Outer Limits 4x4 Board

my mate is looking at buying a 94 surf, diesel, wagon etc etc.

what sorta things should he be looking out for? we believe the vehicle has done no offroad work and having a look over it i see no evidence against this. generaly speaking it looks to be in top nick, but what surf specific problems should an eye be kept open for?


cheers guys
Macca

Yep I'm keen to hear some opinions on them too. Looking at buying a 91 model manual turbo diesel in the next day or two.

Cheers

Get a coffee and start reading,
http://www.toyotasurf.asn.au/forum/

Rascal wrote:Get a coffee and start reading,
http://www.toyotasurf.asn.au/forum/

Yep that's the best place to find out go and enjoy

If its for only a little bit of offroad they are good. If ya want it to perform better offroad buy an 80.

If you get a surf aim for the 3ltr. Best surf motor out there. (All surfs are turbo, well the diesel varrient anyway)

sniper wrote: If you get a surf aim for the 3ltr. Best surf motor out there.

certainly the best diesel

All surfs are turbo, well the diesel varrient anyway

with exception of the bottom model surf (of the L series) which has atmo 2.8 3L diesel (and the very early ones where atmo 2.4 2L)

its not gunna be a serious offroader, else id sugest an 80 or GQ to him.

just after a few common problems to keep an eye out for

I have had a few 4x4's, mostly Hiluxes, and drive at work cruisers and patrols, the earlier hiluxes I've had were all soild axle early models and I never seem to get stuck anywhere with them.
I currently own a 93 2.4td auto surf and I am very happy with it, No rust, drives well, everything works fine. As far as off road capability I have only really used it for beach work and farm tracks, so never really needed the articulation for extreme work.
The past history and servicing seems to play a lot with how these surfs are, I bought mine with a blown engine and put in an import engine, but deleted EGR, cleaned all manifolds of gunk, put new water pump, timing belt etc and 4 core rad with separate trannie cooler and it runs great with non of the overheating issues that I was worried about.
Compared to other 4x4s, for the same dollars, good on fuel 10l/100km, can sit on 120km/h no probs, can run out to 150 if overtaking, auto is great on the beach, parts are nearly all same hilux, just rides great and no issues
From a lot of the ones I have seen and driven, the 1KZ is the best, but more dollars, a lot were bought by tools who just likes the bling , but knew nothing about servicing, so they just drove them till they blew up, not the cars fault , just dodgy owners.
I would recommend to buy, but only if they have the dollars to give it the good once over service , timing belt, belts, filters etc and put the bigger radiator with out the ridiclous tranny cooler in it ,if it is an auto.

I bought a jap import 80series. I spoke to a couple of mechanics at the time who told me its common for lots of jap import diesels to have overheating problems.
Apparently surfs had a bad name for it.
I was told overheating is generally because they arent ussually re-tuned for aussie fuel which is different grade to jap/european standard fuels. Running on aussie fuel they tend to be overfueled and run high EGTs.
My direct experience is that my 80series tuned as imported ran EGTs around 450-500deg for normal hard acceleration, but when pushed on long hills EGTs rocketed to over 750deg C surprisingly quickly.

Could be worth factoring in re-tuning if you dont know the cars history.

80's_delirious wrote:I was told overheating is generally because they arent ussually re-tuned for aussie fuel which is different grade to jap/european standard fuels. Running on aussie fuel they tend to be overfueled and run high EGTs.

Yea, I was told the same thing bout the fuel grades tho it's my understanding that they are now the same.

Please correct me if this is not right.

Dougster wrote:

80's_delirious wrote:I was told overheating is generally because they arent ussually re-tuned for aussie fuel which is different grade to jap/european standard fuels. Running on aussie fuel they tend to be overfueled and run high EGTs.

Yea, I was told the same thing bout the fuel grades tho it's my understanding that they are now the same.

Please correct me if this is not right.

delirious.... i've been told that many years ago. tho while todays low sulphur fuel is better i think AU/NZ still gets worse diesel than japan does.
also you need to remeber they are 2nd hand, wound back speedo's, poor servicing etc.

i think comon fault is cracks in the turbo housing around the wastegate aera which makes the turbo slow to build boost.

block egr, egr butterfly etc will go a long way for reliabilty.

Dude,

i know you said he was looking at a diesel, but there are a few
cheap V6 ones going around at the moment, and there is a reason for
it, thought I should warn you, as they are tempting...

DO NOT GET A 4-RUNNER WITH THE 3V-ZE 3.0Ltr V6.
Do a search on a topic I created on here about heating problems on the
3V-ZE...bloody woeful.

These are the shittest motors for reliability Toyota EVER MADE.
My mate had one and we had NO END of problems...Car was
IMMACULATE, motor reg. serviced with all receipts...$7000.
about 2 months later, BHG. Got a new import motor, cleaned it out
with the whole cooling system too, put it in, lasted 3 months or so,
then BHG. Complained to the importer, he sent a FULLY RECO'd head
down to us, as the block was OK, we got a mechanic to fully fit and
test it...2 weeks later, BHG.

We wrote to Toyota numerous times about it...they admitted by letter
to him that there was a problem with the 3V-ZE from day 1 as this
motor was developed with 1 gasket, but manufactured with another??
(Due to Asbestos gasket laws around 1989). They said the only way
to fix it was to use a (Gen II) 3V-ZE Head Gasket. We tried fitting
one of these the last time = BHG. So yeah, after doing 4 engine swaps
my mate is now trying the Commodore V6. Cheaper, Bigger, more HP,
More Torque, Cheap as chips ($400), + RELIABLE!!

We have spoken to AT LEAST 5 other V6 runner owners, and they have
had EXACT same issues. My mates PLUMBER has one for work, and
the irony of it was, just when we gave up trying to fix my mates 3V-ZE.
The Plumbers 3V-ZE blew up...guess why...BHG.

There is a moral to this story...
Friends don't let friends by 3.0L V6 4-runners.

Cheers,
Bart

Seriously don't get one, you'll be sorry. Get ANY of the other 3 motors
they came out with as generally speaking, the 4-runner is tough as nails.
the 2.4L diesel is slow, but will go the distance, have seen these do
outrageous KMs with no major issues.

there pretty cheap in the auto petrol this one we paid $2000 and havent spent a sent on her

Toyo Truck wrote:Dude,

i know you said he was looking at a diesel, but there are a few
cheap V6 ones going around at the moment, and there is a reason for
it, thought I should warn you, as they are tempting...

DO NOT GET A 4-RUNNER WITH THE 3V-ZE 3.0Ltr V6.
Do a search on a topic I created on here about heating problems on the
3V-ZE...bloody woeful.

These are the shittest motors for reliability Toyota EVER MADE.
My mate had one and we had NO END of problems...Car was
IMMACULATE, motor reg. serviced with all receipts...$7000.
about 2 months later, BHG. Got a new import motor, cleaned it out
with the whole cooling system too, put it in, lasted 3 months or so,
then BHG. Complained to the importer, he sent a FULLY RECO'd head
down to us, as the block was OK, we got a mechanic to fully fit and
test it...2 weeks later, BHG.

We wrote to Toyota numerous times about it...they admitted by letter
to him that there was a problem with the 3V-ZE from day 1 as this
motor was developed with 1 gasket, but manufactured with another??
(Due to Asbestos gasket laws around 1989). They said the only way
to fix it was to use a (Gen II) 3V-ZE Head Gasket. We tried fitting
one of these the last time = BHG. So yeah, after doing 4 engine swaps
my mate is now trying the Commodore V6. Cheaper, Bigger, more HP,
More Torque, Cheap as chips ($400), + RELIABLE!!

We have spoken to AT LEAST 5 other V6 runner owners, and they have
had EXACT same issues. My mates PLUMBER has one for work, and
the irony of it was, just when we gave up trying to fix my mates 3V-ZE.
The Plumbers 3V-ZE blew up...guess why...BHG.

There is a moral to this story...
Friends don't let friends by 3.0L V6 4-runners.

Cheers,
Bart

Seriously don't get one, you'll be sorry. Get ANY of the other 3 motors
they came out with as generally speaking, the 4-runner is tough as nails.
the 2.4L diesel is slow, but will go the distance, have seen these do
outrageous KMs with no major issues.

That's a mighty big statement bloke.

Mine and the other 5 odd blokes I know with 3VZEs run very reliably and very well.

I never have quite learnt how this legendary BHG grew so big as to damn an entire engine type.

If you call Toyota customer care with the VIN number of any 4 Runner 3VZE you are looking at, they will tell you if it was subject to the customer care exercise where they happily replaced the gaskets for free. They will also let you know if it's in the build range that required the gasket change and if it received the gasket change.

That's a pretty bloody easy way to check if a 3VZE is worth buying in my books.

Cheers