Nissan Safari LWB shortened an VG30DETT fitted.

[Dirtydog]

this is coming along nicely,

my brother has a twin turbo 300zx, and man they are fast.

cant imagine how fun this truck would be to drive.

[Craigs4wd]

Have been working away late at nights with water system an trying to come up with a plan as to how i will get water hoses to the rear radiator. also checked with cert man as with being allowed to run through the cab as there is no room underneath with all the moving parts,trans lines fuel lines etc.
the cert guy said no real requirement just cover them to protect yourself from heat.

[Craigs4wd]

had trouble with the odd leak at welds.(heavy elbow bends an light water tubes) should have tig welded pipes, so made up a cap for ends an pressured to 50psi an welded leaks.

[Craigs4wd]

this weekends mission is to set up an give myself the correct wheel caster to stop steering wobbles created by not enough kinpin angle.
so out with the grinder an angle gauge.

also found this old photo,it made the folk lift moan lifting it up. steering become very light sneaking down the road to my new building. not sure the strop was of correct rating to weight.

[Craigs4wd]

Today was engine cooling syestems
first i got water to air intercooler hose plumbed up with electric water pump and checked operation.and for leaks.
Then next in line was power steering cooler to stop oil boiling with bigger tyres an slow movement in ruts on 4wd tracks.
Then the engine oil cooler system, decided i wanted this one out front in the cleaner air for best results.
after all hooked up, the run up motor an monitored the temps on all cooler thru revs an checked there efficiency thru there coolers. was very interesting how much heat was being made an removed thru the coolers.
Earlier in the week at nyt a wired up the ecu diag plug an hooked up computer to monitor engine an check any fault codes from wiring an set up.
so far so good. ecu only comes up with code looking for trans to ecu input line which is not hooked up. be the same as a manual conversion so not going to worry about it.
300zx has 4 wire inputs while TB42E an VG30DE trans computer only have only.which one? lucky guess i recon.eny meany miny mo.

[Craigs4wd]

As i have limited room i have been working out exhaust syestems.
Been working out wat exhaust will fit an not get hit by rocks from hanging to low but also comply with the 92 decibels for a wof. so put this to my muffler guy an he made up this. which was three straight thru cobys, one complete an one cut an half on each side. the half sections welded to the other cobys with wat he called a small expansion chamber between.the decibel reading was 91.8 +/- 0.3 so should slip thru fine.

[Craigs4wd]

Now i have running i decided to take for a sneaky test the other nyt on the open road.
very impressed, auto ecu worked fine motor work great.truck sat on the road easily with no effort to hold on, no wobbles with 35in on 33in an both tyre were not balanced an also drove at 100km easily
an speedo appeared to only be aprox 2km out. an rpm was 2400 so felt gear ratio will be fine with 4.1.
all was going good on first test run till it putted out GRRRRR got towed home an found blocked fuel filter in tank.
now it back in action for more test driving.

[Craigs4wd]

have been doing some test driving now with a fuel pressure gauge on the dash looking to see if the fuel pump is good enough for the increased boost that is in line for it.
was having trouble controlling the boost an once looked into it i found the restictor jet that were meant to be in actuator lines were missing.
spoke to a friend about this an he said they used welding tips with various sizes to suit.
an yes pushed them in the hose an now we are away. gone form 7psi to 15psi an holy crap wat a gain an can control/adjust, cant wat to see it with my 35in simexs an in low range.an fuel pressure seemed to be fine.

[Craigs4wd]

time to get this front diff in an get out for more testing.
had to blow the dust off the ARB locker i've had for 2yrs up stair hiding
an set up. today it will be going in!

[Craigs4wd]

Had a wee shake down test, test a number of things all apears to be working good,
Feel the ratios are a bit high as its too quick for low range stuff.
auto apears to work fine in low an high range considering the miss match set up.

[Craigs4wd]

tonight a made the new alum deck.
never realized how heavy 6mm cheq plate is. was much easyer once i cut pair wheel hole out.
also had cover made to cover the motor water pipes.

[Craigs4wd]

Got a cover folded up to go over an protect wires, relays fans,an coolers from the weather.

[Craigs4wd]

will probably remove it if i do any off-road racing were the demands on cooling is at a much higher level.

[Craigs4wd]

i decided to make a 4inch stainless steel snorkel. it should have enough air flow for my little motor any way. an at least i wont ever have to paint it inside or out.

[muskie]

now that is taking shape very nicely...be nice to see it all painted and finished.. i actually like the way you have kept the C posts on the back of the cab i thought the cage would look odd slanted forward but it looks awesome. i was undecided about whether to cut mine straight off or move up the c pillars. nice work.

do you have enough room in the cab for the seats to go all the way back on the runners??

are they 35'' simex's on the white spoke rims or smaller?

[Craigs4wd]

I never cut the cab Jim (DA RAM) did all that hard work.
yes hes made it so the seats go all the way back an still room for a box of beer.
and yes simex 35/ 11.5 /15
will only run these for winch challenge stuff.
33inch radials for off-road racing.
un sure on tyres an size for running round on.

[imsohi]

Looking sharp with all the deck on now

[Craigs4wd]

Today my next line of work has arrived for me, now to cut out all the std nissan spring towers an shock towers to fit the fox coil over set up all round and front fox 4in hydraulic bump stops.
many thanks to Grahame at" Camco off-road "for great deal an good service on the coil overs.
an also Ric at 4wd assesories for the hydraulic bump stops

[Big]

awesome Craig, cant wait to see it humming..Jelly

[Dirtydog]

theres someone on here wanting the front shock and spring towers of a gq for im guessing a sas,

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/ ... 15&t=32245

[Craigs4wd]

last two nights i took to the back of the nissan an cut the coil an shock towers off the diff an chasis.
then fitted the coil overs in place.
tested the angles an appears i could have room an drive-shaft length for longer ones but happy with these for now.

[tomsoffroad]

Cool . Shake down cant be far away aye?

[Craigs4wd]

Have already been out for a few sneaky road tests an a wee play on old set up. Wanted to get a wee feel of the old suspension before the change to see how much improvement there is.
loved driving it an was very reluctant to cut an put coil overs in an just wanted to play.
I've managed (with a few road tests) to jet the waste gate hose's to allow me to run round town on approx 7psi boost an in events turn a tap an run a controlled 14-15psi. an man you can feel the difference. but be leave the trill of that power comes an a heavy fuel cost but so fun.So needed to run the std boost for round town.
Feels like the whole build seems to be taking forever.
Got a off-road club event coming up i want to give it a good shake down at.
Also got a friend farm which we run the top of the south winch challenges to test on. As a general rule if ya cant break it up there your doing pretty good an will survive most stuff we do.
So bring on the front suspension an get it sorted out so i can use the thing!

[Craigs4wd]

This weekend a have a good go at getting coilovers an bumpstops in front, an also mod a brake line an re mounted the panhard rod on the diff as it came off with old mounts.
i got most of it in but do find i needed to play with coil rates, it apears to be extremely soft an sitting a bit high. but with so many options with coils there will be a way.
The bump stops took a bit of time to work at all angles and to synchronize the bump stops to bottom out before shocks at all angles,

[Craigs4wd]

with a wee bit of paint splash over it.

[tomsoffroad]

Too much, Im loving this thread May I make a suggestion? Have you thought about making your front panhard abit longer? You can push the chassis mount quite a way towards the front right wheel. Makes a huge difference to the amount of laterial movement the diff does under flex and pretty much gets rid of all bumpsteer. However it will probably upset the bumpstop locations

[Craigs4wd]

Im open to any advise as im also learning lots as i build this toy.
I did think about that but on diff end but would was getting close to steering joints. but chassis end, might look more in to it. how far out have you shifted one out before. just got to keep my panhard parallel to steering.
The arm is adjustable an thinking about it, it shouldnt move the bump stops strikers, probly be better. as at mo they kinda strike just over center an come across so will be better.

Thanks.

[tomsoffroad]

I try to get the panhard the same length as the drag link. Not always possible but you can usually get them within 50-60mm. I'd just flex it up and see how much room you've got. I've put them up to 150mm towards the wheel. You could brace it back to the coilover mount?

[Craigs4wd]

Tonight i chucked together a brace to help support top of the coil towers.
Also measured to panhard rod an steering rod an it appears there is 190mm difference in length so will be making chassis mount longer at some stage.

[Craigs4wd]

Thought i might weigh the car 1600kgs (one the same as motor come out of.)
Then weigh the truck today. come out at
2140kgs total
Front axle 1220kgs
Rear axle 920kgs
this was with quarter tank of fuel with me not in it an no winchs.
very surprised how heavy they get so fast.