Builds 1990 LJ78 in Montana (1 Viewer)

[pradoblivious]

One of the problems here is that the mechanic is over 300 miles away. He's aware and is chipping in with advice but yeah, I mean I'm not thrilled. If this problem turns out to be in my tank or my lines back that way it's probably a pre-existing thing. If it's the IP or something up front I can't figure out, I'll probably drive it back up to him.

 

[OGBeno]

I wouldn't waste one second of my energy on this.. It would be on a trailer back to him (on his dime) and he would need to make it right.

Why is mediocrity acceptable especially when someone's hard earned money is involved? I will never understand.

 

[Nas90tdi]

I second that 100%. An engine swap was paid for it sounds like.
That means you drop your truck off with one engine and drive away with another. Not troubleshoot a shoddy install on your own after the fact.
I do expect those same results on my own trucks, when I put an engine in, it's not done until it can be cranked and driven 100%.
You are the second person this week I have seen that had engine swaps done and their truck won't crank. I would be livid.

 

[pradoblivious]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback and support. I've never really done anything like this before, so it has been difficult for me to tell where the line between "reasonable" and red flag is. Like I said, we went out of our way to find a mechanic with a great reputation. As for troubleshooting things myself I've pretty much run out of time in the short term, and now I have to travel for a bit (we were planning to take sosuke, but now it'll be yet another airline/rental car expense . I did message my mechanic to let him know the truck needs to come back to them to get fixed.

 

[Sd1975]

COOLING FAN UPGRADE - TAKE 2

A couple of weeks ago I decided to upgrade my radiator fan to improve cooling. I had read that the 3.0 V6 fan works really well, but couldn't find any in my area, so I resorted to the Isuzu Trooper fan, which has the same hub and bolt pattern. However, once I got the fan home and compared it to my stock fan, it became apparent that the Isuzu fan is made to rotate the opposite direction (this is due to the fan belt routing on a V6 Trooper).
View attachment 1235197

So I decided to install the fan backwards. I had to modify the shroud a little, but it ended up fitting really nice. Lots of air blew out now when the fan was on.
View attachment 1235199

This was the first time I could actually hear the fan while driving. However, after a couple of days of driving there was no noticeable difference in cooling, so I held a piece of paper in front of the radiator, and the paper blew forward. I reversed the fan, installing it as it would have been in the Trooper, but it was even worse, so I got on ebay and bought a new Toyota ring fan for a V6. Since installing that there has been a vast improvement in cooling. I still need to fix up a more adequate shroud, since I had to butcher the one I made for the Isuzu fan.
View attachment 1235201

What fan exactly is this? I know you said a Toyota 6 inch ring fan, but trying to find one for myself. Wanna make sure I get one that bolts right up. Im assuming there was no modification needed to attach fan, just on shroud, correct?

 

[AirheadNut]

What fan exactly is this? I know you said a Toyota 6 inch ring fan, but trying to find one for myself. Wanna make sure I get one that bolts right up. Im assuming there was no modification needed to attach fan, just on shroud, correct?

It’s the fan from a 3.0 V6 4Runner or Pickup. IIRC it requires spacers about 1” long to push the fan forward, otherwise it rubs on the belts. I have a CAD drawing of a spacer hub I was going to have 3D printed that I could send you.

 

[Sd1975]

It’s the fan from a 3.0 V6 4Runner or Pickup. IIRC it requires spacers about 1” long to push the fan forward, otherwise it rubs on the belts. I have a CAD drawing of a spacer hub I was going to have 3D printed that I could send you.

That would be awesome man! I would appreciate that. While I got you, I replaced my fan clutch with one I bought from Roughtrax 4x4 before I found out about blue fan clutch mod (new to this platform). The one I got is an Aisin and shows to be the one for the 2.4 LJ78. It has yellow paint instead of blue and not sure what viscosity oil. Installed it yesterday and it seems to have regulated water temp better but I've noticed something (AC compressor?) seems to kick on more often than before and lower rpm's a bit. Any thoughts?

 

[AirheadNut]

Here is the spacer drawing:

Not sure what would be causing the A/C compressor to kick on more often, obviously it should only be on if the AC is on. The little dial switch for the AC under the fan speed switch sometimes gets bumped on unintentionally, could that be the problem?

 

[Sd1975]

Here is the spacer drawing:
View attachment 1926863

Not sure what would be causing the A/C compressor to kick on more often, obviously it should only be on if the AC is on. The little dial switch for the AC under the fan speed switch sometimes gets bumped on unintentionally, could that be the problem?

Actually yeah that was what got bumped. Little booger is easily turned on and just didnt notice it until I got home from work

 

[Sd1975]

Here is the spacer drawing:
View attachment 1926863

Not sure what would be causing the A/C compressor to kick on more often, obviously it should only be on if the AC is on. The little dial switch for the AC under the fan speed switch sometimes gets bumped on unintentionally, could that be the problem?

Thank you for drawing! Dont suppose you got one for egr block off plates do ya?

 

[JimmyPrado]

Just trace the gasket, pretty straight forward.

 

[AirheadNut]

Just trace the gasket, pretty straight forward.

That’s exactly what I did, only in my case I just made block off “gaskets” out of old ducting and sealed them with RTV. Using full plates and deleting the entire system is probably the better way to go, for one thing it helps declutter the engine bay.

 

[Lapocruiser]

Just finished installing a gauge cluster for my new gauges. It replaces the frankly useless altimeter and the cool but not very useful inside/outside thermometer. I made it out of some sheet aluminum left over from my intercooler. Now I just need to get them hooked up.
View attachment 1225758
View attachment 1225761 View attachment 1225763

I also had the exhaust system replaced with a 3 inch straight-pipe. I never would have guessed that a 2lte could sound that good. (Video is on the way.)

Two continents, one idea ))

 

[pradoblivious]

Just continuing the build-thread.. Had some trouble with the engine-swap as detailed in failed-swap-need-advice. Had the swapped-in 13-bt rebuilt by "engine rebuilders llc" in Dallas.

The pic really doesn't do justice to how _clean_ it came back looking. I was blown away, they even refinished the metal lines to the injectors. I was pretty delighted.
Rebuilder's said the engine was "very high mileage" and worn down. Cam bearings were evidently in really bad shape, and the top of the piston walls were lipped. Wish I could have gotten pics, but they didn't call me when they got started.

Been having trouble with an oil leak from the filter holder, but otherwise it's been running great.

 

[pradoblivious]

I cleaned up the positive battery terminal with one of those audiophile positive terminal plates. I'm not a real huge fan of this, but it's a temporary solution until I can move the PCV and get a 200 amp fuse bar mounted (Do I even need a pcv catch-can now that we're freshly rebuilt?). The old wiring really needed to go, it was awful. Is it just me or are many seasoned mechanics hostile toward electricity? It's almost as if they don't want it to work.

 

[pradoblivious]

Truck came back from the rebuild-shop with a non-functional A/C compressor. The clutch isn't engaging. I pulled it this weekend to take a look, and it won't engage on the bench either. I'm pretty sure it's an 88320.I see a few possible replacements, but I was hoping to just find a replacement clutch I could order, any ideas?

 

[pradoblivious]

Spent some time this weekend tracing wiring around the engine bay. There's a MASSIVE amount of taped-off wiring in the bay right now as a result of the engine swap. The lj78 has an ecu and the 13-bt is entirely mechanically controlled. I'm severely tempted to dig in to some wiring diagrams and try to thin out this harness. Also, we realized last night the heater (in addition to the A/C) is not working after the engine-rebuild. Anybody have a google-docs link to the lj78 service manual? I have the 3b manual and the fuel pump manuals but can't seem to find one with wiring diagrams and a map of how the heater system works

 

[AirheadNut]

Here is the one I have, it's for all versions of the 70-series in 1990: Chassis-Body_1990-01_RM183E copy.pdf - https://www.dropbox.com/s/izahxpmaj17i732/Chassis-Body_1990-01_RM183E%20copy.pdf?dl=0

You should be able to delete the majority of engine bay wiring, as I recall the only things left in the harness when I was done were transmission, transfer case and some odd power supply wires. Do you have the LJ78 wiring diagrams?

 

[pradoblivious]

Fixed the heat this weekend, I think the engine-rebuilders must have bumped the valve that controls coolant flow into the firewall hard-enough they dislodged the pin connecting the valve-stem to the control cable. Also pulled the A/C compressor, it'll probably go to a local rebuild shop, I haven't had any luck sourcing a new clutch for it.

also performed a temporary quality of life upgrade while I was out tooling around..

 

[pradoblivious]

Truck went back to the Engine Swappers again last weekend. Another small oil-leak developed from that same oil-filter housing. You can kind of see it seeping out around the bolt in this pic. I have a one-year unlimited mileage guarantee on the rebuild, so I'm just taking it back to them on pretty much anything engine-related.

On the drive home my wife called my cell to tell me I was blowing smoke at the stop-lights. It was blue and smelled like burnt oil, so I figured maybe they'd gotten some oil in the air intake lines while they were in there, and that it'd burn off by the time we got it home. But it was still smoking when we got home so I popped the hood and found this.



That's the coolent line to the turbo, so I think we probably blew the turbo seal sigh.