Truenotch's 1997 Toyota GranV - Francis Jellybean

[Truenotch]

After years of thinking about it, I finally bit the bullet and bought a van! Not just any van either, it's a luxury 1997 Toyota Granvia 4wd with 1KZ turbo deeeez. 

I've been living in Queenstown for 6 months now and realised a couple of things: 

1. I need my racecar in the South Island 

2. 4WD vans are super handy for towing and mountain bike missions

Being the smooth-brained creature I am, it seemed like a great idea to buy a van in the North Island so I could tow the AE86 down after Christmas. 

Enter: Francis Jellybean GranV a.k.a the Lizard Lounge. 

@DodgySam and @Ogre were GCs and went to check it out for me in Rotorua. The consensus was that it's dirty, but mechanically solid. The guy wanted to move it on, so we struck up a deal and I sent him a few macaroons in the electronic-post. 

@UTERUS collected it for me and my parents drove it back to Palmy North, where it's be sitting until I got here for the Christmas break.

Someone marked their territory before it got back to Palmy...

I originally wanted a Regius, mostly for the rotating front seats and rear seats that fold into tables, but beggars can't be choosers.

Luckily there was a Regius at Pickapart Wellington, so my first job was to shoot down there to investigate if Regius seats could be swapped into a Granvia.

The answer is "kind of". The seat bases mount to the floor the same, but the actual seat rails are slightly different. That's annoying since seat rails are $15ea at pickapart and complete sears are $55ea.

I bought both complete front seats, even though the upholstery was ripped and stained and figured there would be a way to make them work.

I may have got carried away buying things... the front shocks were a score!

And the Regius I raided was a gold mine for Yen. This more than covered the $2 entry fee at Pickapart.

 

[Willdat?]

I've been a fan of these for a long time. Would have picked up a low KMs Wind Tourer this year but was sensible saving for this trip. I hope it makes all your wildest dreams come True-notch...

[Raizer]

Seriously recommend getting the injectors rebuilt asap.

I bet it's never had them done in it's life.

 

Also full 3" exhaust ha 

[Truenotch]

9 hours ago, Willdat? said:

Wind Tourer

A 4wd Wind Tourer is still the dream, but this will work for now.

8 hours ago, Raizer said:

Also full 3" exhaust ha 

I have access to a 4wd dyno too... so mods will likely happen. Wouldn't mind unlocking some zututus. 

[Raizer]

1 minute ago, Truenotch said:

I have access to a 4wd dyno too... so mods will likely happen. Wouldn't mind unlocking some zututus. 

Butt dyno says my SC picked up a decent bit of mid range with the exhaust and it really improved fuel economy.

But even if it hadn't made more power, the extra turbo sounds were well worth the effort!

[cletus]

Egr delete made a big difference in fuel economy on my little Toyota van 

[Raizer]

Are these the later E throttle version or the cable to TB?

If cable type I bet the spindle seals are rock hard and leaking like fuck too.

 

I did EGR delete, intake clean out, catch can etc at the same time, made a rather noticeable improvement to economy.

Full 3" exhaust made an even bigger improvement, then injectors and slightly thinner headgasket when I did the head helped a LOT.

Think the last trip I did was averaging low 9L/100k open road with some decent hills and twisty bits etc thrown in, totally stock I think it was something closer to 14L/100k but that was nothing cause diesel was under 90c a litre ha.

[Roman]

Ahhh I've never considered a van for towing capabilities before.!
That is actually a really good idea for what isnt just a single use vehicle (tow car) 
aaannnndddd if it's a camper you can sleep in the damn thing at the race track. 
You are a genius. 
What's the tow rating on a van like this? 

[Truenotch]

I haven't even checked the tow rating @Roman, but it has 6 stud wheels, decent sized brakes and a substantial tow bar, so it'll be fine (compared to my 3.0 manual Legacy). The tow rating might drop compared to a Hiace as these have IRS with coil springs, so might get a bit saggy? But it also handles way better than a Hiace.

So far fuel economy is decent for a 4WD auto van @Raizer. It was 10-11L/100km on the open road and ~14 around town. I also unlocked full power by removing the thick ass driver's floor mat. That'll get a trim before it goes back in.

[Truenotch]

Once I got home from my pickapart mission it was game on to start getting the van ready for a few weeks of adventure around the North Island. 

First job was seats. The Regius seats mount to the floor exactly the same as a Granvia, so doing a straight swap would be a piece of cake.

Unfortunately the seats I bought had ripped upholstery, and the seat rails mount to the bases slightly differently on these two models, so some mucking around was needed to make them fit. 

Dad figured out that the seat backs are almost exactly the.same shape, so he  set to work swapping the covers over. The bases unbolt and mount the same between the two models. So after a bit of mucking around, we were left with rotating seats in Granvia trim colour:

While Dad was doing that, I removed the fear seats and knocked up a quick bed base. 

 It should be strong enough for a few acrobatic activities...

The captains seats are so lush.

Refitted the factory trims to make it look normal:

Next up was to get curtains into the thing. I'd been looking for a set of genuine ones, but they seem to be the first thing to sell from any wreck...

Mum came to the rescue and sewed up these lush velvet curtains using material she scored for $10 from a thrift shop.

Hey baby, want to stroke my velvet curtains?

We ran out of material, so the rear curtain is a vibe of it's own. 

Aaaaand with that, it was time for the maiden voyage - a night mission from Palmy to Whangamata.

It felt slow and was struggling to kick down... it felt like the throttle pedal wasn't going all the way to the floor. It has thick universal floor mats, so I removed that at 100kph and boom, full power!!! 

It goes great now.

Heading through the Waikato my windscreen was fogging up. I eventually realised it was the OUTSIDE of the windows that were getting foggy. Wtf Waikato, why so moist?!?!?!?!

Also note: the racecar spec single wiper conversion. The drivers side spindle is so floppy that it wouldn't touch the windscreen over 80kph. The single works well enough for now.

Safely arrived in. Whangamata:

Pretty happy with it so far. The engine and transmission seem solid for a 300k+ van. I'm looking forward to adding some more goodness to it soon!

[yetchh]

If you're gonna tow with a 1kz you need to make sure your cooling is tip top, 3" turbo back helps a lot for cool running as does the prado 82deg stat, check your fan for oil, I added a fairly high weight oil as opposed to the factory 10cst meant that when the fan came on there wasn't much slippage.. I also put in a redline 4 core rad as factory they're average, for the surf anyway. 

[Raizer]

Add the 10 blade fan from the late Hilux to that list too, big upgrade from the stock 7 blades.

 

/I'm personally now in the mindset of not changing oil in the viscous hubs and just replace with a good quality new one and the 10 blade fan, 99% sure the hub is what lead to having to pull the new head etc back off mine at @Geophy's place back in May, had fresh heavier oil in but the actual hub had failed even through it looked perfect inside and out.

[yetchh]

I tried the 1kd blue hub (brand new from toyota) on mine but didn't even make it halfway up takaka hill with an empty trailer before the guage started moving, went back to the kzn165 hub that I put on and had no more dramas (apart from my driving style) 10000cst oil didn't really help much so I bought 30000cst from acorn models and went about 50/50 with 10000cst, when it came fully on it would sap a bit of power but fuck it moved some air... had the 10 blade fan and also a B&M trans cooler with thermo fan.. 

The main problem I found with hill towing was low speed and not enough air flowing over the interheater so everything would slowly heat soak, I was about to start spraying water over the cooler to see if that helped but the car got nicked.... Problem solved

[Truenotch]

I find it interesting that they need such a big fan. Is that just a Hiace thing because of the radiator location? Or do Surf's and Hiluxes have the same issues?

The Granvia rad sits way up the front and has sat under halfway for all the driving I've done so far. 

[yetchh]

They kind did, but the surf had a thinner radiator and smaller fan from the start, prado and hilux both had thicker radiators and fans with the prado having a cooler stat but they all still had issues at some point with a lot of it coming back to the the viscous hub/cooling system condition (and diving style) My 1kz managed to do 360km with its original head but I put that down to me being proactive for the last 120km and taking all steps to avert overheating. When I first bought it in 2013, the gauge would move when overtaking a semi trailer on the open road but I never let it get into the red, they don't use speed for cooling, it's all down to the fan and in the end for me it was only my heavy foot with a load on that would cause the gauge to move, that and the low speed thing which I thick is fixable also. The other thing that you should use is a egt gauge that way you know exactly what's going on. 

[BlownCorona]

On 26/12/2023 at 11:53, Roman said:

Ahhh I've never considered a van for towing capabilities before.!
That is actually a really good idea for what isnt just a single use vehicle (tow car) 
aaannnndddd if it's a camper you can sleep in the damn thing at the race track. 
You are a genius. 
What's the tow rating on a van like this? 

a couple years ago dad was working for a place that did building maintenance and water blasting washdowns for all kinds of usually government or council property. he often went way out to the middle of nowhere with a waterblaster to wash a building and do any any repairs. most of the company had stupid modern pickups, but there was also a hiace supercustom 1kz 4wd (he personally owns a 1kz hiace 2wd and adores it) he wanted that, he then convinced them to install the heavy duty rear springs that he has fitted to his own van and then proceeded to have the most user friendly rig of the fleet. while others were carrying step ladders and rummaging around their dumb high side trays dad had all the space in the world. 

i kicked him a spare modern stereo head unit that i told the company they can keep if they let him fit it and he had music and comfort while he toured the back country towing probably 1500L of water and all his tools in the back with a clear 2nd row of seating for luggage storage/smoko room. Then people who had been with the company much longer tried to steal it from him but the owners were cool people and told them to jog since he had set it up himself and those people had turned their nose up at the old van in the corner. 

[Rhyscar]

This is a great investment and the swivel seats are so lush. Will be great for sleeping at the track and general adventures! 

How good is 1kz towing life? This has IRS correct?

 

[GARDRB]

On 08/01/2024 at 11:18, Rhyscar said:

This has IRS correct?

 

Flappy trailing arm IRS even

[yoeddynz]

Don't forget to make a wooden tray for the dash and fill it with things including seashells, crystals, tiny Buddha figures, half smoked joints, entry tickets from luminate festival 2019 etc etc. 

Add some prayer flags around the ceiling and you're pretty much sorted for entry into tasman/golden bay. 

[Raizer]

8 hours ago, yoeddynz said:

Don't forget to make a wooden tray for the dash and fill it with things including seashells, crystals, tiny Buddha figures, half smoked joints, entry tickets from luminate festival 2019 etc etc. 

Add some prayer flags around the ceiling and you're pretty much sorted for entry into tasman/golden bay. 

You forgot the crystals glued all over the airbag covers for that hippy claymore effect.