Date:         Wed, 13 Jul 2005 00:25:29 +1200
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: re. 88 toyota van from japan on ebay
In-Reply-To:  <001401c586ad$ca10f3e0$6501a8c0@guava>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii

>For anyone that is interested in that van...
>
>These Toyota Masterace/Townace van are real sweet.  Not quite as spacious as
>a Vanagon but the seating is hyper manouverable and having a true 4low is
>real nice and the skylite roof is rad.  The little 2Litre 2CT turbo diesel
>engine is also surprisingly peppy, quiet and very fuel efficient (for USA
>residents this engine was used in the 80's Camry diesel so parts and
>mechanics should be available anywhere).  One of these vans totally smoked
>me on the highway the other day zipping by at around 120kmh.
>
>Parts for these imports are failrly easy to obtain from any toyota dealer as
>long as you know the part number and can wait a few days/weeks for delivery.
>Having said that I live in a small town of 35000 and my local toyota dealer
>has had a number of requested parts IN STOCK for my import (1989 Hilux Surf
>aka RHD diesel 4Runner) or available the next morning.  Driving a RHD
>vehicle in a LHD world only takes a day or two to master...everything is the
>same except the turn signals and window washer arms are on opposite sides
>(you feel real cool turing on your window washers at every intersection for
>the first week!!).   The only negatives driving RHD is that turning left at
>intersections can be a little harder to see.  Also passing takes a new
>tactic as you have to jag to the right a bit to see if its clear before
>passing left (but you don;t pass much in a toyota diesel, you are more
>likely to BE passed, just like driving a Vanagon!!)
>
>Hope that helps anyone who might be interested...

I drive an Estima (Japnese-market "Previa", available in wide-body &
narrow-body; mine is the latter) which has the 2.2-liter version of
the 1C/2C/3C engine, the 3C-T (turbo). I do plenty of overtaking; the
first one I drove got to 160kmh in a hurry... I doubt mine would even
get there.

Turbodiesels are notorious for cracking heads, Toyotas included, and
have a bad reliability record. Goes for the cars as well as vans. 2
items need addressing here: the exhaust is too small, allowing heat
buildup in the head. Fit a bigbore exhaust to dump heat. The Estima
now has a 2.5" pipe (the PO cracked a head; replacement with a "new"
used engine cost him over $3000US at the time). Also check that there
is no buildup of crud in the external waterpipes, especially those
around the head... one person I taklked to stated that every 3C-T he
has looked at (Camry, Liteace, Estima) has had a cracked head and
these pipes are always clogged.

Spoken by someone crazy enough to be planning to replace the 1.8 1C
in his 89 Corolla wagon with a 3C-T...
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut