Builds "Falcor" the 1984 FJ60 (1 Viewer)

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I'm excited about how awesome all these parts are going to look.

I have had a whole bunch of stuff powder coated and as long as it doesn't start out rust pitted, it comes back looking new. If it's rust pitted, it still looks good, just textured. I've had a great experience getting items done at the place I go in Monroe called Thermo Tech. The owner took me for a tour a while back before I had my FJ40 frame done and it's an amazing opperation.

I litterally showed up and parked, the guys already had a forklift ready to lift the frame out of the back of my truck and another guy was pulling boxes out of my truck and helping carry it inside to count it and see what I wanted masked.

It was also cool because there was a really nice gal there named Shannon who helped pick a white that looks close to Toyota 033. It's not perfect but it's the inner fenders and radiator core support, not important to perfectly color match. It was handy to have someone with a better eye for color than me.

They told me 7 days or so to bust out all of the stuff I brought them. Some of it they have sent to their other location for garnet blasting.

Here's how my 40 looked after they did their magic. Builds - "Scout" the 1977 FJ40 - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/scout-the-1977-fj40.1129848/post-14006009
 
I totally forgot that Scout got the same treatment. Great to work with businesses that value their customers and do great work.

I was wondering what color the core support was going to end up.
 
First time I’ve removed the valve cover and I’m shocked! This is spotless.

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I did not expect this.
 
It's been covered before but if your truck smokes when you hit the gas after idling for an extended period of time, this is likely the culprit.

It's an easy job to replace these, and they're inexpensive, I paid $21.

It's also a good idea to replace the valve cover gasket and 4 sealing washers on top of the valve cover at this time. It might also make sense to put new spark plugs in at this time as you'll be taking each of them out.

You'll need a few special tools to do this.

1) a valve spring compressor tool. Here's the one I used.

Amazon product ASIN B000F5HUUI
2) an air compressor and this hose attachment which screws in to the spark plug hole and holds the valves up while you replace the seals.

Amazon product ASIN B000COC7ZU
You can also just feed rope in to the cylinder to hold the valves but this hose is inexpensive and make the job really easy.

3) patience... it's a slow process and the little valve keepers sometimes have a mind of their own.

You'll also need valve stem seals, I used Fel Pro SS 27504, if you can use Toyota parts, all the better.

I'll document the steps in the post below with tips in just a bit. This is a 1 banana job and will likely solve for your Cheech and Chong / 007 smoke screen as you leave a light after an extended period of idling in your 2F (possibly the same as a 3FE as well) or even better, if you're on the trail and have been idling for a long time before your turn at the next obstical.

Tip #1 Even though this is an easy job, it's helpful to break it up in to 2 sessions, especially if you're doing this with the engine in the rig. The back 3 cylinders are tight and you'll want to practice on the first 3 before you attempt those.
 
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Step 1 - Clean the top of your engine as best as you can. If you can safely remove your air cleaner and cap off your carb to do this, even better. I like the purple bottles of "Super Clean" as it seems to cut the grease and crud really well and is easily found at auto parts stores and hardware stores.

Step 2 - Park your rig in a place that makes sense, you'll be crawling in and out of the engine bay a lot. You'll want it to be in a comfortable place to do this. If your truck is really tall, take the wheels off and lower the front down or let the air out of your tires to give you a little help.

Step 3 - Make sure your air compressor is turned on and stays on, the last thing you want is for the valves to drop in to the cylinders. I tripped a breaker in my garage once while my compressor was running and just figured it turned off because it was filled, nope... the sound changed and I looked back to see some lights turned off just in time to hop out of the engine bay and flip the breaker before my valve slipped in to the cylinder. My compressor is pretty large and runs about 70% of the time when I'm doing this job, holding the valves up uses a lot of air.

Step 4 - Organize your stuff. Get your valve spring compressor, valve stem seals and plastic installer tubes, paper towels, spark plug socket, ratchet, 5/8 12 point deep well socket with extention and small hammer laid out so you can easily access it while you're working.

Step 5 - Remove your valve cover and rocker arm assembly. It may be helpful to take pictures along the way if you've not done this before so you remember where everything goes.

Step 6 - Using a brass drift lightly hit each valve spring retainer (the cap on top of each valve stem) a few times in different locations, this will loosen the 2 keepers from the valve spring retainer before you begin work and make the job a bit easier. You can just do all cylinders at once, it doesn't take much, but this step is helpful.

More to come
 
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Step 9 - Tighten the valve spring removal tool and you will see the keepers standing proud. Remove the keepers and the spring will slide it up. Put the keepers in a safe place while you do the rest of the work. I used a magnetic tray.

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Step 10 - Remove the old Valve stem seal, wiggle it a bit as you pull up, they're not stuck on very hard.

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Slide installation sleeve over valve stem to protect the new seal when you slide it over the keeper ridges.

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Use a 12 point 5/8" deep well socket and an extension to install your new valve stems.
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It only takes a few taps, this stem seal doesn't sit flush with the bottom, see first picture below where it's simply placed there and the second picture where it's fully installed. I put my finger below the stem seal as I'm tapping it on so I can feel how much it moves. If I had to guess it only gets tapped down about 5mm to become fully installed.

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Remove the installation sleeve and place the valve spring/tool back on the valve.

Install the keepers, if you've used the lowest possible point on the valve spring to attach the valve spring removal tool, and you've compressed the spring as much as possible, installing the keepers is easy. Once the keepers are properly installed, loosen the valve spring tool and that valve is done my friends!

Now do the same thing on the other valve in that same cylinder and you're 1/6th of the way done.

If you start on cyl #1, you'll get good just in time to be finishing up the exhaust valve on #6 and then you can help your friends do this.

My engine only has 127k on the clock and these things were wasted.

Lastly - When reinstalling the rocker arm assembly, make sure the pushrods are lined up on the rocker arms as you install the rocker arm assembly. Sounds dumb but sometimes the pushrods will move around on you. They absolutely must be lined up correctly as you reinstall the rocker arm assembly.
 
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@77CruiserDog I had no idea the stem seals were the culprit behind white smoke after idling. My tomato truck did that for about 6 months and the. It completely went away. Gonna catalog that info in my brain somewhere. Great write up too.
 
@77CruiserDog I had no idea the stem seals were the culprit behind white smoke after idling. My tomato truck did that for about 6 months and the. It completely went away. Gonna catalog that info in my brain somewhere. Great write up too.

White smoke can sometimes indicate steam/coolant.... however if the smoke smells like burnt oil it's quite possible this is your culprit. An easy replacement and costs all of $50 to do this yourself.

If the smoke went away for no reason, one possibility is that the rocker arm assembly oil passages are plugged. It might be wise to pull your valve cover and take a look at it while it's running to see if oil comes out of the holes in the end of the rocker arms.

Another possibility is that you used a thicker oil at an oil change or maybe an oil formulated for older, high mileage engines which has an ingredient that swells seals and gaskets.

There could be a third possiblity, if you have an investation of Land Cruiser elves who live in parts piles and work on your Cruiser when you're sleeping. They're like cobler elves but instead of making shoes they fix things on your Cruiser, hide your tools and drink your beer.
 
I have had a whole bunch of stuff powder coated and as long as it doesn't start out rust pitted, it comes back looking new. If it's rust pitted, it still looks good, just textured. I've had a great experience getting items done at the place I go in Monroe called Thermo Tech. The owner took me for a tour a while back before I had my FJ40 frame done and it's an amazing opperation.

I litterally showed up and parked, the guys already had a forklift ready to lift the frame out of the back of my truck and another guy was pulling boxes out of my truck and helping carry it inside to count it and see what I wanted masked.

It was also cool because there was a really nice gal there named Shannon who helped pick a white that looks close to Toyota 033. It's not perfect but it's the inner fenders and radiator core support, not important to perfectly color match. It was handy to have someone with a better eye for color than me.

They told me 7 days or so to bust out all of the stuff I brought them. Some of it they have sent to their other location for garnet blasting.

Here's how my 40 looked after they did their magic. Builds - "Scout" the 1977 FJ40 - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/scout-the-1977-fj40.1129848/post-14006009
Do you have a RAL code for the items to be powder coated black? I'm going down a similar path right now with my FJ40.
 
Oil pan gasket is done.

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I used FIPG on both sides of the gasket around the channels and in the corners as advised.

I used a level to adjust the flange of the oil pan to make sure it was flat and I even tossed a quick paint job on it to make it look better.

I torqued the oil pan bolts to 9 ft-lbs and fully expect to revisit them as others have in a few heat cycles to make sure they're all snug.

Between the smoke caused by the valve stem seals and the oil leaking from the valve cover gasket, rear main and oil pan gasket, I feel like I have this thing pretty well buttoned up.
 
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Looks great! Also like the easier button vs on the the ground underneath. I'll be doing mine soon w rear main, the harder way. Not looking forward to it.
 
Looks great! Also like the easier button vs on the the ground underneath. I'll be doing mine soon w rear main, the harder way. Not looking forward to it.

Yeah between doing the clutch, transmission, c-channels and all of the other little stuff, taking the body off just made sense.

Are you just doing a rear main and oil pan? I assume a clutch job as well?
 
Yes, my xcase leak is progressing. The bi-pass hose has bought me two years so far, but leaking more back at xcase now and the oil is seemingly in the xcase more ...not migrating up like it was. Dropping the trans, hopefully just rebuilding the xcase, new clutch, flywheel surface, oil pan, rear main..... I think it is time to invest in a creeper? o_O and the trans jack.
Seriously considered the H55, but like how the 4 speed drives and feels. Need to use that money elsewhere for now.
 
Read this thread though from Page 1 yesterday. Wow, that's a busy 6 months! Impressive work and congrats on finding such a low mileage rig for a starting point. Hope to see it in person when you get it back together.

Really enjoyed the Bend travelogue posts too. That's an area we've only driven through a couple of times. Really need to make it more of a destination sometime soon.
 
Looks like the PNW Overland rally is is Redmond Oregon this year. I was thinking of going to that probably drive my cruiser.
 

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