Picked up my JDM 1994 Land Cruiser Prado SX KZJ78W in September 2025.
I retired as a police officer in Indiana after 28 years and this was my retirement gift to myself. I typically try to take a trip out west at least once a year but I haven't been able to go anywhere for the last 5 years. Starting in 2019 with the militant leftist riots that posed too much of a risk in getting hung up on the interstate and having a group of violent rioters putting me in a position to prevent damage to my expensive motor coach and trailer by splitting some wigs because I have a zero tolerance policy on dealing with these mentally defective lunatics. Then the fake pandemic that eliminated 2020-21 with all of that nonsense. Then in 2022 my left knee replacement and the subsequent exhausting of my PTO and then the 2024 right knee replacement eating what PTO I built up to get that done. Now that I am rebuilt stronger, better, faster like Steve Austin, it was time to retire and live life on my terms. I started out in 2010 with riding adventure bikes (BMW R1200GSA and F800GSA) every year out to Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming with my sone and living off the bikes for the 3 week trips enjoying the Back Country Discovery Routes in these states. But with age comes cage so I got the motor coach in 2016 and switched to a KTM 500EXC and a RZR XP4-1000 for these trips. I have to say that this is the way to go for comfort and the ability to ride back to a base camp and enjoy a steak and some bourbon with a shower and comfortable bed each night. But even the RZR had it's limitations with weather and what it could carry for these day trips. So since I always wanted a Land Cruiser with a diesel engine, specifically the 70 series, I pulled the trigger. I got it from JDM Sports Classics in Michigan. If you're looking for a JDM Land Cruiser, you can't go wrong with connecting with them. The KZJ78 that I got was very well taken care of, and they were more than happy to send a lot of photos and video of it and permit me to test drive it. They performed all of the maintenance on it and even replaced the entire water pump with housing and timing belt. It only had 151,000 KM on it when I picked it up with no rust on the under body and a slight amount of rust on the frame and axles. This one is a 5 speed manual transmission with the 1KZTE. I had a hard time finding a snorkel for it due to it being the 78 series and no one really making a snorkel specifically for this to be plug and play. So I got the Dobinsons 3374 Snorkel that was the closest I could find. It took some fabrication of the fender/guard and airbox to work but it turned out nicely. While the fender and door crease lines are similar to the 76 series Land Cruisers the lengths are obviously different.
Here is a video of my fabricating the airbox and installing the snorkel.
I can provide measurements for the new template upon request.
Next was the EGR Delete. It was pretty straight forward with the kit that I got from a guy in Canada. The hardest part was getting the EGR cross pipe off. I had to cut it out with a side grinder.
Before....
After.... Much better. Put each piston at TDC to spray copious amounts of brake clean inside and used brushes and rags and compressed air to get them clean and used my Department's ultrasonic cleaner to clean the intake pipes.
I retired as a police officer in Indiana after 28 years and this was my retirement gift to myself. I typically try to take a trip out west at least once a year but I haven't been able to go anywhere for the last 5 years. Starting in 2019 with the militant leftist riots that posed too much of a risk in getting hung up on the interstate and having a group of violent rioters putting me in a position to prevent damage to my expensive motor coach and trailer by splitting some wigs because I have a zero tolerance policy on dealing with these mentally defective lunatics. Then the fake pandemic that eliminated 2020-21 with all of that nonsense. Then in 2022 my left knee replacement and the subsequent exhausting of my PTO and then the 2024 right knee replacement eating what PTO I built up to get that done. Now that I am rebuilt stronger, better, faster like Steve Austin, it was time to retire and live life on my terms. I started out in 2010 with riding adventure bikes (BMW R1200GSA and F800GSA) every year out to Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming with my sone and living off the bikes for the 3 week trips enjoying the Back Country Discovery Routes in these states. But with age comes cage so I got the motor coach in 2016 and switched to a KTM 500EXC and a RZR XP4-1000 for these trips. I have to say that this is the way to go for comfort and the ability to ride back to a base camp and enjoy a steak and some bourbon with a shower and comfortable bed each night. But even the RZR had it's limitations with weather and what it could carry for these day trips. So since I always wanted a Land Cruiser with a diesel engine, specifically the 70 series, I pulled the trigger. I got it from JDM Sports Classics in Michigan. If you're looking for a JDM Land Cruiser, you can't go wrong with connecting with them. The KZJ78 that I got was very well taken care of, and they were more than happy to send a lot of photos and video of it and permit me to test drive it. They performed all of the maintenance on it and even replaced the entire water pump with housing and timing belt. It only had 151,000 KM on it when I picked it up with no rust on the under body and a slight amount of rust on the frame and axles. This one is a 5 speed manual transmission with the 1KZTE. I had a hard time finding a snorkel for it due to it being the 78 series and no one really making a snorkel specifically for this to be plug and play. So I got the Dobinsons 3374 Snorkel that was the closest I could find. It took some fabrication of the fender/guard and airbox to work but it turned out nicely. While the fender and door crease lines are similar to the 76 series Land Cruisers the lengths are obviously different.
Here is a video of my fabricating the airbox and installing the snorkel.
I can provide measurements for the new template upon request.
Next was the EGR Delete. It was pretty straight forward with the kit that I got from a guy in Canada. The hardest part was getting the EGR cross pipe off. I had to cut it out with a side grinder.
Before....
After.... Much better. Put each piston at TDC to spray copious amounts of brake clean inside and used brushes and rags and compressed air to get them clean and used my Department's ultrasonic cleaner to clean the intake pipes.
