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A Cautionary Tale - about the trial and tribulations a 4x4 vehicle

Project TONI - by Colin Pryor  - A story submitted by a member of this site

The reason: My Nissan ZD30 3ltr Patrol had a mechanical mishap on the way to Capertee Valley on the 16th May 2008,  for the NSW & ACT 4WD association 2nd ¼ meeting hosted by my club, the “RareBreed 4WD & Outdoor Recreation Club”.

After spending nearly all day getting the car back to my mechanic at Seven Hills and getting my son in law to take my camper trailer home, the diagnosis was NOT good, it seems it has damaged a piston or two, this is a fault in some ZD30 Nissans that Nissan knows nothing about!!!! Despite countless Nissan ZD30 diesel engines suffering a similar fate to mine. It’s caused by a phenomenon known as “over-boost of the turbo” this in turn causes the engine to run a lean mixture of fuel and air and raises piston temperature to the point of melt down of the piston crown.

To repair/rebuild the ZD30 motor would cost $19,000 or more (fuel pump $2,500, long motor $9,500, 4 injectors @ $600ea = $2,400, installation and labour $1,800-$2,000, Turbo $2,500+ other misc = $19,000+) at the end of the day it will still be the same ZD30 motor that I have lost confidence in.

The remedy:
What to do????? I checked a myriad of options. These options were:

  1. Sell the car. A car without the engine is next to worthless (maybe $8,000 or so), then I still have to buy another, that could cost $30,000-$40,000 for a second hand unit. Not forgetting that my car is set up for outback touring, and is fitted with all the necessary items as such, value to replace approx $3,500-$4,000. not an option,
  2. ZD 30 Rebuild, Not that motor again. Poor track record. $19,000 plus, to rebuild that motor and no guarantee it won’t happen again.
  3. 4.2ltr Nissan Diesel, converted to automatic, The motor is good, however the conversion is un-tested. $10,500 to buy a motor only.
  4. V8 6.5ltr diesel Chevy retro fit, older motor reconditioned, poor parts availability. $13,000 to buy a motor only.
  5. 4.8ltr Nissan Petrol, is a good motor and perfect for auto transmission, but very thirsty. $10,500 to buy a motor only.
  6. Toyota 1HD-FTE 4.2 Turbo Diesel with 5sd automatic transmission, super reliable, powerful, economical and excellent parts availability everywhere in Australia, cheap to buy from second hand source $11,600 including gearbox and transfer case, ECU & harness with just 25000km on the clock

Items 3-6 do not include installation of engines etc.

While the Chevy V8 option seemed attractive at first, it is still an older motor “reconditioned”, whatever that means, compared to the low mileage Toyota engine and Auto Transmission (25000Km) I have now purchased.

Therefore, it seemed to me that the best option is the Toyota combination. So having committed to putting the 1HD-FTE turbo diesel engine, computer & auto transmission with 4WD transfer case, into my (ex ZD30) Patrol I feel I will have the best of both worlds, as I see it there is little disputing that the 100TD Toyota motor is among the best around, and there is little disputing that the GU Patrol is one of the toughest trucks around, so this combination, when finished,  will be one tough truck in anybody's language.

The purists on both sides are shuddering as I speak, but few will deny the toughness of this combination. I will have overcapitalized on the vehicle now, but I reckon that in ten or so year’s time when I have finished with this vehicle, the bastardization will be an advantage in the resale, but by then who cares anyway, the car will be 14-15 years old, and still going strong.

    TONI in the workshop
The Time line:

June 10th 2008: Project TONI begins in earnest.

 Project “TONI”, (TOyota-NIssan) as it is now going to be called, is going ahead. I spent an afternoon with my mechanic & an inspecting engineer (who will be passing the vehicle for registration), and a full 1HD-FTE motor, auto g/box and transfer case assembly (destined for an 80LC) to see if it will go into the Patrol engine bay etc. IT WILL.

We will need to remove the reserve fuel tank, because the LC transfer case is 200mm offset and the tail shaft will otherwise foul the tank, this can be compensated for by a long range 145ltr main tank. We will need to build a new cross member there to carry the g/box.

We will use new 4.5ltr petrol Nissan radiator with auto oil cooler, as well as change engine mounts to 100 Sr type, the motor’s sump will be changed to an 80 Sr (different shape, same capacity) to allow it to fit above the front sway bar and avoid fouling the steering gear. As for other things such as selector linkages, these will require the console to be slightly modified to allow selectors to fit the Nissan consol, no real problem.

A new 3” exhaust system (original was 2.5”) will have to be made using Toyota front end and Nissan back end.
Electrical items have been given the go ahead in consultation with our electrical engineer. Various adaptor modules will be used for the Speedo, Tacho & other engine warning devices to mate them to the new EMS (Eng. Man. Sys.)

Air conditioner will need to be re-hosed. A duct to take the intake air from the Nissan snorkel and air box to the intake of the new motor will need to be made, as will the fitting of a new water-cooled intercooler. The Nissan had a tail-shaft hand brake so we will need to use just the axles and rear brakes from a petrol Patrol manual, to accommodate the hand brake.

The tail shaft will remain Nissan with an adaptor to fit it to the LC transfer case out-put shaft, this was decided because the Nissan shaft has bigger uni’s allowing the angle of off-set to be better accommodated for by that shaft. The LC transfer case will be modified to be “Part Time” 4WD.

    

June 28th 2008: The motor & gearbox are now IN THE CAR and waiting for mounts to be made. Front mounts will be 75sr and the rear transmission mount will be the Nissan cross bar with a Toyota mount plate welded to it to accept the Toyota transmission mounts.
The rear axles and brake calipers (ex Petrol Patrol) have arrived that put the hand brake on the rear wheels rather than the tailshaft. Jason at Total Care 4WD Seven Hills is the man behind this radical conversion, a good man to deal with.

     

July 5th 2008: Things are moving slowly but positively. The motor is now mounted to the chassis via 100 sr mounts and a 100 sr on the Nissan cross member for the gearbox mount.

Getting the drive flanges parallel was a bit tricky but that has now been done. The two drive shafts now have to be modified to mate the Nissan drive line to the Toyota transfer case, this is an easy job compared to some other things that had to be done.

The new petrol 4.5 Nissan radiator is in and the engine & fan have good clearance each end, the engine is 1.5 inch clear of the fire wall and the fan is also 1.5-1.75 inches clear of the radiator. We will probably use a trimmed down 80sr cowl over the fan.
The 3" exhaust is being made up, as is the water-cooled inter cooler, these will be fitted nearly last.
The special 80sr sump has arrived from Japan and is fitted to the motor, this gives the sway bar and steering better clearance than a 100 sr sump would.

The wiring loom is nearly ready and the electrical engineer is booked to do his thing later in the week (Thur-Fri) this is my biggest worry in the whole project, get this wrong and it could hold up the job by weeks. The engineer assures us that it is not as hard to do as we fear, lets hope he's correct.
The hand brake modifications and the consol still need to be done; the consol will be modified to take the Toyota selector levers etc.

It still looks like a long job, but we are closer to the end than we are from the start.
I just can't wait to get my bum into it, and drive the beast.

I wanted to go to the Explore Oz members gathering at Innamincka this year but alas it was not to be, so good luck to all that have gone, you lucky buggers, LOL.

July 20th 2008: The car is nearing ready for start-up. The wiring loom goes in on Monday – Tuesday and the exhaust and tail shafts are now made and ready to go in, the gear selector mechanism is yet to be done, and the intercooler is ready to go in, we could still be looking at two weeks or more work however???

August 1st 2008: Today I picked up the new badge-work I have had made for TONI. This is the logo I made, that is half Nissan Badge & half Toyota badge joined together with the word TONI in the middle, these will replace the Nissan badges on the side and rear doors. The same logo is also enlarged and printed onto a black spare wheel cover. See examples below:
         

August 8th 2008: Everything underneath is now done and dusted, new tail shafts, exhaust, hand brake, moving all the fuel & brake lines away from the new 3” exhaust etc. is nearly all done (the manifold is on the opposite side on the Toyota motor). Up top the wiring is nearly finished just got to fit modules to allow the computer to talk to the Tacho and Speedo etc. The engine fired up today for the first time, that’s a relief, it proves the computer is talking to every thing it should talk to including the gearbox etc. The plumbing of air to the motor from the air intake is now the next thing to do as well as locating the intercooler.
The auto selector quadrant and HI - LO lever are in place, but still need to be mounted finally. As well as modifying the consol to take it all, the switch for the part time 4wd needs to be mounted somewhere that won’t allow it to be “bumped” by accident. We will place it on the left side of the dash just below the antenna “half mast” switch.
The big jobs seem to be behind us now; it’s all fiddly bits and pieces that will consume our time from here. Jason will also do some work on the front end to fix a couple of things there, and we will also put a manifold temperature gauge and turbo timer on it, this is insurance against the problem happening again. I have given up guessing when it will be road worthy as the engineer is yet to tick off on it and then issue the blue slip. It will be silly little issues that pop up and consume time, and that is what put’s us back a few days each time.
But at least we KNOW it works now, it fired up first go, Woo Hoo!!!!!
It will be ready soon I hope. It will have been three months come August 17th and I am stir crazy. I just want to get in it and go. Thanks to all for your support and patience throughout this period.
“Overlander” Magazine contacted me this week and asked if they could do a story on it. That will be interesting, they saw it while visiting Jason on another matter this week, they took pictures and an instant interest in it, and they seem keen to interview me when it’s ready.

August 23rd 2008: The Electrical engineer finished his bit today, and the RTA engineer’s inspection started, a few things were picked up, but the worst was the handbrake lever on the right rear fouling the panhard rod on full compression of the suspension. Jason rectified that by relocating the lever mount by 10mm and bingo job done. I did an extensive drive today, and am quite impressed with the conversion; a few items became known during the drive, such as a rattle in the consul during acceleration, a bit of harshness in the driveline under the same condition of acceleration.

    

August 26th 2008: The car has passed the RTA engineer’s report with flying colours today; he was very impressed with the result. The shelves and cargo barrier had to come out and the two rear seats re installed so we can register the car as a seven seater, otherwise it would be passed as a five seater only.
The above items were rectified by adjusting the tail shaft angle slightly (lengthen control rods and in so doing rotating the axle slightly, it fixed the problem) and we modified the consul a little. The gearbox not having a dipstick made the oil level harder to check and we found it needed another 500mls of oil also.

These items smoothed out the driveline no end. I have also fitted four new tyres (the old ones were never the same after our Victorian High Country trip) that smoothed it out a bit more. We sent the car to the Air Con mob for re-hosing and re gassing, and now we are waiting on the new compliance plate to arrive. Jason is driving the car home tonight to see what else might need attention.

August 30th 2008: Everything is nearly done, fitted new lengthened control rods to improve drive line angles and smoothed out the previous harshness in the drive line, cleaned and painted welds and engine bay, located & mounted ECU permanently to inside fire wall, just about done. Renate & I have had our final “pre hand over” test drive to accept the job and all the modifications.

It’s a winner, we love it!!!!!!!! It has the qualities we hoped for, more power and smoother application of that power via the 4.2ltr Turbo Diesel Toyota engine and 5speed auto transmission, coupled to the rugged and bulletproof Nissan live axles and dynamic chassis, a world beating combination.

September  1st 2008: Jason wants to do a detailing and final check over job as well as look at a slight drone coming from the exhaust and we get her back Tuesday September 2nd .

September  2nd 2008: She is ready at last! After leaving Jason, we drove to visit our family, as they were quite interested in TONI’s progress. My son and my son-in-law were very impressed with the end results. The next few days we will be checking her out and ironing out any minor problems that may arise.

  

The owners: Colin & Renate, wish to sincerely thank the following people for their dedication and expertise.

The players involved:

Mechanic: (our saviour and genius behind this never before done and radical idea):
Jason Dymock & his staff at Total Care 4WD. 1/13 Bearing rd Seven Hills NSW. 2147 Ph: 02 9838 9779.

Electrical Engineer: (a quiet genius, without whom this could never have come together as it did):
He moves in the shadows and no one knows who he really is. We call him “The SPARKIE”
 
Certification Engineer:(The man that passed it and made it all legal):
T.N. Toomey. 128 Station Rd Seven Hills NSW. 2147. Ph: 9674 4003.

Graphics artist: (Signman. The guru that made the identification decals and cover for TONI) David Colless, Flash Signs Unit 5, 18b Little Street, Camden NSW 2570. 02 4655 5355

Engine & Gearbox supplier:(for finding a great low Km motor & G/box for us):
All Model 4WD Spares P/L. 14 Marigold St Revesby NSW. 2212. Ph: 02 9772 4444.

Not forgetting: Nissan along with Renault, for building such a diabolical motor as the “the ZD30” that prompted all of this.

Please Note: The opinions of the Author, are not necessarily the opinions of Nomadic Life Pty Ltd

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