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Nissan Patrol ZD30 DI keeps blowing up

7K views 42 replies 12 participants last post by  Gerx 
#1 ·
Hello,

My name is Jan-Willem ter Steege from the Netherlands and i'm new here on the forum.
I'm writing this on behalf of my father.
He has been driving a Patrol for over 35 years but the last 8 years or so a 2005 ZD30 DI and thats when the problems started.

In 500.000 km (312.500 Miles) he has blown up 5 engines (1 was replaced with a new crate engine from Nissan and the others were used engines).
All the problems were headgaskets and melted or broken pistons.
He is no speed devil and drives carefully but he tows 3.5 metric tons (7716Lbs) every day.
Odd thing is that they all broke at idle or near idle without any load on them.

I read on this forum that these problems may be caused by to bad boost management from the ECU and the EGR valve.
Is this easy to fix by myself (i have a technical background) or do a need a specialist for this?
I dont think there is anyone in the Netherlands who does dis kind of work.

Cant the ZD30 handle load anymore or will the 'NADS' fixes cure this issue?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Jan-Willem ter Steege
 
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#7 ·
Gold Coast patrols and mechanical have come up with a zd30 engine fix solution. CLICK THE LINK
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It's good to see them doing something for the ZD Patrols but to say THEY have come up with a fix or solution is very misleading. Everything on their list has been in this forum and modern diesel forums and workshops for many years now. They are just another shop putting together is list for the punter who knows nothing.
 
#6 ·
Hello,

My name is Jan-Willem ter Steege from the Netherlands and i'm new here on the forum.
I'm writing this on behalf of my father.
He has been driving a Patrol for over 35 years but the last 8 years or so a 2005 ZD30 DI and thats when the problems started.

In 500.000 km (312.500 Miles) he has blown up 5 engines (1 was replaced with a new crate engine from Nissan and the others were used engines).
All the problems were headgaskets and melted or broken pistons.
He is no speed devil and drives carefully but he tows 3.5 metric tons (7716Lbs) every day.
Odd thing is that they all broke at idle or near idle without any load on them.

I read on this forum that these problems may be caused by to bad boost management from the ECU and the EGR valve.
Is this easy to fix by myself (i have a technical background) or do a need a specialist for this?
I dont think there is anyone in the Netherlands who does dis kind of work.

Cant the ZD30 handle load anymore or will the 'NADS' fixes cure this issue?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Jan-Willem ter Steege
Go to the DI archives and read two articles, 'so you bought a zd30' (link in my signature for that one) and also 'ZD30 Engine, What makes a grenade a grenade', this explains many things, this forum has more experience with the grenade factor than any other group, actually been through it myself in 2006 with my 2000 ZD30DI which I have owned since new and did a hell of a lot of research into the issue so it would never happen again.
 
#9 ·
Thank you for the information! Did some reading and watched some of your videos. Think there are a few steps i have to take.

1: Rebuilding the engine. I have a good engine shop near me specialized in diesels.

2: Fitting a EGT and boost gauge and see what the engines does.

3: Blocking the EGR.

4: Dawes valve and needle valve or Tillix kit.

5: ProVent 200 catch can.

6: ECU remap at Gold Coast Patrols.

7: Maybe a better intercooler?

8: Maybe a 3" exhaust?


Anything i am missing here?

Thanks again
 
#10 ·
Good start, look in my signature for a link to Harley, Performance Tech, Harley is a supporter of our forum events and also does or can advise on mail order remaps, making contact and asking a question costs you nothing. Harley has been doing them for many years and mine was one of the early ones.
 
#11 ·
I've send Performance Tech a message. Thank you for the help. Hope you wont mind me picking your brain a bit.

  • Any good sources for engine parts?
  • Anyone used the ebay intercoolers or are they a no no?
-Tillix or Dawes?
-What is a save EGT when under load while towing?

Thanks

Jan-Willem
 
#16 ·
@jwtersteege as everyone above commented, issues with Di's "grenading" is well documented here, but I do think it is worth pointing out that there was never a ZD30 engined Patrol with a towing capacity of 3,500kg. The highest, I believe was 3,200kg with a MANUAL transmission. Towing 3,500kg is certainly giving the poor ZD a workout, so keep that in mind post-rebuild. ;)
 
#17 ·
Absobloodylutely, especially if there is no EGT gauge to see what is happening and when to back off, as I said to him I've seen a vehicle go to over 700c very quickly, it doesn't take much if the vehicle doesn't have NADS and that was without towing.
 
#23 ·
With NADS, good boost, reasonable intercooler I hardly ever see 500c, mstly running between 240-270c now. The thing is an EGT gauge tells you when to back off a little for recovery.
Note, mine was also rebuilt with ceramic coated pistons, just an extra level of protection.
 
#27 ·
Jan-Willem,
I'm not going to buy into the engine blowing up but I'll agree with skegbudley - ball weight (or tow ball mass) is a big killer with Patrols, Pajeros & several other cars. When you get over 200kg ball weight eg for a 2T van or trailer, the ball weight must be reduced (there is a scale on the rear door of the wagons) - meaning these cars cannot tow 3,500kg (or 350kg ball weight)!!
Cheers,
Warren
 
#28 ·
Jan-Willem,
I'm not going to buy into the engine blowing up but I'll agree with skegbudley - ball weight (or tow ball mass) is a big killer with Patrols, Pajeros & several other cars. When you get over 200kg ball weight eg for a 2T van or trailer, the ball weight must be reduced (there is a scale on the rear door of the wagons) - meaning these cars cannot tow 3,500kg (or 350kg ball weight)!!
The label on the rear door is a unique Australian thing and are generally misleading anyway. We are the only country who subscribe to this rediculous "rule" that the towball download needs to be 10% of the towed mass.

When determining the correct towing configuration, there are a few very simple rules.
1. Do not exceed GCM
2. The towball download must be included as part of the payload in the vehicle (part of GVM).
3. Do not exceed the max rear axle capacity.

Towball download in itself doesn't impact how hard a vehicle works when towing. GCM does.
 
#29 ·
As Andrie says that 10% is misleading, there is no way I would put 320Kg (10% of the legal 3200kg for a manual) towball weight on my GU, most vehicles would be pointing at the sky at that weight, I see the terrorists up here all the time like that and shake my head. Saw a GQ mid last year up north and the front had to be 150mm higher than the rear, lights would hav been checking out Jupitor.
 
#31 ·
@jwtersteege what we call the grenade factor wasn't common in every country, it first raised it ugly head here in AU with Govt ZD30 vehicles doing very long high speed trips in the outback, it also occured in South Africa, yes it did happen in other countries but conditions were the governing factor, I did a lot of research when it happened to me and later I could duplicate the conditions under which it happened, but it is complicated and there is not one single cause.
As indicated a DI without at least an EGT gauge towing very heavy loads is a disaster waiting to happen. I cannot explain why on earth your limit is 300kg higher than ours, to be honest I won't even tow the 3200kg limit we have.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Not sure of the logic behind our derated figure, maybe our roads or driving conditions, but not uncommon. I believe the mid 90's Discovery was rated higher in UK than over here by a good margin.
 
#33 ·
It's not uncommon for the same Nissan model to have different towing capacities for different countries however, I'd be very interested in hearing what the ZD30's towing capacity was in Europe.

I might be wrong here, but I believe some TD42 and TB48 models had 3,500kg towing capacities here in AUS, but the ZD never did.

And I agree with @geeyoutoo, if you need to tow 3,200kg or more on a regular basis, there are far better vehicles to do that with than a ZD30 Y61.
 
#34 ·
The auto TB48 to my knowledge was the only model in Aus that got the 3500 towing.
 
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#36 ·
Wow I didn't realise the difference from wagon to ute in the TD was so much. That's why I thought they were 3200.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Came across this picture from the late 80s. This one is loaded above 3500 KG (i know shame..). This Patrol did 500.000 km on the same engine (3.3 TD i think). Only thing that ever went wrong was 1 head gasket. Same clutch, gearbox, turbo and injection pump. Only normal maintenance was done.

I dont know if you Australians know what kind of trailer this is? Its basically a supermarket on wheels and my father drives every day to Germany to sell produce on markets in the city centers.

Just thought this was a nice picture.



515670
 
#40 ·
@jwtersteege i have recently rebuilt my 2002 engine with OEM parts from www.partsouq.com I have not found a better deal in europe and you can trust them 100%. Enter your VIN and confirm the parts, these were the ones used in my build:

BrandNumberNameQty
Nissan130702W200TENSIONER ASSY-CHAIN1
Nissan130912W200GUIDE-CHAIN,SLACK SIDE1
Nissan130852W200GUIDE-CHAIN,TENSION SIDE1
Nissan130282W200CHAIN-TIMING,CAMSHAFT1
Nissan12010VX201PISTON,W/PIN4
Nissan120302W20ABUSH-PISTON PIN4
Nissan121112W20ABEARING-CONNECTING ROD8
Nissan12207MA70ABEARING SET-CRANKSHAFT1
Nissan122802W21BWASHER-THRUST2
Nissan122802W20C / 122802W21CWASHER-THRUST2
NissanA0AMAVC125 / A0101VC125GASKET ENGINE SET1
Nissan12033DB010RING SET-PISTON1
NissanA1044VC10BGASKET ENGINE R11
 
#43 ·
Hello,

My name is Jan-Willem ter Steege from the Netherlands and i'm new here on the forum.
I'm writing this on behalf of my father.
He has been driving a Patrol for over 35 years but the last 8 years or so a 2005 ZD30 DI and thats when the problems started.

In 500.000 km (312.500 Miles) he has blown up 5 engines (1 was replaced with a new crate engine from Nissan and the others were used engines).
All the problems were headgaskets and melted or broken pistons.
He is no speed devil and drives carefully but he tows 3.5 metric tons (7716Lbs) every day.
Odd thing is that they all broke at idle or near idle without any load on them.

I read on this forum that these problems may be caused by to bad boost management from the ECU and the EGR valve.
Is this easy to fix by myself (i have a technical background) or do a need a specialist for this?
I dont think there is anyone in the Netherlands who does dis kind of work.

Cant the ZD30 handle load anymore or will the 'NADS' fixes cure this issue?

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Jan-Willem ter Steege
In Spain there is a preparer specialized in ZD30 called Sastraka Auto 4x4. They have a Stage 1 that is to increase reliability and the car gains more strength at low revolutions. The change is very noticeable. You send the Ecu. They reprogram it and have a waste gate kit sent
 
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