She's Home! 🎉 KZJ78

[Tigris]

Good day to you all,

So, yesterday, Tigris 3 was delivered home after a long journey from the land of the rising sun to Sunny Tampa, FL. I am stocked!

Mechanical/body condition exceeded my expectations, the interior is a bit rough, no biggy as she will undergo a complete and thorough restomod.

This 95 KZJ78 came with aftermarket 15 rims wrapped in rather newish 265 70 R15 Dunlop rubber. I am going to upgrade to 16~17" rims and 32~33" tires as soon as I am done with baseline work.

So far, fresh full synth 15W40 oil, new OEM oil, air, fuel filters were already put in by me. I am going after the coolant, trans/axle/diff fluids in a couple of days.

I drive multiple flavors of highly modified 70s at work (I work overseas) but never driven a KZJ78 before, so I have some observations and questions for y'all:

1. I do not know if this truck is lifted or not, no special markings that I can see on suspension components, and yet, the truck appears to sit a bit tall for a stocker IMO. I went and measured the distance between the top of the front axle housing and the bump stop above it, I have exactly 4". Do you think this is stock for the vehicle??

2. I understand that heat management is a priority on these powerplants. It turned out that the PO in Japan had fitted a complete 3" exhaust system but neglected to replace the one bottle neck of a dump pipe. Do you guys know of a good source for a 3" dump pipe?

Thanks in advance!

 

[AirheadNut]

Looks great! Judging by the stance in the photos and the distance from bump stop to axle I'd say you have about a 2-2.5" lift. There's a thread here in the 70-series forum all about 3" dump pipes for the 1KZ, a quick search should bring it up. Congratulations on your new rig!

 

[Tigris]

Thank you @AirheadNut, I too feel like the vehicle might be lifted already. I will try to scrape off some of that japanese undercoating and see if I can find any identification markings on the shocks.

Does a 4" gap between the front axle housing and the bump stop a sure sign of a lift install? Does anybody have a measurement of a lifted or stock gap to share?

In separate news, I spent the entire day trying to re-prime my fuel system after the fuel filter change from yesterday. The truck died of thirst this morning and it seems like the manual primer on top of the filter housing is not doing squat. I will try to rig a fluid transfer pump in-line tomorrow and see if I can purge the lines again. Wish me luck!

 

[AirheadNut]

I have 30mm spacers on stock springs on mine and the gap certainly isn't 4", probably closer to 3". I'll have to dig out a tape measure to make sure.

Those primer pumps seem to give out after 25-30 years of service, but luckily they're still available: 23301-54620

 

[Shyrock]

3" dump pipe:
3" dump pipe
And a flange where you could find someone to weld a 3" pipe:
Flange

 

[Tigris]

Okay, so using a cheap hand fluid transfer pump clamped to pull fuel out of the outlet of the filter housing worked! Funny how when I got fuel out, the OE manual primer appeared to be working fine now, it started pumping fuel and really stiffened up when full. I guess the primer needed to be primed first Go figure..

Now about the suspension hight, I still can't find identification markings on the shocks due to the liberal application on undercoating. I did notice that the OE suspension modulation electric plugs are still attached to the top of the shocks so the plot thickens...

Here are some additional photos of the measurements. Any observations are very welcomed!

 

[NJ KZJ78]

Okay, so using a cheap hand fluid transfer pump clamped to pull fuel out of the outlet of the filter housing worked! Funny how when I got fuel out, the OE manual primer appeared to be working fine now, it started pumping fuel and really stiffened up when full. I guess the primer needed to be primed first Go figure..

Now about the suspension hight, I still can't find identification markings on the shocks due to the liberal application on undercoating. I did notice that the OE suspension modulation electric plugs are still attached to the top of the shocks so the plot thickens...

Here are some additional photos of the measurements. Any observations are very welcomed!

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View attachment 3003256

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Tigris, did you ever replace the suspension, or keep it as-is? Curious your findings as I am exploring the same with my J78

 

[Tigris]

Tigris, did you ever replace the suspension, or keep it as-is? Curious your findings as I am exploring the same with my J78

Hi @NJ KZJ78

I have yet to work on the suspension system mainly because I've been traveling away from my truck. But also because I'm not fully sold on the different kits on offer. Honestly, I am thinking about rebuilding the OE absorbers and adding new heavy springs