Gu patrol pros & cons

Head gaskets give trouble if not not maintained correctly. Can get pricey to fix (but then, what doesn't?).

hill starts and pulling the boat up the boat ramp are a problem due to lack of power ! and if the clutch goes its expensive .just replaced mine at $1800 due to the duel mass flywheel. but fuel economy is ok ! But next 4by will have bigger donk .

Cheers
Giffo

thanks for yr replies I will pass it in to him

Ray C
They are about as tough as a pair of hobnail boots & just as refined, properly maintained they will take you anywhere and back many times over.
Colin.

just as long as its not a gold 99 2.8 GU cos it could be one i know of that was definitly made on a friday/monday.endless trouble until he got rid of it,heads,inj pump,turbo,spinning balancer off twice etc etc.but also heard of some good stories about them.go figure cheers Paul

G'day Ray...

As said by 'on patrol'.........mine was showing classic head gasket/cracked head symptoms at around 120km but after all tests came up negative (experts still wanted to pull head off) it was a simple plastic header tank problem. Now 170km and going fine.

As to the power, can be sluggish off the line but hey its a 2.8.
Once rolling they are as responsive as a 4.2 and if you know your 2.8 well and pick the right revs in time they will beat a 4.2 up hills ect.

Great on fuel if you drive them that way IE I drove for economy last week and got 11.5lt/100 around town. Push 120kph and watch it rise to around 16lt/100.

Yes they run a duel mass flywheel which can fail early.....fit an aftermarket solid flywheel and it will out last the car I reckon!!

Off road you need to be in the right gear at the right time or pay the price.....They love 2000rpm-3000rpm.

I run 32" tyres on mine and it has not made a real difference on power. I also run no mufflers which makes it a little noisey but as its my TRUCK (wheres samsgone again!!! LOL) I don't have to please the misses, and that makes the turbo spool up about 500rpm less and has made a HUGE difference to its drivability.

I have only towed 1.5 ton with it and while it was a bit slow to wind up, it sat happy on 110kph.

They are a bargain buy second hand and should the motor go you have a good solid car to put a BIG motor into.

The gear box is smaller than the 4.2 BUT it is out of the 300zx so it will go the distance no problems, diffs ect are all the same just different ratios.

I have climbed dunes at stockton beach which other BIG motor cars have had problems with, they are an all to often over looked car.

After all that, they really do need the driver to know how to extract the best from them, Its been a learning curve for me as it is my first Diesel and probably not the best to learn about them on.

Keep them on the boil 2000rpm-3000rpm and they will surprise alot of people.

I would prefer a 4.2 but MY budget would not go that far so I settled for the 2.8 and have to sayi am happy with it for the $15000 I saved over the 4.2 of the same vintage. So if it is a budget decision go for it.

Cheers Stefan