Safari Mods-Point me in a diection

[TK Sparky]

Hey guys im new & just posted a thread in begineers section, thought I should really post this part in the nissan page.

Got a 1989 Y60 saf n iv compiled a list of mods I want to do ( time & money permitting )
Turbo kit as mines N/A
Body lift
Suspension lift
Tires ( Obviously )
And im picking last a roof chop.

I think thats the order I want to attack it in but any hints/help and pitfalls anyone can point out would be great or even a different starting point e.g body & suspension 1st.

Coxsy has already pointed out to get rid of front and rear bumpers.

Wats evryones thoughts on Air Lockers, thought itd a quick way to lock evrythn up and also give me an air compressor in the beast for tires ???

[albundy]

Wats evryones thoughts on Air Lockers

Seen heaps of them shit themselves when they are really needed. Not the actual locker, but the pump or the lines ( that's going to start a shit fight). I have a lokka in the front of mine and a rebuilt factory one in the rear, works as fast as an ARB airlocker now.. 3" LWB suspension( front needs changing to 80sersis shocks), and run 35": silverstones on 7" rims. I need to make up some adjustable panhards as the chassis sits 10mm to far to the left. And yes make up some new front, rear and side bars. I'm looking at putting a turbo in end of year, then I can exo the bloody thing. Also do the quarter panel chop for better departure angles on the corners. Don't do the body lift, the mounts are shit. Mine are all stuffed from the lift and hard driving I do. If you look at all the comp trucks none of them have body lifts.
Al

[TK Sparky]

Hey thanks for the info, hmm no go on body lift eh, ill check my mounts tonight n see how shit they are.
Turbo at the end of the year, great wat kit were you thinking of ? or are you going to do a custom one ?
Can you reccomend a good suspension lift kit or do I just follow my nose with wat I think is good !
I was thinking of ARB lockers or better, no cheap chinese shit.
I take-it im guna want a set of bead-locker rims for that kinda tyre n the terain im guna be on ???
Is the chassis position common on safs afta spring lift ?

Hope you guys can put up with my stupid questions

[DaveM]

I have run Old Man Emu, Dobinson, EFS and Tough Dog coils in my Safari's, and have gone back to my original 3" Dobinsons.
The EFS were a very nice riding coils, but I didn't like the price of their shocks, so ran Pro Comps from Oz. The OME coils I didn't like at all, and the Tough Dogs were far too stiff. The 3" Dobinsons are now in my GU, and are still going well, and I run OME L series shocks, which seems to be a good combination at the moment, although the shocks are limiting my travel.

A lot of people find that the bodies on the Safari can crack if using body lifts, and will take the lift blocks out because of this. The only reason I was looking at the BL is so I could run 80 series front shocks to give extra flex in the front, which would require lifting the front shock mount by 40mm or so, but I will do it without the lift I think, just cutting the body to access the top of the shock.

It all depends on what driving you intend to do, but most people do the lift/tyres first, with the turbo/difflocks later.
If going 3" or higher, I would not use bushes for castor correction, this is a cheap way of doing it, and usually by people who are inexperienced with modding safari's. Drop boxes is by far the most economical way when looking at the benefits, and although it drops ground clearance, there is a lot more to get hung up on before the boxes will become a hassle. Mine will drag. but have never been the reason for being stuck.
Also, when lifting a SWB and needing to get rid of driveline vibes, I find the best way to help is getting longer/stronger lower trailing arms, as this not only helps reduce the vibes, it also gets rid of a weak spot that can cause serious problems if badly damaged.
Sorry for waffling on

Just my thoughts anyway.


Dave

[albundy]

Your choices of modifications are dependent on what you intend on doing with your vehicle. But like most of us, once you get the bug and modify you keep modifying because you keep getting yourself into the shit. Turbo will be acustom job. again suspension depends on what you want to do. I currently have tjm, have had Old Man Emu in two trucks and found it crapped out, probably because of the loads I was carrying. Lokka is out of Oz, not China, but agree with you on the quality issue there from china. I don't have external bead locks, tried them once and hated them. They take a fair amount of punishment. I run tractor tudes in mine, quasi internal beadlock of sorts, on 7" rims, so its tight. body lift is your choice, I should post a pic up of wht I have done to them. I fixed my problems with bending steering tierods by putting pressure pipe over the standard one, the rearpan hard rod and lower trailing arm breakages by welding angle iron on the bottoms. They act like knives now in mud.
al

[3VILC]

I went for the lift/tyres first.. turbo would be nice but isnt on the cards at the mo, as with a diff.. little niggly things to sort out first. Im running 60mm EFS springs and shocks and is well behaved on the road.. have heard some say the EFS are too stiff but I havent had a problem. Now wishing I had gone higher with the lift as I dont want to run caster bushes and its not quite high enough for drop boxes (would end up with caster in the other direction) so might fix that with some spring spacers. Also got 35mm body blocks in, not too high as too hopefully not stress the mounts too much, looking back probably wouldve been better spent on spring spacers, but was also thinking of the extra clearance to bolt some mounts around the chassis for side bars when i get round to it.
Tyres I'm running 33" nankang muds on the factory steel rims, would be better on an 8" rim tho..wouldve liked to go bigger but was worried it would be too gutless on the road as its a daily driver. Whats people thoughts on running tubes? I air mine down to ~20psi tubeless and havent had a problem tho I assume the narrom rim helps hold them on there.

My 5c rant

[TK Sparky]

Dam thats abit to take in quickly but all appreciated, yup im pickin that im guna get the mod bug and also break shit with it.
Unsure wat terrain im guna tackle but I sorta want to build my weapon to handle a general terrain thrashing ( Clay,Mud,Rocks etc etc ) and nethn I sort of encounter with hunting
Seen afew nice things on 4wd bits ( Panard rods, drop boxes etc ) over the last cuple of nights browsing
From what iv heard ARB seems decent enuf, iv read enuf to stay away from caster bushes so not to wory there.
Any good places up north to get decent trailing arms etc or even another website ?
Also wats a good tyre to get me goin again iv been lookin on 4wd bits n seen afew good lookin 1s, think im guna go 35's, but if someone has other advice then maybe 33's
Im keepin this a daily driver so thats why 33's are on the back of my mind with it bein N/A
But I dont mind stikn with my 31's for road and buy an offroad exchange pair of 33's-35's and rims.

Shit im trowing abit out here

[DaveM]

For trailing arms and trailing arms, Howatt Engineering in Wellington are very good, both price wise, and quality, only problem is, you need to supply your panhards/arms, as they use the existing ends.

[coxsy]

you can nearly get away with 33" at stock hight but they will rub bad some times , 35' you need a lift 4" at lest

[TK Sparky]

Ok thanks again for the pointers, still havnt figured out how to load photos yet. Ill get there tho

[coxsy]

Go to Photobucket.com

Create an account.
Resize your pictures to 600 x 450

Upload the pictures
then copy and paste the img file onto the post here on ORE

[TK Sparky]

That saved alot of frustration cheers, will get onto it now n stop anoyn evryone.

[darinz]

Fpr a GQ the most important thing is tyres. You will want 35's for offroad and to fit these you need 4" of combined lift. eg 2" suspension and 2" body if the best option value for money.
For on road a set of 33's will be fine even NA.
Lockers is a simple one. Leave the LSD in the rear as they are very good and combined with an ARB in the front it will be very compettent. The big thing is to be able to turn the front locker off if you plan to be in mud.
Turbo is also pretty simple. Any turbo is better than none! Bottom of the pile is factory as they are pretty shit as far as performance gains. Most kits are are the same with most using a T3 turbo. Safari give a little bit more power but some say some of the other give better low end. Not much in it really.
I did 3 seasons of winch challenges with the above and had a pretty competitive truck.

Then you get serious.
cab cuts, wheel base extensions, rear winches custom turbo, motor swaps etc. These are also simple. How big is your cheque book????

There is a ton of info already on here so read through the Nissan section and you'll find the answers you need. Be aware that not all info supplied is unbiased as a lot of people make assumptions about particlars mods or products without understanding what is actually happening. And after saying that there all a lot of very smart experienced people on here as well.
Asking specific questions will get you the answers you want but search first!

[albundy]

Also check out the Aussie patrol forum, totally dedicated to Nissan patrols/safaris.
Al

[TK Sparky]

How big is my cheque book ??? Well im about to find out I guess, once i get rid of the holden
Thanks for the continued info Al and everyone else thats posted to me.
Darinz : Yea iv been browsing as fast as my dial-up has allowd me ( Gota get broadband )
"Any turbo is better than none" Hell yea from what iv seen anyways and I dont need top end grunt really ( Speed tickets loom down that route i think )
But from what iv learned from evryone is min 4' lift for 35's, think ill try 3 inch suspension if not to much hassel so thanks for reinfocing that.
33's for on road sound good as well
Locker only on front, ok. I can kinda see why tho.
Ok ill watch the wheels n tires post n sort out what brand n type i need that will give me a good balance
Cheers again guys

[darinz]

A 3" lift with a SWB will most likely need some work to stop driveshaft vibes. Nothing that hasn't been done before but this is why a 2" and a bodylift is normally done for 35's.
Bodylift's tearing the mounts is more a Oz touring problem or hardcore issue. I tore mine out on my winch truck but what do you expect? Most guys I know run 2" bodylift's without any problems so I think it is an overstated problem.

[TK Sparky]

yea i dont think im guna be entering comps anytime soon, so ok ill stick with a 2" body lift. Thats a good point, n i kn see what you mean by tearin them on a comp truck , itd be a shitload of stress on the system under winch conditions.
Hopefully guna catch up with a guy in Hamilton about suspension/body mod 2mrw.
Let the $ spendin begin.

[gary_in_nz]

hmm it doesnt have to be as expensive as you think. pick up some springs 50mm lift for less than $400 some shocks to go with less than $700.

As for body lift, you must know some engineering outfit or workshop being a sparky?? ask them to turn you some either steel or the "Umphee" spacers. Get them made at 50mm height with a 12.5mm or 13mm hole through the centre. Make them from 80mm shaft with 4 of the 8 you need with a bit of a chamfur maybe 5mm. piece of cake to install. you need 2 bottle jacks, a socket set, ring and open ender set, paint stripper gun for the 2 rear existing bolts to melt the lock tight, CRC for the old ones spray heaps on the weekend before, then again the night before, anything to make the job easier and 1 extra person to give you a hand.

[TK Sparky]

yea yea im a sparky n know the local engineers well, I sorta thought about getn them 2 make sum spacers up for me, but didnt know bowt the chamferd bit, itl save me $200 odd instead of buyn the kit off 4wd-bits
Thats what im lookn for with regards to lift ( Things to watch for ) bloody awsum mate.
Iv got all the gear to do the job + a mate n kn get a paint stripper easy enuf.
As for the shocks im goin to see a guy 2mrw about it.
Awsum,awsum awsum T thanks alot eh

[DaveM]

I have 3 mates who have removed their body lifts due to cracking, it is a cheap way to lift, but I personally would spend extra on a 4" spring lift if I was going to be spending another $400 odd on certification anyway, or 4+2, but then thats getting up there in height.

Be interested to hear who else has has BL problems, as I assumed it was a wide spread problem, as 3 of 4 mates with them have removed them, while the other has had it in 3yrs and no known problems

[Safari Swb]

any mods required for a 2 inch lift?

[DaveM]

Just make sure you have longer brake lines, some use the rear hose on the front and get a new rear, but I prefer to get both replaced. Another good idea is to make a bracket to get the rear brake bias valve sitting back where it should.

[gary_in_nz]

I have 3 mates who have removed their body lifts due to cracking, it is a cheap way to lift, but I personally would spend extra on a 4" spring lift if I was going to be spending another $400 odd on certification anyway, or 4+2, but then thats getting up there in height.

Be interested to hear who else has has BL problems, as I assumed it was a wide spread problem, as 3 of 4 mates with them have removed them, while the other has had it in 3yrs and no known problems

yeah i have seriously thought about removing my body lift or changing to umphee, but i do give my safari quite a bit of stick and i havent cracked anything, been in about a year i guess. i would like to go 5 inch lift with suspension but as you say its getting up there, but also remove the body lift. just a cheap option the body lifts.

Sparky, watch out around the gear stick boots you may need a little nip tuck of the cowling or might even get away with slightly relocating the boots rearwards a bit.

[DieselBoy]

I did a 40mm lift and 50mm spring lift to run 35" Maxis creepys. (the lift turned out to be 100mm god knows why)

I have some 20mm transfercase spacer blocks you can have if you end with driveline vib's after the lift and have to wait for some adjustable arms to cure it properly.

All i had to do for the 40mm lift was drop the bottom of the fan shrowed off and notch the floor so the gear leaver worked properly.

Cost $60 for the spacer blocks and a bit more for the M12 high tensile bolts to hold it all together.

I used ToughDog coils and shocks, i didn't like them at all, i chose the wrong spring rate perhaps. Pick your springs carefully.

If i was to do a 50mm lift on a Safari again, i would keep the standard coils and use some 50mm spacers to keep the nice soft supple ride off road. No good for fast driving over rough ground though i.e winch comp's, but awesome for riverbeds and slow going rough trucks.

[Safari Swb]

where do you get the spacers from mate?

[DieselBoy]

OZ i would say.

Or make some

[GQTROL]

I have 3 mates who have removed their body lifts due to cracking, it is a cheap way to lift, but I personally would spend extra on a 4" spring lift if I was going to be spending another $400 odd on certification anyway, or 4+2, but then thats getting up there in height.

Be interested to hear who else has has BL problems, as I assumed it was a wide spread problem, as 3 of 4 mates with them have removed them, while the other has had it in 3yrs and no known problems

I had a 2" susp and 2" body lift and ended up shagging the body mounts as you have. Changed to 3-4" susp lift and 1" body lift to reduce the leverage on the body mounts. When you consider the cost of replacement body mounts ($80 from Nissan x 8 = $640), plus the cost for someone to weld up the holes torn in the body, the 4" susp lift with no body lift is cheaper in the longrun!

[darinz]

If i was to do a 50mm lift on a Safari again, i would keep the standard coils and use some 50mm spacers to keep the nice soft supple ride off road. No good for fast driving over rough ground though i.e winch comp's, but awesome for riverbeds and slow going rough trucks.

You are far better off getting the right rate springs than spacers. This is the advantage of getting something like an OME kit as they have 3 different rate springs and 2 different rate shocks for a GQ.

As for bodylifts tearing the floor, the main cause is articulation so hard ground, rocks etc is going to be more of and issue than mud and tracks. It is another case of building the truck to suit where you are and what type of 4x4 you do. SI guys seem to need more articulation and in general have higher lifts than we need in the NI. The terrain differances are an obvious reason for this so you need to take this into account.
I have 3" lift with really quite heavy springs and couldn't care less about articulation. It is great if you care about RTI or you are in rocks but for most other things it just isn't that important. For the first few years of comp I still had the rear swaybar and I'm looking at refitting one now!

The best way is to fit the suspension to give the handling you want and then cut the guards to fit the tyres you want!!! Or modify the chassis to change the body height rather than use blocks, which is what I have done.

The best advice I can give is drive it standard and find out the limitations and then modify the truck around those.
I've done afew small mods to my truck and if I had of built it in one hit, it would be completely wrong for how and where I drive. Drive it, modify something and then drive it again. There is no substitue for time behind the wheel.

[DieselBoy]

The best advice I can give is drive it standard and find out the limitations and then modify the truck around those.
I've done afew small mods to my truck and if I had of built it in one hit, it would be completely wrong for how and where I drive. Drive it, modify something and then drive it again. There is no substitue for time behind the wheel.

Well said

There's one of my mates that i wish i could get that message through to, he's been out in his truck about 3 times over the last year or so that he's owned it and each time it has gone back to the work shop an he has pulled the whole thing apart and done something crazy with out even giving the truck a chance, or himself a chance to get used to it how it was.

Drives me NUTS

[TK Sparky]

Hey guys thats some bloody great info there especially for a new safari 4x4r like me, thanks for spending the time and answering my questions, iv spent enuf time behind the wheel in the last year to know how it behaves to an extent, not extreme terrain but enuf to push it a little, and thats with shit tires I.E : road/mud tires 50/50 i think or there-abouts.
My main aim with this thread was a direction to start moddin in and i think iv got enuf info with regards to suspension lift/body lift pointers, and on the topic of body lift you guys generally say keep away from getn too high, so im guna listen to experience n probly go for 1inch max body lift n 3inch suspension lift, i rekn thtd be a good way to go by listening to evryones answers.
Then do what darinz said n cut the gaurds/bumpers to suit new tires, a few other guys mentioned that way so its proven
As for tires i think my SWB saf is heavy enuf to justify creepys 35x11.5 or 35x12.5 on steel rims or beadlocks, see how i go over time.