hizuke project

[new2zukes]

well a little set back to the project, have found out the head gasket is gone thats why i couldnt get the truck running on lpg it didnt have the vacum to pull the lpg.(i think) the head has a small dimple where the leak was but am getting it planed tomorrow, will also plane a little more off to get higher compresion as lpg is higher octane so can be run with higher compression.(so im told by an lpg/machanic guy) will be getting head gasket on monday as ripco had none in stock. have beefed up a few bits n pieces and put the back on the body all painted and installed, forgot the photos but will take some tomorrow night if i remember. also had a wee pillage on the weekend dropped 10l of oil onto the floor of the old mans workshop so spend a few hours scrubbing and waterblasting it to get it looking a little more respectable. lucky he went away for weekend.hehehe well thats all till i get the motor running again then il update again.

[new2zukes]

Best way Ive found (with new ones anyway) is to put it in a vice, fill the reservoir, hold the outlets closed with your fingers an push the pushrod by hand an just bleed it as you normally would by letting you fingers off the outlets with the pushrod fully in, then block them when you let the rod out.
If that doesnt work ya might have to try another cylinder.

Keep up the good work, youve been makin good progress cant wait to see pics and or vidos of it running

hey thanks for the info it worked a treat, only i kept it in the truck and put fingers over outlet works perfect till i ran out of fluid

[new2zukes]

well took the head to get planed today and he said not to take any more off the head other than just skimming it. but at least its not guna cost the earth to get it skimmed. also took some pics, not much to see but there is something there.
painted and installed back.

pic of head off, lots of room in the engine bay now:)


also if anyone knows what is good stuff to use as inner guards for the front to stop the s**t getting into the engine bay then id love to know and where to get it/price. got told some sort of flexy plastic but that was $200 a sheet. anyway im picking head up tomorrow and the gasket kit then will be installing it on wednesday, then hopefully get the lpg guy to start the truck up before weekend.

[UBZ]

you could use plastic butcher barrels , or plastic 44 gallon drums, the big blues ones.

[lilpigzuk]

also if anyone knows what is good stuff to use as inner guards for the front to stop the s**t getting into the engine bay then id love to know and where to get it/price. got told some sort of flexy plastic but that was $200 a sheet. anyway im picking head up tomorrow and the gasket kit then will be installing it on wednesday, then hopefully get the lpg guy to start the truck up before weekend.

Plastix Engineering Products in East Tamaki do sheets of plastic. For memory the size was 1200mm x 600mm (may do bigger again, but that was the size I got) was approx $14 a sheet. Heaps of colours too. Think is was around 1.5mm thick so strong enough and flexible

[new2zukes]

thanks all for info bit far to go to auck and id say freight would be a killer.
also got the head back from the machinist and looks great but got a m8 to pull the valves off. they need a bit of machineing, in fact quite a lot of machining but got all the seals and gaskets to fix it all. so back to the machine shop again tomorrow then hopefully thats all the money i need to spend on the motor. cant complain really got the 3y motor and box/t/case for $150 gasket set $108 head planing $50 alternator $90 extractors $400 fuel injection manifold $100 lpg kit $150 lpg tank $150 power steering pump $50 so all in all the motor and bits n peices to get it running is $1248 mmmm not really what i wanted to spend. still gota pay for valve machineing and a few other small bits the price above doesnt include radiator stuff. mmm this was suposed to be a cheap build doesnt really sound like it to me.

[meatc]

mmm this was suposed to be a cheap build doesnt really sound like it to me.

No such thing when you go for full rebuild. I havent really added mine up but with the air locker now sitting in the front diff it would be over 10x your engine costs. When I started it was in credit as I sold the zuk bits for more than I paid fo rthe new stuff.

But hey once you get the last bits sorted it should be good toy. Gonna go for a play on Sunday avo (if I get the locker finished) as a final run before Nor West, come up if you are running.

[new2zukes]

mmm this was suposed to be a cheap build doesnt really sound like it to me.

No such thing when you go for full rebuild. I havent really added mine up but with the air locker now sitting in the front diff it would be over 10x your engine costs. When I started it was in credit as I sold the zuk bits for more than I paid fo rthe new stuff.

But hey once you get the last bits sorted it should be good toy. Gonna go for a play on Sunday avo (if I get the locker finished) as a final run before Nor West, come up if you are running.

well im gettting head/valves back from being machined tomorrow and hopefully go round to seans tomorrow after work and get the head back together then will assemble motor friday and try get the lpg to work if i can get it to work then i will go c ron kelly on sunday to get the motor running. but will keep you posted about when its guna be driveable.

[new2zukes]

well at last it goes, had a little problem with air locks to start with so put a bleeder on top of the motor.

then found out the thermostat wasnt letting enough water into the motor so out that comes. now works great no overheating in fact it gets too cold if i put both fans on.
im still not sure about the ride height but it will do for now see how it handles dans fun rally trials (i can see some panel beating coming up) but here is a few pics of what it looks like up against my stock zuke.


i put the other seat in and put the belts in, also mounted my spade:) cant go on a trip without one hehehe. sometimes it can be your most usefull recovery tool.

also had to replace booster and master cylinder so here is them in place, had a prick of a job getting it to fit as you might have guessed sammy ones are differant to 413 ones so 413 body + sammy booster = trouble.

when i went for a bit of a drive i realised how anoying the coil springs are, creaking scraping metal on metal. but im sure i can get used to it. love the sound of the truck sounds mint as unfortunatly i have no vid camera to show you it in action but it moves over rocks that my little zuke wouldnt even think about. the aproach angle is good with the new springs in front, they are terrano rear springs from a 4cylinder model swb. well think thats all that i need to tell.

[niblik]

creakin metal on metal from the coils? whys that? are they not captive?

good work dude.. my only suggestion is that vision may not be so great, so you may need the bonnet down a touch..

[new2zukes]

good work dude.. my only suggestion is that vision may not be so great, so you may need the bonnet down a touch..

hehehe thought someone would comment about that
rears dont creak but fronts do as they are now captive but they have the shock in place to stop them falling out, i have apropriate seating mounts for them i just havent got around to putting them on got a bit more little bits done today will post up progress tomorrow.

[new2zukes]

well got a few little bits n pieces done today.
finished off the dash to finish off protection from battery and lpg stuff. also covered up the grill on the top of the body and covered up switch board.



also mounted some water containers for radiator there is 9 litres there (4.5l per side)

and fixed my tool boxes in place

[meatc]

Coooooooolllllllll

Bout time you got it finished.

When we going for a play , (best not next weekend, after Ive been away all this weekend)

The coils will squeak mine do but you get used to it. Cant wait to see it in action.

[new2zukes]

hehehe ye i already got used to squeeks lol we have a club run on the 18th of this month i think and dans fun rally is also some time this month but need to get in contact with dan about this. will have to go for a hoon somewhere to give it a good thrashing. hope it starts raining soon as i dont wana break anything on the hard ground hope you had a good time on weekend.

[new2zukes]

well went to get my cooling system sorted and got it working good but got told to drive down the creek to test it out mmm well this is what happened.

[motorhead]

Bummer, did it survive? Might want to move the radiator overflow tank inside the cage as not to knock it off when the Zuke wants to take a nap again .

Nice job overall

[new2zukes]

hey yep have moved overflow tank inside a litte and yep it survived, but for some reason when i was on that steep angle facing forwards it took all the water away from the motor so it got hot VERY quick. also oil presure wasnt too good at that angle. only breakage was mud guard on the left side but that was going to break anyway. also found out im going to have to redo my rear drive shaft as it viburates shit loads and has way too much movement in the double carden joint it is also a bit out of ballance. but i will do dans fun rally then i will make a new driveshaft. got a mate with a tube cutting tool so i can cut it dead square. apart from overheating on that angle it went awsome couldnt be more happy with the performance suspension works mint as.

[meatc]

Nice

Good to see having extra width isn't goin to stop you having a lay down.

See you next sunday.

[new2zukes]

well did a little work on the truck in the last few weeks. mounted front guards, welded on some winch rope horns. wow thats it bugger thought i did more than that, ah well its ready for our first wet run for a very long time due to the drought. but here are some pics of what ive done.
oh and some club members have come up with a name for my truck "The Grasshopper"

[new2zukes]

well did a little mods to the truck after its first thrashing.
fitted a 115l/min electric water pump.


also made the airflow into the radiator better.

and replaced the winch isolator switch which wasnt working.its rated at 500amps

am also going to order a set of 35x13.5r15 mudzilla's

[new2zukes]

well just bought an 8274 on trademe, winch is in great condition works well, but was wondering how i can find out the hp of the motor as i have a 4.6hp warn motor here and am wondering if its worth swaping it for the one on there atm. only real problem i have with the winch is it sits a little too high for the bonnet so i will be cutting a whole and makeing a bump in its place. then i will be putting a bar/hoop on the front bar so if/when i roll over i wont squash the winch.

[new2zukes]

well finally got some photos of me new tires on the truck. unfortunatly i haevent been able to take any pics in the daylight.

[You Get That]

Righto i am currently doing the same thing to my zuk and have a few questions.
I drilled new holes closer in on the front diff mounts and the springs still wont fit? How much bending out did your front springs have?
Also how are your 35in tires handeling with stock transfer and diff ratios? is it tough on your clutch?
Thanks

[meatc]

Righto i am currently doing the same thing to my zuk and have a few questions.
I drilled new holes closer in on the front diff mounts and the springs still wont fit? How much bending out did your front springs have?
Also how are your 35in tires handeling with stock transfer and diff ratios? is it tough on your clutch?
Thanks

I can answer the bit about the springs. He didn't as he has gone to coils not leafs. If you have a narrow track you cant do the drill oew holes things. On the wide track models 1988.5 onwards you can. they are about 50mm a side wider in the spring mounts.

[new2zukes]

Righto i am currently doing the same thing to my zuk and have a few questions.
I drilled new holes closer in on the front diff mounts and the springs still wont fit? How much bending out did your front springs have?
Also how are your 35in tires handeling with stock transfer and diff ratios? is it tough on your clutch?
Thanks

well i would say you havent read all of my thread as if you did you would notice im running hilux running gear (gearbox, transfer case,motor, diffs) as for getting bigger tires to fit you can either do alot of cutting of guards and spin the centres on your rims to give a bigger offset so tires dont rub on springs or run wheel spacers then the problem will be spinning them if you still have a stock motor. the list goes on so if you want a little more advice start up a build thread (if you already havent) and we can give you some advice. hope this helps.

martin

[You Get That]

martin

Did you end up running the double joint in the rear driveshaft at this end or transfer end?

[new2zukes]

hey yep ran it for about 1 run then ripped it out due to bad vibes then put a single joint in and its now all good. i would only run a double carden joint if it was the only joint left on earth.

[new2zukes]

well its been a long time since a bit of an update as to whats been happening. so i have been having bad issues with death wobble at 50ish km/h and i have been changing bits and pieces here and there, panhard rod remounted, new front shock mounts and spring mounts as they were ripping off the thin chassis, remount winch forward about and inch as the motor was just hitting on the winch when i slammed on my breaks (the noise wasnt too flash.) am in the proccess of changing my pinion/hub angle as it was sitting at about level and as i dont have a flat concrete floor anymore i had to use the sloping driveway and use a spirit level and put blocks under the wheels so i can get the truck sitting level. then the big issue of getting the bolts out of the mounts easy right.... wrong they were well and truly jammed in there had to cut them out in the end, first i tryed a small hammer then a medium sized hammer then the big sledgy. also mounted front guard and a few other bits n bobs so i can hopefully compete in the winch challenge next year, all i need now is a co-driver hehehe. also got some welding cable thats pretty big so i cna rewire my winch with duel batteries, also put a power steering cooler on.