Adding variety to the Covid testing line.

[ITA97]

The cooties came to the ITA97 household with my sister being exposed to a hospital co-worker who later tested positive before getting sick last week and testing positive herself. She's doing well and has been feeling better this week, with relatively mild symptoms along the lines of a cold, but without any ability to taste or smell. That's put me living with someone positive, and obviously both of us are in quarantine mode. The doggo loves that no one ever leaves the house. I feel fine with no symptoms other than a bunch of sinus congestion this week, which I attribute seasonal allergies being as likely a cause as the cooties.

Being about about 10 days out from my first exposure to a household member with symptoms, this morning I ventured into the outside world to get my brain poked at the local public health office. For those keeping score, this is the third time I've had my brain poked to check for the cooties, after being sick with a cold in the spring and an exposure via a server at a brewery a few months ago, failing the test both times after cooties weren't detected. I have to give credit for the public health office really improving the efficiency of their testing operation each time I've been tested.

In part because the Pajero hadn't been started or driven in a couple of weeks, I took it this morning to add some variety to the testing line and mix it up by making the folks walk around to the other side of the truck to interact with me. A couple of the folks organizing the traffic line certainly were checking out the Pajero, and the lady who poked my brain excitedly said "oooh, you've got a fancy-schmancy car!" after walking around to the right side.

It was good to see the outside world, albeit briefly. This morning was also an unseasonably cold 18 degrees (freedom units) in Southern NM. Once things were at operating temperature, my little 4M40 under the Pajero hood was loving the cold air. Things felt positively snappy under acceleration, or at least as snappy as things can ever feel in a 4700 pound truck with a little mechanically-injected 2.8l turbo diesel.

[chan]

I can’t believe the Pajero is that heavy.

[ITA97]

@chan said in Adding variety to the Covid testing line.:

I can’t believe the Pajero is that heavy.

It is an impressively built example of Japanese bubble era engineering and build quality in truck form. As an example, it has 9.25inch rear differential, which in the American truck world would be 3/4 ton truck-sized. US market Monteros got smaller, lighter-duty axles than the diesel-powered world market trucks. The headlights are glass lenses (which was also certainly not the case on USDM Monteros). I like turning wrenches on it in part because everything on it is just so overbuilt by modern standards. Everything under the truck is heavy, and the things like the quantity and quality of fasteners on just about everything never fails to impress me. You can't buy this type of build quality in a new car today at any price point. This is a big part of the appeal to me in it as a driving around remote places off-road vehicle, and probably a big part of why they were found in so many austere corners along side the Toyota Land Cruisers/Hilluxes/Nissan Patrols of the world.

[spacekraken]

That really is quite the tank of a truck, love it. Glad your sister is okay, and hope test comes up negative for you!

[chan]

@ita97 awesome. The last car my parents had with glass headlamp lenses was an ‘89 Benz.

[DipodomysDeserti]

@ita97 I'm really glad my work decided to go virtual for the week after TG. My email is now being flooded with people who are testing positive after traveling over the break. Last test my kids and I took was just a nose swab. No more nasopharyngeal poke for us! We've also all tested clean each time.

[flatisflat]

@ita97 Good on you for sharing the good cars with the world! Hoping you end up failing this 3rd test also.

[Highlander]

@ita97 Bruh...
https://www.japaneseclassics.com/vehicle/1990-nissan-safari-panel-truck/

[ITA97]

@flatisflat said in Adding variety to the Covid testing line.:

@ita97 Good on you for sharing the good cars with the world! Hoping you end up failing this 3rd test also.

Thanks! This is the one test I always hope to fail.

I also enjoy giving my Pajero a second life in dry, desert climate where it hopefully won't quickly rust further than it already has.

[chan]

@ita97 The scary thing about this virus is how inconsistent and unpredictable its symptoms are. Hope you and your sister are on the mend.

[ITA97]

@highlander That rustles my jimmies. For my purposes, I would be concerned if the back is actually long enough to sleep in, but otherwise it is probably a good thing I don't have a spare $15K lying around to give my Pajero a JDM sibling to keep it company in the garage. The long enough to sleep in the back thing is is why I never really considered any of the two-door rugged JDM import trucks, even if they rustle my jimmies in all the right ways.

My particular Pajero caught my eye on the Japanese Classics website because of its relatively uncommon 4-door lbw/bigger 2.8l diesel/manual combination and the lack of Toyota tax for probably 90% of durability and capability of a similar Land Cruiser that seems to cost about $8-9k more for equivalent age and low mileage . The smaller 2.5l diesel/5-speed manual combo is pretty common the smaller 2-door Pajeros, but most of the 4-doors on the import market these days are a diesel/4 speed auto drivetrain combo. Seeing a lwb/bigger 2.8l/5-speed manual in my favorite color meant I had to buy the truck.

[derp]

Your Pajero is 4000 times cooler than a Land Cruiser, and I love me a good Land Cruiser.

[BicycleBuck]

@ita97 One of my wife's friends is now in the hospital. Our daughters were in Girl Scouts together. We're really hoping that she pulls through.

My wife's cousin has been obstinate about wearing masks and now has it. Her daughter lost a friend to COVID on Thanksgiving day. The guy was 35. She had known him since high school.

I think some of the people in our extended family are finally starting to take this seriously.

[Highlander]

@ita97 They currently have a few pajero's with auto transmissions. My jimmies are very rustled.

[AkioOhtori]

@ita97 I agree with @chan . That means your Pajero essentially weighs the same as my Disco? Then again I guess the Disco is mostly aluminum, including the engine...

[ITA97]

@highlander said in Adding variety to the Covid testing line.:

@ita97 They currently have a few pajero's with auto transmissions. My jimmies are very rustled.

If you do actually shop Pajero's, my two biggest tips would be watch for rust and the red sticker on the driver's door jamb that signifies an LSD in the back.

Those back East would probably scoff at what Westerners consider rust, but these trucks are certainly rustier than things that live their whole lives out West are. Presentation is a big thing, so most of the trucks have had some underbody touchup done with a spray can as they went through the auction prep process in Japan. Something to keep in mind viewing underbody pictures...

They were available with a factory electronic-locking rear differential, but the option was rare with something along the lines of like a 5% take rate. Those would have a diff lock switch on the console. At this point, it would probably be fair to assume the Aussies and Kiwis snapped up most or all of those trucks on the export market a decade ago. I've only seen one for sale in the US that had the factory rear locker.

Much more common is a rear limited slip, signified by a red sticker on the driver's side b-pillar. The lack of such a sticker would mean an open differential in the back. That said, these trucks have a lot of rear suspension travel via the 3-link setup. While I don't go rockclimbing or off-roading simply for the sake of off-roading, I've never once had the truck in a position where I needed a locker. The impressive rear travel and limited slip have provided ample rear traction for anything I'm interesting in driving a nice vehicle over.

I'm not sure the auto would really be a negative on one beyond that I just love to have a manual in a diesel truck. These have ALL the turbo lag and narrow on-boost power band. It makes mine properly slow to accelerate, but not really because it is underpowered. It is slow more from the cycle of apply throttle, wait for the turbo to spool up, quickly run out of RMP and then shift to the next gear and repeat the process. Something tells me a torque converter and having more time in each gear you can be on-boost before running out of RPM probably goes a long way to negating one fewer gear. The 2.8l 4M40 starts spooling the turbo about 1500rpm, hits full boost about 2200-2300 rpm and runs out of breath about 3100-3200rpm. There is never really a reason to rev past 3500rpm, even though redline is 4500rpm. They'll keep up with modern traffic just fine around the city, but that is all there is for acceleration.

The other thing to probably be aware of is that they are geared short for driving in place that had 55mph speed limits at the time. They are not geared for sustained, modern Western interstate speeds. They 2.8l diesel ones technically have a top speed of like 93mph and I've gone 85mph in mine once, but the short gearing and screaming little diesel are never going to make you want to drive 80mph. On mine, anything over 75mph is the engine telling you it really prefers to not be cruising along at so many rpms. Mine is really happiest enjoying the interstate scenery in the right lane at 70-72mph, and it actually returns better fuel economy puttering around town than out on the interstate for this reason. If you frequent highways with less than 75mph speed limits one of these will love you a lot more.

[ITA97]

@akioohtori said in Adding variety to the Covid testing line.:

@ita97 I agree with @chan . That means your Pajero essentially weighs the same as my Disco? Then again I guess the Disco is mostly aluminum, including the engine...

Except for the cylinder head, from what I can tell the Pajero is largely allergic to aluminum. The list of overbuilt stuff on the truck just gets longer the more you poke around it. The bash gaurd/skid plate running from the lower grill (actually built into the front plate) to the transmission cross member is a two-piece steel plate thick enough that you could probably getaway with using it a jacking point. Many of them like mine have the factory optional dual battery setup.

The truck has four cooling fans... The belt-driven primary fan, a large secondary pusher fan on the front of the cooling module, a shroud and fan on the backside of the auxiliary condenser (at least on rear A/C trucks) and a shroud and fan on the underside of the intercooler to pull in air through the hood scoop in an effort to reduce heat soak at slow/no speeds. The more I've worked on the truck the more I've found stuff like that. I now get why a USDM Montero was so expensive new back in the day, even with them often being down-rated from the JDM/world market Pajeros.

[chan]

@bicyclebuck other than the death part, that’s good to hear.