Offroad-Express

Wanting a swb hardtop for on and off road, hunting mainly, not too serious with the off roading, just want to get places without getting stuck. Can anyone advise on the best model (year) to look for, I thought around 1990 -95. Am I best with a manual box or auto? EFI or carb? Best engine etc? Reliability would be a big issue. Any advice appreciated.

Try to get an EFI the carbs can stall on hills and flood them. The Escudo are cheaper because they are imported not NZ new. Auto is awesome off road you don’t ride the clutch as you do with a manual. If you do a suspension lift being IFS is the front you do CVS easier. A stock SJ413 or Samurai perform better standard than a standard escudo, but there’s a big price difference if you want a good Samurai or SJ.

8 valve EFI motors have more torque than the 16 valves, means you can idle along and not stall. I personally prefer manuals too.

If your interested in modifying it to be a bit more capable off-road, avoid the V6 engines, they are slightly more difficult to modify and less spare parts available. I'm doing mine at the moment and the V6 can be a pain sometimes.

I prefer Manuals too, but my next toy will be an auto (for the novelty I guess). With a good engine and the slipage in these slush boxes it makes up for not being low geared. If my memroy serves me correctly a set of manual scud/vit diffs in an auto is a good way of lowering the final drive ratios too (or I could have that the wrong way round ).

But basically they slip more and so you can crawl along at lower speeds, they're always in the right gear should you ned to stomp on it (going from fwd to reverse wont cause the clutch to get covered in crap too) and if you fit a big oil cooler should be fine. The early three speeds are holden trimatics in disguise so strong enough for anything the 1600cc fire breather can throw at them. The later 4 speed models I am not sure of their longevity or strength. There are probably ways to get these autos (both types) to work offroad better too (manual selection and TC lock up).

Heath wrote:If my memroy serves me correctly a set of manual scud/vit diffs in an auto is a good way of lowering the final drive ratios too (or I could have that the wrong way round ).

You are right heath, manual diff gears in an auto work good. helps with bigger tyres which would be a good thing if your going 4wding a fairbit.

Ok, thanks Guys, looks like an 8 valve injected would be my style, still not sure about an auto though, are the autos known to give bother? What year scud or vitara do I look for for an 8 valve then? I plan a few mods, extractors first & foremost, next a slight lift (1 or 2") just to fit some bigger tyres without rubbing. It'll get a fair bit of day to day main road use too, what sort of economy would we be looking at and will it cruise at around 95kph without screaming its head off?
Thanks again all, can see many a sleepless night on this site

The years are 88-98. My manual revs at 3200rpm at 90 or so, so its not too bad, normal for jappa's. economy wise out of my severely dented tank I would get 350km with highway and city driving, bearing in mind when on the highway I usually do 115, so 95 is a lot more economical. It usually costs like $60 to fill on 95, so pretty cheap. When 4wding it drops down a bit though. Bear in mind mine is carb, so injected a bit better on fuel?

If the valve cover has 16 on it then its a 16, if its just plain with nothing (and black) then its an 8V one. Might have stuff on the cambelt cover too saying which is which. 8V one can fit 1300cc (G13a) parts too.

8v's are only in the swb vitara/escudo's from 89 to 94ish . From then on and all 5dr's are 16v's . The 8v's have a different auto , 3sp , to the 16v , 4sp . two camps on which is the better auto .
The manuals are all the same .

Some early vitara's are carbed 8v's , these can be easily spotted by the old type round air cleaner on top of the engine . The efi's all had the air filter of to the side .

Cheers
Chris

and just because I have to say that my carb vitara has never let me down on hills and so on. Its reliable and starts first time every time. and they are cheaper than efi's

Go the auto, you only got two feet so you only need two pedals.
I've run autos on road for years and off road for 4 years wouldn't change. In fact back in the early 80's I ran a 2150 Inter with a 5 stage allison auto,bloody brilliant