Looking for feedback on HDJ81 for US use (1 Viewer)

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I'm a current 100 series owner and I'm considering selling it for a roughly 93-95 vintage JDM 80 series with the 1HD-T engine. My reasoning is just to play with the extra off road potential of the 80 series suspension, but going with the diesel so it's not as big a step down in power and torque from my 100. To be honest, my use would be 95% around town, but the 5% off road would be 2-3 weeks per year taking it on hiking and fishing trips. It's not exactly crossing Namibia, but I would be a healthy off road trail away from the closest mechanic. If I go through with it, I almost certainly would get it from a Japanese auction because I can get one way cheaper and without rust than a gasser from the US. I probably could get one for around 20K (purchase, shipping, duties, plus maybe $5K in baseline maintenance).

I'm not terribly concerned about the RHD issue or jumping backwards from a 100 to an 80, but I do have concerns about having a RHD and 1HD-T in the US. While the average small town mechanic may not be first choice in repairing my 100 should it break on a trip, at least it's a US based product with support and parts available from the closest Toyota dealer. The RHD and 1HD-T both could make repairs away from home much more complicated (i.e., I can imagine having to be personally involved in identifying parts and air freighting parts from Japan or the UAE to Podunk, Montana, where with my 100 series the Toyota dealer 150 miles away can source the parts).

I know if I do the right baseline maintenance, the likelihood of problems in the field goes down dramatically, but stuff always happens. Any of you US based folks have JDM 80s and can share how you've handled problems in the field? How much more difficult has it been sourcing parts, finding expertise, etc and avoiding having your unique car be the occasionally vacation killer?
 
It comes down to planning maintenance in advance, there hasn’t been any parts that have been difficult to obtain, radd cruisers in Canada has most if not all of the diesel 1hdt maintenance parts

eBay Australia helps a lot for parts also
 
It comes down to planning maintenance in advance, there hasn’t been any parts that have been difficult to obtain, radd cruisers in Canada has most if not all of the diesel 1hdt maintenance parts

eBay Australia helps a lot for parts also

Thx. I'm not concerned about sourcing parts for planned maintenance. I am concerned, however, about finding both parts and expertise for unplanned maintenance, especially if I'm traveling and potentially in small towns without a Toyota dealership anywhere nearby. Not only the RHD aspect but the 1HD-T engine is non-existent in the US except for the last few years when a few imports started trickling in. In small towns in particular, I'd be much less likely to find people capable of helping diagnose a problem and I might have to be heavily involved in sourcing parts, potentially air freighting parts from Japan or the UAE to Podunk, USA.
 
Yup. These trucks are 100% pay-to-play.

Anyone tries to BS you otherwise is lying.

That said, the 1HD-T is just an engine like any other engine. The VE6 pump that drives the 1HD-T is basically a Bosch pump.

When you are over landing in podunk, USA and something goes bad, find a regular diesel fleet shop.

They will know more about diagnosing an issue than a Toyota dealership.

But yeah, need a part, you are waiting a bit.
 
Thx. I'm not concerned about sourcing parts for planned maintenance. I am concerned, however, about finding both parts and expertise for unplanned maintenance, especially if I'm traveling and potentially in small towns without a Toyota dealership anywhere nearby. Not only the RHD aspect but the 1HD-T engine is non-existent in the US except for the last few years when a few imports started trickling in. In small towns in particular, I'd be much less likely to find people capable of helping diagnose a problem and I might have to be heavily involved in sourcing parts, potentially air freighting parts from Japan or the UAE to Podunk, USA.

The 1hdt might not be for you, no small town mechanic is going to even know what it is, my local Toyota dealership doesn’t know anything about it and are useless for parts (unless it’s some generic 80 series part) There are shops in the States that can help with repairs but your primary source of information Is most likely going to be this Forum and the FSM.
 
Yup. These trucks are 100% pay-to-play.

Anyone tries to BS you otherwise is lying.

That said, the 1HD-T is just an engine like any other engine. The VE6 pump that drives the 1HD-T is basically a Bosch pump.

When you are over landing in podunk, USA and something goes bad, find a regular diesel fleet shop.

They will know more about diagnosing an issue than a Toyota dealership.

But yeah, need a part, you are waiting a bit.
I hadn’t thought of that angle.... most remote areas would surely have diesel mechanics around servicing pickups, work trucks, tractors, etc. to handle diesel related issues I couldn’t figure out (which currently would be most of them). Tradtional mechanics could help if it was suspension problems or maybe engine accessory problems (e.g., starter motor or alternator).
 
The 1hdt might not be for you, no small town mechanic is going to even know what it is, my local Toyota dealership doesn’t know anything about it and are useless for parts (unless it’s some generic 80 series part) There are shops in the States that can help with repairs but your primary source of information Is most likely going to be this Forum and the FSM.
In fairness, you're not going to find parts easily for a 1FZ in podunk USA either. Not really sure you'd be that much worse-off with the 1HD-T. Big difference would there is far less chance your trail buddies who are also wheeling 80s with you would have any parts you can scrounge =)
 
I hadn’t thought of that angle.... most remote areas would surely have diesel mechanics around servicing pickups, work trucks, tractors, etc. to handle diesel related issues I couldn’t figure out (which currently would be most of them). Tradtional mechanics could help if it was suspension problems or maybe engine accessory problems (e.g., starter motor or alternator).

Absolutely. A local diesel mechanic will look at your 1HD-T and say ... oh yeah... a Toyota forklift engine.

:lol:
 
^^ this.

I always invite my LS swapped friends on trail rides cause I know I have nothing to lend them...

It also tells me how prepared they are.

Darwin works.
I'll make sure I take photos when my 3,000psi fuel system breaks down on the LT1 and I'm crying at the side of a trail and grabbing my credit card for a very expensive tow. :cool:
 
I like the thought of taking it to a fleet maintenance place. But in reality, you won’t find many shops willing to do more than throw parts on standard big vehicles, and usually they’re so busy that if it is going to take any amount of research and guesswork on their end, they just blow you off and send you to the next guy. So if it comes down to diagnosing problems you’ll probably be out of luck. A lot of shops have lost the art of diagnosing what’s wrong. Now it’s usually plug it in and start replacing parts until the code goes away. Same goes for diesel pickup mechanics, they just like bolting on new exhausts and EGR deletes, and tuning stuff. They really don’t know a whole lot about mechanical diesels.
 
i would echo dan1554s post.

in the UK, we all get our parts from amayama etc. simply because, other than "service items" they are about half the price of UK main dealers.

as said, the 1HDT is a very reliable simple engine. i cant really think of any failures, other than catastrophic, that would be impractical to fix on the side of the trail. that you wouldnt be able to limp home/fix with a few basic spares.

keep a stock of consumables on the shelf in the garage at home, that could be sent out to you if the need arises.
 
Do it. These things are bulletproof. I've got the HZJ80 here in Australia, with the 1HZ engine, which is basically just the 1HD-T without the turbo. As long as your injector pump is healthy, and you don't run the thing out of oil or coolant, it'll go forever. As for parts, like I said, the 1HD-T is basically a 1HZ. The 1HZ is still used in new production vehicles today. It's ridiculously common globally. In the US maybe not, but you'll be able to source parts from international suppliers for decades after parts for domestic US petrol models dry up. In terms of non-engine parts, a lot of 80 serirs parts are common between the RHD and LHD models, but you'll want to work with a decent parts supplier, or just do what I do and look up all your part numbers yourself, and order from partsouq, or if you strike out there and don't mind waiting for a month, amayama.
 
I'm probably going to do it, but I'm toying with what else I'll have to change in my fleet of cars (3 driving age boys but only 2 cars between them...). It for sure would be stupid of me to rely on this car 365 days a year since there is essentially zero parts commonality in the US on the 1hdt side with any other car. For comparison with my 100 and its 4.7, not only do dealers have eom parts (usually) and auto parts stores have aftermarket stuff (often s***ty), but I can raid junk yards for parts from Tundras, Sequoias, GX470s, etc. This would for sure put me at least at a small risk of having my car inop for a period of time.

What kinds of critical parts or areas can you think of that would be quite specific to the 1hdt or RHD that might be good spares to keep on hand... stuff that I might take for granted as "quickly available" on my gasser? I don't want to carry around $5K worth of spares for the once a decade breakdown, but at the same time I recognize I'll be buying a 30 yr old car where the closest replacement parts might be half way around the world. The upside is with express freight (and a hefty fee), even those could often be to even the smallest town in the US within a few days.

Can I assume the 80s sold in Australia and Japan are functionally identical? I for sure need to get full physical copies of the FSMs and EWDs. I assume they don't publish them in English in Japan where I'll be buying this, but luckily for me I can read Australian pretty well... not so good speaking it, but I can read it. I guess South Africa is a potential source for the books as well.
 
The diesels are far easier to work on in my opinion. The only special tools needed are for setting the timing. The diesels are also far easier to trouble shoot.

Think about it this way, if some dude in BFE Africa can work on it on the side of the road with a hammer and a crescent wrench you can probably learn to work on it too. 😁

Cheers
 
I say go for it. Worst case, do what I'm doing and slap a cummins in there later on down the road and have the best of both worlds. I'd still be rocking my 1HD-T if not for the unfortunate detonation I had.
 
Well, the diesel engines can go bad easily in my opinion. The rotary bosch style injection pump if getting bad fuel or water contamination goes bad quickly and for example, the injection pump for the 1hd-fte costs 6500 US dollars in the Toyota dealership in my town. The set of injectors are around 3000 dollars. If I take the 1FZ engine for example I can't think of any component in the engine which would be similarly expensive as for the 1hd-fte.
 
Man, you're not kidding on that injection pump -

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Also looks like it ha about a million parts in it.

1617147610363.png
 

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