Builds 1987 fj60 12h-t h55f conversion

[SM Racing]

Give me a shout if you need something. Pretty sure we can get to the border, but they won't let me cross without a passport.

 

[SM Racing]

Give me a shout if you need something. Pretty sure we can get to the border, but they won't let me cross without a passport.

 

[boozewz]

Oh man!

Hope the fix is quick and nothing serious. Keep us posted!

 

[inoplanetyanin]

Knock, lost oil pressure - sounds serious. Possibly a broke rod or a piston. Bearing could have failed, or the block cracked.
How old is that engine as far as the block? Are the cylinders original?
The recent use was high rpm rather than load or thermal changes.
Hard to diagnose or repair in the field condition without serious tools, I'd imagine.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

That sucks!

And it sucks more than most think, because now that you have driven a 12HT powered 60, it's hard to imagine anything else being adequate.

If our croaked tomorrow, I'd get a rebuilt kit on the way from Australia poste haste!

Dan

 

[roma042987]

That sucks!

And it sucks more than most think, because now that you have driven a 12HT powered 60, it's hard to imagine anything else being adequate.

If our croaked tomorrow, I'd get a rebuilt kit on the way from Australia poste haste!

Dan

Hit the nail on the head Dan!
It drove amazing I'm most certainly going to rebuild it as soon as I get it back home. I'm quiet surprised it did what it did quiet frankly. No abnormal noises or smoke and excellent power. With the odd belt problems I was experiencing along with the drop of oil pressure with no external leaks I'm now beginning to wonder if the thrust bearings may have went and the crank was actually walking. Another odd thing is when it came to a stop the temperature spiked to roughly the 3/4 mark. I'm certainly interested in diagnosing the failure point on this when I tear it down.

As far as high rpms I didn't push it. With the 3.70 gears H55f and 31s it stayed at 2500 or less.

 

[SM Racing]

What's your 20?

 

[roma042987]

Big Thanks to Peter behemoth60 here on mud we got the truck over the border to Montana today and locked up in a secure storage facility. I'm flying back home Sunday and will be headed back out on my first free weekend to retrieve the 60. Plan is to fly to Great Falls and buy a tow rig to pull or load it up on.

 

[cruisermatt]

I love ih8mud

 

[inoplanetyanin]

Wow, Peter has a nice truck.

Cryusermatt, wait, do you love it or hate it?

 

[cruisermatt]

It's what I love about the Cruiser community, so many people willing to go out of their way to help on such short notice.

It's called Cruiser Karma. And it doesn't go unrewarded.

 

[mcguirejohnson]

Dang man sorry to hear that you ran into engine problems on the trip. I hope you get it back on the road soon!

 

[roma042987]

ok so here is what happened. Sunday morning july 5th I wake up from my comfy bed and decide to check my fluid levels and belts before hitting the road. The belts are loose once again so I start by tightening up my alternator belt which is getting near maximum adjustment from the belt being so worn, I have a back up and decide to make this one go as long as possibly before replacing it. Check all the fluids, everything looks great, not a drop of oil anywhere underneath the entire truck. I hop in and fire it up, and here a metallic clanking noise so instantly shut it down and inspect what was going on. Apparently the small metal fan on the alternator was hitting the clamp on the power steering return hose from being maxed out in adjustment and has severed the hose

No big deal at this point, I dig into my spares and pull out my spare hoses and fluids. I have one quart of atf and plenty of extra hoses. I pull the secondary battery and replace the severed hose and reposition the new one so its no longer in the way of the alternator fan/pulley.

Then I decide to go ahead and tighten my a/c belt as well and proceed to break of the tensioning bolt At this point im thinking its been a bad morning but surely I wont have any more trouble

tools, spares, and sleeping quarters

sunrise in north dakota

 

[hsumbal]

I feel really sad and surprised that this happened to your 12HT....it is very strange though...

I feel, had you not reconditioned the engine and put it in the Cruiser straight away you might have not seen this....yes I know in the hindsight everyone is a genius...and there are a lot of "ifs" and "buts"..

Anyways looking forward to autopsy of the engine...

Best of luck and Take care...

P.S. I love the pictures you post..

 

[Elbert]

Roma,
Great thread.... I just came across it..here on mud and have read through most of it. Sucks to learn about your engine issues.
Thats a long haul to get out back out there to recover your truck. Don't know if you've made it back home with it yet or not.

 

[OGBeno]

Yeah, what Elbert said: Donde esta Roma?

 

[roma042987]

Part two of the recovery process. I bought a 1989 isuzu npr 3.9 turbo diesel for a recovery truck shortly after i got back. It's got a 16ft box and a manual trans and it's ugly as sin but with only 121k on the clock it was a smoking deal for 2k. I also picked up some 8ft aluminum ramps, added a winch and some tie downs. Last weekend tucker and I drove to the land fill and it lost some weight.

 

[roma042987]

I decided to have a plan B this time so strapped my xr650l on the back. My brother (inoplanetyanin) flew in from LA and we hit the road Thursday at 12:30 pm loaded up with an f150 on the back. My boss at work offered me 300 bucks to haul it to Cabot Arkansas which was only a couple of hours out of the way plus I got to leave work a few hours early. Last picture was taken a few moments ago in great falls montana. About another 115 miles until I'm reunited with the 60!

 

[roma042987]

Last night the isuzu lost probably 60 percent of its power in spearfish south dakota it was already 9pm so we decided to push on. Drove or actually limped another 400 plus miles through the night to lewistown mt which had a car quest that had a fuel filter in stock. The truck would only go 45mph last night and down to 30mph on inclines. Needless to say i was quiet ecstatic that the fuel filter took care of the problem. I filled the new filter with some automatic trans fluid just to give the ip seals some extra lube and I didn't have any diesel to pour in it before I spun it on.

 

[Elbert]

Man...you're having nothing but good luck...hope the fuel issues are solved at this point.