Builds - Summer time Black FJ40 re-baselining

[TexFJ]

Oh my, that doesn't look great. But be aware of project creep. I've read here of folks that started off with something akin to a valve adjustment or water pump and ended up doing a complete frame-off with engine rebuild. Good luck.

Haha.... ya, that's what I'm always afraid of. If I feel like an engine rebuild is needed, I might just get a 2F w/ a 5-speed somewhere. For now it was running like a champ even with the concrete sealer. Stays fairly cool if it has air going across the radiator.

Although my FJ62 H55 swap parts are staring at me wondering what I'm waiting for.

 

[TexFJ]

I'm starting to wonder if anyone takes the Water thermostat housing off and not have it crumble on them.

the flange was cracked and crumbled soon after it was detached from the head.

g]Got them on order from Amayama, crossing my fingers they don't cancel the order or come back and ask for an additional $200 shipping.

 

[Green Bean]

Yeah. There is a whole lot to be said for just driving the heck out of these 40's and enjoying them. It seems that the F engines are pretty tough and can tolerate a lot of well-meaning, but poorly executed "improvements.," such as painting the inside of the head and whatnot.

 

[TexFJ]

Discovered I have a Ford radiator fan that looks almost exactly like OEM. Looking for a better solution I found one, but not sure why RockAuto and others say that the Aisin 8 blade radiator fan fits my FJ40. it's 17.6" wide and the fan shroud is around 16.7".

More Information for AISIN FNT017

Seems like I'll need to get the 6 blade one (16.5") and make sure I get a good fan spacer as the PO's ford solution was a bigger nut in between the fan and the pulley on each bolt.

Does anyone know how wide the OEM spacer is?

 

[firemanj92]

check with @65swb45 for the spacer, there were a few other vendors that have the spacer too, I just don't remember who I bought it from. (I'm assuming it was MarksOffroad). approx 3/4" thick

CityRacer and @ToyotaMatt both have t-stat water housting#1633-60070 and water outlet#16331-60040

Fan # 16361-60090 still available from Toyo, or Cityracer

 

[65swb45]

I have all the parts on this list in stock.

 

[TexFJ]

I didn't want to open up the pushrod cover but .... seems like the oil line connector is a slippery sucker that easily falls down the oil line...

S

 

[65swb45]

There was something that looked like a faucet washer on the tube when it was originally sold/ installed that was supposed to keep that from happening.

 

[TexFJ]

There was something that looked like a faucet washer on the tube when it was originally sold/ installed that was supposed to keep that from happening.

OK, that makes sense. Good thing the tube didn't go into the block instead; that would have been another type of a cussing session.

 

[TexFJ]

Went to set my valve clearances, set the crankshaft to TDC and found this nugget left over from PO.... Distributor was pointing at number 4. haha....

After scratching my head for a couple seconds, I saw that PO connected the disty in his own way. seems like it was just a case of incorrect disty installation. I can either correct it or just leave it be...

 

[mrboatman]

I would pull and reinstall correctly. Easy and quick to do and then it is correct.

 

[Pighead]

Sometimes, there is a good reason to clock the dizzy one way or another to make it fit. Like when putting a '69 dizzy into a .5 or 2F. I dont see that problem here.

 

[TexFJ]

It's interesting because you also have to get it just right to clock it so if it was an accident then it was a really lucky accident.

It'll force me to adjust the timing as well..... while I wait for the dang dealer to get my gaskets in that I ordered like 1.5 months ago.

 

[TexFJ]

In the middle of the jump seat restoration. I hope I don't have to restore the jump seat frames on another 40 again. Tedious chemical stripping and sanding, then priming and painting. I should have just paid for powder coating, but I like to save money and use the dollars for more parts

The foam under the previous covers came in two parts (not sure if this was the OEM foam though).

The seat covers I bought from @Cruiser Corps had extra space for an additional inch of foam, so i grabbed some from Michaels. Perfect length 72" for both seats.

Really happy with how they turned out....

Now I have to wait to exchange the other seat cover as I was sent two lefts.... these bottom seats aren't perfect rectangles so they are side specific... ooof...

 

[TexFJ]

I was missing some bolts from the hood hinges, so I thought I would go ahead and replace them with official OEM bolts and pads. Something must be off though, I might just keep the ones that were installed, as the new ones don't look long enough nor do they look like they have the correct head. Although the bolt kits offered from Cruiser Corps look similar to ones from Toyota but they do have a set of longer ones in their kit. Which I did not notice from the Toyota diagram.

 

[pb4ugo]

Later model 40's used bolts, and earlier models used screws. I'm not sure when the change happened. Maybe around 79.

 

[TexFJ]

Ahhh, that makes sense. Although now it makes me question the parts in these diagrams. Many times they give you the year range scenarios but not always, as in this case.

Proceed with caution

 

[TexFJ]

It's interesting because you also have to get it just right to clock it so if it was an accident then it was a really lucky accident.

It'll force me to adjust the timing as well..... while I wait for the dang dealer to get my gaskets in that I ordered like 1.5 months ago.

Finally got to the bottom of the out of phase distributor, literally.

Opened it up and found out the PO was in there converting it to electronic ignition. I decided to clean it a bit and found the mechanical advance wasn’t put back together correctly, causing it to be off. Everything all good now.

 

[TexFJ]

Got my first Defender cushion. After doing some foam placing to fill the cover, I put one seat all together.

 

[77mustard40]

Looks awesome!