GU 3 litre the truth

[bogged]

Just take it to the dealer AND an independant spanner man that knows a bit about patrols, and see what they say...

[coxy321]

As far as i'm concerned, there shouldn't be any wet spots on the motor considering its a town car, doesn't do any towing and doesn't get flogged. The blowback i saw looked like someone had got a can of WD40, sprayed each of the hose joints liberally, then taken the car on a 50km trip down a dusty road.

I said it was either piston ring blow-by, or a failing seal in the turbo. He actually bought it off the guy that owns the local Nissan dealership - so he's in good hands (i hope).

Coxy

PS - How are the new 3L GU utes going to hold up....??

[tweak'e]

Hi all,
One of my mates has just headed off on a 3 month trip around OZ in his 2003 STR (ZD30). I called to see him just before he headed off last week, and noticed quite a lot of blow-by around his engine (after a dusty weekend camping).

His car has 95,000km on it, and gets used as a daily commuter. The blow-by i noticed started just after the crankcase ventilation pipe (on intake side, pre-turbo), and was visible at every pipe join all accross the intake. I pulled the crankcase ventilation hose off and it was a bit wet inside - i didn't remove intake pipe as i was too scared of what i'd find.

The car is under warranty, was bought from Nissan dealer, and is serviced by Nissan dealer. How scared should he be???

Coxy

i take it you have navara.

most likly overfilled with oil. that means more oil gets thrown through the breather line which then comes out around the intake joins. if you pull the air cleaner to turbo hose off you will proberly see a puddle of oil just in front of the turbo.

the fix...... fit a decent catch can that has a breather. highly recommended as that excess oil screws up the ecu as it has trouble trying to learn the extra fuel (oil) going in so it often runs poorly. (i cannot imagen that the oil burning on the commpression stroke before the fuel is injected does the motor any good)





EDIT: also tighten up the hoses, they tend to come loose when lubed by oil. people tend to forget these motors have 15-18psi boost in stock form.

[coxy321]

No Navara for me!! I've got a TD42 GQ. The Navara is my mates.

Thanks for the post tweak'e, i told him last night that he needs to take it back to the dealer as soon as he gets back from his holiday/roadtrip.

(Not being a smart arse..), the over filled theory is good, but if it gets serviced by the dealer every 5000km, and is always dead on the full mark on the dipstick - why would there be an issue with overfilling? The catch can is a great idea, but if i paid those sort of dollars for whats supposed to be one of the best utes on the market, and had to fit a catch can due to poor design or whatever the fault is - i would be so p!ssed off that it wouldn't be funny.

Has anybody else struck this problem?? (obviously excluding rooted engines).

Cheers!!

PS. Normally, he would've pulled ALL of the pipes off, washed them up, replaced clamps etc etc (hell, he's actually a mechanic), but cause he's got the extended warranty etc, he's just going to drive it. He has RACV if it shits itself, but he paid good $$$ for the car, so as far as he's concerned it Nissan/dealers issue if things go south.

[tweak'e]

...(Not being a smart arse..), the over filled theory is good, but if it gets serviced by the dealer every 5000km, and is always dead on the full mark on the dipstick - why would there be an issue with overfilling? ...........

how are you/they meaureing? when its totaly cold or after a few minutes after turning motor off?
that can make a big difference to how the dipstick reads.

VERY common to be overfilled by service guys. NOT ONE mechanic has filled mine correctly. fitting a catch can was easier than bitching to the dumb oil change boys.
it may not be overfilled by a lot, it looks worse than it is. however if they do overfill it excessivly like i had a few times, then you get drivability problems.

also i forgot to add.... blocked airfilter makes it worse. very easy to get a fairly clog filter in no time, even when driving on tarseal. i threw out one fairly new filter because it was clogged from oil/water that had splashed up from the road and into the air intake.
clogged airfilter means more oil vapour gets sucked through the breather.

[coxy321]

He always checks the oil in the morning (so ALL of the oil is measured) before driving it. As i said earlier, the car gets serviced either on 5000km, or within 100km of it - oil filter/air filters get changed EVERY service (he's very anal), fuel filters every 10,000km. 99.5% of his driving is on the blacktop (he has a gravel driveway ).

The service guys aren't too bad (but nobody is perfect), as its a fairly small business, family owned and run, and the feller that actually services my mates car has a pretty sweet comp truck. In such a small town you cant afford to not do things right most of the time.

Coxy

[tweak'e]

certainly sounds like its serviced extremly well, tho just check the air filters where changed. its not the first time i've had them leave the old stuffed ones in.

small thing he can do, after a run turn motor off and pull the breather hose off and watch the oil mist pour out. even with normall oil level they have quite a lot of oil mist come through the breather. thats why a catch can require a filter in them.

mind you if there is minimal oil in front of the turbo its possible for oil leak from the turbo.

[Mark2]

Unless its used in dusty conditions, changing the aircleaner every 5000 can do more harm than good. 2 reasons - they increase in cleaning efficiency as they get dirtier and, every time the air box is disturbed, cleanside contamination occurs.

[tweak'e]

Unless its used in dusty conditions, changing the aircleaner every 5000 can do more harm than good. 2 reasons - they increase in cleaning efficiency as they get dirtier and, every time the air box is disturbed, cleanside contamination occurs.

yes/no

5000km of dusty conditions it can be so blocked up the motor can be smoking at idle ! dirty air filters is proberly no1 cause of diesel problems.
paper filters do clean a bit better when dirty but also flow a lot less.
its the foam/cotten filters that filter a lot better when they are dirty.

if its dirty change it, minor amount of dust in the intake (you usually remove the entire turbo to air clenaer pipe when doing air filter change on these) is nothing compared to te damage you can due to starveing the motor of air.