LN65 1GZ-FE V12

[LOWRANGE]

Hey Guys My name is Darren. I actually joined ORE many years ago when I had a Range Rover project and haven't been very active since but I'm back.

I've got a LN65 project on the go so thought I'd share it with you. I own and run a business called New Zealand Automotive Distributors Ltd - NZAD I'm sure I would have sold some of you guys some bits at some stage. I've setup to be a vendor to ORE members so will start listing products and offering discounts where I can.

Since we sell conversion bits for 1UZ-FE conversion I decided it would be good to buy a truck that I could perform a conversion on so guys could see the parts installed.

I found a LN65 that was running on TM and decided to buy it and a 92 soarer and throw the engine from the soarer into the Hilux with standard diffs etc and be done with it. HOWEVER it's seems it's got a little out of hand and it's going up a few levels.

I figured everyone has seen or built a v8 hilux so would like to do something different. So I found a 1GZ-FE Toyota 5.0 V12 engine. I will be mating this up to a R151 gearbox fitted with all the marlin crawler bits we offer. Diff wise I'm running 4.88 high pinion front with ARB locker and Landcruiser Full floater 80 series diff with tightened LSD with cross over steering.

I'm going to run raised leafs for the moment and see how this works out, Will run 5150 Long travel Bilstein shocks with front and rear hoops.

Wheels and Tyres are Nankang 35/12.5/17- I'm currently sorting wheels but they look to be 17x9" steel wheels.

Progress is slow as I have other projects on the go but will update where I can. thanks

[LOWRANGE]

Right so the plan was to just give the chassis a water blast and paint it black. Then a mate told me about his wet sandblaster attachement and how well it worked I thought I'd give that a go. It didn't work as well as I had wanted it to so I thought I'd buy a pressure blasting unit that you fill up with sand. That started to work pretty well. I set up a tent on the front lawn and started blasting it. The dust was incredible so I bought a dust extractor. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going.

The weather outside made my temporary tent a waste of time so it was moved into the garage. After many hours of scooping up the sand and filtering it. I had it finished.

Now I'm at an age where I know that sometimes you really should just pay some one to do jobs like this as it's cheaper and easier!

I had a mate come around to help me prep it up and get it ready for paint. Now I know you aren't supposed to put ANYTHING on bare metal before you prime it but I still had some pitted rust so thought I'd treat the metal before we primed. We used a jenolite type of product which made the bare steel black and left quite a coating on it.

I rang my painter and he said nope get it blasted again as the paint just isn't going to stick. So we popped it on a ute and dropped it to C A Levien Ltd on Henderson Valley road to blast and prime.

I'm not going to say what it cost but it was so cheap I nearly cried.

Lesson is here sometimes despite wanting to do things yourself to fufill a sense of achievement some jobs are best left to the people that do it for a job.- However I do have a sand blaster unit haha

See some basic pics below thanks

[tow99]

while your at it add some turbos!

[jervisad]

this will be nuts! good on you mate and good luck with the build too!!

[Jerry]

more pics !!!!!!!!!!

[LOWRANGE]

while your at it add some turbos!

Haha they seem to have tiny internals not suited to boost and I'm really not interested in building up a V12 as it would be huge cost. Just planning on running it NA with the factory intake manifolds so it's nice a torquey and reliable(fingers crossed)

[Mehrts]

Was the 1GZ from a half cut off trade me by any chance?

Saw one on there a few months ago and wanted to do the same as you. Why have a standard old 8 banger when you can have 12!

Good on ya. I'll be watching this!

[bigstu]

This will be awesome and hell of alot more interesting than my surf 3rz swop, But with having a ute you have the option of a long engine as radiator can go on deck.

Thanks Stu

[Crash bandicoot]

word of warning you will need to re enforce where the crossmembers join the frame. my rb30det twisted my LN56 quite badly so i hate to think what a 12 cylinder will do to it.

[T-Boon]

more pics !!!!!!!!!!

[Dirtydog]

more pics !!!!!!!!!!

[ChurchurDan]

more pics !!!!!!!!!!

[imsohi]

this is going to be a wicked build watching with anticipation

[LOWRANGE]

Was the 1GZ from a half cut off trade me by any chance?

Was actually just the engine by itself guy was sticking it in an 80's f100 but abandoned the idea.

Will try get some more pics not too much to show at this stage just collection of parts that everyone has seen before.

Yes will need to strengthen up the crossmember and might try add a few more. To be honest blasting and painting it was abit of a F-UP as I need to weld quite a few more brackets and what not on it so will have to grind alot of it off!!

[slognad]

Update???

[LOWRANGE]

Hey Guys thought it was time to do a quick update.

Well a friend came over to my place and looked at my chassis and said you really want to run coils I said no-no I'll just run leafs for now. As as you can imagine it was on my mind and I finally gave in to the idea-it did make sense so I decided to try find a prado front end with cast arms set up for coils and build a 4 link setup on the ln65 chassis.

The same mate bought an 80 series last week and I just thought I'd throw a tape measure over the wheel base and front diff centre to centre was 2900mm same as the LN65 so I geuss you guys can see where this is heading.

Long story short. I've bought a 91 vx cruiser off TM with a blown trans. I'm selling all the bits bar the chassis and driveline so let me know via PM if you want anything. This should really speed up the process.

I'm going to attempt to leave it standard width which is I think around 160m wider so will need flares etc.

Questions to be answer.

What vehicle had a tcase/Gearbox combo of R series 5 speed (R151/R150) and a transfercase with the output for offset rear diff? I'm thinking something like a mid 90's prado.

What are peoples thoughts on the Tcase in the cruiser- I really wanted selectable 2wd/4wd but realise it has centre diff lock.

[imsohi]

yea lj71/78 or kzj71/78 prados had the R151 with the split transfer case also some b series engines from memory mabey 14b. the prado are getting rearer to find but im sure some one on here will know where one is.

[The WEHI]

i have a kzj7x gearbox and pzj7x split case sitting in the garage from when i went prado transfer gearing,

hzj,pzj,lj,kzj and the really hard to find rzj run R series gearboxes, with split case transfers the older bjs and fjs run h55s 1986 onwards they were introduced.

and Prado (kzj/lj) have the lower ratio 2.3-1 vs 1.9-1 in the rest, not sure about the rzj70 ive never seen one they appear to be an asian import/built

Edited because i keep remembering things.

[LOWRANGE]

Sweet thanks for that.Is the prado Tcase selectable 2wd/4wd? do they have diff lock? thanks

[imsohi]

Sweet thanks for that.Is the prado Tcase selectable 2wd/4wd? do they have diff lock? thanks

Yea they are selectable 2-4wd no centre diff lock

[LOWRANGE]

Whats your thoughts on them compared to the 80 series one?

[imsohi]

Whats your thoughts on them compared to the 80 series one?

Personally i would prefer them over the 80 , yes the 80 is bigger, stronger but also more expensive and heavy. The prado is also strong lighter more easily adapted to your use and most of all you can pto one with little expence. i have had no issues with my transfer although i gave it a rebuild at the start and the lay shaft was pitted (this is a common prob and supplied in the rebuild kit) i have removed the vacume engaged 4wd and manafactured a lever operation for this. Hope this helps

[imsohi]

.

[Heath]

Hey Guys My name is Darren. I own and run a business called New Zealand Automotive Distributors Ltd - NZAD I'm sure I would have sold some of you guys some bits at some stage. I've setup to be a vendor to ORE members so will start listing products and offering discounts where I can.

Been stalking you guys on Trade me for a while. I keep looking at replacement slotted rotors for my HQ chassis (want to redrill them to ford pattern with bigger studs - 1/2 inch), but might just stick with holden pattern and go to 1/2 studs instead (front wheels and rear are different sizes so I'll need two spares anyway:? ).

[LOWRANGE]

Hey Guys My name is Darren. I own and run a business called New Zealand Automotive Distributors Ltd - NZAD I'm sure I would have sold some of you guys some bits at some stage. I've setup to be a vendor to ORE members so will start listing products and offering discounts where I can.

Been stalking you guys on Trade me for a while. I keep looking at replacement slotted rotors for my HQ chassis (want to redrill them to ford pattern with bigger studs - 1/2 inch), but might just stick with holden pattern and go to 1/2 studs instead (front wheels and rear are different sizes so I'll need two spares anyway:? ).

The P76 rotor is actually the same dimensions as the HQ rotor but drilled in Ford. PM me or get in touch through the website www.nzad.co.nz and I can give you some options. thanks