Defending Toyota 2.4 Diesels.

[SMOKEY]

There has been a few posts bagging the Toyota 2.4 which makes me want to give my 2.4 cents worth.
I own a 2LTE that has done 180000km, it uses no oil between changes and is still capible of getting the odd speeding ticket, .
The only trouble I have had with it is A new Cylinder head and last week I replaced the Dual mass flywheel with a solid and fitted a new clutch kit.
The 2.4 has towed a 15' caravan all round the south island and done many a 4WD trip. My father drove a 2.4 Hiace van for over 300,000 km with no major problems. There are another four 2.4 Surfs at my work and none of the owners have had major trouble with them.
I believe the problem with them now is they are all starting to get long in the tooth and have become very affordable so people can buy one for $1000 --- $7000, go out and thrash it and when it blows up they blam the poor old 2.4 .

DON'T KNOCK IT,

FITZY.

[niblik]

go out and thrash it

that'll be it there fitzy.. its the individual users error.. theyre not made as a performance engine..

goose has got one in his little 'ugly duckling' he's buildin up, so will be interesting to see, as goose has a moderate driving style, how it fares over the test of time..

[rokhound]

Couldn't agree with you guys more.

The problem I reckon people have with these engines is that they expect them to behave like a petrol car, and as such, they get thrashed a fair bit in the revs department. (the 2.4 is no rocket ship).

Sure they have a rep for blowing heads, but if you are driving an engine hard all the time, something is going to give, and a diesel with 20:1 odd compression with an overhead cam (ie not as much meat in the head as a push rod) is going to pick the weakest link.
Try driving your petrol engine to within 500 rpm of the redline for every gearchange, and see how much it likes it!.

Heat is the other killer, hence a slightly larger exhaust system will help the old 2.4 out a wee bit as well.

Having said all that, if you want some lazy power or neck snapping acceleration, Either don't buy a 2.4 diesel, or plan on a repower

[monaro427]

yer i had the 2.4 turbo in my truck for two years with no problems what so ever it had the larger exhaust as well and did not blow a head at all and i haven't exactly got a light foot i gave it heaps of shit but decided to put a 2.8 supra motor in, i would have another one but i wouldn't be getting rid of my supra for it though that was my 2.8 cents wroth

[roscoFJ73]

I notice everyone agrees the 2LTE blows heads almost as if its a normal occurence

A good diesel should go 400000 klms without needing major work.

Sure the 2.4 in a Hiace will go the klms ,because it has no turbo .
Its the added stress that the turbo causes that makes the 2LTE such a dog of a motor.

Adding to the engine problems that Surfs have ,is the cramped engine bay which limits how much airflow you can get through the radiator.
I believe other models like the Bundeera have a higher survival rate with their engines.
They also have a radiator thats too small and the automatics only increases the problem as it helps heat the coolant.
Auto models have a slightly higher failure rate

You cant make excuses for it by saying its got an overhead cam or this and that.
The 6 cyl toyota diesels are largely bombproof.
Sure they are bigger ,but most of them are lugging 2-3 tonnes around and they dont go bang in the middle of the outback in 45c heat and still reguarly hit 4-5000000 klms.

[MATT4U]

one thing with the 2.4's, the thermostat, Replace the standard 88dergree one with an 82 degree one.

[tallsam66]

If you head does go....make sure you replace the head studs with brand new ones.
The old ones will of over heated also & lost some of there strength & elasticity.

[wjw]

if the head goes, you should get the rad flow tested too

[adventures_more]

Some comments on these forums are way out there, makes me want to cancel my membership on them when ever i see people giving false advice to inexperienced/novice drivers that ends up costing them money in repair bills

Alot of it comes down to cubic displacement , design , type of injection & turbo's .Most automotive companys now realise the importance of turbo charging of diesel's , reason why most diesel's out there now are turbo diesel's , just have to look at most modern the B-doubles , trucks , cars & 4x4's etc driving around , do you see any of them 'without' turbo's & Intercooling ?

Also it takes a look at the what type of design that has the problems and investigate , most heads crack generally in swirl chamber & pre-combustion chamber heads , as theres a pocket within the head where ingnition ( later stages of compression ) initially takes place and thats where the heat comes from that cracks most of those heads after some time . plus that type of engine has higher compression ratio's to help with mixing diesel with the air ( term for it which i forgot )as smaller engines need it .

I'll shut up now

cheers
Rick

[wjw]

I'll shut up now

Please, don't shut up From what I've read you know more than most people about Diesels.

[SupraLux]

Some comments on these forums are way out there, makes me want to cancel my membership on them when ever i see people giving false advice to inexperienced/novice drivers that ends up costing them money in repair bills

This small babble aside (this is emotive dribble IMHO, if you want to go then go... all you seem to do is bag New Zealand, our 4WD industry and forum members in one way or another - go away, think about it for a bit, and if you still don't like it - go home. NZ ain't gonna change for one bleating Aussie) you make good technical sense. Turbos increase power output and efficiency. Although they do put more stress on the engines. If the engine is not properly engineered to handle the extra stress under all conditions then yes, something will give.

The good old 2.4TD (2LT) suffers from overheating in the later stages of its life due, in part, to a lower grade diesel here than overseas (I couldn't say off hand if the new low-sulphur diesel improves this or makes it worse), in part to bad servicing (how many of us religiously do our changes at 5000km? - and how many joe-average surf owners who use their truck as a city transporter do?), in part to old age, and, in part to poor design.

Before you get up in arms about the poor design part, look at the good old reliable TD27 in a terrano... how many of those go pop compared to the number of surfs? There IS a fundamental design flaw in the 2LT... they should last longer, and they should NOT all die from the same thing...

Smokey, your motor will outlast us all, because you are studious, diligent and you just plain "old-fashioned" look after your stuff. Most people just drive it and fix it when it breaks.

I am a toyota man (although I drive Isuzu, I will generally advise people to buy toyota...) But you never know what the previous owner did service-wise (or the owner previous to the previous owner or so on...) and you'd be taking a risk buying that motor in any vehicle, although yes they do seem to last longer in a Bundy, probably as mentioned due in part to the improved engine bay size for better cooling. Do the Bundys also have the larger Cruiser radiator? I don't recall from my one if it did or not.

The debate will continue on I'm sure, but for my money I'd rather have any other motor... just to be safe.

Steve

[hosehustler]

Some comments on these forums are way out there, makes me want to cancel my membership on them when ever i see people giving false advice to inexperienced/novice drivers that ends up costing them money in repair bills

throwing toys never got me anywhere except pissed off, same will happen if you go.....most of us read all the posts, sort the facts from the guesses and then use the best bits of information to our advantage

I'll shut up now

cheers
Rick

Don't shut up, have your say, offer good advise, call people on who are talking shit, and the forum will work well for you, me and everyone else involved

[adventures_more]

In the end it's just people different opinions , nothing more. Irrelevent if its here , Australia or Europe .

All ican say to the Unsure/Novices out there in 4x4 land , be really carefull what you hear & read from the internet , hear storys all the time of people suggesting things & the novices take it on board and end up destroying their engines , driveline , etc which ends up costing alot of money to repair .

I have nothing against NZ , actually love the outdoors here big time - reason why i am here , i was just suprised when i got here in CHCH how much less stuff , brands , etc that NZ ( possibly just CHCH ) has here compared to other parts of the world.

enough said
have fun
Rick

p/s : Bill ( WJW ) - you don't live around the Sumner/redcliff area do you ? seen you driving past there a wee bit lately as been surfing a wee bit there lately .

[wjw]

I live over the other side of town, but we do the old fashioned thing every so often and walk down the beach

[albundy]

NZ ain't gonna change for one bleating Aussie

)
What about two of us

look at the good old reliable TD27 in a terrano..

Hell just froze over, Steve gives me the impression that he is impressed with a NISSAN motor
Al

[Rollux]

NZ ain't gonna change for one bleating Aussie

)
What about two of us
Make that 3

look at the good old reliable TD27 in a terrano..

Al

Only ever did one engine in 5 years, that was a snapped crank thru running out of oil. Still ran tho

[SupraLux]

NZ ain't gonna change for one bleating Aussie

)
What about two of us

The difference is that we're used to you bleating and just don't listen any more

[

look at the good old reliable TD27 in a terrano..

Hell just froze over, Steve gives me the impression that he is impressed with a NISSAN motor
Al

I guess you never saw what I spent most of the christmas break driving around in? lol... You'd be well impressed. Fortunately I don't think anyone got a photo of me in it

[Macca]

Just to put my opinion foward. The 2LTE are as people state under engineered but with proper servicing and care will last. I Have a 91 surf with a 2lte.I have just clocked up 400'000km at least 100'000 km of heavy towing (2 tonne trailer when empty-4tonne when full offroad only ) It has been thrashed, bashed and worked hard all day long. And all it has ever needed is a new head when it came off the boat at 100'000km. This was due to poor servicing in japan im sure. So all in all not bad for a small older deisel

[Goose]

hehe, it got a little heated in here pretty quick, just like a 2LT........

My 2LT has been serviced by 2 NZ owners at the diesel doctor every 5K since it's been in the country. It's done 382000, and still starts sweet and runs like a dream, all be it a slow dream

My last one did 250ish before we sold it, but never gave us a days trouble, although I did change the oil and filter every 5K......strange huh?

Not really. Like anything, service it properly and it'll give you no trouble. I know of Taxi drivers in Melbourne who do 1-1.5 million in their falcons and comadores, with nothing other than regular servicing.

[TonyN]

I notice everyone agrees the 2LTE blows heads almost as if its a normal occurence

Hehe, it is! But it dosn't nessesarly make it a bad motor, as long as you fit a 3L or a modified 2L head you will back to having the same chance of serviving overheating as any other car.

I change on average 3-4 2.4 heads a month here in the UK on Surfs mostly, 2L/T and 2L/TE, but hardly any 2L pickups, personally I think the basic 2L head, loaded up with a Turbo, A/C, autobox and 2 Ton of truck finally reached its limit.

But it doesn't have to be the end the world, once the flaw in the head fixed they will chug along for years.

The best part is it makes them a stunning cheap truck to buy, a mint 92' 2.4 is lucky to reach £2000, but a scruffy 93' 3.0 still reaches £3000 plus