a 1997 Omani diesel 80

[John Young]

Big milestone has been reached. The engine is running and even is making nice turbo sounds!

 

[John Young]

We are getting there on the new 3" exhaust

This is just preliminary fit. All will be taken out and well massaged before final installation.

I cannot wait to drive this 80 with the HDJ81's engine, a manual transmission and a 3" exhaust!

 

[John Young]

I dropped by the garage this morning to pick up all the wiper arms for powder coating. The complete exhaust is in, just not yet massaged.

And as a very pleasant surprise we were able to start the 1HD-FT for the very first time with the 3" exhaust!


A bit of advice for anyone doing something like this: I had asked to replace the existing exhaust system with the 3" because I had read in a number of places, including here, that going to a 3" made a very great difference to this engine, so that is what I asked for. I learned today that it was quite an effort to route it through everything. 2-1/2 inch would have been much easier.

I also learned today that the rear springs are toast, which is not too surprising given that this poor old truck has 500K km of hard Omani miles on it. Albeit with a nice fresh 220k km upgraded engine.

 

[John Young]

Well today is a red-letter day! I've just been told that the Omani 80 with the transplanted 24-valve turbo diesel, manual transmission with cruise control, will be going on its first test drive tomorrow! It will be a fine interim conclusion to a long, long story. I am very anxious to see first hand what the 1HD-T with 3 inch exhaust feels like in this truck!

 

[John Young]

A lot has happened in the last month. The truck was back together and went for registration testing, but unfortunately failed. We also found too much blow-by:

Out she comes

 

[John Young]

 

[John Young]

One of the main bearings was showing significant wear, that that that had anything to do with the blow-by

 

[John Young]

We are going to port this a bit

The block is out to be checked for dimensions before we order new gubbins.

 

[John Young]

New pistons have arrived!

 

[John Young]

I went by the machine shop today for a look.

Old piston:

New sleeves in the connecting rod; it seems to me that the diameter of these dowels is bigger on these diesel pistons than what I recall seeing on the 1FZ pistons, which would make sense.

 

[John Young]

Nice, right?

This machine shop is more industrial than automotive.

I really enjoyed having a look around

I also learned today that the crank was out at another shop undergoing a flame metal deposition process to fill in a grove that the rear main seal had worn in the crankshaft. This is a 200k km engine. All I can surmise is that it must have been in some really awful environments.

 

[bigredmachine]

so without sounding like a total ass why didnt you rebuild the ft before dropping it in, or was it just supposed to be an easy swap and go since it was fairly low miles

 

[John Young]

so without sounding like a total ass why didnt you rebuild the ft before dropping it in, or was it just supposed to be an easy swap and go since it was fairly low miles

I will admit it, partially it was an emotional thing. I had bought a HDJ81 RHD to LHD conversion that in the end, defeated my best efforts. The only thing I really liked about it was the engine, which had only 219k km indicated on it and seemed to run fine. And I had a 450k km 1HZ in the Omani diesel which was very, very tired. So, so slow. So I swapped the two and put the HDJ81 up on auction and focused on the Omani diesel with the engine I liked.

The other thing that happened was a decided to use a specialist garage which is quite particular. I'm fine with that as I intend to keep the Omani diesel for, well, as long as I am driving. It is a cool truck and it will get a good amount of attention.

BTW just last evening I learned, unsurprisingly, that we need to deal with the injectors:

That's about 520 USD for the set to have them re-jetted, but I know that this will be done properly, most likely by commercial guys that have to deal with big diesels so they will have the proper tools, supplies and procedures, just like the machining of the block and crank has gotten.

Basically, there is nothing left to be concerned about or has not been inspected... wait... other than the turbo. s***. I actually replaced the turbocharger when I got the HDJ81 using a used part that I found in Sharjah. I better ask the guys to tear that down too. That's the problem with projects that stretch out for years, you forget stuff.

I'm determined to do this truck up right. And I am intensely curious as to what the 80 will be like with a fresh 1HD-FT coupled to a manual transmission and 3" exhaust will be like.

 

[Vitek]

If you anyway willing and going to spend money on the turbo, why dont you do some upgrade to it?
There are nice aftermarket options for it and you can stay "conservative", not chasing big hps, just better low end responses.
That is what I personally dont like about my FT, low end rpms are sluggish.

 

[cruisermatt]

this is going to be such a great 80 when it's finally buttoned up. Can't wait to drive it once it's stateside!

 

[John Young]

If you anyway willing and going to spend money on the turbo, why dont you do some upgrade to it?
There are nice aftermarket options for it and you can stay "conservative", not chasing big hps, just better low end responses.
That is what I personally dont like about my FT, low end rpms are sluggish.

I'm not going to say you are wrong about any of that. In fact I have very conservative AUS turbo kit on the way to Florida by way of Canada that will go on my 1991 diesel 75 pickup and will be installed by @cruisermatt as it happens. I wanted to experiment with that. And I am considering adding the same turbo kit to Mr Blue, a 105 we have not started on yet.

For this 80 I wanted kind of the best possible 'stock' configuration which to me is a manual transmission with the 1HD-FT and an upgraded exhaust. That and the fact that I wanted to make use of all the effort I put into the HDJ81, which overall was not a successful project. As it turns out, I would have been much better off buying an engine at the salvage yard and sorting that one out.

And I'm genuinely curious what a 1HD-FT with a manual transmission and a 3 inch exhaust in an 80 will feel like, as Matt alluded to above.

I had this 1HD-T offered to m today:

It is out of a Japanese 'half-cut'

23K AED = 6,200 USD. This is about the same as the price of a very nice new AUS commercial/miltary grade 1HZ turbo kit with intercooler. I am leaning towards the new AUS unit for Mr. Blue and I've even put a down payment on it.

 

[John Young]

The engine is going back together. But beforehand the head is getting another careful cleaning:

Starting to look like an engine again:

My goodness it has a lot of valves:

And the injectors are back.

 

[John Young]

The engine is going back together

I think it is a thing of beauty; worthy to be passed down to my sons!

 

[John Young]

The guys were buttoning up the engine when they asked about the timing belt. The engine has essentially no time on it after the last time the belt was changed, but that, now that I looked at it, was 3.5 years ago. And some of the wise heads advise that the timing belt has a calendar life in addition to a use life so we ended up changing it and the idler and the tensioner.

And over the last 24 hours, the engine has gone back in:

I am taking it for re-inspection tomorrow morning.

 

[jpoole]

Interesting valve train there. I didn't know they ran a single cam and rotated the valve positions, etc. in these. Looks like the valve pairs open simultaneously and the same amount/duration. I wonder if they went with this setup to optimize performance or production costs?