[Ethanissan]

I see @seehuusen already has a thread called 'The Gold Patrol', so I hope he doesn't mind me stealing the name a little, mine's more gold anyway . Anyway, this is going to be the 'build thread' on my MK wagon that I've been talking about in my introduction thread. Wouldn't be a proper thread without some backstory though, so here I go:

I've always been a Patrol fan because Dad has one (he's had a good influence on me evidently), and so as soon as I got a job, I decided that I wanted a 4wd. I would have preferred to get a Patrol, but covid tax = expensive, and I'm pretty impatient to be honest, so I decided to get something as cheap as possible, preferably something with a solid front axle. Anyways, I went and bought myself a dirt cheap old 1995 XJ Jeep Cherokee, which (older Jeeps) aren't bad rigs, and started to fix it up.

It wasn't too bad as a starter project, I only paid $950 for it including the guy coming and dropping it off on a trailer, but being a petrol and an auto, it didn't end up being really what I wanted. If I had stuck with it I probably would have had it on the road by now, but oh well. I wanted something diesel, so I could share jerry cans with Dad if needed, preferably manual because it's more fun, although I drive an auto Calais as my daily at the moment, so not a deal-breaker, and have a patrol stud pattern, so I could easily share spare tires if needed.
So off I went searching gumtree, carsales and FB marketplace, and found a red MQ patrol ute that looked interesting. In the ad the guy said it didn't start on it's own, had to be clutch started, so I thought it just had a dead starter and went to have a look at it.

Apparently this is the best photo I have of the whole car...
Anyway, after going to look at it, the main problem was rust, as is for most MQ/MK patrols, and it turned out the not starting problem was just one of the batteries in the 24v circuit was dead, so that was fine. I didn't know the extent of the rust though. If I did, I would never have even considered considering it (yes it's that bad). Both floor pans are full of holes, the sills are practically non-existent near the front, the bonnet has a fist-sized rust hole in the font, there's big rust holes on either side under the windscreen in the water channels that would let heaps of water in if it rained, and soo much more rust I could list. I swear every time I look at it it's got more rust. For this one I swapped the cherokee + gave the guy $800, probably the worst deal in the world looking back on it. Given that I probably spent $200 on new fluids for the cherokee, that brings the total up to $1950 so far, I'll round it to $2000 because that's probably accurate anyway.

Anyway, the engine and gearbox felt good and healthy (N/A SD33 with 5-speed on the back, obviously retrofitted as MQ's didn't come with 5-speeds, MK's did, and the mounts had adapter plates on them), so I decided to go look for a good shell I could put the drivetrain into, and I came across something I'd seen on marketplace a couple of times before, which came down in price so much I had to get it.
(This is where I start talking about the actual gold Patrol)

It's a rolling shell of a 1985 MK wagon, base model with barn doors, which had an L28 petrol from factory, but the previous owner had swapped an old Ford 351 Cleveland into it, would have been fun, that's for sure. Anyway it got driven for a good while like this until the auto blew up, so he decided to pull it all out and sell the shell. This thing is a gem I tell you, it's got hardly any rust, the panels are straight, it's been resprayed, everything.
The actual specs for 'mods' that I got it with are:
1.5ish" body lift, standard height suspension,
33" tyres on nice mags, still not sure whether they fit this car though,
External tacho that I can't use because I don't have an ignition coil obviously,
Full semi-open door respray, painted up to the pinch welds on the door in a colour that apparently was supposed to match factory, close enough that the engine bay doesn't look mismatched though, and a black upper-half,
B&M pro ratchet shifter, pretty nice, I don't need it though, I've got a manual (yay),
Nice enough racing seats, modplated for them too,
Aftermarket wheel that actually looks good unlike most, it's a really nice wooden wheel, ADR approved because it has steel inside, with a beautiful grain and clear finish,
full black carpet throughout,
One GQ door and one MK door (one of the most annoying parts about the whole thing)
Factory spare tyre and jerry can carrier,
New, or almost new headliner,
Arb bullbar,
H260 rear diff, which, correct me if I'm wrong, only came in utes, so has been put under probably by V8 man who didn't want to break axles with his massive power (fair),
and an MK bonnet with two scoops on the front, which I'm not the biggest fan of, but oh well.

 

[Ethanissan]

So first thing I want to address, the fact it has a body lift, and standard suspension. At first I wasn't too happy about it, but after thinking it through I've realised it probably suits my needs better than a suspension lifted one anyway. I drive my car for work, as a pizza delivery driver, so I need something that handles alright on the road. Now I know the MK will never be a racecar in the handling department, but I figure standard suspension probably handles better than a 2 or 3" lift, so that's how it's staying for now. The body lift lets me fit bigger tyres, so that's where the capability is better than standard, but the stock suspension geometry means it'll ride and handle better, which is what suits my purpose.

The only thing I'm disappointed about in terms of suspension now is the fact it doesn't have replaceable shock towers like the GQ/GU's do. My plan was to have longer shocks to get the extra travel, but I can't do that because they'll be longer in both extension and compression, so they'll likely bottom out before the axle hits the bump stops. I can't extend the bump stops much either though because then I'll have no up travel left, and whenever I hit a small bump it'll just bottom out, not what I need. So fully stock suspension it is then.

 

[Ethanissan]

Thanks James, I've still got some explaining to do, ran out of time last night, but I'll address your point now. I'm pretty sure it was a factory l28 auto, it says l28 on the vin plate, and it definitely doesn't have a 130L fuel tank, only the small one up the back, so I'm still unsure of how the H260 got there, but it's good anyhow. If I ever want better ratios I've got a H233 in the red ute I can swap under to get better highway RPM anyway.
(This is what I started typing last night but went to bed before I finished because it was midnight haha)
The first thing I looked for when I went to look at the wagon was the position of the engine mounts, because the L28 and SD33 have very different mounting positions. The L28 has the engine mounts near the centre of the engine, which makes sense, but the SD33 has them for some reason waay up the front, and the 5-speed has it's mounts on the transfercase waay down the back, which means all the weight of the engine and gearbox is pretty much resting on the bellhousing bolts' threads. It's probably fine, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. Anyway, I went and had a look and it turned out the mounts were different, so my original plan was to cut them off and get Dad to weld them back on further up, but eventually we decided to make adapter plates instead.
I don't have any good photos of the mounts' different positions, but the SD33 mounts are roughly 90mm further forward than the L28 ones, and the engine mount bolts are roughly 110mm apart from each other, so we decided to use the existing front hole as the new back hole and push the engine forward roughly 20mm from where it was standard, so we wouldn't have to drill new holes in the chassis mounts (I'll explain all this better with a sketch)

 

[Ethanissan]

Here's a sketch describing where the mounts sit from factory, and how we could use the factory holes by pushing the engine forward roughly 20mm.

Here's a photo of how the adapter plates bolt up, we made them out of a random 10mm steel plate we had laying in the backyard because I don't want this engine falling out ever:

 

[Ethanissan]

Alright, so mounting for the engine is sorted out, next we had to figure out mounting for the gearbox...
actually no, we decided to do that later, once the engine is bolted in, so we could more easily see where the mounts needed to be before we fabricate anything. So next was to pull everything in the ute apart to get it ready to have the engine pulled out, not too big of a job, just disconnecting wires and hoses and plugging hoses with bolts etc.
We decided to cut off the front radiator support cross-member so the engine could be more easily pulled out, we'd figure out what to do for installing in the wagon later.
This is the ute right before we started pulling stuff off the engine, I'd already taken the bonnet and guards off for some reason.

Another photo from a different angle, this time I'd already taken both the airboxes off:

Fast forward a bit because I'm terrible at remembering to take photos, and we've got the engine coming out with a crane we borrowed from @JakeWild (thanks), the gearbox we just let sit on the welded crossmember, then pulled it out with some jacks. You can see the radiator crossmember has been cut off in this photo.

 

[Ethanissan]

Fast forward again because I can't take photos to save my life, and the engine and gearbox are both sitting in the shed, waiting to be put in the wagon:

And sadly the ute is condemned to live out the rest of it's life sitting either here in the backyard or in someone else's yard after I'm done pulling bits off it . Amazingly the chassis has almost no rust, so it'd be a good base if anyone wants it for a body swap for example. (holden overlander anyone?)
r.i.p red ute:

 

[Ethanissan]

The SD cleaned up fairly nicely after 4 cans of degreaser and a hose:

 

[Ethanissan]

Now comes the exciting part, the part that really has validated the car for me I guess.
Originally I wasn't too happy with putting an early model N/A in the MK, as the N/A's that came with them had the stronger internals, same as the turbos. So I was essentially putting in an engine that was never really meant to be there in, and it kind of didn't feel right for me, but I didn't have much choice because it's what I ended up with, and SD33T's are getting harder to find.
However...
Scrolling though marketplace while eating breakfast one Saturday morning, I nearly choked on my cereal. There, on my phone in front of me, was an SD33T, for $550, only half an hour from where I live, listed within the last 10 mins. Within probably 3 or 4 hours of me seeing the post, the engine was now on a trailer behind my Calais on it's way back home.
I'm still blown away that I managed to snag it, by the time I got there, the guy said he'd already had 6 other inquiries about it.
So this is what I was working with:

And this is what I have now:

 

[Ethanissan]

So, the car now has a turbo diesel and 5-speed, is almost rust free, and is straight, and I'm very excited.
Here's some more photos of the turbo engine:

Edit: in the third photo you can just about see the N/A sitting sadly in the left corner, I've got no use for it now, so eventually I'll probably sell it. We're going to keep it for a while though because we know it's healthy, we've taken the ute for short drives around the block while it still had old rego left, and we know it runs well. We don't know much about the turbo motor except that the guy said he was going to put it in his car, but just decided to turbo his N/A instead. He says he compression tested it and it came back good, and that it's only got 180,000 kms on it, but we won't know until we get it running. If it ends up being a dud, we'll just put the N/A in, fingers crossed the guy was telling the truth though.
It's definitely not siezed, I can turn it using the harmonic balancer, and it does have compression, so we'll see.

 

[Ethanissan]

Alright, so, next was pretty much to get the engine and gearbox in the wagon. Here they are getting closer together:

Even just getting the engine in the engine bay was a task because we decided not to cut the radiator support crossmember. I had to take the wheels off, lower it down all the way on a jack under the axle, and make the chain shorter on the engine crane to make the sump clear. This is before I made the chain shorter and it would have only just cleared the crossmember, but the crane legs were hitting the leaf springs:

To solve this I set the engine down in a tyre and shortened the chain, and it juuuust fit over the crossmember without hitting the leafs. The big moment:

 

[Ethanissan]

So it's in the engine bay, I bolted it onto the adapter plates which was a hard task because with the plates being 10mm thick and on roughly a 45 degree angle, they move the mounts slightly up and inwards, but I got it after some more drilling and much frustration:

The back of the engine was temporarily supported by a ratchet strap suspended between the frame rails until we got the gearbox in.

 

[Ethanissan]

These are the things we did to the turbo motor while it was out of the car to get it ready to go in:
Firstly, since we were putting the 24v N/A into a 12v car, we had to get a new starter and alternator that were 12v, I'll let Dad (@trev zd30) explain that because he can probably explain it better than me. but I swapped those over to the turbo motor
Secondly, the turbo motor didn't come with a clutch or flywheel, so we're using the smaller N/A clutch for now until I can get a turbo one which will be a pain because we'll have to take the gearbox off again to replace it, but I'll again let Dad explain the clutch, and getting it aligned, because he had a bit of stroke of genius when we didn't have a clutch alignment tool.
And of course I used another few cans of degreaser to wash the turbo motor before it went in.

 

[Ethanissan]

After a very hard day, and some sketchy moments with the gearbox nearly falling off jacks, it's bolted to the back of the engine and resting on a bolt-on crossmember that we'll likely weld the new mounts to.

We've actually taken advantage of the body lift (much to my dismay at first) to move the gearbox upwards from the standard location within the chassis, because the transfer case hangs down a fair amount from factory, and we didn't want it to hit anything. That does mean that the body lift is permanent, but it's not too much of a hassle because if I ever want a legal suspension lift in the future it actually is already mod plated for a 150mm (6") lift! So assuming the body lift is 2", and the tyres are 1", that leaves room for a 3" suspension lift if I ever want, which is well and truly enough for me. I'm still not sure whether I want one yet, I'll see in the future. Worst case scenario we can just fab new gearbox mounts that put it back down to factory height and remove the body lift then, but for now it's staying.

This is looking pretty much straight in line with the chassis rails, at standard height you'd be able to see the transfercase poking out under the chassis rails, but where we've got it, only the handbrake and crossmember hang down (the crossmember has longer bolts in it so it's not just hanging on by a small amount of thread):

 

[Ethanissan]

This is a great read, can't wait to see the smile on your face when you get it running. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Jake, good to know I’m writing with some degree of sense, thanks for letting us borrow your crane too, you’ll be able to have it back soon. Still plenty more to write yet though so I’m going to keep writing tonight


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ethanissan]

I’d just like to quickly point out that we’re not writing this build thread as we do stuff to the Patrol, pretty much everything that’s been talked about so far has already been done before I created the thread.
Once we’re all up to speed on where it’s at now, I’ll mention it so that everything afterwards is clearly written about as it’s completed.

Edit: Actually never mind, I’ve just had a look back through my photos (my main reference for chronological order of what to talk about next), and the gearbox was pretty much the last thing we did, but I’ll mention a few small things here.
Firstly, I’ve installed the gearstick and transfer lever and because we’re moving the gearbox upwards, they might just be able to fit properly with the manual tunnel cover from the Ute, taking into account the 2” body lift. The gearstick holder clears the tunnel by about 2-3mm, so we’ll see whether I’ll have to trim to account for torque twist, and the transfer lever only just touches the cover plate in 2wd, so only a small amount of trimming required. I don’t have a photo with the plate on but I’ll get one soon:

Secondly, after installing and bleeding the clutch master and slave cylinder, I was delighted to be able to actuate the clutch with my newly installed clutch pedal from the Ute, three pedals suits the car better than the original 2 it had . However, I quickly realised that it was leaking a lot of brake fluid all down the firewall and inside the driver footwell. I’m not a huge fan of brake fluid, and one of the main surface rust spots we’d already dealt with was under the brake booster where a shop had spilt fluid after the brake system got rebuilt (on with a coat of rust converter and some black automotive spray can paint). So the master cylinder needs rebuilding with new seals, but I’ve just bought a new master and slave cylinder off eBay which should arrive soon and we’ll be able to get the clutch working again, hopefully even better this time (if anyone’s looking for a cheap rebuildable master and slave cylinder for an sd33/p40, pm me). I’ve rust converted and painted over everywhere there was clutch/brake fluid, hopefully it doesn’t rust too quickly now. Here’s a photo of the three pedals, and a (now) black footwell:

Now the big issue we’re currently facing, which is tailshaft length. So the wagon came with a divorced transfer, another sign that it was L28, which has oddly sized front and rear tail shafts because the transfer sits so far back, very different lengths to anything with a combined gearbox/transfercase. My original plan was to use the tailshafts out of the Ute, which has a h233 rear diff, not the h260 like the wagon. The problem we’re having is that the front tailshaft is too long because we’ve moved the engine/gearbox forward 20mm, which is apparently more than the compression left in the tailshaft at standard suspension height, and the rear tailshaft is actually too long as well because the h260 has a longer pinion/diff carrier on the front, which makes the 233 tailshaft like 3mm too long even with the +20mm engine shift. Both of them are sooo close to fitting but are only a couple of mm too long. Dad made a post about it before I made my account, referring to it as “a project I’m helping with”, so if anyone knows of an off-the-shelf tailshaft with the lengths he’s listed that would be great. I would get custom ones made to suit, but if I accidentally damage one on a rock or similar incident I don’t really want to go through the hassle of getting another, so an off-the-shelf option would be nice.

The last couple of minor things I should mention to bring anyone interested up to speed:

The bonnet needs painting black to match the car:

The worst bit of rust in the whole thing (apart from Nissan’s badly designed radiator mounts) is in the back drivers side barn door, where the very top corner has started to rust. I’ve rust converted over it though, and I’ll probably give it a lick of paint, so it shouldn’t spread any time soon. If it ever does though, I might look at trying to get some GQ barn doors to bolt up, as I think they look better, even though I do want to differentiate it from all the GQ’s running around.

Speaking of that exact barn door, the top seal actually doesn’t seem to contact the body, so when I first washed all the crusty stuff off the car from sitting under a tree for 5 years, I sprayed the back and got water all over the inside of the door and it pooled up on the floor, the same happened when I tried to wash the roof and it ran to the back. I just want to know if anyone still makes a rubber seal for these doors? If not, what would be the best way to seal it when it’s closed so I can actually get around to washing the roof without the boot filling up with water? TIA

And one last thing for now, because the previous owner used to run a crazy V8 in this thing, he’s got a fancy electric fuel pump plumbed in with a pressure regulator set to 6psi in the engine bay, made for petrol, but seems to work for diesel too. We’ve decided we’re going to take advantage of it to take some load off the mechanical injector pump by keeping the electric one as well. Has anyone got any good info on running a small amount of back pressure (6psi) behind a mechanical pump? I’ve turned the car on to run the pump with it all plumbed up and the engines fuel system seems to hold the pressure with no leaks which is good, I just want to know if there’s any reason not to run it. Again, TIA

Now a random couple of flex shots I did with a jack because I was curious. It’s pretty pathetic, not gonna lie. This is full flex before a wheel lifts off the ground, engine and gearbox in the car. Can’t be more than a foot. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to shim the 260’s lsd to get me over the obstacles instead of relying on flex like dad does…
I’d install some lockers, but no-one makes axle shafts for these anymore, so if I broke one I’m pretty much instantly screwed and have to find a whole new diff to put under. I do have ONE, in the Ute, but it’s the only spare I’ve got. If anyone knows anyone who still make long and short side axles for the c200 and h233/h260, please let me know. I’d love to know I’m not running on borrowed time with 30+ year old axles and no spares.

That got off track real quick…
Flex shots!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ethanissan]

Have you worked out the diff ratio? H233B cars in Australia were 4.375 or 4.625, but a H260 means that it may have 4.88 or 4.11 ratio.

That's interesting info, I'm assuming your personal experience is worth more than the Gregory's manual we got, they probably only looked at one or 2 models anyway, but in the book it says the H233 only came in 4.675, and the H260 only came in 4.875. If it is true that there are lower ratios I'll be happiest with a 4.11. In the ute (H233) at 50kph, I could sit easily in 5th gear and comfortably drive along, which probably means the ratios aren't great for highway driving and long trips. I don't know the RPM it was at though as the N/A MQ SD33's don't have a tacho. If the Gregory's book is right then the 260 in the wagon will be worse than the ute, which isn't ideal.

I've also read online that MQ/MK patrols only came with the H233, not the H233B (when I was searching for possible locker options), which would probably mean the ratio rules for the 233B don't apply the same as the 233. This is all speculation on my end though so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit:
Actually I've just read through the info on the MQ-Patrol.com page about diffs and you must be right (unsurprisingly) about the other ratios available. It does make me wonder why the Gregory's manual only lists the one for each, but nevermind for now. I'll test the ratio this afternoon and post what I've found then, finger's crossed for a 4.11 and not a 4.88 🤞

 

[Ethanissan]

Good news! I tested the ratio yesterday before work and it's definitely a 4.11. Awesome. I wouldn't have been so happy if it was a 4.88 because as I addressed previously revs on the highway would have been quite high.
I'm not sure how most people test diff ratios but I just put a chalk marker on the diff input shaft, jacked up one side so the wheel is off the ground, managed to spin it around twice (lsd doesn't seem too bad), and had a look at where the input shaft ended up.
Haven't been able to get much done on it this week between school and work, but the holidays start next week, so I'm hoping to get a hell of a lot done then, as well as this weekend. I'll keep the thread updated.

Edit:
Also just a side note I'm not sure why my icon says I'm in the US, I'm not, I'm definitely here in Aus, but it could be because of the vpn I'm using to access the forum on school wifi

 

[Ethanissan]

Well, it's fixed now...
I'll go into more detail tomorrow when it's not midnight, but here's the thread created to discuss the issue:

Fuel injector pump issues SD33T

Looking for some feedback on what appears to be a fuel issue. This motor is new to us, bought off marketplace supposedly in good health, although hasn't been running for quite a while. @Ethanissan Got it running yesterday but then couldn't stop it. You can read about it in my young fella's...

www.patrol4x4.com

@edb was right about a stuck injector plunger restricting movement of the rack causing it to be in a constant state of full throttle, only reason it didn't run faster is because no.6, being in a constant 'open' state, wasn't actually pumping any fuel through the line, so it was running on 5. But now it runs, the throttle works, it stops when the stop lever is pressed, and I was one very happy smiley person all afternoon 😁

 

[Ethanissan]

Alright, so it's been a little while since the last progress update, because I've been making progress!
So since I got the engine running, the big restriction was not having fitting tailshafts due to both being too long with the different forward placement on the chassis, as well as the bigger rear diff. This has since been rectified by the guys down at 'Universal Drive Shaft Services Queensland' who shortened and balanced both tailshafts for me, as well as giving them a clean and freshen up, for a total of $400. Much better than the $600 per tailshaft I thought I was going to have to shell out for custom tailshafts. Here they are, after the rear one was installed, because I got excited and installed it before I took a photo:

So the other small things that needed to be sorted for it to be driveable were the throttle cable, which wasn't hard after we bent the adjustment bracket a little to fit the N/A cable, bolt in the drivers seat temporarily, and it should be ready for a test drive...
Actually it's already done
First one is the first run, second one is after a couple runs finally giving it a few berries:

Edit: both have no exhaust, coming straight out of the turbo

 

[Ethanissan]

Alright, so now that it runs and drives there's a few things I need to sort out before heading towards mod plates for the conversion and eventually roadworthy. The big thing I need to sort out is a fairly major oil leak somewhere on the intake/exhaust side of the motor. It's not pouring out, but there's drips up and down the driveway from my couple of test drives, and I had to top up the oil the other day. I can't see from a glance where it's coming from, but I'll make a separate thread to figure it out when I've got time to take some photos.

The other couple of problems are that both the interior fans and dash lights used to work, but all of a sudden they don't. Now I'm no expert but I'm fairly certain any welding on the car needs to be done with the battery disconnected, which it was not, and I'm wondering if that could've caused random electronics to stop working? I've had a look at the fuse for the fans and it's fine, but the slider for fan speed doesn't do anything, so I'm a bit lost.

And yeah, dash lights used to work, but now don't. This is before, don't have a photo of after but it's pretty self explanatory:

Obviously I need to get an exhaust sorted, but I think I can get it done fairly cheap by asking the local shop to connect the N/A pipe from the turbo to the big V8 exhaust that the wagon came with.