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Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 26 May 2017 13:49
by Tinus lotz
Lekke man lekker :salute:

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 27 May 2017 00:20
by Dustin
So...
I've been battling with a chronic oil leak this week, originating from the turbo :thumbdown:

At first I thought it was the oil return fitting because there was oil visible on the pipe feeding to the sump.
I pulled it off and the brass hose tail had begun to unscrew itself from the 10mm mild steel flange.
I bought a steel fitting, cut the hose tail end off and welded it to the flange to make a solid unit.
I thought the little puddle of engine oil when I parked was just residual oil that leaked onto the chassis and was dropping off when warm...wrong. The puddle size never got smaller :think:

I searched all over for a possible source.
The oil feed fitting was fine, and I kept noticing the oil on the bottom of the turbo core cartridge.
My mind automatically went to worst case scenario, "What if the core is cracked ?!" :surprised:

I plucked the turbo and downpipe tonight and started stripping the turbo down to see if the problem might be bad seals in the cartridge.
Everything looked fine, no oil anywhere.

When I went to loosen the 4 bolts in the cartridge that hold the compressor backing plate on, I didn't immediately click that they were very loose.
Only after I had all the bits laying on the work bench did I notice that there was oil on the outside of the o-ring seal side of the face that mounts up to the backing plate.
Turns out what had happened is I rebuilt the turbo and sent the cartridge to be balanced.
When it came back, I didn't check it before installing it.
the 4 bolts had worked themselves loose and slightly separated the cartridge just enough to allow oil to bypass the o-ring seal and push oil out of the threaded holes :redface:
I would never have found that leak if I hadn't stripped the turbo down.
Lesson learnt :lol:

Sorted it out and it's all back together now :thumbup:

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 27 May 2017 07:29
by Michael
Well done for fi ding and fixing the problem Dustin.
Seems like you are becoming our turbo expert!! :lol:

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 27 May 2017 09:18
by Tinus lotz
Nice dude go make some boost now ....and smoke on the tires

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 05 Jul 2017 13:23
by Dustin
It took a lot longer than I had imagined, but I finally got the hood scoop molded and it's almost ready to install.

I had to take a polyester fibreglass copy of my foam and filler mold so I could work out all of the small defects and finish up the shaping in the fibreglass part.
Many hours of wet sanding out all of the little imperfections with P2000 water paper, then polishing and buffing the new mold until the glare off of the surface was blinding :lol:
Then I made the final negative mold and repeated the polishing process.

I used 6 layers of 5oz woven epoxy matting capped off with epoxy white gel coat.
I laminated some strips of 5mm aluminium plate into the flange so I can drill and tap thread into the plates.
I can put some M6 bolts in through the underside of the bonnet to pull it down onto the VHB tape I'm going to use to seal it to the bonnet.

Now all that's left is to make the cut out for the air inlet and install it :blonde:
I'll post some pics once it's in place on the Patrol.

I've kept a record of exactly what and how much material was used.
I'll see what it costs to make a hood scoop up and I'll post them in the "General Items/Services for sale" section if anyone wants one.
It sits fairly far forward on the GU's bonnet so it has a slight curve along the length as well as the width, but if a GQ owner wants one, I can modify the fibreglass copy to a GQ bonnet for the fit and make mold off of that.

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 05 Jul 2017 14:08
by ricster
Well smack me down with a feather....that looks flippin beautiful !!!!

Well done mate !! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 05 Jul 2017 15:01
by Anthony Forgey
A really neat job indeed!

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 05 Jul 2017 17:49
by andredurand
Good job :thumbup:

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 05 Jul 2017 18:13
by hugejp
PM sent!!!

Re: My '98 GU 4.2 TD

Posted: 06 Jul 2017 07:36
by iandvl
Excellent job. Very impressive. :salute: :salute: