I can buy a 5sp car. Ugly but runs great. Anyone have knowlege andexperience w/ this series?

 

Hey man I have a 1982 Maxima diesel that I bought 2 months ago. It is also ugly, but does run great. When I bought mine it had 169,522 miles on it and that is low miles for this car. I have an automatic trans, but since that is a 5-speed diesel that is a rarer car than the automatic. Without no hesitation, I will tell you go buy it and fix up the problems because it is a reliable vehicle. The LD28 motor in the car has a lot of power, compared to other 80's diesel vehicles. It has 80 HP. How many miles does that car have on it, is it a sedan or wagon, and what color is it? If you have any more questions just contact me, my name is Salvy.

 

Thanks for your reply, Salvy. The car is the standard Maxima silver/blue color. It has been pushed in in the rear. I'm not looking for a beauty, but it will take a bit of fabbing to set up any kind of rear lighting. I am verry interested to know what kind of milage to the gallon you are achieving. City/Highway, of course I should do better w/ stick, I want to see if putting up w/ noise and smell is worth it. This car is also approx. 169,000 miles and is a 4 dr. Thanks again; Please fill me in on anything you can think of regarding diesel power. Dave B.

 

My car right now is getting about 26 mpg city and probably like 28/29 mpg highway. And yes, you'll diffently get better mileage with the 5-speed. Also I have the brochure for the 81 and 83 year cars so here is the exact mileage per gallon from the brochures, which I think is a little to high:

Diesel Maxima Sedan automatic: 28 MPG city, 42 MPG highway
Diesel Maxima Sedan 5-speed: 30 MPG city, 43 MPG highway

 

Many thanks for the milage quotes and your real time. Does it give the cars weight? I'm thinking of finding a nice gas car and transfering the diesel run stuff to it.

 

i had an 83 max diesel 5 spd. i got about 300 to the tank--roughly 12-14 gal. ran great for what it was until some ******* had to pull out in front of me. damn i miss my max. anyways, i really liked it, easy to work on and pretty straight forward. parts were a *****, ps i have a sunroof, painted silver in case yours rusts, just sitting around.
good luck with everything.
if you have questions, i have an old factory manuel that helped me out a great bit. just pm me.

kevin

 

I happen to have two of them, wagon and sedan, ('82 5-speed) I love'm, also both have a very interesting twist to them.

You see, I installed a turbo system from the 280ZX onto both of them including a 3" exaust, K&N filter.. and a propane injection setup that I modified, , the sedan has 88,589 miles and the wagon just over 150K.

You just have to see the look on people's faces when I pull up to the Diesel pump and they hear the clatter ,many times while cruising, some of the truck Dieselers, (you know the full sized pick ups)
hear the turbo spooling and give me the .

As far as MPG's ... 65mph =41.4 @ 2,200rpm and 1.8# of boost.

By now you probably realized that they are my babies and are cared for as such, however all you have to do is remember these words of advise....... CLEAN OIL, CLEAN AIR,CLEAN FUEL and she will run for ever .

 

hmm 1.8 bar boost? what is that in psi...I forget the conversion....

Have you dyno'd at all to see what power your getting from it?

S

 

That number is in psi. # is the symbol for pound. If it were 1.8 bars, he be running 26 psi boost.

-C-

 

Gotcha....be nice to see what that would do with 26 psi though. Probably be nice to dial in more than 1.8 psi of boost though, maybe somewhere around 8 or 9 psi.

S

 

You don't really want to run such high a boost level on these engines, although they can probably survive for just a little and make some decent HP. it is not worth the risk and the level of distruction possible.


Remember, these engines (unlike the truck diesels) are of the IDI, or precombustion chamber design, and therefore the static compresion ratio is 22.5 to 1, While the truck engines you see in the Fords, Dodge, Isuzus etc. are Direct injection and carry a comp. ratio of between 16 and 19 to 1 thus justifying 25, 30 even higher boost levels with no problems, they are also intercooled!!!

The turbos in my cars have factory wastegates set up for 7.5# of boost, I have taken them up there several times but not for a very long time as I am concerned about the EGT's.

When pulling hard, like up hill at WOT, the EGT's can go up very fast and you don't really want to have them up too high. The higher I've had them it's been 980° F under these conditions.(before the BBQ gas). At normal cruise however, they usually hover arround 550° F to 650°F of course the pyro gauge is located after the turbo where the o2 sensor goes in the gas engine.

If you want, I can try and post a picture of the engine, as soon as I can figure out this new camera

To answer your original ?, the cars are not hot rods by any means but, I am very happy with the milage, performance, confort level and reliability of them.

Let me tell you, the sounds from the tail pipe when the turbo is spooling up, are priceless!!!!

Hope this has helped you.

 

Nice, I can totally understand not going up to higher boost. I've done work with my friend S/C max. EGT's are a very big thing, though I believe he runs higher EGT's than your car...but then again I could be interpreting his guage wrong. I have to look at it again. Either way I love boost, just wish I can do it for my car.

S

 

Well actually you can, just go to your local recycling yard and look for a '81 thru '84 Nissan 280Z Turbo, remove the exaust manifold, turbo, down pipie, inlet hoses, clamps discharge pipe and don't forget the elbow to attach the discharge pipe to your intake manifold.(make sure you get the oil feed and return lines to and from the turbo)

Then you go to the auto parts store and buy an intake/exaust gasket for the Diesel.

The mounting flange for the new exaust manifold will require some minor work, nothing a good bench grinder can't take care of!

The down pipe will interfere with the steering knuckle, you will have to cut about 3" just after the O2 sensor and weld it back (pay close attention to the angle in which you wled it) as for the flange might get in the way of the steering.

As far as the oil supply and return are concerned, just tap into the oil feed and return for the vacuum pump at the alternator.

Go to you muffler shop and have a 2½" or 3" system built for you (NO MUFFLER, YOU DON'T NEED IT WITH THIS SETUP) and get ready for some sweet sounds. One more benefit you'll get from this will be reduced smoke out the tail pipe and of course you will feel an extra "PUNCH" in the seat of you pants when you press the loud pedal.

HERE are the instruments I use..


D

 

That is both a genious and awesome setup you did with both your cars dslsmoke. Man, now that I have read all the information you have provided, all I want to do now is talk strictly with you about diesel engines and stuff. Yea, if you get any pictures of your two cars, I'd like to see how they look and how the motor looks too. Also, I wanted to tell you that your username is really cool.

 

Thanks!!!

I'm still trying this new camera gizmo thing here, so as soon as I can get some decent pictures, I'll put some up...

If there is anything I can help you with, just ask...... the only thing is, I don't get around the PC a lot so bare with me if I don't respond right away..


D

 

I love your name too! I am obsessed with this idea of a diesel maxima! any idea on where I could even begin to look for one to purchase? those turbo diesels, ah! I'm jealous!

 

First of all, Thanks...

These puppies are somewhat rare today, you can still find some out there however, (look out for the milage on the odometer) you see they were only available in the US for three years '81 '82 and '83, (that makes them just this side of 21 years old )

If you are really interested in a Diesel Maxi, your choices are limited to finding an original Diesel car (my recomendation) or convert to Diesel using new-old stock, HERE is a link that still has brand new engines available $$$$$$, LD28.
Now as far as the turbo goes, well you read the previous post and can follow the steps to aquire the needed parts.

Nissan also sold Diesel Stanzas and pick ups. The pick ups had the old reliable SD22 and later SD25 engines, these are bullit proof engines and will live up to turbo duties real good, (they even have oil cooled "Sprayed" pistons in them and are dry sleeved blocks which means, when it comes time to re-build you press new cylinder sleeves in, put new pistons and rings, and you are good for another 300K to 350K miles again) the Stanza however NOT MY FIRST CHOISE. Of course these are 4 cylinder engines but have a lot of tq. for their displacement and RPM range and with the proper care and maintenance, will out last any engine you have.



D

 

Yes, there is no doubt that an 81-83 Maxima diesel car will be rare to find these days. Your best bet is looking on Ebay patiently for one. Actually there is one on EbayMotors right now, with about 2 days left on the auction. This one is an 81 810 Maxima diesel with 33,000 original miles on it and is a cream color. Now I really wish I had a Datsun/Nissan 720 pickup with the SD22 or even more, the SD25 engine. Now I don't know first hand how reliable these motors are but I know they are because I have experience with diesel engines. My dad had a 1978 International Scout Traveller with the straight 6 cyclinder 3.3 liter turbo-diesel Nissan engine, which is like a bigger version of the SD22 engine in the Nissan pickups, but without turbo. Also, besides owning a 1982 Datsun Maxima diesel, I have a 1982 Chevrolet LUV pickup with the 2.2 liter Isuzu diesel engine. The motor in my truck is awesome too. So a tandom of my LUV pickup and Maxima car is pretty sweet. Dslsmoke, I wanted to ask you if you have ever heard of the 2.3 liter turbo-diesel engine in the 83-86 Mitsubishi pickups and the 2.2 liter diesel engine in the 82-84 Mazda pickups? Both these vehicles are extremely rare to get with these diesels. Someday I want to get that year Mitsubishi truck with the diesel engine.

 

I have an 82 diesel....got her with 100,026mi now has ~112,000mi...runs great. I have the three speed auto, and it kills my accel. I am in te process of putting a 280 ZX 5 speed in it. The diesel is the best car I have ever owned, and I read somewhere that there are only estimated 500 left on the road...that may be, but it is still a great car

 

Well lets start with my favorite, SD33T. I have a '86 Ford E150 Van converted to Diesel using this engine, with a Mustang T-5 tranny behind it.(YES I KNOW AM A DIESEL NUT) This is my daily driver, the sd22 is in fact the kid brother of this engine, what Nissan did was add/remove 2 cylinders to the block and walla! 2.2L I4 and 3.3L I6, pretty neat!.

The Mitsu. was a dieselized gas engine that produced a healthy 80Hp @4,200 Rpm and 125 ft-lb of tourque @ 2,500 Rpm. The turbo blew in 12 # of boost, but since it did not have a wastegate, that boost was only up in the upper rpm range of the engine, all in all a good attempt at going Diesel.

The other Diesel (rare indeed) was actually made by TOYO KOGYO (inported by Ford) was not a long lived engine but again, if you look long enough, you'll find one.

I have some old pictures of both these engines ,but I can't do any attachments on this board.

 

I have one too. 82 LD28. Putting a 5sp in it (any pointers?). BUY THIS CAR! If you ever need any parts, the Z cars with a L28 have the same block, tranny, and other parts. Also the 80-84 maximas are plentiful in the local junkyards here

 

add some direct port propane as the prior poster suggested

 

If anybody is interested in a very unusual Diesel Swap, then click HERE