My new 4x4 toyota van

[jlhollowx13]

Well, i have some good news and some bad news. Good news is the shop got a chance to start on the head, bad news is its cracked. He said it was cracked in a spot that was still holding pressure and said we may be able to use it. Anyone have experience with this or should i just get a new head? And if i should go new should i get a new new or remanufactured?

One thing after another! At least my cruisers arent giving me any trouble!

 

[jlhollowx13]

I ordered a rebuilt head that should be here today, so the install will begin and hopefully have it together byI this weekend to test it out

 

[jlhollowx13]

Ok, so a little update. Got the head back and installed with minimal issues. Took it for a camping trip in the mountains and im still having trouble! It was getting warm again, temp gauge going to about 3/4 but never any worse. Then i got home and checked stuff out and im seeing some small bubbles in the radiator cap. How can this be?!?!?

Im really stumped here, anyone have any ideas? I dont see how my head gasket could be compromised again, especially after only 300 miles and not getting into the red on the temp gauge. I havent overheated it (just running it a bit warmer than normal operating temp) and ive changed out everything. I was thinking a warped block, but im told that is a very unlikely thing to happen. Any ideas?

 

[jlhollowx13]

Alright, another update, hopefully this one will be one of the last related to the mechanics of this vehicle and more on the fun stuff!

I did some more testing and think the head gasket is fine and that my problem lies elsewhere. I did one of those exhaust gas in coolant tests and it came back negative. I ran a compression test that came back good. A family friend that owns a shop down the road said he didn't think it was a head gasket issue. I'm now looking at the radiator. I took it out today and thoroughly rinsed it before and after I let some radiator flush chemical sit in it. I have yet to road test it, but if I didn't fix it I'll take the radiator in to get fixed up. Going to take one of the 60 radiators in as well since the one in it has a pinhole, so the 120 mile trip won't feel so bad haha.

Other than this running warm issue this van has definitely met or exceeded my expectations in many ways. It seems to have plenty of power going up passes with the rooftop tent and the gear we hauled on the last test trip. I even got to go through my first mud pit crossing! Haha. The only downfall is the clearance. I'm used to the cruisers and not really thinking twice about what I drive over, but the van does have some good skid plates luckily. I'm really liking the gas mileage as well. I averaged 18 on the last trip loaded down, with timing way off, running warm issues, and not driving for best mpg on the mountain pass or adjusting for bigger tires. It outperformed the 60 on the highway and I didn't feel like I was as slow as a loaded semi going up those passes. I average 14 mpg in the 60 on a trip like that, never did mpg on the 40 on a trip that long as it never goes that far but I average maybe 12 in it comparatively and a lot less space.

Since this last trip we got a better idea of what kind of room we need and have. We fit Everything inside with plenty of room to spare and didn't even touch the roof rack. I'm not too sure how the hot water tanks are going to work out though, going to see if they are even worth carrying with some more time. The roof top tent is great! All our sleeping gear and the extras for the tent fold up inside it so no sleeping stuff taking up space inside which is nice. We even had it rain on us and it was perfect. Hopefully I'll be ready to go on a trip next weekend!

 

[jlhollowx13]

Well, I'm still having some issues, I'm now doing an extreme flush and clean of the system (at least to the best of my ability using things that are safe for the engine). The flush yields clean water, so I'm not too sure what the deal is now, radiator is either clean or so clogged nothing is breaking apart. I'm trying to do what I can to fix the situation before I resort to taking it to a radiator shop, the new exhaust manifold and head I had to buy really screwed my budget. One more thing I will try is to patch the hole in the original radiator I have, clean it and see if putting it in helps, if so Ill know it's the radiator, if not the search will continue.

If anyone has any tips or tricks or things to check feel free to chime in!

 

[jlhollowx13]

Well ill give a little update. We have taken it on a few trips now and the way things were going with the running warm issue i decided to send my spare radiator in to be recored with a high efficiency 4 row. I should be getting that monday and slapping it in. Other than that it has done well, both on and off road. Its nice to be able to get to places we couldnt in our bus and basically have all the stuff we had with that. The things ive done in it so far make me confident it can handle the things ill be throwing at it.

The next thing ill be looking into is suspension. The front doesnt have much options for lifting, but im not too concerned with the clearance as i wont be doing anything that will require much else. Ill be looking to stiffen the suspension and ive found out that ford aerostar van rear springs will fit the rear of the toyota van. These springs give about a 2 inch lift as well as heavy spring rating. This will help with the sagging i get when loaded, which isnt much but will only get worse. I expect to be sitting fairly level when loaded with the new springs and stiffer shocks all around will help when offroading. The front can be raised by adjusting something in the front (need to look into it more) but the travel in the front is limited and your basically just adjusting the ride height within those limitations, so it may negatively affect suspension articulation one way or another.

I havent had to use the roof rack yet for gear. As of now all our stuff fits in the back with plenty of room and our 2 dogs sit in the middle captains chairs. I will keep the roof rack installed as it is the mounting point for my hot water tanks and hi lift jack. It will also be nice to have the option of moving gear up there in case we have more than 2 people. That way the extra people can sit in the middle captains chairs, dogs in the back and gear moved from the back to up top.

As of now the only thing left on my list to get is a solar panel. We havent come across anything else we think we need or want to change yet but time will tell.

We did have 1 problem with our roof top tent recently. When we opened it up in one of our trips we noticed 2 holes in the canvas near the top. Luckily its under the rain fly, and i did order patches, but it was really disappointing. We think what happened was a bug got closed up in the tent and chewed the holes. Looks like something like that as we couldnt think of any othet possibilities.

Here are some photos of our more recent trips. Enjoy!

 

[08720]

Thanks for the updates. Good luck with the radiator.

 

[jlhollowx13]

Well, got the radiator monday and slapped it in. While i was in there I checked the oil pressure against my good gauge as it was reading super low at idle, it was good to go. Did a thorough flush, installed a T near the front heater core and wired in a switch for my electric fans as well as fixed the old mess the po had. I wasnt planning on running a switch but decided it would be worth it. It gets very cold here so it may not even be needed in most situations in the winter. The new 4 core radiator was substantially larger than the old one, im ready to go test it out on the pass tomorrow, i expect it will solve the problem of having to run the heater going up the mountains.

The wife and i went on one of our favorite loops in the 60 the other day and it had been awhile since i had driven it, wifes DD usually, and with the van getting a bit better mpg i end up driving it to work most days. It reminded me how i should put the van suspension higher on the priority list and why i still have my cruisers, they excel offroad and are so enjoyabe to drive offroad. The van is also nice to drive, but offroad its not point and go as much. Different tools for different jobs though!

 

[jlhollowx13]

Well I had a power steering hose leak after the head job. I think it cracked when bending it out of the way. To replace it the rubber line and attached hard lines have to be replaced and it's a pita and costly. Luckily someone came up with a way to cut it at the metal and using compression fittings made the rubber part easily replaceable on its own. Works like a charm! I love the ways people come up with to fix hard to find parts.

Next on my list is to start saving to upgrade the suspension. I have a lot of things to catch up on with my 40 and 60 first!

 

[jlhollowx13]

Forgot to include photo of plug, here it is

 

[Kris]

Did you do a compression or a leak-down test? Because I think a leak-down test would tell you if your rings or valve seals were leaking small amounts. At the same time, you would imagine that your plugs would look more wet.

PCV is also a good call. Make sure that you aren't forcing oil into the intake instead of venting.

 

[jlhollowx13]

Did you do a compression or a leak-down test? Because I think a leak-down test would tell you if your rings or valve seals were leaking small amounts. At the same time, you would imagine that your plugs would look more wet.

PCV is also a good call. Make sure that you aren't forcing oil into the intake instead of venting.

I did a compression test and it comes back good, 145 out of a total 178 with 125 being minimum. All cylinders the same.

The spot where the pcv hooks to the intake manifold should be vacuum correct? I'm out looking at things now and I replaced the line and checked routing and every thing looks good.

 

[Hiace4wd]

Ah cool, a Toyota van on this forum. I just joined, and it seems the 4x4 vans are not well known here. The van you have is known as a Toyota Lite-ace to the rest of the world

I've got a Hi-ace 4x4. The Hi-ace have much more room inside, and they share a lot of parts with Hiluxes from the same years. Up to 96 they had old fashioned parttime 4x4 and low-gearing. I got lucky with a extra limited slip diff.

 

[jlhollowx13]

Ah cool, a Toyota van on this forum. I just joined, and it seems the 4x4 vans are not well known here. The van you have is known as a Toyota Lite-ace to the rest of the world

I've got a Hi-ace 4x4. The Hi-ace have much more room inside, and they share a lot of parts with Hiluxes from the same years. Up to 96 they had old fashioned parttime 4x4 and low-gearing. I got lucky with a extra limited slip diff.

Nice, I'm assuming you have a diesel in there. I'd love to get a diesel toyota anything here! These vans are getting rare here, I see older land cruisers WAY more than I see a toyota van, even vw vans. It sort of amazes me how vw vans are so much more popular than toyota. Granted toyota didn't do camper versions here, but regardless, today with a choice between an old vw and toyota van I'd choose toyota everytime. More power, reliability and a look that is different than everyone else. I like your high top and snorkel!

 

[Hiace4wd]

The VW vans are more popular here as well. You can find some Hi-ace camper conversions, but not so much as VW vans. There were actually Japanese companies delivering new Hiaces (Super Custom) with camper built in, in the nineties.

But since we are next to Germany, the VW vans have always been here. Thats okay, they are part of the car history, but I don't like them.

First of all, when you want to do some offroading, you want to have the VW T3 syncro because the others are not suitable for any serious offroad. The problem with the T3 is that the diesel engines are so tiny. They have cooling problems all the time, when going up the mountain (on the highway). It's only a 1.6 diesel engine, I mean common... My Hiace has a 2.4 liter engine, and it's the smallest there was available.
And the T3 only has one low gear, while on the Hiace you have all the low-gears just like Hilux and LC etc.
There is only the 2.1 liter petrol engine that would be an option, the other engines are just to small.

But yes, I have a 2.4 liter diesel engine. The Toyota 2L engine that can be found in a Hilux as well. It's not fast, but it's fine. It allows me to drive on the highway at 100km/h (faster is possible, up to 120km/h, but not so nice).
And it gets going through the sand just fine with the little amount of horsepower.

The high-top is very rare. I mean it's original Toyota, I didn't even know it existed. That and the fact that it had only like 100.000 miles on it, meant it was a good buy. The bottom was still hard too. But the edges are crumbling a bit. This is going to be fixed this winter, I even found new panels which can be welded in, so nothing has to be fabricated.

 

[jlhollowx13]

The VW vans are more popular here as well. You can find some Hi-ace camper conversions, but not so much as VW vans. There were actually Japanese companies delivering new Hiaces (Super Custom) with camper built in, in the nineties.

But since we are next to Germany, the VW vans have always been here. Thats okay, they are part of the car history, but I don't like them.

First of all, when you want to do some offroading, you want to have the VW T3 syncro because the others are not suitable for any serious offroad. The problem with the T3 is that the diesel engines are so tiny. They have cooling problems all the time, when going up the mountain (on the highway). It's only a 1.6 diesel engine, I mean common... My Hiace has a 2.4 liter engine, and it's the smallest there was available.
And the T3 only has one low gear, while on the Hiace you have all the low-gears just like Hilux and LC etc.
There is only the 2.1 liter petrol engine that would be an option, the other engines are just to small.

But yes, I have a 2.4 liter diesel engine. The Toyota 2L engine that can be found in a Hilux as well. It's not fast, but it's fine. It allows me to drive on the highway at 100km/h (faster is possible, up to 120km/h, but not so nice).
And it gets going through the sand just fine with the little amount of horsepower.

The high-top is very rare. I mean it's original Toyota, I didn't even know it existed. That and the fact that it had only like 100.000 miles on it, meant it was a good buy. The bottom was still hard too. But the edges are crumbling a bit. This is going to be fixed this winter, I even found new panels which can be welded in, so nothing has to be fabricated.

Yeah, we only have to 4yec Here in the states, 2.2 liter (3y for older years) I've seen others imported but it's not common. The 3y is not available with 4x4, it's pre-87, 4x4 wasnt available here until 88 and 89, and it's not as powerful as 4y. The 4y isn't a speed demon either but cruises the highway fine and really isn't bad for a 4 cylinder in a van. It's got nice torque, so it does well offroad and hauling a load and the low gear is really nice to have when needed.

I didn't know toyota made factory high tops. I have seen a few conversions here in the states either done by the owner or a conversion company. I actually just saw one posted a few hours from me with a custom high top conversion. If I didn't already opt for a roof top tent that might have been a good route to take.

 

[Hiace4wd]

The later type Hiace (with not so good permanent 4x4, no low-gearing etc) is seen more common with high roof:

But with the VW vans, actually a lot of times it is Westfalia or another company that makes a camper roof, a lot of times it's a folding roof.
I have seen my type of Hi-ace with fold out roofs, made be some company in Norway or Germany. But it's pretty rare.
In Asia and Africa you have lot of slightly raised roofs, which only raise it by 20cm (8 inch) max.

Those Y engines are more common in the square Hiace:

This old type is one that I really like, although our current van is much more practicle (and has 4x4)
But these vans were sold with Camper conversions.

Like I said before, your van is known as LiteAce or TownAce to the rest of the world. See: Toyota LiteAce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The oldest type is the nicest I think

We had LiteAces for a short time, I think also with 4x4 but not sure.
I have seen some really nice campers of them. Quite a few times in a bright color like yellow or something.

 

[Hiace4wd]

By the way, being slow is not a problem. The van gets us everywhere.

But when we want to go outside Europe, we may encounter some sand dunes
for this I would like to convert it to the turbo version (2L-T) or to the more powerful 3RZ petrol engine.

Also when driving on terrains ment for 4x4 driving (so not through nature or anything) you can have some big hills in which the turbo would be nice.

I'm not sure how heavy your van is, but our van is pretty heavy with the 4x4 system and the camper system. I'm building everything lightweight, but still.