Hi guys and gals (if you are one.. ). Nice to meet you, my name is Cliff
Just bought at great cost a one owner GXL 1996 HZJ80R . Lady owner, a schoolteacher. And yes I met her to be sure. I've been searching for a low km (230K) non-turbo 1HZ engine variant for ages, but most are over 400,000km here.
The vehicle is bog standard apart from having twin batteries fitted. She's never even had a roof rack on. The diff locks and twin tanks were standard. Oh yes, one slight modification is that she's fitted with exhaust extractors and 2 1/2" exhaust system, which makes a rather strange noise when accelerating in the diesel. And she'd handily just had a brand new injection pump fitted.
Why did I search for a 96-97 diesel Landcruiser? you may ask.. well.. My dad was a RN chief engineer who moved us to Australia when we were kids. He would always say "change the oil and filters every 5000km on a diesel and it will last 1 million miles" ( You might understand that I consider RN chief engineers as mechanical gods since i've seen what they are capable of, so obey all such edicts ). Getting close to retirement, i'd like my current vehicle to be my last ( that is..last at least 45 years with fastidious maintenance under very hard outback use..). However, I've discovered that he meant diesels like the Gardiners used in submarines and such - mechanical injected and naturally aspirated. My experience with computer controlled 24 valve 4 cylinder double overhead cam chrome bored direct injection turbocharged marvels has shown me that such engines are not likely to go anywhere near that far.
I'd decided to take the fuel hit with the less efficient (older) diesel in the interests of reliability and ease of repair when in remote parts of Australia. However on the 430km trip home ( including a 100km bit of a bush diversion doing rough track and slow crawls up sand dunes with the difflocks on just for fun ) from buying her I observed that she only used about half the 85 litre primary tank of fuel. Believing that the gauge was way off I topped her up at the petrol station and did the mileage calc. .... she's getting exactly 10.2l/100km. That's 27.6mpg (mixed 4WD/highway driving) in the language I understand. And that's amazing. And waaay better than the Isuzu diesel I just sold.
I live in The Coorong national park in South Australia and am involved in environmental studies, so she'll spend a lot of time on sand trails and coastal dunes. Previously I had an ex-army Landrover Defender with every gizmo on the planet fitted by the military. They are a mighty vehicle off road, but sadly are total rubbish traveling the long distances between towns here - as well as sucking up fuel like there was no tomorrow. I have no complaints about the Rover apart from that, since she needed very little maintenance. Also, Defenders are pretty collectible so I got a very good price for her.
I find myself trundling along with a stupid grin on my face now. I should have bought one of these ages ago.
Cliff
Just bought at great cost a one owner GXL 1996 HZJ80R . Lady owner, a schoolteacher. And yes I met her to be sure. I've been searching for a low km (230K) non-turbo 1HZ engine variant for ages, but most are over 400,000km here.
The vehicle is bog standard apart from having twin batteries fitted. She's never even had a roof rack on. The diff locks and twin tanks were standard. Oh yes, one slight modification is that she's fitted with exhaust extractors and 2 1/2" exhaust system, which makes a rather strange noise when accelerating in the diesel. And she'd handily just had a brand new injection pump fitted.
Why did I search for a 96-97 diesel Landcruiser? you may ask.. well.. My dad was a RN chief engineer who moved us to Australia when we were kids. He would always say "change the oil and filters every 5000km on a diesel and it will last 1 million miles" ( You might understand that I consider RN chief engineers as mechanical gods since i've seen what they are capable of, so obey all such edicts ). Getting close to retirement, i'd like my current vehicle to be my last ( that is..last at least 45 years with fastidious maintenance under very hard outback use..). However, I've discovered that he meant diesels like the Gardiners used in submarines and such - mechanical injected and naturally aspirated. My experience with computer controlled 24 valve 4 cylinder double overhead cam chrome bored direct injection turbocharged marvels has shown me that such engines are not likely to go anywhere near that far.
I'd decided to take the fuel hit with the less efficient (older) diesel in the interests of reliability and ease of repair when in remote parts of Australia. However on the 430km trip home ( including a 100km bit of a bush diversion doing rough track and slow crawls up sand dunes with the difflocks on just for fun ) from buying her I observed that she only used about half the 85 litre primary tank of fuel. Believing that the gauge was way off I topped her up at the petrol station and did the mileage calc. .... she's getting exactly 10.2l/100km. That's 27.6mpg (mixed 4WD/highway driving) in the language I understand. And that's amazing. And waaay better than the Isuzu diesel I just sold.
I live in The Coorong national park in South Australia and am involved in environmental studies, so she'll spend a lot of time on sand trails and coastal dunes. Previously I had an ex-army Landrover Defender with every gizmo on the planet fitted by the military. They are a mighty vehicle off road, but sadly are total rubbish traveling the long distances between towns here - as well as sucking up fuel like there was no tomorrow. I have no complaints about the Rover apart from that, since she needed very little maintenance. Also, Defenders are pretty collectible so I got a very good price for her.
I find myself trundling along with a stupid grin on my face now. I should have bought one of these ages ago.
Cliff
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