Offroad-Express

Hello i am looking for some advice

Hiluxs have to many km, Nissan are wide and heavy (mate has one wicked off rd though)only have $4000 all up for now.I still want a bit of up and go so I am looking at getting a 93+ pajero 2.8 or 3.5 to do some light offroading ie up the beach fishing and some hunting tracks.I do like the idea of two batteries for a winch.

* whats the power difference like
*Are there any differences in the man or auto?
*how do people find river crossings in the 3.5
*are there any with LSD (how do you tell ?)diff lock hard to find.
* what are all the different diffs everyone is talking about
* do they need to be lifted (how much, easy-2hrs or hard-week?)
* any one model or km to look out for or avoid


as you can see a lot of questions, but ask a lot now play longer later

Thanks for any help

Hey skywise,

I had a 3.0 and I've got a 3.5 now. Had 33's on both of them. The flatmate has got a 2.8.

They all go pretty good. Mate of mine used to have the 2.5, it was pretty gutless (avoid). I'd rate the 3.0 and the 3.5 equally good off-road. The 3.0 sure is torquey, and usually cheaper too. The 3.5 is a bit of a revver, and makes more power at the top end which is nice for overtaking, but there's no real advantage offroad. However, I like the newer auto box that comes with the 3.5s and 2.8s; it's a bit snappier on the changes, and plucking reverse. The flatmate's 2.8 is surprisingly peppy.

As for lifting - if you've got a set of spring compressors, and you get you hands on a pair of springs for the rear, then you should have a couple of inchs of lift done inside three hours, not including a wheel alignment.

Apparently the LSD's have a sticker on them pertaining the the grade of oil the need. However, stickers don't last forever... My old 3.0 had an LSD, but it must have been worn out as it was rubbish. Swapped it for a locker.

Haven't done much wading apart for charging through mud puddles (deep enough to get muddy carpet). Never had any problems with ignition/cutting out. However, the alternator placement on the 3.5s is completely stupid, and I have had to do the bearings on it once already. The 3.0 had the alternator right up top.

As for diffs. On my old 3.0 I swapped the 4.875 diffs for 5.29 (from a diesel) after I put the 33" tyres on. This transformed the car, which had become pretty sluggish on the big tyres. Doesn't seem to be such a problem on the 3.5 I got now.

hey dude.

Two years ago I had exactly the same dilemma. I decided to spend around 4k and decided it had to have solid axles.

The BIGGEST piece of advice I can give is to simply find a bunch of 4wd's in your area within your price range (trademe!) and go test drive the shit out of them.

I went in wanting a hilux and realised quickly that 4k didn't get you much of one. They all seemed old, rusty and abused.
I then test drove a few and decided after rowing through the gears for 15minutes that they didn't have the power I wanted for a daily.

Mitsi's always seemed to be on trademe with blown transmissions or engines and were IFS so i put those out of my mind.

The LAST thing I wanted was a nissan safari (looked huge, heavy and like a piece of farm equipment) but after test driving one and looking at a few between 3.5 and 5k decided it was exactly what I needed.

The nissans also have the bonus of a very big reliable engine/drivetrain (the 4.2 is the one to get), a very good rear LSD (or locker if you are lucky) AND there is a plethora of good new and second hand upgrade parts for them (which you may lack with the mitsi's depending on where you want to go with it in the future)

with that said tho (sorry about going off on a nissan tangent ), only you have to drive and be happy with the thing- so make sure you don't limit yourself to one brand or model without driving them all first.

Thanks for the reply
i took an auto 2.8 for a drive yesterday ,it had a lot more go,height and better gears to than the 2.5 i had .one of the bigger problems is going to be finding one in good shape body wise, but with a few scratches and dings i wont have to worry about any more.

Is there danger signs motor wise to look out for ,witch oil leaks are really bad and hard to fix. one i looked at had 200 000 km on the clock.
what springs would you put in the back to give a bit (say40mm) lift .

Going to play with swb patrol on sat mate has just put a winch on it so not afraid to get stuck now .

Something like http://www.4wdbits.co.nz/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=810 would do the trick. If you're feeling rich you could get new (longer) shock for the rear to get a bit more droop.

I don't really know much about the diesels...

The IFS on a Pajero is pretty much bullet proof compared to a Surf or Vitara.

Accompanied with a coiled rear end they make a pretty capable 4x4 that has really nice road manners (unlike a solid axle truck such as Safari/Cruiser/Prado) and go really well on tyres up to 33". Any bigger and the drive line and steering components start to give trouble.

You will find 33"s are all you will ever need to get to the best hunting and fishing spots, in fact you would probably find 31's are more than adequate. Its only when you start driving dedicated 4x4 tracks that you need bigger tyre's as you will more than likely end up driving through ruts created by 35" or bigger tyre's on Cruiser and Safari's.

Another option's to look at are:

Isuzu Bighorn - 3.1 turbo diesel, coiled rear, IFS front, good solid trucks with nice road manners, available LWB & SWB

Nissan Terrano - 2.7 Turbo diesel, coiled rear, IFS front, cheap and heaps around for parts, indestructible engines, available 5 door only

Nissan Terrano 2/Mistral - 2.7 Turbo diesel, coiled rear, IFS front, cheap and heaps around for parts, indestructible engines, LWB & SWB

I will admit non of those look as good (4x4 like) as a Pajero though

Is it just the head that normally goes in the 2.8s or is there more to it. how do you do a compression test, are they easy to do on these.

Is there a cheaper way to lift (would the springs out of a lwb be taller )
I also have access to lath and engineer is it just a case extending the body mounts and adding longer bolts.

The 2.8 is a pretty strong motor, the bottom end is still used today in the 3.2 models. The heads yep, they will crack like any of the small diesels (except maybe the TD27). They are generally pretty reliable. The fuel pumps will/can leak that needs repaired and dealing with fuel pumps is never that cheap.

There are plenty of aftermarket parts for Pajero's dispite what some may say.

You can get bullbars, lift kits, torsion bars, sway abr disconnects, air lockers (front and rear), low range gears etc.

Running gear on them is pretty tough. Petrols tend to use a bit of oil (puff of smoke after idling - valve stem seals leak) but oil is cheap.

You may see a few advertised with a blown head or something as someone mentioned but a quick search and you know why - there are so many of them out there.