[simmoevo]

Hey guys. Got my rig sorted finally and now I can tell you all about it.

Bought a gq rb30 with 170,000km so was pretty stoked to find a low km one. Went to Noo Jee camping and realised that I had to do something about the power or lack of it. I had to sit in 2nd ringing the tits off it to get up the hill coming into Neerim from Noo Jee. So I started to collect bits and pieces for a turbo conversion. What I ended up with is a pretty neat install and a bit of power as well. I must admit not a bad job for a first timer.

Thats where the story goes a bit bad. I took it to a workshop that was local to have it tuned where the tuner assured me he has tuned GRA gear before with sucess, well he might have but not a turbo. So he gave it back "tuned" (more like untuned) and said lambda was a bit rich so I could give it some boost and be OK. So I drove it a bit skepticle for a day and decided to give it one good squirt and the turbo packed it in and bits of turbine were scattered all over the road. Good bye GT35!!

So I bought another turbo.

It now runs a t04e turbo with an a/r .50 compressor and a/r .63 turbine on 13psi. Gas research s400 mixer with GRA converter and apexi front mount cooler. Boost comes on at 2300 and really hits hard at 2800-3000. It is still very driveable but am yet to see what kind of economy I'm getting.

I had it tuned at PGS by James and it made a healty 170kwatw with 1052nm of torque in 3rd. I ended up running an MSD 6BTM ignition with boost retard set to 1 degee per psi to combat detonation and add economy. I also found out that I plumbed the vac advance into the plenum and was advancing the timing by 30degrees on idle (ooops), that what happens when you have no idea about distributors. He fixed all that.

Now I'm looking for some tyres and I'll be hitting the mud pretty soon. Hopefully I'll be able to come on a few gatherings and meet some of you and ave some fun on the tracks and a few pointers.

Thanks for reading

I'll try to post some photos as soon as I can work out how to do it. There we go.

The not so happy turbine

 

[GQ TANK]

Nice setup

 

[green troll]

Ouch.
Neat install bud.congrats

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[Jacket_1985]

cool, iv got a rb30 turbo atm. . . . . they go good,

 

[simmoevo]

Yeah. Its prety responsive especially with the weight of the car, the turbo comes on boost quite easily. I'm still a bit scared to give it heaps as its a brand new turbo and being chinese hasnt been run in. But geez it makes one hell of a whistle on boost! I suppose the beauty of the whole thing is if something was to happen to the engine its a $200 fix to put a new one in.

 

[simmoevo]

OK its been a while and just thought I'd share some photos of the troll after a full clean and detail since we are having such nice weather. I've added some 33"s and soon to come is a full 3" lift. She came up like brand new.

 

[simmoevo]

So Ive been pretty busy over christmas and have got the troll to a point where I'm finished with the engine and can start on the suspension. I made a set of rock sliders from 40nb black steel and so far from a few tests with a high lift jack they dont even flex but we'll see when i hit them hard (i'm pretty chuffed at how they came out) Ive added a snorkel, air box, central locking, alarm and imobalizer. Once the lift goes in I think I'll be finished with the mods.
Here are some pics:

Im not sure how the flexy hose is going to go. I plan on getting some aluminium pipe bent up for it but Im off on a 1500km trip this weekend so it will have to do. Still have to seal the box off as well with some epoxy resin.

These were piss easy to make but getting them to fit after welding them (warping) was a challenge but I eventually got there.

My lift will consist of EFS 3" springs, +11mm HD lower arms, box tube bump stop extensions, caster correction bushes, brake lines, brake bracket and ultima shocks. Hope thats all I need. So I wonder how much flex will come from this? Only time will tell.

 

[Mungrel]

Thats a neat install,
GQ looks great

 

[Heavensent]

That front grill looks cool, might have to do a similar style.

 

[Fordyce]

Videos?
Building a 30 forged bottom end with 25 head and a bit of port work atm keen to get it in there already

 

[Squalo]

Very nice! You have great attention to detail, it's the little things that make the difference.

I like the grille treatment too. Get a set of Mick's HID projectors and paint the reflector black with white LED angel eyes and it would look fantastic. Can you get clear lense front indicators for GQs? That would complete the monochrome look at the front.

 

[simmoevo]

Mmmmm Ill have a look into the headlights and try to make up something custom for them. im ripping off the bullbar when I get back from our trip to size up a winch cradle. hopefully I can fit a winch into it without having to cut the front plate then give it a coat of the same silver as the rock sliders.
On another note I just scored a spare working gearbox for $120 so now I can start to give it more beans more often. I was always scared of braking the box and have never found one for sale in Melbourne under $500. Is there places that can test a box?
Ill try to keep this thread updated but I get too excited when working on the troll and forget to take progress shots. It only when Im sitting back with a beer looking at what Ive just done that I remember to take photos. And if you cant tell Im a bit OCD about my cars looking clean, always have been. Im trying to train myself to just let it go brcause its a 4wd but I always find myself cleaning it once Im done making it dirty. I always get the comment "has it ever been offroad?" And it sorta ****s me a bit.

 

[Squalo]

It is insanely clean

A member here had this in his sig:

1. Get car as clean as possible.
2. Get car as dirty as possible.
3. Repeat

 

[Zookimal]

See how you go with the plastic hose. I couldn't get it to survive in the heat of a turbo RB30 engine bay. Looks like you'll have enough that if it melts near the turbo you can cut the melted bit off and reattach and make it through the trip.

 

[simmoevo]

Thaks for the advise. I wasn't sure it would last. I might use a silicon joiner and another pipe so there isn't as much heat transfer.

 

[simmoevo]

All sorted. Ive got about 10" of aluminium pipe on the turbo then to the flexy stuff. Cant see the hear making all the way there so it should be ok.

 

[fat pete]

thats a great job youve done there,ive only just finished gettn mine converted over to the vl injection system and am pretty happy so far with the difference its made with the power,june last year did a big trip towing the campertrailer and it was brilliant,did over ten thousand ks and no probs apart from a dizzy that **** itself,.im running duel fuel..i havnt done any real offroading yet so when i finally get her onto the sand of a beach and some decent bush tracks and hills ill see how it performs then,if im not still happy then ill chase up the bits like youve done and go down the turbo track..just pisses me that id have to lose my new extractors and probably also have to change my 2.5inch lukey exhaust system that i just put on,,we will see how it goes..cant wait..thanks for your write up on what you have done,very helpfull to us rb30 owners..thanks mate

 

[Neesmo31]

Very nice rig mate. Super clean.

 

[simmoevo]

OK time for an update. Last weekend I decided to give the donk some new spark plugs and do a general service only to be met by a seized plug which I snapped in the head as seen below.

Now I need a running car asap so I didn't have the time or money to build a new engine like I was planning to do so I found a running VL commodore a few street away that was for sale. So I bought it for $400.

Drove it home and it felt like a good runner even chirped the tyres a little. So I started ti rip out the engine from the Patrol and due to having done it before it only took me 2 hours. The fun begins with the VL engine on Friday, I'm expecting it to take a little longer due to the EFI gear which I have sold already and need to keep in one piece. Last night I had a bloke come to see the car and he bought it for what I got it for so I'm pretty happy with that. Not many people can do an engine swap and make $150, let me just say the wife is happy about that.

A few things I noticed when pulling the patrol engine apart was three plugs were corroded to the point of flakes falling off it. The intake runners had an oily gungy coating on the last two inches and the tops of the valves in the head were completely coated in this gungy stuff. What could it be, I dont vent my catch can into the intake and I don't run a PCV. Could it be LPG crap or my valve seals leaking?
I also noticed that the inside of my dump pipe and exhaust housing were coated in a fine red/brown dust. What could it be? So I started to think the LPG was causing it but I remembered the last 4x4 trip I went on following about 100 cars my air filter was caked in bunyip dust to the point it seized my BOV open from the inside and I had to take it apart to get it working again. I looked at my IC plumbing and it was coated with dust as well. I didn't realize how bad it was at the time but I think it had something to do with my loss in power and catch can breathing A LOT. The turbo had a 2mm coating inside the compressor housing as well which I have cleaned out now.

So hopefully I will have the new engine in by saturday night and get it running so I can drop it off at the tuners to get the ignition timing dialed back in. I'm hoping for a good result as the VL engine is 9.0:1 comp ratio and the patrol is 9.2:1 but not sure if the difference in cam will affect the dizzy curve if at all. I may improve the power higher in the rev range because a little more timing can be thrown in and I'll keep the boost down this time.

As I put the new engine back in I'll do a "HOW to LPG turbo your RB30" writeup with lots of pics for those who want to do the same. Hopefully I don't run into any problems but I'm dreading the millions of sump bolts.

Thanks for reading

 

[simmoevo]

Today I got the engine out of the vl and managed to spill a crap load of atf fluid on my driveway. Great. I also found 5 broken exhaust studs which were all broken 2-3mm inside the head. Great. So i managed to plug weld a nut on them and they came out very easily withoud damaging the thres. Awesome. Im going to swap the pulley on the alternator so I can use the vl crank pulley. Im not quite sure yet if the power steering pump v belt will line up but it would be nice. Looks close. Ive got to swap the oil pressure sender and the sumps, pickup and dipstick. I think Ill get most of it done tomorrow so stay tuned for a full writeup.
Here is some pics. The first one is one of the extracted studs. Second is the new donk and third a tool i made to stop the flywheel moving when undoing the crank/flywheel bolts. Its 6mm plate with teeth grinded into it. Ill weld it to a nother plate that bolts between the two top belhousing bolt holes.