Offroad-Express

Can any one tell me about a 1990 surf with a 22r engine in it. Are they reliable? I'm thinking of swapping.

surf or 4runner?
the 22r could well be a conversion but i've heard of, but not seen, a surf with 22r. the bottom spec ln130 surf usually came with 3y petrol or 3l diesel.

The ln130 is 2.4 diesel turbo where the other is a 4runner. Just want to make sure I have enough power still.

some surfs/4runners came out with the 22r, they are a 2.4 carbied motor.
generally considered to be very reliable and very thirsty. becoming pretty rare now.
some people love them

comparable to the 3y in that they are reliable and thirsty, they just have a bit more pep than a 3y and you can do a bit more to them and you can source a whole lot of aftermarket bolt on bits from the states, the yanks love them

Would you relate them to the 3 litre fuel injected?

If you mean the factory v6 3ltr surf then I would definatly choose the 22r over that.

just my preference, ive owned a few v6s and driven many 22rs and ide say power felt much the same but the 22r liked to rev more and like I said before theres a shite load of aftermarket parts for the 22r (though im sure the v6 would be a beter towing vehicle)

In terms of fuel economy what would I be looking at?

Also is the rn130 a solid front of ifs?

2nd gens are IFS unless converted.

400ks a tank maybe less, all surfs are ifs except 1984 and 1985

I had a 22r in a Rn105 double cab hilux. Terrible fuel economy around 300km to the tank max (thats driving on the open road at 90-100kph max, and being very light with the right foot) with standard tyres, got even worse when I put 33s on her. Power was reasonable (even though I have completely lost the ability to gauge power since owning a 1UZ) and could not fault the reliability, gave it a fair few thrashing and never had any engine troubles

I have an RN105 (93 Double Cab, solid front axle) with the 22r. Mine gets 500k's to a tank on the open road at 100-110k's with 31" muds (5mm tread). 400-450 k's round town. If I thrash it hard all the time then that goes down to like 300-350... It's fairly slow and thirsty if you're towing a big heavy trailer too.

I love mine tho. It's been cooked, drowned, given plenty of punishment but it still keeps going. Across the world they're pretty highly regarded for their reliability / durability.

They aren't hugely powerful, but for a little 2.4L 4-cyl on 31's mine pulls itself around very nicely. It's got fairly good mid-range torque for a petrol (1500-3500rpm), I rarely take mine over 4000rpm unless I'm getting carried away trying to get out of a bog...

When my 31's are finished I'll be put on a set of 33's, so we will see what happens the the power / fuel consumption...

There are two common problems with the 22r that are worth watching out for:

1) Head gasket. Drive around for 10 mins then stop and look at the underside of the oil fill cap. If you see milky shit then there is a bit of water in the oil which can be caused by a failing head gasket.

2) Timing Chain. The single row timing chain on these later 22r's can stretch after a few hundred thousand k's, although it's not really a problem till the chain flaps too much and breaks the left hand timing chain guide. Pop the bonnet while it's idling and listen out for a rasping chain noise coming from the front of the engine.

If you can swing a spanner and have a manual handy then timing chain and head gasket can be replaced in a day easy. It pays to get the head milled & checked while it's off. You can get multi-layer steel head gaskets and aftermarket head studs as well as dual row timing chain kits for these which will solve these two problems for many hundreds of thousands of k's. But I wouldn't spend the extra money unless you know your bottom end is in fairly good shape and you wanna keep the truck for a long time.

If you're buying a truck and you have a bit of a budget, I'd recommend the 22r to anyone. The trick to getting good power / fuel consumption is keeping them in tune (timing, carby, valve clearances, etc. Tuning is pretty easy) as well as keeping an eye on tyre pressures / wheel alignment etc.

Hope this helps, good luck