1991 Toyota LandCruiser 80 Series |
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HEIGHT ABOVE SEA LEVEL What's silver, drinks diesel, whistles while it works and casts shadows on road trains? Words by Glenn Wright, photography by Robb Cox Mathew and Tina Zammit's high-riding 80 Series LandCruiser is built like a house in a flood zone, sitting 8in higher than Toyota's engineers ever signed off on. While this allows the oversized oiler to get over the odd boulder or three, the downside is that as the Zammit family's only form of transport, it is employed full-time as a daily driver, shopping cart and school bus. The laughs flow thick and fast when Tina hops down from this skyscraper to kiss her kids goodbye outside the local school. You see, Tina tops the height chart at a massive 5ft 1in. This means that the only time Mum gets to see the top of the bonnet is while keeping the driver’s seat warm, but she wouldn't have it any other way. When the lofty LandCruiser has finished all its domestic duties, it’s rewarded with hardcore trips to Mathew's favourite haunts in the Watagans, Hampton and Yalwal to stretch its weary springs. Mathew spotted the bog-stock Toyota in a used-car yard and chose it over the Patrol because of Toyota's habit of dotting the Is and crossing the Ts when it comes to build quality and creature comforts. It’s a decision he doesn't regret after receiving many SOS calls from mate Peter over the UHF to come and drag his Patrol out of trouble. Peter Noone, from Xtreme 4X4 Services, shares Mathew's passion for doing it in the dirt. The two put their heads and talents together - when they weren't locking horns over the Nissan vs Toyota debate - to successfully create the tall Toyota over six months, completely ‘in house’, under the Zammit's carport in Sydney. Mathew would like to thank his wife Tina for turning a blind eye in relation to the expense and time spent getting it right. Maybe Tina should thank you, Mathew, seeing as she gets to enjoy the fruits of your labour five days a week. SUSPENSION Once you stray from the original design of a truck's suspension, as any hardcore 4WD addict does, you open up a Pandora's box. Fitting much longer coils means that longer everything must also be added to maintain necessary suspension travel and steering geometry. Longer fabricated mounts hold in place Rancho 5000-series shocks that were necessary to replace lost suspension droop. The only real ‘oops’ in this extreme makeover was noticed in the steering. A common mistake in lifted trucks with solid front axles is that when the front diff is ‘twisted’ to allow for steeper tail-shaft angles, the castor is reduced. Mathew noticed the wandering, boat-like steering on his maiden voyage in the lifted LandCruiser and soon relocated the front lower arms to increase the castor angle. DRIVELINE The standard front diff cried enough several years ago, which led to the fitment of front and rear ARB Air Lockers. Mathew reckons his Toyota owes a lot of its off-road ability to these proven gizmos, having towed far too many vehicles out of sticky situations that weren’t fitted with these must-haves. The standard 4.2L turbo-diesel has proved reliable over the past 235,000km, so Mathew set out to test its pulling power by hooking it up to his new 23ft, 3t Whitley cruise boat. He was surprised at how well the diesel hairdryer combo coped, but as we are learning, Mathew always wants more. This saw the truck's turbo tweaked for more boost (he won't tell how much) and bigger injector nozzles along with some pump work. The Safari Snorkel keeps this tall customer in constant supply of clean, dry air, though because of the air filter's height above sea level, I doubt much water could get near the airbox anyway. The gasses left over after the engine's done with them are fed rearwards via a twin-pipe 2.5in mandrel-bent exhaust system. EXTERIOR EXTRAS BRIEFLY
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