Offroad-Express

Gidday am a 70series cruiser driver looking at joining the darkside of the force and getting a 89 Safari grandroad lwb. Can anyone give me a quick run down on engine funnies with these eg, do they have mechanical timing like a 13bt or a belt like a hilux?
Are the manual transmissions reliable? What are the diffs like? And what funnies should I look out for when test driving it?
Has anyone seen the one at Ray Mcleans in chch?
Cheers

Na, it's not the dark side, it's the light side, pretty bullet proof. Timing is all done by gears. Never seen a manual trans die, they are a wee bit hard on clutches if you turbo them. Never seen a diff give trouble. Maintanence costs can be a little bit higher than some, two oil filters and over 10 litres of oil, and they do like to be serviced regularly. The rocker shafts can wear if oil chages aren't kept up but it's not a biggy, only makes them a bit hard to set tappets correctly and a new shaft from Nissan is only $180 or so. The engines are quite noisy mechanically so bear this in mind when looking at one.

Do you know much about the auto transmissions?

as in engines filters need service regularly check they run in to high gear and overdrive , my brothers cost him a bit but he charged out and brought it ,

Mine is an auto, the auto's are incredibly strong if looked after, they do tend to clap out at around the 100,000km mark, electrical solenoids can fail and bugger the trans. They are expensive to rebuild,around the 3-3.5 grand mark. Make sure a good trans cooler is fitted and you can wire up a switch to lock the torque convertor in all gears except 1st and reverse, although they can be made to lock in those gears with a valve body mod. I've had both and after the auto I'll never go back to a manual.

The only weak point on them is an auto, seen many die and been converted to manuel (same price as fixing the auto).
The only manuel I've seen die spent 4 hours on a dyno then drove 100 kms with no oil in it. The diffs are almost on parr with a ford 9 inch. Non turbos are pritty gutless especilly with 35's on, so are the factory turbo ones. If you want one with grunt put an after market turbo on a none turbo.

GFo for it. I've got an 89 4.2standard motor, give it heaps of shit, but I look after it. Do the oil changes every 5000km and she will look after you back. It is all the add on's that crap out, alternator, starter, brake booster, clutch master, fuel pump, but then goes for any motor. Has this one got a factory rear locker?
Al

What sort of fuel economy can you expect from one open road. Im getting about 12 litres per hundred km with my 13BT 3.4 turbo at the mo. Taz has got one he says the timing is out on it? That would be I guess injector pump timing? hard to fix? or something more sinister? The first one I was looking at sold.

I'm getting around 13km/ltr with my Safari.. then again it has a 3 inch lift running 35's and carrying a ton of recovery gear...
(non turbo 4.2)

Did i just read that right? 13km/L??? That's 7.6L/100km which is on a par with the new euro diesel hatch backs! So for 60L of diesel do you get 780kms? F&*k that's good!

Please correct me if i'm wrong

I haven't really worked out the fuel economy in my pig used 2/3 of a tank to go from CHCH to Reefton but only 1/2 tank coming back. On the trail it runs for several days on a tank full. Must work it out one day.
Al

albundy wrote:I haven't really worked out the fuel economy in my pig used 2/3 of a tank to go from CHCH to Reefton but only 1/2 tank coming back. On the trail it runs for several days on a tank full. Must work it out one day.
Al

they must have huge ass tanks in them, i put $50 of diesel in mine the other day and it didnt even get close to halfway.... my old surf was less than that to fill it from 'E'....

Cost me about 90 bucks to fill. It is only 60l tank but I am sure they have a reserve of about 10l. I suspect this as when I drained the tank once when on E for a few days, it drained just under 10l. ButI have thias massive dent in the bottom which I reckon has reduced the capacity by about 5l.
Al

ike wrote:Did i just read that right? 13km/L??? That's 7.6L/100km which is on a par with the new euro diesel hatch backs! So for 60L of diesel do you get 780kms? F&*k that's good!

Please correct me if i'm wrong

Think some Safaris have 95L tanks. Might only be some LWB models.

albundy wrote:I haven't really worked out the fuel economy in my pig used 2/3 of a tank to go from CHCH to Reefton but only 1/2 tank coming back. On the trail it runs for several days on a tank full. Must work it out one day.
Al

Costs me $20 more to go from Reefton to Chch or vice versa with the roof rack on than without. Probably more than that these days actually with the price of Diesel.

ike wrote:Did i just read that right? 13km/L??? That's 7.6L/100km which is on a par with the new euro diesel hatch backs! So for 60L of diesel do you get 780kms? F&*k that's good!

Please correct me if i'm wrong

No I'm wrong.. 8.75km/ltr... 525km from 60ltrs..sorry my oops