How NOT to restore the FJ40 (1 Viewer)

[FJ40Jim]

An FJ40 Cruiser has taken up long term residence in the shop. The truck in question is a Feb.1978 FJ40 showing 52K miles. Might be 152K?
The current owner bought it from a professional restoration shop out of WA state.

There is a note that accompanies the truck detailing the excellent condition & extensive work done to it.
It states:
"This truck...was 99% rust free. I restored this FJ40 as described below.
The stock 2F motor was rebuilt keeping it stock but adding some performance. The CR was raised, the cam has a more aggressive profile.
The stock 145HP was taken to 200HP, still able to run 87 octane. The original emissions equipment is intact."

Let's stop there for a moment and consider this achievement. Stock USA carb, stock intake & exhaust, stock emissions, stock ignition all in place. But HP was increased by 38%. This is a miraculous accomplishment.

Continuing with the note:
"New clutch was added at time of engine rebuild. The 4spd transmission was rebuilt along with the stock transfer case. The front & rear brakes were serviced. The hubs were replaced and serviced, all the fluids were changed.
New AC from Vintage Air, new Warn 8K winch and HD winch bumper.
New BFG tires. New battery.
Any mechanical component that needed attention was replaced or refurbished."

The truck was dropped off because it had some little problems, according to the current owner. There was oil consumption and leakage. The idle was rough and it didn't have much power.

Sounds simple. Let's get it fixed.

 

[fj404life]

This should be good!

 

[JohnnyC]

did he also say it was 100% original? and did he advertise it as being rare?

it sounds like i need to hire him to write up my truck if i ever sell it

 

[zebrabeefj40]

Got my and . I've seen the truck and heard some of the tale. Looking forward to some pics!

Nick

 

[DSRTRDR]

 

[FJ40Jim]

The initial checkout

Looking around the engine bay, it was noted that many hoses were made of incorrect material and were routed incorrectly. And the PCV valve was aftermarket carp.

So oilproof hose was put in the PCV circuit, fuel vapor proof hose was put into the canister circuit, an OEM PCV valve was installed, power brake hose was routed to the correct fitting, timing and carb adjusted...

And it still ran poorly. It looked much better underhood, but no real improvement was observed.

Looking around, it is noted that the engine restoration included reinstalling several years worth of leaking oil shmutz on the front of the engine, which was then painted over w/ black rattle can to protect it.

Leaks are observed on the shop floor, but one is out of the ordinary. The spot on the floor appears to be dripping down from beside the engine?
Yes, cylinders 5&6 are pumping so much oil out the exhaust that oil is leaking from the exhaust manifold joints. Very impressive indeed! Oh, and don't mind the missing nut on the EGR pipe and all the carbon black on the side of the block. What's the worst that can happen with 5 different exhaust leaks? A little CO poisoning never killed anybody.

 

[FJ40Jim]

Time to pull & inspect plugs and do compression check.
They are the wrong (too cold) plugs, which means they foul easily, and these are fouled!

Especially the back cylinders. They aren't just cold fouled, they are dripping with clean crankcase oil. Not good.

Interestingly, the compression numbers are OK. 155 170 160 165 160 165. Perhaps it's just pouring oil down the valvestems in the rear cylinders? Oil pressure shows OK on the gage. Oil leaks in the bottom end aren't terrible.

Yes, we're gonna pull the head, fix the myriad manifold leaks, replace valve seals and have this fixed in a day.

 

[inkpot]

I just HAVE to subscribe to this one. I've got a feelin it's about to get better and better...........

 

[JohnnyC]

Steering box looks like its leaking as well ... However... I think that's probably going to be the least of the problems... It must have been one of those mechanical components that needed no attention

 

[FJ40Jim]

Head removal and the big discovery

Pull the head off and knock a couple of valves out. Very disappointing. The valve guides are nice & tight, freshly bronze-linered. Valve stem seals are also new and the modern positive seal type. The valve seats and valves are very poorly ground with erratic widths and heights, but that wouldn't cause the big oil smoke and poor running this patient is exhibiting.

Must be a problem in the cylinder.
Turn the crank to get #6 to BDC and grope around inside the cylinder.
Whoa, there is a trench in the cylinder wall!

And there's one in the next cylinder and trenches in the next cylinder.

Intitially, I thought the damage was from an improperly installed ring. But further teardown revealed that the wristpins in the back 3 cylinders had been walking back & forth, rubbing on the cylinder walls.

Here's a better view, with the engine out and torn down.

The engine has been rebuilt (but not very recently) and it's already bored .75mm O/S, so this block is junk.

How did this happen? It seems that all 6 wristpin pinch bolts were just lightly tightened.

During teardown, the rod is clamped in the vise and a big ratchet is applied to the pinch bolt, in anticipation of cracking loose 45+ftlbs of tork. But what happened was I nearly fell over when I threw my weight at the ratchet and the bolt just spun out. After that, the other 5 pinch bolts were loosened and the pistons were removed, with rod in one hand and 3/8dr ratchet in the other. The miracle here is that none of the pinch bolts rattled loose and fell into the rotating assembly.

Maybe other parts are still useable. Let's see...

 

[BEE-JAY42]

Please name and shame the company that done this.

 

[bikersmurf]

Boat anchor...

The restorer should be ashamed.

 

[Pierps]

Yes, please do name the shop. Those of us in WA would really like to know so that it can be avoided.

 

[FJ40Jim]

Pistons and cam

Time to pull the engine, trans & transfer.
Drain some fluids, remove a few fasteners and POINK! the engine pops out.

Notice the blue paint visible from this angle? That's because the engine was rattlebombed black, in chassis, w/ most accessories in place. It was actually painted blue first, outside the truck. Apparently a fresh coat of paint is a rebuild?

Pull off tranny, then clutch.
Hallelujah, a low miles OEM clutch and machined flywheel, all held together with the correct fasteners.

Fortunately, clutches don't go stale (unlike tires or batteries). This one is from last century.

The disc is a little newer, date code is 8B9, 1998 Feb 9th.

It is difficult to get the flywheel off because the register on the crank is hammer damaged from some previous mainseal installation. Eventually it comes off and we find the rear mainseal leaking. What's odd, is it is barely touching the crank. Where have I seen this before? Oh yes, those sh!tty jasper engine we used to get at the dealer. To get rid of the groove on the rear seal surface, the crank seal surface is ground down & polished, reducing the diameter so much that the seal can no longer keep the oil inside.

More interesting rebuild techniques will be explored tomorrow.

 

[1973Guppie]

wow, just wow.....

 

[My71FJ40]

Fun...at least give us a city in WA where this "Professional" shop is

 

[FJ40Jim]

For more info re: the source of this amazing work, see this thread.
If anybody can come up with a name or website for this shop based on the limited info in the other thread, feel free to add it.

This IS tech, so just the facts, ma'am. Save the personal comments for chat.

 

[Bear]

Jim,

I agree with BEE-JAY that the name of the resto company putting out a product like this needs to be known.
A few questions: How long has the new owner been driving it? Did the new owner try to get the restorer to make good on the truck? Are the problems confined to only the engine, or is it apparent that the rest of the resto is also crudely done--paint, body, rust, other mechanical systems?

Is this a restorer working as a single-man shop, or a bigger outfit with a number of employees?
We already have the names and locations of several Arizona slock-shops, "mushy" and "popping" as they are. While anybody can make a mistake, it's the frequency of mistakes, the cover-ups, and the responsibility-taking that contributes to a reputation--good or bad.

If you deem it unprofessional to call-out another mechanic, perhaps there is another way to get out that information.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

[FJ40Jim]

I agree with you Bear.

But this is tech and calling out incompetence or ignorance in tech could be interpreted as personal. So take it to the chat thread if you're interested.

Current Owner took delivery sometime early 2012. He drove it a little once the snow melted, and then stopped by here so I could take a look & listen. That was prolly back in April? He knew it was sick, but didn't know how bad, as he had never driven an FJ40 before.

I emailed the CO some initial findings that conflicted with information in the letter of explanation that accompanied the truck. The CO emailed some of that to the PO to ask for explanation or assistance.
The response from PO was that no further assistance or information would be forthcoming, and any other communication should be to his attorney. An attorney email address was CC'ed in that email for dramatic effect.

This thread will try to document everything that can go wrong in a botched rebuild. But there are many other issues with the truck that will be addressed after the engine is running again.

 

[Pearly]

ORSUM!!

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the issues!