That is nice from you to offer mate! Will keep that in mind!
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That is nice from you to offer mate! Will keep that in mind!
Searched around for a old school mechanic that would not be picky about dealing with this car. Diesel pickup trucks (UTES for you guys) and SUVs over here are all 4 cylinders (with the F250 being the only exception) so this was really the job for a truck mechanic. Finally found one that for decades only works with trucks and buses, had a conversation with him and he was solid in his speech. Showed him some pictures of the car and he said, 'that is from Australia, right?'. Well, Japanese, but I'd say he got it almost bullseye because it is almost Australian automotive history. He told me that some 10 years ago, he worked on similar vehicles from an Australian mining company that was prospecting on our state, and curiously enough, instead of renting 4x4s locally, they brought all their machinery with them for the job.
What could I say... he knew at least the car make/model, that made him an expert already! :smile:
Finally, it was time send the car to the mechanic, so we said goodbye over a beer. :smile:
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The Honey Badger needed a horseback ride.
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Once there, the mechanic borrowed a battery from another truck, checked fuel lines, glow plugs, etc. He put new belts, new oil and fuel filters, changed the oil, replaced the rusty water from the cooling system and was able to make the engine run. It ran very rough, he diagnosed it to be running only on 4 cylinders, while the 2 remaining were not generating pressure/temperature to burn the fuel (there was fuel being injected, he even changed injectors from one cylinder to another to see if the problem would move along). So we moved along into taking the engine out and disassembling.
Engine off, head off, we could see the damage to be exactly what he predicted.
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At this time, I had already selected an engine machine shop to rebuild the engine form me.
With the engine at the machine shop, I was getting ready for the shopping list. From the mechanic I already knew I needed to provide him a battery and engine mounts and he also asked me to try to either find a new radiator or build a custom one.
Don't know how it is in Australia, but here batteries are quite expensive. I figured out it would take a long time for this restoration to happen, either for engine rebuilt or for body work, so I bought a smaller amp battery.
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Took the radiator to a big radiator company in my town, where they have also a factory, to see if by any chance they made it for export, since this car was not sold here. They didn't, but the guy took a look and told me that my radiator seemed good, and offered to give it a inside-out acid bath to evaluate the situation. A couple days later he called me and my radiator was like new. Due to excitement I forgot to take a head-on picture of it, but I have these few of it inside the dirty trunk. I guess you can get an idea of how clean it got.
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Engine mounts were sourced from a neighbor country.
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Got a call from the machine shop and the news couldn't be better. Engine was in great condition! Sleeves/liners obviously had to be replaced, but engine block was perfect, head was perfect, water pump seemed to be replaced already, oil pump was in perfect condition and the crankshaft after polishing was still STD! The guy was impressed with the engine (first time he saw a TD42) and told me it was very robust.
Look at this beauty!! This is pure porn!!
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So, machine shop shopping list was all the basics: sleeves/liners, pistons, rings, rod bearings, crankshaft bearings, filters, seals, gaskets. In another lucky strike, I discovered that the TD42 was used in a Komatsu forklift sold here. I could find liners, pistons and rings right out of the shelf! Jackpot! Also, I got to learn that the TD42 sleeves/liners were the same of the TD27, which existed here in the Nissan D21 minitrucks.
Sleves/Liners
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Pistons
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Rings
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Engine bearings
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Rod bearings
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While the machine shop was doing their work, I took care of some other minor stuff. First, the fan clutch was solid. I read some posts here and there about the possibility to open/clean/replace the silicone inside it, but for the amount of coin I was going to put into the engine, I decided to buy a new one. I kept the old one in the "for when I am curious enough" bin. Maybe someday I recondition it myself just for kicks.
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New engine, new thermostat of-course. Read here and there also that an 82º C should be better then the OEM 76.5º C.
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Radiator cap I found it to be the same used in my Suzuki Samurai, that I can source locally. It is also used in some KIA vans.
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And these fittings that go on top of the thermostat housing were corroded. The smallest one I found a brass one in the right size. The bigger ones had to be done by welding two halves. They are brass as well.
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Engine assembly
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Engine test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEmc1Apqcvc
I have tried a bunch of options to make the above video embed into the forum post, with no luck. If someone knows how to do it, please let me know.
:smileyvault-cute-bi
EDIT: It is now properly embedded. Not sure what happened on the first time.
I forgot what for I bought this ball bearing, I believe it was for a belt tensioner pulley.
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Build a battery tie-down for my new battery. I used a piece of threaded rod and a piece of galvanized angle iron I had laying around.
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I have also bought these quick disconnects. This is what is saving this battery so far, as I am firing the engine maybe once a month for the last 10 months.
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Fuel tank was actually cleaned prior to first start, before engine rebuilt. Here are the things I faced when dealing with the tank.
Tank was overall dirty, but no leak, no crack, no rust. It was actually a lot dirtier inside then outside, with a lot of gunk. It took several liters of gasoline and kerosene to dissolve the gunk.
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On the inside of the tank there was this white plastic thing that no one could find its place inside the tank. No apparent hook, bracket, rail, nothing to put it. And the thing was bigger then the tank inspection opening, so no way to get it out of there to examine outside as well. I ended up deciding to cut it inside the tank and remove the parts. To this date, I don't know what it was meant to be.
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The sender had some corrosion and the return tube was broken. Also, the wire from the thermistor to the floater variable resistor printed circuit board (PCB) was broken as well. It was broken very close or maybe even inside the thermistor. I look around to see if that was something I could find at electronic component stores in my town, and the closest one was something from motorcycles fuel reserve light, and it was quite expensive (for what it is), so I decided to leave it without the thermistor for the time being until I have an opportunity to find a deal in a complete sending unit. For anyone that may not know, the thermistor is a resistor that changes its resistance depending on temperature. So, when it is sunk into fuel, it is cooled by the fuel and has one resistance value. When the fuel is low, the thermisor gets exposed and heats, so the resistance changes. This change in behavior is used for the dashboard to lit the fuel reserve indication light.
Corrosion and the broken return tube. Note the "wireless" thermistor and where the return tube used to attach on the fuel tank opening.
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I took the complete sender unit home with me to clean the oxidation, clean the variable resistor PCB and figure out a solution for the thermistor while the mechanic was working on the engine to try to make it crank for the first time. I was able to clean the unit, to braze weld the return tube, to give up on the thermistor :p but was not able to clean the floater and its PCB in time for the mechanic. He needed to put the tank back to do the test so I removed the floater from the unit and returned the sender to him like that. So I have no fuel information on the dash now, been using the trip odometer as a reference (9.7 Km/L on the first 95 liters tank).
Variable resistor seems good though (June 1st 2020, exactly one year from today, what a coincidence)
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1) Anyone knows what is the purpose of that white plastic that was loose inside my tank? This is a diesel tank BTW.
2) My tank breather tube has this black thing on the end. I am not sure if it is supposed to be like this or if it is broken and missing some sort of filter or check valve. Anyone knows how it is supposed to be?
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PS.: filler neck and breather tube will be galvanized eventually when the car comes back from bodywork to my garage, so I can start addressing every minor detail one by one. Can't wait for that to happen...