Builds Mail Order Ride - My HDJ81 (2 Viewers)

[gnarlynick2072]

You have a link to the "Princess Auto/Harbor Freight/whatevertherestoftheworldcallsaplacethatsellsthosecrappy"usethemonlyoccasionally"toolkindaplaces C-Clamp style UJoint remover/installers" tool you speak of? I bashed my old ones out and it was a pain.

 

[Dork]

You have a link to the "Princess Auto/Harbor Freight/whatevertherestoftheworldcallsaplacethatsellsthosecrappy"usethemonlyoccasionally"toolkindaplaces C-Clamp style UJoint remover/installers" tool you speak of? I bashed my old ones out and it was a pain.

Sure, it was one of these
U-Joint Installer and Remover | Princess Auto

Got it for around $40 on sale. The size seems to work fine, the dead end has a hole in it that accommodates the bearing cap fine, it didn't require much force to push them through, but it's honestly a little difficult to line up nicely because the exterior yoke surfaces aren't completely square to the joints. Makes installation really easy though.

 

[Dork]

New boots are on!

Rims are Black Rhino Warlords in 17x9, 6x139.7, -12mm offset, matte gunmetal and wrapped in 315/70r17 Wrangler Duratracs. Wheels have a 112mm centerbore, so a 112-106.1mm centering ring was provided by the manufacturer just for this application. You can see how they stick out just about perfectly in the picture, the edge of the tire lines up just right with the top of the flare. The old snow tires were mounted on the Mickey Thompson wheels that had a -24mm offset, so they stuck out about a half inch further. I kinda like this look a bit more I think. Should help keep the mud/rocks in check as well this way. These are quite a bit stiffer than the snows were, feel the road a lot more, but handling is nicer.

Got a matching 5th made up, but I have nowhere to put it yet, so a new rear bumper is definitely on the agenda as an early winter project.

On a side note: the grinding/vibrating noise I was hoping to eliminate with the U-Joint swap is still there at highway speeds. Maybe I have no choice but to go with a DC shaft? Damn.

Anyone want to buy a set of 4 winter tires and wheels?

Pictograms Below.

 

[Geert]

Nice new rims!
I notice you have some kind of drop brackets for the front control arms. The look huge! Any chance you could take a picture?
Is the vibration constant? or does it increase when you stop accelerating?

 

[Dork]

Sure. Here's the pics. The front bracket has the control arm sitting in the 4" drop position, and the bottom hole measures 6". This has led me to believe that I have a 4" lift installed on the vehicle, but I don't know for sure, because I don't know what the stock height of everything is. It's beefy, but it looks like it will kill my breakover angle, and I will probably end up dragging on them quite a bit. You can see the big swaybar drop extensions in the picture too.

I have no clue whatsoever what brand of lift this is. The brackets are a mystery to me, the coils have no names or numbers on them that I've been able to find yet, and the shocks were ProComp in the front, and Ranchos in the rear.

There is also an adjustable rear panhard that I had to play with today. I noticed the new tire on the right side was rubbing the exhaust ever so slightly, just when going over big bumps, then when measuring apparently the right side was closer to the frame than the left. I adjusted the rear in order to pull the right side wheel out about 1cm to give it just a bit more clearance and be closer to equal. I know the rear axle is going to shift during axle movement, but my understanding would be that the right side is the side that's always going to pull closer when getting stuffed, so I would think that side should actually be FURTHER out, rather than the other way around. I'll drive it for a while and see how it goes. Might even move it out further.

As part of the lift that was pre-installed, the rears have adjustable lower control arms already in there. I haven't touched them, or even checked what the angles are yet. I'll get around to more investigation during the winter maybe.

The vibration I'm referring to isn't constant, and it's not really felt like a vibration. It's a bit tough to explain, but it's like a mixture of a rattle/shake/vibrate/grind noise when at higher speeds, like 80kph-110kph. If I kinda EASE off the skinny pedal, so I'm giving it SOME fuel, but not quite enough to accelerate is the only time I hear it. If I have cruise control on (and it's even doing it's job, thanks to the utter lack of acceleration when in O/D on this thing) I hear it rather frequently. When I pulled the front shaft and the noise went away, then I noticed the notching feel of one of the joints, I thought I had it figured out, but I guess not, the new joints have made no difference whatsoever.

Other things I have read say that once you start hitting the over 3" of lift, the driveshaft can induce vibrations. Hence, the suggestion to go to a DC shaft to eliminate the problem. That's too much money to think about at the moment though.

I know when putting the shaft back in, I noticed the Ujoints are out of phase, then I got worried and thought I maybe screwed up when I cleaned out the slip joint, but then after some reading online and in the FSM, apparently Toyota, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the front shaft on these trucks have to be out of phase. Weird, but I'll leave it for now.

Maybe later when I have some time I'll throw the gopro under the truck and go for a drive and try to narrow down the source of the noise, but for now, I guess I live with it.

 

[Geert]

Those drop brackets are huge! and indeed will catch some rocks when you go wheeling...
From you explanation DC vibes sound logical.

 

[Dork]

Took the new ride out for a drive this week. Put on around 1500kms through the mountains and prairies with the family. Measured weight with all passengers and gear was 2880kg, and I averaged around 13L/100km for fuel mileage, which I find acceptable considering the amount of time spent with the skinny pedal pushed right to the floor.

I know you guys say they're slow, but this thing is REALLY slow on the highways. Long mountain hill climbs are burtal, and even flattish sections of road it seems to struggle to maintain highway speed. The slightest breeze or incline causes it to constantly hunt between O/D and 3rd, making it a struggle to keep the RPMs low. It also suffers noticeably once it's hot outside, the difference in power between 10 degrees and 30 degrees was obvious. As a result of the drive, I think one of the next steps for it will be working on making sure it can inhale and exhale better. It still has the stock exhaust from the turbo to the cat, and the intake is just a tiny little K&N sitting open to the warm engine air. Replacing the exhaust (and bringing it away from the tire, which it still rubs), removing the cat, and figuring out a more efficient intake to get it some cold air will become priorities.

Anyway, people only visit forums to look at pictures, right?

 

[BCR4619]

I would work on getting some gauges in that truck pretty quick, you don't want to me pushing the pedal to the floor lugging it along to find our your EGT's are through the roof. Lugging it kinda tells me your boost is low and your EGT'a are high!

 

[fj80rodngun]

so do all the Asian market cruisers have the rear lift gate badge written in english?

 

[IanB]

X2 on what BCR4619 said above, get a boost and EGT gauge in there, ASAP so you can see what effect your driving style has on the EGT's, it's a real eye opener! 3" turbo back exhaust, and turn the boost up would be a good starting point.

I recently got gauges in mine, and found I was pushing 10psi at 100km/h and above, the max for stock settings. I already had 3" exhaust at that point, which should bring EGT temps down as well. To go faster, relied solely on extra fuel = extra heat, I cringe to think how hot things got before I was able to keep an eye on it! 120km/h saw 1050F pre-turbo, with 1250 being the recommended max, that left very little room for climbing even moderate hills or trying to pass.

With boost increased to 16psi it was like extending the power band by 500rpm before the engine stopped pulling, mine kind of died off around 2900-3000rpm stock, now pulls up to about 3500rpm, huge increase in useable rev range, and runs cooler, about 100F cooler at 120km/h.

 

[Douglas S]

so do all the Asian market cruisers have the rear lift gate badge written in english?

Everything is in English except a couple stickers on the inside (how to use lockers, etc.).

 

[Dork]

Alright, so gauges first, then other stuff. They still have to wait a bit as I have to do some work on the old vehicle first preparing it for sale; it's not doing me any good sitting in the driveway collecting dust. I have no long trips planned out for this truck until snowboarding season starts anyway, so it will survive in the meantime.

As far as the english thing goes, pretty much everything is english except like Douglas said, some stickers inside that look neat, some weird stickers on the windshield, the instructions for the gearbox lockout button, that payload rating sticker on the tailgate, that sort of thing. Even all the HVAC, Cruise controls and other buttons have english abbreviations on them.

 

[NateFFEMT]

Dude welcome!! Should join us on the Toyota Expeditionary Association of Alberta... Link: Toyota Expeditionary Association of Alberta
Also search the same on Facebook and we have a page there also! Beauty JDM cruiser btw! Im just in Sherwood Park so I'm sure ill bump into you sometime! I have a Sand colour HJ60 Anyway glad to see another Cruiser in Alberta!!

 

[alia176]

I know you guys say they're slow, but this thing is REALLY slow on the highways. Long mountain hill climbs are burtal, and even flattish sections of road it seems to struggle to maintain highway speed. The slightest breeze or incline causes it to constantly hunt between O/D and 3rd, making it a struggle to keep the RPMs low. It also suffers noticeably once it's hot outside, the difference in power between 10 degrees and 30 degrees was obvious. As a result of the drive, I think one of the next steps for it will be working on making sure it can inhale and exhale better. It still has the stock exhaust from the turbo to the cat, and the intake is just a tiny little K&N sitting open to the warm engine air. Replacing the exhaust (and bringing it away from the tire, which it still rubs), removing the cat, and figuring out a more efficient intake to get it some cold air will become priorities.

This is an interesting feeback, one that I don't hear very frequently. Guess I don't hang out in the diesel section of Mud so not surprising. For some reason, I thought the 1HD-FT was the "cat's meow" but that must be after some "tweaking". The hp isn't much but the torque I hear can be outstanding once everything dialed in.

Good intro, I read the whole thing!

 

[gnarlynick2072]

This is an interesting feeback, one that I don't hear very frequently. Guess I don't hang out in the diesel section of Mud so not surprising. For some reason, I thought the 1HD-FT was the "cat's meow" but that must be after some "tweaking". The hp isn't much but the torque I hear can be outstanding once everything dialed in.

Good intro, I read the whole thing!

Lol that's what my truck was like when it was still an auto - 1HD-T combo. Absolutely brutal in the mountains. I run 33s but I can only imagine how slow the truck would be on the highway with stock gearing and 35s.

 

[Douglas S]

Set the boost to 15psi, make sure the pump is timed if you removed the ACSD. Seems to have plenty of power to me (on 34's and stock gears), but it's pretty flat around here.

 

[IanB]

Set the boost to 15psi, make sure the pump is timed if you removed the ACSD. Seems to have plenty of power to me (on 34's and stock gears), but it's pretty flat around here.

X2, upping the boost certainly helps. I'm fresh from a trip to the mountains, and it certainly is a different ballgame than running around on the prairies though. Momentum is a big deal on the long climbs.

Getting boost and EGT's gauges showed that 100km/h required 10psi to run down the highway, any speed higher than that was achieved solely by adding more fuel, as air was already maxed out! Add big hills to the mix, and the EGT's can skyrocket. My truck runs much cooler EGT's now than it did stock due to extra air available.

 

[Dork]

The sluggish feeling doesn't help either when our other household vehicle is a little Subaru with a NA boxer engine in it, and that now feels like a rocket ship comparatively.

I could get it up to around 125-130KPH on the flat highways if I REALLY pushed it, but I didn't like doing that. I'll put up with being the slow guy on the highway that won't pass an RV as long as I feel this cool while doing it

 

[IanB]

The sluggish feeling doesn't help either when our other household vehicle is a little Subaru with a NA boxer engine in it, and that now feels like a rocket ship comparatively.

I could get it up to around 125-130KPH on the flat highways if I REALLY pushed it, but I didn't like doing that. I'll put up with being the slow guy on the highway that won't pass an RV as long as I feel this cool while doing it

FYI, stock boost (10psi), cruise set at 120km/h = 1050F EGT's on flat land! 1250F is the "danger zone", it was scary easy to eclipse that up even minor grades with the cruise set that high. Gauges have made a huge difference to the way I drive this truck.

With a manual boost controller to up the boost, it now pushes 14-16psi at 120km/h down the highway, at about 850-900F in the same conditions (ambient temp, flat land, etc).

 

[Dork]

And that it's with no inter cooler, right? Just the increased boost pressure helps bring the temperatures down while also allowing for more fuel/power? Makes you wonder why it's set up so low from the factory.