[shep]

I did plenty of touring in my sierra, sometimes I had to carry 10 x 20ltr jerry cans because that's how far I was from the nearest fuel supply. I went places solo that very few people would travel. Shock horror my sierra was twin locked, geared and on either 31s or 33s.


Build what ever you think you want, although how you will fit a d4d motor in a sierra will be interesting. The 4.5 v8 diesels I drive at work have d4d stickers so I assume that is the motor you are talking about. Dunno about them being good on fuel however as I have emptied the tanks after driving only 280km on the hwy.

[SierraDan]

I think he might mean the smaller Hilux diesel motors.

[shep]

So a 1kz motor then?

[camshaft]

so what is it i should be searching for then as in what vehicle?

[shep]

Fucknose. Toyota put d4d stickers on every diesel passenger or commercial vehicle that they make. So maybe you need to work out what motor you want.

[missmyljdaze]

Hit up Sideways- he might know of a dead or dying Maruti lurking on a farm somewhere in the southwest that could start you on your project.

Maruti=LWB sierra, built in India using the Suzuki spare parts and leftovers bin, brought to Australia [I think many were converted to trayback by the importer.]

must admit though - I am a bit hazy regarding Maruti specifications- they are a bit too high tech for me........

stephen

[camshaft]

FFS get over the D4D would you... it was an idea not set in stone i believe i was talking about petrol engines here shep lol.
and i take it sideways is a member on here is he missmyljdaze?

[missmyljdaze]

Yep- Sideways is one of the crew, milkmaid from the souwest, but often in Perth to study automotive engineering / chase skirts.


wikipedia tells me that Marutis are often retrofitted with nissan or isuzu diesel engines over in India- so that is another option.
[some areas of the N/W and the Territory are diesel only - as petrol gets stolen by sniffers, and you do not want to use the OPAL anti-sniffer petrol!]

If you can fit an aircon compressor into the engine bay, it would make life a bit more comfortable in the northwest too!

stephen

[shep]

Oops thought you were the diesel tard not the stupid touring car tard

[2stroker]

There is a bloke in Brisbane with a project that's been going (slowly) for quite a while, it is a bundera chassis and running gear with a 4agze factory supercharged 1600, they sell a bell housing to mate that engine to the w series bundera gearbox, he has a Sierra ute body on it. It is different, coils, hilux diffs, supercharged and looks like a Suzuki.

[camshaft]

mad. i love how people can have an idea and ask for advise but instead they try and dictate what you can and cant do... shep the only tard here is you. 2stroker thats a pretty cool idea use a bundy chassis with a zook body

[Che]

Nobody is trying to be Hitler - a lot of people contributing to this thread have highly modded zooks of serious capability, spent a lot of money in the process, and they're just being honest in their assessment. If what you were asking was easy or cheap we'd all be doing it.

In regards to your proposed mods. If you don't plan on doing the bulk of the work yourself it's likely what you desire will cost $25K minimum to buy, build and get road approved. Otherwise it'll likely spend 6 months in a fab shop getting from A to B, and good luck finding an engineer willing to sign off on the mods once done. And if you get it on-road it'll be an absolute death trap at highway speeds, it'll chew close to 20L/100Ks, will struggle to reach three figure speeds on 33's, and mechanical reliability will be greatly reduced. Not only that, but finding a clean long-wheel-base Sierra (Maruti's) is the proverbial needle in a haystack and sellers can pretty much dictate their price - the same can be said for any neat zook here in the West.

I've driven my Sierra from Brisbane to Perth via every detour possible, and while I love my zook you gotta take them for what they are. They're closer to a quad bike than a Land Cruiser and they're not built for comfort or for speed. There's sweet FA cargo space for hauling gear, they're open to all elements (dust, rain, wind, bugs), they're fatiguing to drive for long distances, and you'll be as deaf as fuck after 8 hours @ 100kph if you don't have a hardtop. You don't really want to be driving them on WA roads at night either, coz if you strike a 'roo you can guarantee the panels will fold like the tin lids they are.

That said, they're great fun if you work within their limits, and kept standard-ish and maintained they're pretty much bulletproof. I have a love/hate relationship with mine, but now it's summer (sunny, warm and dry) i'm as happy as a clam

[camshaft]

see now that is better advice that i can understand thanks che

[kenn]

If your having trouble understanding the advice given, then I suggest you pay someone else lots of money to build your car so it doesn't kill anyone else.

[sideways]

kenn wrote:

If your having trouble understanding the advice given, then I suggest you pay someone else lots of money to build your car so it doesn't kill anyone else.

I am in agreeance with this post.

[Gwagensteve]

camshaft, I fully understand that you want the everything car, but a suzuki is a terrible candidate for an anything car, of the reasons stated above. That's before you modify it heavily.

Starting with an old car and throwing a collection of parts at it results in a whole bunch of compromises and solutions that need to be sorted out. The process for building and troubleshooting this sort of stuff is slow and can be very frustrating.

"I've worked on a 4 link before" isn't the same as designing one from scratch, fitting it into a Sierra, which is 400% harder than a larger car, and then ensuring it's reliable, safe at speed when you swerve to miss a roo at 110km/h, and you can get the bushes you need to put it back together in the Pilbara.

A "Simple EFI turbo motor" is fine in a Silvia in Perth, but put it in a car where it's running at higher revs and with more load than it was designed for, and you might find some little problems creeping in. Not least of which is there's stuff all room for a big radiator in the front of a sierra. ( I bet you're planning on some big lights and winch in the front of there too, eh? and then you're going to need to intercool it too. Now all that gear is jammed into an engine bay that means that every pipe etc is tight, close to rubbing on something, smaller than ideal, crimped, or close to something hot. Think fuel starvation, sky high under bonnet temps, cracked manifolds, slipping clutches, alternator failure, and lots of cooling issues.

I only run a G16 and I have a SV21 Camry radiator behind the cab with two primary Camry fans and a bosch electric water pump. My car runs cool, but it wasn't without some issues getting it right and I can't even behind to think how hard it will be to cool a turbo petrol up North without having the cooling system in the tray.

Now your overloaded car with wonky driveshaft angles is spinning 3K on the highway using a truck load of fuel and slowly shredding its driveline because A) it's dealing with more torque than it was designed for B) is all at slightly wonky angles and it's all going to last not very long at all.

Sure, you can throw the whole driveline away and build a car with a 3RZ, a Hilux gearbox and transfer and Hilux diffs. I wonder how much better than a hilux that's going to be though? because it certainly won't be better than a Sierra for the stuff a sierra is actually good at, and It won't be better than a hilux at the stuff a hilux is good at.

Read that again. Trying to turn a sierra into a hilux results in something worse than both cars.

In all honesty, it sounds like you need a hilux with a rear locker and your 33's. That's all you need to drive where you are planning. If you want a sierra for hektik terrain, build a basic sierra ( spool rear, auto lock front, 6.:1 gears, 31;s) and tow it behind your hilux. It will outdrive pretty much anything bigger and you won't have to think about it.

Steve.

[SierraDan]

Sierra body on a bundy chassis sounds like a horrible idea..

[kirstyandgrace]

I need to disagree with some people here. You can use a Sierra as a tourer, but it is not for everybody

I have done plenty of long trips in my Sierra, it may be slow and not especially comfortable but it works.

Keep in mind my car has no roof, no aircon, pretty much no anyfuckingthing really.

My trips are nearly always just me. Packing has become an advanced form of tetris.

The creature comforts offered by a million other cars are not important to me, so the Sierra works.

The trade off is even for a mechanically challenged person such as myself I can fix stuff in the middle of nowhere.

My car is also basically stock, if touring in Pilbara or kimberly areas this is important. There really is fuck all out there.

The mention of tyres above is a good point. Miners and farmers use those for a reason. And there's nobody else out there

[Gwagensteve]

I don't disagree with you kirsty, but a sierra with a turbo petrol motor, 33's, hilux diffs, link suspension etc isn't going to be a tourer.

Steve.

[kirstyandgrace]

Very true Steve, I was trying to make this very point.

Touring is possible with a Sierra, just not as easy.

A highly modified and non factory turbo anything is not a good idea for remote travel.

If you carry tools spares and ability, ignore my above comment.

[missmyljdaze]

Ages ago, there was a prospector? here that was offroad for months at a time,

I think his zook had a few mods, [RUF etc] and his trailer was well planned too,

He was talking a lot about tyres and wheels as he took heaps with him- as he rarely drove on tracks- mostly on virgin ground.

I am pretty sure he was running the same 16" rims on both trailer and zook, with 7.50 x 16 rags.

I tried searching for the thread- but no luck, anyone know any better than me?

A zook set up similar to this might be what Cam is looking for.

or....Sheps long red thing! which has done everything Cam intends to do [is it still around?]

stephen

[Marko_SJ]

missmyljdaze wrote:

Ages ago, there was a prospector? here that was offroad for months at a time,

I think his zook had a few mods, [RUF etc] and his trailer was well planned too,

He was talking a lot about tyres and wheels as he took heaps with him- as he rarely drove on tracks- mostly on virgin ground.

I am pretty sure he was running the same 16" rims on both trailer and zook, with 7.50 x 16 rags.

I tried searching for the thread- but no luck, anyone know any better than me?

A zook set up similar to this might be what Cam is looking for.

or....Sheps long red thing! which has done everything Cam intends to do [is it still around?]

stephen

Dead as a dodo. But yes, something like shep's with 7.50's would be perfect.

[shep]

I never have tyre issues but I do understand the relationship between tyre pressures and tread/sidewall punctures. I actually stake a few tyres each year but in work cars where I am not allowed to adjust pressures, my work cars run 750-16 tyres both rags and radials as well.

Tyre placement and pressures is more important then construction in my opinion

[missmyljdaze]

The_Amateur wrote:

missmyljdaze wrote:

....Sheps long red thing! which has done everything Cam intends to do [is it still around?]

stephen

Dead as a dodo. But yes, something like shep's with 7.50's would be perfect.

dead but ressurectable? or did Shep cremate it?

If its still in one piece and just needs a new engine or whatever- maybe the "Ball-n-Shep skunkworks and magic shop" can glue in a new donk and offload it to Cam.
At least we would know its been put together properly,

stephen