Purchasing 500,000+ km County with 4BD1? Too many miles?

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Originally Posted by Red90

But 5th in the LT85 and 4th with the LT95 are almost exactly the same gear ratio in stock form.

0.948 versus 0.996 I can’t see how that is enough to even notice.

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Overall ratio is LT 94- 4th. gear, 3.52:1. LT85 5th. gear, 2.82:1. Rule of thumb for LT85 & Standard diff. ratio is 100km/h @ 2000 rpm & 110 km/h @ 2200.

LT85. 0.7951 * 1.1923 * 3.54 = 3.36 It is a 4.7% difference from the LT95.

LT95 at 100 km/h is 2404 rpm. LT85 is 2286 rpm on 235/85R16.

Just to comment on the viability of a high mileage 4BD1, I would point out that a year or so ago I drove my 110, with over 600,000km at the time, from here (central west NSW) to Perth and back.

Total vehicle issues for the trip - end plate on aircleaner came loose and started rattling; fix - stopped for five minutes and tightened the wing nut. (better than last time I did this trip - had two flat tyres, one a blowout)

At 700,000km approx, mine got new liners pistons and bearings. The main bearings couldve been refitted they were hardly worn, and the crank just needed a polish.
In its early years it was over serviced, and even after the addition of a turbocharger at about 480k it just soldiered on...

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Originally Posted by justinc

At 700,000km approx, mine got new liners pistons and bearings. The main bearings couldve been refitted they were hardly worn, and the crank just needed a polish.
In its early years it was over serviced, and even after the addition of a turbocharger at about 480k it just soldiered on...

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Justin, did you buy your County from a local Tasmanian?
The reason I ask is that I sold my 1985 County in 1995 with 110k kms to a guy from Zeehan who was going to use it to run tours and was just wondering (probably a long shot) if you had bought my old one.

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Originally Posted by Xtreme

Justin, did you buy your County from a local Tasmanian?
The reason I ask is that I sold my 1985 County in 1995 with 110k kms to a guy from Zeehan who was going to use it to run tours and was just wondering (probably a long shot) if you had bought my old one.

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Hi Roger, no it was bought from a customer who bought it sight unseen from central NSW , with the intention of using the drivetrain put of it. It was a V8. I bought the amazingly rust free shell off him . The engine however was from my uncle's 1988 county. It was the very first Isuzu 110 I had driven as a youngster on their farm. He had bought it new in 88. It's a full circle where the engine I first drove was then bought from him after his 110 disappeared from corrosion, and fitted to my Range rover classic for about 5 years, then fitted to the county shell.

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Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

I consider the LT85 is the better combination with the 4BD1. The overdrive 5th. gear makes it a far superior tourer. You do not use overdrive below 80 km/h or towing. As with all 4BD1's the rough idle destroys the input shaft and bearing so turn up the idle speed to a smooth idle on a warm engine. It is important to have a good thermostat as this engine is thirsty and does not perform well unless at operating temperature.

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The issue on the LT85 is that there is a metal pin that came with the original from the factory that gets fatigued and can shear with wear, causing issues as I understand it. Once you have to rebuild it, you can replace that with a hardened metal pin replacement and the LT85 goes quite well. I prefer the feel of the lt95 in the Perentie when not on interstate, but am thankful for the overdrive (and the hardened pin replacement) in my lt85. A lot of lt85's seem to hold up well if driven properly even without a rebuild, but if they've been ridden hard, did towing or overloading uphill frequently in overdrive (not to be done, as noted by previous posts), then they may need rebuilding. The beauty of this vehicle is anything on it is pretty straight forward to sort out (and there's great expertise here to help one do so) if needed AND these 110's are far more capable, reliable and resilient than models from other parts of the world from the same era. Ashcroft transmissions in the UK sell the reconditioning kits with the hardened pin for the lt85, fyi.

One question I would raise - 1989 should have the LT85, not the LT95. If it is an LT95, either the box has been replaced - or this may well not be the original engine/gearbox unit. If this is the case, it is very likely that the vehicle originally was a V8 (a check on the VIN using one of the online checkers should answer this).

In this case, the question is where did the engine come from, and how much work had it done? This is likely to be very difficult/impossible to find out. It is also possible that some of the accessories are not the same as the factory installation (although this length of time after manufacture, this is quite possible with a factory installation).

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

One question I would raise - 1989 should have the LT85, not the LT95. If it is an LT95, either the box has been replaced - or this may well not be the original engine/gearbox unit. If this is the case, it is very likely that the vehicle originally was a V8 (a check on the VIN using one of the online checkers should answer this).

In this case, the question is where did the engine come from, and how much work had it done? This is likely to be very difficult/impossible to find out. It is also possible that some of the accessories are not the same as the factory installation (although this length of time after manufacture, this is quite possible with a factory installation).

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Or it is not a 1989 model but actually an earlier model with the original LT95 'box. Once again, a VIN check should reveal the answer/s.

My Son's County runs a LT95 that's a bit on the noisy side. We found emulsified oil in in when we got the car home and did a prompt change. I suspect worn bearings, do these boxes fail in a spectacular manner or soldier on? We have a spare box but are not sure how urgently we need to do the change.

Cheers,

Mark