Offroad-Express

hello there,
I just joined as I'm now a hilux owner. I just bought a nice 1997 hilux pickup

everything says its a 2.8, but when i went to pick it up from the dealer, he said when it went in for the service, the mechanic said it was actually a 5L 3.0 motor, because of how the oil filter came down, not across, is there any other way to check, i found the engine number buts it very difficult to make out the letters.

its the SSR-x (think thats right) model.

also, i know they are gutless, but 125km top! really , lol ? is that right

admins, when i was trying to make an account, it literally took me 20-30 attempts to get the pass phrase right, capcha phrase or whatever its called. horrible ! ! ! i believe it was missing the last letter, as some times it looked longer, i tried on bother Google chrome and explorer,

thanks it advance !

not 100% sure with the 5l but generally the filter direction is more due to the vehicle the engine comes out of. the hiace has the vertical filter while hilux/surf is horizontal.
2.8 hiace engines have vertical filter so it could still be a 3l engine.

capt skinny wrote:
admins, when i was trying to make an account, it literally took me 20-30 attempts to get the pass phrase right, capcha phrase or whatever its called. horrible ! ! !

cant help you with the 2.8 question.but i know what you mean about pass phrase, thats my pet hate. some times there impossible to read. then i give up in rage

welcome to ORE any way

My 5L has '5L' in large raised lettering at the rear of the exhaust manifold.

thanks for the help, i did heaps of searching on google this morning, and couldnt find any ssr-x with 5L in them, so i assumed it was a 2.8.....

went for another look on engine, nothing on exhaust manifold but i managed to find the engine number again and cleaned it up for a good look, 5L, can't find any info on that model. some hilux's in 1997 did come out with 5L's but they werent ssr-x, and it runs like a 2.4 ! back to the drawing board.

did you not test drive it before you bought it? 3L 5L there not powerhouses! somebody has more than likely put a 5L into your hilux, the 3L is a strong engine but know plenty of fellas that have blown them up still. Probably due to poor servicing. Theres heaps of info on this site about turboing the 3/5L engines and thats whats needed to really wake them up.

haha yes i did take it for a test drive, just gutless in the 100-110 km area, but thats just the gutlux, i might look at a turbo in the next year or so, see how it goes,

i was looking into the VIN, apparently its built in NZ as a knock down kit. might have something to do with it. or as you said Juz it might have had a transplant, its pretty tidy overall though, seems legit for kms

did you stick you rego into carjam to see what engine its listed as having, does the engine No in the system match whats in the truck?

Thanks Sadam, that settles everything, numbers don't match, it's aftermarket. Carjam is so handy!

It should be stamped on the block somewhere. The 5l s do seem to go a bit better than the 2.8s but with high ks can get a bit down on power. I transplanted on into my hilux and it went no better than the 2.8 (my mates hilux had a 5l and went way better which is why I decided to change). After a few months I adjusted the valve clearances which were way out. They don't get rattly they actually tighten on the lifter so hard to tell they are out without measuring it.

This helped a bit but not as much as I had hoped. After this I tried adjusting the fuel. I turned it up about and 8th of a turn at a time until it was only just showing a tiny bit of black smoke at full throttle. This made a huge difference.

It was pretty bad to start with really. Would rev well in 1st - 3rd but would bog badly in 4th and 5th. Ie struggled with doing 100 loaded up and going into a strong head wind.

Give it a try. Might work. Just remember that black smoke is unburnt fuel and without a turbo adding more air there is a limit of how much more fuel with help you.

Cheers,
Pete