Steven

Loop and move if needed?

Me! Got back a day early

Getting to work finishing up the ute dropsides - They're fairly solid bastards, complete with hidden latches and checkerplate inside lining. If all goes to plan I hope to get them mostly installed by weeks end

There aluminium will remain polished - the entire purpose of it was to have a heavy duty surface in which I can put tools etc and not have paint scratched off all the time. The insides of the drop sides will also be aluminium. Also the tray will have one of those heavy duty rubber mats on it once everything is in including boxes, so you probably won't even see the flooring anyway

Hi mate, welcome to the forum. I think you'll be very happy with the Landcruiser, they're a pretty tough vehicle

Tray is on and mostly finished. Still being put together to go in the near future are the mudguards and drop sides. Toolboxes should hopefully be here in 7-8 weeks. New tray is probably only half as heavy as the old one, which hopefully will get reflected at the bowser. Also gave the chassis a quick touchup whilst I was there

You called?

yeup

I repaired a broken lug with some araldite, basically a 2 part epoxy resin glue. Was for my passenger side cup holder. Still seems to be holding well, however no matter what you use to glue it it will always be the weakest link Another option is to get it plastic welded, if the access isn't that bad. That's the best solution

In for tomorrow

well I impersonally love them also!

How do you know they don't go offroad on the weekend? Despite having a bullbar, I feel as though my steel ute tray helps me more around town than the bullbar - people soon change their mind about trying to stop you from merging when the tray keeps coming over

Hoppy's carwash, off Sandgate rd in Albion. About 100m south of the BP service station

Same, might be a tad late but we'll see how things pan out

All those "little bits" took a lot longer to finish than I originally thought, although I haven't been dedicating as much time towards this project as I really should have. Either way it's very close to completion now, with the frame fully primed. Just need to smooth some small sections off and then it'll be ready for painting, hopefully even get it mounted on the ute by this weekend depending how I go.

100hp = roughly 75kw, so it's probably not a bad guestimate

The Hilux uses a typical ladder chassis with plenty of room in the engine bay so engine options really aren't a problem. The rattles are pretty normal, especially when cold so I wouldn't normally consider them a part of your problem. By the sounds of it something is causing it to run rich. My theory would be that you have a heavily clogged intake. Carbon buildup in the Hilux intake is a common issue, some get it worse than others for no apparent reason, and sometimes the carbon can restrict the intake quite badly. With so much restriction in the intake, the engine would tend to run rich (hence the black smoke) and as the revs increase there wouldn't be enough airflow that it might trigger an error code/engine cut that some people experience when blocking the EGR valve (ironically, the biggest cause of carbon buildup within the intake). Try removing the top half of the intake (intercooler, throttle body right down to the EGR valve above the lower intake manifold) and inspect it, cleaning it with throttle body cleaner if necessary.

oh yeah I had forgot about you Guess it's not all bad then :P

I'll be out tomorrow, however looks like we'll be missing a few faces for awhile :(

With the D4D you'll get good economy, but be slower than nanna in her 4 cylinder hatchback (at least off the line) With the V6 it'll behave almost like a car and whilst not fast, it will be nippy enough. I can get around 650km out of my tank (possibly more) and that's not driving it gently around town. Food for thought. Check out the Newhilux forums, they're a boon of information on exactly this type of discussion

1 amp is a very low draw, wouldn't think it would overly affect your starting. A worn out starter though can cause poor cranking

The D4D gets a huge improvement with a chip fitted, but still falls short of even a stock V6 Hilux. If you only want a (relatively) quick Hilux and don't care about fuel economy, go the V6. The D4D is designed to be a fuel efficient work horse with bucketloads of off-idle torque for pulling heavy loads etc. The concern I have with the TRD Hilux's is that that they're very fast but still can't corner very well (for obvious reasons), so it's very much a one trick pony. Perhaps if you can be a little clearer in what you want to use it for it might help us with suggestions?

There is a huge step in acceleration between the turbo diesel and the TRD. The TRD's are very quick, but are also damn thirsty. Expect to see around 16L per 100km (on premium) The T/Ds get below 11L/100km even when carrying a load. Mine does 10.8 and that's not driving it gently, with a steel bullbar and damn heavy steel tray.