98 R20 mistral

[Crash bandicoot]

I brought this from an auction a few years ago, and it's undergone a fair bit since so here's a bit of a what happened then till now.

picked it up for 2 grand, with what was thought to be damaged transfer case, no 4wd...the fact being it had probably never been off road in it's life and most likely never had the 4wd engaged since it rolled off the ship, well that was my thinking and what i had bet on being the problem when i brought it.

First job was to get the 4wd to engage, no amount of wrestling with the lever was going to move it, so off with the selector, pair of vice grips and gentle tapping on the case with a hammer got it moving...eventually.

Then a cheap winch, 400 hundred from super cheap, ya cant really complain for a 9500 lbs with all the accessories.


The bumper subframe was unbloted and a winch mounting plate made up from 8mm plate, winch fitted then the plastic bumper shell trimmed to fit around it.


back on with nudge bar for now, only issue was no room for the solenoid pack atop the winch so was recessed into the grill on the opposite side from the trans cooler.

[Crash bandicoot]

NExt up came some ROH steel rims with muddies, rims were 400 the tyres a freebie


then the injector pump started to fail, hesitating at poor performance so out with the new in with the old, didn't even service it, just unbolted it off the older terrano engine, modded the plunger then put it straight into the mistral.

failed pump out on the bench


new...errr old one in


IT was surprising easy to do, just had to remove quite a bit to get too it........remove the battery, unbolt the power steering pump, unbolt the vacuum pump from below the injector pump unbolt the inlet manifold, remove the radiator over flow bottle..
Since i had no dial gauge at the time i unbolted the complete adjuster bracket for the timing from the engine block and left it attached to the pump to give me a pretty close(to where it needs to be) timing setup.

then the front timing cover over the sprocket for the pump , a flat plate with two holes to pull the sprocket of the shaft undid the three smaller bolts holding the pump along with fuel and injector lines.

Only thing now is i had no tachometer signal and had to wire up the fuel stop and cold start solenoids on the back of the mechanical pump.

The timing is marked pretty clearly, just line up the single Z on the drive sprocket to the double ZZ's on the injector pump sprocket and reverse the whole proccess.

[Crash bandicoot]

The accelerator cable wasnt to hard either, basically take out the ETI fly by wire throttle assemble from under the dash, strip it so its just the hinge and the pedal, unblot the blanking plate off the fire wall and install the cable from the terrano, adjust as per normal...bit of a tight fit beside the brake boost er though


Any one ever looked at the price of a dual battery controller... got a spare 4 pin relay and an old startermotor laying around..

I wanted too run twin batteries regardless just for security's sake when out in the bush etc.. after deciding that this was still going to be a budget build up truck google came to the rescue with this diagram..



basically i cut the solenoid off the starter motor body and bolted it in a easily accessible place, grabbed the battery cables from a wrecked MR2, some crimp on connectors, a relay switch and the oil pressure switch off an old engine and wired it per the diagram.

the difference is unreal, it is doubling the amps to the starter and not even half a revolution and it fires up.

the unfortunate down side to going back to a mechanical pump is the spagetti junction of redundant wiring that now invades the engine bay, I didn't want to just hack out the wired with no use any more so in the event i decide to pull the dash or engine for any othe reason i will remove the whole loom in one piece...but anyway with this start solenoid with the fork and spring removed to make it easy for the current to engage it.

[Crash bandicoot]

I get cheap fuel, the only catch is it may have some sediment or water in it, even though i let the containers settle before using it i installed a second filter just to be sure.


Being limited to 2-3 inches of lift wiithout going crazy and doing a sas conversion or body lift blocks etc the next obvious one on the to-do list was the snorkel.

I wasn't satisified with A: the design or B: the price for a R20 PPE snorkel so out with the welder and some 3 inch exhaust.

The 3 inch 90 degree bend was scolloped to mach the profile of the air box, and then the air box cut to match to allow for the use of a factory part number air filter, this also doubled the potential volume of air able to reach the filter over the factory arrangement.

My front gaurds aren't really straight anymore so out with the grinder and a hammer/block of wood

[Crash bandicoot]

THe roof racks were made from aluminium stacking ranch slider frames nice and sturdy and fixed to the roof with tec screws. 6 in each

nice in strong im 90 kgs and can stand on one without any flex, the front one has LED lights fitted.

My wife works for a display and advertising co' and used to bring home all sorts of goodies from promotion stands, one of them being over 400, 4 volt pure white 5mm LED's so for three nights i spent soldering over 200 of these lil buggers together in sets of 3 then wiring them in parallel then i made some cases to fit between the roof rack and the roof of the truck, just to get some idea of how bright they are this is my truck with them on...and my normal 55/90W headlights on full beam.

[Crash bandicoot]

lifted.

The lift kit for these chassis can cost an arm and a leg and some skinned knuckles if you buy the complete set.
I went for RAW shocks all round, calmini UCA's along with re indexed front torsion rods and poly spacers for the rear coils springs, I can now fit my head between the tyre and the gaurdyes, my head is now a unit of measurment
the after market uca's correct the extreme angle the ball joints would have been on and somewhat correct the negative camber that occurs when raising IFS trucks, some shiming of the inner bolts are required still if lifting the full 3 inches.


below is a pick of the factory arms and inner bushes(never been replaced in there life.)

The surf beside has a two inch lift and running true 32 inch tires (just for comparison.)

[Crash bandicoot]

When things started getting serious and just before a video of me sliding down hill into tree appeared on youtube (cheers nick )
It was decided the front was in need of some serious protection from the idiot(me ) behind the wheel.




the bar was built off the previously made winch mount(8mm) this has its advantages as I found out when i hit the tree, it cracked the bull bar but still left the winch and its mounts undamaged so i could still use it without the fear of ripping the front off the truck

[Crash bandicoot]

once the ETI pump had been replaced the ECU had lost a few crucial inputs it needed to run the auto trans properly...needless to say it was easier to just biff out the auto trans ecu and manualise that aswell.



DPDT switch with line pressure dump and lockup, I wont go into any detail, that particular mod has been covered for the nissan trans many a time.

[Crash bandicoot]

On Board Air

nothing beats a 300 dollar shop brought cigarette lighter plug in compressor like some DIY, 30 bucks and some ingenuity.

after puncturing the A/C radiator whilst out 4wding gave me the excuse i needed to convert the A/C pump into an air compressor...after all it is just a compressor.
But unlike normal air compressors the one bolted to your japanese SUV's need constant lubrication to stop them seizing...

the trick was to feed it the oily air from the engine's misty blow by then get it to recirculate back to the sump once it condensed back into liquid.

For those with hawk like vision you may have spotted an rather large line sneaking up toward the firewall beside the two fuel filters in the post above, on it are a bunch of fittings including a recirculation valve and one that leads to a seperation tank before it heads to the main tank in the back of the truck(which happened to be what was a large fire extinguisher at one point.
below is a rough scetch, although changed slightly in design, what you dont see is the seperator(just like the normal one on a car only made of steel and designed to take 140 odd psi)

start by hard wiring the AC's clutch via a relay and a dash switch. you will need to bypass the low and high pressure switches, i was going to use the high pressure switch from the ac system but it was designed to open at to higher pressure.

the only thing i had to buy was the saftey pressure release valve which is currently set to open at 110psi and dumps back to 80 psi before closing again.
at 1000 (engine)rpm it can maintain its discharge via the air line when pumping tyres/ blowing out air filters etc

what would be the return line from the ac heat exchanger is now the pump intake, plumb this into the engine breather between the rocker cover and the air intake. stops dust and water etc too from getting into the pump.

the pressure side needs to go to a cansiter (steel that can withstand pressure) full of fine stainless steel mesh(no pot scrubbing material either people)
an inlet and two outlets are required...and this is the tricky bit...with one outlet going to the intended air resiviour, the other needs to be at the bottom to allow any oil to drain...how ever the trick is in a pressure valve where the air pressure in the line keeps the valve shut holding the oil in the botom of the canistor only releasing it back to the engine sump when the line pressure hits zero, thus opening the valve and letting any oil caught in the mesh to drain out.

I got my saftey release valve and the recirculation valve from manawatu air on tremaine ave.

[klompy]

Well done, certainly not the pick for most people for a tougher 4wd but you seem capable at doing a variety of trades to get it were it is today.

[Crash bandicoot]

Got around to sticking the 2wd navara draglink and tie rods in today, man what a difference in the handling, doesn't feel like your land yachting kept all the R20's tie rods for when i get around to either sourcing some of josh's adjusters or bribing the engineers at work to turn some up for mine., but for now with some of the acute angle./stress off the steering it may last longer then half a day out in the bush.

[hamboy]

What does the warrant man think of the welded idler arm?

[Crash bandicoot]

What does the warrant man think of the welded idler arm?

haven't had an issue as it was his idea so we could at least stop it flexing or moving to give a wheel alignment for it's new shoes, then it was trailer ed home.
I have a billet steel one coming to replace it from the U.S of A

[Crash bandicoot]

Brought some new shoes for the truck.


Made up a rear bar for the truck during the week
using 90mm Diameter galv pipe with a 3 ml wall. , still deciding how to do the light surrounds, or just buy new led rear lights

[Crash bandicoot]

had some bends left over from other projects so added more to the front too

[De-Ranged]

have you chopped the rear panels ?

Love the front bar

[Crash bandicoot]

have you chopped the rear panels ?

Love the front bar

The not so distant future plans are a double cab ute conversion, going to chop the whole back off it and build a tray, so no haven't bothered with the rear qauters...that and the chassi rails are lower then the body at the back anyway.

[Crash bandicoot]

Got the front additions finished off today



along with installing a thermostatic switch into the radiator for the electric fans. the current to do list is almost complete, just got to get around to putting the feet on my current rims and installing the idler arm when it arrives.

[lax2wlg]

Looking good crash.
That front bar is tough as hell

[Crash bandicoot]

got the new shoes fitted today



had to fold the seams back on the wheel arch. But other wise clear nicely.

[Crash bandicoot]

made up some long tie rod adjusters from two sets of hexagonal adjusters,

Cut one set in half and then cut some of the thread off four old and abused tie rods and threaded them all together to match then grooved the ends where they screwed together and ran the welder around them.


Power steering box swap went well, stripped the old box, needle bearings included and packed the shaft in grease then reassembled the lower half leaving the the cylinder and input shaft out then made up a blanking plate and glued and bolted that on,

Then slotted the holes and bolted it up, will make up a better washer setup when i get around to it.

[Sheepy]

Is this road driven, You may want to check the legality of cutting and welding steering and suspension components. Mean little truck though, the front bar is awsesome.

[derk]

what's the new steering box off, could you redrill and plate/crush tube the chassis instead of elongating the steering box holes?

[Crash bandicoot]

Is this road driven, You may want to check the legality of cutting and welding steering and suspension components. Mean little truck though, the front bar is awsesome.

Doesnt matter. They are steel notcast. Easier to slot holes.

[Sheepy]

Is this road driven, You may want to check the legality of cutting and welding steering and suspension components. Mean little truck though, the front bar is awsesome.

Doesnt matter. They are steel notcast. Easier to slot holes.

WOF rules state that you must not cut or weld any suspension components. The steering box mod is easy to hide, but the tie rod modification will cause you grief, same with that idler.... Talk to a certifier would be my advice. As stated I'm not trying to cause shit, just giving you a heads up.

[Crash bandicoot]

Is this road driven, You may want to check the legality of cutting and welding steering and suspension components. Mean little truck though, the front bar is awsesome.

Doesnt matter. They are steel notcast. Easier to slot holes.

WOF rules state that you must not cut or weld any suspension components. The steering box mod is easy to hide, but the tie rod modification will cause you grief, same with that idler.... Talk to a certifier would be my advice. As stated I'm not trying to cause shit, just giving you a heads up.

it's a moot point now its a club truck. too much has gone into strenghtening up the chassi and driveline to go down that route.

[Sheepy]

ahh yea that was my first question.

[Crash bandicoot]

well i should qualify, it'll be road legal for as long as the inspector will give it a WOF, after that it will be trailer queen 101.

But if it means having to strip out the modded parts and put the factory whipped butter steering and paper mache upper arms back in then they can go stick it, because clearly the reason we modify these things is to make them stronger,
If what i had done today was done on factory steering i would have been dragin it out of that mud ole with its front wheels cross eyed and back wards onto a trailer with in the first 15minutes of leaving the road.

If some Fwit in a suit is going to dictate exceptions to common sense then this world is f*cked.

I understand the concept of the LVVTA, i have been there, saftey first for you and the public but still have fun with your motor vehicle.

i went through the hoops to get a 600hp at the wheels LN56 nissan skyline powered hilux road legal.
I did it all my self and i was 18 at the time, the only comment the certifier had to say was to bolt a plate to the cross member under the engine so in the event an engine mount fails the engine wouldnt fowl the front driveline and steering.

and what annoys me the most is we sit here on a our laptops/ desktops/ i phones and tablets pointing out potential issues with each others trucks and yet half the WOF issuers in this country wouldn't know what the f they were looking at if it hit them in the face.

go figure.

[Crash bandicoot]

For those wondering ,tyhe issue being can you, or can you not weld cast...well you can weld cast and you can do it safely and correctly, you just have to know how to do it right, And if it is such an issue with the D21 nissan Idler arm then why can you bend them with a 14 inch bar, they are as soft as cheese, and anyone who has studied even an iota of metallurgy will know if its that soft, it aint brittle, it ain't going to crack when ya weld it.

as for the tie rods, well that is pretty damn obvious if you can make the tie rod ends as short as possible and the 22mm thick hexagonal adjuster as long as possible you are not going to bend them any times soon, especially when the adjuster has had threaded rod wound right through it and the tie rod ends trimmed to fill the void inside completely, they are solid from one end to the other. each section with 45mm of threaded rod in the end of each joining them together. make's your factory ones look like trinkets.

IF it gives me the satisfaction of being able to plough it into a mud hole with out consideration or thought for any damage to it and know it will come out the other side still driving straight, then that's the way it will be, if the law doesn't like it, that's for them to say, and for me to put on a trailer. till that day, i will drive it too, play in and drive home from said mud holes

[Mattman]

Good post