Diesel Hilux question

[OverlandBear]

Question for the Toyota overlanders in this group.
I'm looking at purchasing a '94 Hilux LN 107 2.8 diesel. It's a beautiful truck with a lot of potential. The big thing is that I'm looking to purchase a rig and build it out to drive the Pan American highway through Central and South America.
Up in the States it's difficult and time consuming to get parts for the LN series because theyre an Asian and Aussie truck.
I know Hilux's are popular south of the border but my research so far has been inconclusive as to what model of Hilux are down there. My question to the group is, does anybody have experience and knowledge with the models and Hilux in Mexico and further south? What are they driving and if something random goes out do you think I'll be able to track down a part or would I have to ship a fuel pump from Japan to Nicaragua?

 

[lugueto]

While that model Hilux is common in Venezuela and Colombia, We only got them with the gasoline 22R engine. No diesels. I can only be 100% certain for Venezuela, I'd sat 95% for Colombia.

I also have some experience in Costa Rica and pretty much all the Hiluxes they have are diesels, so its a safe bet they have the 2.8 engine. If not, I'm guessing there's a bunch of parts that carry over between the 2L and the 3L engine..

I don't think you'd be able to find all of the parts in every single country, but I'd bet they'd be fairly easy to source in most of Central and South America.

 

[OverlandBear]

Update... I bought the truck! Here she is on our first adventure. Still needs some parts and work (specifically, suspension) before I can take her on any real adventures, but she's got great bones and I'm ************** pumped to project her out

 

[DirtWhiskey]

Update... I bought the truck! Here she is on our first adventure. Still needs some parts and work (specifically, suspension) before I can take her on any real adventures, but she's got great bones and I'm ************** pumped to project her out

Beauty! More pics please! Also is that up at Silver Lake in AF Canyon per chance?

 

[OverlandBear]

Beauty! More pics please! Also is that up at Silver Lake in AF Canyon per chance?

Hah damn Dirt good eye! That's exactly where we were. I'll throw more pics up once we go on more adventures. Gotta get that suspensions taken care of first. My rears are SHOT dude, and the fronts aren't far behind. Just going up that moderate dirt road to silver lake I was bouncing all over the place haha.
I loved feeling the low end torque of that diesel just chug up the hills though!

 

[DirtWhiskey]

Hah damn Dirt good eye! That's exactly where we were. I'll throw more pics up once we go on more adventures. Gotta get that suspensions taken care of first. My rears are SHOT dude, and the fronts aren't far behind. Just going up that moderate dirt road to silver lake I was bouncing all over the place haha.
I loved feeling the low end torque of that diesel just chug up the hills though!

😂 A place near and dear to my heart! I grew up rallying, and destroying, my various crappy $500 2wd cars up there. And that road has gotten really bad over the years so it's a great test for your truck!

Man I've loved those Hilux truck for years. I'll be following along closely.

 

[DirtWhiskey]

Also pretty sure these Hiluxes share a bunch of components with the same era USA and international models. Suspension, body etc. if the diesel isn't really supported down there I'd do a solid once over, fix anything engine, turbo or tranny related and bring a select group of spare parts. Maybe an injector or two, glow plugs, head/exhaust gaskets etc. These are pretty simple motors and are easy to wrench. You'd be surprised how enterprising car shops are from Mexico south. They don't have a "disposable" culture and drive stuff into the dirt.

 

[OverlandBear]

Yeah man that's exactly my plan. The engine is pretty damn solid as it is, I really just need to get the suspension on lock, work on the body and start building her out.