Builds 2L-T vs 2L-TII LJ70 Build (1 Viewer)

[Dprio34]

LZFJ, Glad you enjoyed it!
The hardest part about the job, I guess, was getting over the initial shock I had a different generation 2L-T engine.
Second issue now is, not knowing what vehicle / VIN that the JDM engine came from - for ordering replacement parts.
In the end, I learned a lot, and that there are some great people on this forum who pull you through the tough times when you are stuck.


Was browsing the Pick-a-Part today and scored an almost new Aisin Fan for $7 bucks.
Yes even the fan hub size changed from the older 2L-T to the newer 2LTII. It is larger (hub same size as the Isuzu Rodeo if you get desperate).
And the Isuzu fan should pull more air any way.

EDIT
Bonus, the Gate Keeper at the Pick-A-Part let me exchange it for free, against policy.
The correct one should look like the second one pictured at the bottom. This fan came off of a 1992 Trooper. It had "fan belts/"V" Belts" running all the accessories, not a serpentine belt. That should have clued me in the first time, but the shine coming off of the first/top one, blinded me.

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[GTSSportCoupe]

LZFJ, Glad you enjoyed it!
The hardest part about the job, I guess, was getting over the initial shock I had a different 2L-T engine.
Second is not knowing what vehicle / VIN that the JDM engine came from - for ordering replacement parts.
In the end, I learned a lot, and that there are some great people on this forum who pull you through the tough times when you are stuck.


Was browsing the Pick-a-Part today and scored an almost new Aisin Fan for $7 bucks.
Yes even the fan hub size changed from the older 2L-T to the newer 2LTII. It is larger (hub same size as the Isuzu Rodeo if you get desperate).
And the Isuzu fan should pull more air any way.

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That's a really nice fan, but do the blades face the right direction? Looks opposite of the Toyota ones? I think someone else had this problem with their Isuzu fan. I got mine from a 1998 Isuzu Trooper with a 3.2l V6 I think. But even it's not ideal as I needed a spacer. I've heard that the 2H hub and fan work really well (from an HJ60) and really improve cooling.

 

[Dprio34]

Nick, you are right. I just matched it up and this certainly would push instead of pull. That's what I get for grabbing the newest one. I am a dumba$$. Oh well, only $7 bucks.

I'll check out the one you recommended.

 

[Dprio34]

On the plus side, I did get a new doughnut tire for $15 bucks for the daily driver, and did a rear break job on the LJ.
So today wasn't a total loss.

NOTE: (for rookies, like myself - the screw size is 8mm x 1.25 to pull rear drums off)

 

[Dprio34]

Just got back from a 3000km round trip trek from Nevada, SoCal, down to Baja California Mexico. Here are a couple of pics from the trip.
The Little Engine that Could, performed extremely well. The JDM replacement motor has exceeded my expectations for reliability and ran cool the entire trip, including the 2 hour sit at the border in Tijuana. Only burned a half quart of oil the entire journey. Here are some pics from the trip. SoCal y Mexico. Historic Route 66, Western Sunset, Goat Trestle Bridge (longest/highest wooden rail road trestle in the world), Colorado River (somewhere near Blythe, CA).

 

[Dprio34]

We hit some hot springs near Holtville, CA prior to crossing.
Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area. Perfect Temp albeit a little crowded since it is near I-8.
Then down to Canyon de Guadalupe for some camping in Baja Norte. Wild Burros, Ocotillo, & Salt Flats. We camped in the oasis above the LJ in the last photo.

 

[Dprio34]

After Canyon de Guadalupe we did some Grey Whale watching in Ojo de Libre, BC Sur.
500 whales were in the bay. We got there a bit early as in the next 3 weeks up to 3000 whales will arrive for birthing and breeding.
Still, quite the experience.

 

[Dprio34]

My EGT/Boost & Coolant Temp/Volts Gauges finally arrived yesterday.
I went with SPA Dual Gauges based out of the UK.
I have them installed in my Defender 90 and I am very happy with the accuracy and durability.
I started the install and mounted all the sensors/senders today.

I had to re-do the blanking plate on the exhaust manifold with 3/16 steel. The previous blanking plate warped as it was aluminum 3/16 and was giving off some serious frequency at speed. The aluminum blanking plate on the Intake Manifold held up just fine, but not on the Exhaust Manifold. I should have know better, but was lazy at the time of the engine swap (or worn out), I guess.

Originally, I was going to use the Air Con Temp sensor port below the filler cap for the location of the Water Temp Sensor. However, the bushing seemed very tight and feared cracking the Aluminum Housing. In the end decided to place it on the Coolant Hose in-line sensor between the Thermostat and Radiator. This housing was 38mm, but next time I will go with 36mm. It was a PITA getting the Coolant Hoses on the 38mm housing.

Boost Sensor was mounted at the Intake versus the Turbo line per guidance from my mentor Nick! (Thanks, Brother!)

Hopefully, I get the gauges mounted inside the cabin this week too.

 

[Nas90tdi]

Great job on a less than cooperative project.
Nick is definitely a great source of information. I pick his brain on occasion as well.
Those Spa gauges are really nice. Had some in one of my Defenders. Went VDO in the current one.
I used the Madman in my LJ78. Working really good so far. I was familiar with them from the LR's and installed one in my nephews 110, so thought it would be a good choice in the LC.

 

[Dprio34]

Kris, I like VDO stuff too. Probably best bang for the buck too. I just wanted dual gauges in Celsius, with a digital readout. I haven't seen any VDO gauges that fit that bill. I still have an empty slot in my cluster and it will be a VDO once I decide what I want to read. Nice work on that Defender by the way. Same color as mine.

Well I finished the Gauge Install today. The upper left hand corner of the vehicle certainly has some wires going through there now. That was the hardest part of the job IMHO. - pulling the wires for the sensors to the gauges.

I tapped into the cigarette lighter hot for switched power. I don't smoke and only use that spot for USB cell phone charging so I don't see it ever being an issue with being loaded. I crimped and soldered spade connections and then taped them up, just in case I need to remove anything in the future.

Here are some baseline numbers from the SPA digital readouts.
Volts - 13.2 to 15.0 (15v seems to be on the high side but that what is says).
Water Temp - 80 degrees Celsius plus or minus 2 degrees after warm up on a standard day.
Boost - Green Light on the Stock RPM Gauge comes on at 2 psi. Boost reads 8psi in 5th gear on the highway at 2850 RPM @ 103 kmph.
Boost - Red Light on the Stock RPM Gauge comes on at 10 psi. Not sure where the Red Light gets it information from. I have to investigate that.
EGT - 88 degrees Celcius at Idle up to 400 degrees Celsius in the acceleration lane getting on the Interstate.


Other lessons learned on this job... All the sensors/senders were either 1/8 NPT or 1/8 BPT. Easy to source a 1/8 NPT locally. Not so much BPT. I was stressing this a bit, as I try to do things right, but the BPT seemed to thread just fine into the tapped NPT hole. We shall see as time will tell. Also, when tapping pre-drill the desired area with 11/32 drill bit for your 1/8 NPT tap (unless you can find a "Q" or "R" drill bit).

 

[ALEXY]

can you see the numbers in daylight?
once you hit inclines you might find that water temp reacts slower to engine stress, but egt shoots up very quick.

I try, as much as possible, to drive/shift my lj upon egt value. but yesterday saw them beyond 600c post turbo on a steep slope with third gear.

 

[Dprio34]

Alex, no issues with visibility day or night with seeing the values.
It is on factory preset right now (Fluresent green) and the sun was behind me on that shot.
I can change it to blue or red for more contrast. That is a bad pic with respect to the sun.

As you said, EGT shoots right up, on acceleration as it is instantaneous. I just wanted to establish a baseline for numbers so I can report the actual impact of future modifications. (As Needle gauges are subject to some interpretation, parallax, and sometime simply don’t move until it is too late).

EDIT: Curiosity was getting the best of me today, so I took the LJ70 out for a run on the closest long climb in Las Vegas which is going west on Blue Diamond Rd. The 21 mile upgrade starts @2000'MSL at Interstate 15 and goes up to 5500' MSL at Mountain Spring Saloon with posted 7% slopes along the way. Nothing too crazy, but a respectable hill climb of 3500' on a standard day.

Water Temp stayed at the 80 degree Celsius mark most of the way with peak temp at 83.5 C
Boost pressed 11.5 psi at some points but mostly in the 8.5 psi range.
EGT got uncomfortably warm posting a max temp of 665 Celsius at the top of the hill where the incline was steepest. I parked at the restaurant at the top of the hill and it was about 2.5 minutes at idle before she got under 200 Celsius to shut her down.

On the same uphill run on the next day in 4th gear vs 5th gear the 2LTII generated a max EGT of 576 Celsius vs 665 degrees Celsius. (90 degrees cooler) Both uphill runs generated about 9 psi of Boost in the climb. In 4th gear is climbed slightly slower (about 10 kmph). Long story short, I'll be running these steeper grades in 4th gear vs 5th as a slightly lower speed but at a significantly lower EGT. It still took 2.5 minutes at idle to get below 200 degrees celsus in order to shut the engine down (allow the turbo to cool down).

On the same hill run with the RAM AIR Duct re-routed directly to the grill vs over the radiator, Max EGT was 552 Celsius (Which provided an additional 25 Degrees of cooling). Most of the climb was in 5th gear and I only downshifted to 4th gear when EGT hit 500 and she never went above 552 towards the top. Boost was pegged at almost the entire time at 10psi.

On a positive note, we came down the hill with the gearbox in neutral at 110kmph and EGT posted a low of 99 Celsius. Hoo Rah.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Nice work!! Looks great.

 

[Dprio34]

Well, I started a new project today. For a while, I have been trying to figure out why the Toyota Engineers put such a long plastic cross-over tube for the 2LT Ram Air System to the Air Filter. Moreover, the stock 2LT System does not seem to be very "air tight". There is a lot of slop in the plastic connections.

So I went down to the local muffler shop today and asked them to bend me up some 2.5" pipe which they gladly did. They were slow and didn't have any other customers at the time, and they seemed sort of interested in what I wanted and what I was doing. Here are the pieces they bent for me, as opposed to the stock pieces. (Not bad for $30 bucks)

In the photos,

The top photo is the ram air intake (partial) of the JDM (RHD) that came with my JDM 2LTII engine. (I'm sure it is missing the second half of the system).

The middle photo is the ram air intake for the Euro (LHD) ram air intake that crosses over the fan shroud and bends down to the front cowl on the driver's side. This ram air system was stock on my 1989 2LT engine when it came from the importer.

The bottom ram air intake is what I dreamed up, and is a more direct route to the front cowl. I hope in the end it isn't too much pressure on the air filter / intake system.

 

[JimmyPrado]

Way to get after it! Looking good.

 

[Dprio34]

Prior to this modification, I was developing roughly 2.0 psi boost in 1st and 2nd gears prior to shifting and maybe 3psi boost in 3rd gear prior to shifts. (ALL SHIFTS WERE BETWEEN 2200-2900 RPM).

After this modification, I am developing 5-6 psi in 1st and 2nd gear prior to shifting, and 8 psi in 3rd gear prior to shifting.

I am not sure why Toyota did not do a straight shot to the front of the vehicle for the ram air system, but it sure does improve boost via "the shortest distance between 2 points"

I highly recommend this routing to anyone wants to improve boost performance in 1st through 3rd gears. I am curious to see if and how this mod affects EGTs on long hill climbs.

EDIT:
After a test drive with this setup, on flat highway, @ 2850 RPM in 5th Gear, the LJ70 develops almost exactly 8psi of Boost and runs at 400 Celsius. (plus or minus 20 degrees on very so slight inclines or declines). As previously noted, 2850 RPM puts the vehicle at 103 KMPH. Water Temp seems to stay constant at 80 Celsius (plus or minus 2 degrees).

On the long uphill run from 2200' up to 5500' MSL peak/max EGT was 552 Celsius in 4th Gear. So with this ram air set up, it ran roughly 24 degrees Celsius cooler and Boost was at 10psi the entire run up the hill in both 4th and 5th gear. (Ambient Temperature was about 5 degrees cooler, but don't think that had a big impact).

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[LZFJ40]

WOW, Your numbers show a very impressive improvement. Is that the most bang for the buck mod to date?

I'm hoping my snorkel has the same effect.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Nice work!

I think the factory air boxes in many cruisers are pretty limiting to the engines. Interesting to see this particular modification and the difference it made. Thanks for sharing.

I run a K&N filter when I'm on pavement. When I put the K&N in, I could boost 2 psi peak higher (went from 16-17psi to 18-19psi). I throw the paper filter back in if I'm going to be doing dusty dirt driving. I notice the difference immediately.

I've thought about grabbing a modern air filter setup from a v8 Toyota and giving that a try. Would give that little CT20 all the air it can handle.... Just never got around to it.

 

[Dprio34]

Thanks Gents!
Nick, it is pretty dusty here all the time, so I'm gonna stick with the paper air filters.
Leonard, that was the most bang for the buck improvement for sure, but I really want to see the numbers on a long climb.
I have wanted to do this for the past year, but I wanted the gauges installed first to see what was actually happening. I'm gonna to two more mods to the exhaust and then I'm gonna take it easy for a while since she seems to be running just fine. Don't want to jinx myself.

On another note, today was a good day. I have windshield wipers and spray again!
Installed the new switch #84652-69445. When I started this, I thought it would be really involved since the switch comes with a harness that has way too many wires.
But when un-screwing the old switch from the column it came apart / unscrewed in 2 pieces (since I didn't know the sequence and simply just started un-screwing).

So that basically cut the job in half or possibly more by pure luck.
I just used the new stalk since the brass/copper contacts on the old one seemed to be in decent condition.

First, take off the steering wheel. I know I am getting old, because I forget that it is just the one center screw behind the wheel you need to remove with a Phillips head. Leave the other 2 screws alone. Then just pull on the center horn piece and it comes/pops right out.

Center nut that holds the steering wheel on is 19mm. I used the puller today, but previously the steering wheel came right off with little effort.

 

[Dprio34]

Alberto was "passing it on" with a new gauge cluster cover with grommet for the "trip" button. So I won't be getting so much dust on my gauges. Thanks @AlbertoSD !

Since I was back there, I decided to take apart the Oil Pressure / Volts Gauge. The Oil Pressure Gauge had some issues and I was hoping it was a ground problem but it looks like it got too hot at one time and melted some plastic back there and un-did some windings on the lever that controls the needle. Too bad they don't make this instrument any more. At least, I know what to put in the empty hole on my gauge cluster now.

Also, not sure why, but don't know why the volts gauge states, "24 Volts".
I have an old Ford Bronco and there is an IVR that bumps things down to 6 volts for the gauges. Does Toyota bump these gauges up to 24 Volts? or did some one throw the incorrect gauge in there. I'm really curious now.

Here are some pics of the damage to the Oil Pressure Gauge damage, and gauge cluster with new grommet.

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