# Outdoors > Outdoor Transport >  The new truck (Hilux Surf)

## RimfireNZ

Hey guys,
I've been in the market for a 4x4 for a while. The Toyota's were what I was after but the prices were so high. All the trucks I've been looking at lately were shitters. 
Today I finally found a decent truck. I got a 3.0L Diesel, 7 seater Silux Surf (96, the facelift model) and it's only done 160k's.

I won't have to keep borrowing the old mans datsun or my mates patrol.

I've got a set of mud tires and rims ready to go for my next hunting trip.

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## eltoro

Chuck a pic up when you get a chance!

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## Rushy

Nice looking set of wheels Rimfire.. Plenty of room in the back for all of the necessities

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## scottrods

Nice one.

All you need are a set of drawers in the back and a new set of rear shocks.  :Have A Nice Day:

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## RimfireNZ

I'm really surprised with the power. The thing is actually pretty quick. 

I've been driving terrano's, mistrals, safaris and surfs and the 3.0L turbo in the surf is far better than the turbo 2.7 (even the intercooled one) in the terrano/mistral and the 4.2 in the safari.

Plus it's so quiet you can hardly tell it's a diesel.

Lets just hope it doesn't come at the cost of fuel economy  :Psmiley:

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## longrange308

good choice rimfire
by the way comparing a 1kz surf to a terrano's like comparing a 338 lapua to a 17hmr
just dont get in hot, service it well and it will treat you well

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## gadgetman

Yep it has power all right. Getting 500km on 60l in the Toyota Hiace with the same engine and 600km on 60l with the Safari. On a long trip taking things easy I've managed 900km on 65l with the Safari. Do like the grunt of that Toyota though, going up a hill with the trailer behind it I'll have to back off as speeding; the Safari without trailer is slowing down all the way up to just limp over the top.

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## puku

Tidy!!

Just don't crack the head.An old boss of mine did his.  But thats cos he flipped out and took off down the road at full tilt while cold

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## scottrods

I have one, 270,000 now on the clock. 97 intercooled. Had to replace the radiator to stop it overheating. Only needs to go too hot once and they all require new heads. Cambo can tell you more but be meticulous on coolant changes.
Do the glowplugs on them about 200km. Injectors about same. Get a tranny flush regular if an auto and she'll be quiet.
otherwise way better than a noisy terrano.

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## veitnamcam

They do go well those,sort of like a cruiser minni me. Fast quiet comfortable capable :Thumbsup: 

Now it just needs some mud on it :Wink:

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## striker

If your going to tow with it, get a decent trans cooler and get a aux temp gauge that actualy tells the temp NOW not 3min after the guage should be showing in the red. I warned my mates olds about them (same year prado) time after time, didnt listen and they cooked it, towing a big hardtop

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## RimfireNZ

> Tidy!!
> 
> Just don't crack the head.An old boss of mine did his.  But thats cos he flipped out and took off down the road at full tilt while cold


Yeah my old man said the older 2.4's are bad for that (used to have one years ago). Apparently the 3.0 is a very solid engine. He is a sparky and he loves his Toyotas as he doesn't have to do shit to them. My other car, mt brothers and my parents car are all about 300,000kms and are all Toyotas.

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## RimfireNZ

> I have one, 270,000 now on the clock. 97 intercooled. Had to replace the radiator to stop it overheating. Only needs to go too hot once and they all require new heads. Cambo can tell you more but be meticulous on coolant changes.
> Do the glowplugs on them about 200km. Injectors about same. Get a tranny flush regular if an auto and she'll be quiet.
> otherwise way better than a noisy terrano.


Thanks for the tips. As I said the old man is a sparky so most of this should be easy to get done. The overheating seems to be a reoccurring comment. Better put a decent temperature gauge On my list of to-do's on it. Cheers

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## RimfireNZ

> Yep it has power all right. Getting 500km on 60l in the Toyota Hiace with the same engine and 600km on 60l with the Safari. On a long trip taking things easy I've managed 900km on 65l with the Safari. Do like the grunt of that Toyota though, going up a hill with the trailer behind it I'll have to back off as speeding; the Safari without trailer is slowing down all the way up to just limp over the top.


I took my mates safari (4.2 not the 2.8 turbo) on my last goat shooting trip. That thing is a monster. That 4.2 is an indestructible truck engine. It was surprisingly economical too. As you said, they do slow down going up the hill even without anything behind them, but wow they have a lot of torque (I hardly got past 1,500rpm in it).

Cheers for the idea of the economy of it. I'm used to 650km out of a 50L tank in my curren. I'm expecting to pay more to run this, I just hope it ain't too much. Paying road user charges seems a bit stupid for a registered class 1 passenger vehicle, plus I didn't realise diesels are like 600-700 a year to register. 

Oh well, I needed a 4x4 and I wasn't gonna run a big V6 to the city from puke every day.

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## gadgetman

Being in a station wagon configuration rego is only about $400. About $200 more for a ute or van being a commercial type of vehicle and attracting the ACC levies to go with it. Doesn't matter if being used commercially or not, though a couple of years ago they were thinking of rectifying that, but don't hold your breath.

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## RimfireNZ

I just took her up the Bombays... the truck I mean.

It'll still accelerate in top gear all the way up. She's got some grunt. I'm getting a set of bull bars (just the front nudge bar, not serious ones) put on next weekend and some spotlights mounted on them too. I've already got some mud tyres sorted on separate rims. Will probably just go semi-mud tyres when I wear these road tyres out.

The old man was so impressed with it he's in the market for one now too  :Psmiley:  It beats the hell out of his old '82 Datsun Navara 4x4 flat deck. That thing struggles to do 100.

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## stu#71

Any engine will overheat if it gets too hot!  

Could be a whole multitude of things that cause it: blocked rad (so flush it), leaking hose (so check em), faulty fan (so check it), water pump failure etc etc

Just keep it regularly serviced and you'll be fine.  It's a Toyota after all !

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## veitnamcam

Also with the likes of the 2l and 3l they are old enough now that virtually everyone of em has had a owner or a owners mate that has said "il give her a bit more poke" and upped the fueling. Which is fine in small doses But when the injectors get tired and dont spray as well or the air cleaner gets blocked or they did it in winter and now its summer,then its overfueling.
Over fueling in a diesel can do all sorts of weird shit to an engine but the main thing is exhaust temps skyrocket. That ten year old cooling system just wont cope with the added heat of over fueling and whola cracked head or worse.
Also as someone else said toyota temp gauges on those early ones are legendary crapola.
Dont get this so much with the EFI models cos they are harder to fiddel with but the same applies with tired injectors air cleaner etc

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## scottrods

don't skimp on a thermo or water pump. Change em regular. Cheap parts can cost loads later.

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## Chris

Nothing wrong with a Toyota Surf ,had a good run out of mine.
Just had another set of tires fitted ,now running Maxis Mudders .

Think you gonna be happy with that

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## el borracho

I just got a 1996 176000km Land Rover discovery2.5l diesel-going to change all oils and filter  every 7000km religiously -Im using Q8 Oil,top end stuff fully synthetic and buying direct from them in Wellington is surprisingly cheap.The wife loves driving it as you can see

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## Brennos

> As per the overheating, I had all that saga with my 2.4LTE. Eventually I replaced the fan clutch, then no more troubles. 
> 
> When I replaced the fan clutch, the replacement stated its service life was 80,000ks. Might explain why trouble usually arrives around 120ks. I would look at replacing the fan clutch on any of those vehicles.


Same here with the old boys kzn130.  Rimfire, thr 3.0 1kz will do heads in.  Worked at toyota for a few years, sold lots of them.  best thing to do is as others have said, get a tranny cooler (if auto), a decent temp gauge, if it gets warm, stop it.  In my experience, its either from towing, going up steep hills, or off roading that kills them.  

Keep up the servicing (takes a bit of oil PM me and i'll sort you out some good shit at a cut rate), make sure there is plenty of clean coolant, and just check everything once and a while.

If you plan on doing a fist service sort of thing, I would invest in all new filters, a trans flush, a coolant flush, and decent oil.

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## el borracho

> Same here with the old boys kzn130.  Rimfire, thr 3.0 1kz will do heads in.  Worked at toyota for a few years, sold lots of them.  best thing to do is as others have said, get a tranny cooler (if auto), a decent temp gauge, if it gets warm, stop it.  In my experience, its either from towing, going up steep hills, or off roading that kills them.  
> 
> Keep up the servicing (takes a bit of oil PM me and i'll sort you out some good shit at a cut rate), make sure there is plenty of clean coolant, and just check everything once and a while.
> 
> If you plan on doing a fist service sort of thing, I would invest in all new filters, a trans flush, a coolant flush, and decent oil.


What is tranny cooler?

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## sako75

It is either a tranny on K'rd on a cold winters night or a cooler from a auto transmission

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## Brennos

> What is tranny cooler?


Transmission Cooler.

Basically like a radiator for Automatic Transmission Fluid, or ATF  :Have A Nice Day:

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## burtonator

Awesome they are a great truck.
Heres mine, a old photo but dont have any with the new 285/75/16 tyres, these are 265/75/16. still looks good though.
Was a prick of a thing to find rims that fit it though!! 


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

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## doinit

Seeing the Surfs have surfaced  :Psmiley:  Where is the coolant drain plug on a 3ltr 1kz block? 
Thanks.

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## RimfireNZ

> Same here with the old boys kzn130.  Rimfire, thr 3.0 1kz will do heads in.  Worked at toyota for a few years, sold lots of them.  best thing to do is as others have said, get a tranny cooler (if auto), a decent temp gauge, if it gets warm, stop it.  In my experience, its either from towing, going up steep hills, or off roading that kills them.  
> 
> Keep up the servicing (takes a bit of oil PM me and i'll sort you out some good shit at a cut rate), make sure there is plenty of clean coolant, and just check everything once and a while.
> 
> If you plan on doing a fist service sort of thing, I would invest in all new filters, a trans flush, a coolant flush, and decent oil.


Cheers mate. I'll have a chat with you next time you're up at the range (been a while since I've seen you up there). I've just serviced it myself (just basic oil filter, oil change and air filter) and it took just over 7 litres of oil. Damn!

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## RimfireNZ

> Awesome they are a great truck.
> Heres mine, a old photo but dont have any with the new 285/75/16 tyres, these are 265/75/16. still looks good though.
> Was a prick of a thing to find rims that fit it though!! 
> 
> 
> Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Good to see you're getting yours dirty Burt. That's a nice truck. I just about got mine stuck on Saturday night because I still have the road tyres on it (I haven't picked up my mud tyres from the old man yet). That would have been embarrassing, if I had to get the farmer to come pull me out with his tractor!  :Psmiley: 

Yours is an intercooled one isn't it? Originally I thought all the 3.0's were intercooled, but after looking under the hood I realised I was wrong. Mine still goes like the clappers though, for a big diesel.

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## burtonator

Yea mate, mines intercooled. Was originally a non intercooled model but I bought it with a crapped out engine (only 314,000kms)  :Wink:  and I put a intercooled engine out of a prado in it. Works well! The bonnet scoop is off a new hilux. Fitted myself.

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## kokako

Nice Surf Chris, did you change the ECU to then Cruiser one? Is it a fly by wire or cable throttle?

I am in the process of putting a 1KZ out of a KZN165 into my YN105.

Cheers

Craig

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## kokako

> Seeing the Surfs have surfaced  Where is the coolant drain plug on a 3ltr 1kz block? 
> Thanks.


Side/bottom of oil cooler.

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## burtonator

Na just used the surf ECU. and swapped the cable with the prado one
Cheers

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## RCGSP



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## RimfireNZ

My old man just priced up some mud tyres for his surf. $320 each D: Guess I better shop around a bit!

I just about got myself stuck on one of the farms I shoot on last weekend. Road tyres don't do shit offroad (hurr-durr). Doesn't matter if you are in low range if you're running on slicks!

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## JoshC

Not running big kms. I ran a 4.7V8 Landcruiser for a few months when my D4d Hilux blew up. Monthly fuel bill was a couple of grand. Now running the same year landcruiser with a 1HZ, fuel costs are consistently half of what the V8 was costing me. I do all of my servicing myself and get filters/oil at cost prices, so those costs are irrelevant. Even with road mileage, still cheaper to run the diesel.


Rimfire, you should be able to find a set of 31's for under a grand if you shop around. My latest set of 33's on the landcruiser only cost me $1200.

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## doinit

> Side/bottom of oil cooler.


Thanks there Kokako,appreciate that.

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## RimfireNZ

> Not running big kms. I ran a 4.7V8 Landcruiser for a few months when my D4d Hilux blew up. Monthly fuel bill was a couple of grand. Now running the same year landcruiser with a 1HZ, fuel costs are consistently half of what the V8 was costing me. I do all of my servicing myself and get filters/oil at cost prices, so those costs are irrelevant. Even with road mileage, still cheaper to run the diesel.
> 
> 
> Rimfire, you should be able to find a set of 31's for under a grand if you shop around. My latest set of 33's on the landcruiser only cost me $1200.


A couple of grand a month?!?  $500 a week? The only V8 I've driven for an extended period of time was a 5.0 commodore and that didn't even come CLOSE to that kind of gas, and I drive about 120km a day.

I'm getting just shy of 700k's out of each tank of diesel in my Surf (3.0 Turbo). I do drive on the motorway a fair amount though. In saying that it's often start/stop traffic.

Cheers for the tyre advice. I'll have to shop around. Will be a few weeks before I've put the dosh aside for them. After buying the thing I'm reluctant to injure my savings any further  :Psmiley:

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## JoshC

Yep do a thousand + kms a week easy, some months a bit less. Winter time is my busiest, did 500kms yesterday just driving around Southland. Chew up the road miles  :Grin:

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## RimfireNZ

Well I took the truck down to Taranaki this week. The thing has a problem!

Heading up some of the really steep hill/passing lanes it just dropped all of it's power. Then the check engine light came on. Then it'd come right again.

The guys at Toyota said it's a timing control system malfunction. I'm glad they had the computer to be able to tell me what becuase that's a really useful piece of info...

Anyway I figured maybe the fuel filter was clogged a bit so I put a new one in down there and that alleviated the problem for the most part, but it did happen a couple of times on the way back (but it was more like a small lurch/drop in power every now and then).

Once I filled up again towards the end of the trip I came flying up the bombays in top gear loaded up with people and it went fine... so maybe it was a bad batch of diesel with some shit in it.

The old man is going to check it out this weekend.

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## crnkin

Same thing happened to me when BP gave me half a tank full of water.

Almost got stuck in the middle of nowhere while 4wding. So pissed.

Did you open your water trap on the filter? Any water come out?

Chris

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## thedrunkfish

There's an aussie surf forum with heaps of awesome info on it might be something on there

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

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## cambo

This site is good ......... Surf Maintenance

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## RimfireNZ

Yeah I've seen that one thanks Cambo. It's a cool site.

Crnkin yeah this was BP too! I didn't keep the filter so I couldn't check. Stuff driving for 4 and a half hours with a stinky diesel filter in the back. Would have got high on the way home... then again, not if it was half water lol.

She seems alright now. I have run her up and down the bombays with the boat on the back and haven't had it happen again... must have been some dodgey fuel. Hopefully anyway.

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## crnkin

If it was a 1kd with direct injection it would have blown.

Lucky

Chris

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## longrange308

1kd would of blown up before you got it off the yard :Have A Nice Day:

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## crnkin

Only problem with 1kd's is the injectors.

The engine itself is identical (minus the DI ports).

Just have to be reallllll careful with water in the fuel. 

Chris

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## scottrods

check out this site www.toyodiy.com

good pics and info.

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