Levo a inceput direct la extrem :)

What I need - december '10

What I'll need ASAP are either negative offset rims, or wheel flanges. The car is pretty unstable and even more frustrating, without the wheels coming over the edge of the arches, the danger of body damage is very high (already done some...). Other than that only minor tweaks and regular maintenance are scheduled.

In The Asphalt Jungle

For a couple of days, it became an on road beast. Absolutely love the way it looks. Keepin' it for off road.

Eurotrial Floresti

The latest public appearance of the Toyota was at the Eurotrial Floresti off road trial. I was once again organizing, this time part of the rescue team. Used the winch a few times and had to enter the course a bit. Car working flawlessly. Loving every moment of it.

After the race, I went out to Faget to rescue a friend, stranded with a broken down 4wd deep in the forest. That went very well, had no problem pulling his now 2wd car uphill, on snow and mud. It was a cool experience. A single problem with my car: power at low RPM. Under 1500 it kinda strolls along, at 1800, you're over the turbo-lag and it's starting to pull. Between 2-3000 it's fantastic. Higher than that i don't wanna go. It's an old turbodiesel afterall.

First trip: Transsylvania Off Road Challenge

After the car was finished, I headed up to the Baisoara Mountain resort, as I was one of the organizers of the yearly off road challenge held by our club. The car was functioning very nicely. On the first day of the event I realised my 4WD wasn't working. The fancy electric wheel hubs were to blame for that. The system consists of a small electric motor which turns a gear, thus pushing the clutch of the locking hub onto the shaft. The power supply to these is through small brushes that were worn out (common problem with these hubs). Other than that everything was flawless. On the second day not so much. I managed to damage one of the front shocks (leaked oil), than the other one gave away too (from the mounting point). They proved to be just too short for the new suspension setup.

Solutions:
The wheel hubs are the weak link of the transmission in my case. even if I would repair these, they would wear out quickly again, most likely. I managed to get hold of a pair of manual locking hubs (simple, virtually indestructible). Didn't have time to change them yet, but I did lock the old ones permanently a while back so that thing's sorted out. The front suspension was the tricky bit. I have searched an awful lot either to change in the broken shocks (under warranty) or to find other ones that would work. I just couldn't get anything. In a final effort to solve this problem I took the car to the Land Cruiser expert of our town and he advised me to change the springs too (and dump the spacers). As a result I bought an Old Man Emu suspension kit for the front. It's very nice.

Tune-up and maintenance

As soon as the car got home, the guys did all the checks necessary. All of the next stuff has been made by Zoli (Unimog), with the exception of the clutch, which has been changed by Dan Bucuras in Brasov. Sit wrap: Clutch was completely shot, one functioning shock absorber. Other than that the car was indeed very clean and tidy, with one single rust hole, nicely running engine, great gearbox and everything. I was very pleased of it's condition. First step was to change the clutch and fit new shocks all round (Sachs).

Next up, 4 tires were added, which are Lerma Gomme Extreme Forest 265/75/R16s (Simex type thread).

Than came the push-bar with side-steps and the winch. My winch is a Horn Alpha 9500 - Q. In my opinion this is the best value for money on the market. The push-bar was homemade by Zoli after my exact specifications.

The extra weight caused the front springs to contract very much, so we decided there was a need for some spring-spacers (bad idea). The shocks were changed for longer ones to compensate for the increased height of the car.

So, as all of these things were done, the car headed to Dej, where with the help of Pedro, the maintenance has been finished. This meant oils, belts, and other fluids. Also, they have fitted a brand new battery (Bosch, 100 Ah), to make the electrics optimal for the winch.

LJ71 - Specs

So let's see what we've got:

Make and Model: Toyota Land Cruiser Prado
Type: LJ-71
Year: 1991
Engine: 2L-TE, 2446 ccm inline 4 cil, turbo-diesel
Power: 97 hp (71 kW) / 3800 rpm
Torque: 240 Nm / 2400 rpm
Gearbox: 5 speed manual
4wd System: Part-time, low range, no difflock, electronic front wheel hubs
Brakes: Ventilated disks front and rear (JDM model)
Suspension: Live axles front and rear, with coil springs all-round

Additional Equipment
Base model, LX-5: Air conditioning, electric mirrors

And as for plans I had at that point:
No lift, 32 inch tires, front winch with push bar, body armour and perfect mechanical working order.

The Homecoming

Once I had the car I was happy as ever! I finally had a 4x4 and not any old 4x4, but a LAND CRUISER. With the help of another friend the exchange with the seller has been arranged as I sat down to check out the small question marks I had after going over the pics the one-millionth time. 1. Why the hell does it say Prado on the back if it's a 70 series? 2. What's EFI Diesel Turbo Wagon mean? 3. What does it have on it? and finally 4. Inspiration pics and modification plans.

Meanwhile in the UK and later in Brasov (Which is the place my car was headed to be modified for wheeling):

The LevoCruiser, chapter 0

As I previously said, I had found the car advertised on the Internet for only 850 pounds, located in London, UK. 

This is what the ad said:

TOYOTA LAND CRUISER PRADO VX
DETAILS
1991 H REG, 2.4 TURBO DIESEL, METALLIC SILVER 3 DOOR MODEL
COVERED 211,000 MILES MOT UNTIL 19/7/2010 TAX UNTIL 31/8/2010
CONDITION
THIS TOYOTA IS IN VERY CLEAN ORIGINAL CONDITION (HAS NEVER BEEN RESPRAYED OR WELDED)
IT RUNS AND DRIVES 100% PERFECT
BAD POINTS
THE CLUTCH HAS JUST STARTED TO SLIP, AND WILL NEED REPLACING SOON
THE VEHICLE IS DRIVABLE AND WILL GET YOU HOME, BUT THE CLUTCH IS SLIPPING ON HIGH REVS AND ON STEEP HILLS
BODY WORK
ON THE PASSENGER SIDE BOTTOM WHEEL ARCH  THEIR IS A RUST HOLE STARTING TO APPEAR
AS SHOWN IN PICTURES 

This is all I knew of the car. I saw these pictures more times than you would think. Every day. Multiple times. And with every viewing I wanted the car, this car more and more. It looked very nice, clean and honest. Another plus was that having those rear fog lights and tow hook, it's unlikely that it has been ever used off the road. Sure, it had high mileage, but looked sought after. 

There were about 6 days left for bidding so I phoned a good friend of mine to ask for some bidding help and sat down waiting. The days passed unbearably slow until the ending day for the bidding. The 8th of July, when at exactly 07:23:06 BST I became a Land Cruiser owner...

Documentation and buying

Hi again,
The first chapter of the Land Cruiser is about a Nissan Patrol. I have always been a fan of the old K160 Patrols (3.3 diesels) and wanted one of those. I started searching for such a vehicle in January 2010. There was quite a large number of cars I really wanted to have but somehow lost each and every one of them. Here are a few examples:

After a couple of months I realised that all of the K160s on the market are either complete rust boxes or very expensive for me. On a side note I always had a huge amount of respect for the 70 series Land Cruiser after seeing it in action and up close. At first I didn't even bother to look after Toyotas thinking they would be well over budget. Accidentally I stumbled upon a dirt cheap one (a white '89 with winch and mud tires). Here's a few pics. (from the site I found it on)

This was a huge turning point in my search for a 4x4. Right there I knew that I had to have a Land Cruiser. That particular car has been sold but others followed and for the next couple of months I was carefully following the Internet daily for vehicles all over Europe. I did find a couple of interesting one but they either were sold too soon or have been way too expensive. All this until the beginning of July... When I found the eBay listing for a Land Cruiser in London which weirdly had Prado written on the back. It was silver, never used off road, and was only 850 pounds. I had to have it...