Have a look in here if you want to know what NOT to do. Haha

Isuzu 4jj1 (Dmax) engine and gearbox into GQ

Its been a silly idea floating around in my head for a few months now. 3.0L CRD from Isuzu Dmax into a GQ wagon. My ultimate plan is to use engine and gearbox then the whole wiring loom from the dmax throughout the patrol. Potentially even graft in the whole dashboard. The few hurdles I've...

www.patrol4x4.com

I don't recommend using control arm bushes for this job. I should have known better but hey you live and learn.
I have another donor 4jj1 vehicle and will be cutting the mounts off the chassis and making them work.

I have emailed Connor many times over the last year about weld in mounts for a non zd30 patrol. He still won't give a time frame when they will be bringing them to market.
He did suggest getting some zd30 mounts then welding them to the GQ chassis and using their kit.

 

I don't recommend using control arm bushes for this job. I should have known better but hey you live and learn.

What were the control arm bushes used for?

I have another donor 4jj1 vehicle and will be cutting the mounts off the chassis and making them work.

That's not a bad idea actually, rather then trying to use the factory TD mounts

You seem like the man to go to for any questions 😂 are you gonna be doing another build thread on the new one?

Also, do you know what years, if any, came out with no EGR etc?

 

I used the control arm bushes for engine mounts.

I assume this is going in a GQ?
I found there wasn't really much room for engine placement. It has to go back far enough for the tie rod to clear the sump and that puts the heater lines up against the firewall.
I could have maybe not angled the motor down at the back so much but I also had bonnet clearance issues with the intake.
You can get an aftermarket intake manifold that will solve that but it doesn't have the option to run the egr which you will find on all 4jj1's. And will need to pass engineering.
You will need the fuel filter assembly too. I used one one from a later model dmax/mux. Also the same as hilux 1kd.

What are you going to do electrically?
I believe AECo loom will only work with the rodeo ecu. And is designed for what ever dash is in the GU.

 

Yeah, it's going in a GQ. Could you move the heater lines so they run over the top or up and over the engine, clipped to the firewall? How did you manage to fit it with the EGR? Did you get an aftermarket intake then drilled and put the EGR in that way? Electrically, I was gonna use the Patrol body loom and the 4J engine and ECU loom.

 

Do you have a motor already? Hard to explain the heater hoses without a photo. I will be looking at what it will take to remove them from behind the head and possibly using the egr cooler circuit.

I used the standard intake manifold and did a little f@ckery to the throttle body to take a 3" silicone joiner. It is a little kinked and still slightly rubbing a bonnet support. I should really take to that with a gentle hammer.
It may not be an issue or it could be worse for you as you are governed by the location of the gearbox. I still don't know if aeco have actually done this conversion in a GQ.

Have you got the motor from a Holden or isuzu as they use different ecu's.
For the electrics I used the loom from headlight to tail light so I didn't have to splice anything or mess around making things work.
There is a great workshop manual that has all the electrical diagrams you could ever need.
If you are going to just use the engine loom and ecu there will be a little involved in making it run as there are 2 plugs on the ecu and one comes from the body loom so you will probably need one of those too and pull out just what you need.

I forgot an earlier question you had about a build thread on the other donor car.
For now it's just a spares car I got for next to nothing. It's nice to know I have a spare running motor sitting waiting if something happens to my work ute or the patrol.
But if a blown zd GU comes up for a steal I might go down the AECo kit route.

 

I don't have an engine yet, gotta fix the daily first. I don't think AECo have done a GQ conversion yet. Integrating the GQ body loom to the engine look wouldn't be an issue if I could get some diagrams, I've got access to all the Haynes manuals through Tafe since I'm doing the Cert 2 in Auto Electrical, it'd be a good exercise. Also, is it only the throttle body that rubs against the bonnet?

 

There is no difference to the motors other than the ecu and plugs at the ecu. If you are not going to use the 4jj1 key and immobiliser make sure you can find someone that can bypass that for the particular ecu you will use.
You will need the throttle pedal too.
The canbus wires also go to the gauge cluster but don't seem to cause an issue if not plugged in.
The transtron ecu (from the Isuzu, Holden use a Delphi ecu) doesn't care if the abs or airbag aren't hooked up either, and I'm assuming but can't be certain the Delphi is the same.

Would be keen to see you do up a wiring diagram for a standalone harness.

 

If you know, what would be involved in bypassing the 4J immobiliser and key? I could remove the gauge cluster wires, air bag and abs wires from the harness. What other things did you remove from your harness? I could do up a wiring diagram for a stand alone engine bay harness, I read through you're build thread and found the link to the JayDee Auto Cables website. It's a great source for the OEM connectors.

 

I only removed the abs and airbag wiring.
I used the key barrel and gauge cluster.
Where are you located? I know the tuner I used reckons he can delete the immobiliser and key from the ecu.

 

I'm Brissy based, I might use the Dmax gauge cluster, it'd make it a small bit easier, maybe integrate a later model center dash with a screen in a better position then yours as well. If it comes to it, I could retrofit the immobiliser and key barrel.

 

Unless you are going to use the whole body loom I think it could be tricky to just use the gauge cluster. There are 2 fuse/relay boxes, one in thr engine bay and one under the dash.
Anything is possible and you are obviously are keen for the challenge.
You could try evolution tuning for the ecu job. Or G&L but they are ridiculously busy. The guy I used is in Lismore.

 

Looking at the Haynes wiring diagram for the gauge cluster, there doesn't seem like there's any connections that would need to be specific to the Dmax harness apart from the connections to the PCM and the CAN bus circuit. I'm definitely keen for a challenge. I'll probably start my own build thread in a few months when I get to the engine conversion side of my build.

 

Have you got a picture of a wiring diagram from the Haynes manual? Just interested if it's the same as the workshop manual I have on PDF.

 

Yeah mate, I'd imagine it's the same, or very similar. The ones I have access too aren't in a pdf format, more like pages with a side bar for the different sections. That's the diagram blown up, you can zoom in and move it around too. If want some better photos, I can jump on my laptop and screenshot sections for you.

 

Cool. Looks just as comprehensive. This is a couple of pages I printed out. On the pdf you can click through to the sections you want. It comes in handy when it's 6000 pages and covers all the engines and countries they came out in.

 

On the topic from before about clearance for the intake. If you remove the throttle body there would be plenty of room to make a 90deg elbow to bolt in place and gain the clearance needed.
But the throttle body is used in the egr system so for engineering needed it there.
However it can't be unplugged and most people that remove them just bolt them to the firewall. I made provisions in my body harness to extend the wires in behind the glovebox for if I do need to remove it.

 

Is it still engineer-able even if you move the location of the throttle body down to gain clearance? Or another option for a challenge, what if you modified the bonnet so the profile changes to be slightly taller?

What's the reason it can't be removed? If it interacts with the ECU, could you get someone to take it out of the ECU?

 

Yeah nice, that looks really good, I noticed you highlighted the O Sensor on the second diagram? What's it for?

 

It says G sensor. It would have been for the ABS. No idea why I highlighted it. My notes from this build are an absolute mess. Haha

 

Don't know if you have come across this guy.
Unfortunately he doesn't do engine mounts. He said he just welded the dmax ones to the patrol chassis.
I had a quick measure and the dmax chassis is around 50mm wider. Maybe that's why I decided against cutting them off the donor chassis.

 

As far as 'engineerable' goes that's all up for interpretation and what the particular engineer does or doesn't care about.
The engineer I used said he would be fine with removing the egr system if I could get an emissions test that would comply with the euro standard from the year the patrol was built.
But the EPA clearly states any engine conversion must keep ALL emissions gear from donor engine no matter what year the car it is going into was built. I just wanted to make sure I could fit everything in as isuzu made it just incase.

I would only need to take out a little bit of a supporting rib in the bonnet for clearance.

As far as moving the throttle body down I guess you could make a 90deg elbow on the inlet manifold and put it at the end of that. Or you could cut up the manifold and make it however you want.

As far as removing it from the ECU I don't know if anyone has worked that out yet. The guy I used in Lismore reckons he could but wasn't 100% sure. Last time I spoke with Reece from G&L he was adamant that it wasn't possible.

 

Who's the guy that you used in Lismore? Do you have any contact details or Facebook? Getting a 90⁰ bend would probably be the best option for moving the throttle body I reckon. What's the process for 'removing' it? What do you put in it's place?

 

Connor from AeCo said the last GQ they did they got some genuine zd30 engine mounts from patrol apart and welded them to the chassis then used their bolt on mount kit.

 

Finally they got some weld on mounts.
But unfortunately they only work with their engine side bolt on mount that uses the zd30 rubber. Smart move on their part I guess.

WELD on zd30 Chassis Mounts for GQ/GU Nissan Patrol | DCA

INCLUDES BOTH LH and RH SIDESGenerally used when swapping an engine in to a vehicle that was a GQ or GU RD28/TB42/TB45/TB48/TD42Many of these mounts aren't compatible with engine conversions as the factory mount positions don't line up well enough with the new engine to function.To use these...

www.dieselconversionsaus.com.au