Hey guys.
Bit of an update on my Hilux...
Over 3 months later I'm finally about to put my fresh motor back in the Hilux. What a long 3 months its been! Thankfully I've had the V8 100 series to use for work...
In the end I went for a full rebuild on my motor as at least I knew what I was getting. Finding a new (or going 2nd hand) Hilux motor over here was a bit hard at short notice, and bloody pricey.
After being rough "quoted" anywhere "from $7K to $16K" by our local Toyota dealership I decided to do the as much of the work myself as I could. This mainly involved pulling the motor out and dropping it off at a independent diesel engine specialist in town!
One bonus with the hilux...the engine is bloody easy to get out, and we had it on the trailer in under 2 hours.
After stripping the motor down we discovered that #1 piston had seized and #2 had been cracked. This was my initial assumption. The cylinders both had some good scratches but were machinable. We fully stripped the motor to find that generally it was in good nick (for 160,000 odd kms), however I decided it was best to spend some coin on it while we had it out and went for a full rebuild.
Next we got the injectors checked as I didn't want to have to replace them at $3500 if I didn't have to! Interestingly, the injector tests came back fine, but the seats and seals on 1 and 2 were buggered, leading us to believe this was the initial cause of my engine failure. This matches well with Toyota NZ's theory on servicing the seats and seals every 45,000 - 50,000kms....
Anyway over the last couple of months, in went new bearings, oversized pistons, polished crank etc, and today we have picked up the shiny rebuilt engine.
While I had the engine out I got my hands on a heavy duty clutch to go back in with the motor, and all things going well by this time tomorrow afternoon the old girl should be back on the road! For anyone interested, the rebuild cost me $6080 incl 15% GST, and the clutch $197 mates rates from BNT. Should be up and running for $6500 including oils/coolants etc, which I'm comfortable with.
Going to Toyota for a goodwill claim, so hopefully things are looking a bit brighter in that department too!
I'll let you all know how it goes over the next couple of days!
Cheers
Josh