I thought I'd post a thread on my ol Surf as I've done various work on it over the years I've had it for 14 years now and this year it's 30 years old!
Last week I did an oil service on it using the kit Roughtrax sell, it comes with everything you need like 8 litres of oil, filters, some diesel treatment additive and even a bottle of genuine Toyota screen wash!

The oil filter housing is facing up on these engines but has a handy little catch tray and a drain off pipe that takes any over spill down to the oil drain pan but mine had clogged up over the years and when I tried to free it off it snapped off

I found some suitable flexible pipe and fitted a new one although it was bloody tight getting my hands in!

I've also fitted a clip on it. Next oil change should hopefully be a bit cleaner.

Today I fitted new timing belt, tensioner and bearing, it was last changed about 6 years ago but my mileage is quite low so it hadn't done that many miles, Toyota recommend it's done every 100,000 kilometres but strangely don't specify a time limit
This is the third new one I've fitted, it was a Gates kit last time but a genuine Toyota one this time round, I must have been skint before!

It's easy on one of these engines, just four bolts and two clips to get the cover off, you don't need to remove anything else to get at it. Turn the engine clockwise from the crankshaft bolt until all three pointers line up exactly, you can squeeze a ratchet down from above but it's tight so I remove the bash plate (7 bolts) and go from underneath.

Cam shaft.

Crank shaft.

Fuel pump.

The tensioner and pulley bearing just unbolt and you can remove the belt.

Next is to refit the new parts, the belt tensioner bolts are only torqued to 6Nm ! It doesn't sound much so I went to 7 and a tiny dab of thread lock
Don't forget the thick washer that goes behind the tensioner bearing!!!

The genuine Toyota belt has two yellow lines on it that line up with the cam and fuel pump pointers, make sure the right hand side of the belt is tight between the pulleys then squeeze the belt over tensioner, it's pretty tight!
The tensioner comes preloaded with a locking pin and once the belt is on you need to pull the pin out to get the belt to tension.
Turn the engine over twice and check the three pointers all still line up, the yellow marks on the belt will NOT line up anymore, don't worry that's how it's meant to be.

While I was doing this I cleaned up some old oil spills and muck off the engine and bash plate with my Wurth brake cleaner pump. A very handy thing for shooting a jet of cleaner down a tight gap to clean out a load of cfap from the front of the engine.

Once cleaned up a bit I put the belt cover on with the supplied sticker to record the date and mileage it was all done at.

Job done.
It still clatters like a Som Bitch but that's what these engines are like

The old belt looks brand new still.

@dobbslc - Wurth 1ltr spray bottles only ones I will buy - they stand brake cleaner and other solvents very well...

These 3.0 D4D engines were noisey when brand new I recall.... But fairly fuel efficient for the time...

I think the D4D is the later engine like the one in my mate's 21 plate Hi-lux, it sounds like a bag of nuts and bolts rattling away!
Progress?

My son had a Surf for several years, had to sell because of ULEZ. It was a cracking vehicle too. He didn’t live within the area, but had fly often for work & couldn’t get to London airport

Yeah I'm just outside it, for now!

I wandered into the trap in my Disco and got done with both LEZ and ULEZ - same zone coverage, different schemes, so £112.50

Never going there again

Yeah I'm just outside it, for now!

I'm about 1/4 mile inside. One tow truck and one decent car scrapped.

I need to do the timing belt on mine, too! Wondering whether to replace the radiator, while I'm at it, as the auto gearbox oil cooler that's built in to the radiator has been known to leak.

A lot of people fit an additional transmission cooler separate to the one in the rad as these trucks are a bit on the edge with cooling if you're towing heavy loads or live in the hills. Mine is ok for just driving around so I've not bothered although I do have a digital temperature gauge that tells me the real temperature and not the optimistic lies of the factory one...

Heard the other week that my old Surf is apparently now in a foreign land, & being put to good use. I stll miss that vehicle.

Heard the other week that my old Surf is apparently now in a foreign land, & being put to good use. I stll miss that vehicle.

Has it got a gert big machine gun mounted in the bed?

Has it got a gert big machine gun mounted in the bed?

Rescue/response or suchlike, from what I heard.

Has it got a gert big machine gun mounted in the bed?

The surf be not a pick-up.
Although you could shoot a machine gun out the sunroof

The surf be not a pick-up.
Although you could shoot a machine gun out the sunroof

Covert machine pops up through the roof Q ship style

Not long after I bought it I had an issue with coolent being used after much wishful thinking and replacement of rad caps and disconnecting the rear heater pipework I did a sniff test and found it was the head that had gone.
I was due to drive to Le Mans in a few months time so decided to lift the head and find out what was wrong.
Strip down started.
These trucks are easy to work on, 18 years old at the time and all the glow plugs and fuel injectors came out without any problems.

The problem.
All cylinders had cracks between the valves and the precombustion chambers were all cracked. It's a fairly common problem with the 1KZ-TE engines.

A few taps of the key board and over £1000 spent at Roughtrax got me this lot.
A lovely AMC built up cylinder head ready to fit.


I also fitted a new genuine Toyota thermostat and radiator cap just in case there was something wrong with the old ones.
While it was in bits I removed the EGR valve and blanked off the ports, it was pretty grimy in the inlet manifold so got a good cleaning but I was suffering from "Vauxhall Zafira" syndrome at the time after having to replace about three EGR valves in that thing so thought it was a good idea.
The reassembled engine.

Le Mans a month or so later...

Yours is a posh one, with the fancy motorised reversing mirror!

Yeah it's the SSR-G model, I'd prefer heated mirrors over that daft excretion of a mirror

I'm just starting to gear up for the rear axle removal and clean up so I'm buying up bits and bobs to help with that so the question is, what to use for the rust removal? I'm thinking of getting a needle scaler and some wire wheels for the grinder but what are the best types of wheel to use?
Seen these on eBay https://ebay.io/m/7Y22I5. Cup or flat wheel or both?