Intro and advice.

Hey guys, just inherited my father's 89 GQ Tb42 after he was taken from us too soon. I remember the day he brought it home nearly 30 years ago.

Have loved and wanted the car since I was young but in the last few years it wasn't looked after as well as it used to and it needs a bit of work.

The whole top layer of clear has come off and I don't know what route to take with that. Two tone blue/silver.

It runs duel fuel but is super inefficient. I did a heap of searches and everyone has their ideas. Is there an engine conversion I can do that will give me good efficiency for a daily driver doing 100+ for work? LS1, TD42, VL Holden, or just give it a good tune.

Love the car and don't want it out of the family but I can't drive it when it costs sooo much to run.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Mitch.

Hi and welcome to the forum,

Sorry for your loss mate.

The main options people seem to be going with are:

TD42 swap - definitely better fuel economy, very straightforward swap, but can be hard finding a good donor engine and ancilliaries for a reasonable price.

LS swap - better economy than a stock TB I reckon, power, torque. Engines are cheap but the conversion is pricey to do right.

6.5 Chev swap - Torque monster for days, but pricey to convert. Not sure what the economy is like.

Turbo your TB. Cheapest option I reckon. You could go straight gas turbo which will remove the need for emissions testing. Easy enough to convert too.
Or you could go straight petrol turbo with either carb or doing an efi conversion if you don't like the idea of getting stuck in woop woop with no fuel.

Welcome to the forum mate , likewise sorry for your loss , fuel economy and big 4wds don't seem to fit in the same sentence unfortunately, newer fourby builds are lighter and have smaller motors which scream their heads off but get good economy but downside is most are too lightly built and no good on the fun stuff .
GQ are basically a truck underneath and hard to destroy .

Condolences mate and welcome here!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Birdman85

Hey guys, just inherited my father's 89 GQ Tb42 after he was taken from us too soon. I remember the day he brought it home nearly 30 years ago.

Have loved and wanted the car since I was young but in the last few years it wasn't looked after as well as it used to and it needs a bit of work.

The whole top layer of clear has come off and I don't know what route to take with that. Two tone blue/silver.

It runs duel fuel but is super inefficient. I did a heap of searches and everyone has their ideas. Is there an engine conversion I can do that will give me good efficiency for a daily driver doing 100+ for work? LS1, TD42, VL Holden, or just give it a good tune.

Love the car and don't want it out of the family but I can't drive it when it costs sooo much to run.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Mitch.

---

Mitch,

You need to give us some figures of that inefficiency.

If you're getting around 5km/L, either on petrol or LPG, it is not bad.

Being a nearly thirty years old dual fuel rig, it may need a fair bit of tweaking to get the
fuel economy up to scratch. But, assuming it is a carby TB42, it may need some work on the
LPG delivery system(mixer, converter, etc), carby, ignition system etc.
Most folks go for Pertronix or similar electronic ignition unit upgrade to replace the stock
mechanical points breaker system in the distributor.
It is a worthwhile upgrade from what I've heard so far.

Either way, Patrols aren't that great as daily drivers in terms of fuel economy if you're doing lot of K's to get to work etc.
But, that's my opinion. IMO, there are better options like maintaining a little bomb or bike to get to work, but all depend
on the type of work you do and the travel distance.

By efficiency, it you've meant power, you can consider turbo conversion. VL Commodore engine's are usually RB30 engines.
Rarely folks convert a TB42 to an RB30 afaik 'cos you'll be looking at gearbox & diff swap as well, as well as some electrics.
Not worth the trouble IMO when you can buy an RB30 equipped Patrol.

TD42 is a totally different sort of animal, and sure the conversion is well worth it if you can source a good TD42.
But, stock TD42 aint' gonna give any power boost over stock TB42 afaik.
Turbo TD42 is a totally different animal.

I would give it a good tune after tweaking things as above before considering bigger engine conversions.

Sorry to hear the passing of your dad. Life's tough and never fair.

Thanks so much for the welcomed advice gents.

At the moment it's not too bad as I do have several motorbikes. I also have a ford laser and my partner has a mitsi lancer. But keeping rego and maintaining all these vehicles is expensive. Hence why I want to lean out the stables.

So far I'm leaning towards a no extra service and fine tune. Thanks Dom14 for the info on the Petronix kit. Never even crossed my mind to bring it into the modern era of efi... Which would also make throwing a turbo on easier as I read its super hard to tune a carbi turbo.

I'll look into the efi to start with thanks.
Oh and as for 5km to the L. That's horrible compared to everything I've ever driven. I think I got 250km from a 40L tank of gas... If that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Birdman85

Thanks so much for the welcomed advice gents.

At the moment it's not too bad as I do have several motorbikes. I also have a ford laser and my partner has a mitsi lancer. But keeping rego and maintaining all these vehicles is expensive. Hence why I want to lean out the stables.

So far I'm leaning towards a no extra service and fine tune. Thanks Dom14 for the info on the Petronix kit. Never even crossed my mind to bring it into the modern era of efi... Which would also make throwing a turbo on easier as I read its super hard to tune a carbi turbo.

I'll look into the efi to start with thanks.
Oh and as for 5km to the L. That's horrible compared to everything I've ever driven. I think I got 250km from a 40L tank of gas... If that.

---

Hey Mitch,

Pertronix ignition unit is just an electronic replacement for the mechanical breaking points in the dizzy, not an EFI per say.
EFI TB42 are later models, and obviously a better vehicle than the carby TB42.

5 or 6km/L is the best you can ever get from a Patrol, either on petrol or LPG, including RB30 engine.

250km/40L means roughly 6km/L. If that's the case, your Patrol is super efficient, and no need to tweak anything.
I haven't heard of a 40L LPG tanks, so I'm guessing you're mistaking the 80-100L tank.
So, I'm guessing again your LPG fuel economy is NOT 250km/40L.

Cheers
Dom

Nah I know it was 40L cause that's how much I put in haha.

G'day and welcome to the forum mate.

Thanks 4bye4.

Anyone tell me without all the extra stuff I've just crammed in on lobe sensors and flux capacitors which Pertronix kit to go for?

Working on this big rig is definitely different than working on the Suzuki Jimny I used to own.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Birdman85

Nah I know it was 40L cause that's how much I put in haha.

---

Ok, that's some new news for me. Being a carby TB42, then producing an economy above 6km/L on LPG is super efficient then.
No need to do anything in that case. I wouldn't even worry about Pertronix ignition kit 'cos yours is doing good as it is.

You need to explain what you meant by "super inefficient", be it about LPG or petrol or both.

Got a bit of work done to Bessie today and I need to replace some parts on the old girl.

Can anyone point me towards a good spares shop or wrecker for quality parts and pricing?

For 89 tb42 GQ
Chasing a steering wheel.
Chasing a radiator fan shroud.
Chasing a ?Mark Jose (apparently it's actual name)

Also anyone tell me if the rubber that surrounds the rear/boot/side windows is easily replaced or available... Mines so old it's shrunk leaving half inch gaps in the joins.

Sorry for the long post.

Where are you located?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Irish

Where are you located?

---

Newcastle NSW

Took the rig out for a camp for the night. Went really well with the work i did to it late last month. Thought I'd add a few pics of the old girl. My dad called her Bessie. Big lumbering cow she is! haha

Also, while im at it. From years of neglect the clearcoat has come off and ive been considering giving it a respray, although im on a budget.
Ive had a few ideas; complete coat of rhino liner/lineX. respraying myself (with help) to keep the color code. getting a pro to do it but let em know it dont have to be pretty.

In the meantime, can anyone tell me how to get the rest of the flaking cover off? (as in the bottom pics) try and get a uniform colour out of it. And what color code is the Nissan Blue?

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...2017/09/87.jpg2017-09-12_06-20-55 by Mitchell Bird, on Flickr
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...2017/09/88.jpgSnapchat-763338971 by Mitchell Bird, on Flickr
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...2017/09/89.jpg20170912_155611 by Mitchell Bird, on Flickr

Thanks Guys