can be found here http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...build-your-own

;)
They are a bit of an overkill with material thickness. The are heavy (just under 30kg for the pair) but I expect big things out of them. They definitely could have been built lighter and still have sufficient strength for most situations.


Now time for the next project. Hope it doesn't take this long

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gee that looks neet,,

Mate the sliders look good and stronger the better imo, I have tjm brush bar/ sliders and I've pushed them in and done damage so I wouldn't be concerned with weight, do what you have to do so they can take a beating lol

Is one of the sliders slightly longer?

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very nice Patrol....

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Originally Posted by megatexture

M

Is one of the sliders slightly longer?

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Wow. I never noticed that in the pic. I don't think so but it does look like it!


Thanks everyone.

If your going 3" I highly reccommend Lovells platinum 3" coils and toughdog foam cell shocks. really impressed. Climax at Thornton fixed me up. Nice Plush ride on the road. And performs nicely offroad.

Well I finally got around to replacing the diff gears in my patrol. I replaced the standard 3.9:1 with a set of 4.11:1 ratios. While I had the whole front end apart I rebuilt the swivel hubs with new king pin bearings, swivel hub seals, repacked the cv's, replaced the wheel bearings which were really bad, and replaced the standard auto locking hubs with some genuine nissan manual locking hubs. Pretty much knocked it all over in a day.

It drives much better now with the gears better suited to the 33's.

In anticipation of our trip to Fraser Island coming up I also gave it a bit of a birthday in the way of a service. Engine oil and filters, air filter, adjusted tappets and belts.


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Great looking truck. One of your pics looks like you bought it from Metro Nissan.

Thanks. Yes I did buy it from Metro, north side Brisbane . April 2012.

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Originally Posted by Rip'n'Shred

Thanks. Yes I did buy it from Metro. April 2012.

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I just picked up a 2005 TD42Ti GUIV from them as well. Low kms, good price. The building is just beginning.

I haven't updated this for a while so here it is.

Nothing too exciting happening yet. Been playing around with the tune a bit, installed an air fuel guage (2J9 from Techedge), replaced faulty deep cycle battery after failed on me on trip from Fraser Island to Landcruiser Mountain, and recently done a pvc elbow airbox lid mod.

I done mine a little different to others. I used a 90mm 90 degree elbow with flange for rainwater tank overflows.

Attachment 47458

I tried to use this entirely but I ended up having to cut the flange from the elbow to lower elbow as it sat too high. I cut it along the red dotted line and used the shorter section on inside the airbox.

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I also fitted a K&N filter which fits snugly inside the lip of the flanged pvc fitting.

The results are interesting. I was very doubtful initially which is why I had put it off for so long, but I am definitely convinced now. Not a huge improvement but it all adds up. Feels a little more responsive, maybe revs a little bit free from idle no load.

I also have a new Harris bash plate to fit that I bought ages ago, still wrapped up in plastic.

I'm eagerly awaiting to save up for a UFI TD05 18g and Cross Country Ultimate Intercooler, then a 12mm pump I guess, a stronger clutch in there somewhere too I guess, 4" snorkel, airbox, inlet manifold, shit this is gunna cost me a fortune. Maybe just a turbo for a while first.

Mate I have the ufi16g and cross country, you will be stoked with the 18g.

Finally upgraded to a UFI 18g. Very impressed with the improvement. I have re-tuned it myself. I would like to get it done by a pro but no one around here seems to know what they are doing.

Can't wait to get a decent intercooler!

I also picked up a set of Amada remote cannisters to replace the very shiet and leaking (for the 5th time) SS montubes. This is THE BEST mod I have ever done. I have SS flexicoils and these have really made them come alive. I actually fitted a more heavy-duty rear coil at the same time and am very impressed.

Also, I bought a consult adaptor and installed ECUTalk onto my laptop for diagnosis and error codes type of repairs and monitoring. Took a bit for me to work out that i actually need to read the software install instructions but i got there in the end. Lol

Mate sounds like you are doing all the good things with the GU.

Yep I'm trying to anyway. Lol. I think the intercooler will be next, but not too soon. Gee they are expensive!

As a bit of a fan of decent sound, I have recently installed some Focal 165AS 2 way splits in front doors with crossover mounted behind door card and tweeter mounted in black triangle trim behind side mirrors on an angle kinda towards seat area. They are 60w RMS nom., 120w max

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The rear doors have Focal 165AC in the original speaker location in doors. These are also 60w RMS nom., 120w max

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I replaced the speaker wires with some copper heavier speaker wire from supercheap. Hope this wasn't a mistake.

I run an amp I have had for years so I wouldn't be surprised if it is the weakest link in the chain. It's a Response amplifier.

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The head unit is an old Sony MEX-2600BT. I don't know how old as it was a second handy from other car but it has Bluetooth so it works for me at the moment. It has front and rear/sub rca out set to rear.

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I am now seriously considering dynamat for the doors to improve sound quality.

I was thinking about getting a head unit with front, rear and sub rca out as I have a mono amp and a Sony Xplod sub kicking around but would prefer a slim sub to mount somewhere out of the way if I go a sub at all. I know nothing at all about matching a sub to an amp or to the system.

I have had enough of my cheap Chinese rear view mirror camera and found a great idea on Facebook in a Nissan Patrol group.

So I bought a slim 4.3" screen and modified the useless sunglasses holder in roof to mount the new screen into it. It even folds away when not required. I actually have 2 reverse cameras mounted. 1 on the LH side of the number plate light aiming towards drivers side which is hooked up to reverse so it automatically turns on when in reverse, and another directly above tow ball tongue under rear bumper operated by a switch mounted between the map lights in roof console.

Here's some pics of the mod, they are not my pics but I've done it exactly the same way.


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I've also read a few posts on various forums about the restriction in the snorkel just before the airbox. Every post I've read talks about the Nissan Airtek snorkel, but I have a Safari snorkel.

I decided there was only 1 way to find it if the Safari had a similar restriction. I dismantled what seemed to be 1/2 the front end to get to the tubing between the snorkel and the airbox. I ended up removing the whole snorkel to clean up the guard and the hole and ensure the join was sealed 100%.

Whilst not as bad as the Nissan Airtek snorkel restriction, the Safari also drops down the diameter of the pipe at the last elbow before the airbox. I found the airbox inlet to be 3.5inch which is pretty close to 90mm. The diameter of the snorkel before the restriction is also 90mm.

So I cut off the flange from the airbox and the restrictive part off the snorkel. I hunted around for 2 days trying to get a silicone 90 degree 3.5 inch elbow with no luck. Plenty on ebay, but nothing local and I needed the vehicle back together for a trip away. So I used some 90mm pvc pipe, a 90mm elbow, and some rubber joiners with house clamps from local plumbing supply store. The end result was very pleasing. Unfortunately I didn't take many pics but here's some from the drawing board stage after removal.

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So now I have a 3.5 inch snorkel all the way to airbox with K&N filter and a 3.5 inch outlet on airbox lid to turbo. It had definitely helped to let the engine breath easier. Even the snorkel mod seemed to help a bit.

Still hope to get a 4 inch snorkel and airbox one day.

Been a long time. Not much changed until recently. Just normal short camping trips and nowhere near enough offroad 4x4ing.

We have just sold our rural property in the search of a better lifestyle cause fixing fences and feeding livestock ain't all its cracked up to be, lol. Anyhow, we have decided that now is a great time to put the house money away, take all my long service leave, pull kids out of school, and travel our beautiful country.

So we leave our house forever on Saturday week (10th Sept) and head off on the trip of a lifetime for 5 months. Heading towards Cape York, via the east coast NSW/QLD highways. Stop off at Tweed to see family before a tune up at Caboolture Monday morning. Then off to Cairns for a few nights and reef snorkel tour, train ride, etc amongst other things. The onto the Cape, not interested in the easy way, but not prepared to wreck my rig for no reason. Very keen to make the most of the cape but not sure of an itinerary yet. So far planning Bloomfield track, visit Weipa, and that's it so far. We are not very organised lol.

After the Cape, we are heading around and through the gulf, Arnhem Land, Kakudu, Katherine Gorge, and Kimberly if the wet holds off long enough, otherwise we will head south via Alice and The Rock, hopefully into Flinders and then finally Great Ocean Rd, and either Victorian High Country or Tassie, before heading back through southern NSW and ending up back around Newcastle area.

So my whole life lately is revolving around preparing the Patrol and our new (second hand) hard floor camper for our trip, and apparently I am running out of time very quickly to pack everything up.........

Just a quick "work in progress" update.

Rewired everything not standard basically.

Main Battery area, more to come
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Fuses for 2nd battery. Mich tidier than previous temporary attempts and additions. Not much room with ABS and cruise. Feeling much safer now without the fire risks or dodgy shuit wiring.
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2nd Battery. Less is more. Work in progress.
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LH side panel of cargo area, preparing for dual battery / dual fridge setup mounted on drawers. More to come. Work in progress.
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Lots more to do, even before this turned up today!!!! Very excited! !!!
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Good stuff mate, you have sold up at singleton them, my daughter works out at leibherr at the moment and I worked at hunter valley no1 for a while but moved back west, hope it all goes good for you and you have a great trip.

I really like the cover you've made over the relay box. Something i should do.

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

After a very crazy 3 weeks I have achieved more than I could have imagined in preparation for the trip of a life time.

We decided to sell the soft floor camper we had due to the time it takes to setup as well as the degree of offroad ready it was. We decided it just wasnt up to the task. We found a second hand Modcon Oasis hard floor rear fold locally that is apparently 9 years old, but you definitely wouldn't think so looking at it. Very good condition and hasn't had much use.

So I went over the camper with a fine tooth comb looking for issues. I replaced the wheel bearings, and added another new set as spares, replaced all 3 tyres with brand new 31x10.5x15 BF muddies, welded some minor cracks in toolbox mounts, added another aluminum toolbox for extra storage.

The trailer came with a redarc BCDC1225 and 120 amp hr AGM battery setup on RH side of toolbox. Because we decided not to run the fridges off the camper, we down sized the camper battery to a N50 sized gel battery to run LED's and water pump, but left the BCDC as a means of charging it correctly.

When it came to the patrol however, aside from the usual pre trip maintenance items associated with a trip of this scale covering 30,000km, I thought I would go over everything I could think of. So the big patrol got a birthday (10 this year!!!). New injectors, belts, all coolant hoses, all oils, swivel hub seals and king pin bearings, new wheel bearings, changed the rear siff before changing it back (playing with ratios lol), remote speaker for UHF, replaced faulty UHF antenna,

I also completely rewired dual battery setup, fuses under bonnet, wiring to rear cargo area and rewired accessories off the starter battery. I also ran 25mm cable to rear of wagon through a ctek 250s and smartpass to charge another 2 AGM batteries in rear. These 2 batteries run a 40L Engel and a 50L Waeco, and the batteries sit above the wheel arch each side. I made up some brackets which bolt to the 3rd row seat mounts to secure the batteries to and hold their weight.

I also hooked up a solar input anderson plug to the ctek, and ran a 6 B&S cable to towbar for camper power. To make this job possible I had to completely remove the rear drawer setup and most trim panels from rear cargo area.

I also installed a Cross Country Ultimate intercooler hoping for better fuel economy for the trip.

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Fitted a Powerful4x4 rear bar dual spare wheel carrier for a bit of rear end protection and somewhere for 2nd spare to go.

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I stuck with the ever faithful BF muddies for the 2nd spare, and replaced the first spare due to different size tyre fitted.

Also finally fitted my superior engineering lower trailing arms that I bought a very long time ago. I had to unbolt and lower the sliders to get the front bolt out of trailing arms, hence the delay in carrying out the unpleasant task.

I stripped down my 6 year old cheapo tigerz winch expecting a gearbox full of rust and couldn't believe it but not 1 drop of water had been in there. Unreal! Greased it up, replaced corroded cable to battery and refitted for another 6 years.

Installed a cabin filter, and eplaced leaking swivel joints on 2 of the Amada shocks.

And finally after and during all of this we packed up our 5 acre home of 8 years, packed my out of control shed, moved everything into storage and cleaned the place up for the new owners after a very quick purchase. We left and followed our noses north to greener pastures.

Now I'm exhausted.

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Originally Posted by Rip'n'Shred

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Sounds bloody awesome.
So any time frame on the trip or going at your own pace?

And dam that mcc bar spreads those spares..

The only restriction with time is I go back to work early February otherwise it's just the wet season up north. When it comes we will retreat south via Alice & The Rock through SA, VIC, maybe Vic high country or Tassie, then back to NSW.

The wheels are spread real far. Probably not as bad as it looks. Can only imagine 35's on it!

Interesting few days. So had the patrol dyno tuned in Townsville on Monday afternoon. Wastegate was stuck closed and he mentioned that the pump is a bit tired. Big improvement was made though.

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Went to leave Townsville Tuesday morning and could smell coolant. Pulled up and checked it out to find coolant coming down firewall inside vehicle on passenger side. Decided to go back to Townsville, get van park for a couple of nights and fix heater core leak.

So I pulled out the dash and took heater core to Natrad and had it pressure tested. Clearly could see a hole in core. Got a new core and a new radiator whilst I was there and replaced both, and reassembled dash. Not much old stuff left now!

Hopefully an end to the issues!!!!!

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Bugger about the heater..
But luckily it happened now and not middle of nowhere..

Also good gains..

When in SA and down south east around robe / mount gambier drop us a line and I'll show you the best beaches

After recovering from the heater core saga we pushed on over next week or 2 through Cairns, Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Bloomfield Track, Cooktown, Old Laura, Cape Melville, Musgrave Roadhouse, Coen, Archer River Roadhouse, and into Weipa for a few days of vehicle maintenance, fishing and relaxing by the pool.

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Archer Burger @ Archer River Roadhouse
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Black Mountain

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Unfortunate luck continued with a dead starter battery, probably due to endless corrugations, and then the alternator died on the way out of town on the last day. Back into Weipa and $500 later I was fitting a new one in the shade of a big tree near a playground for the kiddies.

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Could be in a worse place I suppose.

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Crossed paths with plenty of other travellers with much big concerns than mine! Blown shocks, leaking fuel tanks, broken idler arms on IFS vehicles, cracked chassis of trailers, broken bullbar mounts, the list goes on....


Onward bound to The Tip........

The Old Tele Cape York

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great shots mate! how has the cross country set up been going?

Thanks. The cross country combined with the tune up is great. Was considering DIY but by the time you buy a good quality core, quality silicone elbows, good fan, design and make a bracket, bonnet scoop, add in your time, etc I think its not that bad value really. Hurts the hip pocket to begin with but as soon as you see and feel it you know is good quality.

Awesome holiday shots mate. Take my hat off to ya for attacking those fixes on-the-fly. Especially the full dash out job. What a mission... Hope I never have to cross that.
And I agree about the cross country cooler. Hurts a bit at the start as it is a bit of $ to hand over but considering the whole package you get, in the end it isn't really that bad. And it definitely performs! Well my one does.