A 308 V8,into a 1983MQ patrol,pros+cons please???

I have not a clue on the technical side of your proposal, but it sounds very interesting.

The 308 was one sweet motor. Brings back memories of my youth. I had a seriously worked 308 in a Panel Van (you have to be about 50 to know what that is). Just thinking about the sound it made makes me think of things that are almost dreams these days. My then girl friend (now my wife of 32 years) could hear me coming a suburb away. Her dad was a bit dubious, but I was able to convince him that I was a sweet young fella and the car was an aberration.

Hope you can work it out. Sounds like a monster!

Thanks for the memories.

Norm C

Friends of ours did it they arnt married any more.Another tried it in a shorty and had fuel problems. My father and Husband are doing something like that. The trouble with conversion they have had is incredable. They were given the wrong parts. They had to put a lift kit in. I dont know the exact engine but its a v8 thingy going into those 3lt nissan blow up jobs. Think he would have learnt with the v8 that went into his hilux. I just dont get it why. Try V8 conversions in Moree I think.
Sharon

marks adaptors and dellows should do a kit (bellhousing and mounts, to fit that motor in.
The driveline will be ok - i had a 383 chev in an mq ute with 36" centipedes and twin lockers and the only thing i had trouble with was the transfer, but i'd say thats more the exception as they were pretty stuffed to begin with and i wasn't gentle with it.
Mq diesel radiator will cool it ok, either with the std belt fan and a shroud or twin AU thermos.
You'll have to check with the kit supplier as to which gearbox you have and how far back the motor will sit, mine sat back a long way and had a 2" body lift, it can be done without the lift though.
Try searching outerlimits, plenty of people on there will have more info.

Just another option which has become popular in the last few years,
You can also check out dropping a turbo'ed RB30 in, should fit easily as the GQs used them and there are no major changes to the engine bay and is an easy way to get 250hp, do a search on the Forum for more info.
It may be as much fiddling around with electrics etc but more people are doing this these days insteasd of fitting a V8 (The RB 30 is the old misunderstood Skyline engine, the smaller but higer revving Twin Turbo RB26 won Bathurst twice in 91 and 92)

Worth looking into, just may need to dig around a bit and make up your own mind.

Some more info here

cheers
Kerry W

If the above link doesn't work for non members here is a cut and paste.
"I can solve the mystery of the leaning engine. The L28 is a slant motor so the bolts for the gearbox are off centre. When you put the RB30 in, it has to be mounted on the lean so the gearbox will bolt up. Did it today. What a mission, some of the bolt holes line up but some dont and have to be re-drilled. The flywheel will bolt up once 1-2mm is machined out of the hole in the centre so it will fit on the RB30 crank. I will take it to a machine shop tomorrow. So far, not a pretty conversion, but if you dont mind your engine on a slant, it wont be so bad. Plenty of room on the passengers side for a turbo setup, or even a turbo and a supercharger. I know from previous experience that the base engines are super strong and can handle a hell of a lot of boost. I have extractors coming tomorrow to start me off. Engine mounts are a problem. I have used the drivers side RB30 (VL commodore) mount on the passenger side, re-drilled the holes and drilled the mounting plate on the patrol so it will bolt up. Works ok, but you have to grind some off the back of the mount where it fouls on the engine down low. I will have to fabricate a mounting for the drivers side, and so far that looks like the hardest part of the whole thing. There is not a lot of clearance on the drivers side of the motor and i think that without any suspension lift the sump will foul on the diff. Big hammer might do the trick though. Its only one corner. I will attach some pics when I can figure out how. Didn't get the camera till late so I will take more pics after I remove the engine. So far, dummy fit #1 was successful."

And

"OK, I'm half way through and I think I would have been better off with a V8 conversion after all. Some facts of this conversion are as follows.

- The L28 flywheel wont fit the RB30 crank without machining. Have the centre hole of the flywheel machined out to fit over the spiggot housing on the crank. Remember if using an engine from an automatic car, change the spiggot bush over from the L28. Best way is to find something that is round and a neat fit into the spiggot bush. Then fill the spiggot with grease and push the item into the spiggot and hit it with a hammer. The hydraulic pressure from the grease will force the spiggot out of the crank. Simple and effective. I used a 1/2" drive socket extension. Make sure that you dont damage the spiggot, and that you remove the automatic one from the RB30 crank.

- The L28 starter motor wont fit, use the Commodore starter.

- The Gearbox wont bolt to the engine. The 2 bolts on the outer skirt at the bottom of the block line up, but the two at the top of the engine, along with the aligning pin need to be re-drilled. I just enlarged the holes on the sandwhich plate and gearbox and it all went together just fine. The MQ gearbox is very short (around 400mm) whilst the Commodore gearboxes are over 700mm, so the only option as I see it is to use the oroginal MQ box in this fashion. Suggestions of using a GQ RB30 box and transfer might have some credence but you would probably need GQ diffs and driveshafts aswell, which I dont think is worth the effort myself.

- I used a fuel pump from a R30 (model with efi L24 engine) skyline mounted in place of the MQs electric pump, and the MQ already has a return line so all good. Just used the brackets from the skyline and screwed it in. Use high pressure fuel hose for all connections. You could use the commodore fuel pump aswell, but I couldn't find one anywhere, ands the later skylines are in tank.

- The wiring is extremely simple. Basically the Rb30 loom only needs an ignition feed to a thick pink wire, and the EFI relay needs to be taken from the donor vehicle. Other than that the loom has a battery terminal connection and earth connection. I will post wiring diagrams if someone can show me how to post pictures.

- Exhaust will need to be modified. I took the exhaust manifold, engine pipe and cat converter out of the commodore, and will have an exhaust shop make it fit. I dont have a pipe bender or the patience.

- Engine mounts will need to be fabricated. None of the original mounts will fit as the motor has to be mounted on a rather large slant towards the drivers side to mate up with the gearbox.

- To fit the air box, I used the across engine air duct from an R31 skyline, and mixed and matched hoses from skyline and commodore to fit.

- Radiator hoses and heater hoses will need to be made up. I just hit the wreckers and got pipes the right size with lots of bends and cut them up and joined them with tube and hose clamps.

- For the power steering, I used the low pressure line from the commodore and ran it across the rear edge of plate under the radiator. I mounted the commodore reservoir near the battery and made up the high pressure line out of 3/8" R410a compatible copper tube from work. This is high pressure thick wall refrigeration piping. I just used the original flare nuts and hey presto. The flexible hose from the commodore pump has a bracket that I screwed to the chassis rail. This way the rigid copper tube cant move. Probably wouldn't be too expensive to get pirtek or enzed to make you a pipe up anyway.



Took me 4 full days by myself and its nearly finished. Probably would take less with help. I made a lot of things fit with the drill and angle grinder. There are no doubt more professional ways to do this conversion, but I am just not that good. Please remember that I am not a mechanic, and most certainly I am not an authority on how to do an engine conversion, I am just letting you know the problems I ran into in doing this conversion."

I've messed around with a lot of V8's in a lot of vehicles and would recommed you leave the 308 well enough alone. They are not a great motor. The only reason they (and the god awful 253) existed was because GMH thought they needed an Aussie V8.

Go with a small block chev. There are a million variations available, you can custom build to suit exactly the HP and torque curve you want all with off the shelf parts.

You can get anything from 307 to 400+ CID and the technical knowledge out there is truly awesome.

The small block chev has been the worlds best selling performance engine since about 1958. 'nuff said.