Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Keeping ZD 30 cool

I am ex military, 14 years, major (ret). Back then I did not like a hand grenade, neither throwing it nor being on the receiving end of the one. Never felt comfortable holding a bomb in my hand that has been fused and praying very seriously that the lowest bidder that got the contract to supply the fuses did not save too much on quality control right at that moment.

Now every time I read about a ZD30 that hand grenaded or nearly hand grenaded I get that familiar feeling of long ago hoping that the hand grenade that I am driving around with in my Patrol is not fused to explode when I am broke, on holiday, in some neighbouring country, somewhere on Sani Pass in the perfect storm or any other time in between after staring it and switching it off.

I have gathered, reading on the forum, that in order to prevent the hand grandee from exploding you have to keep the ZD30 cool, keep the oil out of the intake manifold ect ect ect.

So in order to make sure that I do everything in my power to keep my ZD30 from exploding, these are some of the steps that need to be considered in order to ensure range safety:

Make sure that the person you bought it from, if second hand, has not already fused the hand grenade and that you are driving around on borrowed time. Eg did he tow a caravan, boat, offroad trailer?
Fit EGT before Turbo, set alarm to 650 degrees as a maximum safe operating for short periods of time .
Fit oil catch can to prevent oil from settling on the valves.
Fit bigger intercooler.
Ensure that the MAF is clean and not over-boosting.
Fit a bigger diameter exhaust.
Do the oil services no more than 5000 km intervals.
EGR blank plate, to stop exhaust recirculation.
Fit a snorkel for cooler air intake.
Clean the radiator every ?????? km?
Do not fit to big tyres, my EGT went up by at least 50 degrees since fitting the 305's

This is a preliminary list for myself, please add to the list, elaborate where necessary.

Regards

Me thinks you pretty much hit the hammer on the thumb there Sakkie.

Other than opening up the motor to check the head and pistons and the cost of replacing the head gasket ( genuine Nissan gasket IMHO is a must ) for piece of mind.

The EGR is one that I am not sure off. Some people swaer by it and others in Aus says it make no differance. Also saying that it should (read must) be done by a qualified maccie?

ricster wrote:Me thinks you pretty much hit the hammer on the thumb there Sakkie.

Other than opening up the motor to check the head and pistons and the cost of replacing the head gasket ( genuine Nissan gasket IMHO is a must ) for piece of mind.

Dont buy the Nissan gasket -- get from ALERT ENGINE Spares at fraction of the Nissan price [100% same as nissan item -- it is a STEEL gasket and can't give you puffies. Just ensure it is torqued exactly as per manual.. [Paid r180 for the one on Boezman now ..]

Oom Mac, what is the torque setting for the head after that steel gasket?



I'd add one more thing, replace normal coolant with a waterless coolant. Thereby you remove any other form of pressure from the sytem. Without water there is no chance of steam created inside the block.

Traveler- the ZD 30 motors comes standard with a steel head gasket. The torque specs will be as per w/shop manual [oom Herrie has that] If the head was skimmed, then the torque tightening will change [I think ??? ]

Baie dankie Oom.

There are two different grades of head gasket. If the head was skimmed you'll need a dial gauge to determine which one to replace the old one with:
After that you'll be faced with an initial tightening to 40-49 Nm (using only four bolts at the front & rear), loosening to 0 Nm, fitting the gear casing (less than 9.8 Nm), then tightening the head bolts sequentially to 98-102 Nm, loosening to 0 Nm, tightening to 40-45 Nm and finally turning them trough 90-95 degrees:
PM me your e-mail address if you want the engine portion of the ZD30's service manual in PDF format...

Baie dankie Christo.

Good post