Another diesel (power) question

Voxson,

In my oppinion, neither of these vehicles are as gutless as the 2.8ltr in the 'Lux. Having said that, they wouldn't be my choice of vehicle for a lot of soft dune work in standard form, as they just don't have the power needed for hauling 2.5 tonnes of truck up a soft sandy slope.

However, with a turbo, an intercooler, and a few other engine mods, you could get 150-160 HP out of them, which would do the job.

In my mind, if you wanna play in the dunes, chuck in a big petrol Chevy V8. Or, if ur like me, find a good RB30 DETT out of an import Skyline. With a bit of toying with the 3ltr, in line six Nissan motor, you could be looking at around 450 HP plus.

Now that'd be fun.

Tristjo.

Voxson,

The problem with the smaller diesels are they behave like a non-turbo at low revs until the revs pick up then the turbo kicks in.

I don't have all the TORQUE figures for the vehicles that you note but I would guess that the smaller Turbo engine has about the same TORQUE as the bigger engines at optimum revs. However, at low revs TORQUE will fall away and the big boys will come into their own - ie. great for low chugging about in the sand.

Reason I say TORQUE is that is what is important in diesel engines. Power is just Torque multiplied by revs multiplied by a constant.

Best to have a 4.2 turbo diesel etc as then you get best of both worlds. Note that Toyota TD is much better than Nissan because of engine and injection type and design - just look up the TORQUE figures 340Nm v 450Nm for Nissan v Toyota respectively. If you can afford the Toyota!

Hope this helps.

I have a 91 Series 80 1 HZ diesel that I just recently added an aftermarket turbo. Before I added the turbo my Cruiser performed reasonably well in standard form except when towing, going up hill (esp when towing) or when trying to over take. Off road and tackling obstacles etc it was fine; however, I have never taken it on sand or over dunes. I added the turbo for the reasons stated above, because I do a lot of long distant traveling and towing a heavy duty trailer (well set up) that I take off road.

Karl

I personnaly drive a 100 series 4.5 petrol which I thought had plenty of grunt Until I drove a friends toyota 4.2 turbo. Both were auto's and hell was I impressed with the td. My next will be a TD (if I can get a loan from the missus)Wow! am I cute
Richard

Voxson,
I had a 2.8 hilux for 5years, now have 105 series standard diesel cruiser. Like going to a V8 in comparison. Have done plenty of sand work, Salt Creek, Simpson, Border Track, South East, Wanna Dunes at Pt Lincoln and can honestly say it did it with no problems whatsoever, with suitable tyre pressures!! Turbo Diesel model is nice but it is very hard to clean mud and sand out of nice carpet trim. And a lot of extra money to buy as well.
Cheers Peter

G'day Voxson,
Did the Simpson bit last year not long after the strong winds added a few feet to Big Red. Out of our group of 4 vehicles, the first over was a 2.8l lux tray ute to the others embarassment. Tyres down to 14psi though. My 86 cruiser TD took 3 tries and a lot of diesel to get over. Lad's 2.4 std lux took the chicken run.Alpaca

Horses for courses I can vouch that the 3 lit patrol Petrol would be the best choice for sand dunes and many challenging situatuations because of the amazing rev range but thats not all one wants to do and the Standard diesels and TDs have their own advantages in both makes. But if you want to get up sandy hills you have to have some revs and the torque to back those revs up with and the TD will win out over a standard diesel any day. In the end it wont matter if you have diff locks and tyres down to 12 Psi there are hills thatr really need some high revs to conquer.

kesa