100 Series Toyota Land Cruiser - Tunisie Challenge Car
Discussion
You may have read my post previously about the Overland Yeti / subsequent Yeti TSI conversion which appears to have inspired a couple of PHers so far to head to Morocco, which is great! it has been awesome reading of poppopbangbang's Cayenne adventure and CA with his L405.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Well anyone that read the original thread will know that things didn't go completely to plan and ultimately we were let down by road car build quality which just isn't that suitable to the trials and tribulations of overland action (at least not at the hands of amateurs, anyway).
Shortly after getting back myself and Will decided we had had such a great time that we definitely needed to go again. 2024 wasn't going to work as I was getting married so we settled on 2025 and then set about finding a car. Being a multiple L322 owner, I gave about 1 minutes thought to taking one of those before Will and I sat down over a beer and surmised that if the organisers of the rally use 100 series cruisers, then maybe we should get one too.
Quick search on ebay in May 2024 showed quite a few available - from the ropey to the sublime and from the just about affordable to the downright ridiculous £25-30k region for clean examples.
Naturally being bargain hunters we found an auction ending with a pretty bad AI description, limited info about the car and duly placed a bid. £4,100 and a round trip to bristol and this was sitting on the driveway:
So - it's a 2000 registered Land Cruiser Amazon (100 series) with the 2UZ 4.7 V8 petrol. A diesel would have probably been a more sensible option but you know - man making V8 noises + late night bidding = what you see here.
222k miles and a fair amount of surface rust, only one key and also a bodged ignition barrel with a comedy twin flick switch and starter button setup. 100% getting that looked at...
Quite a bad exhaust blow, no service history and that unmistakable smell of a 90s cars that's been sitting around, been smoked in, had an old boy at the wheel for many of its miles - nostalgic.
It was put into light work straight away, hauling the Yeti off for ECU work and taking my 599 which I had just sold off to be exported (seen here with its new owners).
This was May 2024 and to be honest that is where the story ends for 2024 as I got bogged down with a crazy workload, summer wedding, house purchase and move and family bits and bobs to deal with, the car was put into long storage pending a plan being made to get it up to Tunisie Challenge spec.
Now realistically it would probably have been fine as is to head straight there and crack on, but we definitely want to put our stamp on it.
I sold and exported another of my cars in November and had a bit of extra budget to spare on some parts to schedule fitting in between the house move, Christmas and work commitments
First up - extended range fuel tank. With some of the stages on Tunisie 2025 reportedly exceeding 500KM, and estimating 10-15mpg realistically... on a 90 litre fuel tank was going to be pushing it so this was procured. I won't go into it but AVOID this company if possible and use someone else, not a good experience all round.
The tank will be fitted by Overland Cruisers when it goes down there in May for a good going over.
This will give us a total capacity of between 160-170 litres of fuel, so on the longer stages we will be okay.
Next up was to delete the AHC and replace with conventional suspension. Not wanting to break the bank and go with the highly regarded KING shocks, we decided to go with a mid range setup using Old Man Emu /ARB torsion bars, uprated rear springs and shocks and uprated front control arms.
The AHC was working perfectly - rising and dropping as it should - can you imagine a 220k mile P38 range rover from 2000 still on air? Despite this though, neither of us wanted to deal with a leaking hydraulic suspension system i the middle of the desert. The plan this year is reliability!
In addition to this we also ordered a new radiator and a new condenser (not pictured) so as to renew the cooling system.
Looking at it I found it strange that there is no independent condenser fan and after some research I decided to buy a condensor fan and mishimoto sensor kit - we will get round to mounting and fitting that like they have on the UAE / Australian cars in due course.
So with that, in mid feb we borrowed a friends unit and set to work for a long, greasy, painful day getting the rads and suspension replaced.
The suspension, especially the rear shocks - were an absolute b
d - but we got there in the end. The radiators were actually quite straight forward as there is a lot of room to work in the engine bay. Not so easy to work on now as it's lifted quite a bit!
Next up was to fit some spacers to the wheels so that the RADAR/RENEGADE A/T tyres would fit.
Tyres fitted and tracking done...!! and that is where we stand today, give or take.
Next steps:
We have done a third row seat delete - I wanted to put in some off the shelf storage box/drawers but at the prices most charge (£1k+) I couldn't justify it. I found strangely enough one of my suppliers in China actually makes them at a much reduced cost but with an MOQ of a pallet (8 units). So 8 units are on their way and the other 7 we don't use will be re-sold on ebay to hopefully cover our costs.
They should look something like this:
Will also got to work cleaning the interior:
Mmmmm nice
Much better.
It is off to Overland cruisers in May to have the tank fitted, a good look over and anything resolved that needs doing as well as a service. It weighs in around £6.5k currently, if we can get this fully prepped up and sorted for around the £10k mark we will be really chuffed, it's going to look and sound great...
Oh yes did I mention Toby is going to fabricate an exhaust!! The Laser Light LEDs will also re-appear in due course!
Updates will be sporadic but will keep everyone posted on the journey!
Thanks for reading.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Well anyone that read the original thread will know that things didn't go completely to plan and ultimately we were let down by road car build quality which just isn't that suitable to the trials and tribulations of overland action (at least not at the hands of amateurs, anyway).
Shortly after getting back myself and Will decided we had had such a great time that we definitely needed to go again. 2024 wasn't going to work as I was getting married so we settled on 2025 and then set about finding a car. Being a multiple L322 owner, I gave about 1 minutes thought to taking one of those before Will and I sat down over a beer and surmised that if the organisers of the rally use 100 series cruisers, then maybe we should get one too.
Quick search on ebay in May 2024 showed quite a few available - from the ropey to the sublime and from the just about affordable to the downright ridiculous £25-30k region for clean examples.
Naturally being bargain hunters we found an auction ending with a pretty bad AI description, limited info about the car and duly placed a bid. £4,100 and a round trip to bristol and this was sitting on the driveway:
So - it's a 2000 registered Land Cruiser Amazon (100 series) with the 2UZ 4.7 V8 petrol. A diesel would have probably been a more sensible option but you know - man making V8 noises + late night bidding = what you see here.
222k miles and a fair amount of surface rust, only one key and also a bodged ignition barrel with a comedy twin flick switch and starter button setup. 100% getting that looked at...
Quite a bad exhaust blow, no service history and that unmistakable smell of a 90s cars that's been sitting around, been smoked in, had an old boy at the wheel for many of its miles - nostalgic.
It was put into light work straight away, hauling the Yeti off for ECU work and taking my 599 which I had just sold off to be exported (seen here with its new owners).
This was May 2024 and to be honest that is where the story ends for 2024 as I got bogged down with a crazy workload, summer wedding, house purchase and move and family bits and bobs to deal with, the car was put into long storage pending a plan being made to get it up to Tunisie Challenge spec.
Now realistically it would probably have been fine as is to head straight there and crack on, but we definitely want to put our stamp on it.
I sold and exported another of my cars in November and had a bit of extra budget to spare on some parts to schedule fitting in between the house move, Christmas and work commitments
First up - extended range fuel tank. With some of the stages on Tunisie 2025 reportedly exceeding 500KM, and estimating 10-15mpg realistically... on a 90 litre fuel tank was going to be pushing it so this was procured. I won't go into it but AVOID this company if possible and use someone else, not a good experience all round.
The tank will be fitted by Overland Cruisers when it goes down there in May for a good going over.
This will give us a total capacity of between 160-170 litres of fuel, so on the longer stages we will be okay.
Next up was to delete the AHC and replace with conventional suspension. Not wanting to break the bank and go with the highly regarded KING shocks, we decided to go with a mid range setup using Old Man Emu /ARB torsion bars, uprated rear springs and shocks and uprated front control arms.
The AHC was working perfectly - rising and dropping as it should - can you imagine a 220k mile P38 range rover from 2000 still on air? Despite this though, neither of us wanted to deal with a leaking hydraulic suspension system i the middle of the desert. The plan this year is reliability!
In addition to this we also ordered a new radiator and a new condenser (not pictured) so as to renew the cooling system.
Looking at it I found it strange that there is no independent condenser fan and after some research I decided to buy a condensor fan and mishimoto sensor kit - we will get round to mounting and fitting that like they have on the UAE / Australian cars in due course.
So with that, in mid feb we borrowed a friends unit and set to work for a long, greasy, painful day getting the rads and suspension replaced.
The suspension, especially the rear shocks - were an absolute b
d - but we got there in the end. The radiators were actually quite straight forward as there is a lot of room to work in the engine bay. Not so easy to work on now as it's lifted quite a bit!Next up was to fit some spacers to the wheels so that the RADAR/RENEGADE A/T tyres would fit.
Tyres fitted and tracking done...!! and that is where we stand today, give or take.
Next steps:
We have done a third row seat delete - I wanted to put in some off the shelf storage box/drawers but at the prices most charge (£1k+) I couldn't justify it. I found strangely enough one of my suppliers in China actually makes them at a much reduced cost but with an MOQ of a pallet (8 units). So 8 units are on their way and the other 7 we don't use will be re-sold on ebay to hopefully cover our costs.
They should look something like this:
Will also got to work cleaning the interior:
Mmmmm nice
Much better.
It is off to Overland cruisers in May to have the tank fitted, a good look over and anything resolved that needs doing as well as a service. It weighs in around £6.5k currently, if we can get this fully prepped up and sorted for around the £10k mark we will be really chuffed, it's going to look and sound great...
Oh yes did I mention Toby is going to fabricate an exhaust!! The Laser Light LEDs will also re-appear in due course!
Updates will be sporadic but will keep everyone posted on the journey!
Thanks for reading.
Thought I would update this seeing as we have done Tunisie 2025 now...!
Been a hectic year with moving the business, buying a new house and just generally being snowed under!
Let's head back to July 2025 - between the last post and then it had spent too much time down at Overland Cruisers in Hereford - wouldn't recommend to be honest, but anyway - down there it had the extended range fuel tank fitted - giving us around 130-140 litres total capacity - should be more but we can't really work out why - possibly air lock or something - as well as having various other bits done... and some bits not....
I got it back in early July which was a heat wave and shortly after noticed this on a drive home:
Ooooops...!! I soon realised that the viscous fan wasn't working properly - just idling, which explained why the AC would stop working in traffic, something that should have been looked at in hereford. I think the clutch had seized off or something so I ordered a new one from ebay (chinese, £30), and fitted it myself - pretty satisfying to hear the roar of it working properly once it was fitted.
Spoiler alert - the cooling on these engines is absolutely unbelievable - since fixing it, the needle has not moved above it's resting spot at all since, including during flooring it down 5km+ stretches of beach at 5000rpm with the AC running ice cold. It's a beast of the road.
Next step was to take it to Toby's. Aside from anything else, the legendary Lazers from the Yeti had to find their new home
Similarly to the yeti, welding into the crash bar and then through the grille. Neat
Next step was the fun task of fitting the snorkel which was a good craic.
Tada!
Looking a bit more the part now. I also wanted a custom exhaust for it given that the headers on it were stock and leaking when cold.
I obtained a set of headers from Australia. i had done some extensive research (looking on youtube and listening to peoples exhaust videos for 100 series to see which sounded the best) - we settled on some King Brown / Pacemaker headers, and then toby would fab a 3" stainless system back from there. I'll let the pics do the rest:
As always, incredible fabrication and a great result. It wasn't a cheap exhaust to put together, the components alone were some money as it's a lot of stainless and some air freight from australia as well, but the result is 100% worth it, video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXNfC7ScibQ
It's got everything we wanted from it - the right bass note, classic V8 burble at tickover, and not at all overbearing in the cabin. Spot on!
Now that was done, it was time for the important stuff:
Where to put the beer fridge? Initially I had planned on putting it on the LHS rear drawer but then thought it would be better for it to be semi fixed behind the drivers seat, and run a battery/inverter set up in the same place for charging and power. So again, over to Toby to engineer a solution
Base frame fabbed up and x2 leisure batteries
1500w inverter + 2 leisure batteries.
Seeing as we had clearance out of the door as the fridge was ahead of the inverter we decided to put server rails in so the fridge could be accessed a bit more easily
Locked in place - wired split charger also installed linking the leisures to the main drive battery - nice bit of kit and good kits from those guys - recommend them (www.wiredcampers.co.uk)
At maximum extension - just makes it that little bit easier grabbing the tinnies.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rS2hPpy5kX0
Video of the operation ^^^
Control panel from the inverter - not a bad bit of kit for sub £100 ebay.
Batteries tied down and secure to stop shorts - this setup is cheap, basic, quite heavy but very effective. It can run the fridge and charge the navigation iPad for over a week with the engine off. The split charger prevents the drive battery from getting too low as well, it's a great solution and came out spot on ! The leisure batteries are also wired to the compressor which was the next thing to install, after this anyway:
Beast mode - engaged! Full 100 series under body protection including gbox and transfer casing. Needed a bit of adjustment and some threads put into the frame but was an easy enough thing to sort. Possibly designed for the 4.2.
Next up was the ARB compressor. Again, this was some money but we wanted to install something that would work every time without question. One of the biggest ballaches last time was the compressor being a battery operated one which was slow, cumbersome and took up unnecessary time, so we went for a built in solution this time.
Mounted to the side of the drawers - before installing the "wings"
Custom plate for the outlet and the switch
Fitted to the wing fascia
Neat, and with the supplied hose just the right length to easily reach all four corners. Coupled with two of these:
https://www.4x4works.co.uk/product/arb-e-z-tyre-de...
And we were certainly ready for fast tyre adjustments on the fly..!! Also handy and powerful compressor for blowing away the sand.
And all boxed off with the wings custom cut and fitted, pretty pleased with how that turned out..!
Of course the alternator immediately shat itself, so I quickly replaced that along with the serpentine belt one afternoon. I also bought a spare...just in case!
A little fiddly but not the worst job I've done on a car thats for sure...
Customary decals fitted - we also removed the old tint and had a window tint guy come in to put some limo tints in it
And with that, we were ready for the off!
I will try and get the pics and journey written up before Xmas, cheers for reading
Been a hectic year with moving the business, buying a new house and just generally being snowed under!
Let's head back to July 2025 - between the last post and then it had spent too much time down at Overland Cruisers in Hereford - wouldn't recommend to be honest, but anyway - down there it had the extended range fuel tank fitted - giving us around 130-140 litres total capacity - should be more but we can't really work out why - possibly air lock or something - as well as having various other bits done... and some bits not....
I got it back in early July which was a heat wave and shortly after noticed this on a drive home:
Ooooops...!! I soon realised that the viscous fan wasn't working properly - just idling, which explained why the AC would stop working in traffic, something that should have been looked at in hereford. I think the clutch had seized off or something so I ordered a new one from ebay (chinese, £30), and fitted it myself - pretty satisfying to hear the roar of it working properly once it was fitted.
Spoiler alert - the cooling on these engines is absolutely unbelievable - since fixing it, the needle has not moved above it's resting spot at all since, including during flooring it down 5km+ stretches of beach at 5000rpm with the AC running ice cold. It's a beast of the road.
Next step was to take it to Toby's. Aside from anything else, the legendary Lazers from the Yeti had to find their new home
Similarly to the yeti, welding into the crash bar and then through the grille. Neat
Next step was the fun task of fitting the snorkel which was a good craic.
Tada!
Looking a bit more the part now. I also wanted a custom exhaust for it given that the headers on it were stock and leaking when cold.
I obtained a set of headers from Australia. i had done some extensive research (looking on youtube and listening to peoples exhaust videos for 100 series to see which sounded the best) - we settled on some King Brown / Pacemaker headers, and then toby would fab a 3" stainless system back from there. I'll let the pics do the rest:
As always, incredible fabrication and a great result. It wasn't a cheap exhaust to put together, the components alone were some money as it's a lot of stainless and some air freight from australia as well, but the result is 100% worth it, video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXNfC7ScibQ
It's got everything we wanted from it - the right bass note, classic V8 burble at tickover, and not at all overbearing in the cabin. Spot on!
Now that was done, it was time for the important stuff:
Where to put the beer fridge? Initially I had planned on putting it on the LHS rear drawer but then thought it would be better for it to be semi fixed behind the drivers seat, and run a battery/inverter set up in the same place for charging and power. So again, over to Toby to engineer a solution
Base frame fabbed up and x2 leisure batteries
1500w inverter + 2 leisure batteries.
Seeing as we had clearance out of the door as the fridge was ahead of the inverter we decided to put server rails in so the fridge could be accessed a bit more easily
Locked in place - wired split charger also installed linking the leisures to the main drive battery - nice bit of kit and good kits from those guys - recommend them (www.wiredcampers.co.uk)
At maximum extension - just makes it that little bit easier grabbing the tinnies.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rS2hPpy5kX0
Video of the operation ^^^
Control panel from the inverter - not a bad bit of kit for sub £100 ebay.
Batteries tied down and secure to stop shorts - this setup is cheap, basic, quite heavy but very effective. It can run the fridge and charge the navigation iPad for over a week with the engine off. The split charger prevents the drive battery from getting too low as well, it's a great solution and came out spot on ! The leisure batteries are also wired to the compressor which was the next thing to install, after this anyway:
Beast mode - engaged! Full 100 series under body protection including gbox and transfer casing. Needed a bit of adjustment and some threads put into the frame but was an easy enough thing to sort. Possibly designed for the 4.2.
Next up was the ARB compressor. Again, this was some money but we wanted to install something that would work every time without question. One of the biggest ballaches last time was the compressor being a battery operated one which was slow, cumbersome and took up unnecessary time, so we went for a built in solution this time.
Mounted to the side of the drawers - before installing the "wings"
Custom plate for the outlet and the switch
Fitted to the wing fascia
Neat, and with the supplied hose just the right length to easily reach all four corners. Coupled with two of these:
https://www.4x4works.co.uk/product/arb-e-z-tyre-de...
And we were certainly ready for fast tyre adjustments on the fly..!! Also handy and powerful compressor for blowing away the sand.
And all boxed off with the wings custom cut and fitted, pretty pleased with how that turned out..!
Of course the alternator immediately shat itself, so I quickly replaced that along with the serpentine belt one afternoon. I also bought a spare...just in case!
A little fiddly but not the worst job I've done on a car thats for sure...
Customary decals fitted - we also removed the old tint and had a window tint guy come in to put some limo tints in it
And with that, we were ready for the off!
I will try and get the pics and journey written up before Xmas, cheers for reading
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