Build An FJ40 Named Dusty

[roadstr6]

I pulled the head tonight and sure enough…head gasket let go between cylinders 4 & 5. No coolant in the oil. No oil in the coolant. Head looks fine, but I’ll take it to the machine shop for a refresh before I bolt it back on. I’m excited to get this truck back on the road now that the weather is cooling off.

 

[roadstr6]

Head freshened up. New head gasket. Dusty is alive and doing well again.

 

[roadstr6]

New oil pan gasket and clutch slave cylinder for Dusty.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

She's a beaut Clark

 

[roadstr6]

I'm happy to report that Dusty's pan is now leak-free. As a side benefit of doing this, cleaning the pickup screen and removing a decent amount of sludge from the bottom of the pan (the truck sat idle in a chicken house for 15 years), Dusty's oil pressure is up a tick from where it used to be (at least as indicated on the gauge). I'm calling this a win. Thanks to Georg @orangefj45 for sharing his method for doing this job. Worked a charm! As a side note for anyone else who may be considering doing this, my final torque for the pan bolts was 80 INCH pounds. I started at 30, then 60, then 75 (that's when I just started to see the slightest bulge of the cork gasket. Then I removed each bolt one-by one, marked them, added locktite and torqued an additional 5 INCH pounds to make it a solid 80 INCH pounds all the way around.

 

[orangefj45]

Nice & CLEAN work ……. that’s the way to do it!!!!

And thanks for taking the time to put this thread together and keeping it going. That’s what makes our community so great.

Georg @ Valley Hybrids

 

[roadstr6]

Took Dusty out for a drive to see if it would stay leak-free. It’s bone dry. Not a drop of oil anywhere. I wish I had done this job a long time ago.

 

[roadstr6]

Dusty and I dropped by to visit local farmer, Mr. Bobby Cox, Dusty’s original owner. Mr. Cox was happy to see his old FJ40 back on the road, looking and driving nice. He did correct me for calling it a truck. “A truck has a bed. It’s not a truck. It’s a Toyota Jeep,” he explained. I just nodded and played along. He did approve of the work I have done on the Toyota Jeep. I told him I’d come back again soon to take him out for a drive.

 

[roadstr6]

Did some horse trading and ended up with a vintage TLC license plate frame. Repainted the faded lettering and decided it would be perfect on Ol’ Dusty.