I'm gonna say the 2.4turbo in my surf when i had it. had it for six months and blew up never buy an import 4x4 unless its the 3ltr turbo

 

cost so much to fix

 

The KZ's are better, but not by much. They still overheat.

 

I've disintegrated the 2LT in my LN61 Surf a few times now... But that being said the head is the only weakness. A genuine 2LT (not 2LTE) is in fact one of the strongest diesels toyota ever made. Nitrided rods, hardcore crank etc... Can handle huuuge boost.

realy well mine was shit.

 

too bad i love the look of them and they have power every thing in them to and the seats go flat. best of all they have good clearence from stock not that i didnt lift mine

 

i had to change the fly wheel on mine to a hilux to get a better clutch

Ive had alot of Geminis and the Ive never done a head gasket, only ever done a bottom end after a burnout that lasted about 7-8mins on pure valve bounce, and only shifted at valve bounce always going through at least 4tyres a week (on a slow week lol) sure they were slow but good on juice and never really gave me any trouble.

 

 

yeah ive had only 2 G's that wouldnt die, one was bored and stroked to 2L and was out of a rally car, the 2nd was a repotted 1.6L and it just wouldnt die.. ended up throwing that out cause it had basically no rings or compression left.. had one go out in spectacular fashion with a rod exiting the side and leaving a ncie hole in the block, pulled engine out a week later and looked like someone had used the sump for shotgun practice... ;)

Yep, Kia's have to be up there as the culprit of some of the worst engines ever made - my old housemate used to do the factory servicing.

 

The sleeve issue in the carnival is a classic. The hole in the gasket for the piston is bigger than the outer diameter of the sleeve, the piston slap just loosens the sleeve which starts slapping on the head and the whole motor fills with coolant. The 100,000km service = install crate motor. Not to mention they had a celebration down the workshop when they saw the first Kia diesel motor make it to 180,000kms before needing a fresh crate motor for resurrection - it was such a big deal that this motor was sent back to Korea for inspection.

Yep, Kia's have to be up there as the culprit of some of the worst engines ever made - my old housemate used to do the factory servicing.

 

The sleeve issue in the carnival is a classic. The hole in the gasket for the piston is bigger than the outer diameter of the sleeve, the piston slap just loosens the sleeve which starts slapping on the head and the whole motor fills with coolant. The 100,000km service = install crate motor. Not to mention they had a celebration down the workshop when they saw the first Kia diesel motor make it to 180,000kms before needing a fresh crate motor for resurrection - it was such a big deal that this motor was sent back to Korea for inspection.

 

Did Kia actually build/assemble (ie they had bought the tooling) the early V6s or were they just delivered in a crate from Rover?

Just found this thread and thought I'd dig it up to have a whinge, I hate Mitsu L300 engines. My mate has one and it's honestly the most hopeless car I've ever encountered. Overheated, slow as hell, rough with no torque at any revs, not to mention the rest of the car. Steering dead spot, column shift with about 5cm play in each direction on the shifter, bouncy suspension and downright scary over 80km/h, not that it has the power to obtain such speeds. I honestly reckon my old stock Gemini with a blown head gasket, running on two cylinders had more power.

 

Having said that, the later model Camiras were alright mechanically. I still hate them for being FWD shit that contributed to the end of the Gemini, but I must say that when well-maintained, the later models with multi-point EFI made reasonable power and were smooth, driveable and economical. As for the G161Z, they're slow as a wet week, but they're designed to just go forever. They do take a hell of a beating really, the stuffed ones out there have all been thrashed for ten years. I had one that did a heap of head gaskets, but that's because I ran it with boiling coolant on a daily basis, go figure. I had another one that I dragged second to 90 a few times without so much as a rattle. That one only died when it did a head gasket from boiling coolant, dud radiator you see, you'd think I'd have learned, but it dumped all it's coolant in a hurry so the gauge read fine... The 161 was designed for 89RON unleaded back in the 70's, ie, total shit... The crank and rods are forged from factory, heads flow quite well and respond well to bigger exhaust valves, cams and porting... But the standard pistons are bollocks and you really need to add three to the compression ratio to go anywhere... They're not a bad engine though, really simple effective design. I'm running a G200Z in one of my Gems, with a 161 head, 11:1 comp (ish), it goes really well and has a stack of torque.

 

What else do I hate.. Rattletec V6's are rubbish IMO. I also hate the - erm, 18R I think it is, that comes in Celicas and Coronas, simply because every example I've seen has major timing belt noise, rattles like crazy and goes nowhere due to shot compression. I bet when they're in good condition they're decent, though.

Edited March 18, 201016 yr by archangel62