Abandoned 84 FJ60 gets some love, and a 4bt! (1 Viewer)

[Thechief86]

I got my Radiator today! Woohoo! This is hands down the nicest radiator I've ever owned. The welds are beautiful, and the thing is just shiny and beautiful. I love it!
As soon as I got it out, I stuck it in the truck and filled it up with coolant, and tried to start it.
No dice.
Tried a little longer, then decided to top the radiator off because I figured the water pump had circulated a bit and made some room. Well it did, but when I removed the cap, it magically was under pressure, despite not actually ever starting.
That ain't good. So I pulled the spark plugs, and sure enough, cylinders #2 and #3 were full of coolant. Dammit.
So I guess I'll start pulling the head off in the morning. Womp womp wooooomp.
Anybody have a recommendation for a head gasket set that will include the intake/exhaust, carb base, thermostat, valve cover and head gaskets? I found a couple on Rockauto.com, but
didn't know if it was like the Subaru stuff where you're just asking for trouble unless you buy a top dollar MLS gasket set.
Anyway, I've got a beautiful radiator, and the head job won't be hard, it's just one more bump in the road.
What's another couple of weeks, right?

 

[Dekeman]

That truck is going to be incredible by the time you are finally done.

 

[Thechief86]

That truck is going to be incredible by the time you are finally done.

Thank you! It will be a long term project for sure, but I intend to do everything as nicely as I can, and make it as good as I possibly can with available parts and a middle class income, lol.
I cant wait to get it dependable, even if it will be rough looking for at least the next few months if not the next couple of years.

 

[zapatius]

I got my Radiator today! Woohoo! This is hands down the nicest radiator I've ever owned. The welds are beautiful, and the thing is just shiny and beautiful. I love it!
As soon as I got it out, I stuck it in the truck and filled it up with coolant, and tried to start it.
No dice.
Tried a little longer, then decided to top the radiator off because I figured the water pump had circulated a bit and made some room. Well it did, but when I removed the cap, it magically was under pressure, despite not actually ever starting.
That ain't good. So I pulled the spark plugs, and sure enough, cylinders #2 and #3 were full of coolant. Dammit.
So I guess I'll start pulling the head off in the morning. Womp womp wooooomp.
Anybody have a recommendation for a head gasket set that will include the intake/exhaust, carb base, thermostat, valve cover and head gaskets? I found a couple on Rockauto.com, but
didn't know if it was like the Subaru stuff where you're just asking for trouble unless you buy a top dollar MLS gasket set.
Anyway, I've got a beautiful radiator, and the head job won't be hard, it's just one more bump in the road.
What's another couple of weeks, right?
View attachment 2904348
View attachment 2904349View attachment 2904350View attachment 2904351

Get the Toyota head gasket set and associated gaskets. Peace of mind.

 

[cps432]

Defiantly use Toyota gaskets whenever possible. I’ve learned the hard way multiple times, cry once buy once. I’ve had many aftermarket parts fail on me with this truck. Anytime I use OEM it serves me best. For the head gasket I most certainly wouldn’t use anything but an OEM unless it was no longer available.

Look for cracks between cylinder 2-3. I think some of the older engines had some issues with blowing out head gaskets at that point and it causes stress fractures. If there’s gonna be a crack it’s probably gonna be there.

 

[Seth S]

When you have the head off be sure to have the oil galley plug replaced. Theres plenty of MUD threads on the procedure but something the machine shop can do easily and cleanly.

 

[Thechief86]

This morning I got up and pulled the head off.
It went really smoothly, and only took a couple of hours.
The good news is that the pistons and cylinder walls look to be in quite good condition, and the bottom end seems serviceable. Great!
The bad news is that the head is indeed cracked at the #2 exhaust valve.
I'm getting loaded up now to take the head to the machine shop and see if they can repair it.
If not, I guess I'm dead in the water until I can find a usable 61040 head.

 

[zapatius]

This morning I got up and pulled the head off.
It went really smoothly, and only took a couple of hours.
The good news is that the pistons and cylinder walls look to be in quite good condition, and the bottom end seems serviceable. Great!
The bad news is that the head is indeed cracked at the #2 exhaust valve.
I'm getting loaded up now to take the head to the machine shop and see if they can repair it.
If not, I guess I'm dead in the water until I can find a usable 61040 head.
View attachment 2905068View attachment 2905069View attachment 2905070

If you're not too far from Headworks of Nashville, they may be able to weld that. They were able to fix a stress crack on my 1FZ head.

 

[Thechief86]

If you're not too far from Headworks of Nashville, they may be able to weld that. They were able to fix a stress crack on my 1FZ head.

Funny enough, that is where I am heading right now! Great to hear they were able to help you!

 

[cps432]

T

This morning I got up and pulled the head off.
It went really smoothly, and only took a couple of hours.
The good news is that the pistons and cylinder walls look to be in quite good condition, and the bottom end seems serviceable. Great!
The bad news is that the head is indeed cracked at the #2 exhaust valve.
I'm getting loaded up now to take the head to the machine shop and see if they can repair it.
If not, I guess I'm dead in the water until I can find a usable 61040 head.
View attachment 2905068View attachment 2905069View attachment 2905070

That seems to be the spot that breaks.

 

[Thechief86]

I just dropped the head off to Headworks, and they did not seem confident they could repair the crack, but said they could give me a more sure answer after removing the valve seat.
In the meantime, I will try to find another 3f or 2f, or a good head.
If anybody has one for sale, I'd sure be interested to hear your price! If I can't repair my 2F, I'll be putting something else in its place.
I do have a known good Jeep 4.0 just sitting in the shop waiting for a home...

 

[zapatius]

I just dropped the head off to Headworks, and they did not seem confident they could repair the crack, but said they could give me a more sure answer after removing the valve seat.
In the meantime, I will try to find another 2f or 2f, or a good head.
If anybody has one for sale, I'd sure be interested to hear your price! If I can't repair my 2F, I'll be putting something else in its place.
I do have a known good Jeep 4.0 just sitting in the shop waiting for a home...

Try @wileycoyote up the road from you in Glasgow, KY. He has a lot of 60 parts. Could probably steer you in the right direction if not.

If Headworks can't fix it.

 

[Thechief86]

Try @wileycoyote up the road from you in Glasgow, KY. He has a lot of 60 parts. Could probably steer you in the right direction if not.

If Headworks can't fix it.

Thank you so much! I had been looking for Chad ever since you mentioned him to me, but didn't have his Mud username. I will work on contacting him anyway, since I will need several parts for this car.
The journey continues.

 

[onemanarmy]

I just dropped the head off to Headworks, and they did not seem confident they could repair the crack, but said they could give me a more sure answer after removing the valve seat.
In the meantime, I will try to find another 3f or 2f, or a good head.
If anybody has one for sale, I'd sure be interested to hear your price! If I can't repair my 2F, I'll be putting something else in its place.
I do have a known good Jeep 4.0 just sitting in the shop waiting for a home...

Stoke the 4.0 and put it in he 60! That would be epic.....and take lots of pics!

 

[Seth S]

If you can find a 3fe donor you could put a 2FE engine together. It’s really the engine that the 60 era should have had. Basically it’s the top end off the 3FE with the 2F bottom end. But it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pull your bottom end and rebuild it if you were to go the 2FE route. Here is some info and motivation:

http://bushrat.hdcruisers.org/3FEconversion.pdf

This isn’t a Toyota engine but it’s still an inline 6 and same basic design:

 

[Thechief86]

Today the machine shop called me and told me they can't do anything with my cracked head because the crack goes too deep beneath the valve seat.
Luckily, a member here helped me get in touch with another member who happens to have a bad engine with a good head about an hour away from me. I am very glad I joined this forum!
Now to get a day off to go pick it up, I'll be in good shape...

 

[Thechief86]

This morning I made a short pilgrimage to Glasgow, KY and removed a presumably good head from a donor engine that belongs to another Mud member.
The engine had failed catastrophically, and made quite a large window in the side of the block where the #1 connecting rod had decided it wanted a better view of the outside world.
As I was pulling the rockers off, I realized I only had 10 pushrods? The missing ones were present, just sticking through the bottom of the oil pan, lol.
Once I got the head off, I saw that although there were no cracks, the #1 combustion chamber had sustained a little bit of damage, and the intake valve had broken, as well as the #6 intake valve had gotten bent.
Dammit. Lol.
So I called the owner, and told him what I found, and asked for a slightly lower price to help cover the costs of repairs, which he accepted, and I was on my way.
I went straight from Glasgow down to Nashville, and dropped this head off at Headworks of Nashville, and they figured they could rob parts off the cracked head and replace the damaged valves and seats, plane the head, and double check for cracks, and send me home with a good, usable, and fully refurbished head.
By the time I bolt it back to the engine, I'll have around a grand just in the head, but I think once I'm done, I'll have around $2 grand in a running, driving FJ60!
Then I'll just need another grand to fix up the interior, and probably a couple more grand for body and paint work, and another grand for tires, and then I can start customizing, hahaha.
I'll probably end up with $40 grand in it by the time I'm done, but a little at a time and doing all the work myself should keep it sustainable, and I'll end up with a halfway decent rig when it's all said and done.

 

[Willard]

When you get there

For Carpet, If Trail Tailor is still importing his then get that, otherwise you cannot go wrong with the carpet from from @dnp

Seat covers from Cruiser Corp. They look fantastic.
You can do the seats yourself (when you have the cushion and covers off, paint the frames). If the back cushion is fine, then the bottom cushion they also carry and it is real nice.

Headliner check out this thread from @Aloha Jen on her headliner install.

My Hawaiian HJ60 Refresh, Maintenance and Good Times

All windows (except windshield), interior panels and door cards were removed and inspected for rust. Most had none, but one of the bottoms door seams was rusted a bit. Old seam sealer was removed, seam was treated, painted with por15, then seam was resealed with auto seam sealer. Rear panel...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Thechief86]

Good things are coming.....

 

[Thechief86]

Progress has been very slow, as we've been short-handed at work the last few months and I've been forced to work 7 days a week lately, but yesterday I was off and cleaned the deck surface and put the head and gasket in place and got all the bolts started.
I start on night shift tonight, so I had a little bit of daylight before I needed to try to get in a nap before work. So this morning I went out and torqued the head bolts before it started raining too hard.
Now that I've swapped shifts, I won't have to work as much overtime, so I intend to get the engine buttoned back up and running this weekend.
Can anybody point me in the direction of a diagram or some photos that show where all the heater hoses and vacuum hoses for the brake booster go?
My engine has been de-smogged and for now will be running a Weber carb, so for the engine my only vacuum lines are for the distributor advance and the brake booster. I think?