FT’s Patrol Project

[Flying Torquewrench]

True Rick, but they only hold the sump on. The sump is held in place with 30 bolts so with A4 stainless steel I can’t see there being an issue.

On yield strength and proof strength they should be equal to 8.8 steel.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

For anybody looking at tensile strengths of the various fastener options there are.:thumb2

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Stainless steel.

 

[solarman216]

Numbers befuddle me, all I do know is I use lots of SS screws and nuts and bolts due to being in a seaside town with screws I find they shear very easily, with nuts and bolts they pick up and weld themselves together only to shear off when attempting to undo them, I am told that you should use different SS grades one for bolt and another for the nut but that rather defeats the object of using SS, I have tried various lubes but none made very much difference, you should be OK with your sump bolts though as they are going into cast, just do not over tighten them, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Ah that is very interesting Rick. It is good to hear about real life experience. The reason I choose SS is to stop them corroding and shearing off. I may need to revisit this.

I can’t remember what purpose the locating dowel has. If I remember correctly it is only a locating pin for the shield but not 100% sure. If it has a more important job I may have to replace it with a steel one. However the head is aluminium so steel will react with that.

Truth to be told, I am not that familiar with the different metals. Hence why I posted the numbers of the various metals. Not to prove that I am right but more to show why I came to a certain conclusion. Even though that might be the wrong conclusion.

Unfortunately aircraft maintenance is all about part numbers. Any item you need, to the tiniest screw has a part number and that is what you use. Hence, there is no real need to know the properties of the various metals.

 

[solarman216]

Nothing wrong with the SS cap screws for your sump may even be beneficial re access, as for the dowel it locates the eccentric roller plate, looks like your original one is a roll pin, I think you will find you can cut it off close to the head with a mini disk cutter and a 1mm blade it should still be long enough if you turn it round and drive it into your new head on mine I only need it to protrude 5mm or so but check first as yours may be different, if it is then for what the pin does I would thread the hole and screw in a bit of studding, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Initially I thought that it was a roll pin but it is a solid pin. More like a dowel.
As the head is scrap anyway I was going to remove this pin. Either drill some holes around it or cut some groves with a cutting disc.

I have found another useful table for anyone that is looking to combine two different materials, ie a new fastener.

Where possible pick the material closest to your base material as that will result in the least amount of reaction between materials. Unless a coating etc. Can be applied that keeps the materials from touching each other.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

The pin has been freed. :clap A couple of cuts with the angle grinder and it came out with no issues.

As expected it is a solid pin. I am either putting this one into the new head or buy a bit of 5mm round bar and make my own. Ready made pins in mild steel seem ridiculously expensive for what they are. The places where I buy my fasteners only do A2 stainless steel options and with the head being ALU, I am not sure that is a good mix.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Not so good news.

Last week I send my injectors off to Diesel Bob to be reconditioned. Normally they are very good and make contact within a few days with a price for the repair. (They just reconditioned the injectors in my digger)

As I hadn’t heard from them I called them today. First thing he told told me was that the car must have done in excess of 150K miles as the injectors are in a very poor state. They dribble instead of spray.

They can recondition them but are waiting to hear from their supplier on a price for the parts. Hence, why I hadn’t heard from them. I am getting the distinct impression that this is not going to be cheap.

In the meantime I have contacted the supplier in Australia to see how much a new set of injectors would set me back. If the difference is only a couple of hundred quid then I may as well go brand new. Waiting to hear back from them.

This engine must run beautifully when it is finished as I am surprised it ran at all.

 

[solarman216]

Mmmm I got a set of new elements for my injectors for£80 the set perfect, just had to shim them up to get the correct breaking pressure, as for the pin A2 stainless is better than the steel pin that was original, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Rick, may I ask where you got the new elements for your injectors?

 

[solarman216]

Ebay, I will look at my purchase history later and let you know, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Thank you Rick. Your input is as always greatly appreciated. :thumb2:thumbs

 

[Banshee]

I have to say it mate, I've decided that after following your progress, I'm not going to be putting a 2.8 back into mine, I've read horror story after horror story not including our personal experiences.

My head is still away at the engine shop, they have successfully extracted 1 plug but 2 are in there solid and they have hit a snag, not sure on their next moves, I've made it clear that I'll not be paying a penny more than the £140 quoted and if it amounts to anymore than that then they are welcome to scrap the head.

In the meantime I'll be plodding on with the Terrano refurb in prep for my first break this yeah in July with my best mates :grouphug

 

[solarman216]

Sorry no longer available, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

To be honest Zac, I disagree with you. I think that the basic engine is as good as any. The main problem with a lot of engines is the lack of maintenance and spare parts.

This engine is just over 23 years old of which I have owned it for 12 years. During the time it has been with me it has received its normal maintenance as prescribed by Nissan. However what happened to it before I bought it, I have no idea. I knew about the difficulties with the glow plugs. Hence why I have never tried to remove them. Now I have a new head, the glow plugs will be coming out every 6 months to be reinstalled with some copper grease. At least I will not be in the same position ever again.

According to the injector place my injectors were showing wear which was normally only seen on injectors with more then 150k miles on them. Even though the truck has only done 126k miles. Together with the wear on the piston rings I think that this engine has spent a lot of its time idling. As that would be the only reason to justify the wear and tear on the engine.

What makes this so bloomin expensive is the lack of parts availability. Piston rings can be bought from an aftermarket provider but they are fore a normal RD28T engine and not the RD28Ti engine. To get rings for this engine you need to go genuine. As the UK dealer says that Nissan no longer make them you have to look further afield. Australia could get them within two days straight from Nissan.

If the glow plugs had come out without any issues and I would have been able to get all the parts aftermarket then it wouldn’t have cost much more then £800. But due to shoddy maintenance, wear that doesn’t correspond with the milage and the lack of parts has made it more expensive.

The problem with putting another engine in it is that you will hit the same snags in a few years time. That is of course if you put a Patrol engine in it. There are only 1171 Patrols left in the UK so no real reason for anybody to stock parts any longer. Apart from the normal service items.

If I would be changing engines then I would go for something more mainstream (Isuzu or Navara engine) At least you will guarantee parts availability for the foreseeable future.

Fingers crossed for your head. They didn’t charge me a penny as they didn’t complete the job. Hopefully you have more luck.


Rick, thank you for looking. I have found a whole set of injectors for £400 in Australia. Reconditioned, not new but done by a very well known company. Contacted them earlier today and they are also happy to provide the parts needed to recondition my injectors. Which should be a bit cheaper than sending injectors halfway round the world.

Also asked Nissan UK and they came back with just shy of £2000 for a full set!

 

[solarman216]

My daughter popped in today with her BMW, roof went down but would not come back up so she took it to BMW who manually got it back up and told her it needed a new hydraulic assembly in the boot £3500.00 ish, had a look and sure enough the unit was a bit water damaged, pulled the motor off which was not working and tried it direct on a battery, nothing till you flicked it and away it went, but after running in both directions for a short while it was clear it was intermittent, not having any switch cleaner to hand I gave it some denatured alcohol and ran it up, sorted, told her I will only charge her £1500 I got a funny look, Rick

 

[solarman216]

Re your engine and miles it has done, I cannot agree with the rubbish estimate from the injector company, there is no way you can tell how many miles an injector has done, it is all completely to do with ongoing maintenance, an injector and pump will be rubbish in less than 20k if fed bad fuel, on the other hand pump and injectors can and do last 500k plus if full attention to is paid to filter changes and good fuel with no water, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Your story about your daughter’s BMW shows that we can’t repair anything anymore. Or should I say, it is quicker to just replace items. At £3500 for a new motor you would expect a dealer to investigate the old one first. Where has customer service gone.

I have a colleague who used to work for BMW in their service department. All the mechanics are on a bonus scheme, the more jobs they complete in a day the higher their bonus. They had so many customers coming back because the initial job was rushed that they hired my colleague to deal with all the “returning” customers!! It kept him in a job.

Re my fuel injectors. It is not the first time that I heard about this 150k miles question. Several car makers advice that the injectors are replaced every 90K miles. Not checked, but replaced. Of course what you say regarding water etc is true but real life doesn’t work like that, as you know.

There will always be water in the fuel no matter what fuel you buy. Even if the fuel is free of water at the pump once it has been in your car for a night it will have water in it. Anything other then a full tank of fuel will lead to condensation forming in the tank and results in water in the fuel. So I can only assume that there is a rough way of telling how many miles an injector has done. Probably not a hard and fast rule but I suppose that if you recondition them every day that you develop a hunch.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Built up the head today and installed the camshaft so that I could measure the valve clearance. Considerable changes in shims are required but of course this is a new cylinder head. It could be that the old one was within limits.

The hunt for 32mm O/D shims has started.