My conversion Journey; 2004 Toyota Landcruiser Prado 120 IDI diesel

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

While this is not a NEW vehicle *( I only ever purchased one NEW car in my life and that was when I was 18), I am taking my time with converting this one to run on Waste Vegetable oil as it is an unknown to me and I have no one who has done one to guide me.
I plan to start with a 20% veggie oil blend with diesel and get to know the vehicle while I look at my options for adding a start / shutdown tank.
If I cannot fit a start tank, then I will look at gradually increasing the proportion of oil in the blend, until I have issues with starting.
My oil sometimes has a high proportion of high melting point oils, so a small heat exchanger will be installed prior to the fuel filter at some point in the conversion.

Watch this thread.

[TeePee Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close TeePee]

Hey Tony. Following with interest. I’m also on the lookout for a Prado for my wife which I plan to run on bio. You mention the one you just acquired is a 3 litre with mechanical IP. Is that the 5L series engine? My understanding is the 1KZTE engine comes with electronic injection?, cheers. Tom

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

TeePee, This has the 1KZTE engine which is IDI, with a mechanical, rotary Injector Pump.
It does have a new type of injector though and I am concerned about any issues with the injectors when using veggie oil.
I would like to fit a start/shutdown tank, but I doubt that there is room under the vehicle to install one.
I have still not taken possession of the vehicle, it is still at the Car Yard's mechanical / upholstery repairers.
I will have photos on here soon (I hope!)

[TeePee Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close TeePee]

Hi Tony. Thanks for the reply. WIth different type of injectors do you think there'll be any problems running a on Bio as opposed to straight veg? thanks

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

TeePee, I doubt that you would have any issues using well made biodiesel in the 120 series, or earlier Prado diesels.

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

OK, I collected the Prado last night and got it home in the dark and rain.
This morning, I added 20L of veggie oil to the remaining 1/4 tank (~45L)
This is approximately 30% veggie oil solution. Driving around today I have no problems. I will check cold starting tomorrow morning.

There are some issues that I am looking for:
1. Diesel Bug in fuel tanks blocking fuel filters (engine filter, transfer jet pump filter blockage, etc)
2. Cold starting issues - not likely at 30%, but alert for harder starting at each increase in veggie proportion.

I will post more as I find things out.

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

The Prado started normally this AM.
I turned Ignition on and waited until the GP light went out, cranked a second or 2 and it fired up as if it were on Diesel.
Next step will be to increase proportions to 40% vegetable oil blend with Diesel.
Tomorrow sometime.... Watch this space.-

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

I added another 20L of used cooking oil to the Rexton tank. With the running around I did yesterday and today, that made the blend ~50%
See how it goes tomorrow.

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Following with interest Tony, are you sure your Prado is indirect injection.? If so it’s not far removed from my Jackaroo, which is still going well. However have all but run out of oil. Oilguys eating my lunch

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Yes Toyota changed to D4-D CRD engine in Prado in 2006.

[yendor Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close yendor]

Hi Tony, We just recently sold our 2004 prado to buy a 105 series to convert to SVO. The 3 litre engine was the same as the toyota hilux 3litre which i converted to SVO a few years ago. These particular engines run a fly by wire computer controlled injector pump which started playing up on me after around 10 000km going into limp mode. Eventually it shut down completely and then had to replace the injector pump and sold the thing. Hope you have more success than i did. The Prado was a brilliant vehicle but did not want to risk the same issues i had with the Hilux.

Cheers,

Yendor

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Yendor,
Did you have the IP opened up to identify the cause of the failure?

I would be interested in the cause of the failure. (i.e. which part of the IP fail ed)
Were you running it on 100% SVO, or a blend (how much oil? with diesel or another fluid?)
Tony

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Tony looks like you can use a fully mechanical pump on the 1KZ TE engine Being a popular model has the advantage of lots of after market mods. https://hdautomotive.com.au/product/...tor-pump-12mm/

[yendor Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close yendor]

The Injector pump has a viscosity sensor at the base of the pump that sent it into limp mode occasionally then permanently. I just got an exchange pump and fitted it so i am not sure what happened exactly. I was using SVO no blends. The Injector repairer just uses an exchange system in Sydney so didnt find out the exact cause. They said that this particular pump has a sensitive low pressure pump that is easily damaged or worn. Not sure how true that is. They did suggest changing it over to an earlier Mechanical pump from an earlier model but there is a fair bit of mucking around bypassing the computer monitoring.

Im going to stick with the full mechanical pump in my 2002 Holden rodeo and 1hz Landcruiser.

Good luck Tony

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Yendor,
Were you running 100% veggie oil or a blend?
If a blend, what ratio of veggie : diesel?
If not veggie : diesel, what thinning agent did you use?