Inside at 310,000km.

[Motu]

I mentioned on one of the oil threads how clean inside dirty filthy diesels are.We pulled the head off my old Nissan Vanette today,just to fix an oil leak coming out of the gasket joint where the head drains are.A lot of work for a small leak,but it was getting worse,and after one of my daughters was using it for a couple of months and never checking the oil of course....it got kinda low.So time to fix it.

You don't really want to disturb a motor with this many kms on it,but good to look inside.Being a diesel there was no carbon at all,just wipe the pistons with an oily rag.I measured the bore wear at 7 thou (sorry,my DTI is pretty old),that's not too bad,and all valves seating with no resession,just a lap will do.No cracked precom chambers and no corrosion - all in all looking pretty good,but I expected that.

Anyway,this is inside the rocker cover with just a quick wash in the parts cleaner.Why don't petrol engines stay this clean eh?

[oldrider]

Anyway,this is inside the rocker cover with just a quick wash in the parts cleaner.Why don't petrol engines stay this clean eh?

Wouldn't be anything to do with the detergents in the oil would it Motu? Cheers John.

[Motu]

No,that's a common misconception - most oils these days are dual rated,take a look at your closest oil container,it'll have a CF or some such rating.So it would still look like that if it was using a good petrol engine oil.HDEO oils (heavy duty engine oils) mainly have a stronger antiwear package (like a motorcycle oil,which is why they are good to use in bikes),they are kept clean from diesel fuel finding it's way into the sump,and they just don't have all those contaminants anyway.

[Motu]

I've run the motor on all sorts of oils,all good ones of course...I have the choice of any oils I like at pretty good prices.But I've settle to using Fuchs...um,I forget what it is,but it's maybe a semi synth and recomended for change intervals of up to 80,000km,so my recomended 5000km intervals are hardly stretching it's capabilities....although by the time I get my daughters car in for an oil change it could be up around there....

So I had the wife's Diamante in for a service and WoF the other day,I've always run this on synthetic oils since I put it together about 4 years ago.But I don't have many petrol cars in the fleet anymore and have run oil of synth oil - so bugger it,I think I'll run everything on my diesel oil,it can't really hurt now can it? After giving it back to my wife she was raving about how great the car was running,it's smoother and just seems to take less effort to do anything...she asked what I had done to it.....Um,nothing? Not much I can do to the Diamante,I didn't even look at the sparkplugs,they are double platinum and should last awhile yet.It's hard to imagine just an oil making a difference and I am always sceptical of claims that ''it runs much better now I use ***''.But she doesn't know I changed from Fuchs Supersyn 10/30 to Fuchs Super MC 10/40 - maybe it really is the Good Oil eh?

[stify]

i'm a fan of the 5w30 engine oils, mostly in the modern japas anyway,sposed to help with economy too but how really knows

[WINJA]

im dissapointed buying my diesel van , it needs twice the oil changes as the petrol equivelent the oil filters cost twice as much , it needs regular fuel filters yet the petrol doesnt , throw in road user charges and diesel being the price it is and diesels are a waste of time and money

[Motu]

They say you have to be doing over 40,000km a year before a diesel becomes more economical than a petrol engine.I do over 1000km a week in my Pajero,and it costs a shit load to run,and all my parts are at trade prices - but I bet a petrol version would cost even more.

Check out that truck in my avatar,I had one of those when I was 18,it used to do 4 mpg...and after the weekend before pay day I'd have to get my petrol after hours....

[Lou Girardin]

Has anyone heard what this miraculous fuel additive is that's being used in the 'round the world on 40 tanks of gas' challenge. Supposedly it cuts friction.
It's a Shell Oil developement (I think)

[Krusti]

im dissapointed buying my diesel van , it needs twice the oil changes as the petrol equivelent the oil filters cost twice as much , it needs regular fuel filters yet the petrol doesnt , throw in road user charges and diesel being the price it is and diesels are a waste of time and money

Have come to that conclusion myself.

[marty]

i was doing 1500k a week commuting, and looked at a diesel car. $40/week road user, $25 diesel a day. and you don';t want to do that mileage in a corolla!

ended up with a 1 owner nz new 3.5l 98 sei diamante with full leather/cruise/climate air/10 stack cd for $4k at the auctions. $2600 for a high-end LPG kit with lean cruise fitted, 80l tank. cost me $17 a day in gas (68c/litre), no road user, clean as, quiet as. i don't notice the power difference, especially for cruising/towing the boat etc. filters are cheap, oil is mobil 1 with 15000km service interval.

hey motu, how much for a cambelt/tensioner/waterpump job (it's at 210000kms)? i've bought all the bits, just not enough time to do it. pm me if you're able/keen.

[Warr]

Check out that truck in my avatar,I had one of those when I was 18,it used to do 4 mpg...and after the weekend before pay day I'd have to get my petrol after hours....

Is that different to Pre-Pay ?

[Flyingpony]

$2600 for a high-end LPG kit with lean cruise fitted, 80l tank.

Are you now dedicated LPG?
Where did they mount the LPG tank - is it underneath or in the boot?
How much boot space still left over - more than half?
What's your range on LPG - still around 800km country?
Thanks.

[Warr]

ended up with a 1 owner nz new 3.5l 98 sei diamante with full leather/cruise/climate air/10 stack cd for $4k at the auctions. $2600 for a high-end LPG kit with lean cruise fitted, 80l tank. cost me $17 a day in gas (68c/litre), no road user, clean as, quiet as. i don't notice the power difference, especially for cruising/towing the boat etc. filters are cheap, oil is mobil 1 with 15000km service interval.

Road user ..Is that all incorporated in the pump price these days ??
Is that the same for CNG too ? .. Naaa dont think I could go back to CNG. There are hardly any places to full now.

[Motu]

Is that different to Pre-Pay ?

No,it was self-serve...had to carry your own tin and hose too....

LPG would be the way to go these days alright,none of the problems we had in the old days doing conversions.I wouldn't have a clue how to do one now,although I'm still certified to do them,and do WoFs on them I see.Some years ago in a break in they took my safe off the floor,and the only other thing stolen was my Gas Cert,why the hell they wanted that I don't know,it's not even any use to me...must of been the nice frame.

We'd charge $240 - $275 for the labour on that Marty.

[Ixion]

Is that different to Pre-Pay ?

More like Post-Pay. A long while post.