'90 Hilux daily driver build

[John in Utah]

Couple hundred miles driving for Memorial Day for a very pleasant packraft and not so pleasant bike shuttle. Plus my first chance to give the new turbo a good run. Ran about 7 psi max, 5 cruising at 100kph, EGT maxed at 1050 deg, 700 deg at cruise. Fuel is still stock, but I’m happy with the modest power gain so I don’t think I will change it. Only casualty of the trip was a broken tailgate handle, thankfully a part shared with the US market trucks

 

[John in Utah]

Replaced the radiator with a 3-core aluminum ebay unit and while the rad is out I decided to change the harmonic balancer and nut. I could see a slight wobble in the belts somewhere and wanted to play it save - there are too many threads about these delaminating and ruining the crank. Turns out my old ones was perfectly fine and the belt wobble is an ovaled out bolt hole on the power steering pump body.

The LN106 has this weird lower rad hose arrangement and it’s impossible to find the straight section of hose as it’s own part (16572-54260). I just bought a an extra of the 54260 hose and cut it to fit. Of course any old straight section of rad hose will do.

 

[John in Utah]

Unfortunately the bigger rad wasn’t the perfect cooling fix I was hoping for. I could still move the temp gauge (and see 210f+ on my auxiliary gauge) going up the 6% 10 mile grade by my house. Granted I can only produce higher temps in the worst condition I can generate without towing anything, but I’m still not happy hitting 100c degrees or more. I know these temps aren’t excessive but given the head issues with these trucks I’m trying to gain any bit of cooling capacity I can. This is also driving me to test various thermostat and housing combinations looking for optimum flow and response (with help from @GTSSportCoupe in the diesel section). Right now I’m trying a 3rzfe thermostat (90916-03120) modified to fit the 3L housing.

So I pulled the big Australian Kangaroo bumper and gave it another shot, this time with much better results. I ended up modifying the bumper and hopefully this helps my problems- far front a professional job but that’s not really my style

 

[John in Utah]

A couple posts back I was checking axle housing interference with the downward orientation of the oil filter the Lj78 oil cooler provides. Well I haven’t driven anything crazier than a few dirt road In the desert and already I’m seeing impact damage on the oil filter from the torque rod that sits on top of the pumpkin. Really a bummer considering the LJ oil cooler is a great swap to get factory fitment of the CT20 and the bigger and better 1HZ/1HDT/2LT oil filter (90915-30002). The best option is to swap a housing from a 2LT powered surf, which has the bigger diesel filter but oriented horizontal. I’m also going to work on modifying the 3L cooler to accept a 30002 filter, but will need to tap it to feed the turbo oil

In the mean time a WIX 51368 is a shorter alternative to oem that should stay out of the way of the axle.

 

[Zor]

I wanted to do that packraft trip (if that's the river I think it is) before I left the SW. Cept we were going to dirtbag it in pool floaties instead of Alpackas, and we had a shuttle coordinated to avoid the mtb trip back up. Nice going, I'm jealous.

 

[John in Utah]

I wanted to do that packraft trip (if that's the river I think it is) before I left the SW. Cept we were going to dirtbag it in pool floaties instead of Alpackas, and we had a shuttle coordinated to avoid the mtb trip back up. Nice going, I'm jealous.

it was a great float, hardest part was lining up a free weekend with the high spring flows. The rafts were definitely overkill.

 

[jgallo1]

I am glad somebody bought this truck. I remember seeing it for a sale awhile back. Great thread.

 

[John in Utah]

Timing check and adjustment:

there’s a really good video of this on a 1HZ here:

the L engine manual

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

is also helpful for the spec tolerances but I found it vague when describing how to zero the gauge. The video has a process of turning over the engine in reverse - which of course the manual is clear you are not supposed to do. I took some pictures and hopefully I can save someone some time explaining it more specifically to the 3L

The SST is a must for this one, (and that’s coming from the guy who uses bent screwdrivers to change valve shims). If you need it shoot me a Pm and I can loan the tool and dial indicator. You need a 8mm stem dial indicator which is not common here. I bought a Mitutoyo 2046S

there is a 12mm bolt on the back of the pump, roughly at centerline and nestled in the middle of the 4 fuel line outlets. It has a tiny crush washer that is easy to lose, and takes some creative socket-extension combos to get at - here’s mine:

the thumb screw portion of the SST threads into the bolt hole (don’t overtighten) and the dial gage will fit on the other end- there are quite a few AC and fuel lines in the way and it’s easier to get the tool fit before putting the gauge in. Don’t worry about zeroing it yet but make sure you have 1mm or more of travel up or down. Heres mine tucked in there tight

Ok this is where the manual gets vague. The fella in the YouTube Video will tell you to rotate the crank backward until the dial gauge stops moving, but the manual says not to rotate it backwards (CCW) and instead orient the crank “25-30 degrees btdc” and zero the gauge. Without measuring degrees you can instead rotate the crank CW until you find the “dead zone” on the plunger stroke. This is roughly where the timing mark will be when that zone starts. Zero the gauge when you find it.

Once here it’s as simple as finding TDC and reading your gauge.This took me a few times because I would rotate it too far and the gauge would go a full 1mm rotation leaving me to think I was still in the dead zone and keep going. But I’m an idiot
pro-tip: use the timing marks!

 

[John in Utah]

Timing specs are:
2L/3L: .84-.96mm
2LT: .54-.66mm
5L: .64-.76mm

Mine read smack in the range at 0.92mm, once again leaving me wishing for some service history on this thing. 400k km and everything I test or take apart looks like it hasn’t gone 100k

This opens up a whole discussion as to the risk and reward of medaling with stock timing on a turbo-added motor. There’s some discussion here on mud regarding the 1HZ and 3B turboed but hardly any on the naturally aspirated Ls. I’ll probably end up tinkering with it and post some more photos of how to do that and any results I see. For the most part I want to reduce cylinder pressures and stress on the crank so I will experiment with retarding the timing down to the 5L or even 2LT spec

 

[John in Utah]

I can back tonight to make some adjustments. Once the engine is at TDC you can rotate the pump toward the engine for advance and away from it for retard. Of course you’ll want to keep the SST and gauge installed to measure this change. From my experience the injector lines will fight you for any more than .10 mm change and you’ll want to loosen them.

Here you can see the two nuts that hold the pump to the timing case and the stay in the back all need to be loosened. The nuts are 13mm. I got at the block-side first with a couple extensions and left the easier to get at nut tight until I was ready for the pump to move.

I set my timing to 0.84mm, at the bottom end of the 3L spec. You can see how the physical timing marks lined up perfectly at .92 and are slightly off at .84. I don’t know for sure but I imagine these values change based on how the pump is set up, but relative change should be similar?

Posting these photos up in case someone is interested in retarding their timing slightly but is without the tools needed to actually measure plunger stroke - you can do this reasonably safely by eye just adjusting the marks about a lines width. I did this with my 3B when I added a turbo.

 

[John in Utah]

Had removed all my air filter housing and piping clutter to take measurements and figure out how a water to air intercooler would fit... ended up discovering the snorkel isn’t hooked up to anything! I guess this should have been obvious but the stock piping goes into the fender to some sort of resonator and I never bothered to confirm. Kind of frustrating since the bloke who did it also cut off the part of the snorkel that would clamp to a silicone joint I’d really love to not have a dorky snorkel but fixing the fender seems like more work

a 2” pvc elbow and a lot of dremel work results in a redneck repaired snorkel? There’s a lot of pvc cement and silicone in that joint so maybe it’s waterproof? Good thing I live in the desert

Bought a couple air intake ducts on eBay before I found a good one. This ones is actually really nice and only $10 or so

RAMAIR Black Cold Air Feed Ducting Hose Pipe 60mm ID x 300mm - Brake Duct | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for RAMAIR Black Cold Air Feed Ducting Hose Pipe 60mm ID x 300mm - Brake Duct at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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on the bright side look at all that real estate for an intercooler! Better start collecting parts ...

Also brought a spare engine home. Changed the oil, drained the coolant and tucked it in the shed

 

[John in Utah]

Finally got around to removing the ignition immobilizer. Seems like this is super common in Australia and the company that made mine doesn’t support them outside the country. I wasn’t loving only having one set of keys that could open the car for obvious reasons.

it was a rats nest under the dash. Really quality work

did the best I could without replacing the connectors. Tried some future proofing for accessories by adding a couple tie ins to the ignition 12v

 

[John in Utah]

Intercooler time!
I adapted a lot of the info the Lj78 guys have provided on the forum about a water to air setup and I’m pretty happy with how turned out in the Hilux. Pulled almost everything off eBay and think I have about $500 all in. The quality of the intercooler and heat exchanger are really good. The Bosch pump is oem for a lot of vehicles.

EDIT here are the parts links
Heat exchanger
Intercooler
Water pump

thankfully my big roo bumper provides a lot of clearance for the heat exchanger. If I ever find the arb bumper I want there will be some cutting required I think. Made some 1/4” brackets that bolt to the crossmember existing m10 captive nuts

Front grill / hood latch center support needs some light work with a Dremel to get the heat exchanger to fit flat- countersinking a machine screw in place of the bolts is key.

I went out of my way to find a radiator that had inlet and outlet on the same side but it turned out to be a pain in the ass especially with the 3/4” heater hose. Managed to route it through the bumper neatly but it’s a pain to take it on and off now

Pump tucks nicely in the spot between the coolant overflow and the rad. Wired it off the ignition ON with with a 5a fuse. It’s damn near silent and moves a ton of water. Probably overkill for the application

The engine bay looking awfully busy. I only had to do some cutting to the air filter to get the snorkel to work

still need to do a big test up to park city but so far the results are fantastic. I opened up the boost with a manual controller and have seen it peak as high as 15 psi (previously 7) but my cruising boost is still 5-7. Egts have dropped to 800-900 on the interstate holding 70 no problem. Seems to be running cooler too but I’m comparing ambient fall temps to 100+ summer days when I was last commuting it so who knows.

 

[hiluxjeremy]

Nice setup!

 

[YotaDoc]

Intercooler time!
I adapted a lot of the info the Lj78 guys have provided on the forum about a water to air setup and I’m pretty happy with how turned out in the Hilux. Pulled almost everything off eBay and think I have about $500 all in. The quality of the intercooler and heat exchanger are really good. The Bosch pump is oem for a lot of vehicles.

EDIT here are the parts links
Heat exchanger
Intercooler
Water pump

thankfully my big roo bumper provides a lot of clearance for the heat exchanger. If I ever find the arb bumper I want there will be some cutting required I think. Made some 1/4” brackets that bolt to the crossmember existing m10 captive nuts
View attachment 2446440
Front grill / hood latch center support needs some light work with a Dremel to get the heat exchanger to fit flat- countersinking a machine screw in place of the bolts is key.View attachment 2446439
I went out of my way to find a radiator that had inlet and outlet on the same side but it turned out to be a pain in the ass especially with the 3/4” heater hose. Managed to route it through the bumper neatly but it’s a pain to take it on and off nowView attachment 2446442
Pump tucks nicely in the spot between the coolant overflow and the rad. Wired it off the ignition ON with with a 5a fuse. It’s damn near silent and moves a ton of water. Probably overkill for the application
View attachment 2446443
The engine bay looking awfully busy. I only had to do some cutting to the air filter to get the snorkel to work
View attachment 2446441
still need to do a big test up to park city but so far the results are fantastic. I opened up the boost with a manual controller and have seen it peak as high as 15 psi (previously 7) but my cruising boost is still 5-7. Egts have dropped to 800-900 on the interstate holding 70 no problem. Seems to be running cooler too but I’m comparing ambient fall temps to 100+ summer days when I was last commuting it so who knows.

Don't have the dial indicator but I just added a turbo to my 2L. Turned the full throttle screw about 3/4 turn. (1/2 turn =3ccm) now I need to retard the timing and adjust the boost compensator. I was seeing 10psi of boost on the gauge and around 500*C on the egg gauge when at 3800rpm.


Anything else I should do to supply more fuel?

 

[John in Utah]

Don't have the dial indicator but I just added a turbo to my 2L. Turned the full throttle screw about 3/4 turn. (1/2 turn =3ccm) now I need to retard the timing and adjust the boost compensator. I was seeing 10psi of boost on the gauge and around 500*C on the egg gauge when at 3800rpm.


Anything else I should do to supply more fuel?

Is that gauge pre or post turbo? If it's before the turbo those are good temps. I've typically tuned mine to run no more than 1200 degF when really pushing it - wherever that lands on the fuel screw

 

[RyanMiller]

Is that gauge pre or post turbo? If it's before the turbo those are good temps. I've typically tuned mine to run no more than 1200 degF when really pushing it - wherever that lands on the fuel screw

did you ever mess with your timing on your IP? highest Egt ive seen yet was 1300 and change when passing someone at 75 with the AC on in the summer, but typically cruising at 55mph is around 650F, 65mph is about 750f and 70mph is around 800f. non intercooled and pre turbo temps. I personally try to stay under 1000f as much as I can for mileage purposes

 

[John in Utah]

did you ever mess with your timing on your IP? highest Egt ive seen yet was 1300 and change when passing someone at 75 with the AC on in the summer, but typically cruising at 55mph is around 650F, 65mph is about 750f and 70mph is around 800f. non intercooled and pre turbo temps. I personally try to stay under 1000f as much as I can for mileage purposes

Not sure if you meant me or the other poster, but yes I had set that truck to the low end of the 3L/2L spec without any issues. I had wanted to mess with it more but ended up selling the truck before I got to it