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Yes, the difference is I own one of the vehicles in question with the exact same motor, which is a 3.0 Litre turbo diesel (the 1KZ-TE), the other expert on everything clearly doesnt know shit from wild honey and therefore should stop throwing his 2 cents in on topics he clearly knows piss all about. I'm done.Quote:
Originally Posted by trapperjohn
I've got nothing to add about the vehicles in question, however having just recently purchased an old 4wd (Nissan Terrano) myself I'd avoid AA inspections. I got a couple done on vehicles I was looking at and found them pretty limited, they were more of a quick check by someone a little bit practical rather than a proper mechanical inspection. For example one of the ones I got noted some surging under acceleration, a typical symptom of injector pump issues this model is known for. No mention in the report of the pump just surging unknown cause.
I quickly decided that if the car was close enough for me to look at I'd pick up anything they would, especially after some research into what to lookout for in the particular model your looking at, if the car was to far away to look at I needed a better inspection done anyway so the AA one was redundant.
I'd suggest finding a trusted or well reviewed mechanic shop and get them to do an inspection, it will probably be better than the AA one. Also compared to the price of 4wds even expensive inspections are cheap.
The 2.8 litre diesel "3L" normally aspirated engine was used in the Prado 90 series for a short, limited run of aid agency vehicles, built to order for remote African application.Quote:
Originally Posted by GWH
Never featured in Japan, Aus or NZ. Hence none here. If there's one in the country, I'll eat my shorts.
But hey, Wikipedia makes you infallible, right? Beats hands on experience any day. Clearly.
surely a v6 petrol hilux surf is not a bad option? still reasonably priced although it has been a while since I looked.
The Surfs crossed our mind for sure, but with 2 dogs and too much other stuff… we thought we could do with a little more space.
For those interested, we just test drove a 2006 Petrol Prado with only 109k km’s on the clock, and it was a thing of beauty. We loved it. All things going well we will probably pick it up. Oh, and for 4 or 5k less than the 97 I started the thread about. To say we are relieved is an understatement. You guys helped us make a better decision today.
Keep your eyes peeled for another Mitcho question about ‘prioritising 4WD mods’!!
Thanks guys,
Mitch
As others have said the dmax is worth a look. Got a few mates with the 2015 5 speed manuals between 40000-150000kms on them with no dramas. I brought a 2016 manual last year on their advice and stoked with it. Can't believe how much they have gone up in price. One mate picked his 2015 up with 90000 on it in 2019 for 33k and I got my one with 45000 just over a year ago for the same.
A bit left-field, but here goes ; buy something that ticks most of the boxes, with a blown motor, repower with a nissan LD28, it will outlast everyone on this forum. I run two, ones done over 400k and doesnt look like its ever going to die, the other is younger. I've had 4 over the years, the other two's bodies disintegrated (Rover V8, Volvo V6) but those motors still live-on in something else.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitcho
I think the prado in question is overpriced for its age. I have the same model but a 98. Great on road and fine for soft / easy off road but not a patch on a VX Cruiser of the same era. I also have 4x4 Dyna and BJ45 trucks, these are proper off road vehicles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitcho
For an off road live out of wagon I would buy a flat deck Hilux and build a canopy with solar panels, water supply etc etc. Seen it done very well
No.Quote:
Originally Posted by mimms2
OP originally asked re a KZJ95, with a 3L (three litre) 1KZ-TE motor, 2,982cc coz we are being pedantic. He isn't knowledgeable in regards to these vehicles or motors hence his questions, good on him for asking.
Yes a Toyota 3L designated motor is a 2800cc, again actually only 2,779cc
I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on this purchase and the trip reports.
offroadexpress.co.nz is a valuable resource of info, sadly not very lively now.
1990 Prado LJ78, 2L-TE motor from factory, (2,446cc) Can fit 3L motor (2,779cc) but need to retro fit a sensor or run a manual injector pump, better to go for a 5L-Eas all electrics can be swapped to new motor.
1994 Prado KZJ78, 1KZ-TE motor from factory (2,982cc)
I own one of each of these at present.
1KZ-TE motor first went into production in 1993
1997 Prado KZJ95 1KZ-TE motor from factory
To be honest you do not need a grunty big climb the side of the mountain vehicle for the majority of tripping/hunting.
Most road ends now are as far as you will get.
The 4wd boys if they have gone further have buggered it for the rest making trenches etc that would slow up/stop anything.
We have a 40 series cruiser and have wandered around a bit.
Molesworth, Nevis and the likes.
Never out of 2wd high.
Most you can do in a car just entry exit small creeks you would have to spade for a car but most utes wont blink at.
Where 4wd is good is on wet grass with a bit of slope type stuff.
If you are going where you have water going over the bonnet type scenario you shouldn't be on your own.
You want a mate to go first and test it.
Thanks guys appreciate all the advice. I went in to Ironman 4x4 to price up a few things to add to the Prado (or whatever we end up going for… trying to slow down and make the right choice now) … boy it adds up fast!
From what I can gather Ironman stuff is higher priced but higher quality. Any of you had experiences with that? I was going to prioritise a suspension upgrade, roof cage (as I need to add solar panel and hold some lighter bulkier camping gear) and bullbar and winch. Would love to hear thoughts around that side of things.
Cheers,
Mitch
https://www.winch.co.nz/categories/r...0Winches&gp=16
With a winch comes the need for a pulley or two, rated shackles, tree trunk protectors, cable dampener of some sort, a Bush shirt works here.
Before driving anything that may end up with you requiring a winch to recover yourself, check out winch anchoring points, exits etc. Make a recovery plan FIRST, before driving an obstacle. Remember a winch bolted on the front of your 4WD can only tow you forward further into the sh*t. (unless you own $$$ of gear and can execute a rear pull).
Brass monkey fridges from Jaycar etc are good value.
Consider recovery tracks and a good spade and mattock, hand winch/tirfor
Good tool kit, spare parts, belts, CVs, oils and fluids
puncture repair kit.
So much more
Thanks for that… homework to be done. It’s all pretty daunting, having no mechanical expertise. But everything can be learned!! Good points about the concept of the winch in general… makes me think we just need to have our heads on straight about where we should be going… and where we should NOT be going more importantly.Quote:
Originally Posted by ROKTOY
Cheers,
Mitch
I’ve gotta put my cents worth in here and accept I may be shot down. We park our caravan and go exploring in the d-max - now mu-x. With the former, I carried high lift jack that doubled as a winch when used on horizontal, ex Army unimog towing strops, wheel ‘claw’ to lift sunken wheel and a few other bits. None was ever used. I suspect as oldies we did the ‘yeah/nah’ thing and never went places we could not drive out of.
I reckon many 4 wd-ers buy stuff either to look cool or to explore places they should never venture. Recently at Picton ferry terminal I admired two lifted newish 4wd vehicles with fat wheels, enough spotlights for Dresden, bars, roof tent, boxes, fuel caddies etc. in speaking with owners, they had circumnavigated the South Island on tar seal; never ventured off it!
I’d consider doing a proper 4wd course before investing in a lot of kit, unless you have have experienced real off-road driving. I’ve seen one muppet lose his vehicle trying to be staunch by attempting deep water crossing. We have found that AT tyres on a spare set of rims take us most places we venture.
I seen two similar newish trucks in our town last week.Guys having coffee,trucks lit kitted, had enough lights to light up a small town.Roof tents,extra fuel containers,bull bars winchs.One truck was towing a heavy duty small camper trailor.Everything thing was covered in mud,like they had a real deal mud trip.
Renta mud?
Very true and factual statement there @Ingrid51.
We only take one hi lift jack on a group trip, more often used as a winch for moving rear of 4wd, moving logs rocks etc. Without a solid mounting point (side bards, bull bar or rim/tyre mount to from they are pointless as a jack. We too have come across many 'offroaders' carrying a hi lift that when asked have no idea how to actually use it.
I wouldn't fit my 4wd down a lot of the tracks we drive if I had a roof top tent.
I would buy this...they go lots of places...and don't blow up. Cost 600 to ship this down https://www.turners.co.nz/Cars/Used-...ester/19170732
Believe it or not, spray cans of mud is a real thing....for those that have to look the part but don't have the wherewithal to actually have the terrain apply it for them:wtfsmilie:Quote:
Originally Posted by Trout
Not saying that these dudes were that type though.
Before we traded up to our Jayco caravan we had an Aussie off road trailer tent. It folded up and out, had a floor built in, queen sized bed, pull out kitchen…sold it cheap to one of our sons down south as age and arthritis challenged us with the putting up. Son takes it gnarly places behind his Prado as trailer has proper 4wd rotating hitch, heavy springs etc. It’s a good bit of kit for younger people.Quote:
Originally Posted by XR500
When we can afford it, this is exactly the sort of thing we want to upgrade to. We’ve been looking at the BruderX campers made in Australia… they look mint, but they don’t miss you on price!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ingrid 51
@Flyblown really interested with your experience of the V6 petrol.
What would you (or anyone here) do to improve the riverproofness of the petrol engine?
Cheers
Father said they used to take fan belt off going into Haast before road done.
Land rovers.
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L-R safari, landcruisr , landcruiser, safari, terrano, landcruiser. I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by mimms2
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All I see is three Nissans with their accompanying recovery vehicles.
I just liberally cover the HT components in spray on lithium grease and pack the plug recesses with grease. Spray or wipe on, wipe off. The mechanics at the one mine I worked at prepared our vehicles using a bright blue spray on the waterproof coating that semi hardened. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called but it was extremely effective at repelling water.Quote:
Originally Posted by imaca
Our vehicles run numerous 12 V accessories under the hood and I never run into any problems from water ingress despite several quite exciting river crossings in the Pilbara monsoon.
I ran 4Y and 22R petrol Hiluxs for years in Africa and did countless deep water crossings in the Okavango. Never had a problem with a motor cutting out with suitable grease protection.
Guys tend to get freaked out about the water problem with petrol engines, which is easily solved, what they don’t think about is how they are going to look after their diffs and transmission. On a number of times I’ve leaned down unobserved and looked underneath an expensive ute after observing someone complete a water crossing - no rear diff breather extension. Which almost certainly means no gearbox transfer case or front diff breeder extension.
The other thing to triple check is the watertightness of the air intake system. I remember one guy finding to his horror that a previous owner had used a hole saw to cut a 50 mm circular hole in the bottom of his air filter housing, so that his engine made a sexy induction noise. Imagine his surprise when he crossed a river and his air filter filled with water and unsurprisingly he suddenly developed nasty rod knock… Ouch.
In the early 90s I worked for a while as a volunteer (for parts) at a legendary place called N1 4x4, north of Pretoria. I was building my overlander vehicle and was too poor for some of the stuff I wanted, so I worked weekends for it. Bloody great! They’re still going strong. They were / are the Land Cruiser / Hilux authority in South Africa, and supported the older models all the way through Southern Africa with a MASSIVE horde of well organised and cleaned spares stripped off wrecked vehicles.
(Hilux used to be manufactured from scratch in SA, Land Cruiser was either fully imported or assembled from CKD kits and matched with locally derived engines and gearboxes to suit local conditions. Nowadays the Hilux is CKD I think.)
Anyway, one of the things I remember doing was draining the transmission and drivetrain fluids on incoming donor cars. Holy crap! Many of those diffs were running on 50/50 oil and water, and the overpressure from sucking in the water made them all leak. So yeah, diff and trans breathers are always the first thing I do to a new vehicle.
When it comes to water however, the absolute best advice is don’t go in above your wheels unless you absolutely have to in an emergency… have got some priceless experiences from Cape York of guys writing off their you beauty SUVs and utes by floating them on stupid, unnecessary river crossings… Not an argument I want to take on with my insurer for a $75k vehicle (after the $10k recovery). Vehicles have max wading depths for a reason, only the very well prepared and experienced (and brave) should ignore this advice.
I had similar in my leaf suspension Landy. Didn't build it to be a sleeper, but was absolutely had it with anemic thirsty donks in my Landies. Read an article in a pommy 4WD mag about a GMC 6.5 conversion, so spent a year doing so. Heading back to Waiberia from a shopping trip in Palmy I hit the bottom of the Taihape deviation at 110, and got to the top at 120. Guy followed me very very closely all the way to the housing area, and got out and ran over and said "what the fuck have you got in there?!" I said 'just a diesel". Then lifted to bonnet. Not much room in there for even a starling to make a nest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mauser308
Goes without saying that I replaced ALL the LR wiring when doing the repower.
Oh, and the whole family did have to wear ear muffs:o
Most lithium grease is non-conductive. White lithium grease definitely isn’t conductive, says so on the can and has never caused me a problem. Neither is the silicone grease I use, which is specified for use in protecting electrical connections.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mauser308
CRC white lithium spray on grease.
The silicone grease is Chemtools (Aussie).
The blue one is E-Max dielectric grease (also from Aus). That’s bloody good stuff that one. I’m glad this came up in this thread because I went for a look in the shed and found a tub which I didn’t know I had.
You have to be careful to clean components of silicone grease at service time, else it can harden and crack. But the blue one stays pliable and you can leave that one for years.
I imagine your NLGI2 grease is conductive because it is supposed to be, there’s lots of electrical contact greases that are NLGI2 grade. But there are also lot of non-conductive lithium greases that are NLGI2, you can buy dielectric grease of NLGI #2 grade.
Ha ha served the apprenticeship for Denso tape application. I was always given the task to wrap electrical fittings, j-boxes, motor terminal boxes after the tradesmen had done their bit.
All these years later and it is still available. Says something about its effectiveness.
I did a storm water job a few years ago. Sched10 8” stainless, 300m, with bends aplenty. The whole lot was denso wrapped, then pvc wrapped. I was welding, the hairy was doing the denso.Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmer
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Yep and me, there is nothing else I know of that makes that sort of mess of the hands. I used it in the electrical trade but I always notice it on the threads of the anchor points of the DOC swing bridges too.
The beauty of these 4x4 of the late 80- 90 era is that at one time us country boys could travel to the big smoke and purchase a reasonable second hand 4x4 for about as much as a second hand quad.
They all had an easy life, had hardly ever been in 4 wheel drive, and were generally just a status symbol for soccer moms.
Made great bush/beach hacks and WOF and REG meant you could head off to any corner of the country.
Now those same utes or in high demand as they get tricked out with raised suspension. raised bodies, flares, snorkels, bigger wheels and you guessed it more as a status symbol than a practical application. Problem is the affordable beach/hunting wagons getting snapped up, and some pretty sick prices for older models as OP has highlighted.
Mate, when I was an apprentice and given the task to apply the Denso there was noting namby-pamby around like Nitrile gloves. "Harden up boy". Likewise we got exposed to transformer oil (PCB) and asbestos in insulation boards, gamlin electrical solvent. (Transformer oil was supposedly good for blight on peach trees or so the old tradesmen said.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mauser308
Although of them all Denso would have had to have been the most benign.
Now my hands are sensitive to even gun solvents and even humble Hoppes #9 and I do wear black Nitrile gloves (don't need to be medical type) for tasks where I get that shit on me. Likewise electrical cleaning solvent gives me hell now if I get it on my hands.
Registered on the govt Asbestos Database many years ago but to date I've had no issues.
Hmmm,, maybe the fellas that feel they need to trick out there 4x4 of the 2020's are the children of the soccer moms of the 1990's.Quote:
Originally Posted by trapperjohn
Think about it.
Hey guys,Quote:
Originally Posted by trapperjohn
For anyone interested, we got a 2006 Prado, petrol, auto with 105k kms. Absolutely love it. In mint condition apart from some cracks on the dash… no towbar and never had one, and according to the mechanic it doesnt look like its ever been off-road.
Continuing on the theme above, what mods do you consider crucial? We need roof racks for storage, but aside from that, what do we need to be doing given we just want a really capable vehicle that can take us all over the South Island camping… the more opportunities to go deep off road, the better.
Thoughts?
Cheers,
Mitch
Put some decent tyres on it, and use it as is for now. You will soon find out the limitations of the vehicle and yourselves. Then you can fit whatever you have discovered you need to push past those previous limits, safely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitcho
All the modifications in the world won’t help you if you make a poor decision through inexperience.
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Thanks… I like that advice.
Below is a poc if the current tyres on there… any suggestions on what I should go for? A good mud terrain tyre? Attachment 183465
If your not happy with the tyres on it now, then a decent all terrain would likely serve you better than a mud terrain. There’s a lot of rocky river beds, and plenty of long driving stints where a mud tyre is not the best. But I’d probably use it as is, they sell tyres in the South Island, if you find they’re not up to it.
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