Broken Mu no longer Broken

[BrokenMu]

G'day all, my name's Michael for those of you who don't already know me and I'm from Melbourne Australia. I've been into Gemini's all my life and after one day looking at the history of Isuzu's production cars, I fell in love with the Mu and bought one. A 1991 2.8TD wagon.
Back in January '09 the compressor wheel on the turbo committed suicide by kissing the housing and shattering into a thousand pieces, lodging itself inside the motor. I got my arse into gear recently, got the motor rebuilt, and purchased a freshly built modified turbo and re-cored intercooler from Jarrad at turbo care in Chch NZ (http://www.turbocare.co.nz)
I can't speak highly enough of the level of service that Jarrad provides!!

Also - a BIG thank you to all of those on this forum who provided the help I needed when I was re-installing the motor!

Modifications and Accessories:

Suspension:
Rear: Lovells HR-15 2" raise with Rancho RS5116 extended shocks
Front: Cranked torsion bars with Rancho RS5214 shocks and ball joints flipped

Body Lift:
50mm body lift is in - pics on pg2

Tyres/Wheels:
33"x12.5"x15 Maxxis Bighorns on 15"x8" black Sunraisers

Traction Aids:
Rear LSD
Front Open

Bullbar:
TJM Full steel bar

Spot lights and Lighting:
Pair of narva spotties that came with the car

Communications/GPS:
None yet.

Dual Batteries:
not yet.

Engine:
Rebuilt 4JB1T top to bottom
New turbo - Vi95 compressor housing, Vi95 compressor, VF8 10,000S Turbine and a 12R exhaust/turbine housing
Turbo smart boost controler
Re-cored hi flow intercooler
Rebuilt injector pump
HD Exedy clutch
EGR's removed - EGT probe in exhaust blank.
Oil catch can
K&N air filter
Greddy turbo timer
4JG2 oil cooler/filter (to fit my new exhaust)

Exhaust:
3" From Dump pipe to tip. Dump pipe is divorced wastegate style
*Shameless plug* I am selling these dump pipes - see my signature below

Sound system:
Poineer head unit, pioneer 4" speakers in dash, MTX 6" splits in place of standard 6" speakers, 6x9's mounted ontop of 2 x 12" pioneer subs in the rear. The subs and 6x9's are removable as they are clamped down and use anderson plugs - comes in very handy for the weekends.

External: Snorkel on, roof racks on, bonnet scoop on, side steps are off, flares are on, rock sliders will be on soon and will be getting a fresh paint job soon as my mate owes me a favour

Internal:
Nothing yet, other than the boost gauge, egt gauge and hands free kit.

Pictures:

When i first bought it


after the 2" raise


new wheels and tyres

[Blondini]

Good job Michael looks good.
How much boost you running with the mod turbo

[BrokenMu]

Thanks mate!.
It's only pushing 10 PSI until the motor is run-in (about 1000kms) once I re-adjust the valve clearances I'll up it to around 13-15PSI and increase the fuel.

Regards
Michael

[Blondini]

Drive it like you stole it and it will be a strong motor.
Drive it like a nana and it will be slug.

[supamu]

Nice looking truck, the tyres really make it, like that blue too. When we rebuilt our motor we were advised by our mechanic to keep revs low (below 3500 from memory) till it was run in, others said go hard so two schools of thought on that one.

[BrokenMu]

Thanks for the comments guys. The bloke that rebuilt my motor told me to drive it the way I want to drive it when it's run in.

I forgot to mention in the body mods that I'd put gas struts on the bonnet. (in case you couldn't already tell)

Regards
Michael

[geeves]

Those gas struts are a good idea.

[BrokenMu]

Yep. I hate the bonnet stay rods. They get in the way sometimes.

If anyone's interested in them. I can give a quick run down on what parts you need and what to do.

Regards
Michael

[dasnoboarder]

Looks good mate, I'm keen to see how you did the bonnet struts

[geeves]

A diy in the makeing

[BrokenMu]

Ok, I'll try to get some detailed pics and do a write up soon.

[geeves]

Its a bit rough when you spend heaps on a full rebuild, show it off and everyone just wants to know about a couple of gas struts. Youve done a great job so far with some interesting variations to the normal way. The final result should work well.
As for running in. Do run it in as the re conditioner said or he wont honour any warranty claims if something goes wrong. Then drive it hard but do warm it up gently

[Captcol]

nice catch can btw, missed it the first time i looked at the pics. Do you remember where you got it from?

[BrokenMu]

Just got home and these were waiting for me



I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Anyway, onto the gas struts.

You will need the following bits;

Two VT Commodore bonnet gas struts - Repco P/N: RGS14689
Two gas strut nipples - Repco P/N: MLSMP351 (you can buy these at any good bolt & nut store)
4 x Metal self drilling screws - around 20mm x 8ga
4 x guard style bolts - M8 x 30mm
4 x 8mm mud guard washers
4 x M8 nyloc nuts
2 x L shaped brackets to mount to the guard
There are a few other little bits and pieces you will need though to move the fuse box down a touch - see below.
and a second set of hands always helps.

I've chosen the VT bonnet struts as they are only around 280Nm each and wont warp my bonnet or bend my guards in. Some other cars bonnet struts can get up to the 500Nm mark.

There is a tiny amount of modification to help it all fit nicely. The first thing is the fuse box needs to be moved down about 40mm for the gas strut to clear it when the bonnet is shut. To do so, I made a small bracket (about 70mm x 35mm) out of sheet metal and drilled two holes in it 40mm apart. firstly, In the lower hole, I placed a rounded head bolt facing inwards, pushed it through the fuse box mounting hole and secured it with a nut and flat washer. In the upper hole, I bolted the original fuse box mounting bolt, securing the bracket to the engine bay.





On the other side of the bay (this does not apply if you don't have air con) I simply moved the solid air con line behind the bracket to help the gas strut L bracket fit.



You can see the nipple required in this photo, the other end of it is threaded.



I was able to score a few of these L brackets from work. I work for a caravan builder and we use these on pop top caravans, the roof is supported by gas struts, so they were perfect!



If you look under the guard lip where the original bolt is (about 4th bolt from the rear of the guard), you'll see a small lipped section, I mounted my brackets just behind this lip to ensure it had a flat mounting surface.

Before mounting the L brackets, I'd advise that you attach the nipples to them.
Once they are mounted, screw the flat side of the strut to your bonnet with self drilling screws.



This is the optimum point of attachment to ensure that the gas struts don't bottom out on closure, the struts don't rub or foul on the inner guard lip and the bonnet opens to a decent height.

once the struts are screwed to the bonnet, clip the bottom of them to the nipples on the L brackets and you're done

[BrokenMu]

If I wasn't clear enough with any of the instructions, please let me know and I'll be happy to clarify it or help walk you through the process

Regards
Michael

[Captcol]

Thats an awesome writeup, I am about to fit my body lift kit in the next couple of days as well.

[BrokenMu]

nice catch can btw, missed it the first time i looked at the pics. Do you remember where you got it from?

Sorry mate, I missed your question earlier.

I bought the catch can from Autobarn a few years back. I'm pretty sure they still sell them, it's a "Drift" branded can,
I'd have preferred one without the writing on it but it was cheap at the time

Regards
Michael

[pig75]

I have put the gas strut modification in the DIY section. Good work Michael

[BrokenMu]

Cheers Pig

[Caboolture]

Rancho RS5116 extended shocks
Front: Rancho RS5214 shocks
Hello are you happy with these and is there a reson you choose these? Looking to replace my shocks Cheers Peter