Finding, Buying, Importing an HJ60 w/ 12H-T (5 Parts)

I finally got around to writing this story down... Finding, Buying and Importing my HJ60, with it's 12H-T motor and H55 transmission.

The search took nearly a year, and then the buying and importing all happened in a matter of a couple of weeks. Total cost (other than the vehicle and normal Arizona registration fees and taxes) was about $1500, including the flight to the border and a night in a hotel.

It was an odyssey to remember, but I am glad I did it. My LC isn't much to look at, but it gets 22 mpg, has more bottom-end torque than I know what to do with, and I can run it on 100% biodiesel.



The write-up is pretty long, so I have broken it into 5 parts, beyond this one... Hopefully this answers as many questions as I know answers to... But if there is something that isn't clear, send me a PM. And if you have a correction to consider, or something I have described has changed since the summer of '06, post a reply, so that everyone can be informed.

Finally, note that the following write-up only pertains to “whole, operating, road-worthy vehicles”. If you are looking to bring in just a diesel engine, or a “front-clip” or “parts vehicle” the duties and restrictions are definitely different, and typically much less, overall.

No matter how you do it, though... Go Diesel

Importing an HJ60: The Search - Part 1 of 5

I had never owned a Land Cruiser before I started looking for this obscure thing called a “diesel Land Cruiser”. My search actually started with “diesel”, and ended up with the venerable LC. During the several months of looking through the classifieds, CraigsList and Ebay, here in Arizona, for some kind of a medium sized SUV “diesel” replacement for my 1994 Toyota 4x4 Truck, I had looked at older Suburbans, Blazers, Jimmys, even Land Rovers and the smaller G-Wagens. But none of them “felt right”. Then one day, I came across an obscure write-up of the specifications of the various diesel Land Cruisers Toyota has made over the years. I quickly found out that, though sold around the world for decades, and to this day, diesel Land Cruisers had only been imported and sold in great numbers in North America, from the 60-series, in Canada from 1981-1988. So, it was off to the border (at least via the Web…) to look for "my" truck…

First, I tried to get as much information as possible about the various challenges and realities I would face in trying to buy and “import” a LC from Canada. I came across several really helpful forum posts here at IH8MUD, especially this one from “zander”…

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=425793&postcount=94

…which covers many of my early questions.

Here’s another version of that same story, from Zander’s own website…

http://inertialabs.com/Diesel-Import-CAN.htm

I also did some basic research into the overall requirements for importing any vehicle, and/or importing just an engine and switching it to another vehicle, or importing a vehicle with a switched engine…

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/civil/caa/mobile/engswitch.pdf


Also, I found several other web links relative to converting a gas Toyota to diesel. Once I decided I wanted a factory-diesel, these were only of varying use to me, but might be more use to others…

http://toyotadiesel.com/forums/index.php?

http://vpizza.org/~jmeehan/toyotadiesel/

http://www.gscruiserparts.com/index.html

http://cruisers.shoumatoffmedia.com/

I started my search for a diesel LC with eBay Motors, Canadian version, but quickly realized that the vehicles there were few and far between, and usually somewhat overpriced, from my humble, never-owned-an-LC, viewpoint. They also were usually pretty “fixed up” (hence the prices…) and weren’t really suited to the upgrades I wanted to do. And the ones that did meet my criteria also met many, many other’s criteria, and bidding would go way beyond what the LC was worth to me.

I also looked at a variety of Canadian “importers”, but beware here, in that they can bring into Canada a lot more models of Toyota diesels than can be then be legally imported” into the US. For some reason the Canadian government is more lenient about various auto importations than the US. Without great expense/effort, you will not be able to legally import anything except an original “Canadian-spec” LC. On the other hand, if it is Canadian-spec, and the same “model” of LC was also sold in the US (typically only the body-style is relevant, the specific engine less so… so a Canadian diesel “HJ-60” is equivalent to a US sold “FJ-60” of the same year, as far as NHTSA is concerned...) you can bring it into the US fairly easily. Good for most 60’s and 62’s, and some 70’s, but not for the 61’s, 71’s, 81’s, etc.

I also looked at a whole bunch of Canadian “used car dealers”. Diesel Land Cruisers, especially 60’s and 62’s, are widely available through these sources. But beyond the issues noted above about Canadian-spec, beware here that, like any “used car dealer, you will find some “gussied-up junk” here… lots of miles, lots of rust, repaints over body-damage, hidden under a nice wax job, etc.

My most successful source, in the end, was CraigsList. I started by searching the local CraigsLists on both sides of the border, from Vancouver/Seattle, all the way to Calgary and North Dakota. Be aware that people on both sides of the border post either side. In looking for a Canadian diesel, I found several prospects in the Seattle or Bellingham, WA, CraigsList, as well as the Vancouver, BC, CraigsList. I found a fair number of listings over the months, and they seemed in the right price range, with decent “upgradeable” specs. Here the challenge is finding someone that is “for real” and a vehicle represented accurately and honestly. I mostly went on gut, after talking to the seller on the phone (this is something you can’t usually get through an eBay auction).

After finding and “interviewing” a half dozen prospects over the months, I finally found the perfect truck and seller… an original Canadian-spec HJ60 that had had its original 2H normally-aspirated diesel motor replaced with a Japanese-spec 12H-T Toyota-factory turbo-diesel. It was in a small town just across the border from north-central Washington. It was being sold by a private seller who was also an LC fan, but was needing to sell his “project truck” to make way for their new child. He graciously agreed to hold the truck for me for two weeks until I could fly up to see it. He noted that he was having a hard time selling it in Canada because the newer, more “plush” 80- and 100-series Japanese-spec turbo-diesels are easily gotten there, and his rough-and-ready 60-series “couldn’t compete” in a buyer’s eyes. However, to this Toyota-diesel starved American, it was just the right solution… a Toyota factory diesel (with a factory turbocharger, no less…), relatively affordable and one that could be legally imported.

(continued in next "Reply" post... Part 2 of 5)

Importing an HJ60: The Preparation - Part 2 of 5

So the next challenge was getting there and seeing and driving it. Meanwhile, I need to be making all the preparations I could for making a decision about whether to buy it, and for bringing the LC back, if I chose to buy it, but also not wasting any more money than necessary, in case it didn’t work out.

The first question is whether it’s less than 25 years old… if older than that, much less restriction to importing. As you’ll see from “zander’s” post (see link above), the key issues for importation of a less-than-25yr-old vehicle are that the vehicle is original Canadian-spec, that a comparable model was sold in the US (with the requisite safety and smog certifications for that model in US records), that it has a “standard” original 17-digit VIN, and that you get all the paperwork necessary to prove all of those facts.

Though you can (reportedly) do all that on your own, I highly recommend, as does “zander”, using a “Registered Importer” (RI). These are companies that are licensed by both Canada and the USDOT to “certify” that a vehicle meets the requisite regulations, make certifiable corrections if necessary to meet those regulations, and then they carry a “bond” that guarantees they will cover the cost to correct anything that is found non-conforming later. I used a company called CARCO, located both in Blaine, WA, and Vancouver, BC, and worked with Susan there. They were absolutely fabulous and I highly recommend them. They, and many other RI’s, are listed on an official USDOT/NHTSA webpage here…

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/web_RI_list01122006.html

I contacted CARCO even before I found the right truck, told them what year/make/model I was generally looking to bring across, and got their input on issues of concern for that specific vehicle. Susan ran through the litany of “Canadian-spec, US equivalent, etc.”, but she also reminded me of one thing I hadn’t thought about… “NOT right-hand drive”. Perhaps the easiest way to distinguish a Canadian- from a Japanese-spec LC is where the steering wheel is… if on the right (RHD), it’s Japan-spec, if on the left (LHD), it's Canada-spec. It is substantially more difficult to import a RHD vehicle into the US

I also gave them a “ballpark” price I thought I might pay, and they were able to estimate all the duties and fees I would likely incur. They were very confident about it all working out, and that gave me confidence to actually negotiate to see the truck, and spend the money on the airline ticket (one way… what can I say, I was hopeful). I found out the RI fee would be about $300, and the total cost would be around $1000, which I felt well worth the cost.

The last question is what is the vehicle’s history, as a used car, irrespective of it’s age, etc. This can best be found through one of the vehicle history records companies that have sprung up in the past 10 years or so. The one that is common in the US is CarFax, but Canada has its own, called CarProof. It was well worth the $50 or so to make sure I knew as much as possible about the vehicle before seeing it, so I could ask good questions of the seller. Their website is…

http://www.carproof.com

After getting comfortable about all of this preparation, I arranged to meet the seller. I flew up to Seattle, and had a nephew drive me up and across the border late one afternoon, in a supermarket parking lot in Canada literally within eye-sight of the border. However, it would be another 24 hours, and much paperwork, before I would be going south back across that border.

After a satisfying inspection of the vehicle and test drive over a variety of roads/terrain, we agreed on a final price, and the real fun began…

(continued in next "Reply" post... Part 3 of 5)

Importing an HJ60: The Paperwork - Part 3 of 5

That mention of price reminds me of two things… First, when seeing or negotiating prices, be sure whether they are in US$ or CD$. Right now the money-change difference isn’t much, so it’s less important, but when I bought my truck the difference was about 15%… that’s $150 per $1000 of sale price.

Second, if you’re buying from a private seller you are going to be paying cash, sometimes a lot of it. Be aware that taking a great deal of “cash” across an international border will usually trigger a much more thorough border-process, or even a search of you and your vehicle. You probably won’t be able to withdraw the amount you’ll need once in Canada via an ATM, or even through a teller. But, I had heard that taking an the amount you need in traveller’s checks isn’t suspect with the border officials. Then you can go to a Canadian bank and cash them… be prepared that this takes some time, as well, since they will usually call American Express, etc., to verify the checks are good.

In any case, once we decided on a price, we filled out and signed a “Bill of Sale”. Go to an office-supply store and get two (so you can both have an original) in the US, before you leave, both because they seem to be hard to find in Canada, and they have a slightly different format than US versions, which may be a problem later on. The other important document, of course, is the Title to the vehicle. Canadian titles are a bit different than those in the US… they have two parts, the registration/insurance and the actual title. Make sure you get the correct half, and that it is signed and duly notarized in the proper places… this will be essential to your being able to get the vehicle licensed in the US.

Next, I had found out through my research that, like many places in the US now, a vehicle’s license plate stays with the seller when the vehicle is sold. The Canadian police are very strict about having plates, so to drive even a minimal distance in Canada, you need a temporary permit. And to get that, you need Canadian car insurance (they don’t accept US policies because you are actually registering it in Canada. Furthermore, Canadian car insurance is different than in the US, it is sold by a national government “concession”, fortunately at the same place as you get the temporary travel permit. The permit was good for a week, I seem to remember, and I was able to buy just 7 days of insurance.

(In that same vein, plan to have a temporary travel permit that’s valid in the US, and make sure your US car insurance will cover your “new car” until you can get it fully-licensed and insured in the US. If you are driving a long distance in the US, through several states, you are technically required to get a temporary travel permit for each of those states (they usually prohibit “interstate travel”). The permits are cheap, can be gotten online for most states, and usually only require the vehicle’s VIN, and your address and destination.)

Once I had my travel permit and my insurance, it was off to Vancouver, BC, to the RI’s office. Before I left the seller’s house, I had set up a time to meet Susan at CARCO, and had faxed her the Bill of Sale and the signed Title, so she could start the importation paperwork while I was on the road to Vancouver.

After I arrived at CARCO, at a warehouse in the industrial area near the harbor in Vancouver, they did a fairly thorough inspection of the vehicle, checking the manufacturer’s plate against the title, the safety equipment (seat belts, mirrors, lights, etc.), and finally the mileage (or is it kilometer-age?… that’s another difference you’ll have to get used to, or spend an exorbitant amount of money to have the speedo/odo replaced. Only a few years ago, you either had to do that, or in some lenient cases, the US authorities would just require a simple sticker on the dash bezel stating the odometer is reading in kilometers.) Once they finished the visual inspection, they filled out a certificate and a sticker stating that the vehicle complies with all US EPA and DOT requirements, and the sticker was stuck to the door frame near the mfr’s plate.

Next, I paid nearly all my fees for the importation process right there, even the US Import Duty. CARCO handled everything so I could just go straight through both border control and customs. One additional note here… prior to coming north, I had told Susan that I was concerned about having to deal with the Canadian title once I got back to Arizona. So, she suggested that CARCO, for an additional fee, handle getting a “valid US title” for the vehicle, through a dealer connection of theirs in Illinois. The IL title would then be sent overnight to me in AZ, probably before I actually finished the drive back to AZ. That seemed well worth it, since as far as AZ MVD would be concerned, I had bought the truck from a dealer in Illinois. So we arranged for that as well, prior to my heading for the border. She then gave me the several forms needed at the border, all organized and duly stamped. One thing that was new since “zander’s” list was the Pre-Arrival Processing System (PAPS) form… It is a summary of all the customs requirements that have been met, linked by a bar-code, to the computer at the Customs office, that greatly speeds up a import border crossing. At the time it was only “recommended” that you have the PAPS form, but now I think it is required. Here are a couple of very esoteric “government-esque” web pages about PAPS, if you are so inclined…

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:wCReEDy69qsJ:www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/commercial_enforcement/ctpat/fast/paps.ctt/paps.pdf+PAPS+border+import+bar+code&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=safari

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/communications_to_trade/advance_info/updated_paps.xml


Lastly, she gave me a detailed map to the “commercial” border crossing (since I was “importing” a vehicle, I had to go through Customs with all the truckers), and detailed directions about what would happen at the border and how to manage the process there. She also told me what times of day were least busy for crossing, and how to make my way through the line as quickly and safely as possible (you’ll see why…). So, it was off to the border…

(continued in next "Reply" post... Part 4 of 5)

Importing an HJ60: The Crossing - Part 4 of 5

As I approached the border, I saw several lanes… two or three marked “Autos”, that were freely flowing and all but empty. But only one marked “Commercial/Trucks”, and it was backed up farther than I could see. It was so tempting to go into the Auto lanes, but I knew if I didn’t follow Susan’s directions explicitly something was sure to go wrong. So, into the line with “dinosaurs” I went, eventually crawling into an area that resembled a big parade ground, only filled wall to wall with creeping semi’s. Just waiting in that with 14 foot high semi’s surrounding me made me claustrophobic after a while, and it was easily the longest part of the whole importation experience. And I wonder what all those truckers thought my little Land Cruiser was doing in the middle of all of them.

But eventually I made my way up to the Customs officer’s booth. His booth’s window sill was at my roofline, so I had to reach way up to give my paperwork. At first he was a bit puzzled as to what I was doing there as well, but then he saw the PAPS form and it seemed to go quickly after that. He seemed just about ready to let me go, and I was starting to get excited thinking I had “made it”, when he said “okay, pull up over there, park and go inside.” He kept my PAPS form and a couple of other forms I knew to be important, and waved me on. Suddenly, I felt crushed, and doomed to being trapped with my poor LC in the “DMZ” between the borders.

I pulled up to the Customs office building – a frightening metal-clad, mirror-glass monstrosity with anti-ramming bollards surrounding all sides – parked and went in with what remained of my paperwork in a folder. After waiting about 20 minutes, but seemed hours, a Customs officer called me up, asked me a few questions to verify I was who the paperwork said I was, then asked for my driver’s license and the keys to the LC. Without thinking much, I handed them over to him, and he whirled away, saying he was going “to inspect the vehicle” and disappeared out a back door. I called after him to see whether he needed me to follow, and he said “No, just wait there”. All my planned “explanations”, that would have been so convincing about why they should let the truck into the US, wouldn’t even have a chance to be said.

Then it sunk in… US Customs now had all my important paperwork, my ID, AND the keys to the truck. I had read about some importations going badly, the vehicle being impounded (even having to be shredded), the owner cited or at a minimum, stranded, etc., and I was starting to have “Midnight Express” nightmares. After what seemed an hour, but was probably only 20 more minutes, the officer came back, with a completely unreadable expression on his face. He hardly said a word… just walked up to the counter, took out a set of big rubber-stamps, and proceeded to stamp away all over the various forms. Then he handed them to me and simply said “You’re all done”. That was it. Now my truck was now officially a US citizen. Now to make it a legitimate resident of Arizona...

(continued in next "Reply" post... Part 5 of 5)

Importing an HJ60: Home, finally - Part 5 of 5

It was a long drive from the Canadian border back to Arizona. But I saw some amazingly beautiful country in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Utah, and Arizona. Even Las Vegas was beautiful, when I blew through it in 20 minutes… at night. Crossing Hoover Dam to arrive in Arizona will be a life-long memory. All in all, I drove nearly 1500 miles in 3 days, and averaged nearly 22 miles per gallon, doing 70-75 mph most of the time, and only shifting out of 5th gear a couple of times on some really steep grades.

Once back in AZ, the plan to get the US title through CARCO went smoothly. A fully authorized, signed and notarized Illinois title arrived the day after I got back. One thing I had overlooked was getting a Bill of Sale that matched the “new” title… So I had to wait a couple of days for one to be sent from the dealer in Illinois.

But that gave me a chance to take the truck down for emissions testing. Fortunately, even in metro-Phoenix, the test for diesels is pretty rudimentary. They are just checking “opacity” (how thick and black your tailpipe smoke is…) at varying load and speed levels. My 20+ year old LC had only 2% opacity average, with 20% allowed… Now for an AZ license plate

Once I had both the Bill of Sale, the title, and the clean emissions report, I simply took them all to the local MVD office with the truck. Once there, they first inspected the truck, much like CARCO had, to see if the VIN’s matched, and the mileage (well, kilometer-age… which really confused their computer). I did have to remind them it was “a diesel” several times, so that the AZ title reads correctly, and had to help the clerk calculate the miles from the kilometers on the odo. Then they printed out the title and registration, and gave me a shiny, new AZ license plate, which I promptly put on the truck and took a picture of…

The last thing to do, in this odyssey, was to get the LC officially on my auto insurance. I had heard that getting some older, non-US vehicles insured could be a problem, since US auto insurance systems are set-up around US-spec models, VIN’s, etc., etc. So, I had one final, heart-stopping moment when I gave my insurance agent the information for the truck over the phone, and she said “I can’t seem to get the system to approve a policy”…

My mind raced, thinking it had all been for naught, or that I would have to get some exorbitantly expensive “rare vehicle” policy, or other, worse insurance (or no-insurance…) alternatives I had read about in my research. But I had the presence of mind to ask her why they seemed to not be approving the policy. She looked at the rejections comments and said “It seems to be an invalid VIN”. I asked how many characters she had entered, and she counted them back, “1, 2, 3… 15, 16”. Just then I remembered the “17-digit VIN” requirement the LC had already met. I asked her to re-enter the VIN carefully as I read it back to her from both the Canadian paperwork and the Arizona title. She hit send on her computer, and exclaimed “It went through!’.

And so did my little diesel LC… right through the border. One of these days, I hope to take it back up to it’s old home territory, as a US citizen “visiting” Canada.

Thats a very interesting story and I know others wil find it useful.
This story needs to be in the importation thread. If you havent seen it,it contains all the stories of importation (no 2 stories are the same)

Having owned a 61 series with a 12HT,I know this engine will become a favourite possesion

head spinning, eyes hurt...too ... many ... words ....

thanks for posting, this shoudl answer questions for the other state boys...

crushers said:

head spinning, eyes hurt...too ... many ... words ....

thanks for posting, this shoudl answer questions for the other state boys...

Click to expand...

That's why it's a multi-parter... You're not supposed to read the whole darn thing at once... ;p

crushers said:

head spinning, eyes hurt...too ... many ... words ....

thanks for posting, this shoudl answer questions for the other state boys...

Click to expand...

YOU NEED NEW GLASSES lol