Up for sale is my 1981 BJ42 Landcruiser.
This is an Australian market truck that immigrated to the US sometime around 2012, as far as I can tell.
It lived in Santa Fe, NM until I traded a 70 series for it back in 2023.
I jumped through a bunch of hoops to get the truck titled and registered in California as a smog-exempt diesel.
We had our first child back in November, so this truck has not really gotten the attention that it deserves. Most of my limited focus has been on my 60 series, as it has four doors and is much easier to convince my wife is worth keeping due to its versatility as a family hauler.
I've owned a diesel 40 series since I was 18, so always tough to get them go and but I am sure I will be back again!
This truck has been incredibly minimal headache since I've owned it: I change the oil, check the fluids, and drive it, everything just works.
It has a 13B engine in it that is very similar to the factory 3B but it lacks glow plugs. It rather has an intake heater. This is fine for my climate where it never gets below 55F in the winter, but it would require several cycles of glowing in a colder climate, just something to be aware of. It takes about a full minute for the truck to be warmed up in the morning before you can subject it to load, else it will stall. I have attributed this to the lack of glow plugs, but it is possible the injection timing needs to be adjusted. I have not messed with it on this truck, and have just lived with the inconvenience of having to let it warm up for a few minutes. It runs fine after that and is only a consideration for the first start of the day.
I upgraded the headlights to LED and added an after market horn as it lacked one when I got it.
It has a factory PTO winch and a massive 'roo bar up front.
All of the doors, body panels and glass are good.
Someone swiped the left rear quarter panel before I got it as you can see in the photos, should be easy to press that back out as access is good from the wheel well, I just haven't bothered.
There is rust in the rain gutter directly above the driver's side of the windshield. Cool Cruisers makes a rivet-on kit that I have used in the past to repair this, pretty straight forward job.
A PO attempted to do some rust remediation to the driver and passenger footwells using fiberglass, which seems to have worked in so much as the rust has not come back, but the fiberglass has seen better days and a small hole is forming on both sides. There are of course kits from various vendors to repair this, too.
The passenger side door has rust starting to form in the bottom of it. Likely due to a clogged weep hole. I have dealt with this on other trucks.
4WD and low range work as they should.
There is a Schrader valve on the rear bumper. Presumably to adjust the rear suspension. First time I have seen such a thing on a 40!
The license plate light does not work.
All of the locks are matched to the ignition key. The passenger side exterior handle works, but is a little sticky.
There are aftermarket gauges in the dash for oil pressure, coolant temp and battery voltage, presumably this was done during the engine swap rather than matching the sending units to the resistance specs of the factory instrument cluster.
Let me know if you have any questions, video requests or would be interested in checking it out.
Attaching a few photos to this thread, but I have a massive Google Drive folder from a photoshoot yesterday that I will also link here.
Super fun rig, especially in the summer! Hopefully someone can enjoy it in ways that my lifestyle cannot support at the moment!
Cheers,
Austin
This is an Australian market truck that immigrated to the US sometime around 2012, as far as I can tell.
It lived in Santa Fe, NM until I traded a 70 series for it back in 2023.
I jumped through a bunch of hoops to get the truck titled and registered in California as a smog-exempt diesel.
We had our first child back in November, so this truck has not really gotten the attention that it deserves. Most of my limited focus has been on my 60 series, as it has four doors and is much easier to convince my wife is worth keeping due to its versatility as a family hauler.
I've owned a diesel 40 series since I was 18, so always tough to get them go and but I am sure I will be back again!
This truck has been incredibly minimal headache since I've owned it: I change the oil, check the fluids, and drive it, everything just works.
It has a 13B engine in it that is very similar to the factory 3B but it lacks glow plugs. It rather has an intake heater. This is fine for my climate where it never gets below 55F in the winter, but it would require several cycles of glowing in a colder climate, just something to be aware of. It takes about a full minute for the truck to be warmed up in the morning before you can subject it to load, else it will stall. I have attributed this to the lack of glow plugs, but it is possible the injection timing needs to be adjusted. I have not messed with it on this truck, and have just lived with the inconvenience of having to let it warm up for a few minutes. It runs fine after that and is only a consideration for the first start of the day.
I upgraded the headlights to LED and added an after market horn as it lacked one when I got it.
It has a factory PTO winch and a massive 'roo bar up front.
All of the doors, body panels and glass are good.
Someone swiped the left rear quarter panel before I got it as you can see in the photos, should be easy to press that back out as access is good from the wheel well, I just haven't bothered.
There is rust in the rain gutter directly above the driver's side of the windshield. Cool Cruisers makes a rivet-on kit that I have used in the past to repair this, pretty straight forward job.
A PO attempted to do some rust remediation to the driver and passenger footwells using fiberglass, which seems to have worked in so much as the rust has not come back, but the fiberglass has seen better days and a small hole is forming on both sides. There are of course kits from various vendors to repair this, too.
The passenger side door has rust starting to form in the bottom of it. Likely due to a clogged weep hole. I have dealt with this on other trucks.
4WD and low range work as they should.
There is a Schrader valve on the rear bumper. Presumably to adjust the rear suspension. First time I have seen such a thing on a 40!
The license plate light does not work.
All of the locks are matched to the ignition key. The passenger side exterior handle works, but is a little sticky.
There are aftermarket gauges in the dash for oil pressure, coolant temp and battery voltage, presumably this was done during the engine swap rather than matching the sending units to the resistance specs of the factory instrument cluster.
Let me know if you have any questions, video requests or would be interested in checking it out.
Attaching a few photos to this thread, but I have a massive Google Drive folder from a photoshoot yesterday that I will also link here.
Super fun rig, especially in the summer! Hopefully someone can enjoy it in ways that my lifestyle cannot support at the moment!
Cheers,
Austin
