Couple of questions about 70's and their engines

[Matt Vee]

I was wondering what the deal is with the 2.4L head cracking and also were there any 3L 78's before 1993 as I saw one with a KZJ-TE engine but it was a 1991.

 

[Iwan]

The 3l engine was in the long wheel base 4 door and it's designated as a lj79. 1kz is from 92/93 on and they rock but also the early ones suffer from cracked heads... if you ever look at a 1kz check the code on the side of the head above the exhaust manifold in the middle.. 1A 1B etc is the older head and 2A 2B etc are the later 90 series heads that don't seem to suffer like the 1's. If there's no code then it could be a Chinese replacement head.. if it has AMC on it then they're a very good replacement... been a while since looking into the topic tho!

 

[Matt Vee]

Cool, thanks man, so a 1991 is probably a conversion then?

 

[Iwan]

Sounds like it's a bit early for the kz.. how ever if it's done right then there's no problem... checking the head code still applies tho.

 

[Matt Vee]

Cool, thanks for the info dude

 

[Matt Vee]

Is the 2.4L sufficient for bumbling about off road?