What I've noticed from the 70,s to now in four wheel drive owners seem to have a monster truck attitude and push and abuse their gear until catastrophic failure when I was kid no one had the money to replace anything so we took care of our Tojo,s and Landy,s or it could mean your life if you got stuck in the middle of nowhere attitudes have really changed.

Awesome. another great informative video again, really appreciate your no bs content.

I've taught you well,l just had my old mate ring saying his done his 4 cylinder engine in a iveco at low km,new engine he said was a bit sluggish without the chip. I told him get the bigger engine if you want to tow your 5th wheeler.

Another great Video... Totally agree with you that people want more torque out of these 4 cylinder engines.. Keep them coming.

I had a px ranger 3.2, tuned and guess what? It ended up with a cracked head at 150000km. Now got a 200 series, nice big engine for towing and I'm not going to mess with it!

The real issue is the gap between the Landcruiser and Prado in price and performance. If you want to see this country and you have kids you have to tow in most cases. It a marketing strategy. So they push the 4 cylinder hard tune it down when first released tweak it too increase power and torque for future releases and increase tow weight. Modifying that further with chips tunes and remaps is just stupid unless your loaded. Put a v6 diesel auto in the Prado and see how many Landcruisers sell-

Toyota lightened the pistons as part of reducing emissions. With extended towing the exhaust gas temperatures could rise and damage the pistons resulting in failure. This occurred to my standard non modified 3.0 litre D4D doing a three week trip towing a 1.5t camper trailer. Turns out I should have fitted a pyrometer and monitored this. No mention of this in the manual. However Toyota did go back to heavier reinforced pistons towards the end of the 3.0 litre model run. European Toyota dealer service bulletins recommended against fitting standard pistons when overhauling this engine. Before this trip I had serviced this vehicle from new; 5k oil and filter changes and new injectors as a precaution. Motor was in good condition with minimal carbon in the intake. Conclusion: not fit for purpose. Not good enough for a $55k investment. These are not a highly stressed engine compared to others. The company I chose, that rebuilds these engines refuses to put OEM pistons back in. A large percentage of their work is rebuilding 3.0l D4D that have had this failure.

You're the best. It's so simple but people don't get it. Everyone just tries to find an excuse for anything that goes wrong. The truth is that the only thing unreliable about any toyota is actually the owner.

Thanks for the information Anthony👍

This is quite a common thing with Toyota 3 litres from 2005 I have repaired numerous in standard trim no mods,they tend to crack along the gudgeon pin and work there way up the pistons are a weak point.

Toyota want 4 details when doing a pre-claim for cracked pistons. 1) Accessories & Mods (inc. Genuine) 2) Towing Percentage & KM’s per month 3) Towing Weight 4) Driving City Type or Highway inc percentage.

Thank God..................at last someone who understands you can only wring so much power out of a certain amount of cubic inches!!!!

True, my 2013 hard driven 170,000 km young 1KD Hilux does not use one ounce of oil from one 7500km oil change to another!

Tuner Chip, Check. Rolling coal, Check. Load the heck out of it , Check. Bang!

Modifying an engine from standard will pretty much always increase the risk of failure. Servicing is critical. But how you drive and how much stress you put on components is also critical. You can tow heavy loads but if you want the engine to last don't push it too hard. Your coolant system needs to be operating perfectly and it's a good idea to watch it. And if it's a 40 degree plus day ask yourself do I need to tow this now? And if you do then drive to reduce heat. Heat is the thing that will crack pistons and blocks faster than anything else. And a lean mixture combined with excess heat is asking for trouble. Cheers mind you some engines are simply badly designed engines and there is allot of freely available information about these engines. Oh and lastly towing isn't the major source of stress a well maintained 4wd will face. In fact in terms of stress on a vehicle it can be a non issue if you consider the points I have made above. What will really kill a 4wd fast is high loads and low speed. Flogging a vehicle in sand and mud. Flogging it in low range climbing where everything gets so hot the exhaust pipes glow and because your crawling the underbonnet temperatures reach Mercury. Keep it cool and generally you will stay cool. Cheers all

The pistons are cracked due to bowl design and the cracking usually starts in the top of the piston pin bore ( note all cracks are inline with the pin axis) . Tuning will speed up the cracking process but is not the reason for the failure.

4/D. These D- 4D donks were a marine engine designed by 'Yanmar' in Japan ! Best use is for a boat anchor mista ? V.

Hi Anthony, love your videos. Wish I had found them sooner before doing all my mods, unfortunately already fitted most of the mods. if you have already had a remap and you don’t tow or drive your vehicle hard would this crack piston? I have been driving it for around 20000km since the remap but now concerned that I could damage a piston on my KD 120

Sicaflex it 🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍👍

A deep dished piston experiences extreme radial pressure that is completely absent in a domed piston. If you have pressure spikes due to overfueling then the piston will crack in that manner. I think if you were to put a pressure transducer in the combustion chamber and run the engine on an engine dyno you would be shocked.

A few shops making a buck out of engine tunes/ecu tunes. A lot of shops making a fortune on rebuilding those engines some as early as 20 to 50k.

Absolutely love your videos I have an 03 120 series GXL, where are you guys based?

Ive jus passed 5k on my new Great Wall 2wd single cab..V200 4cyl turbo...its willing to a point..and I accept that.

Can you change pistons in a hilux leaving the engine in the chassis ?

So when you crack a piston, do you need to bore the cylinder sleeves? Or can you just drop another piston in?

Four wheelers,,, if you're serious about getting out in the open air,,, must have at least 6 cylinders,,,, I can't fault my 97 rd28,,, upgrade on air intake, exhaust, next turbo after factory, 1/8th turn on fuel,,,, sitting at 390000kms,, 200000 kms since upgrade still not 1 little issue,,,, regular maintenance,,,, but yeah, it is a patrol!!!!! Love your no bullshit attitude dude!!!!!!

Any differences between the 127kw and 140kw versions of these engines?

If remaps are the main cause as you say why isn’t every other diesel known for cracking pistons??

Is it possible to tell if an engine has been remapped (by a previous owner)? Can it be returned to factory mapping?

@fourby4diesel Hey mate I have a 2013 150 series Prado, and it as oil leak around intake side of the turbo... have you sen this issue and what will cause this? Should I be worried?? Do you have videos on that?

I'm quite surprised the crank doesn't let go after the retunes rechip in these motors with the added torque and power towing some of the big asks these owners expect these vehicles to do. Especially with these vehicles weighing 2 tonnes and they expect them to tow another 2 tonnes or more on top of that

There's no replacement for displacement.

what do you think of the vdj engines?

Most of the remapping expert tuners have no idea what they are doing. They overfuel and engines run very hot, sure you will get more power but it comes at the expense of reducing the longevity of your motor. Remapping with a proper diesel expert who understands diesel engines can set up a vehicle for max power output without overfueling but most tuners have plenty of experience on petrol engines but not diesel.

Does the 1-gd-ftv 2.8 also suffer from cracked pistons?

Should’ve a brought a v6 petty

Bloody legend 🤘

people should tow at 80 or 90, decent performance, then you won't need a remap, and safer traveling

what do Aussies consider heavy tow? no one I know here uses a toyota to tow.

once again some very good advice on both the towing capability of these under powered 4wd's and the flogging they have to do to tow these vans , the tunning is just a disguise to the real problems hidden inside ,, sloppy service work is another issue , incorrect oil's and non expert rebuilding the motor ,, tip buy a long motor and you got a warranty at least

Is there any after market pistons available that could be used in these motors

So, lets look at the bits not harped-on about. #2 piston is not from that engine, very different piston. Common issues for blowing a particular piston (ZD30's blow/melt #4 thanks to EGR and poor design (Less air in back pot, same fuel, gets hotter than rest)) need to be looked at when pushing more than stock. Yes, those pistons have a design flaw wich can be seen with "Straight Cracks" in same spots above the pins. What is also seen is the there is too much fuel being added too late and its spraying on the tops rather than into the bowl. Tuning needs a lot of work along with understanding. Too many tuners without dyno's who are plug-n-play while not understanding the dynamics.

I think its foolish to blame ECU remaps for Toyota's weak piston design. It would be like going to a Doctor for an ingrown toenail and the Doctor blaming the ingrown toenail on smoking 🤔 Perhaps you guy's should visit some of the reputable diesel performance workshops in Thailand sometime. Those guy's know how to build and tune Diesels.

Question ❓ is do Thay learn

Why open it up and only do 1 piston? "Do it right the first time" Shouldve done 4 pistons and 4 injectors Dyno tune on other vehicles do not crack pistons, its only on 1kd, go figure, its not the tune, its the motor. A known issue with these 1kds

Spot on. Too many flogs flogging their motors

Nothing wrong with a remap, can even drop cylinder pressures and temps if done right. Most so called stage 1 tunes actually allow the motor to run all the way up its already factory installed mapping and parameters, that are then limited for emissions, transmission capabilities, hell some cars have identical running gear from model to later model but are pulled back so they can say the new one has more power. It's bone head drivers. Fit a pyrometer, drive it with some sense. Reason remapped engines.blow is they are no longer idiot proof, or the so called tuner has no idea what he's doing. I know plenty of, including myself running much much more fuel and boost through small displacement diesels and they work perfectly fine. As I don't rape it at every set of lights just cause I can, sure it might not last 400km like a stocker, but it sure isn't magically going to crack a piston.

performance chips = increased fuel rail pressure - never trust a chip.

Yanmar is a Chinese company there made china thay have contracts with may names Toyota Hyundai kaboto and so forth

Any reason they crack on the same axis ?

Double the hoarse power half the engine life

Wow it's a Toyota ffs that engine should last 500,000km! Just leave it alone and trust Toyota Engineers not some chip. My now 24 yrs old 320,000km+ 5vzfe still runs like new and it's not even a Diesel powerplant. Pro tip: leave it alone and keep stock. Change oil every 5000km. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gs2lhNKmxJi2dqs.html Good on you to highlight these "problems"

theses a tsb on them cracking from toyota without chips or tunes

Well I had a 3.0 D4d with 350k km never chipped or mapped 100% factory. Suddenly lost compression on piston 4. It hairline cracked clean in half. When toyota rebuilt the engine the bearings were 100%, They couldn't explain why it happened. Maybe toyota just build shitty engines sometimes.

Can’t wait for a good decent electric dual cab in 15 years. Electric motors are much better