Doc Wong's Delica Experience-First 3 Months and the Changes Made!!

DocWong

DocWong

Active Member
My background: Very experienced motorcyclist, chiropractor, scuba diver, mountain biker and have a fair share of general mechanical experience. I tend to be decently handy around machines and around the house. I bought a '94 Delica L400 SWB from a JDM importer in South San Francisco named Rank 1 Imports. It had only 100,000 km or about 60,000 miles. It was low mileage and very clean, no rust and ran well. I really liked the idea of being able to sleep in it and it being true 4 wheel drive. It reeked of adventure, outdoors, camping and practicality.

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It's only been 3 months but I've learned a lot! Totally love the experience and in the process in ensuring it's road worthiness for camping trips and use as a daily driver. So here are my impression so far:

-The Experience: I absolutely LOVE the experience, driving it daily, using it around town, transport for mountain biking, hanging out at the beach, etc! And it's the one of the most endearing vehicles to myself, my family and to perfect strangers. People will give you the thumb up, ask questions and most of all, makes people smile. Something my more expensive sports cars don't typically do. How cool is that?

-Maintenance: It's been one thing after another and so far as soon as I fixed one thing, something else needs attention. Thank goodness to this forum where I got good advice and along with the available shop manuals, it's been pretty easy.

I'll post a lot more in detail in this thread....
 
DocWong said:
-Maintenance: It's been one thing after another and so far as soon as I fixed one thing, something else needs attention. Thank goodness to this forum where I got good advice and along with the available shop manuals, it's been pretty easy.
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Yeah, these do require a "bit" of maintenance. But, I always try to remember that it's a 32 year old van (in your case, ONLY 29 year old) and some things don't last that long. BUT, once you have all hoses, belts, bushings, brakes, tyres, fluids, gaskets, rings, pistons, turbos, batteries, alternators, seats, carpet, interior bits... Then, you just need to look at the transmission and engine! :)

Seriously, don't regret buying my van. Love her every moment I can afford the fuel!
 
Actually it’s not really that bad, it was only replacing the 2 batteries, then Alternator went out so I replaced that, then a coolant leak that I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from till it got bad enough, replacing the radiator, then while flushing out rust from the cooling system got a pinhole leak from the turbo coolant line. Patches that up and am waiting for a replacement line. Not bad so far.

I spent way more time with all the mods. ;-)

So it’s been one mod after another. :)
 
DocWong said:
Actually it’s not really that bad, it was only replacing the 2 batteries, then Alternator went out so I replaced that, then a coolant leak that I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from till it got bad enough, replacing the radiator, then while flushing out rust from the cooling system got a pinhole leak from the turbo coolant line. Patches that up and am waiting for a replacement line. Not bad so far.

I spent way more time with all the mods. ;-)

So it’s been one mod after another. :)
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Glad you got everything sorted for now Doc!!
 
Next I’m putting in a hi flow catch can, then looking into front snd back differential locking diffs.
 
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