2001 Land Cruiser KDJ95. Arctic Adventure completed!

[johanso]

Hi!

I’ve been lurking around for quite a while and thought it would be time to share some photos of my truck. It’s a European Land Cruiser 90 from 2001. In some markets it’s called Prado. It shares frame and suspension with the 4Runner.

I had a similar car but a shorter 3 door version a couple of years ago and missed it ever since I sold it. So when it was time to get a new Land Cruiser for some travelling I knew what wanted. I prefer the looks and simplicity of the 90 compared to it’s successor the 120 but it was rather difficult to find a clean one with reasonable mileage and the 163hp D4D engine which only was available in 2000 and 2001. After a couple of month of scanning the classifieds I found the right car. One owner car with 110000 miles.

My plan is to gradually modify it for overlanding. My intention is to only modify things where I believe I can really make an improvement. I terms of reliability I’m convinced that Toyota has made a way better job than I ever can do…
I’m also planning on keeping weight to a minimum to get better handling and better mileage so no steel winch bumpers or similar.

Land Cruiser KDJ95

Drivetrain:
3-liter (1kd-ftv) 163hp 343 nm common rail diesel. Now fitted with TTE-Performance kit which is a Toyota tuning box that bump up the numbers to 204hp and 410 nm (302lb/ft)
Safari Snorkel
5-speed manual
Permanent 4x4. Lockable center diff. Unfortunately not lockable rear diff.
Extended diff breathers

Suspension:
Bilstein 5100 shocks
OME struts

Wheels and tyres:
Powder coated HDJ80 16x8
Goodyear Duratrac 265/75-16

Interior:
Home made drawers/sleeping platform
Boost-gauge
300w inverter


First project I did was to install new struts and shocks. I decided to run adjustable Bilstein 5100 and OME struts. It gave me around 2” lift which seems to be safe height without putting too much strain on the front axle cv-joints.

 

[johanso]

During the long winter months I started to plan for making home made drawers. I want to have the possibility to sleep in the car so I made the drawers in two sections. With only the rear section in place the rear seat can be kept in the car. With both sections in place the platform is around 180 cm long.

The objectives where to keep weight and cost low and to be able to take out the drawers fairly easy. I built the drawers from 12 mm marine plywood that was covered with a grey felt fabric in similar tone to the oem carpet.

The rear section contains two 95 cm long drawers with heavy duty Accuride sliders. On the sides of the drawers there are two compartments that can be reached from the top.
The front section has one opening reachable from each rear door.

 

[Dangler]

Very cool! :victory: awesome rig and great mods! Got more pics?

 

[4Rescue]

So cool... Love seeing more Diesels showing up here. Really cool truck too, esp. considering it's total unobtanium to us US "victims". Suspension looks perfect on her and the rear-drawer system looks great. Plus it's awesome to have more "world-wide" members. I met a ton of Swedes in Australia and they were some of my fondest drinking buddies aye.

Skoal (sp???)!!! And Welcome to the Portal mate.

Dave

 

[johanso]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I will try to post some more photos.

I'm happy with how the suspension turned out. From an aesthetic point I would have prefered to have the front up a bit more. If I remember correctly the 1KD-FTV engine is about 90kg heavier than 1KZ-TE which brings the front down a bit.

Swedes love Australia... and having a drink:beer: Skål!

 

[johanso]

In the Northern Hemisphere Land Cruiser 90 was fitted with two starter batteries. I wanted to be able to run my fridge an inverter and other things separately and started to look at different solutions. I'm not that good at electricity so i wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

Most solutions I found was made in a way so that the second battery is a just an auxiliary battery and doesn't help the starter. In my case I was wasn't willing to give up the possibility to use both batteries for the starter since I sometimes need to do cold starts in the winter time when I don't have access to an outlet for the heater.

Blue Sea has kit called ”Add a Battery” that looks promising since there is both a charging relay and switch where you can choose between separating the batteries or running both as starting batteries. Since under hood space is limited and I was unsure whether this kit would cope with a high compression diesel starter I decided to wait. I started of with a really simple solution where I run the fridge on both batteries. I just have to keep an eye on the charge the batteries gives so I don't flatten them.

So, from the second battery I ran a 16 mm cable to an inline fuse and then to a 100 amp relay. This relay makes it possible to completely shut of this circuit with a switch on the panel. The cable then goes in to cabin and in to the arm rest box between the front seats. There I mounted a Blue Sea fuse box with a separate fuse for every circuit. I thought that box would make a secure and easy accessible place for the fuses. I'll have to fab up some kind of plate to protect the fuse box and use the space for storage. Don't want to throw down a set of keys there with the power on…

From the fuse box I ran separate cables to the Waeco 300w inverter and two 12-volt outlets on the back of the armrest box. The inverter is mounted behind the passenger seat on the sleeping/storage platform. Since this circuit runs directly on the battery I can have the fridge and other stuff running even if the ignition is off.

Down by the shifter there was a place where I could cut a hole and fit a panel and some Carling switches. At the moment I only have three and I haven't decided if I should mount a volt meter gauge or blanks there.

Everything seems to work as planned. I intend to add a solar panel and charging controller. In the long run I would like to be able to separate the batteries for peace of mind so I'll have to do some more reading on the subject.

 

[Ramjet]

Very nice. Can't wait to see what you have planned next.

 

[Magnus]

Hi cousin!
So you finally got around to start your own thread...

You guys should know the truck looks even better IRL.

 

[NM-Frontier]

Very nice rig, great to see a Prado on here! Fun to read and learn about different Cruisers not available in N.A.:sombrero:

 

[lugueto]

Nice cruiser!! I'm a fellow 90 owner as well, currently have a RZJ90 but i used to have a VZJ95.

I didnt know these came with a D4D diesel, I thought they only had the 1kz.

What are your future plans??

More interior shots!

 

[johanso]

Nice cruiser!! I'm a fellow 90 owner as well, currently have a RZJ90 but i used to have a VZJ95.

I didnt know these came with a D4D diesel, I thought they only had the 1kz.

What are your future plans??

More interior shots!

At least in Europe it did in 2000 and 2001. Australia never got this engine in the 90, perhaps the same thing in SA. This version of the 1kd is not as advanced as the later versions offered in the 120-platform. It doesn't have vnt-turbo but a regular one with wastegate, the egr isn't as complicated for instance. Pretty good if you ask me.

First of all I plan to use it a lot! In terms of mods I'd like to add a 3 inch exhaust from the turbo with a free flow cat. I'd also like some sturdier skid plates. If I can get the needed funds a lockable rear diff would be really nice to have. Then a bunch of small things of course...

 

[johanso]

With the tuning box in place I wanted to keep an eye on how the engine reacted so I bought a VDO boost gauge and digital egt gauge from Auber Instruments. I didn't want to have the boost gauge in a pillar pod so I tried to find an alternative placement. In the end I decided to ditch the clock in the dash. The space for the clock was perfect size for a 52mm gauge and with a home-made bracket the result came out pretty good.

I haven't had the courage to tap a hole in the exhaust manifold for the egt-probe so I'm waiting with that until I fit a 3-inch down-pipe. The probe will be post-turbo but i reckon thats better than nothing.

In the picture you can also see my home-made bracket for the Garmin 276 navigator.

 

[johanso]

Our Arctic Adventure. 6500 km, 4 countries in 4 weeks

My wife and I just completed a trip that went through Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia.
I've always wanted to go to the Northen part of Norway and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Unfortunately its 1500 km just to get there from my hometown Stockholm. So even if would require some hours behind the wheel we thought it would make sense to visit both places at the same time.

In brief our planned route was:
Going from Stockholm up to Kiruna and Abisko National Park which in my opinion is one the most beautiful places in Sweden.
From there we headed further up north through Finland in to Norway.
In Norway we followed the coast and drive east towards Kirkenes and the Russian border.
First stop in Russia was Murmansk and then south to Khibiny Mountains.
Further down south to Kandalaksha and the White Sea Coast.
Then along the White Sea Coast where we explored the small fishing villages. Varzuga River is as far east as you can go on the Kola Peninsula with 4x4. To go further east you need helicopter or boat.
On our way back home we drove towards Salla, thorugh Finland and then along the coast of the Baltic Sea south down to Stockholm.



This was my first visit to Russia and it was an amazing experience. I have uploaded a bunch of photos on our blog for those interested http://sosolle.tumblr.com

 

[johanso]

At our first stop the area around Abisko National Park we left the car and hiked to make an attempt to reach Sweden's highest peak, Kebnekaise. I went there on skis this spring and was keen on trying it in summer time. We were out in the mountains for 3 days and reached the peak at the second day. From our campsite it was about 19 km to go up and down to the summit but the terrain is quite steep in some places so it took us 10 hours. We were really lucky since the weather was clear and we got some fantastic views.

 

[johanso]

Our first destination in Norway was an old road that we had read about. Based on some Youtube videos with adventure motorcycles driven the road i thought we should give it a try. We weren't sure how the conditions would be. According to some information at least one bridge over a river had collapsed.

It took us one and a half day to travel the full distance and it was a really nice experience. The second part the road was really good and on higher altitude (as shown in the picture below), the first part was in the forrest and in a lot worse condition.


We drove past a reindeer enclosure used by Sami reindeer herders when they separate the herds.