83 FJ60 Normal Idle Speed

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John Staton said:
you probably need to get your carburetor rebuilt. I am not a great mechanic and the guy I use was very comfortable putting a weber 38/38 on the truck and tunning it for me and I have been very happy. There are plenty of purist on the site that would love to see you send the carb to some landcruiser carb guru and get it rebuilt and keep it all OEM. If you have the time and the patience for that go for it...but I have some hunting and fishing to do and dont have time for that. When I got mine back it was idling high and would stumble when I shut the engine off (dieseling). We had to open the jets a bit to get the idle down to around 700 and prevent any stumbling after you turned it off. Runs great. Note that I also desmogged it at the same time and added headers. Oh and also an H55 5speed upgrade....runs like a champ. Good luck.
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My man said “I have hunting and fishing to do”. I respect it…🤣
I work 5-6 day work weeks, so I honestly have no issues taking it somewhere IF that’s what it comes down to; we have a shop in ATL that specializes in Land Cruisers, and I personally am trying to keep things as OEM as possible, even down to the smog rat nest. All the upgrades and whatnot; concerns for another time.
 
I picked up a vacuum tester and hooked it up behind the carburetor and this is the reading I’m getting. Now I’m not sure if the reading is accurate; that’s because the tester hose is fairly loose…should it be?

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GojiraFJ60 said:
I picked up a vacuum tester and hooked it up behind the carburetor and this is the reading I’m getting. Now I’m not sure if the reading is accurate; that’s because the tester hose is fairly loose…should it be?

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I did get a reading of about 12; but it didn’t go anywhere past that. And if that’s the case, then there’s definitely a leak around the intake manifold or something. The thing is; I don’t SEE anything 😂 I’ve been spraying brake clean to see if it gets sucked in anywhere and I’m just noooooot seeing anything.
 
Where is the vacuum gauge hooked up?
Take a picture of that and post. 12 is way low.

Also, when you sprayed the fluid did anything happen?
Rev higher or lower, or nothing?
 
chptuls said:
Where is the vacuum gauge hooked up?
Take a picture of that and post. 12 is way low.

Also, when you sprayed the fluid did anything happen?
Rev higher or lower, or nothing?
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While speaking with Alex, he advised me to hook the vacuum tester up right here as pictured; behind the carburetor, next to the brake booster.

Also, no high revs or lower. When I cranked it, it was giving me just over 1000 rpms. Nothing more. I was spraying around the base where the carb connects to the manifold (as instructed).

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That’s a good place.
The break booster could be leaking, you spray stuff around it to see if the idle changes.
At 12 hg of vacuum, that’s low enough I’d think is a vacuum leak, unless you are high in elevation. But still think that would be low.

If the idle doesn’t change when spraying around the vacuum booster, need to try along the intake manifold where it connects to head.

It also looks like you are smogged, egr could be stuck. I think there is a way to test it. I think that’s in the fsm.
 
chptuls said:
That’s a good place.
The break booster could be leaking, you spray stuff around it to see if the idle changes.
At 12 hg of vacuum, that’s low enough I’d think is a vacuum leak, unless you are high in elevation. But still think that would be low.

If the idle doesn’t change when spraying around the vacuum booster, need to try along the intake manifold where it connects to head.

It also looks like you are smogged, egr could be stuck. I think there is a way to test it. I think that’s in the fsm.
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Well, I live in central GA, so I’d have to check, but I reckon the elevation isn’t too high if at all. And yeah I have still the entire smog system in tact. I don’t have a plan on removing it yet…

I’ll take a look in the fsm too and see about the EGR.
 
bhsdriller said:
With 12 something is wrong even for a higher elevation. Definite leak somewhere

When's the last time the valves were adjusted?
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No idea to be quite honest with you. I’m owner number 3 with my 60 and as far as I’m aware, the PO did minor work. And as I mentioned in another thread, he didn’t even know the alternator and fusible link were shot. But in my case, I want to do better maintenance so what ever I have to do, I’ll do. If it helps, I brought my 60 over to GA from Arkansas.
 
Mine had low vacuum and I did a lot of work to it but I believe a combination of it all got it running near perfect
- carb rebuild
- valve adjustment
- replaced every single vacuum line and corrected where a lot of them went
- new carb insulator
- new intake/exhaust manifold gasket
 
chptuls said:
That’s a good place.
The break booster could be leaking, you spray stuff around it to see if the idle changes.
At 12 hg of vacuum, that’s low enough I’d think is a vacuum leak, unless you are high in elevation. But still think that would be low.

If the idle doesn’t change when spraying around the vacuum booster, need to try along the intake manifold where it connects to head.

It also looks like you are smogged, egr could be stuck. I think there is a way to test it. I think that’s in the fsm.
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I did try spraying around the booster to see if anything changed, and even along the head connection from the manifold. All I got was the brake clean bubbling and evaporating 🤣 I WILL say that the brake clean smell would be stronger? Like it was coming from the exhaust or something. I didn’t see anything of note around the booster though.

All of this is pretty weird to me as it literally did not start any of this until after my coolant job. Prior to that, it would idle pretty high at around 2k rpm or so.
 
Is the needle on the vac gauge low and steady or does it fluctuate?

If it's steady, first try a valve adjustment and also check your timing.
 
Spike Strip said:
Is the needle on the vac gauge low and steady or does it fluctuate?

If it's steady, first try a valve adjustment and also check your timing.
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It didn’t really move; I’d say the lowest it got was about 8. And the highest was 12. But there was no erratic movement with the needle.

Looks like I’m gonna be busy again this weekend because Idk how to do either of those! 😁
 
bhsdriller said:
Mine had low vacuum and I did a lot of work to it but I believe a combination of it all got it running near perfect
- carb rebuild
- valve adjustment
- replaced every single vacuum line and corrected where a lot of them went
- new carb insulator
- new intake/exhaust manifold gasket
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I spoke with a mechanic that my family has done business with over the years and he gave me a couple of simple suggestions to try before I really start “taking stuff apart”. One of those things was to replace the vacuum hoses that feel hard/brittle. Another thing he suggested was a fuel additive. And lastly, taking a peak at the distributor cap for any wear/corrosion.
 
All of those are good suggestions and should probably be done anyway on a 40 year old truck if a previous owner hadn't done them (or they look crusty). Distributor rotor and cap are wear items and are still available from Toyota though a little pricey, but they're good for 50K miles.

At this point I would strongly suggested the $20/ year Silver Star subscription so you can post unlimited photos and stop the ad pops. If you go your account, it's under 'Account Upgrades'. First time something gets fixed, it pays for itself.

The Vacuum gauge be an amazing tool to help quickly narrow-down trouble, particularly on these old Carb'd engines.

Here's a guide on what to look for:

www.onallcylinders.com

Vac Visual: Quick Guide to Vacuum Gauge Readings - OnAllCylinders

Intake manifold vacuum is a key indicator of engine performance. By measuring vacuum under different engine loads and conditions, you can track down problems within your engine and make the …
www.onallcylinders.com www.onallcylinders.com

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Spike Strip said:
All of those are good suggestions and should probably be done anyway on a 40 year old truck if a previous owner hadn't done them (or they look crusty). Distributor rotor and cap are wear items and are still available from Toyota though a little pricey, but they're good for 50K miles.

At this point I would strongly suggested the $20/ year Silver Star subscription so you can post unlimited photos and stop the ad pops. If you go your account, it's under 'Account Upgrades'. First time something gets fixed, it pays for itself.

The Vacuum gauge be an amazing tool to help quickly narrow-down trouble, particularly on these old Carb'd engines.

Here's a guide on what to look for:

www.onallcylinders.com

Vac Visual: Quick Guide to Vacuum Gauge Readings - OnAllCylinders

Intake manifold vacuum is a key indicator of engine performance. By measuring vacuum under different engine loads and conditions, you can track down problems within your engine and make the …
www.onallcylinders.com www.onallcylinders.com

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I don’t remember 100% of what the PO did aside from a few “upgrades” tbh. I have a new distributor cap (I’ll buy a rotor) that he gave me along with some other new parts too. I’ll need to source some hoses to do the vacuum stuff; I’ll see if Matt has any.

I have that gauge guide as well, Alex sent that over to me, and that’s what I was using when trying to determine what ever issue I might be having, which “seems” to be “Late Valve timing”.

I imagine there’s a thread here somewhere I can read up on to learn how to do a valve adjustment and all that.
 
Yes, a few good threads on Valve Adjusting. It's not hard, just a little time consuming. I think there's some YouTube vids on it also.

There are also a few thread on vac hose - Search for 'Bulk Vacuum Hose' for types and part numbers and lengths you'll need, and if you want to use the Toyota or aftermarket.
 
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