Friday, Jan 26, 2007 at 13:58
Ya know, Truckster, I had a good think about things when I lost the 'Cruiser and had to start looking for a replacement vehicle.
I had a look around and saw that what Flash says has a lot of merit. I had the same attitude at the time. Not so much in the "let's programme in a self destruction trap" but in the form of servicing costs, parts costs and fixability in the bush.
The 100 series TD 'Cruiser - beautiful car, great to drive, sexy, smooth with a lot of "esteem value". Downside? High initial capital outlay to buy, high servicing costs, has to be done by a Toyota or similar high cost mechanic due to electornics, often needs a tilt tray truck if it fails, high cost of spares and not always available without a wait ex-Japan. Easy to steal and desired by car thieves. Weak front diff and IFS.
3.0 litre Nissan - nice to own, looks the part. Unreliable may be an overstatement but it's rep is terrible. I'd be looking at it with a juandiced eye every day if owned one. Underpowered until the revs get up and the turbo kicks in. Servicing - same comments apply as to the 'Cruiser. All high costs.
4.2 Nissan - A above for looks etc. Bomb proof engine but slow and underpowered for mid to heavy towing at consistent high speeds. Can be high servicing cost if ya can't do yer own servicing, but at least ya can do it if ya want to. Parts and availabilty - same as above.
What I'm trying to say here is that car makers have got us by the balls, giving us the runaraound with all of the above issues. I'm not saying my Chevissan is any better in some regards. But it does have more upside. I've tried to get a compromise package that gives me more advantages than disadvntages.
The Nissan GQ driveline - it doesn't get any stronger than these. The Chev engine is used by the millions all over the world, including the US Military. Parts can be bought dirt cheap ex-USA. Which is often quicker and more available than ex-Eastern States or ex-Japan at fraction of the price 'cos there are that many of 'em about over there. They're a simple, gutsy engine that can be repaired or rebuilt by any half decent mechanic that hasn't got a factory computer in
Halls Creek. There are 7,000 of these conversions in Australia to date. I haven't heard of too many failing.
So on balance as former mechanic, I'm not concerned like Andrew, about "converted vehicles". I've taken the whole package, broken it down into it's seperate parts and analysed each bit. What I see is a package that is not a "prisoner" of the car makers who make more money out of servicing and parts than they do from actually building the cars.
I'm no longer dependent on main dealers, I do my own servicing, I have a truck that will pull better than a TD 'Cruiser or a 3.0 litre Nissan at low revs - - where it counts when yer 4WDing, and is quicker and gutsier than a 4.2 when the revs are up. It's reliability is proven both in the chassis, driveline and engine.
It's also a 1999 car. At that age 2nd hand parts are starting to become readily available. I can buy fron car wreckers and not have to sell one of my grandkids into perpetual slavery to Nissan for a windscreen wiper motor.
I'm reckon if Nissan or Toyota put together a simple package like this it would sell like cold beer in
Birdsville. Why are car makers making cars that are more complicated? So we can't work on 'em and they make more money.
But back to Andrew -
Andrew - the cost of secondhand 2.8 head, untested, unflashed and not crack tetsed is around $1800.00 - $2000.00. A new bare head is around $2,800.00. Total rebuild cost for 2nd hand head, inc head - $2,800.00. That was what was on the bills that I saw when I bought this "blown" 2.8 GU and converted it to a Chev.
I'm now over the 'flu - GREAT - put I put my back out bigtime after 10 minutes in the garden, recovering on my first day out for a week - NOT GREAT!
Have a great Australia Day you guys!!
Bilbo
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Follow Up By: Member - andrew B (Kununurra) - Friday, Jan 26, 2007 at 15:09
Friday, Jan 26, 2007 at 15:09
Good Australia day to y to Bilbo
I haven't written the car or a conversion off yet.....I have a few more avenues to
check on the car, I just need to work out what is really wrong with it without spending big bucks. I did the bodgey chemiweld thing yesterday, but it still seemed to blow a few bubbles after I gave the system a good flush.
I made it out to work today without the low coolant alarm going off (190km), so it may have done the trick...a bit. One of my mates reakons 'youve got that alarm on it, just keep driving it and carry water'....in ways I agree with him, until it stops completely one day.....
I might just keep tinkering away with it a little bit. If I could work out why it splutters sometimes, and is sometimes underpowered I would be happy. I'm guessing it is either the MAF or at least a wire that is between the MAF and the ECU, or the ECU and the Pump. A mate said today it may be the crankshaft position sensor (I guess it has one, I know the chevies don't) I may have to take it to the dreaded Nissan Dealer to get a readout on the faults to see if it can tell me anything.
I may be able to salvage a year or two out of it before the big decision needs to be made, and the funds can build a little....I will know more tonight when I
check the radiator level, and in a few weeks when I can delve a little deeper...
"I'd be looking at it with a juandiced eye every day"
Cheers Andrew
PS - being Aussie day, just saw (again) Adam Hills do Advance Australia Fair to the music of Working class man (bogon barnes, said without malice). Cracked me up again, lets change it!
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Follow Up By: Tim HJ61 (WA) - Friday, Jan 26, 2007 at 18:16
Friday, Jan 26, 2007 at 18:16
Andrew,
I used a bottle of copper based stuff in my EB Falcon to fix CO in the coolant. Not sure the name, but it's about 400ml bottle with copper beads that sit on the bottom in light green liquid. Worked really
well for a year or so until I sold that bucket of problems, only to move onto my HJ61! Head problems will only suck coolant back in when they're worse. ie there is more pressure inside the combustion chamber pushing bubbles out than there is in the coolant system pushing coolant in when the engine is off.
Spluttering could be air in the fuel, which would stop after the pump worked the air through the system. Low power could be some issue with the fuel filter, or again, air bubbles. - sorry to mention bubbles again!
Sorry I can't add anything sensible to what has already been said re the bigger solution.
All the best
Tim
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