1997 Toyota hilux has which engine?

[capt skinny]

hello there,
I just joined as I'm now a hilux owner. I just bought a nice 1997 hilux pickup

everything says its a 2.8, but when i went to pick it up from the dealer, he said when it went in for the service, the mechanic said it was actually a 5L 3.0 motor, because of how the oil filter came down, not across, is there any other way to check, i found the engine number buts it very difficult to make out the letters.

its the SSR-x (think thats right) model.

also, i know they are gutless, but 125km top! really , lol ? is that right

admins, when i was trying to make an account, it literally took me 20-30 attempts to get the pass phrase right, capcha phrase or whatever its called. horrible ! ! ! i believe it was missing the last letter, as some times it looked longer, i tried on bother Google chrome and explorer,

thanks it advance !

[tweake]

not 100% sure with the 5l but generally the filter direction is more due to the vehicle the engine comes out of. the hiace has the vertical filter while hilux/surf is horizontal.
2.8 hiace engines have vertical filter so it could still be a 3l engine.

[basics]

admins, when i was trying to make an account, it literally took me 20-30 attempts to get the pass phrase right, capcha phrase or whatever its called. horrible ! ! !

cant help you with the 2.8 question.but i know what you mean about pass phrase, thats my pet hate. some times there impossible to read. then i give up in rage

welcome to ORE any way

[nstacey]

My 5L has '5L' in large raised lettering at the rear of the exhaust manifold.

[capt skinny]

thanks for the help, i did heaps of searching on google this morning, and couldnt find any ssr-x with 5L in them, so i assumed it was a 2.8.....

went for another look on engine, nothing on exhaust manifold but i managed to find the engine number again and cleaned it up for a good look, 5L, can't find any info on that model. some hilux's in 1997 did come out with 5L's but they werent ssr-x, and it runs like a 2.4 ! back to the drawing board.

[juz]

did you not test drive it before you bought it? 3L 5L there not powerhouses! somebody has more than likely put a 5L into your hilux, the 3L is a strong engine but know plenty of fellas that have blown them up still. Probably due to poor servicing. Theres heaps of info on this site about turboing the 3/5L engines and thats whats needed to really wake them up.

[capt skinny]

haha yes i did take it for a test drive, just gutless in the 100-110 km area, but thats just the gutlux, i might look at a turbo in the next year or so, see how it goes,

i was looking into the VIN, apparently its built in NZ as a knock down kit. might have something to do with it. or as you said Juz it might have had a transplant, its pretty tidy overall though, seems legit for kms

[Sadam_Husain]

did you stick you rego into carjam to see what engine its listed as having, does the engine No in the system match whats in the truck?

[capt skinny]

Thanks Sadam, that settles everything, numbers don't match, it's aftermarket. Carjam is so handy!

[Petemcc]

It should be stamped on the block somewhere. The 5l s do seem to go a bit better than the 2.8s but with high ks can get a bit down on power. I transplanted on into my hilux and it went no better than the 2.8 (my mates hilux had a 5l and went way better which is why I decided to change). After a few months I adjusted the valve clearances which were way out. They don't get rattly they actually tighten on the lifter so hard to tell they are out without measuring it.

This helped a bit but not as much as I had hoped. After this I tried adjusting the fuel. I turned it up about and 8th of a turn at a time until it was only just showing a tiny bit of black smoke at full throttle. This made a huge difference.

It was pretty bad to start with really. Would rev well in 1st - 3rd but would bog badly in 4th and 5th. Ie struggled with doing 100 loaded up and going into a strong head wind.

Give it a try. Might work. Just remember that black smoke is unburnt fuel and without a turbo adding more air there is a limit of how much more fuel with help you.

Cheers,
Pete