Well, I'm pretty sure my 94 w/ 140k miles has blown its HG.
The whole incident began on a friday afternoon. Was planning to make family outing to a local wheeling trail and tow my sammi behind the 80. Got a few miles down the interstate and noticed that it seemed to be low on power while towing, otherwise no problems. Turned around and went back home. Poked around and saw nothing. Decided it must be a partially plugged fuel filter so swaped in a new one on saturday morning. Hit the road again and I thought it might be better but wasn't sure. Drove about 30 miles until the first big hill climb into the mountains and it was clear that something was wrong - couldn't even maintain 50mph. Turned around and headed home again. On the way back the power loss became worse and the temp would climb near the red if I let it downshift and rev up into the 4k range. The temp would come back down again as soon as the rpms dropped. Also noticed that the AC more or less quit FWIW.
By the time I made it home the idle was no longer smooth. Checked this morning and sure enough I see bubbles in the overflow tank and white smoke.
My question is what causes a HG to go out? Can other damage be done to the engine and is there anything else I can check? I would consider doing the HG myself (with Doug's DVD) but I'm to much of a newb to rebuild the engine if something else is shot.
I have to say I'm a little disappointed in the 80
. I sold my fine running (but to weak to tow anything) FJ60 a couple years ago to get the 80. The 60 had 260k miles on it with nothing more than a water pump and alternator. What happened to the LC reliability?
-Paul in Colorado
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