how I learned it...
Builds 1974 Pua'a
- Thread starter gonzopancho
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gonzopancho
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¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It was wanting to build a ton of EGT on the way up the grade from Golden to Genesee. I saw 800F once. I normally keep it under 650F, so I was feathering it pretty closely and gearing down. (6% grade in there.)
We had just exited I-70 and were on the off-ramp when it let go. Didn’t make a bunch of noise or clatter. Didn’t lose oil pressure. Still has oil in the sump.
Current theory is that the #1 or #2 rod separated close to the crank while the piston was near TDC, but I’m not gonna know until it’s out and the pan comes off.
There is a story about my first speeding ticket. The cop that pulled me over didn’t know his daughter was in the car when he pulled me over in my 1970 Dodge Challenger. We were coming back from lunch. (My high school had an open campus and a smoking area. The 1970s were different..)
I didn’t either until I heard a meek, “Hi daddy.” from the passenger seat.
He wrote me for 47 in a 25 mph zone.
Took the ticket to work after school. Showed my father. He pointed to the 4bbl carb and manifold that he’d just bought for that Challenger to replace the stock 2bbl.
We installed it despite the speeding ticket. Then he told me to go home, get an egg from the fridge and tape it to the gas pedal. I could put the egg in a bread sack, so that when it broke it didn’t get in the carpet, and I could change the egg every 4-5 days so it wouldn’t be rotten when I broke it, but I had to learn to drive that car without breaking the egg for a month. It was pretty frustrating for a while, but I got it.
Dad loved to tell that story for the rest of his life.
Turns out there was a lesson being taught with that egg. The following summer when I was 17 he and my grandfather decided it was time started to learn to drill wells, so they made me a hand on the little rig, and that involved me driving a semi-mounted (so 3 axle) flatbed water truck / tender. Granddad and I had built the tank and put it on the truck the previous summer.
1966 Diamond Rio conventional with air brakes, a hot rod 335 Cummins and a 5x4 transmission. No wastegate, it would just built boost. The timing on the 335 was setup pretty advanced so the pyrometer would rise pretty fast. (They make a set of various thickness shims to advance the follower vs the cam. This moves the pump timing too.
More advance means the injector puts fuel in the cylinder earlier.)
I learned to drive that Cummins with one eye on the pyrometer. “Try to keep it under 1100F, and certainly under 1300F.” was what I was told, along with a bunch of other advice about not making smoke out the straight pipe stacks, keeping both hands in the wheel with my thumbs on top of the wheel, not where the spokes could take them for a ride (no PS on that truck. There weren’t even brakes on the front axle or seat belts, and yes, it was all legal), and not topping out a hill with a fire built as running a bunch of cold air through a hot engine was a way to break valves.
Then toward the end of the summer my grandfather explained two things:
The first was thatvyou could shift both boxes simultaneously by putting one arm through the wheel and grabbing both sticks. This isn’t safe, but it’s occasionally useful. Dad warned me not to do it. Of course I tried it.
Grandpa also explained that the fuel rail pressure was controlled by an orifice in the pump, and said that one could find a smaller orifice or even blank orifice at the Cummins dealer, and we had an account. Dad was all, “why did you tell him that?!??”
A few weeks later 17 year old me went and got a blank button and installed it. That 335 would crack when you gave it throttle. Dad found it and removed it, and I always swore that he installed a larger orifice than what it had before. Fun while it lasted back in 1979.
The advice I’ve seen on this forum for EGTs with the 1HD is “under 750F”. The one hitch here is the guy who installed it all the first time put the pyrometer post turbo, so EGTs could have been somewhat higher than indicated.
Anyway, a lot of that “feather foot/watch the pyrometer” stuff stuck, and it’s not like I had my foot mashed to the floor when it broke.
It’s all fixable. @samc2447 says new 1hd-fte long blocks are still available from Toyota.
Speed costs money, how fast can you afford to go?
“Cubic dollars always wins” and “if it don’t go, chrome it.”
Two oft heard sayings from my teenage drag racing days.
“Cubic dollars always wins” and “if it don’t go, chrome it.”
Two oft heard sayings from my teenage drag racing days.
Ordered it this morning from Japan.
gonzopancho
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“That shines like a diamond in a goat’s ass.” — granddad
My goats would be in serious danger if they had diamonds in their azz. 
Pigeaten
GOLD Star
In a pigs ass!
Can one still buy those?!!!
Pigeaten
GOLD Star
Only if someone on mud lets their oem stash go
gonzopancho
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Absurd!
A healthy FTE or any 1HDx engine idles at 350*f. Only way you can have 750* max is if it is so down tuned it has no power at all. 1200*, even 1400* for 1-3 seconds is fine. sustained temps of 900-1000* are fine too all day long.
Besides the pyro being ganky what else did the FTE get? Was the bottom end rebuilt? Top end too? If so by whom and upsize bearings or standard? ARP head studs? What boost and turbo is-was it running? What intercooler? If rebuilt what was the break in process?
Or was it a used engine, slap a GTurbo on and go?
We have built a dozen FTE/FTs now. ALL are doing just fine with 25-30psi. Seen some ganky work though that’s for sure. One of the FTs freshly rebuilt from a shop I don’t need to name, bores were shaped like hourglass and it look like it got honed with gravel not to mention the “custom” Cummins rings fitted.
Cheers
gonzopancho
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- #432
Absurd!
A healthy FTE or any 1HDx engine idles at 350*f. Only way you can have 750* max is if it is so down tuned it has no power at all. 1200*, even 1400* for 1-3 seconds is fine. sustained temps of 900-1000* are fine too all day long.
Besides the pyro being ganky what else did the FTE get? Was the bottom end rebuilt? Top end too? If so by whom and upsize bearings or standard? ARP head studs? What boost and turbo is-was it running? What intercooler? If rebuilt what was the break in process?
Or was it a used engine, slap a GTurbo on and go?
We have built a dozen FTE/FTs now. ALL are doing just fine with 25-30psi. Seen some ganky work though that’s for sure. One of the FTs freshly rebuilt from a shop I don’t need to name, bores were shaped like hourglass and it look like it got honed with gravel not to mention the “custom” Cummins rings fitted.
Cheers
Ian,
You and I both know who supplied the engine.
Used. First version was a gturbo red wheel, PDI IC and airbox, +30% injectors. 4.56:1 gears in the 3rds, h152f 5-speed. Unichip piggyback.
For some reason, it won’t make more than 18-19psi of boost on the “performance” setting on the unichip.
They took 3 years to get it running right. The solution was a NIB fuel pump.
Developed a HG leak first time I drove it from MD to Texas (it had issues by Memphis, including the oil pressure sender or gauge was dead.)
It also leaked fuel from the top end around all those little return lines (because they wouldn’t follow my advice and had a “surge tank” in the mix over my objection that it wasn’t needed.
We went to Mick’s harness and a 105 series ECU as well. Mostly because it would shutdown at WOT. I think they called you for help at one point. You or Tor. Whomever it was didn’t want to work on someone else’s project (which I understand.)
When I got it to Texas, it leaked coolant from where the hoses rubbed against the valve cover. It leaked a bit of coolant from the head, too. The wiring harness wasn’t secured across the firewall. I could go in for an hour about what was wrong, but at that point I wanted the truck back, so I took it from MD to TX. Then Austin to OKC and back, then Denver and back.
I told them to drive out and get it or they’d pay the bill to fix it. So they came and got it.
They “found” a loose head bolt. I insisted on a head job, reseal, and ARP head studs. And of course I went to a blue wheel and +70% injectors because I’m like that. I told them they had to fix the fuel leaks and coolant leaks.
I paid for the R&R and a reseal, and the upgrades. They paid for the head job.
And time passed. Nothing fast about that place.
I started putting pressure on them when we started getting close to four years since the start. I can be a serious assh*le / SOB when provoked. I try to keep that tamped down here on mud, but thousands of people on the Internet think I’m a complete tool.
Anyway, they called and said they couldn’t get the little return lines to stop leaking. My question: “what restrictions do you have in the return? There should be NONE.”
They owned up to a check valve still being present. I won’t bore you with the hack job that resulted.
Net-net: I had them deliver it to @samc2447 who reworked a bunch of stuff, but I’d wanted it for a drive to Oregon, so I grabbed it in April and have had it since.
It was always the plan that it would go back to Steve to finish, but now that’s been forced a bit earlier than I’d planned.
Since you’re here, I’ll bore you with the sh*t-fest of wiring on the shop owner’s personal truck, which I bought for a graduation present for our son. My stated conditions were that it was safe, reliable and would psss CO emissions.
The last of these required removing the coil packed MY98-up 1fz-fe and h151f (which I already owned, don’t ask.) Since I had the 1fz-fe and auto that came out of the lx450, and I knew it had a recent head job, I had them swap that in, with a shift kit in the transmission and a TRD supercharger I’d had rebuilt.
Again, delivered nearly a year past the agreed-to date (which itself was months past his graduation.)
Again, I rejected the first delivery, (Dec 22, in Denver) original agreed to date was Aug 21), put it back on their trailer and handed them a list of things to fix.
Which they did. Sorta. I took delivery of it (this time in Austin) about a year ago, drove it to Denver, and we got it to pass emissions last August, but it has some harness problems, and I didn’t like the way the wiring was done. (Remember: this was the owner’s personal truck.)
The lx450 had new new exhaust (y-pipe, cats) when it went to MD. What came back was a rusted mess that developed a series of exhaust leaks. Until I bought the kid a stainless y-pipe and stainless CARB-compliant cats. He had the muffler shop down the street install that, but they didn’t install the second cat (idk why), which, it turns out, was plugged. So at some point a couple months back we put it on my lift and replaced every exhaust gasket and the second cat I order to make the exhaust leaks go away. So at least one of the two cats supplied by that shop in MD was plugged. Yup, they picked up any junk they could find from behind the shop.
And then it developed a no-start. I thought I’d solved it with a new modulator, and in the process found the FPR hanging by the harness in the fender. So I bought one of those new and did my best to repair the s***ty splice job wrapped in duct tape that I found in the process.
Then the no-start returned.
So I handed it to Johnny at @Cruisers and Co and he found the no-start pretty quickly. A bad connection at what was left of the old fusible link junction.
We’d already agreed that he could go through the rest of the truck. Well, what he found was, in a word, disgustingly dangerous.
1/0 uncovered under the center console is good right? How about 1/0 across the front of the radiator, nevermind the uncovered studs on the circuit breakers, 100A circuit breaker in place of the fusable link, etc? Want to discuss the batter with the Positive terminal by the fender? No? Me either.
Johnny tore it all out to start over.
The LX has similar issues, which Steve will deal with.
Kid’s 80 is also getting lockers, new engine harness, and rebuilt transmission harness while Johnny has it. I’m considering pulling the Scheelmann front row from the LX and putting the stock seats back in, then putting the Scheelmanns in the kid’s 80.
(there is a set at Steve’s place for the lx450 that got stuck in Colombia for over a year that are technically for the lx450)
Wanna talk about the 40 they did?
Yeah, me either.
I think most people reading this know I’m in the process of pulling everything (3 more 55s and a troopy) away from them.
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Well shyt, that ain’t fun. Expensive too. 
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FFS man!
That’s not how my shop rolls or how we deliver Cruisers. Just finished an FTE swap a few months ago and delivered it to the owner mid June. His main comment that stuck with me before we parted ways was, “Absolutely excellent Ian, not just the Cruiser but the entire experience.” That’s how we deliver. The build thread on that one is in the 70-series section and I have dozens of videos on my YT page about how these engines should perform. I don’t pay a lot of attention to what other people do, just focus on what we do so really had no idea it was that bad for your 80 build.
A swap, Cruiser or build should ALWAYS be enjoyed. Bummer to hear this one was such an epic fail.
Cheers
gonzopancho
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on its way to @samc2447. That’s how much oil it dropped despite the rag I stuffed in the hole.
Cleaned off the pan (brake cleaner) and taped it up so it doesn’t blow oil all over the dude’s trailer.
Got a souvenir off the rag. Grenaded at least one rod by the looks of it.
Cleaned off the pan (brake cleaner) and taped it up so it doesn’t blow oil all over the dude’s trailer.
Got a souvenir off the rag. Grenaded at least one rod by the looks of it.
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gonzopancho
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Gonna make a keychain out of this
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FYI, GTurbo has some bling 400+hp conrods. I just recently installed them in my shop truck FT build.
Cheers
gonzopancho
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(And some wall art out of the pan. If the rods/piston are interesting, maybe a desk lamp.)
gonzopancho
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That’s the question: fresh 1hd-fte long block.
Run it as is or open it up for ARP head studs, bigger con rods, arp rod bolts, etc?
I think I’m going to run it as-is from the factory.
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I would still do ARPs with a fresh long block, we have on several. A day or so of labor and it’s a done deal, if you know what you are doing. New long block with have a crap paint job too, fyi.
If you are going to run the +70 injectors and the blue wheel you are in that 350+hp 30+psi range. More like 400hp and 40psi. The GTurbo chip is also not what you want, not sure what you have but you want a 5 map selection chip from HD Automotive. To your FTE build specs.
Or just keep it in that 18-22psi range with say a green wheel, could go +30 or not. No chip. I would still recommend ARPs. FT/FTEs are know to start “lifting” heads at 25 or more so psi.
Also really not a big deal to open up a long block and install the bling conrods. Labor more than anything but all bearings, pistons (ceramic coat while out), rings, etc-all can be reused.
Cheers
