Offroad-Express

took a 91 surf for a test drive today. 2.4 turbo diesel. seemed to go good but the turbo was making a whistling sound, is this anything to worry about or is it normal
cheers mike

Might be... mine whistled like hell on the prado before the shaft in the turbo went pop. A recon'd turbo cost me $450. I got a mate to fit it though.

My race car used to do this occasionaly it was always due to there being a boost leak and the air getting out it was a very high boost engine tho but I would look to see if there are any air leaks, the easiest way was to remove the air filter and on the intake side and put in say 20psi from a compressor and listen for the leaks, when it was louder 5psi was good enough and you could feel them

The other thing to check is pull the intake pipe off the turbo and see how much movement there is up down and in out there should be almost none (most are on brass bushes and they wear out) then the turbo seals go and you recon the whole lot.

Also check to see if there is any blow by or get a leakdown test done, this is the best indication of the engines health, the turbo is the cheaper bit

so are these motors any good? how long do the turbos usualy last? its done 168ks. what ather problems do they have?

one thing u can guarantee with a 2lt is that it will crack the head at some stage

The engines are the first and second generation of Japaneese performance diesels, (they were designed by toyota to run on peanut oil during WW2 and just added a turbo) their new diesels are completly different to the early ones far better technology and they need the better fuels they have better checks on what the engine is doing but use more fuel.

The engine is fine if you look after it do the oils when the manufacturer say's and run a pyrometer to see how hot it is getting, the 1kz is a better engine but has its own issues around temperatures and the latest d4d diesels well get some water in the diesel fuel and you can kill it very quickly.

One service station in Auckland had to fork out replacement costs for 4 d4d engines as Toyota said the fuel was out of spec, they all filled at the same station and the fuel was tested to have water content in excess of manufacturers specifications.

Early Diesels are not a performance engine and if you run them as such you have higher maintanance and costs, the later diesels are better performance but you use the fuel, it depends how you plan on treating the 4wd, get it too hot and you will be up for a big bill almost the cost of a commodore v6 conversion in some cases.

Would I buy a 2lt? No I would look for a 1kz surf and swap a prado front axle under it like Hosehustler is doing and my brother is planning.