Ok….Td42’s….fantatistic engine…as my first diesel engine…I love it, after tuning its got decent power, good economy, and as we all know will last until we all use flying cars to get around in.

Saying this….servicing…every 5000kays!!, NOT COOL!…  2 Filters and 8 litres of oil every 5000km really starts to add up!  After thinking about it, I couldnt see how the big rigs would put up with dropping oil so often.  So i did a bit of research and found a thing called a bypass oil filter.   The idea being that it doesnt force all the oil through the filters before getting to the gallerys like the standard stuff, but steals a tiny flow and ’scrubs’ the oil a bit at a time.

There seems to be some really good benefits in this.

1.  Seeing that the bypass filter doesnt imped oil flow,  it can clean the oil sooo much better (something like less than 1 micron filtration)

2.  Can increase oil life substantially, like 2 - 4 times. So 20,000 kays between changes for a Td42…MUCH BETTER!

3.  On the Frantz kit the filters are really only dunny rolls!! So very cheap to replace.

Anyways, ive just emailed Frantz for some pricing and details.  But so far its looking very promising.

Will post again when I get more details.

Well, the rumor mill has fired up again, and it seems is if a infinity could be the replacement for the Patrol in 2010.

http://www.infiniti.com/qx/specifications.html

Heres the doco that suggests the replacement.

http://www.oesa.org/publications/articledetail.php?articleId=7137

“Infiniti QX [X61F] launches in 1Q 2010 and replaces Nissan Patrol/Nissan Safari entries.”

Well, after stuffing around Friday night, and Sat morning, I now have the arms fitted to my ute. I had to cut away some of the reinforcing that I had done to the diff for the bracing on the passenger side to fit. Im going to call Superior when i get a chance and see if i can weld these plates inplace, so I dont have to worry about any weaknesses.

You are supplied 3 Nuts and Bolts for the passenger side drop arm (The short one) I would of like to of seen new bolts included for the other side too, plus nuts for the chassis end…But there ya go. One thing that im a bit worried about is the length of the bolts, they seem maybe 2 - 3 mm to short, as the bolts doent ‘quite’ come through the nuts by a thread or so… Im going to talk to Superior about this too, and see if i have made any errors. If not, im going to go down to the local bolt shop and purchase longer versions.

Anyway, after fitting I jumped straight in and went for a quick drive around the block, on the highway, and then offroad. The first thing I noticed was how much smoother the ute drove. Just less harsh. Steering way waaay better, but im assuming thats because I finally have the right castor correction. Highway driving was the same, smoother and well mannered. I did notice ’slightly’ more body roll, but nothing to be concerned about.

Now…offroad, On friday afternoon, I went for a drive before i fitted the arms, and found a little spot where without the lockers ingauged, the ute would flex out, and id stop. I thought this would be a great spot to test the new arms, as in theory once the arms where in the ute would have enough flex to still have traction. I marked where i stopped with some sticks etc, and then took some photos.

On Sat morning after I had fitted the arms, I went back to the same place and tried again. But….I stopped still….what tha?? I had progressed further than on Friday afternoon, but only by about 6 inches, not really what I was hoping for. I started taking photos, and then noticed that now the limited factor was that my front shocks had maxed out.

If you look closely at the two photos above, you will seen in the bottom one that the ’skinny’ bit of the shock is showing…basicly meaning its reached its maximum travel.

Soo…. I didnt have the tools with me to drop that shock, but will get some longer shocks asap and test again. My bet is that it will increase travel dramaticly. So far im very happy with these arms.

More photos of the testing etc HERE

I took delivery of my new front radius arms for the ute today.  Its been a fair wait, but im pretty sure it was worth it!

Ill try and get time to put them in on the weekend, and see how they go.

More pix HERE

Well, thought i would give you a quick update on the economy of my GU patrol since its been tuned by QDAD, its gone from a solid 15l / 100kms, to 12.2l / 100kms!!

Went out with a few mates to Janowen 4×4 park, near Warwick QLD.

Had a fantasitic weekend!, ‘very’ cold during the night, but that just made us drink some more scotch!

The damage list for the weekend on the ute was.

* Broke tail light

* Beheaded type valve stem

* Broken Recovery hook

Nothing major, got a bit more rock rash on the back of the chassis.

Heres a couple pics for the weekend.

Well, I went and purchased a dual batterty kit for the new car today, after doing a bit of research, I decided on the ‘IBS’ kit from TJM.

I went with this kit because, althought its a fair bit more expensive than a standard dual battery system, it gives me 2 voltage gauges, a charge meter and the battery ‘link’ buttons all in a single package.

The install was pretty easy, and it all seems to be working A - OK. Very happy to far..

Just a quick note to let you know the differences in power ive experienced from my new GU.

When i got the 3″ exhaust done, I didnt really notice a ‘huge’ difference in power, the boost came on a bit quicker, and thats about it…It ‘does’ sounds HEAPS better thou… More like a Mack truck now, whistle and all.

The big power increase came from having Matt from QDAD work his magic on it. At this stage, the boost was not raised at all, just pure tuning. And the difference is amazing, its basicly gone from having to change down to 4th on hills, to blasting up them in 5th. Fuel economy has improved to boot! Once I get some 100% accurate figures i will post them, but for reference, its gone from about 15 to 13 / 100 kms

Well…while i was waiting for the Superior arms to turn up, i thought i would buy myself a Gu Patrol…hehehe

Anyway, i had decided i wanted a newer Patrol for a while, now, but only really just got off my bum and started looking. Managed to find a nice one at Wagga Wagga (1238 kms from Brisbane) , so a mate and I flew down and spent a coulpe of days driving back!..

Except for the fact standard TD42’s are gutless beyond belief….the Patrol drove really really well. Im very happy with it. This week i have booked it in to have a 3″ Mandrel exhaust installed, and then over to QDAD for a tune up.

Well, I finally got around to ordering myself a set of those Flexy arms I was talking about a while ago.

Heres some more pics of them, once they arrive, I will try and get some before and after shots to show you all.