Builds Drift Monkey's Wheelin' Build (1 Viewer)

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So I finally sat down and pieced together (and ordered) my power steering cooling solution. My paper clip is fine but since I'll have the radiator, etc. out I figured, might as well!

  • REIN PSH0328 - Rock Auto ✔
  • 44348-60170 - reservoir to pump hose - PartSouq
  • Gates 27057 ⅜ Transmission Oil Cooler Hose - 3ft - Amazon (ordered 4x to also have some hose to do my trans cooler lines)
  • Derale 2 Pass 17" Series 7000 Copper/Aluminum Frame Rail Cooler 13221 - Summit
  • PSC SF07 AN-6 to 17MM-1.5 Inverted Flare Fitting - Summit
  • (3) AN-6 90 Degree Push Lock Hose Fitting - Amazon
  • (2) 90467-21010 - clamps for reservoir to pump - PartSouq
  • (1) CTC16BAND12 clamp - BelMetric ✔
  • Power Steering Reservoir - 44360-60171 - PartSouq ✔
 
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Update - over the past 3 weekends I have (finally):

  • Replaced the stock drain plug with the 2UZ petcock. PO used green. I plan on going red.
  • Removed the battery/tray.
  • Found out my shroud was cracked and missing a chunk near the bottom, the fan itself was also broken (and filthy). The fan I had but the shroud I had to order.
  • Had a helluva time taking the old fan clutch out - some aftermarket "made in USA" junk - looks like a Hayden or other unit on RockAuto - about half the thickness as the Aisin. No clearance for the nuts for even my lowest profile wrenches - ended up having to vice grip them all off (took about an hour to get these all off). To add insult to injury that clutch even uses bolts to attach to the fan to the clutch instead of the factory style studs. A full set of new fan clutch nuts and lock nuts were ordered (with the shroud).
  • Removed old brass radiator - upper mounts are a PITA and actually were easier to get to with the headlights off and the nearby condenser bolts off.
  • Redid all power steering lines - drilled/rivnut/installed the Derale finned cooler with AN6 to 3/8 fittings - same on the low pressure steering box side. New Rein high pressure hose WITH BRACKET! The old one didn't even have this and was dangling. It was easiest just to twist the banjo bolt until it broke the old line to get a hold of the bottom nut to undo it all. OEM resi to pump, Gates 3/8 everywhere else - wrapped with spinal wrap where it could contact and routed a little more efficiently than the wild OEM nest. The fit was easy with push lock fittings...but I found out about the standard nipples later. New clamps everywhere.
  • New power steering resi - just to be sure that wasn't a source of the leak.
  • LOTS of cleaning - the POs left it REALLY gunky in there so I did my best to degrease what I could - she needs a hot water pressure wash in there honestly - even degreaser couldn't cut thru the thick layers in some spots.
  • Removed old belts.
  • Replaced water pump, thermostat, bypass tube with the 3 o-rings (that bottom section was a pita - used pliers wrench to wiggle it off eventually. Every inlet, outlet here was removed, degreased and had the corrosion sanded away. Nice and clean now. Did the gasket to the heat pipe from that same housing while I was at it.
  • Trans cooler lines - holy PITA, these lines were kinda annoying to get off but the 3/8 was NOT fun to get on the stock nipples (even with lube/heat/hose pliers). Unbolting the hardlines under the battery is the only way to get the bottom sections on. Terrible time even with hose pliers/lube. I'm glad I had at least one hose that wasn't NLA - hose with a 90 degree bend from the hardline to the rad (straight fitting) slipped on effortlessly, almost mockingly. Spinal wrapped to replicate OEM. New clamps everywhere. I really wish 10mm line was more readily available.
  • Heater hoses - Pulled and replaced the heater control valve and associated hoses right by first. JFC the factory pin clamps are SO bad. The worst ones were the ones on the firewall behind the EGR stuff - real PITA to get to the twisty clip and the constant tension band above it was faced straight down and was very hard to get it, but I got 'em both eventually. This was honestly harder than the PHH imo. Used the LC100 hose for smaller rear heater lines at the firewall - cut to fit and they worked a treat (thanks @Malleus). That one hose was enough for both right and left lines. The PHH was pretty straightforward, undid the top hose/bolt, then moved to the bottom with the wheel off, stuck my long needle nose in there to undo the clip, long hose pliers to pull it off the nipple and it was off. The other bolt was missing and I didn't replace it - I did buy the assembled pipe + PHH and that made it that much faster. I also moved nothing out of the way, there was enough clearance with everything in place, as-is. New CT clamps everywhere, just say NO to the pin clamps.
  • Blew out the heater cores with my blower tool, messy but I got a decent amount out before reassembly.
  • Installed new water pump/studs/ Old unit was in decent shape actually, tiny bit of nose but didn't really have any play.
  • Replaced the upper and 2 lower radiator hoses along with 2 of the smaller hoses up front. New clamps everywhere.
  • Ran my HID relay harness wires while everything was out - followed the factory headlight wiring harness and it was easy.
  • Replaced drive belts, AC belt - PO didn't bother to torque the alternator pivot bolt...was as loose as could be.
  • Installed new TYC radiator, swapping the old mounting stuff over. Same pita getting the upper mounting bolds in. Stupid design.
  • Attached the trans cooler hoses/clamps. The 3/8 line sucked as usual - did I mention I wish 10mm was readily available?
  • Got the fan/clutch/shroud in. Much easier time getting all the clutch nuts on, simple ratcheting wrench did the job with a screwdriver wedged and I was able to go around and tighten - twice for kicks. Friends don't let friends get cheap aftermarket fan clutches. Seriously, terrible design with those.
  • Tightened the belts to 100lbs (according to the Krikit). Locked the lock and torqued the pivot bolts. Torqued the AC idler pulley.
  • Back flushed the block drain with distilled down the upper hose until I couldn't see green anymore.
  • Attached all remaining hoses.
  • Cleaned the overflow tank - lots of gunky green goop at the bottom, swished and emptied until it was clean. Degreased the outside.
  • Torqued petcock.
  • Attached radiator fill tool and dumped 3 gallons of distilled in. It drank a bit more overnight.
  • Degreased the battery box and reinstalled the battery/tie down. Reinstalled my tender cabling and tied in the HID relay harness connections.
  • Cranked her up - the AGM was just fine with sitting on the ground for 3 weeks. It's back on the tender.
  • New clutch fan with 25k fluid is a BEAST. I could feel the air across my legs after stepping out of the driving seat, pushing air thru the fender wells.
  • It took about 40-45 minutes for the front heater to start blowing hot. Not sure if this is normal but it sure did take it's sweet time. The rear heater came on ~10 mins before the front.
  • Temps did not exceed 181F during my 1hr of idle time inside the now hot garage. For reference, it was usually at 194-197F after a short drive and idling in the driveway (during a cooler month to boot). Impressive so far.
  • Continued to add some distilled as air worked its way out.
  • Will dump this current distilled and check the color again, it looks just a faint green so it probably caught some of the heater core green coolant that wasn't completely removed. Gonna run distilled through until it's clear then add 1 gallon red to the 3.55 gallons for roughly a 70/30 water/coolant mix. Will add a couple oz of diesel water wetter I picked up as well.
  • Pics of all this to come, gonna try to grab the highlights!
Next maint items:
  • I inspected the FHH and front of throttle body coolant hoses and they looked decent enough for now, although I'll just end up changing them. I'm saving this for another weekend and will thoroughly clean the TB while I'm at it. Just about every other hose is brand new and OEM where possible - I gotta catch 'em all!
  • Fuel filter - I bought it and will do it at some point.
  • Front knuckle rebuild needs to get done at some point. Some mixing going on but I've already topped off and will top off the knuckles with moly grease until I have time to do them. I've changed all the drivetrain gear oils and greased all the shafts.
  • Rear axle bearings/seals.
  • Anything else I can think of by then.
Next "fun" items:
  • I have a full Dobinsons suspension sitting in my trunk for months now but have been waiting to do this maint first (like a good boy). 6" shocks, 4" flexi coils, all the links/panhards/steering stabilizer. Waiting for Durobumps to get their bumps back in stock.
  • My XO-fab sliders should come in tomorrow, so need to get those welded/painted.
  • Full suite of @eimkeith goodies - PCK, RAMs, LLS ready and waiting to get welded on.
  • Shop for 37s.
  • Continue waiting on my BIOR front bumper, when that ships I'll probably just order the trail gear rear bumper.
  • Any vital underside armor I'm missing? Maybe the transfer case piece.
  • Work on buying/fabbing an interior spare carrier that will fit a 37.
"Eventually" items:
  • Transfer case re-gear - as low as possible for both H/L.
  • 5.29 in the axles to get as low as possible. Might could get these done while working on the axle rebuilds.
  • Maybe 3-link? This is a new platform for me, so I need to get some seat time before deciding on this.
 
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  • Any vital underside armor I'm missing? Maybe the transfer case piece..
The Slee belly pan provides some of the best protection and is an easy install.
 
Well I tried it, but not on an OEM cap. I did it on the Sankei cap I bought and ended up bending the tabs too much. 😭
It scraped off some of the plastic that guides the tabs into place and sealed so good that I wasn’t getting any coolant back into the radiator. No good on the Sankei cap, but I also didn’t wanna do it to the oem as it’s my backup cap in case all s*** hits the fan. I bought another Sankei cap for the meantime to experiment on and if that also fails, I’ll probably just buy another OEM cap and bend the one I currently have.

I do appreciate the info though as it’s a step in the right direction, and as stressful as it is, I’d like to provide some info to fellow mudders if they’re ever faced with the same situation as I have!

You ever figure it out? I just got done flushing my system clear of the old green coolant (finally) and gave the brand new cap a tiny bend for starters and slightly overfilled my freshly washed overflow tank. I put the cap on after burping everything so we’ll see tomorrow after cooldown if she sucked any back.

I’ll do some driving around tomorrow after…another project 😉.



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Give the throttle body a thorough cleaning.
 
That’s next in the list for me! Change the FHH and other TB heater hose while I’m at it.

Also, I did a thing today!

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holy hell! those are the brightest parking lights! Nice work! Massive amount to have accomplished in a short amount of time. It looks like you fond a great cruiser, and are putting in lots of time making it excellent. I'm excited to see how things proceed!

One quick note: it looks like you replaced the block drain plug with the 2uZ petcock...I'm not sure if this is the same one that Wit's End sells, but it leaked for me and a few other folks, so keep an eye on it...hopefully you saved your original plug. You may not have an issue, but I assume the block on the 97 is identical to the one on the 93.

Carry on Sir.
 
You ever figure it out? I just got done flushing my system clear of the old green coolant (finally) and gave the brand new cap a tiny bend for starters and slightly overfilled my freshly washed overflow tank. I put the cap on after burping everything so we’ll see tomorrow after cooldown if she sucked any back.

I’ll do some driving around tomorrow after…another project 😉.



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I’m so sorry I missed your reply! I’ve been so busy with work that there’s only been a few instances where I’ve been able to indulge on the goings on of mud! I ended up finding a thread where AZ folks used what seems to be a “Performance Radiator” cap. After giving the part number I found and ordering it, it turns out it’s meant for a Mitsubishi 3000 GT and it works fine! It does have a longer coil/stack than the oem which made it possible to run with my TYC but I’m also a bit uncomfortable because it isn’t OEM or even meant for an LC, but it is what it is.
I still have a leak, but I think it’s from the PHH (I over tightened the worm clamp and see a gash with my phone) and didn’t use OEM clamps which I definitely now regret. I was trying to get this coolant/hose refresh done for work as it is my daily and I ****ed it up by going the cheap route.
Painful lesson, but we’re getting there! 😄
 
holy hell! those are the brightest parking lights! Nice work! Massive amount to have accomplished in a short amount of time. It looks like you fond a great cruiser, and are putting in lots of time making it excellent. I'm excited to see how things proceed!

One quick note: it looks like you replaced the block drain plug with the 2uZ petcock...I'm not sure if this is the same one that Wit's End sells, but it leaked for me and a few other folks, so keep an eye on it...hopefully you saved your original plug. You may not have an issue, but I assume the block on the 97 is identical to the one on the 93.

Carry on Sir.
I haven’t had that personally, but maybe that’s another area of concern for my cruisers coolant leak. I’ll look into it as well!
 
holy hell! those are the brightest parking lights! Nice work! Massive amount to have accomplished in a short amount of time. It looks like you fond a great cruiser, and are putting in lots of time making it excellent. I'm excited to see how things proceed!

One quick note: it looks like you replaced the block drain plug with the 2uZ petcock...I'm not sure if this is the same one that Wit's End sells, but it leaked for me and a few other folks, so keep an eye on it...hopefully you saved your original plug. You may not have an issue, but I assume the block on the 97 is identical to the one on the 93.

Carry on Sir.

Huge upgrade, really pleased with the brightness/visibility now. I've been busting ass trying to get this thing how I want it, and I have lots more to go, but I did get one step closer - 37s installed!

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I'll keep an eye on the petcock - I did save the original plug thankfully. The petcock did have thread sealer pre-applied and I tightened the brass plug on it to spec.

Had some time before the Texas Jamboree to flex her out with a forklift to test the new Durobumps I installed.

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Also finally painted my new front bumper and installed - the old old rusty IronMan bumper really fought me - it didn’t wanna come off. 😠

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This one bolt was keeping it on - we tried welding a nut to to the top and getting it off since it was so sideways - PO tried wrapping winch line through the middle at some point and the 2/4 top bolts actually installed got very sideways.

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Knocked all the tack weld nuts off the inside of the frame horns and…

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Replaced with some long m12 grade 10.9 bolts. Seemed simpler and stronger since they only partially threaded.

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Took this opportunity to clean my very bugged up condenser and transmission cooler.

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The frame horns had surface rust and were filled with old sand (thanks PO!) so I blasted it all out and hit ‘em with some Krud Kutter gel - this stuff works very well.
 

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