Tow Vehicle Setup

[rob83ke70]

Hey

I'm just after a few opinions on options I'm thinking about for my new tow vehicle. The vehicle in question is a YH81R Toyota Dyna 100 dual cab. It currently has a 4y 2200cc petrol engine with a g55 gearbox and a 4.875:1 ratio diff, running 185r14lt tyres. It has engine problems (blown head gasket at least) which mean that I have to pull the head and/or engine out and have a play around with it. I will also be fitting a heavy duty radiator to it as well. It currently is set up for petrol and lpg.

 

When the engine is apart, I'm thinking about the merits of getting the camshaft reground. The cam I was thinking about was a tighe 300AT, with 260 degrees advertised duration and 0.412" of lift, running standard hydraulic tappets. I will be keeping the standard petrol carburettor on it and probably keeping the LPG setup. More than likely standard exhaust and inlet as well. Has anybody ever driven a hilux/hiace/dyna with this engine and a tweaked camshaft? I'm after some opinions on whether this would be worth the extra trouble. It is a pretty nice torquey little engine now, but having more torque was never a bad thing.

 

It currently has a 4.875:1 diff ratio in it as well, I was thinking about putting a 4.3:1 diff ratio in instead, to bring the revs (and subsequent noise level) down when driving on the highway. As it is now with the 4.875 ratio it tows car trailers and cars and all the rest of that heavy stuff very very well. It isn't a fast vehicle (100km/hr is screaming off its head) but who needs a fast tow vehicle? with the 4.3 ratio diff in it, do you think it will still be as good for towing heavy stuff? I suspect I may find myself spending more time in 4th instead of 5th when towing, and when not towing, it may be a lot more comfortable at 100-110km/hr on the highway.

 

With the radiator upgrade and head gasket issues and mixture issues (was running very lean for sometime due to air leaks into carburettor) it should bring the temperature down especially on the highway, which should quieten the cooling fan down. Driving it around narromine (somewhat warm weather) the fan would come on a fair bit (viscous coupling mechanical fan) but driving around orange it would hardly come on if at all (cooler weather). Driving on the highway however (presumably doing 5000rpm at 100km/hr) the fan would come on pretty much all the time (in its current condition anyway) which makes it rather noisy....

 

I'm just after some opinions anyway on the matter. I have to finish putting a pajero engine back together and putting it into the pajero before I can sneak the dyna into the corner at work and rip the head off and inspect the engine to determine exactly what I need to do to it.

 

Robert.

[rob83ke70]

heres a pic (not a very good one though) of the vehicle in question.... did two trips to canberra (with a few engine issues) successfully towing that trailer to bring two cars back....

 

went up lidster hill on the cargo road in 2nd gear as I wasn't flogging it hard (scared of it overheating at the time)

 

Robert.