Newbie with Surf questions

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:15 am

Hey guys, I had a search but couldnt find what I was after. Im going to do a 2-inch body lift on my 93 Surf and wondered what issues I was going to run into.

The obvious one is the front bumper, from memory it attaches to the chassis and the front guards? (my meroy is crap though) so im guessing I need to make new brackets to lift it off the chassis.

Is the handbrake cable going to be a problem with a 50mm lift? What other problems am I going to come accross? clutch line etc etc

I will also do a 2-inch suspension lift in the near future, for this will the stock shocks be long enough or do I need to replace them all?

I just have to do the cheap bits first to keep the missus happy :wink:

Thanks for your help.

MATT4U · Post by **MATT4U** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:18 am

Here ya go
http://toyotasurf.asn.au/techsite/index.htm
http://toyotasurf.asn.au/techsite/bodylift.htm

MATT4U · Post by **MATT4U** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:25 am

It sais there to extent your gearleavers, you dont always need to, I dont know of anyone that has with a 50 mill lift

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:29 am

Cheers for the links. I also rea somewhere to just chop the bottom of the radiator shroud rather than move the radiator. Is this correct?

MATT4U · Post by **MATT4U** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:32 am

the bottom of the shroud bolts off with 2 small bolts into the top part of the shroud, I had to remove my radiator last weekend and decied to leave the bottom part off.
Also you could replace the fan with eletric ones.

DieselBoy · Post by **DieselBoy** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:56 am

MATT4U wrote:Also you could replace the fan with eletric ones.

Not recomended though of you plan to do alot of river and deep mud work with your vehicle. Electric fans don't tend to move the volumes of air that a viscous does either.

Also with your sus lift in the future, you only "need" to replace the rear shocks.

The standard front shocks will fine, as there is nothing you can do to increase the travel in the front of the vehicle. Buy lifting the front of an IFS vehicle, you only alter the place in the existing travel that suspension returns to under no load conditions.

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:11 am

Cheers for that. Hopefully ill have some progree pics by the weekend.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:51 am

steering shaft may be too short and will need a spacer.

Fuel filler and fuel line should just fit

front bumper will be low and so will the rear.

solid brake lines (body - chassis) will have to be stretched

I went 35mm and had no probs with gears, but needed spacer for steering column, I got a guy at work to machine one up for me.

will need cert as you have altered the original body mounts (or how it is mounted) and changed the centre of gravity.

Cant think of anything else for now.

Heath

oh yeah mine was a double cab hilux not a surf but should be similar.

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:22 pm

50mm body lift in a 5-door Surf is entirely different to a Hilux or an early 3-door Surf.

The mention of gear lever mods is absolutely right - after a 50mm lift you can not select 2nd, 4th or reverse, and trimming holes etc won't fix it - the gear lever needs to be bent forward a bit or extended and the rubber boot probably needs repositioning as well to make things line up right.

The radiator can be lowered with a couple of lowering mounts (I make these for $65) and the front bumper can be refitted using mounts I make for $35 - or you can make them yourself - 100mm x 100mm x 3mm with 4 holes in it. You need to cut a couple of braces to get them to fit but it works pretty well. Just don't forget to at least unbolt it before you start the body lift or you will trash the fins on the fan, or the shroud.

Also, the front bumper mounts to the body at the sides, and also the factory flares are sometimes rivetted to it so take the whole thing off before you start for safety.

The front 6 bolts are standard length at around 80mm - replace them with HT130mm bolts - the rear 4 are 130mm long but have lots of spare thread, so you need only 160mm HT bolts to replace them - however they don't MAKE 160mm long HT bolts - they only go to 150mm so you need cap screws which are WAAAY expensive - but its your only option.

I can provide a complete kit for one of these (10 UHMWPE pucks, all bolts and bumper and radiator remounting brackets) for $280. I don't like fitting them, cos they are fiddly and make me swear a lot

But for beer I will provide help while the owner fits it (at my workshop)

If you drop it off and want me to do it then add $200 to the price (thats not neccessarily a true reflection of the fitting cost, but it IS a true reflection of how much I don't enjoy fitting them

)

As far as steering goes, there should be enough slip on both splines to allow the existing shaft to be used, although there is a proper spacer available out of Oz for this.

Hope that helps

Steve

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:26 pm

Oh, and 50mm lifted coils $195inc, and longer shocks, use 60-series front shocks, they are longer but have the same mounts so will give more travel - $235/pr for heavy duty long travel ones

Steve

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:33 pm

Heath wrote:
front bumper will be low and so will the rear.

Not so in a surf - the rear bumpers are attached to the body, so nothing needs tweaking there - although with the 50mm body lift in you can raise the towbar a little as well to help departure angles - just get it done by a shop thats cert'd to do towbar mods like Blackwells... or you risk not getting a WOF. I figure its important for the safety of other road users to have something like that done properly and safely.

Cheers

Steve

PS: I've finished posting on this now... Honest...

MATT4U · Post by **MATT4U** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:36 pm

Do we need to start a new topic, "Steves Spam Thread"

hosehustler · Post by **hosehustler** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 7:42 pm

DieselBoy wrote:
MATT4U wrote:Also you could replace the fan with eletric ones.

Not recomended though of you plan to do alot of river and deep mud work with your vehicle. Electric fans don't tend to move the volumes of air that a viscous does either.

I run Twin electric fans off a trueno (push fans) no probs, DB is correct in what he says, but if you run them through a relay you can have control of what they are doing, its really simple, take a 3 position switch, run a relay, one position is on the thermo switch so the fans turn off and on as required, there is a permanently on position for hill work, and a permanently off position for crossing rivers, simple :wink:

only thing is if you turn them off to cross the river and forget to turn them back on, truck lets you know with a hiss of displeasure :oops:

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 8:27 pm

...and if you run a two pole, three position swith, you can use the second pole to switch a bright red dash light and buzzer (or something less buzzy but equally as reminding) when its in the off position.

My MU runs two fans of god knows what side by side with no problems as well... the problem is simply when you forget to turn them on

Steve

DieselBoy · Post by **DieselBoy** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 7:10 am

I have viscouse still in place and two electric fans on a seperate switch.

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 9:22 am

Woah! cheers heaps for all the info! I got a mate to make the blocks for me, and have made the template for the front bumper bracket which I will make tonight.

Im guessing I cant use or they dont make 170mm HT bolts?

Is there any downside to leaving the radiator in its stock position and cutting the shroud?

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 10:08 am

On one of these trucks - I would not mess with the cooling. Move the radiator, its the safest thing to do... or get a couple of big-ass high-flow electrics and replace it.

The advantage of replacing the viscous fan is that it can spray water and mud all round your engine bay and theres nothing you can do about it - also, if you are in deep water the viscous fan can sap a massive amount of power from your engine... on my 3Y it used to actually stall in deep water! Ask SupraSurf, he had to tow me from part of the Ashley Gorge because I couldn't get the engine to run over idle (I had no radiator shroud on it which would have helped a bit tho).

And no, 150mm is the longest HT bolt avail, so you have to get 160mm cap screws which are stronger, and more expensive.

Steve

hosehustler · Post by **hosehustler** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 7:18 pm

SupraLux wrote:...and if you run a two pole, three position swith, you can use the second pole to switch a bright red dash light and buzzer (or something less buzzy but equally as reminding) when its in the off position.
Steve

Excellent idea

now I know why I joined the forum, guess you know what I'll be up to Saturday morning :wink:

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:59 am

Well I got it sorted out last night, would have taken more pics but couldnt find my camera till thismorning.

It still looks stupidly unbalanced, but thats as there is half the old engine in the boot and no engine in the front.

All going well the engine will be in next week and I can start to play.

eatenfuller · Post by **eatenfuller** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:01 am

ok its a 93 surf,just remove the lower shroud that clips on the upper half shroud.

yes shrouds are essential

this lower shroud is only designed for the a/c system,you can remove this shroud and i can give you 120 % guarantee that youre truck will not over heat .

my daily driver that gets a beating off road up the bush is a 93 surf 1kz surf ,i have removed my lower shroud and its been like this for over 3 years now (also a diesel will disapate more heat than a petrol combustion engine) :wink:

forgot to mention its had a 40m.m body lift :wink:

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:03 am

SupraLux wrote:And no, 150mm is the longest HT bolt avail, so you have to get 160mm cap screws which are stronger, and more expensive.

Steve

Thanks for this info Steve, it wouldnt have been possable without this.

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:09 am

Its a 93, but the fan shroud is plastic one peice. My 89 has a 2 peice metal one though.

As the engine is out I havnt done the radiator mounts yet, so will take a closer look at it.

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:02 am

I remember way back when I was just a... well... a while back.

I did a surf with a 2.8 diesel that had a plastic shroud, and the guy that owned it just "trimmed" the bottom of the hole out with an angle grinder... I remember the smell mostly, but it worked and that trucks still around today...

Just the ugly option... I'd still use remount bars just because it looks prettiest

Pretty Steve

PS: DB - I DON'T wanna see that in your message sig

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 12:20 pm

I got the engine in and running last night, It would have been easier to make the new radiator drop brackets, as the radiator hoses dont really fit now.

Unfortunatly it overheated once it was running. My thoughts were to flush the radiator and cooling system, is there any other ideas? I really dont want it to crack a head on the new motor.

DieselBoy · Post by **DieselBoy** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 12:37 pm

No worries :wink:

NFORCA · Post by **NFORCA** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:49 pm

One other question.

I purchased the vehicle with the head removed and just the block still fitted and dropped in a new motor, there is a wire that dissapears between the alternator and AC pump that I'm not sure where it should go. It looks to be an earth, but could go to the alternator maybe. The engine check light is on, this may or may not be related.

Its a 1KZ-TE

any help would be appreciated.

cheers

DieselBoy · Post by **DieselBoy** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 2:59 pm

If you have no luck, do my fravourite trick, go to a car yard and take one for a test drive and then take it home and use it as a comparison to figure out your problem :lol:

But i'm just little bit different.................

SupraLux · Post by **SupraLux** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 6:31 pm

The other option is to ask someone who knows - take it in to Miles Toyota and ask their service guys where it should go... :lol:

I have a friend who owns a commercial car yard, people do all sorts of wierd stuff like that. He once had a vehicle returned with the bottom radiator hose loosened and the hose half pulled off! No idea why... just a sick ass thing to do... apparently its quite common for people to test drive and 'borrow' parts for their own vehicles...

Steve

DieselBoy · Post by **DieselBoy** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:43 am

Lol, i have never gone that far!!!!!

MATT4U · Post by **MATT4U** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 11:02 am

I think that wirs goes down to teh trans/gearbox