Ke70Dave's New Toy!

[ke70dave]

Good news!

 

RWC aquired as of this morning.

 

passed with flying colours. Drove it to work, and it made it here! Even made it over the gateway bridge.

 

First camping trip planned for 17th of march. will see if i can get to beerburrum state forest in the next few weeks though..

 

Got a noise in the front diff, I'm not convinced there is any oil in it. Bought some diff oil to change, will do that this weekend me thinks.

[It's_AUDM_Yo]

Did it maintain 80 on the Gateway?

[ke70dave]

Suprisingly yes! in 4th, not 5th.

[Clapped out]

Make sure you have half decent tyres if your going, its a little slippery here at the moment.............

[ke70dave]

Right so yesterday was not such a fun day.

 

drove to work in the morning no worries at all,

 

had to go pick up katrina from airport in the arvo, driving south over the gateway bridge notice the water temp getting a little high, figured must be cause ive got it at 100% throttle just getting it over the bridge.....

 

Coast down the other side of the bridge, water temp still creeping up....get to almost the wynnum road exit, and water temp goes up to about 80% of guage, then instantly drops down to 30% and is slowly dropping....not good!!

 

Pulled over, and i have popped a top radiator hose :( steam everywhere, but i think i caught it before i wrecked anything, no bubbles in radiator and is holding water..

 

Luckily i still don't have confidence in the car and thus carry my toolbox and 5L of coolant......standing out in the rain at 530pm in peak hour traffic on the side of a highway filling up a radiator in the pouring rain is not my idea of fun!!!....certianly not katrinas idea of fun either....

 

I reckon i have traced the problem too a cracked radiator overflow bottle, its cracked ~10mm from the bottom, so it only holes 10mm of water..., so i reckon once the water heats up in radiator, bit flows into the overflow, flows out the crack, when it cools down, radiator sucks in air, this air creates high pressure in the radiator hose, and thus it popped off. I thought the radiator hoses were a bit 'inflated' the other day. Thoughts on my theory welcome!

 

So i will order a new overflow bottle (this one was new but cracked on installation....by my dad.....). and i will need some new coolant.

 

Also this engine is far too slow, i'm going to look out for a weber or something to install. I't is the same carby bolt spacing as toyota K engines, so that makes it easier! so if anyone has a weber they want to sell to me...pm away.

 

They want $170 for a cam regrind, so thats not tooooo bad i guess. and i found some extractors for around $200 on ebay (brand new), so thats another avenue to get a bit more HP....

 

the poor engine just does not rev at all, even if you flat it in 2nd gear, it doenst like going past 4000 before its really struggling, i think the pathetic carby and exhaust are to blame here. Exhaust is like 3/4" out the back!!!

[Clapped out]

Just a word of warning, fitting an aftermarket carb (eg. weber or holly) to a 4wd can be useless and frustrating once used in off road conditions, when faced with more high level angles of ascending and descending they tend to starve or flood badly. The problem can possibly be overcome going to the right carby guy.

[ke70dave]

updates! everyone loves updates.

 

Well after my woes with the cooling system, all has been well, added a few additional hose clamps for good measure.

 

I adjusted the ignition timing and gave the carby a good clean, and I'm very happy with the performance now. its not fast, but it gets around nicely. ive been driving it abit as a daily drive, and its great.

 

and in order to eliminate an annoying bearing noise, ended up having to change the rear wheel bearings, and the front pasenger side wheel bearing. chagned the diff, gbox and transfer oils. And now it drives silky smooth.

 

Have completed 2 camping trips in the last few weeks.

 

Went to lake moogerah at easter, and weekend just gone went to moreton island, had an absolute blast.

 

Car performed great at both, no dramas at all, even fully loaded up it just charged along the beach. still running the standard road tyres, on dodgily sprayed black wheels. with 16psi in the tyres it had plenty of grip to go anywhere.

 

so before next trip i will try and do the following:

 

-Fit my fishing rod holder (the u bolts don't fit around the bull bar, have to think up something cleaver here...perhaps just bend u bolts)

-find a cheap cd player/stereo to fit for tunes.

-properly mount my new fire extinguisher

-change rear brake shoes and front brake pads, and adjust rear brake drums to suit.

 

I'm looking at buying a set of roof racks and a basket for the roof, just to put light bulky things (bedding etc), and interestingly they actaully make them for my high top! I just gotta check that ~280mm of height, but i think its all good.

 

http://www.rhinorack.com.au/Vehicle_SUZUKI_Sierra_Page_1_System_Aero-Silver-RL280-R--Gutter-Mount-2-bar_3769_4158.aspx

 

Downside is they cost $380 just for the roof racks......but they seem to be pretty well made, and they are aluminium so will be nice and light.

 

Then there are a few aluminium baskets on ebay that go for around $150 or so.

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-1-3m-CAR-4WD-ROOF-RACK-LUGGAGE-CAGE-BASKET-CARGO-CARRIER-BOX-ALUMINIUM-bl-/130785222380?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e73681eec

 

That would do me i think, my mate and i got away with just the back of the drover for stuff on moreton weekend, but only just! a few light bulky things up there, and we will have heaps of room in the back for longer trips.

 

anyway a few photos from the recent trips.

 

after a bit of mud bashign at lake moogerah

 

 

 

a few from moreton

 

 

 

[ke70dave]

So over the last week or so i have been playing with exhaust for the drover.

 

I have never made an exhaust before, so i thought although i could just pay someone to do it, id give it a go as a bit of an academic exercise.....

 

Using the wonderful welding method that is, gasless MIG. great fun on thin steel

 

Started with a set of 4-1 extractors i got for $40 off the forums, then i went to the wreckers and got 2 old exhausts of mitsubishi magnas for $33, which included the 2 mufflers you see and most of that pipe. I also bought some pipe from the exhaust shop, which i didnt end up using alot....

 

Unfortunately i only had an angle grinder to cut up the pipe, so getting a perfetly flat cut was difficult, and made a few gaps in my joins. if i did it again id buy a drop saw.

 

I took these photos this morning, ill give it a quick paint, then fit it and weld on the hangers on the weekend.

 

Its pretty dodgy, but ill be intersted to see how it goes, the welds are certainly strong just not that pretty.