91 Prado - thinking about buying

[roscoFJ73]

<and what is with the prices in Japan for the KZ units, they are costing the same as a HDJ lately. >

Its a proven engine that makes a good swap into a variety of toyota 4wds.I looked through the 90scool forum and could only find 2 cases of blown heads amongst 1000s of post and one had a faulty radiator and the other had done 230000klms

My wrecker sells them for about 2K more than a 1HZ if he can get them.

 

[crushers]

sorry, i don't record my phone calls.

seriously, if you like the 3L the good. i don't and have no need to justify my feelings. for years i put up with "the 2LTE is a good engine" BS. the 3L is a small step above it. not enough to justify selling them, not enough to justify owning one.

what does the 'E' at the end of 1KZ T 5LE stand for?

 

[Mark_kzj78]

As I have posted numerous times before under the Radd Cruisers account, these vehicles have very problematic engines and they are not worth getting in to. Even with the cylinder head replaced, there are numerous engine problems that will plague these units...

DO NOT BUY A PRADO... it's that simple.


~John

Clarify - do not buy a 2.4l Prado.

3.0l equiped Prado's are great - not 'hardcore' offroaders but great nonetheless. Mine has a 1kz-te (e for ecu so is electronically controlled). Maybe you can throw one of those in...

 

[roscoFJ73]

sorry, i don't record my phone calls.

seriously, if you like the 3L the good. i don't and have no need to justify my feelings. for years i put up with "the 2LTE is a good engine" BS. the 3L is a small step above it. not enough to justify selling them, not enough to justify owning one.

what does the 'E' at the end of 1KZ T 5LE stand for?

You keep running down good reliable engines. I have always said that as soon as they added a turbo to the L engine it went to s***.
Without a turbo they run cooler and are long lasting,if slow.

The 1KZ T has no electrics except the fuel cut off solenoid. The 5LE has some but its not troublesome.It was used on the IFS Hilux SR4 and maybe the small Dynas

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Clarify - do not buy a 2.4l Prado.

3.0l equiped Prado's are great - not 'hardcore' offroaders but great nonetheless. Mine has a 1kz-te (e for ecu so is electronically controlled). Maybe you can throw one of those in...

The vehicle being discussed is an LJ78 Prado with the 2LTE engine.

If you've been following the 70 series of Diesel forums for a while you will know that they are problematic and expensive little engines that like to get new cylinder heads.


~John

 

[pradocruzer]

IH8MUD&2LTE.com LOL!!!

 

[crushers]

how come you don't have either in your fleet of units?

i keep speaking truth, some people don't want to hear it. if you had to warranty the L series then you might be a bit more cautious but it isn't your money so you recommend them.

why buy s*** when you can get something that won't cost you $4000 to fix.

seriously, why bother arguing about it. you believe one thing and i believe another. i will not change my mind so give it up. the L series engines are hard on fuel (for their size) gutless and expensive to fix. there is nothing positive about them.

You keep running down good reliable engines. I have always said that as soon as they added a turbo to the L engine it went to s***.
Without a turbo they run cooler and are long lasting,if slow.

The 1KZ T has no electrics except the fuel cut off solenoid. The 5LE has some but its not troublesome.It was used on the IFS Hilux SR4 and maybe the small Dynas

 

[roscoFJ73]

how come you don't have either in your fleet of units?

Generally the vehicles they come in are too small for my long legs and not suitable for long road trips.
I also prefer landcruisers to Hilux and Hiace
They are probably the favourite of local councils for parks and gardens maintenance and used on a huge scale in many businesses

i keep speaking truth, some people don't want to hear it. if you had to warranty the L series then you might be a bit more cautious but it isn't your money so you recommend them.

My opinion would be the same whether I had to warranty them or not

why buy s*** when you can get something that won't cost you $4000 to fix.

seriously, why bother arguing about it. you believe one thing and i believe another. i will not change my mind so give it up. the L series engines are hard on fuel (for their size) gutless and expensive to fix. there is nothing positive about them.

So what is wrong with the 3L apart from its slow? I haven't heard of any of them blowing heads or the 2L for that matter.
They are no more expensive to fix than any other toyota diesel,unless you can show me otherwise.
You cant blame the sins of the 2LTE on every other member of the L family

 

[SimonInAustralia]

I would probably go with a 1KZ T,5LE or 3L in that order.

The V6 Holden/Buick engine on gas would be ok if you can sort out the cooling problems.
I would also like to see someone work out an Isuzu turbo diesel swap for a LJ7*

I want a Bundera, with a 1UZ or 3UZ V8.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Wayne has a good point about the L family of engines.

I have seen and worked on enough of these to know that they have lots of annoying problems. I have not worked on 100s of them, but certainly dozens of them.

My first experience was a 2LT with a cracked piston in the early 90s. The 2LT/2LTE has a bunch of problems - and now that I have seen and worked on lots and lots of 2LTEs, I cannot recommend them to anybody.

The L, which is a gutless slug, is pretty tough from what I have seen. The 2L is a gutless slug with more displacement, but the 3L seems to be pretty decent. The fuel economy of these is pretty poor once they get out of a small vehicle and into something like the Hilux line.

Many people don't seem to understand that engine displacement and fuel economy are not directly related when you're talking about a diesel. It has much more do with how hard you're working it and how you're revving it. Lower RPM and relatively easy going (compared to the rated output) and the economy will be fine - work it hard and you're going to suck back lots of fuel.

In general I think Wayne is correct, and his opinions are worth listening to. The 2LTE has a bad history here in Canada, and should be avoided like H1N1. When the options are to get a full sized engine in a Land Cruiser vs. the smaller displacement engines at about the same cost, there's really no contest.

What we need to do is have sticky that explains to potential purchasers the problems associated with the 2LTE and then let them decide. Threads just like this one get generated every two weeks to a month and it's not worth hashing over the same information time and time again. We also cannot dream about what a vehicle would be like if we transplanted another engine/drivetrain into it as the costs involved are generally far in excess of what a normal family can afford (given that the Prado LJ78 appeals to young families).


~John

 

[crushers]

"The 2LTE has a bad history here in Canada, and should be avoided like H1N1." that is a classic.

i have been trying to explain this to many that call about the smaller engines, fuel economy is related to your right foot and not the engine size. but most just can't get their head around such an idea. it doesn't help when you have importers telling their potential suckers that you will get the high 30s and even low 40s for mileage and that "Toyota has a reputation of reliability and durability and the head issue is BS".
people love to have their ears tickled. they hear what they want to hear and believe those that say what they want to believe. sad really.

Many people don't seem to understand that engine displacement and fuel economy are not directly related when you're talking about a diesel. It has much more do with how hard you're working it and how you're revving it. Lower RPM and relatively easy going (compared to the rated output) and the economy will be fine - work it hard and you're going to suck back lots of fuel.


~John

 

[roscoFJ73]

In general I think Wayne is correct, and his opinions are worth listening to. The 2LTE has a bad history here in Canada, and should be avoided like H1N1. When the options are to get a full sized engine in a Land Cruiser vs. the smaller displacement engines at about the same cost, there's really no contest.

W


~John

No ones arguing the 2lt is a good engine,you are preaching to the converted

And the 3L powered Hilux 2wd was 1/3 the cost of a landcruiser here,so in some countries ,that makes a lot of sense and buys a lot of fuel

 

[roscoFJ73]

"The 2LTE has a bad history here in Canada, and should be avoided like H1N1." that is a classic.

i have been trying to explain this to many that call about the smaller engines, fuel economy is related to your right foot and not the engine size. but most just can't get their head around such an idea. it doesn't help when you have importers telling their potential suckers that you will get the high 30s and even low 40s for mileage and that "Toyota has a reputation of reliability and durability and the head issue is BS".
people love to have their ears tickled. they hear what they want to hear and believe those that say what they want to believe. sad really.

This was never about fuel economy. It was about the L family of engines reliability. I'm still waiting for you to come up with some proof the L family are unreliable, particularly the 3L.

 

[lowenbrau]

Since this thread is totally hijacked now let's talks some more about replacement power plants. Lots of Hilux guys use the 4.3l Chev with good success. As much of a purist and diesel biggot as I am I still see the attraction. That engine runs 400,000km easily and will return decent mileage numbers. Somebody should buy one of these cheap broken LJ78s and make a Chevota out of it. You could probably end up with a strong running truck for $6000