Howdy Y'all!
As the title states, noob here & finally a Cruiser owner after lusting for a diesel LC most of my life! Always wanted one as a diesel which we didn't get in the states. After driving many crapmobiles in the past and dealing with unreliability and uninterested in the garbage that passes for vehicles nowadays, I'd had enough.
I cant think of a tougher, more reliable, long lasting vehicle than a Cruiser. So the search began. I had some criteria though. Looking for a 70 or 80 series. Love the looks, rugged reliability of the 70 but the more comfortable & equipped 80 and possibly a 1HDT wasn't out of consideration. It had to be a diesel, had to be a 5spd, dual cab or Troopy, mechanically in excellent shape, no rust, A/C & P/S. I was okay with a few blemishes and what not if the rest of the criteria was met. That narrowed my paired down my matches quite a bit. Especially the manual since the majority in Japan at least are autos. It took almost 4mo to finally find the right Cruiser for me. A lot of about 5-6 JDM firetrucks came up. I was looking for a wagon(suv) troopy or truck and hadn't really considered a firetruck. My understanding was Japan only got wagons that were importable under US regs. They got trucks but were too new still apart from firetrucks.
I got to looking at them and they were checking all the boxes and really are perfect for what I wanted to do with it. Immaculate condition and super low miles. Most of them were HZJ75's which were all a little older & more used. The 75's also lacked A/C & P/S. Theres was 2 79's available. I preferred the longer wheelbase and they had A/C & P/S, newer & less miles and coil front spring. I understand the 79 was new for 2001 which coincidentally is the newest importable here. I plan on it being converted to a daily driver & overlander so this was perfect! I pulled the trigger of the nicest of them and snagged it by minutes before a couple other parties. This one is super, super clean, apart from the exhaust and the fire equip rear fenders, not a speck of rust on it, still looks, feels, drives like a brand new truck as it should having 11,900km on it!
I got the importation ball rolling and had it in my garage about 1.5mo later! I couldn't be happier with it! A buddy & I flew out to L.A. and drove it home to Kansas taking a man-cation on the way seeing The Comedy Store, IN-N-OUT burger, Battleship Iowa, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Titan missile museum, Pima Air & Space, Military Vehicle museum, open pit copper mine, and awesome scenery on the way!
After getting it out of the Long Beech port ww did a quick roadworthy, fueled up and hit a Harbor Freight for tools for the trip and auto parts for essentials. I had the foresight to bring filters & consumables for the trip including a Fantik jump pack & air compressor. We did a thorough roadworthy in the parking lot. Checked all the fluids, tires, diffs & T-case. Along with everything else we could think of. Everything was full & freshly changed, the oils looked brand new though I expected to change them till I noticed the service sticker and it didn't even have 25kms on it since. I anticipated tire replacement but all were brand new Dunlops including the spare. It needed absolutely nothing so we loaded the tools, jack, fuel can and hit the road! It was just retired & sold from service months before I bought it.
The Cruiser was almost perfect the whole trip except a couple follies that weren't its fault. Day 2 it had hesitation & slight misfire in the cold morning. I thought I felt something the night before but it was way late & I was wiped out but it was apparent the next morning. It mostly cleared up after it warmed up so. It can only be a few things on an otherwise perfectly running diesel. O did get fuel the night before at a suspect quality gas station. Simple solution first, a concentrated dose of Hot Shot Secret injection cleaner & cetane booster, not wanting to open the fuel system. It seemed to clear up so we kept going. Coming into Arizona it was acting up again with a miss/power loss under load. We found a parts store to work on it in case we needed stuff and decided to replace the fuel filter. I suspected it was getting plugged. After getting a very stuck filter off by bolting the housing in upside-down, we swapped a new one on I brought with me. It doesn't appear to have an optional prefilter (I don't know where its at if it does have one). The filter did have a little trash in it, no water though. Fuel contamination/biological growth was one of the few concerns I had that we might have so I brought 3 of each filters with me for the drive home. The filter was the problem, and changing it cured it. Whether it was trash in the tank or bad fuel, I don't know. No fault of the truck though. The next day, after a fuel stop, I fired it up and it was noticeably louder than when we pulled in. Turns out the exhaust was rotten & pulled apart at the resonator under the drivers door. Most of the exhaust was wrapped in header wrap which it notorious for rusting out exhaust, especially mild steel on something that gets wet a lot. Again, I cant fault Toyota for that, they didn't do it. Stopped at another parts store and cut the Resonator out an spliced in a chunk of flex pipe & clamps. It didn't need anything here technically speaking but we didn't want it droning our hearing away for hundreds of miles to go! Other than that, not a lick of trouble or anything else, ran perfect. It could definitely, use some boost! At around 7000lbs its woefully underpowered in higher elevations, hills, & mountains. I knew it would be going into this and preemptively ordered a turbocharger before it left Japan. I can't leave anything alone so I've already T51R modded the compressor housing and machined it for Adel-Wiggins fittings. Im going to try to not have to deal with any silicone couplers on the boost plumbing. I still need to machine more parts for the turbo install.
While it is super cool, im totally in love with it and it gets attention like a hypercar, it won't be staying a firetruck. The plan from day one was to rig it out in an overlander flavor. A bonus as a firetruck is I have some ideas for using the PTO drive. Ill be doing all my own work & fab. Looking forward to it! First things first, get the turbo on there, possibly including an intercooler, and a nice 3in stainless exhaust.
All in all, very pleased with it and looking forward to so much more!
As the title states, noob here & finally a Cruiser owner after lusting for a diesel LC most of my life! Always wanted one as a diesel which we didn't get in the states. After driving many crapmobiles in the past and dealing with unreliability and uninterested in the garbage that passes for vehicles nowadays, I'd had enough.
I cant think of a tougher, more reliable, long lasting vehicle than a Cruiser. So the search began. I had some criteria though. Looking for a 70 or 80 series. Love the looks, rugged reliability of the 70 but the more comfortable & equipped 80 and possibly a 1HDT wasn't out of consideration. It had to be a diesel, had to be a 5spd, dual cab or Troopy, mechanically in excellent shape, no rust, A/C & P/S. I was okay with a few blemishes and what not if the rest of the criteria was met. That narrowed my paired down my matches quite a bit. Especially the manual since the majority in Japan at least are autos. It took almost 4mo to finally find the right Cruiser for me. A lot of about 5-6 JDM firetrucks came up. I was looking for a wagon(suv) troopy or truck and hadn't really considered a firetruck. My understanding was Japan only got wagons that were importable under US regs. They got trucks but were too new still apart from firetrucks.
I got to looking at them and they were checking all the boxes and really are perfect for what I wanted to do with it. Immaculate condition and super low miles. Most of them were HZJ75's which were all a little older & more used. The 75's also lacked A/C & P/S. Theres was 2 79's available. I preferred the longer wheelbase and they had A/C & P/S, newer & less miles and coil front spring. I understand the 79 was new for 2001 which coincidentally is the newest importable here. I plan on it being converted to a daily driver & overlander so this was perfect! I pulled the trigger of the nicest of them and snagged it by minutes before a couple other parties. This one is super, super clean, apart from the exhaust and the fire equip rear fenders, not a speck of rust on it, still looks, feels, drives like a brand new truck as it should having 11,900km on it!
I got the importation ball rolling and had it in my garage about 1.5mo later! I couldn't be happier with it! A buddy & I flew out to L.A. and drove it home to Kansas taking a man-cation on the way seeing The Comedy Store, IN-N-OUT burger, Battleship Iowa, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Titan missile museum, Pima Air & Space, Military Vehicle museum, open pit copper mine, and awesome scenery on the way!
After getting it out of the Long Beech port ww did a quick roadworthy, fueled up and hit a Harbor Freight for tools for the trip and auto parts for essentials. I had the foresight to bring filters & consumables for the trip including a Fantik jump pack & air compressor. We did a thorough roadworthy in the parking lot. Checked all the fluids, tires, diffs & T-case. Along with everything else we could think of. Everything was full & freshly changed, the oils looked brand new though I expected to change them till I noticed the service sticker and it didn't even have 25kms on it since. I anticipated tire replacement but all were brand new Dunlops including the spare. It needed absolutely nothing so we loaded the tools, jack, fuel can and hit the road! It was just retired & sold from service months before I bought it.
The Cruiser was almost perfect the whole trip except a couple follies that weren't its fault. Day 2 it had hesitation & slight misfire in the cold morning. I thought I felt something the night before but it was way late & I was wiped out but it was apparent the next morning. It mostly cleared up after it warmed up so. It can only be a few things on an otherwise perfectly running diesel. O did get fuel the night before at a suspect quality gas station. Simple solution first, a concentrated dose of Hot Shot Secret injection cleaner & cetane booster, not wanting to open the fuel system. It seemed to clear up so we kept going. Coming into Arizona it was acting up again with a miss/power loss under load. We found a parts store to work on it in case we needed stuff and decided to replace the fuel filter. I suspected it was getting plugged. After getting a very stuck filter off by bolting the housing in upside-down, we swapped a new one on I brought with me. It doesn't appear to have an optional prefilter (I don't know where its at if it does have one). The filter did have a little trash in it, no water though. Fuel contamination/biological growth was one of the few concerns I had that we might have so I brought 3 of each filters with me for the drive home. The filter was the problem, and changing it cured it. Whether it was trash in the tank or bad fuel, I don't know. No fault of the truck though. The next day, after a fuel stop, I fired it up and it was noticeably louder than when we pulled in. Turns out the exhaust was rotten & pulled apart at the resonator under the drivers door. Most of the exhaust was wrapped in header wrap which it notorious for rusting out exhaust, especially mild steel on something that gets wet a lot. Again, I cant fault Toyota for that, they didn't do it. Stopped at another parts store and cut the Resonator out an spliced in a chunk of flex pipe & clamps. It didn't need anything here technically speaking but we didn't want it droning our hearing away for hundreds of miles to go! Other than that, not a lick of trouble or anything else, ran perfect. It could definitely, use some boost! At around 7000lbs its woefully underpowered in higher elevations, hills, & mountains. I knew it would be going into this and preemptively ordered a turbocharger before it left Japan. I can't leave anything alone so I've already T51R modded the compressor housing and machined it for Adel-Wiggins fittings. Im going to try to not have to deal with any silicone couplers on the boost plumbing. I still need to machine more parts for the turbo install.
While it is super cool, im totally in love with it and it gets attention like a hypercar, it won't be staying a firetruck. The plan from day one was to rig it out in an overlander flavor. A bonus as a firetruck is I have some ideas for using the PTO drive. Ill be doing all my own work & fab. Looking forward to it! First things first, get the turbo on there, possibly including an intercooler, and a nice 3in stainless exhaust.
All in all, very pleased with it and looking forward to so much more!