Member - Axle replied:

HE WAS your mate at work!!!.

ExplorOz Team - Kerry W (QLD) replied:

Good donk but you need to understand them they are quite sporty if you Drive them.

copied and pasted this from post 27824

Cheapest and Easiest thing to try is premium and drive it the way the motor was designed - rev - it. Take it out to 5000 rpm when you need power - it will not hurt it. (Redlines at 6000rpm and Nissan have rev limiter on distributor so you cant hurt it.)

If you really insist on spending money and want some serious grunt. Just do the following -

Do a compression test, if all cyls over 170 +/-10psi Just put a set of good Extractors a 2.5 inch free flow sports exhaust and run it on premium. Run it out to 4,500 rpm and use 5th gear as an overdrive only - it will be lots of fun and have heaps of grunt. This is a short stroke high revving motor (compare it to a Kawasaki 4 cyl motor bike (12000rpm) and a 2 cyl Harley Davidson (2000rpm) some motors just lope along - this one does not) and will sit on 4,000rpm all day. Used normally 450,000ks common before needing to do the bottom end.
If you get a chance get rid of the heater elements and the deflector at the base of the carby in the top of the inlet manifold. This will give you about 10-15% more grunt below 2500rpm once the motor is warm.

If compression is down to below 150psi rip the head off and just do the valves (rings should be ok) and if not already done - replace timing belt and waterpump (what Im suggesting here is for maximum overall reliability. - dont bother any other mods as this motor will never let you down this way.) - unless its been badly treated this is all it will need before at least 300,000ks if not 400,000+

Great motor just misunderstood - Ive known people to hold their foot flat in 5th all day at 2400rpm and say - its gutless - yet this motor has a serious powerband at approx 3500rpm+ and would have used less fuel in 3rd gear or 4th - You dont let this motor lug. It needs to rev.

Good advise especially if the head needs doing - replace hoses belts and waterpump

Kerry

Jimbo replied:

The man to talk to is Russell Guest of, you guessed it

Russell Guest 4 wd, in Melbourne.

He apparently works miracles with this motor, and a damn fine motor it is. Just a bit gutless in standard trim. When you hot the sweet spot between 3500 and 4200 rpm you'll find useful power available.

Exploder replied:

Thanks Rock Crawler and Jimbo

Like I said it’s not mine, I don’t know how long he will be keeping it for but I suspect it will be traded in, in 8 months or so when he buys his Statesman, this is just a in-between car that will be used for a bit of 4WDing fun.

I am thinking about buying it from him when he goes to sell it, and I will use it for trips and general 4Wding as I will probably be selling my 4WD at the end of the year.

As funds will not stretch enough to buy and set up a Low K’s 03 Turbo Diesel Patrol or Cruiser. Will sadly not be getting another 4WD this time around :(

The Petrol head in me has almost won and looks like it will be a XR8 but if I can buy this patrol of him for $5000 or under then I might just have to buy that as well.