GQ Nissan Patrol

www.gqpatrol.com and look on the left frame theres a page called Buying a GQ?

Steer clear of 2.8 - gutless, 3.0, thirsty.. TD42 is the pick of the crowd.

What do you want to do with it?

The GQ went from 1988-1998 mid.

Venturing from Range Rovers to Nissan is a good step.

The whole truck is the way to go, their tuff as nails. If you are looking for diesel, then you'll be picking up a 5 speed TD42.

Lotsa goodies available, rust in rear window frames, but replaceable. If they are a comp truck, cracks around battery tray. Look for dints, scuffs, scratches in underbody, diff casing and trailing arms.

Electrics, the clock never works, toss that and you can put a gauge of your choice there with a little plastic trimming. With big k's comes fuel pump rebuild if flat spot, injectors maybe and water pump.

For a 200,000 k TD42 with turbo and goodies can fetch up to 18k. If body a bit rough, may go as low as 12k.

If you buy naturally aspirated and not aftermarket turbo, and have 7k left over, get snorkel, suspension, tyres, and aftermarket turbo with exhaust and injectors, you may even squeeze in fuel pump rebuild if you really push the guy. A good 3 inch suspension kit will cost around $800, turbo $4-5k, snorkel coupla hundred if you fit, and tyres, well the sky's the limit. You will then have a truck that's pretty much trip/play ready.

Hope this helps.

Chris.

You wont regret making the change. You'll never worry about breaking diffs/axles again and stupid electrical problems will also be a thing of the past. I've had Rangies as well and understand their appeal but the Nissan is way better from a reliablity/strength/longevity point of view. (The clock is easily fixed, just need to resolder one of the resistors on the back. You can work out which one it is by touching them while the power is connected to the clock. The clock will come alive when you press on the right resistor. Basically remelt the solder joint with a soldering iron and its fixed. You dont even need to know how to solder)

As others said previosly, the TD42 is the way to go. Mine has 485000km on it and isnt even beginning to look like its tired. Theres still no oil leaks anywhere (apart from the steering box) I bet your rangie has more leaks than that! The gearboxes are also way over- engineered - this one doesnt make any noises and has no clunks. Its towed a tandem caravan for about half of its life. I'm not trying to start an argument here but every Toyota 5 speed I've seen is noisy in at least 5th gear and is starting to get tired syncros by about 250-300000km. The standard Nissan limited slip rear diff in mine is still tight after 485000 (tyres still chirp slightly on a U turn) The bodies can and do get a bit tired, eg cracks can develop in a few places like base of firewall, inner guards, rear door tops and theres always a few or more rattles but they wont fall apart.