1993 cruiser is a slug. (1 Viewer)

[DWHeigher]

1993 cruiser is a slug. Yes.......yes it is.

I have a 1997 with a supercharger. It is not what I would call fast, but it moves along and does not bog down on hills. Not a cheap solution, but it works well.

 

[missouriman]

disks in the rear. so I guess the tires in the back yard are still for sale... lol.

 

[NCFJ]

Problem solved, send your truck by the shop and I'll take care of it for you.

 

[CJF]

80-91 (at least) 15in rims from a pickup/Tacoma will be completely interchangeable on a 91/92. Heck, some Tacomas came with the exact same rims as 91-92 Cruisers.

 

[akarilo]

If you think the 93+ 80 is a slug, you should try a 40 or 60, I've had both. My 97 is on 37's with 5.29's and I really don't have any complaints. Forced induction is really the only way to go if you just can't live with it. You'll probably get used to it though. Good luck.

 

[alltel05]

Will the bore on the mini truck wheels be the same as a LC? I know I am one of the minority here but my 3fe moves my 80 good enough for me. I have 38s and 5.29s. My cruising speed is about 65. Anything over it does not like. If I could squeeze 20mpg out of it i would never drive anything else

I agree, my 3fe is everything I could want. Mine is still pretty stock so I can do 75 pretty good. Just did a round trip of 500 miles doing 75 pretty much the whole time. The old girl didn't skip a beat, but if I needed to squirt around somebody that was not gonna happen.

 

[M32H32is]

Landcruisers were never meant to be fast. They were meant to haul people & gear across the deserts of Africa & Australia. They were meant to climb mountains & ford rivers.

That said, a blower was available to give you some boost. Outside of that, put together some rockin tunes!

Of course, if $ isn't an issue, there's some nice oil burner transplants available - a Cummins 6Bt fully juiced will give you a grin.

 

[roostabunny]

I agree, my 3fe is everything I could want. Mine is still pretty stock so I can do 75 pretty good. Just did a round trip of 500 miles doing 75 pretty much the whole time. The old girl didn't skip a beat, but if I needed to squirt around somebody that was not gonna happen.

My experience exactly. My other car is an old motorcycle, and even though it's slow by modern standards, it has awesome torque at highway speeds when tuned right. I was used to getting in front of anything that was in my way. No dice in the 80. It's more like, "After you, sir. After you, ma'am..."

My anger management counselor thinks it's awesome.

Anyway, since I sunk my early tune-up money into a steering knuckle rebuild, I'm hopeful for a little more pep eventually, but overall, I figure this is just how it is with a 3FE.

 

[alltel05]

^^^^^ Yeah I sometimes find myself saying things like 'if you slow down pal I will crush you' like I am in a tank!

My youngest just laughs, he thinks it's funny to see me so laid back in the Cruiser. I have a little bit of a reputation as being an intense driver.

 

[roostabunny]

^^ Yeah, despite my slow speed, I know I've seen folks look twice at that massive winch bumper and opt to wait patiently for me to lumber by instead of rolling the dice and pulling out.

Intense - good word.

 

[ssbob]

I have a '93 and was getting some pretty nasty pinging. Pulled out the timing gun and noticed that the distributor hold down bolt was lose and my timing was up in the 30 degree range. I cranked it down to factory (3 degrees) and noticed a loss of power. However I will take that over near constant pinging. You may want to check your timing, as that seems to have an effect on the seat of the pants power.

 

[CJF]

I have a '93 and was getting some pretty nasty pinging. Pulled out the timing gun and noticed that the distributor hold down bolt was lose and my timing was up in the 30 degree range. I cranked it down to factory (3 degrees) and noticed a loss of power. However I will take that over near constant pinging. You may want to check your timing, as that seems to have an effect on the seat of the pants power.

There's a thread on advancing the timing a bit over spec. without incurring spinging.

 

[ssbob]

Hmm I set it back to stock, noticed it advance again, reset to just below 10 degrees (idle is seriously f****d if I put it at stock, most likely a vacuum leak somewhere) and used some red Locktite to tighten it down.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

My 1994 cruiser is 6 cylinders of righteous indignation. My other car is a 2007 vw gti so i think i would notice if it lacked get up & go. Aside from my bright blue vacuum lines and catch can on the pcv it is pretty much stock.

These beasts are from the early days of electronic engine management and it seems to me that there are many levels of "seems to run ok" where the ecu is not complaining through the check engine light but performance is clearly lacking.

Pretty much all electronic engine management systems will react to sub-par sensor readings by retarding the timing advance and other things to put the engine into a 'limp' mode where there is a lesser chance of damage to the engine but you can still drive it.

Do the paperclip thing with the diagnostic connector on the firewall over on the passenger side to make sure there aren't any stored codes. And the check engine light does light up when you turn on the engine, right?

Do the normal tune-up stuff. Plugs, cap, rotor, wires, vacuum lines. You'll need about 7 feet of 1/8 vacuum line and some nimble fingers. Make sure the egr system is in good shape because it can fail into modes where it turns on when it shouldn't.

If that doesn't do it, inspect the o2 sensor wire harnesses for damage and for corrosion in the connectors. You may also need new o2 sensors which are unfortunately unreasonably expensive for 93/94 and you can only trust toyota and denso.

You could do a compression test but chances are the engine just needs some consumables refreshed and maybe some sensor harness tlc.

Unless you have funny ideas about what makes a truck a slug but _i_ have no trouble overtaking people on the freeway or any difficulty cruising at 80mph in my '94.

 

[alltel05]

Yeah you 1fz guys have a 4.5 boar hog under your bonnets... Sheesh you got lots of power.

 

[Ostkuste]

Im with you on this my 93 is a slug too!!! just bought me a Chevy 5.7 and 700r4 2 wheel drive trans and hopefully swap it out soon.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

Yeah you 1fz guys have a 4.5 boar hog under your bonnets... Sheesh you got lots of power.

I've never owned a 3fe but i bet there are some power gains to be had from keeping it's EFI system happy too.

I'm not saying it's a racekar - but my '94 is no slug. i drive it like i stole it. I can't do that in my GTI without breaking the law and/or endangering my own life and the lives of others. Probably because it has more horsepower and almost as much torque (in a very different curve) in a vehicle that weighs half as much (and has less than half the engine).

 

[missouriman]

well, the one that I bought must have been sitting for A LONG TIME. after a few tanks of good non alcohol gas it has doubled in power. So I am thinking 2 to 5 year old gas in it. I know the powder coat on the rock sliders had pealed up, I removed about 80 percent of the powder coat with just the car wash pressure washer!!! Also the inside of the windshield had those little dirty specs that you see in cars that have been sitting, like forever. Also put in a bottle of fuel injector cleaner and a bottle of marvel mystery oil. Set off the 02 sensor code a few times, until I ran it down the road for a few miles at 4 grand. Reset it and the engine check light has not came back on. I was really worried at the amount of smoke, (could see just a bit out the side mirror) but it cleared up during the high rpm run.

So I think it was from sitting for so long, old gas.

Now I am dealing with the mushy brake issue... Any advice on that? brakes are better if you lightly push on them vs pushing hard.

new master cylinder from napa, Bled the lines, except from the load valve to the rear calipers as the bleeders are locked in place.
going to replace the pads, the rear calipers if I cant get the bleeders to break loose. new soft lines.

How do you Bleed the abs thing on the fender????

 

[missouriman]

yes, chevy rims will not even fit the mini trucks, I wanted the chevy rally wheels for my 85. Center hole is to small. I used to love pointing out to my v8 chevy friends that my axles and hubs were larger then their trucks.

 

[KS-Ryan]

You bought a heavy, AWD, underpowered, with heavy, large tires. It is what it is. Do a full tuneup and see what that does.

4.88 gears, 36 inch tires. I feel like when I pull out onto the interstate it just falls on its face. We just bought this. I expected a lot more from a Toyota 6 cylinder. we have ran 1985 22 re's for years. a person that we know had this up for sale... but it is a slug. lockers front rear. not sure what to look at as to why it feels so under powered.