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[seapotato]

Seems like progress to me… got my vote. Especially if the decal removal stuff was bought for your Cruiser.

It was.

Gonna be sad to see them go, but just too many rust bubbles under them.

I still haven't even decided on color or even paint at this point. Or whether to just do a patch up and put it off another winter.

I hate painting

 

[cruiserpilot]

Whoosh. February... working hard on the 61 apparently

So, this was kinda funny.

330 am, dog goes apes***.

Wakes us both up. Mel looks out the window to see what she's on about, and my brake lights come on.

So now, there's two females going apes*** in the room. "Someone is in your truck, should I call 911?"

Jesus, give me a second to find the flashlight will you?

So yeah, nobody was in the truck. Obviously.
We have a pretty good f***off driveway AND a gate, so it seemed unlikely to me even with 330am brain fog.

If there had been someone, they clearly were a terrible car thief. Inside an old Toyota for 2 minutes and it hadn't even started yet.

Just the brake lights coming on by themselves. Gave pedal a push and they shut off.

So, my hope is the brake switch is just loose, which I'll look at tomorrow, or maybe later today when everyone else has gone home.

I did buy a vinyl decal remover thing a couple weeks ago. So I'm counting that as progress.

HaHa! With your luck someone does try to steal it and half steering wheel turn later you hear a distinct splashing sound........

 

[bikersmurf]

It was.

Gonna be sad to see them go, but just too many rust bubbles under them.

I still haven't even decided on color or even paint at this point. Or whether to just do a patch up and put it off another winter.

I hate painting

You’re not alone… unfortunately it seems to be an inevitable part of owning old Landcruisers… unless you’re Jay Leno or such

 

[bikersmurf]

HaHa! With your luck someone does try to steal it and half steering wheel turn later you hear a distinct splashing sound........

The second brake pedal and H shift pattern will get them every time.

It would almost be worth getting a PRND321 shift plate just to mess with people.

 

[stevebradford]

What lurks behind a rust bubble…

Summers almost over it’s time to get on it!

 

[seapotato]

HaHa! With your luck someone does try to steal it and half steering wheel turn later you hear a distinct splashing sound........

Which reminds me, I'm still 50/50 on painting it white.

Any opinions?

The second brake pedal and H shift pattern will get them every time.

It would almost be worth getting a PRND321 shift plate just to mess with people.

Yeah, diesel cruisers really need a mechanical anti theft device.

Electrical isn't much use.

 

[seapotato]

What lurks behind a rust bubble…

View attachment 3095846
View attachment 3095847

Summers almost over it’s time to get on it!

Bah, surface rust.

 

[bikersmurf]

Which reminds me, I'm still 50/50 on painting it white.

Any opinions?

Yeah, diesel cruisers really need a mechanical anti theft device.

Electrical isn't much use.

I’ve considered white many times for the 40. It can look real sharp with black trim and it’s somewhat cooler… not that global warming is a thing.

Only problem is that it’ll always be dirty. That’s my big strike against it.

 

[seapotato]

I’ve considered white many times for the 40. It can look real sharp with black trim and it’s somewhat cooler… not that global warming is a thing.

Only problem is that it’ll always be dirty. That’s my big strike against it.

I haven't washed my truck in 8 years, so I'm not too worried about it. It rains hard here, so that's when the top half of the truck gets a rinse.

Mostly I just want something that's easily touched up when more rust bubbles inevitably pop up.

I don't particularly care about factory colours, and I really dislike using prissy automotive paints, but the toyota grey might be easiest from a coverage standpoint. At least on the bottom half, but then I'm back to the two tone issue.

60's are such fat asses, and the high roof makes them even bigger looking, so I can see why they usually did a two tone on the 61's.

Another step in the whole revolting process tho

 

[seapotato]

Yep. Brake light switch was loose.

If that turns out to be the thing I forgot to tighten doing the LHD swap, I'll take it.

 

[bikersmurf]

A small amount of peace of mind that no one was trying to steal your stuff… and your dogs know their role.

 

[Toshi38]

I've always wanted to do a truck in a gun metal grey or something like that... I think it would turn out nicely.

White is ok for non 40s since you don't have the white roof anyway...

 

[seapotato]

So this is a timely upgrade, seeing as @crustyBJ60 brought the atmospheric rivers for his moving day...

Decided to splurge on the wiper arm upgrade. I was filling out an order on rockauto and wiper blades are so insanely cheap there I figured ****it.

I'll get the ones that fit the 4runner arms because my wipers suck ass.

Also need these things, because why would they include them.

Took all of 10 minutes to do. Supposedly makes a big difference, although it's not actually raining right now.

 

[seapotato]

Part duh...

Couple weeks ago, I noticed some disturbing coolant behavior. Noticed I was a bit low on coolant, added maybe a liter, and by the time I got to work, it pushed it all back out. Did this a couple times, naturally suspecting a head gasket leak pressurizing the system, which I could do without.

It was only ever that last litre that it'd push out so I had hope it was just a rad cap. Anyways , seems like that's what it was.

Compounded by the fact my overflow reservoir lid gasket leaked, so even if it pushed out a tablespoon it made a big mess to scare the crap out of you.

Plus my temp gauge was all over the place. Down almost cold, to popping up a needles width over center and back and forth. Never remotely hot or any white smoke tho.

Anyways, made a new gasket for the res out of squishy silicone, and put a pee bottle on the overflow tube, and I've got maybe a tablespoon out of it, and the coolant res is way over full, so I'm thinking it's fine. Keep hoping it'll suck in that extra coolant when the slug of air finds it's way out, but it's being rather stubborn about it.


Now to get the air out of the damn heater core. Toyota's hose routing doesn't make this easy. Through firewall, UP a couple inches to the top of the heater core, both on supply AND return, creating two air traps.

Added a bleeder at the high point in the engine bay, but I still get a gurgle when the webasto circ pump comes on.

I clearly need to find a steeper place to park it...

Anyways, don't you love $10 parts that can scare you into thinking it's a $1k+ problem. ?

 

[cruisedeisel]

Nice to see your back at the cruiser tinkering.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Part duh...

Couple weeks ago, I noticed some disturbing coolant behavior. Noticed I was a bit low on coolant, added maybe a liter, and by the time I got to work, it pushed it all back out. Did this a couple times, naturally suspecting a head gasket leak pressurizing the system, which I could do without.

It was only ever that last litre that it'd push out so I had hope it was just a rad cap. Anyways , seems like that's what it was.

Compounded by the fact my overflow reservoir lid gasket leaked, so even if it pushed out a tablespoon it made a big mess to scare the crap out of you.

Plus my temp gauge was all over the place. Down almost cold, to popping up a needles width over center and back and forth. Never remotely hot or any white smoke tho.

Anyways, made a new gasket for the res out of squishy silicone, and put a pee bottle on the overflow tube, and I've got maybe a tablespoon out of it, and the coolant res is way over full, so I'm thinking it's fine. Keep hoping it'll suck in that extra coolant when the slug of air finds it's way out, but it's being rather stubborn about it.


Now to get the air out of the damn heater core. Toyota's hose routing doesn't make this easy. Through firewall, UP a couple inches to the top of the heater core, both on supply AND return, creating two air traps.

Added a bleeder at the high point in the engine bay, but I still get a gurgle when the webasto circ pump comes on.

I clearly need to find a steeper place to park it...

Anyways, don't you love $10 parts that can scare you into thinking it's a $1k+ problem. ?

Haha, almost sounds like you're running a 2lte! Now you know what my life is like. Had the same fright myself this summer. Thank heavens was just the rad cap in my case also. I should probably do something about my seal at reservoir too. 10 hard years on my pos motor and I have not cracked the cylinder head, but I'm sure the day is coming.

 

[seapotato]

Haha, almost sounds like you're running a 2lte! Now you know what my life is like. Had the same fright myself this summer. Thank heavens was just the rad cap in my case also. I should probably do something about my seal at reservoir too. 10 hard years on my pos motor and I have not cracked the cylinder head, but I'm sure the day is coming.

Haha yeah it's definitely all you think about when driving. Is that coolant I smell?
I'm still not certain I don't have a tiny leak to be honest. It's the lack of an obvious diagnosis that's annoying.
My rad cap was definitely bad, but that AND a head gasket leak aren't mutually exclusive. I remember the truck letting out a big gurgle after I parked about 6 months ago which I guess was the first symptom,and that's a long time for a head gasket to not get worse, especially with a hot summer of driving.
but that could just be when the cap started to die.

Drive home this morning the heater got cooler and my overflow pushed out maybe 250ml, which isn't great.

If I'm making air and it went to the heater core first, that'd compute, but tried the bleeder screw when I got home and nothing. I've also tried one of those sniffer packs you put in the coolant and got no result.

250ml of overflow isn't much if I have an air pocket, and my reservoir is still well above the full line when cold from me overfilling.

If it's that tiny a leak I'm not sure what test I could do that'd be conclusive other than just, " does it go away or not..."

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Haha yeah it's definitely all you think about when driving. Is that coolant I smell?
I'm still not certain I don't have a tiny leak to be honest. It's the lack of an obvious diagnosis that's annoying.
My rad cap was definitely bad, but that AND a head gasket leak aren't mutually exclusive. I remember the truck letting out a big gurgle after I parked about 6 months ago which I guess was the first symptom,and that's a long time for a head gasket to not get worse, especially with a hot summer of driving.
but that could just be when the cap started to die.

Drive home this morning the heater got cooler and my overflow pushed out maybe 250ml, which isn't great.

If I'm making air and it went to the heater core first, that'd compute, but tried the bleeder screw when I got home and nothing. I've also tried one of those sniffer packs you put in the coolant and got no result.

250ml of overflow isn't much if I have an air pocket, and my reservoir is still well above the full line when cold from me overfilling.

If it's that tiny a leak I'm not sure what test I could do that'd be conclusive other than just, " does it go away or not..."

Hmmm... Your torque wrench in good calibration? Friend just did a cylinder head on a 22r only to have it leak soon after. Turned out torque wrench was way out of spec. If it persists you could try a re-torque of your cylinder head just one bolt at a time... Is it a MLS gasket or graphite thing?

Probably over thinking it. Mine behaves as you're describing for quite a while until all the air works out. Good chance things are fine and it'll get better over the next couple weeks.

 

[seapotato]

Yeah it's a puzzler.

I thought for sure I'd see a clear result this morning. Yesterday on the way home I used the webasto so the truck was at temp for whole trip.

On way to work I didn't and no overflow...


So this morning, I used webasto, put sniffer pack into overflow and drove like an a******.

Nothing.


I've considered a retorque, but figured it was a bit locking the gate after the horse is out of the barn at this point.


Honestly if I drained my overflow down to the proper level I doubt I'd notice a problem other than lack of heat.


I'm going to order a new tstat for sure, because my temps have been weirdly low and fluctuating for ages, but probably an hg too just so I have one on hand.

 

[seapotato]

Well that escalated quickly

Addressing the lack of heat. Have a s***load of duct leaks in the dash, so pretty much have to dive in.