Builds 1990 LJ78 in Montana

[AirheadNut]

There was originally a washer and cotter pin on the end of the pivot pin, I lost mine sometime during the engine swap project and ended up using a bit of solid copper wire as a cotter pin for a temporary solution. Three years on and it is still there...

Makes sense that there would be extra wiring leftover from the A343f that wasn't needed on the A440f.

 

[pradoblivious]

So it's the indicator light.

 

[AirheadNut]

Nice that it is not something more serious. Getting to be the time of year when one needs to have confidence in their 4wd system!

 

[pradoblivious]

We are back in Texas for christmas. Took a little bit of a different, more easterly way south this time through the grasslands. I keep trying to find some part of colorado I like and keep coming up empty-handed heh.

camped the first night at dugway outside sinclair WY. I like everyplace in wyoming.

second night we camped in Texas at Lake Meredith

 

[pradoblivious]

went to check my oil this morning and the entire dipstick tube came out with the dipstick. It was all twisted up and mangled at the bottom, and when I tried to straighten the dip-stick the end came off in my hand heh. I guess I'll FIPG it back in there later on.

The dipstick is stamped with 15301-56040, which looks to be discontinued. Anybody know replacements that fit?

 

[pradoblivious]

welp I finally got suspension on this rig.. feels like I've been wanting it for 10 years at this point haha.

 

[pradoblivious]

Hey yall.. Is this what they call "knock"?

 

[pradoblivious]

Been traveling a bit so it's taken me awhile to get back around to truck stuff, but it started making knocking noises and idling rough (video above). I'm pretty sure I have an intake valve that isn't seating properly. The knocking sound gets way louder when I unbutton the air filter housing and I can feel air punching outward from the filter housing as well in time to the knock noise. I haven't even had a free weekend to get into the wheel-hub project and now this. I guess it's always something, and sometimes a few somethings.

Took the truck back to the shop that did the engine rebuild, waiting to hear back.

 

[AirheadNut]

Sorry to hear that! Hopefully it is a reasonable fix.

I guess it's always something, and sometimes a few somethings.

Isn't that the case! No sooner to I fit one thing on mine than I find two other things that need attention. The to-do list never seems to get any smaller.

 

[pradoblivious]

I've only put about 10k miles on it since the engine rebuild, so I know the correct thing to do is to get it back to the rebuild shop, but I'm sorely tempted to dig into it myself, just to see what kind of job they did that's caused something like this, and I don't have a high degree of confidence that they'd tell me if they screwed something up.. I've never personally pulled a head off an engine though, so not super sure I would know what I was looking at.

 

[pradoblivious]

Got word from the rebuild shop yesterday. They're telling me the head-gasket was perforated between cylinders 2 and 3, and that's messing up my compression. I asked why I wasn't blowing smoke if the head-gasket blew and he said it was just the location where it was compromised didn't provide any opportunity for a leak.. sounds kinda suspicious to me but ok.

 

[Rigster]

Got word from the rebuild shop yesterday. They're telling me the head-gasket was perforated between cylinders 2 and 3, and that's messing up my compression. I asked why I wasn't blowing smoke if the head-gasket blew and he said it was just the location where it was compromised didn't provide any opportunity for a leak.. sounds kinda suspicious to me but ok.

It is certainly possible, and in the most likely location where the gasket is thinnest between cylinders, there are no coolant jackets in that vicinity.

I am curious, did the rebuild kit for this come from toyota? (IE: what brand is the head gasket?) However, even in the most stringently controlled manufactories, anomalies are possible, so it could be you received a defective gasket.

I assume that since the rebuild was recent the shop will warranty this?

 

[pradoblivious]

Ok that's good to know thanks.. My knee-jerk reaction to everything that happens is always that the mechanic is jerking me around, and these guys honestly haven't ever given me a reason to mistrust them. They sourced almost everything from toyota or radd cruisers from the build.. there were one or two parts they had to go international for... iirc some crankshaft bearings.

The rebuild was 2 years ago. We've put around 10k miles on it since, so we're outside the warranty unfortunately. The truck went back several times for in-warranty repair early on.. main seal leaks, etc..

 

[FJBen]

Ok that's good to know thanks.. My knee-jerk reaction to everything that happens is always that the mechanic is jerking me around, and these guys honestly haven't ever given me a reason to mistrust them. They sourced almost everything from toyota or radd cruisers from the build.. there were one or two parts they had to go international for... iirc some crankshaft bearings.

The rebuild was 2 years ago. We've put around 10k miles on it since, so we're outside the warranty unfortunately. The truck went back several times for in-warranty repair early on.. main seal leaks, etc..

I wonder if it’s a cylinder liner protrusion problem? If those aren’t set direct you can blow a head gasket.

Do you have any documentation on the rebuild on what the shop actually did?

If the protrusion of the liner is too low, it will eventually fail. In my 13bt rebuild, he had to set the counterbore on the block itself so that the liners would have correct protrusion.

this is at least a good question to ask, what did you set the liner protrusion to on the block?

There are lots of ways the liner install could be messed up. Depth wrong, chamfer wrong, sealants used and shrinks

 

[pradoblivious]

 

[pradoblivious]

they re-trued the head.. said they took a thousandnt and a half off the face

 

[pradoblivious]

yall what do you think is up with that? I can't do a headgasket every 10k miles... beginning to think this 13bt is cursed.

 

[FJBen]

yall what do you think is up with that? I can't do a headgasket every 10k miles... beginning to think this 13bt is cursed.

Have them check liner protrusion. If that’s not right this will happen over and over. Nothing you do to the head will fix that.

 

[FJBen]

@pradoblivious any updates?

 

[pradoblivious]

@pradoblivious any updates?

Sorry, Yes I did ask them about linear protrusion, but they just kind of shrugged at me like a customer who over-heated his truck and spends too much time on the internet.