Builds 1HZ-T HZJ78 All-Climate Expo Build

[DamoPeru]

at some point I put this top spin pre-filter on instead of the ram. i had heard coments that the inner turbine make a bit of noise, but to be honest i haven't heard it al all over the racket coming from the turbo and 3" exhaust

It is inviting a branch to rip it off so at some point the plan is to make up a stainless dog muzzle type thingamibob to guide the branches over it. i'll have to work out a way to cover up that horrible white free advertising as well. anyone got any ideas for that type of plastic? It doesn't look like I'll be able to remove it with thinners without damaging the plastic itself

 

[DamoPeru]

these went on a while ago, haven't been offroading in a muddy/branchy environment yet to really gauge their toughness, but so far keeping the sand out of there is a good thing i think. sorry about the fuzzy photos

 

[DamoPeru]

here's something I encourage anyone to try... unbolt that silly apparatus, ziptie it in its maximum position temporarily and see if you can lock up the back wheels without a load. if you can lock them up (good luck!), put it back on, but if you can't lock them up and your happy with the significant increase in braking capacity like i was, leave it disconnected. I'm currently making up a bracket to hold the rod (which I'll hacksaw) to the body of the LSPV itself without dismantling it.

I have a bit of anecdotal evidence on this, I had previously always received precautionary warnings on the annual roadworthy inspections three years running due to the really poor back brake tests results. the last time i went for a roadworthy I'd just disconnected the LSPV and passed with flying colors, the efficiency percentages were more than doubled on both sides, and i hadn't done anything to the brakes in that one-year period. maybe mine was excessively out of whack, but regardless I reckon there's a good percentage of guys out there needlessly with rubbish rear brakes due to this POS.

 

[DamoPeru]

there's still a heap of things I haven't photographed that I'll post over time, but in terms of major things it was about here (during the dyno sessions) that it became apparent that the motor had been rebuilt the second time with a cracked head. since day one she was loosing water out of the radiator, but the rebuilders had lost my OEM radiator cap and replaced it with one lying around on the floor, and whilst i waited for an OEM one to arrive from Japan, I didn't give it too much thought. but on the dyno the second time with the new cap it was apparent the pressure building up in the coolant. so at the moment this is me as i gather a new OEM head and other OEM bits and pieces in order to rebuild in a Toyota dealership who'll at least honor their guarantee.

 

[DamoPeru]

now the heads off you can appreciate this run-out-of-water sensor that would have saved my motor the last time when a hose blew off whilst tearing down the hway. So there was no way i was ever going to not have paranoia on the road in the future if i didn't fit one obviously.

my idea was to catch the lack of water early, but at first i thought i'd made a mistake locating it here instead of on one of the big pipes, as after longish drives it started to go off, which was remedied by cycling the cabin heater for a few seconds, so i thought that air small bubbles that high in the closed pipe must have been normal, and i was thinking that this thing going off all the time is going to get pretty ordinary pretty quick. but as it became more frequent and i started to loose more coolant, my brain slowly started to react and suspect the head (gasket) and i realize now that the exhaust getting into the coolant was causing the air bubbles.

so in the end by placing it there the seemingly one purpose (and hopefully never) sensor, now has another diagnostic feature.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

...... "at some point I put this top spin pre-filter on instead of the ram. i had heard coments that the inner turbine make a bit of noise, but to be honest i haven't heard it al all over the racket coming from the turbo and 3" exhaust." .......
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who ever made that comment must have "Spider Man" hearing......
Between my Diesel engine, tires and straight exhaust, I couldn't hear a helicopter land on the roof much less the slight whine of my snorkel.

 

[DamoPeru]

... maybe mine was excessively out of whack, but regardless I reckon there's a good percentage of guys out there needlessly with rubbish rear brakes due to this POS.

What I didn't mention was have a look at how far the axel is from the maximum (100% braking) position, no way I was ever going to get that

 

[Tapage]

Awesome build Damien .. very impressive the amount of dedication on this one ..

on a related note I wasn't aware of how dangerous could be Peru .. cameras in the shop and securing windows to prevent theft on the traffic ?

I DD my 80 with crystal clear windows all around here ..

 

[DamoPeru]

Awesome build Damien .. very impressive the amount of dedication on this one ..

on a related note I wasn't aware of how dangerous could be Peru .. cameras in the shop and securing windows to prevent theft on the traffic ?

I DD my 80 with crystal clear windows all around here ..

thanks mate, the dedication you see in the build is because this will become our home for many years on the road.

Peru's not too bad, but Lima definitely has some really scary neighborhoods on the outskirts of the affluent bubble I live in. In the boom over the last 10 years, the middle class exploded and along with the amount of cars in Lima, so given half of them don't even know the road rules let alone abide by them, you get gridlock traffic in peak hour, and there are lots of delinquents who take to windows with sparks plugs in traffic to rob what they can see. The other reason to black tint the windows is that the troopy also catches a lot of unwanted eyes, being a white skinned foreigner makes it worse outside the bubble, and I have been chased by gangs of thugs wanting to take us down so to speak.

But the window steelworks aren't for Peru specifically, we planning a huge expedition and aside from mounting storage furniture in the space the window takes up, the idea is to make it impossible to steal, the back will get the same steel bars, near bulletproof cab windows and puck locks welded to the body on all the doors along with a few other tricks I won't be revealing on the internet

 

[DamoPeru]

found a few photos of what you can squeeze in around the glovebox.

above are where the two phone and one tablet charger adapters plug in

on this side there's a couple of relays and a fuse box for all our onboard camera power leads, i suspect it won't end there as there's still a bit of space for other things

there's not much room on the other side, just enough for a couple more relays

I though this was a good spot for an outlet for when at camp

 

[DamoPeru]

I'm one of those pricks who always forgets his high beams are on, so I wanted to remedy that with some more lights to remind me they are on. the two red ones (either side) are my new high beam indicators, all i can say from the few drives I had since this was done is that it works very well in terms of reminding me they're on. the green one indicates when the exhaust brake is switched on and on the other side is an orange is for when the exhaust brake is actuating.

 

[DamoPeru]

This post will only be of interest if you have troopy and want to put in an underbody water tank between the axles.
The handbrake cable basically makes a diagonal b-line from the top of the fuel tank down to the axle, obstructing what is otherwise a huge area for a water tank once the muffler is removed (see photo above showing the LSPV).

I had explored the forums and asked about whether the ##J79 handbrake cable (assumably the longest compatible OEM cable) is actually long enough to run the cable at the level of the floor all the way to the axle of the troopy and still have enough slack, to free up that area for a tank. No information was forthcoming but I took a punt and got it anyway. Short version: it worked, just. Long version:

Firstly my cable was 46410-60840 / new cable is 46410-60860. both are exactly the same at both ends, bolted straight up. the new one is longer in between the start and last (obligatory) axle bracket by 24.5cm. the aluminium heat sheath is 10cm further towards the back, leaving the cable exposed to the exhaust heat

The new one comes with a sliding support attached along the upper part of the cable which is of no use and must be removed in any case (just pull very hard), and the fixed rubber mount shown here must also be removed

You can't make the cable come out from above the fuel tank in any other position, so from there i routed it directly on an angle towards the part on the axle where the last bracket is to get the maximum amount of slack.

The sheath is pressed in place, so instead of cutting it, I just cut and removed the sheath from the old cable and added it to the new one to clear the exhaust

bracket on the next floor pillar

instead of destroying the sliding support you're supposed to bolt to the axle to remove it, i drilled the next floor pillar to take a long bolt and that was it.

While it freed up most of the area, another 20cm length would have been better, as I would have taken it further back along the floor if i could have, but fabricating a custom handbrake cable isn't on my want to do list.

 

[BJ74Guy]

Troopies rule! This thing is like the first Star Trek Enterprise! Awesome.

 

[gotoy]

Great read and build.

 

[DamoPeru]

...... "at some point I put this top spin pre-filter on instead of the ram. i had heard coments that the inner turbine make a bit of noise, but to be honest i haven't heard it al all over the racket coming from the turbo and 3" exhaust." .......
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who ever made that comment must have "Spider Man" hearing......
Between my Diesel engine, tires and straight exhaust, I couldn't hear a helicopter land on the roof much less the slight whine of my snorkel.

yeah it wasn't a factor i considered before buying at all, just remembered a number of negative comments somewhere on the net, but i can understand how it might whine on a modern car that doesn't have any other noises... unlike the normal donaldson's that collect dust, this one has a numerous bladed turbine inside that creates a whirl and whisks the heavy particulates to the outside and out the dust outlet (self-cleaning). but i had the head problems soon after so there's still a number of driving scenarios I haven't tested.

thanks for the comments guys

 

[wongtsenhin]

Did you mention to source out the fender mirror?

 

[DamoPeru]

Did you mention to source out the fender mirror?

Yeah thanks for the part number, i'm still looking into that... just like the little HZJ77 fender mirrors (I had a thread about that), the larger OEM fender mirror you have that looks much more useful also seems to only come in japanese LH and I need RH for my big blindspot in my LHD. I was searching the EPC for part number variations for possible LHD models in other markets but I haven't found anything yet and it doesn't look like I will.

 

[ForealBoreal]

It is seriously a useless mirror
You see the top of your fender, that's it

 

[DamoPeru]

It is seriously a useless mirror
You see the top of your fender, that's it

the one wongtsenhin has seems more useful, it seems a lot bigger and is completely adjustable, but after an unsuccessful search for a RH OEM one, I think I'll just give up and go for an aftermarket one to stick on top of the side mirror. With the back windows canceled out, my RH blindspot is huge.

 

[DamoPeru]

the exhaust brake: i live in one of places on earth with the most topographic relief, main roads that go from 5000 m to sea level in a couple of hours or less, so braking for extremely long periods without overheating your brakes is an issue, and brake shoe life is usually extremely short as a result, hence my desire to try the exhaust brake.

needs to be installed as close to the engine as possible, but i wanted it as protected as possible (cylinder on top), so the first place avaliable was where the floorpan rises after footwells. I understand guys with the standard 2.5" exhaust can mount them just after the wheelarch, but my exhaust was deliberately routed to be above level the of chassis rail.

that's it between the flex and the exhaust wrap

here's a view of the piston on top, with vacuum hoses leading to a waterproof vacuum control box i made up

i welded a mount to the floor just beside, to which it is bolted

the single vacuum line runs to a t-joint installed between the vaccum tank and the brake booster, its controlled by a 24V electrical signal from the cab

made up a relatively kickproof waterproof box for the 12v to 24v converter, although its well out of reach of my wife's tiny feet

there's a dash switch to activate the system, which you can flick on and off as you please whilst in use, but it's only actually activated when the clutch and accelerator pedal are in there resting position which physically pushes the little tab on these microswitches which allows current to flow to the converter. takes a bit of playing around but you have to position the switches to the position where a deft touch on either pedal is enough to cut the circuit. so you have a constant soft clicking when driving around regardless of whether its activated or not. some might not like that, but i actually like hearly that y foot is completely off the pedal, especially when driving with big heavy boots.

this kit is only made for RHD 70 series, so the brackets it came with had to be modified. the clutch switch below could make use of the supplied bracket with a little bending.

the accelerator bracket was of no use, had to make one up... which i still need to paint

unfortunately my head issues arose literally days after this was installed and before i really got to test it out, I did go looking for some steep ramps around town to test it, but they were fairly short and while it isn't an instant pull-up as with the jake brakes I've driven with, it seems it will help to hold a higher gear instead of it running away. so i can't honestly confirm this has been worth it yet until i get her running again and up a decent mountain.