1981 Pickup 4 X 4 New Owner (1 Viewer)

[t6dpilot]

Thanks @thetoyotaman I like the suggestion of hitting the inner fender coating with Bleach White on it. I'll give that a try.

I do not think there is fuel leaking in the crankcase - oil looks fine. How would that happen, spit in the diaphragm? Hmmm, you have me thinking... I am going to look into this further and pull that mechanical pump. I need to determine the routing of the lines from the Facet pump first.

So wondering if anyone here has a good suggestion on the fender apron seal material. I read on one of the FJ60 threads that someone used Grade 70 Neoprene ordered from Amazon. I found some just hesitant to order it and be disappointed with the material.

 

[thetoyotaman]

Yes. The diaphragm will crack and when the pump is in motion fuel will spill into the engine. The underhood pic posted early on looks like an aftermarket pump. When I picked up my truck the aftermarket pump had failed. Try to find a Kyosan, use the factory spacers and some black FIPG on the gasket.

I haven't tackled the fender apron thing but would love a pattern and to tackle this eventually. The factory material would dry rot very quickly by today's standard hence why they are all missing. Keep us posted on your progress here.

 

[t6dpilot]

Yes it appears that the fuel pump is aftermarket. Here is a photo. Looks fairly recent. The oil looks pretty good, but I am not sure if you can see fuel via a dipstick or not. I may just pull it and replace with one like you suggested. I assume the dealer is the best place to get one?

Also, if you zoom in, you can see the front on the engine is coated in gunk. Probably half oil and half Colorado dust. The back is oily too. Wonder what that is/was from? It is 40+ years of residue and most likely hasn’t ever been treated to detailed cleaning. Maybe a leaking valve cover in the past? Or a breather hose leak? Fortunately, there hasn’t been a drop of oil or anything under the truck the 3+ months it’s been on the lift. Or from where it was parked for many weeks/months prior to my purchase.

Moving on from mechanical things and rust cleaning, there are many things I love about this rig. Looking at the tailgate, I scrape some paint off the latch receiver and see plating in good shape. Hinge too, so I pulled them and stripped clean. Looks great and I’ll bet the latch assembly on the tailgate are the same. Like I said before, it’s the little victories that are fun. I'll post some pics after I clean them up and reinstall.

 

[t6dpilot]

And look at those clean doors with pretty yellow zinc plated parts. Nice. I also did a quick buff of the left side of the truck to get a feel of how the paint might turn out. Looks pretty good after a fast first pass. There are some sap droppings or something that will need closer attention. I’ll tackle that after I complete the underside clean up.

 

[Dedtruk]

Yes it appears that the fuel pump is aftermarket. Here is a photo. Looks fairly recent. The oil looks pretty good, but I am not sure if you can see fuel via a dipstick or not. I may just pull it and replace with one like you suggested. I assume the dealer is the best place to get one?

Also, if you zoom in, you can see the front on the engine is coated in gunk. Probably half oil and half Colorado dust. The back is oily too. Wonder what that is/was from? It is 40+ years of residue and most likely hasn’t ever been treated to detailed cleaning. Maybe a leaking valve cover in the past? Or a breather hose leak? Fortunately, there hasn’t been a drop of oil or anything under the truck the 3+ months it’s been on the lift. Or from where it was parked for many weeks/months prior to my purchase.

Moving on from mechanical things and rust cleaning, there are many things I love about this rig. Looking at the tailgate, I scrape some paint off the latch receiver and see plating in good shape. Hinge too, so I pulled them and stripped clean. Looks great and I’ll bet the latch assembly on the tailgate are the same. Like I said before, it’s the little victories that are fun. I'll post some pics after I clean them up and reinstall.

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Very nice. Cleanest first gen I've seen in a long time. I had an '81 back in the day ... and an '80, and an '84, and an '85 ... sniff. Great memories.

Anyway, the oil on the front and spraying toward the rear of the valve cover is probably the half moon plugs (just below the 22R sticker on the valve cover - there is another one at the back of the head by the firewall - both plugs should come in your valve cover gasket kit). Look at the pattern of the oil/dirt on the bolts holding the lift hook to the head. Looks like its a light mist of oil getting blown up and back by the fan. The timing cover can leak some too. Under the valve cover in the little well in front of the timing gear (the one bolted to the cam and fuel pump eccentric) is a small bolt hiding inside a puddle of oil, AKA, sneaky bolt.

Get the cover off and adjust valves. Tweak sneaky bolt, 12MM bolt head IIRC. Eyeball the timing chain and stick a long screwdriver down the passenger's side of the chain to check for slack, and see what you can of the chain guides. Best to catch the chain before it starts ingesting larger bits of the plastic guides. Ask me how I know, ha ha!

When you replace half moons, clean the head mating surface with acetone or similar, then skim coat the plugs with silicone sealer (The Right Stuff is expensive but is quite good) and let the plugs set up on the head. If you do that, that usually "glues" the plugs in place and they don't leak after that. A light coat of oil on the valve cover gasket will make it easily removable for future valve adjustments and seals it well in my experience. But TBH, the 22R in my '85 leaked anyway, even after a rebuild and careful attention to detail. The timing cover wasn't in the best shape and I probably should have replaced it. Eh ... It irritated me that the engine leaked about like yours, but as the Taoists say, "accept things as they are; embrace imperfection." A spitz with degreaser and a splash with the power washer at oil changes kept the grunge down to a tolerable level.

Oh, and if you can lay your hands on a copy of the long out of print How To Keep Your Toyota Pickup Alive, well, you're deep into nostalgic territory. GL with your project and keep the posts coming!

 

[thetoyotaman]

22RE Performance has replacement aluminum half moons if you want to go that route. Black Toyota FIPG can also be used to seal. Truthfully, the PCV and breather hoses like to seep. The valve cover and distributor o ring can dry out and crack. The 81-84 early head with the dual row timing chain are about impossible to find a replacement if yours goes bad so you will want to take care of it. Usually fuel in the oil is noticed by the smell.

 

[t6dpilot]

@Dedtruk your post was entertaining. Sneaky bolt - I like that. I'll have to look for that book. You guys are awesome with your responses and advice! Thanks for that, you all have been very helpful. First goal in the engine compartment is to get it all cleaned up and drive to see where leaks are coming from. Assess and repair as necessary.

I appreciate the compliments on the truck. I have to be honest, there were days as I first dug into this that I thought, "what in the heck did I get myself into?" But more and more as I make slow progress, I am liking the project and seeing what a good truck this is. To me it is a new challenge to learn this Hilux. It is so different from the early 911s I have spent the past 17 years owning and working on. We have an active forum that the members like to see project threads and contribute with knowledge. Figured I'd do the same here.

I'll back up a bit and give some back story to how I acquired this little gem. Sometime after the original family sold it in 2011 or later, it made its way to Colorado, not sure where, but likely somewhere on the Western Slope. I found it in 2020 in Telluride, CO sitting on a street looking unused and pretty forlorn. I thought it was owned by a construction worker working on the house across the street, but it appeared to never move. I walked by it multiple times a day for almost two months checking it out a little each time, but not long enough to upset the owner if they were nearby. It never moved, not once.

Did the same thing in 2021 and 2022 and the truck barely moved, so I decided to look on Google Earth to see if it was there. It was parked near a very long time resident's house whom we knew. Long story short, I was finally able to get in contact with her to show my interest. Took another year, but we struck a deal while we were out there last summer and I had the truck shipped home.

And here we are...

 

[Dedtruk]

t6dpilot, glad I could contribute. thetoyotaman makes good points, stuff I didn't know. And that's the beauty of this community, we all learn from and help each other. You have a great rig, man. Keep at it!

 

[t6dpilot]

Yes @thetoyotaman has been very helpful to me. Much appreciated!

So I got the paint off the drivers side tailgate latch. Looks much better. Guess they didn’t bother to mask everything properly. Sheesh. I eve took the screws out of one of the inspection panels and cleaned paint off of the plastic washers. Kind of a sloppy paint job from a masking standpoint.

Looks much better.

 

[thetoyotaman]

I was a kid when my dad wanted to buy one of these and he let me pick the color. I learned to drive and wrench on that truck. I learned a lot about these over the years. You could say we overlanded before it was a popular word. That truck went to a kid who dreamed about finding one like his dad. A few years ago I stumbled across one nearly identical for my kids to learn to drive. Would love to find a set of vent window doors for it and an A/C.

 

[t6dpilot]

Nice truck @thetoyotaman. Love the blue since I am partial to that color. Hey, if you want a pattern to the fender apron seals, let me know. I am happy to make one of the front while its off and send it to you. I can then make one of the rear when I get those off.

So I decided to hook up the battery and fire up the truck. Interestingly, it took a fair amount of cranking to get it to fire. Granted, it has been sitting since September, but it fired right up when I looked at it in CO. Maybe the owner ran it before she gave me the keys. And now I really notice the electric pump running. Funny I never noticed it when I drove it before I started the work. She's pumping away while the truck is running. Has just a touch of white "smoke" coming out of the exhaust, but it literally evaporates inches from the tailpipe. So I got the Kyosan fuel pump and will replace the aftermarket one soon. I wonder if I just disconnect the power wire from the electric fuel pump if fuel will still flow? Hmmm, probably not is my guess and I'll have to remove it and put a hose in its place.

 

[t6dpilot]

Decided to see if I can figure a way to remove the ugly but useful winch rack. Cannot believe I was able to get all the bolts out! Those were a real challenge with a small frame hole and weird angles to get to the bolt heads. But whatever I did, it worked and it’s off. It sure as H isn’t going back on. Its days of hard work are over. Looks way better without that monster.

 

[aztoyman]

That grill guard was a popular accessory back in the day. These 1st gen trucks look great in stock form though. All the work you're doing is paying off. Even the little details like cleaning off the paint over spray is making a big difference. Nice work.

 

[t6dpilot]

Haven't updated in a while, but the work continues at a slow steady pace. Started work on the rear diff and that area. Cleaned that up to the shock mounts and painted. Pulled the drums off to maybe replace, but the are within spec and the rear brakes had relatively recently been worked on. So I decided to spray the mechanism with brake clean and refinish the drum exteriors for now. They work fine and the axle seals aren't leaking. I'll get to the mechanics some time later.

Still working on some cosmetics and gave the wheels a good scrub and polish. They now look great and commensurate with the truck. I was going to mask and paint them, but they don't need it at this point. Like the winch rack, I had to pull that ugly Uhaul trailer hitch receiver off the back. Figured it would be an easy removal, but nope... it is integrated with the bumper mount. So that turns into a total project of course. I think the bumper brackets are Uhaul pieces and not Toyota OE, which is a bummer. All the bolts holding that stuff on was SAE and not metric. Searched for what OE looks like, but could not find anything.

I'll post a couple of pics later. Got all that stuff cleaned up and painted and ready to go back on when the time comes. I was also able to pretty easily remove all the plastic buttons for the fender aprons and remove those for cleaning. Now I can buzz the frame easily and get that painted. Rear shocks, bushings, and refinishing the springs and outer axle plate areas are last. And not what I am looking forward to.

 

[t6dpilot]

Photos of the crusty rear bumper and brackets.

 

[t6dpilot]

So I’m curious about the headlight surrounds. They are speckled with silver and I wonder if that’s a factory decorative feature. Never noticed this on these before, so I am not certain it is. Primer overspray? But I could not imagine that poor quality control or customer acceptance. I’d like to paint them, but if that’s a factory finish, I need to replicate it some way. Anybody know?

 

[thetoyotaman]

A lot of these trucks were delivered to the dealer and customers without a rear bumper and many of the bumpers were US dealer accessories or aftermarket hence the SAE bolts. Back then, this country wasn’t used to metric hardware, so anything added on typically was SAE.
I’m not an expert on the black trim back then, but I am pretty sure that the black you are seeing is a topcoat above the color underneath that looks like specs and due to years of rock pitting and sunburning of the paint you are seeing that.

 

[gnob]

the bezel thing could possibly be 2wd greys sprayed black.
4wd was black or chrome. the grille is obviously correct 4wd

 

[t6dpilot]

Thanks @thetoyotaman, that connects the dots for me on why I could not find rear bumpers in the parts diagram. Very interesting... OK so I at least have a dealer installed rear chrome bumper with the correct dealer brackets. The headlight surrounds are smooth and not pitted from rock chips. The pattern is somewhat random, so could have been applied by the dealer or a previous owner. If I know that they should be all black (or chrome) and that is correct for 1981 4WD, then I will paint them with a satin black trim paint.

@gnob sadly the grill had a slat broken off to install the power wires for the winch. Jeez guys, you couldn't figure a better way to do that without breaking something? SMH. I wonder if the repops are any good?

 

[thetoyotaman]

As I thought about this, my 82 with the chrome grille has the inserts painted a dark gray which as it ages I'm starting to see something similar to yours with chrome dots underneath. I think mine started out as chrome and painted on top.