Builds Cara the white '84 FJ60! (1 Viewer)

[gbogh]

We've all been there. Just keep going & you'll whittle the list down. I'd clean out/chase any and all threads before trying to bolt the bellhousing up again.

 

[kenavt]

Alright, the engine is officially in!

Just took working until 2am Friday night to get the transmission and bell housing tied to each other , and then cleanup Saturday (actually bolting it into the motor mounts). Huge thanks to this post with helping with a lot of the bell housing rebuild questions I had (How to change a clutch step by step with pictures + descriptions - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/how-to-change-a-clutch-step-by-step-with-pictures-descriptions.412372/). Here are some fun issues and lessons I hit on, that will hopefully be helpful for future newbies...

• After the scare with the bell housing bolts, I replaced all of those (x6 M12-1.75mm, 30mm long), the flywheel bolts (x6 M10-1.75, 30mm long) , and the clutch cover bolts (M8-1.25, 30mm) with O'Reilly units.
• When installing the clutch fork pivot, sheared the head off another bolt. My roommate was excited to have an excuse to break out his welding equipment! Got a new one from O'Reilly as well (x1 M8-1.25, went with 20mm but longer may have been better)

• Had a panic late Thursday night because I could only move the flywheel through 2/3rds of a revolution, then would hit some sort of obstacle that would stall movement. Took the flywheel off, started trying to turn the crankshaft directly (with a flywheel bolt tightened up, since I don't have a 42mm for the harmonic balancer). Turns out it just needed some force - forced a few revolutions and things opened up, now spins like a charm by hand just grabbing the flywheel. I wouldn't be surprised if some oxidation had built up in the cylinders... the previous owner had left the block outside for 6 weeks and surface rust had built up on some outside components like the carb, and the intake manifold gasket was in pieces. Was terrified that something more serious was wrong with this used long block and I'd have to start over.
• Didn't realize that the lower bell housing enclosure could be off for this whole thing... lost 1-2 hours just blindly stabbing the input shaft into a dark bell housing enclosure.
• Knocked the throwout bearing hub off its clutch release fork pins... took a while to reset to put it back on.
• Didn't realize that the clutch release fork had fallen off its pivot... had to fix that after having got the input shaft partly in.
• Right at the very end, realized that I had pinned a wire conduit (white connector with a plastic sleeve... the speedometer cable?) between the bell housing and transmission that was preventing the final 5-10mm between the transmission and bell housing. Took probably another hour to really finish things off.

The bell housing to transmission bolts went in mostly by hand (or a very light ratchet touch) with a lot of fidgeting and rotating between which one to put in, which makes me optimistic that we didn't destroy the pilot bearing by tightening it the final way. Those four bolt holes were misaligned for a long time and then by tightening two bolts at a time eventually it came together!

So happy this is finally done. Everything from here on out, to starting it the first time, seems so much less daunting than suspending a 700lb object from a Harbor Freight hoist leaking hydraulic fluid and aligning that to a 225lb other object with a long input shaft that has to perfectly go inside a pilot bearing.

My neck, back, and core are sore from having been on my back for something like 6 hours and I picked up seven gouges on my hands these last few days... taking a nice break today.

Only real concern was that maybe the front is too high up, it's noticeably higher then the rear and gets close to the hood... @ntdb assured me that this is pretty normal though.

 

[Zjohnsonua]

Check compression on all 6 before you go much further. The friction you had to overcome is hopefully nothing, but it could be bad sign.

 

[kenavt]

On to the next problem... my pushrod didn't seem to want to go into my slave cylinder (was just dangling). Took my slave cylinder out and I think it's stuck fully extended. Broke the clutch hard pipe taking it off to mess with it, so going to order JT Outfitter's braided cable. Not sure what's wrong with it, considering hooking up a pump bleeder to see if I can pressurize it and jar it loose before buying a new one.

Check compression on all 6 before you go much further. The friction you had to overcome is hopefully nothing, but it could be bad sign.

I will do this, hopefully this weekend. Not sure what all needs to be hooked up... want to connect my exhaust pipe/cat/muffler, and mount my carb. Got new manifold-to-downpipe studs and brass nuts from O'Reilly's (they're M10-1.25 x 35mm so ordered 2x2 40mm ones, Dorman 03105 EDIT: I went with OEM, see picture comparisons in the next post), so need to get the old rusty studs out.

Not sure if it's ok for my throwout bearing to be floating without a release cylinder on the fork or not, when I go to do the compression test. I think I'll get my clutch system working first, then run the test.

 

[kenavt]

A bunch more things done in the last week and a half:

• Got new clutch slave and master cylinders (thanks @Racer65!) and bolted them on
• Got new clutch braided cable from JTOutfitters, removed old hard pipe, ran the cable, hooked up the whole system, poured in DOT3 and bled
• Old exhaust studs weren't the exact same size as Toyota OEM parts. I was worried about where the middle bit was so I ran to my nearest dealership to get the right studs (Toyota PN 90116-10096). See pics below for comparison. Haven't installed them because they won't bolt in by hand, bought a handy stud installer kit I'm excited to try out
• Put on a new accelerator pedal to replace the old worn-looking one
• Cleaned up wiring - removed old antitheft system wiring and aftermarket fog lamp wiring... both directly connected to the battery. great job PO.
• Added some Mobile1 15W-50 ahead of compression tests.
• Plugged the battery for the first time in months and found out the brake lights are stuck on. Pulled that fuse for a bit.
• Learned that the oil pressure sensor wasn't attached when I ran the starter for a bit... quickly fixed that mistake.
• Last but not least... the rear main seal leaked quite a bit (almost a drop every 15s down the flywheel) after I put oil in, but that seems to have stopped about 12 hours after and not continued.

Left is OEM, right is Dorman 03105.

Some seriously gross wiring. As a professional electrical engineer, this is the first thing on the car I'm actually qualified to critique and no thanks.

 

[kenavt]

And then per @Zjohnsonua's suggestion, I ran some compression tests and got really weird results. I started a thread for it here but I'll just sum them up below:

Cylinder	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Cyl 1	80	150	(skip)
Cyl 2	30	30	30
Cyl 3	60	100	105
Cyl 4	43	70	67
Cyl 5	65	85	93
Cyl 6	80	100	130

If I end up having to completely rebuild this motor, I think I might be done with this project. It's been an amazing great time, I've learned a ton, and I don't regret a thing. But summer is fast approaching and I've got other constraints on my time that might mean it's the right time to bail versus trying to find another used engine or trying to do a rebuild myself. It would be a damn shame though - the truck is pretty well sorted now, besides the engine. If it's just the head gasket, I might entertain doing it anyway.

 

[ntdb]

Man… Cara has not been kind to you. So many complications. I hope the compression problem turns out to be an easy fix and you can keep pushing forward.

 

[SteveH]

When this truck is all done, you will have fully earned it. I would find a good running used engine from a reliable source and install it. Bailing now will be a TON of lost work and money. Stay the trail, as it were!

 

[Gundo]

Agreed that you have definitely earned your turns...quite the hike with Cara. Hard to envision turning back now. Sorry to hear your new block is not what you'd been lead to believe. Hope you continue!

 

[kenavt]

When this truck is all done, you will have fully earned it. I would find a good running used engine from a reliable source and install it. Bailing now will be a TON of lost work and money. Stay the trail, as it were!

Thank you Steve. Finding a good running engine from a reliable source is what my original plan was, but it took four months for me to track down the one I did find (although I did see a couple of pre-78 FJ40 2Fs without the steering pump mount holes and different head shapes), I don't expect to be able to do it easily again. California has gone absolutely crazy for Cruisers and I never saw anything well-priced. If you have the money there are plenty of great shops (Mudrak, Valley Hybrids, K&H, TLC, etc.) that will set one up nicely and beautifully for you or sell you parts, and even more engine shops that seem high-quality that have remanufactured 2Fs lying around or available on short notice. But it's all serious $$$.

 

[SteveH]

Thanks for the info on the local market. Sounds like you're doing all the homework you can. Perhaps you can pull the head (as you implied) and see if it's just a head gasket (or maybe valve job and head gasket) job and be done with it.

 

[kenavt]

Spent a while traveling and sitting away from this project because I was getting pretty discouraged. Returned to it today with just the goal of firing it up ASAP if only for <90s because there's no coolant; I think that'll give me the motivation to keep on going!

Put spark plugs in, mounted carb, connected gas lines, choke cable, and throttle linkage (mostly), and put a bit of oil into each cylinder for luck. I went full choke and full gas and squirted some Valvoline starting fluid into the carb, but no dice - the starter just spun, nothing caught. Fuel did show up in the carb window, so I'm confident that's good. Hoping tomorrow to check to see if there's spark, and maybe double check the distributor position. If there's no spark or fuel... I suppose the compression could be that bad.

 

[kenavt]

Last night, confirmed with a $4 HF spark plug tester that I had no spark. Went back to look at FSM wiring diagrams, tested my coil for resistance, found I had some unplugged wires in the ignition system, and… she started up and sounded good!!



So I’m going all systems go on moving forward with throwing everything back on. My enthusiasm and excitement is back! Did a bunch of organizing, then got the smog pump and steering pump back on today. Next is interior ducting/heater and a set of all-new coolant hoses.

 

[kenavt]

A bunch more things done, chipping away:

• Used a stud installer to install new studs for the manifold-to-downpipe connection - worked like a charm! Big fan of these, I used this which was a bit expensive but did the job nicely.

Amazon product ASIN B08DFGBXMG

• Finished re-foaming my front heater box and threw it back into the truck. Bought some generic open-cell foam tape from Home Depot, and then a nice sheet of foam from McMasterCarr for the flaps (McMaster-Carr - https://www.mcmaster.com/86225K43/). Including some photos because it was impossible to find them online!

• Wire-wheeled rust off of various coolant hard pipes... really don't want corrosion in my coolant
• Swapped my old alternator and regulator back on as it has the correct PNs for OEM 55a high current (27020-61071, 27700-38100) whereas the donor engine's regulator didn't have a PN and the old alternator had a Nippondenso number I didn't recognize. Also threw on the smog pump and steering pump
• Pulled my air injection rail and unions off my old block and removed the plugs on the new block
• Replaced most of my coolant hoses, had to order a few more from Partsouq - will be done soon and will provide more details. Including a rear heater bypass - those pipes are definitely full of gross crud and for fixing at a later stage

Next up... installing the Champion radiator I bought 6 months ago, checking wiring, putting on new belts, putting the rest of the cabin air system together, getting a new battery, and fluids! Oh and putting back together the whole emissions system...

 

[kenavt]

Been a lot of activity since my last update... been working on it almost every day now.

• Put on air injector rail
• Put on the two belts (no AC) and tensioned them
• Installed a Champion 3-row radiator CC1213 from Jegs. This also meant buying new upper radiator bushings (tried Dorman 49450 from this thread Radiator Rubber Bushing - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/radiator-rubber-bushing.1151498/#post-13963738). Had to shim one side with a couple of washers in order to get the upper radiator mounting holes to line up nicely. Running two GND straps, one on each side.
• Installed a new (correct) battery from O'Reilly's
• Realized I ordered the wrong three coolant hoses from the water pump and rear heater to the pipe to the lower radiator. There are two different variants depending on if you have AC or not because that results in two different hard pipes (one that avoids the AC compressor, one that doesn't). I rush-ordered the right ones (for an AC install) from the Toyota stealership for 2x what they are on Partsouq including shipping. I don't have AC right now, but want to install the basic things that would be a huge PITA so I could add AC in the future.
  • PNs for non-AC pipe'd hoses... 99555-30280, 16571-61090, 99556-30500
  • PNs for AC pipe'd hoses: 99554-70185, 90916-01163, 99556-30300
  • Initially ordered them from Partsouq but it would take forever to get to me since they were closed for a week for Eid Mubarak, so canceled it... Happy Eid to them!
• My fuel cut solenoid wiring fell apart... my roommate came to the rescue with a nice soldering and heatshrink job.
• Put the hood back on.
• Realized I had overfilled on oil quite a bit and that the PO had a non-OEM dipstick with a different length then OEM... still puzzled about why this was done.

• Taped up this random stakeon on the fuel cut solenoid wiring... not sure what this was for.

• Started filling up coolant, and after the coolant sat for a few minutes it started dribbling onto the floor... tied it to it leaking from the lower thermostat housing... and not only was there a gasket missing but also the housing looked eroded! (original on left, replacement I had from my old engine on the right). And the thermostat was bent, I didn't know this was possible! Fortunately had a full new gasket set lying around (lower housing to block, upper to lower housing, and the O-ring for the thermostat) and a few thermostats, tested the thermostats, put it all together with some red RTV.

 

[kenavt]

Then it was time to do some starting up once it seemed to be holding coolant (had to tighten up some more hose clamps after they started dribbling). I fired it up, and... it wouldn't hold idle at all, whatsoever - I could manually give it throttle to hold idle at ~1800rpm but it didn't sound great and would immediately die. Really was unsure what to do, asked around a bunch, though maybe there was a cylinder misfire so I broke out my spark plug tester and started testing spark plugs. I had tested cylinders 1-3 when my girlfriend asked what that big puddle of coolant was under the block... poked around and... disaster. It was coming out hot and heavy, running down the block and transmission housing down to the flywheel and the floor.

Man, I really didn't want to have to replace the head gasket... this block was not supposed to have problems!

On a suggestion from @js0k I started checking the torque on all the head bolts, just in case, and that's when I realized... the back corner two were very loose. One was finger tight and the other had quite a bit of space before the bolt-head touched down... I had loosened them to remove the engine hook and then used them for raising/lowering the whole engine. Bolts 10 and 14 from the engine FSM snippet below.

Tightening those back up and firing up the engine... she idles at ~1000rpm!! Yippee, success!!

Other then that it is burning a LOT of coolant... filling the garage with smoke/steam, even after idling for 10 minutes. Which makes me think I've made the head gasket really unhappy and its seated terribly, so I either need to loosen/re-torque all the head bolts or just replace it altogether. So that might be this weekend's project, a head gasket replacement... yippee!

Changed the oil to see if there was any coolant in it (from Mobile1 15W-50 to Rotella T4 15W-40), and there wasn't, which I think is a good sign.

So next steps are to borrow a leak-down tester and see if I'm loosing air through the coolant, which is what I'm hoping for. I didn't have coolant in the engine when I last did a leak-down test, so assessing head gasket health was difficult and hopefully that helps this time.

I also spent a while tuning the clutch pedal height, pedal free play, pushrod free play, and slave cylinder pushrod nuts... but the clutch still won't disengage, so need to play around more with that, I think the height might still be too low. Otherwise I would have tried driving it around the block to celebrate the engine idling, coolant smoke and all!

 

[kenavt]

Another belated post... great success! Two days after my last post it's out of the garage, huzzah!! Yippee!!

I let the truck idle for 15-20 minutes the next day and... it appears to have burned all of the coolant off, no more white smoke coming out the tailpipe. Then spent a while tuning and playing with the clutch pedal adjustments and clutch release cylinder adjustments. Then I drove the truck out of the garage and around the neighborhood!! The first time it's driven under its own power since August 9 last year! Felt so good to just be slowly driving around the block.

I've now racked up five miles driving around the neighborhood, and probably close to an hour of idle engine time between various coolant burps. It fires up instantly when warm and near-instantly when cold, and sounds good. I'm feeling optimistic! The GF also helped stitch together more of the interior so it looks more presentable.

Still a lot of things to sort out in order to pass CA smog, but being able to drive it around the block feels so huge. Things on the agenda next...

• My throwout bearing is making noise, hoping it settles down. I spun off a new thread for that - New clutch adjustments and squealing/whining noise - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/new-clutch-adjustments-and-squealing-whining-noise.1259505/#post-13979696
• I keep on finding loose coolant hose clamps that would start leaking badly after a mile... all my fault after changing all the hoses, looks like I forgot to tighten a few up. Those appear to have fixed all those now.
• Re-adjust the hood because it doesn't want to close (keeps on binding in the back against the cowl)
• Test the instrument cluster water temp gauge and the water temp sending unit itself (have new aftermarket WTSU on order from RockAuto). I'm pretty paranoid about overheating now that everything's working right, and want a reliable OEM system. If I can't get confidence in that then I'll consider installing a mechanical sensor in the upper radiator hose.
• Engine tuning - break out an ignition timing light and vacuum check gauge and start making sure she's in tip-top tuned shape

After that... just need to put the interior back together and front bumper on, and we should be in business for smog!

 

[ntdb]

Another belated post... great success! Two days after my last post it's out of the garage, huzzah!! Yippee!!

View attachment 2756875

I let the truck idle for 15-20 minutes the next day and... it appears to have burned all of the coolant off, no more white smoke coming out the tailpipe. Then spent a while tuning and playing with the clutch pedal adjustments and clutch release cylinder adjustments. Then I drove the truck out of the garage and around the neighborhood!! The first time it's driven under its own power since August 9 last year! Felt so good to just be slowly driving around the block.

I've now racked up five miles driving around the neighborhood, and probably close to an hour of idle engine time between various coolant burps. It fires up instantly when warm and near-instantly when cold, and sounds good. I'm feeling optimistic! The GF also helped stitch together more of the interior so it looks more presentable.

Still a lot of things to sort out in order to pass CA smog, but being able to drive it around the block feels so huge. Things on the agenda next...

• My throwout bearing is making noise, hoping it settles down. I spun off a new thread for that - New clutch adjustments and squealing/whining noise - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/new-clutch-adjustments-and-squealing-whining-noise.1259505/#post-13979696
• I keep on finding loose coolant hose clamps that would start leaking badly after a mile... all my fault after changing all the hoses, looks like I forgot to tighten a few up. Those appear to have fixed all those now.
• Re-adjust the hood because it doesn't want to close (keeps on binding in the back against the cowl)
• Test the instrument cluster water temp gauge and the water temp sending unit itself (have new aftermarket WTSU on order from RockAuto). I'm pretty paranoid about overheating now that everything's working right, and want a reliable OEM system. If I can't get confidence in that then I'll consider installing a mechanical sensor in the upper radiator hose.
• Engine tuning - break out an ignition timing light and vacuum check gauge and start making sure she's in tip-top tuned shape

After that... just need to put the interior back together and front bumper on, and we should be in business for smog!

Huge congrats for getting to this point!! Crushing it!

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Way to stay with it. Just now take your time and tighten everything down and check it twice.
go over it so you are sure!
it is a process and you will think you won’t ever finish but at the end you will accomplish it.
way to go!

 

[kenavt]

Huge congrats for getting to this point!! Crushing it!

Thanks Nate! And a big thanks to you for being so helpful and providing some inspiration along the way

Way to stay with it. Just now take your time and tighten everything down and check it twice.
go over it so you are sure!
it is a process and you will think you won’t ever finish but at the end you will accomplish it.
way to go!

Thank you! And it being a process is truly sinking in... this has been so much work and I thought at this point I would be done and happy to drive it around till the wheels fall off. But now what is drifting through my head are thoughts of new big tires, OME lifts, 4x4labs bumpers, and getting working on the rust nevermind normal maintenance!