Wizard, Rodeo's Japanese cousin

[Shane Drummond]

Hello, I hail from the 100 series section, as a relative newbie, +- a year & a half of owning a cruiser and plenty of reading up on what needs to be done...



I have a long list for my cruiser, and have orders sliders from a local engineering firm, similar to the slee setup, and I am looking forward to those..

Anyway about 2 weeks back we had a visit from a guy with this Isuzu Wizard, and he wanted to buy some back lights, and as we have a wrecked one just sitting, I was thinking about it, when he asked if we had a pickup for sale, which we did, an Isuzu KB250D, pretty much a legend round here, and there was an asking price difference of $1k, so we made the swap and I have him a top up

The Wizard was extremely dirty, owner chain smoked, and the cabin had been used to ferry potatoes to market... And so it began, we removed & cleaned & washed the bare inside & replaced the whole interior with what we had on the accident vehicle. There was some damage to the "new" Wizzard on front and back, must have had a fender bender, so off came the front & back end, and we replaced the front crossmember, repaired the grill, headlight, indicator light, back right lower quarter panel & rear bumper.

We replaced the back door & window, the replacement bumper had rusted insides so that was swapped out with the original, and everything went back on...

When changing the back window we found a rusted hole by the back right shock window mount so we torched that & in went new steel & when that was done we sent it to a panel beater who took out a few minor bumps on the bonnet



After a base coat & some 2k white, she turned out ok, SWAMBO is very happy as she has been complaining about her 626 that has no air con & window doesn't wind down for 2 weeks, I just kept telling her a surprise was on the way...




I added some new rubber, after finding the max size possible without raising it off a chart on planetisuzoo.com, 265/70 R16's, they only had 2 Yokohama's so they went on the front, then the desert hawks by Achillies went on the back, also only 2 left, and e general grabber went under as the spare... The lowest point on the vehicle is the spare...

She loves it, perfect size for her and has everything she wanted in a 4x4, she was looking at the Rav4... Already put her magnetic signs on the sides and sent the 626 packing...

It is leaking a bit of oil and I just gave it a service, and keep cutting out, so the oil sensor needs to be changed & I need to find a computer to plug it into to see if all the injectors are working ...

I also have a dual battery setup on the accident vehicle and so I will be putting that into this one, and when my Sliders for the cruiser are ready, there will also be a set for the Wizard

 

[Shane Drummond]

Some more pics



I like the look of the rubber on the Wizzard, fits nice, I may have to replace the back coil springs and I definitely need to replace the bump stops, if only we had timbren in Zim...

Shocks are ok, and should suffice for now, rancho 5000's IIRC




And one more

 

[Shane Drummond]

Ok so the more I read up on the 4JX1 3.0 DOHC Cat/Isuzu developed engine, the more I understand my issues

My wife's recently brand new second hand 'makororkoto' wizard has been cutting out at random, not starting on hills, either up or down, no power when driving onto a ramp, check engine light comes on plenty, basically a real wussy of a car that should perform like the DTEQ pickup my Dad has, with the 4JJ1 in it. Especially since it was developed by Isuzu teaming up with Caterpillar to get the common rail side & high pressure atomized diesel Direct injection going ahead of the pack, and they developed the HEUI system, a first for small diesels as Cat had already been doing this on much bigger diesels or so I have read...

First we checked the filters and it looks like there is water in the tank, so we drained the tank, Lo and behold the diesel is not blue but orange ... I have a fancy funnel filter for my Genset that separates water from fuel when you pour it into your tank, so we filtered all The orange diesel... It didn't smell like diesel, it didn't look like diesel, maybe some injector cleaner or some stop smoke from Wynns had been thrown into the mix... The different "liquid" sat at the bottom of the tub looking but was not water...

Anyways we went to get some new blue diesel and refilled and after about 30 mins of pumping by hand we cleared out all the funny orange fuel

These are common engines on the big horn & Trooper and there is an English forum that comes up a lot on google listing & dealing with the specific problems I refer to above

As I got this vehicle pretty cheap I figured I had no reason to complain as it was a runner when I got it... So we drained the ATF... It was so dark brown it was nearly black, no wonder the gearbox was useless, I will check the transfer, & diff oils tomorrow, as well as timing belt & replace all v belts...

But as for the start up issued on slopes... Well I need to put in a loop on the return fuel pipe above the head and that should stop diesel draining out the system when u stop... Simple fix, so will try that today, other wise it's the first fuel filter between the tank & the engine... Air leak in the system...

 

[Shane Drummond]

Still struggling to start this 4JX1 engine, but I think it's a blessing in disguise as we burst not 1 but 2 of the water pipes, luckily we have the spare engine handy and were able to get the parts we needed. I will be replacing all the water pipes as the old seem to be rotten... This makes me wonder as to the true mileage on the car, as the 150,000 on the clock is not a straight mileage... The Joy's of buying used cars

I also am going to drain the diff & transfer oils and replace the timing belt & v belts just so I don't break this engine the first chance I get... In the mean time I am gonna sell of the other cab and see if I can get some of the $2500 I have put into getting this wizard going

 

[Shane Drummond]

Finally got it going, took the donor block, but original head and injectors, which was of course the last combination as we had tried all others beforehand... Raised the spare wheel, cranked the torsion bars, shocks are far too short, using Rancho 5000's and it looks like I should have Rancho 9000's.... Where in Zim would I find these? Not likely n e where so will look at the alternative options, Gabriel Safari most likely candidates... Took the wizard for a spin down the road, goes fine upto 2000 rpm, and no power after that, but engine happily climbs upto 4000 RPM... Strange, n e ways, we will see what happens now that I am back from a break

 

[Blueberries]

Why is there not one reply to this post? Is this the wrong place to post info on the Isuzu Wizard?