I’d go diesel. I haven’t had a gas 80 but have owned an HDJ81 and it was fantastic. Excellent power, even at altitude, decent fuel economy (especially compared to my FJ62’s) and parts in general are not hard to find.
In my opinion the additional fuel economy from a diesel is more about the additional range than cost savings. The price difference between the two fuels usually about makes up for the fuel economy difference but you don’t have to refuel as often. I got 17-20mpg in a stock HDJ81, with it tuned a bit and larger tires it gets 15-18mpg and can easily cruise at 80mph. Last spring I took a trip with my brother and his family: we fully loaded the 81 and towed a small off-road trailer with two roof top tents and still got about 14-15mpg on the highway doing 70+mph.
Good parts are not significantly harder to find or more expensive than domestic models; if you’re paying $50 for 1HD-T oil filters you’re way overpaying. They’re usually in the $30-35 range. Oil changes can easily be on 5000 mile/7500km intervals with a decent synthetic oil, probably more.
I agree with everything you said here. To make it clear, my current, and only 80 series is a diesel and i would not consider going back to gas for a number of reasons. However operating (and initial purchase) costs do not favor the diesels in US over a long term ownership period.
If it's running stock boost, you can do better in both power and economy.
Maybe. But it would come at a cost of long term reliability, which is completely unacceptable to me personally.
My 1hd-t and 1hz powered cruisers both used around 14litres/100km. 1hd-t was typically pushed harder, coz, well, it was fun to drive!
Fzj80 uses around 16.5-17 litres/100km.
That's roughly 20% less fuel. Close to making up your 20-40% premium for diesel.
These are realistic numbers. 20% better fuel economy makes sense. 100% (like the other fella claimed) is impossible.
Black oil doesn't necessarily mean it's not doing its job. It's typical of any diesel.
Run a quality oil, and the FSM recommended oil change interval is likely twice as frequent a it actually needs to be, unless you're driving in exteme conditions.
I agree 100%. However, running totally black oil on your beloved/treasured truck stresses people out (myself included), so changing it seems like a reasonable compromise.
I haven't noticed that big a spread on oil filter prices.
Maybe not in Australia, but in North America that is most certainly the case.
If the OP is purchasing a hobby car, occasional use car, enthusiast's car or whatever you want to call it, there's likely far more driving the purchase decision than a small increase in running costs.
I bought my current fzj80 primarily due to the premium in purchase price for a diesel engine cruiser.
I paid $5k AUD for mine. An equivelant diesel model would have been $20k++ at the time.
Price difference between FZJ and HDJ is comparable in North America, and this is exactly the point that im trying to argue here - if cost is a concern at all, then 1FZ makes way more sense. If you just want the best possible engine/cruiser, then 1HD is obviously the ticket.
There would be people getting very close to this.
On the defunct LCOOL Forums there were people adamant they regularly saw 10-11L/100km.
This is totally dependent on your right foot action. You're driving miss daisy to achieve this.
Ugh. I don't believe it. I've seen many such claims in the past, but having extensive personal experience with 1HD's, i believe these claims are just cases of 1HD owners lying to themselves (and others), in hopes of justifying their poor financial decisions..
I've seen many claims of ~25mpg (9.5L/100km), and even some in high 20's/low30's (8L/100km+). This is just not physically possible.
A 5 speed fzj80 is a very different beast to an auto trans version too.
Really don't know that I would tolerate an auto version.
The manual trans experience would be a big part of me weighing up a HDJ81 vs NA fzj80.
Hell, I paid a fortune to bring my Aussie fzj80 to the States because I wouldn't easily replace it with a manual 80 in USA
In full agreement here.
Diesel around here currently has an average price of $3.40 vs $3.10 for unleaded. Occasionally diesel will cost less than gas but I haven’t seen that in a while.
The range is a good point, I love getting 3-400 miles to the tank with a diesel. Really nice to not have to carry extra fuel or deal with sub tanks. With a sub tank you could probably go 800 miles without fueling which would be insane.
I used to get about 22 mpg on long trips in my hdj81 (1hdft, automatic). That was mostly stock with the tiny stock tires but it did have a 2” lift.
This is highly unusual. In the east/northeast, diesel tends to hover around $3.50-4, and gas is around 2.50-3.00
Regarding range, yes, that's one of the big selling points for diesels. I have a sub tank on mine, and i can, indeed, squeeze 800 miles out of both tanks. If you're travelling long distances, this can actually save you a bunch of money as it allows you to avoid fueling up in expensive areas.
forum.ih8mud.com
. If I wanted petrol, I’d just buy a US market one. Way more available, much cheaper.
