Builds 1997 FZJ80 to HDJ80 1HD-FTE + H152F (4 Viewers)

[ofer bruhis]

Where did you get the mosquito catcher for the grill? Sweet rig.

Thanks. It’s a synthetic mosquito net from Home Depot. Webbing from Joanne Fabric. Magnets from Amazon and a 35 years old ‘Made in West Germany’ Pffaf sowing machine. I know, I know it’s not sexy like an Overland company but after the trip to Alaska, it cheap and practical.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

Thanks. It’s a synthetic mosquito net from Home Depot. Webbing from Joanne Fabric. Magnets from Amazon and a 35 years old ‘Made in West Germany’ Pffaf sowing machine. I know, I know it’s not sexy like an Overland company but after the trip to Alaska, it cheap and practical.

I've only eaten Nc mosquitoes how do the Alaskan mosquitoes taste are they salty

 

[ofer bruhis]

I've only eaten Nc mosquitoes how do the Alaskan mosquitoes taste are they salty

Ok. We have also this netting on the windows with magnets and a fan that blows air. One of the nets above the galley counter was slightly open one night. These are the ones that did not make it through the fan… it’s the National bird of Alaska. IT IS BRUTAL! The cabin had about a thousand of them alive and we did not sleep that night.

 

[jomelo]

Quick update before dinner - I will do a better one once I get home. Put about 320 miles on the truck in the last two days. The truck performed absolutely flawlessly. A decent amount of those miles were dirt road and low range.

This engine has an incredible amount of power. I have yet to go past 50 percent throttle for anything. Also, the turbo is currently at 16 lbs of boost during the break in period. It’s going to get a lot better. The FTE performed amazing at elevation. We got to 9,000 feet today with absolutely no smoke and zero power loss.

The H152 was a great idea. This is the perfect transmission for the truck. 1st gear is really low. Coupled with low range, it walks up literally anything you point it towards with no throttle. The road manners are great. The truck doesn’t like starting in 2nd so I still take off in 1st. Once out of 1st, the truck pulls really well 2nd all the way through 5th.

The King suspension is like riding on air. I didn’t bother to air down on the trails today. No big deal. They are well worth the money.

 

[ofer bruhis]

Quick update before dinner - I will do a better one once I get home. Put about 320 miles on the truck in the last two days. The truck performed absolutely flawlessly. A decent amount of those miles were dirt road and low range.

This engine has an incredible amount of power. I have yet to go past 50 percent throttle for anything. Also, the turbo is currently at 16 lbs of boost during the break in period. It’s going to get a lot better. The FTE performed amazing at elevation. We got to 9,000 feet today with absolutely no smoke and zero power loss.

The H152 was a great idea. This is the perfect transmission for the truck. 1st gear is really low. Coupled with low range, it walks up literally anything you point it towards with no throttle. The road manners are great. The truck doesn’t like starting in 2nd so I still take off in 1st. Once out of 1st, the truck pulls really well 2nd all the way through 5th.

The King suspension is like riding on air. I didn’t bother to sit down on the trails today. No big deal. They are well worth the money.

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When you have a chance I’m curious what type of mpg the FTE gets on the highway on long trips. Truck looks amazing.

 

[SNLC]

Great drive today, great test and run in on the truck. We did over 100 miles on dirt today. John burned 21 gallons of diesel while he was here.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Well I took John to the airport in the HDJ80 this morning.

We have a handful of small things to do to the Cruiser before we ship it off to John. This is the bitter sweet end to a build. It’s bitter because it’s leaving and we absolutely adore this Cruiser. It’s sweet because there is simply no better end to a big build then to present the Cruiser to the owner in person.

All day Friday was spent with Onur and John. We went over not only the 80 in detail but also Johns other Cruisers here at the shop. We also had the opportunity to go hit a local trail on Friday. Late in the day I asked John if he wanted to play in the Cruiser in low range and he was game. So we went and hit up a local rock crawling trail. John drove it well and the Cruiser just ate up whatever we put in front of it. It flexes real well and it drives itself over boulders. It can bomb down a wash at 55mph no probs and eats up 1+ft whoops like they are nothing. Very impressive Cruiser.

Saturday Onur left very early. We took off in the morning for a tour of Idaho. I drove my Cruiser and John drove the 80.

Chris who works in the shop and did a ton of work building this Cruiser rode with John.

We did a big loop up through the mountains getting up to nearly 9,000ft. Stopped off at some alpine lakes before dropping down off the mountains.

We then dropped down off the mountains and followed the river back to Boise. We even stopped at some hot springs where I had to soak for a few!

To end a great day out in the Cruisers we did a BBQ and watched some 4wd247.

As the shop and builders of this Cruiser, there is absolutely no better way to end a project. Meeting the customer in person and handing over the keys to their new Cruiser is what it is all about! Thank you John for giving us the opportunity to build this Cruiser for you and thank you for taking the time to come go over it with us in person. It has been an absolute pleasure and we look forward to more!

I will probably fire up my DJI and see if we can’t get one final walk around and a few videos of higher quality going over the Cruiser. A couple more weeks though finishing off the little things and this Cruiser is headed home!

Cheers

 

[jomelo]

View attachment 2758080

Anyone else wishing this wouldn’t end? Can’t wait for season 2.

Just follow this one:

Builds - 2018 GCC Spec 79 Series 1HD-FTE + H152 - The Camel

One week ago exactly, @gilmorneau unwittingly set this build thread in motion when he posted an HDJ80 series for sale. I needed the truck because it had a coveted center console that I could not find anywhere - figured I could part out the rest and recoup most of my money. It had a nice...

forum.ih8mud.com

@SNLC and I made some good plans for that truck this weekend.

 

[jomelo]

Well I took John to the airport in the HDJ80 this morning.

View attachment 2759974


We have a handful of small things to do to the Cruiser before we ship it off to John. This is the bitter sweet end to a build. It’s bitter because it’s leaving and we absolutely adore this Cruiser. It’s sweet because there is simply no better end to a big build then to present the Cruiser to the owner in person.

All day Friday was spent with Onur and John. We went over not only the 80 in detail but also Johns other Cruisers here at the shop. We also had the opportunity to go hit a local trail on Friday. Late in the day I asked John if he wanted to play in the Cruiser in low range and he was game. So we went and hit up a local rock crawling trail. John drove it well and the Cruiser just ate up whatever we put in front of it. It flexes real well and it drives itself over boulders. It can bomb down a wash at 55mph no probs and eats up 1+ft whoops like they are nothing. Very impressive Cruiser.

Saturday Onur left very early. We took off in the morning for a tour of Idaho. I drove my Cruiser and John drove the 80.

Chris who works in the shop and did a ton of work building this Cruiser rode with John.

View attachment 2759971

We did a big loop up through the mountains getting up to nearly 9,000ft. Stopped off at some alpine lakes before dropping down off the mountains.

View attachment 2759987

We then dropped down off the mountains and followed the river back to Boise. We even stopped at some hot springs where I had to soak for a few!

View attachment 2759973

To end a great day out in the Cruisers we did a BBQ and watched some 4wd247.

View attachment 2759975


As the shop and builders of this Cruiser, there is absolutely no better way to end a project. Meeting the customer in person and handing over the keys to their new Cruiser is what it is all about! Thank you John for giving us the opportunity to build this Cruiser for you and thank you for taking the time to come go over it with us in person. It has been an absolute pleasure and we look forward to more!

I will probably fire up my DJI and see if we can’t get one final walk around and a few videos of higher quality going over the Cruiser. A couple more weeks though finishing off the little things and this Cruiser is headed home!

Cheers

Thanks for the great time Ian.

I cannot say enough good things about this truck. This is the second truck I have had Ian work on. The first truck was a much shorter project but a lot of mechanical work was performed during that timeframe. That truck is rock solid and is now owned by a local friend of mine. I knew this truck was going to be good but really had no idea how good until I got to Boise. Zero complaints. The truck was over and above what I expected it to be - and I had set a pretty high bar.

@SNLC is fantastic to work with on these projects. The attention to detail is fantastic and that is truly what sets this truck apart - the details. That should be pretty apparent throughout this thread. I had a general idea of what I wanted and gave Ian some latitude in coming up with ideas to fill in the gaps. Could not be happier with the end result. A little over a year ago I was pretty down on this truck. It was sitting in a different shop with zero chance of ever being finished. We now know that the work done there was going to immediately result in major problems - assuming it were ever finished. I’m certainly glad I made the decision to pull the truck and send it to Idaho. I recognize this build is not for everyone. But I would highly recommend @SNLC for anyone looking to improve their Land Cruiser in any way. I have two more major projects at his place so it should be clear I have a lot of trust in him.

Ian mentioned Chris and the work that he did along the way. I got to know Chris a lot better this weekend. He even sold me an 80 series chassis for my 79 series pickup project. This guy does some amazing work, such as the air box on this FTE. I put him behind the wheel for a few hours on Saturday afternoon so I could take a little siesta in the passenger seat.

And there is @Onur. This guy loves Land Cruisers more than you can imagine. We would probably still be searching for parts to finish this build if it wasn’t for @Onur. He doesn’t really sell parts anymore so I am using him more of a parts consultant. The three of us have a little group chat where we make decisions and Onur runs off and secures the parts from wherever they are available. This truck is a mix of all things Land Cruiser, 80 series, 79 series, 105 series, etc etc so Onur had parts shipping from Japan, Australia, the Middle East, etc. There are so many times when Ian or I had done some research and concluded a part was unobtainable yet somehow Onur found it. He is now wrenching up in NY as some of you may know. Anyone in the NE needing work should get with him.

I know we live in a world where everyone wants their stuff yesterday and as cheap as possible. But sometimes its really worth the wait and the cost. These guys are so passionate about what they do and it shows in the final product.

 

[bottombracket]

I know we live in a world where everyone wants their stuff yesterday and as cheap as possible. But sometimes its really worth the wait and the cost. These guys are so passionate about what they do and it shows in the final product.

Amen. Words to live by.

 

[davidp14]

Apologies if you already mentioned but what headlights are in this one?

 

[jomelo]

Apologies if you already mentioned but what headlights are in this one?

Depo housings. Projector conversion setup with parts from Retrofit Source.

 

[SNLC]

Installed a manual boost controller today and cranked up the boost.

Just about 24psi in this pic, should be 25+ now after adjusting it again.

The FTE pulls even harder, boost builds faster and EGTs have dropped 200+*. John should really like it now!

Tomorrow = dyno run.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Not the best videos but here are our firsts runs with increased boost.








Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Going down right now.


Cheers

 

[ofer bruhis]

View attachment 2763560


Going down right now.


Cheers

Ian, It's a work of art.

 

[scottryana]

Anyone making any guesses? Without knowing anything about boosting diesels I am going to say 230whp and 430ft/lbs torque. So double a stock 1FZ/auto combo. Lol

 

[SNLC]

So before I post anything there is a few things to point out.

First, the dyno is a Mustang Dyno. The owner of it says it is not the most accurate dyno.

Next, this Cruiser is full time 4wd still. All your Gturbo specs are for RWHP not 4WHP. Not to mention the Cruiser weighs 6,500lbs.

Even though it’s a manual you are still going to have powertrain loss. Better than an auto but still there. Diff gears (stock on this 80), tire size and all that also comes into play here.

Factory specs for power on any engine is at the crank, no load, sea level and in a laboratory environment.

What matters here is how the Cruiser performs, how it drives, ect. The dyno run is not a do all end all thing to judge the FTE or the Cruiser. We are doing the dyno runs, for fun more or less and to have an idea what we have at the wheels.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

So to give a comparison I went ahead and ran my 80 on the dyno too.

It’s a 95 with a new (not rebuilt) 1FZFE with 7,000 miles on it. 315’s, stock gears, 343, full time 4wd.

Thats pretty lack luster to say the least. I can tell you though my engine pulls better than any other non-boosted 1FZ I have seen.

Cheers