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I ran 31/10.5/15 tires on my first Prado and they were great. I currently have some BFG 225/75R16 KO2's and they are incredible in snow and ice. I plan on upgrading to an equivalent to a 32" once the current ones wear out.
 
Not looking to start a tire debate. We have plenty of those already.:rofl: Just wanting some observations from people actually running a couple of size tires.
I am trying to decide between a 33" VS 31" tall tire. I will be running either in a 10.5" width.

If you are running the 33" tires, how has that effected the performance of your 2LTE?

I think 235/85R16 or 255/85R16 are nice sizes. The 4.88 diffs of the Prado make these both work fine. The first is like a 31.5" tire, the second a 33" tire. I run the smaller as I tow a trailer and it works well for that. Still fine off road too.

If you intercool it and tune it, there is plenty of power for larger tires. I ran 35" tires a few times and could still push up an 8% grade at 100km/h (60mph).
 
Thanks guys. That answers my question.With the 15" wheels it started cutting into my options a bit. I actually wanted a 32" But that gets into an 11.50 width and I didn't want that.
I run Either Michelin ZXL , or BFG in either MT or AT on all my trucks. Every time I have tried a different tire, I have been disappointed.


So, BFG AT KO2 in 33X10.50X15 it is. I might keep an eye out for a set of 16" wheels down the road. A 255/85R16 is my go to tire for tall and skinny.


Fairly certain the truck would run and hide from me if I rolled a set of Michelin ZXL towards it. Plus ,ride is not high on Michelins list when they designed those.

And, intercooler and tune is definitely in it's future. I just need to get the handling cleaned up. Tires are shot, shocks are shot, bushings are old. So, I have ran into an all or nothing scenario. I am going to do suspension, tires,bushings and tie rods all at once then sit back and worry about all the money I just spent. OH, and swap it to Evans.
 
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Small update.
Glow plugs in and starting problems gone. Fires up right away now.

Manual throttle control issue sorted. It turns out there is an adjustment bolt down by the accelerator pedal that limits the movement with the knob. Mine was turned all the way down. I assume it is a max throttle adjustment to keep someone from cranking the idle way up. I backed it out and have plenty of adjustment now.

Flushed the cooling system. I refilled with Toyota red and Water Wetter for now. I want to do the water pump,timing belt and all hoses in the next few months hopefully. So, didn't want to lose all the Evans. System looked good. Slightly dark but more importantly no oil or mysterious crud in it.

Intake hoses were dry and cracking so I swapped out to cheap silicone hoses figuring they would get tossed when I plumb the intercooler anyway.

Pulled the valve cover and repainted it. It was looking bad.

Vented my crank breather to atmosphere and plugged the intake return on it. I had very minimal oil in my intake. Turbine is tight with no movement. So, I think blow by is minimal, if any. I actually should have done a compression and leak down when I had the glow plugs out. But, I honestly didn't think about it.

My tires arrived today and the Dobinson Suspension w/Castor correcting bushings and new frame end bushing should arrive next Monday. I went with the 65MM (2.5") suspension. Great deal on it and they covered all but about $20 of the shipping all the way from Florida.
 
I have a sickness Jimmy. That's all I can say. I can't leave anything alone.

I will be putting the suspension on. I honestly can't tell you the last time anyone touched a vehicle of mine. I do all my own work like an idiot. I don't mount tires or bend exhaust. Though I really do wish I had room for a bender. I could do my own exhaust and it would facilitate building no end of things for my trucks.

This will give you an idea of how far I am willing to go...........It's a terrible thing to be afflicted with. Several friends think I need an intervention.

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I can supply you with a factory snorkel for a good price. While not an exact fit for the older 70 Series models, they are very close and don't require much work to fit up. LMK if you have any questions.

VDJ79 OEM Toyota Intake Snorkel
 
I ordered one from Brian last night. $150.00 shipped can't really be beat for a factory snorkel and he offered to take it back if I looked at it and didn't like how it fit. He says they fit pretty much right on with just some mild tweaking.

I had looked at the one in Malaysia. I just wasn't sure about what the quality would be like. And, it was $50 more.

I will post up how the newer OEM one works out.
 
Installed the Dobinson 65MM suspension yesterday. Haven't done the bushings yet.
Pretty straightforward install.
I still have the brake proportioning valve to adjust. Figure out what I am going to do with the sway bars. I quite often remove them, but I am not sure how the Toyotas handle with them removed.
And, the brake lines need lengthened.

A before and after shot.

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That looks excellent! Thanks for all the pictures! Truck is looking very nice.
 
Thanks. And drives so much better. I can't wait to see how the new bushings and tie rods effect it. 2 of the old shocks were blown so bad that I collapsed them to get them out and when I picked them up to put them in the trash later they were still fully collapsed. Other 2 weren't much better.
 
I suspect I have a cold start sensor out. With the new glow plugs the truck starts right up . It does however smoke pretty bad for the first few seconds and idle rough. It's dumping unburned diesel at the initial start from cold. Then it clears up and will start again several hours later ,when the engine is still retaining residual heat, with no smoke.

Any thoughts? Is the cold start sensor under the intake? I have seen reference to it, but haven't found that post again.
 
I suspect I have a cold start sensor out. With the new glow plugs the truck starts right up . It does however smoke pretty bad for the first few seconds and idle rough. It's dumping unburned diesel at the initial start from cold. Then it clears up and will start again several hours later ,when the engine is still retaining residual heat, with no smoke.

Any thoughts? Is the cold start sensor under the intake? I have seen reference to it, but haven't found that post again.

Mine always did that too no matter what I did or replaced on the motor. Not sure if it's just a 2LTE thing or if it had something to do with my compression. Like I say, my mechanically identical 2LT-II fires perfect everytime. Only way my 2LTE started perfect and clean was with a double glow. It also started better when I advanced the base timing of the pump. This only impacts startup. Once running the computer corrects the timing to where it wants anyhow (compares crank timing to injection pump timing and adjusts injection event accordingly).

I did replace the water temp sensor on mine and it made no difference. You're right, it is located under the intake manifold in the block. It does cross to North American part numbers. Not hurt in replacing it. The part number is 89422-20010 or 89422-35010 (courtesy of Megazip and ToyDIY) and crosses to tons of other Toyotas. One thing that sensor does is cause the computer to start pulling fuel when your coolant gets to a certain high temp. Can't remember off the top of my head what temp that is. But I've hit it before...LOL.
 
Thanks. Might just be a thing I live with. I have had a couple of diesels that did that no matter what I tried.
When I get to the tuning phase of this project, I might play with the timing a bit and see if it clears up.
Starts up fine and goes away after a few seconds, but if you walk through it, it's straight unburned fuel. So, definitely over fueling at initial start. It's like it need a few seconds to get itself sorted out and decide where it wants to be.

I think I will swap the sensor in the mean time. Easy enough to do. Thanks for the part numbers. I hadn't looked them up yet.
 

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