Sad 1st day for an LJ78 prado

Hello Guys,

I am Ali.
My LJ78 prado was delivered today and it overheated on me the very first day.

After i got it, I checked the fluids and there was no coolant in the reservoir bottle. I put some Tap water through the radiator cap to fill her up. I noticed that the bottle and thermostat housing had a coating of black particles. ( possible carbon deposits). Drove it around the block, tested the brakes, tranny, steering and shifting in/out of 4wd and low range. All seemed fine.
Then in the evening i went with my cousing to pick up his car from canadian tire where we had left it for provincial inspection. i was according to instructions, never revved over 3K. driving cautiosly and after about 3-5 kms noticed the temp guage in the red .
I pulled over and the pipe in the reservior bottle was bubbling steam. called my Dad on phone for a ride, switched on the Hazards, limped to the nearest safeway and bought some water jugs. then we went to crappy tire and i bought myself antifreeze jugs. Filled 'er up with coolant mix.
On the way back, switched on the heater at full, windows rolled down and didnot let RPM past 1500. Truck didnot overheat that much but would get close on some stretches.

Now i feel like crying, not because why did i buy this truck, but why did it happen on the FIRST Day. i wanted to ride this truck so much.

Other than that and dirty interior and a couple of cosmetic blemishes the truck is in great shape. no rust whatsoever.

Anyway's Guys that was my first day and evening with my new (busted) prado.
The amount of white smoke coming out the tailpipe now sees to indicate to me that the head and/or gasket is gone.

Wrenching Time.

I will be visiting 4wheelAuto tomorrow morning and get an estimate on parts including cylinder head. I realize that we can get updated 2LT heads from toyota. I will be giving them a call as well.
Right now i am thinking about Timimg belts/idlers, water pump, thermostat, radiator, clutch fan. What parts should be changed in a cylinder head swap.

i have access to a good collection of tools as well as toyota EPC and have downloaded a number of manuals from the internet related to the 2LT engine.

My biggest concern is the time involved in sourcing and installing parts for this job. I have just started school (attending U of Alberta) and i am afraid about the affect this could have on my last year in school.

i am counting on you guys to help me in finding the all the right parts and hopefully i will be on the road soon.

thanks a lot for tagging along.
Ali.

Funny

A Toyota dealership here in Calgary is selling some LandCruisers now, so my buddie and I went and test drove a bunch of them. The first one we drove was a 1991 Prado, and it overheated about 5 minutes into the drive. After that I started looking @ the 1hz, and the 1hd-t engines.

Sorry about your first experience but dont worry, these dudes can help you out.

Thats bad luck but your not th 1st. Canadam another MUD meber had hi blow after 300klms on its 1st trip home.

Im sure you will get lots of support from the other 2LT owners who have already travelled this path

Sad 1st day for an LJ78 prado

Wow! Bad luck out of the shoot, Ali. But it sounds like you have a handle on what needs to be done, just a matter of rounding up the parts. You didn't say how you bought the truck, from a dealer or imported it yourself. Just curious.
Good luck!
Gord

Ali,
Sorry to hear your first experience with the Prado was not a good one..
Sounds like you have the right idea's with regards to the fix..
Once you have the truck fixed your going to have one sweet ride..

thanks guys for all the support,

i bought the truck from a japanese exporter. The vehicle was in their stock with an in-house inspection facility. Apparently they did not catch it.
I will mail them and tell them about this. Lets see what happens.

it is almost 6' Clock in the morning. Woke up and could not go back to sleep worrying about this project.

Ali.

it might be good to let the list know of the exporter so they can be fore warned as well...
bad news and now you are part of the broken head club. Robin was in the same boat as well, he never got his truck off the train and his head was already cracked.
i hope you budgeted for the head in your purchase. check out my main page for links to other guys that experienced the same problems.

crushers said:

it might be good to let the list know of the exporter so they can be fore warned as well...

Click to expand...

Ditto...the head problem is so well known that selling one without the fix or without disclosure of the problem ranks as criminal in my books.

If a lot of people start winding up with blown heads or bad BEB's without prior knowledge (and budgeting), it's going to cast a shadow on the JDM 4x4's as a whole.

i am curious as to the outcome of the guy who bought his truck at Canyon Creek toyota and never even made it to Vancouver. the one with the 28 hour drive back...
anyone know?

It almost sounds as though this one had a blown gasket/cracked head before it was delivered.

I think as a rule of thumb these units should either be avoided altogether or bought on the assumption that it's going to need a new head (or more).

Reminds me of my experience. I bought the 73 and hadn't even gotten half way across town from picking it up and the thing was overheating. I remember it was rush hour traffic, in Calgary too at the time and that certainly didn't help with things very much. But, I was lucky - put in a re-cored rad, new water pump, hoses, etc. and I haven't had to worry about it too much since then.

I feel your pain...

Ali,

That is a disappointment but unfortunately not much of a surprise. I've been in the exact same situation, and yes, it sucks.

You can get all the parts you'll need from 4 Wheel Auto. That's where I sourced my water pump, timing belt, gasket kit, and so on. I didn't replace the idlers, because they were in fine shape. I got the head from Toyota, because it was way cheaper than 4 Wheel.

At any rate, if you've got tools, manuals, and a place to work on your truck, you're set. It took me a couple of months to get mine done, but then I work full time and have a family. Plus the garage where I was working was across town. Plus it was winter and the garage was unheated so I could only work during a chinook, when the temps went above freezing.

Yeah, so get your parts, and just get in there and start taking stuff apart. Make note/take photos of each step, and put the stuff back on in the reverse order. Use the manual for torque specs. Do you have a torque wrench? Very important for cylinder head work. Finally, post up with any questions that come up while you tear down/build up.

You will love your truck once you've got the new head on there.

Hi,
thanks for the support and replies.
Robin, are there any special tools needed like pullers etc for head swap. i have craftsmen sockets, rachets and big/small torque wrenches. i am good to go in that respect.

I have digital cameras and laptops with broadbacd access most of the time and i think with 2 people working most of the time we can snap pictures and do a writeup as well.

Did you have black film in your thermostat housing and carbon particles in your reservoir tank. I would like to know if i need to recore the radiator or not. If there was a special treatment you used to flush the coolant system.

What other Gaskets are needed for this job, like exhaust manifold etc.

guys let me know of any parts/tools that are worth looking at and hopefully i can start documenting everything this weekend.

thanks.

Ali,

From what I recall there are only a couple of specialized tools required. You'll need a 12-point 14mm socket for the head bolts, and a decent-size flex handle for the final torquing of the head bolts. You may need a couple of other deep sockets for the injectors, etc. Depends what you've got already.

You'll also need a gear puller for the crank pulley. I picked one up at Princess Auto for about 20 bucks. I also ended up buying a shorty 12mm ratcheting box-end wrench for the inlet manifold nut on at the rear of the engine.

Just buy a head gasket from 4 Wheel, as well as an engine rebuild gasket kit, which has all the other gaskets you'll need. I ended up re-using a couple of gaskets here and there, including the exhaust gasket. Also make sure you've got some high-temp form-a-gasket, along with gasket sealant for the water pump, etc.

When you get the old head off, take it to a machine shop to have everything swapped over, valves ground, etc. Should cost about $150 unless major work is needed. New valve seals are in the gasket kit. 4 Wheel has valve shims if needed.

Sounds like you're good to go. It's a pretty big job, but I think I remember Andy saying that he's got it down to where he can re/re the head in under 5 hours. Toyota says it's an 8 hour job.

Ali,

I feel your pain man. Just finished dealing with the same thing myself. At least it wasn't on the first day i had it though! I was lucky and was able to get it dealt with under warranty from the dealer i bought it from.

Good luck with the repairs, they're sure nice trucks when they're workling.

(PS: Wayne, i updated my post in the INT'L section about what happend with my truck in the end)

great news, Fish.
it seems they might have another one to deal with pretty quick...
i wonder how many more they will sell before they get the picture?

(i missed the post in international, sorry)

cheers

I know, its awfully scary stuff. Especially with the warranty they offer, they're going to find themselves losing money on each LJ78 they sell....only a matter of time till they have to pull the plug on the whole thing, i think. Its getting to be just plain irresponsible to sell these things, unless you take some pretty strong measures to make sure things are running perfect.

Machine shop recommendation in Edmonton

Hi,

Would anyone recommed a machine shop that specialized in diesels or toyotas in edmonton, Alberta.
I have RM169E which is a supplemntal manual. Is there a more detailed manual out there for the 2LT engine.

thank you.

Just curious,is this problem a given guarantee with the purchase of this engine, when I went to the dock to pick up my HZJ there was a guy in a 2 door Prado that did not even make it off the compound and he was boiling over,a friend of mine that works next to the port said there was a couple of guys that only made it about 3 kms a couple of days before,also in a Prado.There were still about 10 of these trucks sitting at the port when I picked up my truck.
Is it mainly a head gasket problem or faulty head altogether?

James...

Jimmy B said:

Just curious,is this problem a given guarantee with the purchase of this engine, when I went to the dock to pick up my HZJ there was a guy in a 2 door Prado that did not even make it off the compound and he was boiling over,a friend of mine that works next to the port said there was a couple of guys that only made it about 3 kms a couple of days before,also in a Prado.There were still about 10 of these trucks sitting at the port when I picked up my truck.
Is it mainly a head gasket problem or faulty head altogether?

James...

Click to expand...

Sounds to me like these are all already toast before they even got on the boat. I'm guessing either the auction inspectors are not catching the problem, or there are some unscrupulous exporters in Japan unloading them in full knowledge that they are faulty.