New owner. Hello to my new family!

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cruisin4Asnoozin

cruisin4Asnoozin

Joined
Nov 8, 2025
Threads
1
Messages
20
Location
North Carolina
Hey y'all, I am a proud new owner of my very first 80 series - a 1998 VX Limited RHD 1FZ-FE... only 65k on the original motor. I purchased through Duncan Imports after a personal visit and a PPI that was extremely satisfactory. No rust! Kept in a garage most of its life in Japan. I am an amateur mechanic that wants to take on the challenge of managing all the PM on this beauty. I've learned a lot from working on my 94 wrangler, 96 grand cherokee, and 09 outback and think I'm ready to graduate.

I've posted a picture of the vehicle, engine bay, and some of the undercarriage for you to see.

I am so excited for this journey and feel blessed that this impressive forum is available for free. I appreciate all of you in advance for your knowledge, patience, honesty, and guidance as I jump in head first with this new lifestyle.
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Screenshot 2025-11-05 at 7.39.28 PM.webp


Cheers,

Nick
 
Welcome to Mud !! You landed in a great place, everything you well every want to know about your Cruiser is here. Great group of helpful Folks

Interesting grill someone fitted, That's some weird/different exhaust routing on that 1FZ looks like the cats are on the lift side with a crossover.

Looks very clean other than some rusted hardware under the hood and on the transfer case, Also looks like the transfer case has be opened up at some point.

And we don't like to mention Heeps in these pages 😂 🤪;)
 
Broski said:
Welcome to Mud !! You landed in a great place, everything you well every want to know about your Cruiser is here. Great group of helpful Folks

Interesting grill someone fitted, That's some weird/different exhaust routing on that 1FZ looks like the cats are on the lift side with a crossover.

Looks very clean other than some rusted hardware under the hood and on the transfer case, Also looks like the transfer case has be opened up at some point.

And we don't like to mention Heeps in these pages 😂 🤪;)
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What!? You don't like Heeps!? Can't imagine why... No I hear you, only reason I mentioned them was because the solid purpose of me buying the 2 were so that I could practice mechanic work and not be upset if the thing broke entirely because well... It's a Heep ☠️

Cheers, thanks for the reply
 
A good power wash would be good. Looks like salt spray to me on the under carriage.
 
cruisin4Asnoozin said:
I'll triple check when I get home, this is directly from the website. I haven't put it on my list yet. The exhaust pipe comes out on the right side of the car
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You can see the catalytic converter on the driver side up front then the exhaust pipe runs down the frame over the frame over the transfer case and into the muffler typical for 3fe engine. A 1fze powered 80 witch is what the engine bay pictures show the exhaust/ catalytic converters are on the passenger side then over the frame and into to muffler on passenger side also the picture of the undercarriage shows more of an offroading tire and slightly larger than the picture of the of the vehicle those tires look like about stock size and street looking tire . I would more than triple check anything to do with this vehicle and I would recommend seeing this in person before going any further if your purchasing this vehicle scammers scam people all the time so be careful.
Tommy
 
tmxmotorsports said:
You can see the catalytic converter on the driver side up front then the exhaust pipe runs down the frame over the frame over the transfer case and into the muffler typical for 3fe engine. A 1fze powered 80 witch is what the engine bay pictures show the exhaust/ catalytic converters are on the passenger side then over the frame and into to muffler on passenger side also the picture of the undercarriage shows more of an offroading tire and slightly larger than the picture of the of the vehicle those tires look like about stock size and street looking tire . I would more than triple check anything to do with this vehicle and I would recommend seeing this in person before going any further if your purchasing this vehicle scammers scam people all the time so be careful.
Tommy
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Here's a few more

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Screenshot_20251122_162827_Drive.webp
 
I might be totally wrong here, but this is a right hand drive vehicle, manufactured and spec'd for Japan specifically. Everything I've read about the Japanese imports describe that there will be differences such as this. I paid for a PPI and the gentleman who saw it said the exhaust system was original and unaltered from factory. What am I missing?

Trans is A343F
Transfer case is HF2A
 
ppc said:
The picture everyone is questioning is a totally different vehicle than the first pic in the last post which points to a 95-97 with the dual inline cats.
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Correct. I didn't see this when I posted originally. Im sorry for the confusion y'all, bare with me 🤣
 
cruisin4Asnoozin said:
I might be totally wrong here, but this is a right hand drive vehicle, manufactured and spec'd for Japan specifically. Everything I've read about the Japanese imports describe that there will be differences such as this. I paid for a PPI and the gentleman who saw it said the exhaust system was original and unaltered from factory. What am I missing?

Trans is A343F
Transfer case is HF2A
Click to expand...
I guess I wasn't clear. The last pictures you posted are correct for any 1fz-fe, LHD or RHD.

In the very first post the undercarriage photo is not a 1fz motor.
 
ppc said:
I guess I wasn't clear. The last pictures you posted are correct for any 1fz-fe, LHD or RHD.

In the very first post the undercarriage photo is not a 1fz motor.
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This is exactly what I've been trying to explain and yes the picture that you just posted is of 95 and up exhaust because of the inline catalytic converters 93/94 are side by side on the passenger side older 80s are 3fe engine and the exhaust manifold is on the driver side along with catalytic converters. Do you have pictures from the person who inspected it? You said pictures were off the website?
 
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tmxmotorsports said:
This is exactly what I've been trying to explain and yes the picture that you just posted is of 95 and up exhaust because of the inline catalytic converters 93/94 are side by side on the passenger side older 80s are 3fe engine and the exhaust manifold is on the driver side along with catalytic converters. Do you have pictures from the person who inspected it? You said pictures were off the website?
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Yeah those I just posted in the thread are from the mechanic who did the PPI.
 
Also the last pictures the undercarriage looks cleaner the tires look more like the picture of the vehicle and I can see running boards the first round of pictures I didn't notice the running boards . Im am not here to be an ass or anything just wanting to make sure you are going to get what you purchased or purchasing.
 
tmxmotorsports said:
This is exactly what I've been trying to explain and yes the picture that you just posted is of 95 and up exhaust because of the inline catalytic converters 93/94 are side by side on the passenger side older 80s are 3fe engine and the exhaust manifold is on the driver side along with catalytic converters. Do you have pictures from the person who inspected it? You said pictures were off the website?
Click to expand...
I think the confusion comes from both pictures have cats on the left side of the picture but the first picture was taken from the rear looking forward where the last picture is taken from the front looking towards the rear.

Bottom line is the OP got a great vehicle which looks to be in much, much better shape than the turd in post #1.

BTW to the OP, Welcome. :flipoff2:
 
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