Tojo's Revenge

[jiffo]

Many, many years ago, I thought the worst ever cars to work on were VW's.

We used to call them Hilter's revenge. Strange metric bolts, cramped engine bay, just horrible.

Helped pull the head off my son's Aristo last week and I've changed my opinion. The VW was a dream compared to this car.

There is simply no room, fullstop.

Thought it might be better up on the hoist but no, just the same, only higher.

There's no doubt the basic 2JZ is nicely engineered when compared to an Rb, accessable oilpump relief valve, sensible cambelt arrangement, Hall effect CAS, old fashioned no nonsense stuff.

Then they got on the drugs.

Crazy waterpump, insane hydraulic fan and that massive sequential turbo lump of cast iron is beyond belief. It has so many actuators and valves I have no confidence that it's ever going to all get back together.

Next we move onto the other side with the impossible-to-get-at fuel hoses, electrical harness, sensors...,

Makes the GTR look ever so simple.

[West]

Win some loose some!

[adamskill]

oh no! i was thinking about getting an aristo as our 2nd car, and i like to play around with the engine my self, so im slightly put off by this. other than the cramped, awkward engine bay, is it a good car?

[VB-]

on a grand scale they arent that bad.... havent worked on an aritso with hydro fan, but many soarers which are all the same basic layout up top

[lachlanw]

go work on a twin turb lepracy . youll love the aristo again

[jiffo]

oh no! i was thinking about getting an aristo as our 2nd car, and i like to play around with the engine my self, so im slightly put off by this. other than the cramped, awkward engine bay, is it a good car?

Excellent luxury cruiser and they're cheap as. Parts are very reasonable via NZ Toyota dealers.

If it's modified I'd walk away as they have 23 computers (from memory) and if some cowboy has started chopping hoses and wires, you'll never get it running properly.

When buying 2nd hand there's a few things the car must have either had done or just be prepared to do them.

Electro-hydraulic brake accumulator nitrogen re-charge.

Radiator or top tank, heater hoses generally.

Valve stem seals.

Cambelt etc.

Waterpump/hydraulic fan pump.

They have ceramic turbos (which are fine until someone decides to play with the boost)

Stripped gears in the electric adjustable seats.

Check all suspension balljoints.

Mod the cruise control's computer so it will go better than 100kph.

Auto trans is excellent.

[adamskill]

do they react well to simple engine and suspension mods?

[sh@un]

and that massive sequential turbo lump of cast iron is beyond belief. It has so many actuators and valves I have no confidence that it's ever going to all get back together.

throw the whole lot in a skip, and replace it with a mid-sized Garrett single and a 6Boost manifold

easy

[jiffo]

do they react well to simple engine and suspension mods?

You're asking the wrong person.

I think if they're left stock, you'll have a cheap, powerful luxury cruiser.

From my experience, the suspension would need a lot spent on it to make the car perform. It's not a stiff chassis as a base and it doesn't have tough suspension arms etc. They're designed for a smooth comfortable ride not fantastic handling. Luckily all balljoints, arms etc can be bought aftermarket for a fraction of Toyota's cost. There is enormous inter-changeability of parts between models with Toyotas, far more than I've come across with Skylines.

As standard, they have an open diff and composite universal/tailshaft joints. Manual box, LSD and driveline parts could be sourced from a Supra, and I've seen these cars converted to 6-speeds on Jap. auctions. Foot operated handbrake conversion would be difficult.

The under-bonnet temps are very high yet the massive radiator will not allow the engine to overheat even in the worst heatwave. The aircon is outstanding.

The stock heat shielding on manifold/turbos is excellent and to bin all that would need a LOT of thought.

As they're a RHS exhaust manifold, there's steering and brake equipment very close to the hot bits. Obviously this is why they came standard with the electro-hydraulic brake system which is extremely compact considering it also has the ABS incorporated.

Anyone who's fitted a 2JZ into an S13 knows how difficult it is to reliably keep the heat away from clutch/brake master cylinders.