Builds An HJ61 followed me home to Texas (1 Viewer)

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SILVER Star
Joined
Sep 29, 2013
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34
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2,850
Location
Austin, TX
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Hey MUD,

An HJ61 followed me home to Austin.

This is my first diesel, so I'll be calling on all of you to help me get sorted and up to speed in the diesel world.

The origin story:

2 1/2 years ago a right-hand drive HJ61 showed up on my local craigslist. I had my first cruiser then, a 1986 FJ60. I met the seller, drove his truck and it promptly broke my brain. So much torque. So much truck lust. But I had...so little money available.

I tried to quickly sell my 60 but couldn't get the funds together in time. Ironically, the HJ61 sold to a guy who works at the gas station literally a block away from me. I stared at it daily, knowing that someday I would drive a diesel 60 series.

I started talking to a bunch of folks about making a diesel swap of my own happen. I contacted @orangefj45 , found a 1HZ drive train, and got on the waiting list for Georg to do a conversion for me on Beno's rolling chassis. I had it all planned out. Operation diesel cruiser was set.

And then this truck showed up on MUD. After a couple of weeks, I just couldn't help myself. I called the seller, talked with Onur, Georg @roma042987, and through the magic of MUD, met @roadstr6, who graciously agreed to look the truck over in person. Dave, I owe you big time.

The seller and I worked out a deal, my wife and I worked out a deal, and eventually shipped the truck from North Carolina to Texas.
 
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The difference between a 2F or even 3FE 60 series is amazing -the 12HT is night and day from anything else I've driven in a cruiser. Torque is immediate. The H55 is superb.

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Annie (age 4) says "This is a silly truck because it whips my head around when we go around corners".

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Problems of the diesel variety

This truck is from Spain and has 460,000 km on it. I have no service records, but the truck itself appears to be in pretty good shape. The body has taken some hits and I will post pictures later. It drives nice and tight and all the major systems seem to work pretty well.

The most immediate issue is that is it is blowing some black smoke on mid to heavy acceleration. There's a fair amount of diesel around every injector and down the side cover. The injection pump is clean and dry, absolutely pristine.

I am going to hook up with @Spallet here in Austin this week and pick his brain. I will probably take my injectors for a rebuild here in town. There's also a fair amount of oil around the turbo.

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ok the black smoke unless it leaving massive plumes of it behind you it should be fine, the oil around the turbo is quite common to unless its pouring out. One thing you can do is set up a catch can and get your injectors checked and cleaned properly. Oh the other thing all 12ht blow a puff of black smoke when starting up its normal. Great looking truck by the way hope you enjoy it.
 
It was a pleasure getting to check out this truck for you. As a 2F FJ60 owner, I was very impressed with the 12HT, and with the truck as a whole. Sure, it's got a few dings and scratches, but I was hard pressed to find any rust. It drives like a dream. Congratulations!
 
The most immediate issue is that is it is blowing some black smoke on mid to heavy acceleration. There's a fair amount of diesel around every injector and down the side cover. The injection pump is clean and dry, absolutely pristine.

This indicates the injectors probably need a rebuild. Are there any wire/lead seals on the injection pump controls? The fuel pumps on 12HT often last the life of the engine.
 
Nice looking truck for sure
Imo any unopened 12ht or 2h past 300k needs to be torn down and alfin ring land pistons need installed, I've done a few and they all wear the ring lands and break rings, if you get them early enough, a hone and pistons and it's done.
Last one I did had to be sleeved and rebored, due to it being left too late
 
Happy days mate, welcome to the cool kids club, just slowly go through and maintain what's needed, she'll keep going for years
 
Update: I’ve been driving the HJ61 for a couple of months. @Spallet went over the truck with me and pronounced her healthy. He thinks that the motor has never been cracked open- all the fasteners are stock OEM and in the proper locations.

I have been super impressed with this truck. On my last full tank of fuel I got 501 miles (807km); 27.4mpg. I’m still not sure my wife didn’t slip a few gallons of diesel in the tank when I wasn’t looking. Last week I ran from Austin to Houston to pick up sliders and tires from @BAB FJ and averaged 22mpg going 70-75 mph.

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Despite this good fuel economy, I have talked a bunch with @roma042987 and I’ve made the executive decision to have him do a tear down and rebuild BEFORE anything breaks. Thanks @ttxpc.

Looking forward to having Roma work his magic on the old girl. Driving a 12HT powered 60 has been absolutely revelatory. I don’t want to drive anything else, ever.
 
The truck has a bunch of basic maintenance needs.

4 runner wiper upgrade....best 10 minute upgrade ever. Thanks @beno.

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Despite this good fuel economy, I have talked a bunch with @roma042987 and I’ve made the executive decision to have him do a tear down and rebuild BEFORE anything breaks

Kind of pointless. Nothing is going to break. It will just slowly lose compression and burn oil. If its been looked after it could go another 200000klms before it shows signs of needing a rebuild.
 
Kind of pointless. Nothing is going to break. It will just slowly lose compression and burn oil. If its been looked after it could go another 200000klms before it shows signs of needing a rebuild.
If only this was the case, when the ring lands wear, then the rings break, often with very little indication, then they break into ever smaller pieces damaging the cylinder walls, getting past the other rings scoring the crank, blocking piston oilers open etc etc, I've seen it all to often, 2h and 12ht suffer from this. If you catch it early, a set of pistons with alfin ring lands and a hone along with good rebuilding practice will seeing done with much less effort and expense than if it is left to die a painful death
 
Wont be much difference in price or quality of result. By the time you remove it from the car, strip off the outside and break the engine down to do everything with good rebuilding practice, its all going to be the same.
I would at least have an oil analysis to see if it does have metal particles breaking off.
The other thing is that if the pump is also showing signs of wear, it would be pointless putting it back on an engine with full compression.
Ive seen all too often ring,piston and hone rebuilds that end up needing to be done much sooner than should be.
 
two questions. 1. what's the 4runner wiper upgrade? 2. if you don't mind sharing, what did you pay for your truck (you could PM if you don't mind sharing, but don't want to do so publicly)? We are getting ready to sell our super similar Spanish HJ61 & we aren't really sure how to price it.

Thanks!
 
Roscoe, I hear you. My hope is indeed to get away with a ring, piston, and hone rebuild rather than a full on reborn and resize. Also, it may well run another 200,000km- but 10 years from now, what will the parts availability be? I’d rather get it done now and sleep easy for another 400,000km.

The pump is in perfect shape, by the way.
 
@SugarBear: You can use two left-hand 4Runner wiper arms to replace the stock OEM wiper arms on the 60 series trucks. There are a couple of good threads on this on MUD. I listed the part numbers for myself to remember in the future, but also for others.

Driving in the rain was getting a little scary; now with the new wiper arms and their increased downforce, it clears water droplets MUCH better.
 
LED headlights in a Euro spec 24V HJ61

Ok, so I have ben trying for several months to sort out LED headlights in my FJ62 and HJ61. In the 60 series forum there is a great thread on powering LEDs with an easily constructible custom harness and building an adapter for the high beam selector switch. I followed those instructions and got LEDs working on my 62. Score.

I tried following the instructions for the 61 and found that the same technique would not work for the HJ61- the high beams did not have power to them at all times.

I turned to plan B: I had previously purchased an ultimate harness from @slcfj62 specifically for my FJ62. I replaced the 12V relays with 24V relays, hooked it up to the batteries...and the lights powered on, but backwards: the high beams lit up in low beam and high beam settings, and the low beams only came on when the high beams were selected. What’s weirder was that the high beam dash light and high beam flash feature worked perfectly. Reversing high and low beams made no difference as expected.

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On a whim I soldered up a H4 to H4656 adapter to fix the different pinouts, and hooked it up to the ultimate harness...nothing.

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LEDs part two:

I double checked my wiring, and then just plugged in the low beam headlight to the adapter...and it lit up.

I plugged in the high beam to the native wiring harness, and found that it worked if I reversed the plug black for red.

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Everything works as it should: low beam, low and high beams on together when high beams are selected, high beam dash light, high beam flash feature. I don’t see any obvious wiring hacks or relays tucked in the fenders anywhere.

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High
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Low

Is there a difference in headlight wiring between Euro spec and the rest of the world? Are the Euro trucks positive switched? Or did someone convert mine in a way that I do not yet recognize?

Please, anyone else chime in. I’m confused but happy that I have finally have LED visibility (JW Speakers are amazing and worth their weight in gold).

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