Builds Another LS swap? Really??? (2 Viewers)

[ARJMN]

As I inch closer and closer to the end of the initial build, I cant help but notice that the hours continue to pour in, but the wins are getting smaller and smaller. That is with the exception of the fuel tank. It was quite a chore to get it to fit, and at this point I would have a really hard time trying to convince someone of doing a long range tank over just carrying some Jerries. Here in the US anyway. We are never that far from a fuel station and if you carry three Jerries, you have the same basic range. 24 gallon main plus 3 5 gallon Jerries adds up to 39 gallons, and about 500 miles for the thirst of the 1FZ-FE. Regardless, my tank is in, and I am committed to it. The clearance is still pretty good, as the 80 Series has good clearance to start with. Today, I worked on getting all the loose ends tied up. I got the fuel lines fully secured. The engine harness is getting its last few clippings and fully connected. I will work on getting the shifter reinstalled and the shift cable connected. I need to extend a few of the harness break outs, throttle is one. I am so close to firing the rig up for the first time that I can almost hear it. Ohhh I almost forgot that I can now reinstall the ARB front bumper! Stay tuned.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Where you able to get the factory parking brake cable to work with the LR tank?

 

[ARJMN]

Where you able to get the factory parking brake cable to work with the LR tank?

Phil, I had to section and channel the tank to clear the parking brake cable. I want to maintain as much of the factory content on the 80 as I can, so sourcing a longer cable was out. The instructions for the fuel tank have been laughable at best, and gave zero consideration for the fact that the cable would have been sandwiched between the tank and body. You can see my giant booger weld there on the rear where I sectioned it. It was a massive lesson in the importance of proper fit up. I got in a big rush and left way too big a gap, and ended up blowing out the weld multiple times. In the end I had to run short, successive beads to build up the area and close it in. The second area of concern was that there was no allowance to clear the speed sensor on the T-Case. I had to notch the tank to clear it, as there was physically no way it would work. Like I said before, though, it is in and done and I am committed to it now.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Phil, I had to section and channel the tank to clear the parking brake cable. I want to maintain as much of the factory content on the 80 as I can, so sourcing a longer cable was out. The instructions for the fuel tank have been laughable at best, and gave zero consideration for the fact that the cable would have been sandwiched between the tank and body. You can see my giant booger weld there on the rear where I sectioned it. It was a massive lesson in the importance of proper fit up. I got it a big rush and left way too big a gap, and ended up blowing out the weld multiple times. In the end I had to runs short, successive beads to build up the area and close it in. The second area of concern was that there was no allowance to clear the speed sensor on the T-Case. I had to notch the tank to clear it, as there was physically no way it would work. Like I said before, though, it is in and done and I am committed to it now.

Glad you saved it mine went around the tank

 

[ARJMN]

Big day in the build. After toiling away for several weeks chasing wiring and small details. Routing and clipping of the main harness, and all the peripherals, etc. With the completion of the fuel system on last post, The next major milestone was cold crank. I go that completed but had a hell of a time getting the oil system to prime. I read a couple different posts on the LSX forum and YouTube, which led me to order a transfer pump from Amazon. I paired that with some 3/8" hose and screwed it into the oil gallery port on the left side of the block. After some frustration, I got the oil pump and galleries primed with about 3 quarts of oil. The cold crank was successful and the sump drew down a surprising amount. After topping it all off again, the total is now 8 quarts of oil in the system between the engine, sump, hoses, and cooler. I am all about having a higher oil capacity, more oil capacity is always a good thing in my book. All the effort has led to this:



That felt great, and was a moment of elation. This project has taken my 80 off the road for almost 9 months and I am ready to have it rolling down the road again. Next steps are to bleed the brakes and plumb the vacuum for the brake booster. I also need to fab a bracket to mount the catch can as well as the plumbing for it. Lastly, it'll be finishing up routing and clipping all the harnesses to avoid the space claim for the exhaust. With luck, I'll finish my to dos and get it to the exhaust shop next week. Directly from there, it'll make the trip to the AC shop to be vacuumed down and charged with refrigerant. The old girl will be at that point, ready for the trail.

Stay tuned for the last few details and the initial build conclusion.

 

[Funner]

Congratulations on another milestone.

 

[ARJMN]

Yet another great day in the build. Today, Lexi Jo got exhaust. With Exhaust came O2 sensors, and that means no more safe mode. She is now running with a quiet, but solid note, and about as much giidy up as a 5.3 powered Tahoe(accounting for the parasitic inherent to the full time 4WD). In short, it goes down the road with no trouble at all. The 6 speed tranny is really gunna be the crux of the road manners with 5th and 6th both being OD gears for cruising. The 4.027:1 1st gear provides plenty of crawly grunt, but I'll have to get her on the trail to really tell.

Aisin A343F

1st	2nd	3rd	O/D	Reverse
2.804:1	1.530:1	1.000:1	0.753:1	2.393:1

6L80

1	2	3	4	5	6	R
4.027	2.364	1.532	1.152	0.852	0.667	3.064

A big shout out to Katrina, Javier, and Javi at Discount Muffler on Ina in Tucson. I went there on recommendation by @RockJock82, and I am very pleased. The price was fair and the work was impressive. They were easy to deal with and they did it exactly like I wanted. I am running all Magnaflow, with a High Flow Performance cat off each bank and a single large fiber packed pas through muffler. It is just right. I think I will have to have the very tail end reworked for the Avid Offroad bumper going on Saturday, but we will see.

I will be doing two nights of button up work with final routing of the harnesses and vents, then on to the AC shop Friday. If all goes well, I will be out in 2 weeks for a shake down run out and around Mt Lemon. I'll plan to go out to Oracle to check the 2 lane cruising, then up the control road, hitting the few techy little features. Then down the paved road to check the tap shift function for holding gears down grades.

I am really looking forward to getting out on a club run with it. It continues to be a great project and I am now planning the final stage of the build which includes Step Sliders from BIO, a roof rack from Prinsu, and a central inflation system with dual ARB compressor under the passenger seat, and a 3-5 gal tank under the body.

Not the greatest audio, but here is the exhaust note, and a few little runs through the gears. (I am currently using a tablet and bluetooth OBDI reader for the vital. I will have the gauges sorted soon.

Last item was the first full fill up at the gas station. $78 dollars filled the 38 gal tank to the brim, so lets see how far I get on that. I'll report back with the news.

 

[ARJMN]

Loaded up and headed to the Discount Muffler.

 

[ARJMN]

Forgot to upload this. Thanks @D_Web

 

[Jgunner]

Love how quiet that sounded. If I decide to swap ill be running 2 of dynomax’s big ass mufflers and no cats. Quiet is nice when you just want to hear the outdoors. Maybe an electric cutout for mall crawling!

 

[ARJMN]

Love how quiet that sounded. If I decide to swap ill be running 2 of dynomax’s big ass mufflers and no cats. Quiet is nice when you just want to hear the outdoors. Maybe an electric cutout for mall crawling!

It was plenty loud when I had the header dumps on before the exhaust went on. Now it is just enough to know it's a 6 liter. I wanted to make sure it did not drone on the highway.

 

[Jgunner]

It was plenty loud when I had the header dumps on before the exhaust went on. Now it is just enough to know it's a 6 liter. I wanted to make sure it did not drone on the highway.

I would try my hardest to make it sound like an electric car if i could. I love how quiet my 1fz is, but all other aspects of it are meh.

 

[ARJMN]

Latest efforts on the build are all related to the transfer case. When I got it all back together and drove it for a few days, I could not help but notice how loud and poor sounding my transfer case was. I always thought it was noisy, but with no interior in there, it was obnoxious. I had Ben drive it and he agreed. After a drive in Joe's rig at the meeting, I was convinced mine was faulty. I figured it was an output bearing, so after some consulting with the collective, I pulled the front drive shaft and went for a drive. it was night and day. The noise was still there, but it was a fraction as bad. I am guessing due to the lack of load on it. I did also note an odd occurrence. When I unlock the center diff, with the front shaft removed, it still runs down the road the same as when its locked. I dont fully understand the function of the t case with the VC and the diff, but I am thinking mine is fried someway. When I unlock the center diff, it should not move right? Ben did the same on his 2006 100, and it does not move with out the center diff locked.

When I looked at the cost of a rebuild kit, and the fact that these things seem to so rarely fail, I opted to buy a take out from Spamcheese, and will head up this week to drop it out of his parts rig. While I am at it, I ordered a Part-time Kit from Mark's 4WD in Australia. Simply pulling the front shaft made a world of difference in driving ease, with the disclaimer that there is obviously something wrong with my t-case. Anyway, at this point there isn't much left that I haven't been through on the rig, so what's a little more.

 

[Jgunner]

Latest efforts on the build are all related to the transfer case. When I got it all back together and drove it for a few days, I could not help but notice how loud and poor sounding my transfer case was. I always thought it was noisy, but with no interior in there, it was obnoxious. I had Ben drive it and he agreed. After a drive in Joe's rig at the meeting, I was convinced mine was faulty. I figured it was an output bearing, so after some consulting with the collective, I pulled the front drive shaft and went for a drive. it was night and day. The noise was still there, but it was a fraction as bad. I am guessing due to the lack of load on it. I did also note an odd occurrence. When I unlock the center diff, with the front shaft removed, it still runs down the road the same as when its locked. I dont fully understand the function of the t case with the VC and the diff, but I am thinking mine is fried someway. When I unlock the center diff, it should not move right? Ben did the same on his 2006 100, and it does not move with out the center diff locked.

When I looked at the cost of a rebuild kit, and the fact that these things seem to so rarely fail, I opted to buy a take out from Spamcheese, and will head up this week to drop it out of his parts rig. While I am at it, I ordered a Part-time Kit from Mark's 4WD in Australia. Simply pulling the front shaft made a world of difference in driving ease, with the disclaimer that there is obviously something wrong with my t-case. Anyway, at this point there isn't much left that I haven't been through on the rig, so what's a little more.

Bet i have a similar problem. I need to check my t-case out too.

 

[ARJMN]

Bet i have a similar problem. I need to check my t-case out too.

I'll post up what I find and maybe it'll help you.

 

[Saddletramp]

Any update?

 

[ARJMN]

Thanks for the prod Steve. I have been busy wrapping up loose ends on the rig. I called around for a few quotes on rebuilding my transfer case and they were between 600-800 bucks all in. That is new bearings and seals, but more than I wanted to drop right now, so I explored doing it myself. I can get a complete rebuild kit that has every bearing, seal, washer, ...etc for $500, but again....I just didn't feel like tearing the whole smash down and having to buy more tools that I may not use again. The solution? I got a take out unit in good condition from @Spamcheese for considerably less than the cost of any of the above options. I went up on a Wednesday and pulled it out. No small task as the LC transfer cases are substantial hunks for steel and aluminum. It was well worth the trip to Harbor Freight with a 20% coupon to pick up a scissor trans jack. Made it much easier. Check that box.

Next was the arrival of a lovely box of goodies from the Land Down Under. It contained a part time kit for my 80 and @D_Web 100. I always had a curiosity regarding part time kits, and after simply pulling the front drive shaft, I was flat blown away at the difference it made in the driving feel. I committed right then to a part time kit. Again, the guys from Mark's 4WD did not disappoint. Good quality kit here. AVM hubs, ABS relocation kit, and a center spool with new bearing pressed on already.

 

[ARJMN]

I started with the hubs and ABS Kit. The solid axle models, 80 and 105, have the pick up and sounding ring built into the knuckle/CV. This means that when you add manual locking hubs, the birfs don't spin anymore. It freaks the ABS out as it thinks the front brakes are locked. This kit adds a sounding ring to the hub, and relocates the pickup to the outside of the knuckle. The instructions were good and the process was not hard. I took my time on the first one, but breezed through the 2nd. The kit includes new seals, wipers, gaskets, etc. Since I went through the front axle at the start of this project, all my bits were low mileage and in great shape, so I stuck the new ones in my spares drawer for future use. I am not a big fan of the brass plug in the kit, but to be honest the fit is good and I doubt I will have any trouble with it. In a perfect scenario, I would have pulled the knuckle, welded up the hole and machined it back flat, but you gotta call it good sometimes.

 

[ARJMN]

A quick trip to my buddies place for a beer and some lathe time and I had the center caps turned out and back on the wheels. The caps are molded with a recess, and if you take the center hole up to that groove, they fit like they were meant to be there.

 

[ARJMN]

Next, on to the transfer case. The spool is a great quality piece. The splines and important bits are hardened and the finish is great too.

I had to grab some random bits to try and cradle the transfer case for disassembly. I guarantee doing this with it still installed and hoisted on a lift, would be much easier. The torques and forces needed for disassembly are just enough to be a PITA on the bench.