3.0lt v6 surf buying advice

[gimmemud]

Hi guys looking for a new 4x4 for my brother, not to do any offroad work, maybe just the beach etc.
Are the 3 litre v6 surfs big gas guzzlers? There are a few nice ones on trademe at low prices and taking into account no rucs, cheaper and fewer services and cheaper rego would it work out a bit even or do these just suck the gas?

[haydgq]

Best advice is to not to buy one at all , They are very thirsty and under powered, That engine went good in the v6 camry but not so well pushing along a Surf and they can have a head cracking problem which is prob due to lack of servicing and not using the Toyo Red Coolant not just a fault of that engine.

But then there are often lots of V6,s camry's on TM going cheap with cracked heads or blown head gasket's and look at all the v6 Surf's around the world that have shat there engine's and had 1UZ conversions.

Id recommend a v6 Terrano over a v6 Surf, The Terrano is just a thirsty though but has more power.

[gimmemud]

cool thanks for the advice. Some pretty nice terrano's for sale at the moment also so gonna look at those and the v6 bighorn's too.

[Petemcc]

yea all the v6 petrols are thirsty. They 3vze in the surfs are a pretty reliable motor. They recalled most of them and replaced the head gaskets a number of years ago which fixed most of the issues. Mine had done 280000ks and didn't use any oil etc. I would try to stay away from an auto in my opinion i don't think they are powerfull enough to enjoy on the open road in an auto but you would have to drive one to see what you thought. They rev rather well and mine was good off road. Easy enough to waterproof. You will just find that you are using the revs on hills on the open road. Alot of the v6 ones are higher spec too mine was manual with curise control etc.

With 33 inch tyres and 4.3 diffs I hardly used 5th on the open road (100k was 1750rpm) when i changed to the 4.8s it was much more driveable on the open road. If you were going to change the size of the tyres on it i would look for one with 4.5 ratio diffs. (most manuals come with 29ich wheels standard and 4.3s). You probably wont find a manual with 4.8s most of these were in autos or 2l petrols and 4.8s with a manual would probably be too low for anything smaller than 32inch tyres.

With the lift and 33 inch tyres on the open road the best i got was abou 14l per 100 k though it didnt fluctuate too much.

they are cheap as shit to buy and should be reliable, no ruc and cheaper reg and servicing. I would go for one again.

Cheers pete

[phraza]

This is the same decision im making, just sold my Caldina, and looking for a Surf, preferably 3L Diesel (hard to find a good one in my 5k budget), but after reading this im starting to think about Terranos which seem to be cheaper.
Still havn't made my mind up 100% if i want v6 petrol or diesel, both has pros and cons i guess. Petrol vs RUC's etc.

Anyone got any tips? Mainly going to use it for weekend use for some amateur fun in the mud/sand, with no bigger than 33" tyres
(sorry for hijacking your thread, im a newbie)

Cheers