KZJ71 Build Thread (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Feb 26, 2021
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Location
New York, NY
Finally flew out to seattle and picked up my 1994 KZJ71. It has a factory winch, rear locker, manual aisin hubs, and is absolutely mint. While here in seattle the first mods were a 3" exhaust with a 3" downpipe from Kaiapoi repowers in NZ and a redarc combination boost/EGT/water temp gauge. EGTs are measured with a probe in the EGR blanking plate. The EGR proved a real ball ache to remove, first I rounded the nuts on the exhaust side, then couldnt get the EGR pipe out with the hard heater lines right behind it. My buddy ended up taking an air chisel to it.

Got a dobinsons 2.5" lift coming, but their container got held up so that will wait until I get back to NY, along with 33x10.5x15 tires. Next up is to drive this thing 3,000 miles home.

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They really did shove a lot of crap back by the firewall. The EGR pipe/valves/VSVs are all tucked back there underneath all of the heater hoses going everywhere.

1KZ is starting to grow on me as a power plant though.

How do you like it in a MWB truck?
 
They really did shove a lot of crap back by the firewall. The EGR pipe/valves/VSVs are all tucked back there underneath all of the heater hoses going everywhere.

1KZ is starting to grow on me as a power plant though.

How do you like it in a MWB truck?

Today was my first day driving back, so I really got to check out the EGTs. Going up big hills under load I max out at 12psi, and I can keep the EGTs below 600C (1100F) still going 70-75mph. I'm coming from driving a 3L powered Hiace van, so this is a massive improvement and feels like a sports car to be honest.

I didn't have the EGT probe in before i got the new exhaust, so I can't compare, but I think these temps are really pretty great. I'm measuring at the EGT blanking plate which is quite close to cylinder 4. However, I am going to be putting a lift and 33s on, so next I'm going to put on the turbo smart boost controller I bought, as well as a turbosmart pneumatic fuel cut defender, and up the psi to 16 and see how much that lowers the EGTs. Hopefully this will allow me to keep this power I'm getting now with the bigger tires. There is definitely more power there, it's really just the heat that keeps me holding back. As far as water temps, no concerns at all. Sits around 90C on the highway almost constantly.

Sometime after this stuff I'll get to a front mount intercooler.
 
Before getting to the intercooler I decided to try a simple fix for an issue that came with the truck. On first testing the rear locker, the light on the dash would never stop blinking, even though I could hear the actuator when I turned the switch in 4LO. After a little research I found that my issue was possibly the little switch on the axle by the locker that tells the ECU when the locker is engaged. I changed that out with NAPA NS6421, $28, and sure enough the light comes on and stays solid now.
 
Got started on the intercooler project today. First was mounting it up, pretty easy with the Vibrant intercooler on some existing brackets that used to mount the grill.

I found a used crossover intake pipe on eBay and bought it in case I made a mistake and needed the intact one. Cut that today and looks like it’s gonna work great. Tomorrow I’ll start cutting holes in my new car.

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First step is always the hardest! Or in this case, the 1st Cut. Looking forward to seeing the results.
 
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@epaul , it isn’t shutting down any rougher; it just appears that way since you see all the tubes moving upon shutdown. Just make sure none of the tubing is rubbing against coolant hoses, wires, front core, etc. otherwise, you are golden. Nice job!
 
@epaul , it isn’t shutting down any rougher; it just appears that way since you see all the tubes moving upon shutdown. Just make sure none of the tubing is rubbing against coolant hoses, wires, front core, etc. otherwise, you are golden. Nice job!
well, the reason i thought it was rougher was i could hear a loud knock when shutting down. However, it had nothing to do with the intercooler piping but is actually the 3" down pipe hitting the body now. Not sure why this happened to start after putting the intercooler on, but oh well. A bit of trimming should fix it.
 
That looks great! Did you buy pre bent tubes? If so do you have a shopping list of your materials you would share?
I bought the Vibrant 12800 intercooler, which was the perfect dimensions, and a generic 2" & 2.5" piping kit off amazon, plus a pipe cutter and and a dremel. I used 2" because that's the size of the turbo outlet and 2.5" because that fits on the section of intake pipe i sawed in half. If I had to do it over, I would probably use a reducer and use 2" all around. The 2.5" is much more difficult to work with. I used the dremel to trim the grille.
 
My rough shutdown issue was MUCH simpler than I thought. As it turned out, when I reinstalled one of the VSVs to the intake, I did not replicate the correct angle and the filter of the VSV was blocking the actuator arm that closes the small butterfly on shutdown. Once I moved that out of the way the actuator arm moves freely and shutdown is smooth again.
 
Intercooler project all squared away then. Have the boost controller installed and fuel cut defender to play around with, but so far I’m very pleased with how much my EGTs have gone down, somewhere between 50-100 degrees Celsius (my redarc gauge is in Celsius) and it really moves quick now. I’m satisfied that when the 33s go on I’ll have no power issues. Plus it looks badass. Next week the new Dobinsons suspension goes on and 33” toyo m/t tires.

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