Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hi,
I am new to this forum so please excuse my lack of technical etiquette :-)

I purchased a 2000 4.5 GRX Patrol in September 2009 with +-200 000kms on the clock from a private owner in Richards Bay; I've driven it for a year with little hassle... (I only payed a 100K for it...)
A couple of weeks ago I was towing my boat and my engine overheated, I pulled over but sadly too late and I have a blown head gasket... (at best!)

The worrying thing is the nasty knocking sound I heard before it concked out, and I fear either my rings or one/more of my bearings may be shot!
I have stripped the head off the sub assembly and the oil was badly burnt and there are some marks on the bore. The head gasket looks pretty shot and there may also have been some loss of compression between cylinders 1/2 based on the look of it.
The radiator has also burst and this could also have been a cause of the problem (radiator looks pretty dodgy now I've removed it, a couple of patches here and there, and the top seal is broken along with the outlet pipe :-(; I have also uncovered a sub standard Radiator fan (looks like it belongs on a 2.5/2.7D according to the writing on it...) I have sourced one from autofans in CT for R700; (Thanks I got this tip from this forum!) this is the F64 blade with 7 fins 450mm total diameter, the sub-standard blade was only 410mm)...
A new radiator costs +- R12K from the main stealers and to get a brass/copper one made it going to costs +-9K because of the size of it... :-( Any help on sourcing a reasonably priced radiator would be most welcome...
OK my real question is where can I source 20' oversized pistons, rings, pins, main brs; big-end brs; gasket kits, water pump, oil pump etc, etc in order to completely rebore and overhaul the engine? I have to skim the head and replace the head gasket so thought I might overhaul her completely (I do after all love my car :-)
The spares alone from the main dealers are >30K which I think is appalling...
I have phoned a number of places locally (nationally); but no-one seams to have spares for this model engine (TB45E). I would really appreciate any help in sourcing these spares as I would ideally like to do the job myself...
I called van der Linde Developments who will do the overhaul for me for +-R25K... (which is cheaper than the spares... )
I am trying to source spares from Australia (someone quoted me $1250AU for the engine overhaul kit (excluding pumps) including shipping which sounds pretty reasonable all things considered, I suppose I have to work out the customs etc to get the total price...
Sorry for the extra long post, but wanted to explain my position... Thanks in advance!
DaveF

Hi Dave, and welcome. Sorry to her about the issues.

For the parts, try giving Dean at Masterpart in Belleville a call, on 021 957 5757. He was able to source me a number of parts for my 4.2, which is an even scarcer engine here.

I would however strongly suggest that you look at an aluminium radiator, as the heat transfer is much better, and thus they are more efficient.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

Dave talk to the guys at Universal coolers ( www.hot4cold.co.za ) they can most likely build you a ally radiator with ally tanks welded to it - youll never replace that again or talk to Tour De Frans here on the forum- he builds motors and radiators and stuff

Q E spares in pta se hulle het mains vir R255 bigends vir 200 gasket set 650 waterpomp 383 en olie pomp vir R550 hulle het nie pistons nie hoekom kontak jy nie vir nikolai op die forum en hoor dat hy alles eenkeer vir jou stuur nie selfs die radiator het wilfet vir 4 k in aeu

Gekry maar die shippingis 3 k

Thanks for all the info. guys most appreciated.
Tinus, could I ask you for a number for QE Sapres in pta? Can't find a listing...

I'll keep you posted on my progress...
Regards

DaveF

0123577800 I phoned alert and they gave me their no they gave me the spare part prices

Thanks Tinus...

Grootseun wrote:Dave talk to the guys at Universal coolers ( http://www.hot4cold.co.za ) they can most likely build you a ally radiator with ally tanks welded to it - youll never replace that again or talk to Tour De Frans here on the forum- he builds motors and radiators and stuff

Thanks Grootseun, tried these guys and they said they could build me an ally one (using core from a truck :-)) but they quoted me R7800 ex VAT - Still quite pricey... I'm going to see if I could import one and how much this would cost...

Hi Dave,

I have a few spares including a complete Gasket set Bought two when I did mine. Also have a fairly complete TD45 extra which I bought for my recon have some bits and peaces. contact no 00268 76028079.Just next door in Swaziland.

Cheers

JV

Hi Dave, sorry to hear about your engine. The same happened to my TB48 earlier in the year. I also had to rebuild the complete engine. So I just want to share with you some of my experience. Because of the length of the cylinder block, they tend to warp when overheating. In short, we had to skim a total of between 3 and 4 mm combined from the block and cylinder head to get them level again! We compensated for this huge amount of skimming by fitting a stainless steel gasket which I had made. So far, this fix, although probably unheard of, work perfectly fine. I replaced my rings, Nissan SA did not have any stock, a mechanical engineer rebuild my engine, and after measuring, bought the rings for my 4.8 from Porsche, I'm not sure which model, the valve stems we bought from BMW as the M3's were the same as the 4.8. SO, it is possible to find other parts from other manufacturers as long as the sizes measure up.

The cause of my problem was that the header tank on my radiator blew, resulting in a loss of water and a very quick overheat. Silverton radiator rebuild my radiator with a alu header. If you see this, you can see that this will never leak again!.

Hope you come right soon!

J