Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Michael wrote:Im doubting very strongly that Dirks GQ has a silvertop engine, but who really knows

I can confirm it is a Silver top. 10 to 12 GQ 4.2 diesels were imported from Australia by IC Nissan Boksberg without Nissan SA's knowledge. Nissan did not want to have the 4.2 diesels for sales as they were focusing on the 4.2 petrol SGL units.

This was from the horses mouth. I traced the Nissan salesman from 1997 down to Barloworld Toyota in Centurion. I stopped outside and he immediately recognised the Patrol and gave me the low down.

As for knowing about the Silver top, we traced the engine number through Nissan Australia to Japan, and got confirmation that it was indeed the Silver Top. That is why it has run for so long without having to be rebuilt.

Not sure why everyone is making the big hype around the Silver top engine. Like most of the Aussies say the TD42 is capable of 750Nm and we rarely see 500Nm here and the average TD42 turbo engine produces just over 400Nm which is half of what it is capable of.

A silver top engine is not in any way more reliable than any other TD42 engine, a badly tuned engine is what makes it unreliable.

The pickup's engine is rated as the strongest one of the lot so whoever is chasing the "strongest TD42 engine on the planet".....there is where to look.

Just stating the facts. Not making a hype but explaining why some of the 4.2 diesel engines run forever even after a turbo is fitted.

Why di Dirks patrol no sitting at around 450 + km run with out problems. It was setup correctly, and impeccably maintained and lastly it is a silver top .

Aggg no man Michael, if I want to sell the Trollie I want to brag about that silver top, so stop putting spanners in the works

I don't know, don't care, all I can tell you is that she still purrrr's like a tiger and on my 4000km Bots trip with a fully loaded vehicle (alllll that extra's, 3 duel battery's, 3 fridges, double rooftop tent and all provisions for 3 weeks) I still averaged close to 7km/L (Best was 7.4 and worse was 5.6). Only problem was the fuel line that decided to disengage from the tank, and that was a quick fix when the source of my problem was determined. Standing on 423,000km now

Jip Dirk and luckily we found the problem with the wrong tipe of radiator eating the thermostat housing away .....otherwise it might have been a very sad day ....

Tinus, I think after 420 000 odd Km your thermostat housing will also be a little worn out..... Hmmm must be a very hungry radiator to eat a thermostat housing, but clearly a very slow eater too, cause it took over 21 years and 420 000Km's to do that !!

Dirk and I both have similar radiators. Mine has been in for at least 7 years that I have had the vehicle, and wasn't done by the previous owner who had the vehicle for a fairly long time before me, and my radiator hasn't eaten any of my thermostat housing.... This worries me, as that means that My Patrol isn't into heavy metal....

I don't think Dirk has the wrong type of radiator at all, in fact that radiator in Dirks Patrol is super efficient when running a Safari ( or any water cooled turbo )

Maybe you should mention that it is advisable to earth your radiator to prevent or assist in preventing electrical corrosion, as ( as far as I know ) none of the Patrols come out standard with a earthing strap between the radiator and chassis, cause its not possible for any " wrong tipe of radiator eating the thermostat housing away "

I'm going to paint Chuck's camshaft housing pink just to confuse the "silver vs. black top" crowd even more!

..... Chuck.... in pink !!!..... Hell no !!...... Chuck has no electronics, but will go into limp mode if you do that !!!

Cerdic it had very bad galvanic corrosion there where the water flows via the small hole.....the copper radiator with the wrong cooling juice eats the alli but the car started overheating and we found it and made it work again .....also mabe standing for long periods of time made the battery effect worse ....i dont know all i can say is copper radiators dont work on the 4.2 ....they stuff the engines slowly but surely......after all the only way to stop it is sacrafical anodes and changing them when you service it

Tinus,


You cannot make the comment that the radiator caused the problem, as it was only in for about a year and 3500 km. The patrol has 420 +km on it and one would expect that this type of wear and tear would take place.

You seem to have a lot of experience and knowledge on diesels, and it great to hear you are a convert.