Builds 1994 BUILD OUT and LS swap! Let's Go! (1 Viewer)

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Took the LC for its first trip out of town. I was sure nervous! Went to the Wichita mountains. Didn’t do much off-road. Barely some gravel. Wasn’t the point of this trip. Wanted to cruise at Highway speeds and monitor temps. Temp never moved from dead center. It was also as perfect of a day. 40-60 degrees overcast. Found a few small issues. Some cheap wire loom melted near exhaust. Speedo is slow by 6 mph. Heater core leaks. But what a feeling of starting it up the next morning. I was dreading it. No cell service! Fired right up.

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Took the LC for its first trip out of town. I was sure nervous! Went to the Wichita mountains. Didn’t do much off-road. Barely some gravel. Wasn’t the point of this trip. Wanted to cruise at Highway speeds and monitor temps. Temp never moved from dead center. It was also as perfect of a day. 40-60 degrees overcast. Found a few small issues. Some cheap wire loom melted near exhaust. Speedo is slow by 6 mph. Heater core leaks. But what a feeling of starting it up the next morning. I was dreading it. No cell service! Fired right up.

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When you pull the heartercore...will you document this? I would love to see how to pull the dash etc. I know there are others who have done it, but you explain it well.
 
So ran into an issue. During install, couldn’t get the hose barbs through the firewall. As you can the short arm is off by an inch or so. Not even close. Didn’t notice it at first. So I’m trying to figure out my options. They sell heater cores with out any arms on them. And that’s what I should’ve ordered. And de-soldered the old ones and re-used them. But not knowing how they were in the Toyota original I did t know that was an option. Of course I damaged the short 90 arm pulling it apart. So, can I know de-solder the brass one of the OEM, attempt to de-solder what appears to be aluminum one and solder the brass OEM pipe in the new aluminum core? Can you solder brass to aluminum? I’ll see if I can find some shops in town. I’m also guessing it’s just the portable propane torches plumbers use?? Please give some advice.

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I did that on a 60 series because the clips that holds the pipes together didn't work so I soldered them in while doing that I heated other joints up not on purpose and it leaked in other areas I kept chasing the leaks I did finally get it sealed up. A long list of cuss words were said multiple times.... you need low heat in a small area. The hand held map gas torch that I used worked but heated up to big of an area. That's all the help I have.
 
to not spread heat, Id lay a wet rag over the other areas. Can you solder brass/copper to aluminum. Im guessing the OEM was copper?
 
I did that. Not sure on the brass to aluminum I would think so I'd Google that before doing anything
 
So more info on what I’ve run into.


Is that A/C evaporator the same size as the Toyota (Denso) one? If so, which one did you buy? I bought one from Rockauto and it was thinner than OEM.

I took my leaking Toyota heater core to a radiator shop and he resoldered one end cap, and reinforced other areas. If needed, he can build a new one using the OEM end caps. I also have the aluminum ones with and without the pipes but decided to stay with my old one.
 
The ac was the same size. I don’t think my Hester core was salvageable. I called a master plumber , he said he can braze on the the tube I need to use and get off the one that isn’t correct. I’ll keep ya posted.
 
The ac was the same size. I don’t think my Hester core was salvageable. I called a master plumber , he said he can braze on the the tube I need to use and get off the one that isn’t correct. I’ll keep ya posted.

Which A/C evap was it? I purchased the UAC EV60101PFC (90mm) and it was thinner than the original in my LX450. Denso shows 105mm depth.

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You know I didn’t look that closely. It fit fine in the case and the outlet tubes all lined up. At this point I’ve given up on trying to hold out for Denso or OEM parts. They just don’t seem available. I didn’t measure them against each other. Seemed the same as I generally looked at them.
 
Well, I finally got the LC back together, this jester core really unraveled into a can of worms. I ended up ordering another one and just had to bend the pipes around to make it work. I was making it more complicated than it needed to be.

So then it was onto getting the ac working. Had to track down a leak. It was the actual old GM ac compressor. So replaced the compressor and passed a vacuum leak test easily. Got it serviced. Issue now is getting the electric fans to work in conjunction with the ac. I’m looking at getting the ECM to control the fan, or using the un used portion of the Toyota high pressure switch. So I’ll be doing some testing on it this week.
 
Hey everyone! Im still around! Finally got that heater core swapped out and dash re-installed, surprising only had a few screws left over! No matter how slow I went still have some extras!

Another item off the list is I finally got the AC working. I had hoses made from supplies I ordered from Cold Hose as others have mentioned. I couldn't get a leak test to pass, so while I had the dash out, I swapped out the evaporator core, expansion valve, and a new condenser. I had already but a new dryer in. Of course it still leaked, and of course the only part not swapped, the original GM compressor! It was leaking from the seam where the two halves come together. Swapped it out, leak checked GTG! Charged up the system working great.

How I have my wiring is all I did was take the power from the old toyota ac plug and spliced on the GM ac compressor. So the Toyota system is working. Only thing I had to come up with was how to get one of my electric fans to kick on. The GM ECM should be able to do it, which I won't get into right now, but for what ever reason, I couldn't get it to work. So I remembered reading a thread called the ABC's of 80s cooling and they talked about adding an AUX fan for AC while trail riding or slow speeds with little airflow. Apparently its was an option overseas. So using the Toyota Hi/Lo pressure switch for the ac coolant system, there's a 3rd position of MID range PSI, I believe it is 250psi, and I know the HI is about 500psi, because during servicing I would see it get to 500psi and shut off every time. So I hooked up a ground through the pressure switch to trigger one of my fan relays. During testing, it would cycle on and off. It seems to be working well. I am aware of the potential for batt bleed down since my relays are batt hot and ground controlled by the GM ECM and now this pressure switch. I know I will be careful of it and I carry a jump box. I will cross that bridge of protentially changing it some how. For now, Ive got AC and a fan to cool the condenser, Im going to take the win.

I just ordered the battery tray mount and mounting plate from Red Line Cruisers to clean up my fan wiring, relay mounting, and fuses for all of this. So we are really just buttoning up loose ends. I have about 650 miles on the swap. With individual drives over a 100 miles. So everything is good so far.

My last thing I need to monkey around with is my shift linkage. I just don't love how mine came out. I have a plan moving forward and will hope to get it done in the next two weeks. Then final button up, wire wrap and get my seats re-covered!
 

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