Hey all,
First time posting and just want to say thanks! I've learned a boatload on this site.
So I picked up my first Land Cruiser a couple months ago. I am very much in love. Aside from some electrical gremlins everything is solid, but I've been trying to resolve a performance issue and I think I'm starting to get it narrowed down. Basically, truck runs like a dream for the first ~5-15 minutes after starting. Once the engine warms up, there's a little loss of power, and it seems to get worse the warmer it gets -- for example, yesterday I drove up in the mountains and when I hit the foothills about 30 minutes out, I could barely keep it at 45mph (it'll hold highway speed in the flats okay, but it still feels sluggish). It seems to directly correlate to engine temp; once I got off the highway and did a little stop and go, there was a little more power, and mobbing up a hill is no problem at all at the very beginning of a drive.
Some background:
This is an 81 FJ60, ~275k mi. Previous owner did a lot of work, including desmog and a weber carb.
Vacuum lines look brand new, and the vacuum gauge doesn't indicate any issues. It idles steady at about 17; about 5 under heavy load, and around 23 on decel. After I got off the highway yesterday it was idling at about 16, which doesn't seem like a significant drop to me, but correct me if I'm wrong.
There's a fuel pressure gauge under the hood and it reads fine, but obviously I'm not sure what it shows when I'm trying to climb a hill, so fuel starvation or partial vapor lock might be an issue? I'm not sure.
It felt similar to some ignition issues I've had on previous rigs, so I replaced the spark plugs, cleaned the distributor contacts and checked the signal generator gap. I also adjusted the timing to factory spec. That made a difference, but it didn't resolve this power loss issue.
As far as I know, the distributor is not recurved for the desmog. I ordered springs and a bushing to attempt this poor man's recurve: Builds - The Rushing Turdle
If that makes a difference, I'll get it done properly down the road, but I'm not convinced that's causing this because I would expect it to have the same problem running cold.
My only other guess is that it's just getting really hot under the hood and the carb is sucking hot air. Judging by the temp gauges, though, this thing doesn't heat up much, but it would make sense.
Anyway, I've searched the forums and gotten a lot of ideas and information but I'm hoping you can help validate some of my assumptions and maybe give some ideas for where to look next. Sorry for the long post, but I figured I'd give all the info I could.
Thanks all, you guys rock.
First time posting and just want to say thanks! I've learned a boatload on this site.
So I picked up my first Land Cruiser a couple months ago. I am very much in love. Aside from some electrical gremlins everything is solid, but I've been trying to resolve a performance issue and I think I'm starting to get it narrowed down. Basically, truck runs like a dream for the first ~5-15 minutes after starting. Once the engine warms up, there's a little loss of power, and it seems to get worse the warmer it gets -- for example, yesterday I drove up in the mountains and when I hit the foothills about 30 minutes out, I could barely keep it at 45mph (it'll hold highway speed in the flats okay, but it still feels sluggish). It seems to directly correlate to engine temp; once I got off the highway and did a little stop and go, there was a little more power, and mobbing up a hill is no problem at all at the very beginning of a drive.
Some background:
This is an 81 FJ60, ~275k mi. Previous owner did a lot of work, including desmog and a weber carb.
Vacuum lines look brand new, and the vacuum gauge doesn't indicate any issues. It idles steady at about 17; about 5 under heavy load, and around 23 on decel. After I got off the highway yesterday it was idling at about 16, which doesn't seem like a significant drop to me, but correct me if I'm wrong.
There's a fuel pressure gauge under the hood and it reads fine, but obviously I'm not sure what it shows when I'm trying to climb a hill, so fuel starvation or partial vapor lock might be an issue? I'm not sure.
It felt similar to some ignition issues I've had on previous rigs, so I replaced the spark plugs, cleaned the distributor contacts and checked the signal generator gap. I also adjusted the timing to factory spec. That made a difference, but it didn't resolve this power loss issue.
As far as I know, the distributor is not recurved for the desmog. I ordered springs and a bushing to attempt this poor man's recurve: Builds - The Rushing Turdle
If that makes a difference, I'll get it done properly down the road, but I'm not convinced that's causing this because I would expect it to have the same problem running cold.
My only other guess is that it's just getting really hot under the hood and the carb is sucking hot air. Judging by the temp gauges, though, this thing doesn't heat up much, but it would make sense.
Anyway, I've searched the forums and gotten a lot of ideas and information but I'm hoping you can help validate some of my assumptions and maybe give some ideas for where to look next. Sorry for the long post, but I figured I'd give all the info I could.
Thanks all, you guys rock.