Family FJ62 Rejuvenation (1 Viewer)

[1989FJ]

Hello All,

I've been a long-time lurker on mud, and it's time to dive in with a build thread. For an introduction, I'm Rowe, I'm from Alabama, and live in Bozeman now. I daily drove this cruiser for close to ten years, and now that I have a different daily, it's time to dig in and address some overdue maintenance and mechanical work. I'm not a mechanic, so I'm looking forward to learning as I go and giving this truck the refresh it deserves.

This Landcruiser started it's life in Tuscaloosa, where my dad bought it from the original owner in 1998. The truck has been in my family since then and was driven on and off by my dad and uncles before I eventually learned to drive in it, and it became my daily when I turned 16. I drove it through high school and college, until about 3 years ago, when I got a Tacoma to daily. A year ago, I moved to Bozeman, and in July shipped the cruiser out to join me.

That's the introduction and backstory, now for some pictures.

Me, my dad, and sister with the cruiser circa 2002.

New bumpers fabricated by a local shop in Decatur in 2015.

Hauling boats up from the Sipsey River.

Hauling bikes in the Tuskegee NF.

A surprise snow day in Birmingham.

To be continued below with more photos....

 

[1989FJ]

I hit my photo limit, so I'm continuing here.

At the Drive Thru Museum in Seale, Al, created by Butch Anthony. Worth a google or stopping by if you're in the area. I asked out my now fiancee on the drive home from this, so this is a special cruiser memory for me.

Arriving at it's new home in Bozeman.

Carrying bikes to trailheads, what it does best.

Over the last few months, I've tackled a few maintenance items:
Fixed a broken mirror
Changed oil, diff, and transfer case fluids
Stripped out a lot of old accessory wiring
Replaced sway bar links with extended ones (huge improvement)

That brings us to the current day. Over the weekend, I started on a trial run of getting the valve cover off to adjust the valves and found some serious gunk on the valvetrain. My gut feeling was that I was headed for a rebuild, but after some research today I'm leaning toward removing the valvetrain and giving things a good cleaning.

This post seems to have some good advice Oil Sludge Carbon 3FE - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/oil-sludge-carbon-3fe.38061/post-413266

The truck has Rotella 15-W40 in it now, so I'm hoping frequent oil changes will help clean things up. Does anyone have any advice on this?

This will be a learning experience for me, so any advice is appreciated and nothing is too basic to be helpful.

I'm looking forward to digging into this truck, and hopefully, this thread will encourage me to document things along the way.

 

[Godwin]

Hello All,

View attachment 3247959

Hauling boats up from the Sipsey River.

I know this spot and it's washed even more since this photo.

 

[Godwin]

I hit my photo limit, so I'm continuing here.

View attachment 3247973

At the Drive Thru Museum in Seale, Al, created by Butch Anthony. Worth a google or stopping by if you're in the area. I asked out my now fiancee on the drive home from this, so this is a special cruiser memory for me.


View attachment 3247979

Arriving at it's new home in Bozeman.

View attachment 3247982

Carrying bikes to trailheads, what it does best.

Over the last few months, I've tackled a few maintenance items:
Fixed a broken mirror
Changed oil, diff, and transfer case fluids
Stripped out a lot of old accessory wiring
Replaced sway bar links with extended ones (huge improvement)

That brings us to the current day. Over the weekend, I started on a trial run of getting the valve cover off to adjust the valves and found some serious gunk on the valvetrain. My gut feeling was that I was headed for a rebuild, but after some research today I'm leaning toward removing the valvetrain and giving things a good cleaning.

View attachment 3248059

This post seems to have some good advice Oil Sludge Carbon 3FE - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/oil-sludge-carbon-3fe.38061/post-413266

The truck has Rotella 15-W40 in it now, so I'm hoping frequent oil changes will help clean things up. Does anyone have any advice on this?

This will be a learning experience for me, so any advice is appreciated and nothing is too basic to be helpful.

I'm looking forward to digging into this truck, and hopefully, this thread will encourage me to document things along the way.

Clean the valve train and keep driving the 3FE. You can easily pull the valve train and clean it out of the motor, run the Rotella and regularly change the oil.

 

[LCnAZ]

@1989FJ Much depends on at what stage/condition and utility you want to take your Cruiser. There are a lot of build threads here with varying goals; off-road, daily drivers, collectors. Your story/history is not so different from mine. Mine was already in fairly well-preserved condition, so restoring it to a tweaked OEM look and condition was the goal. Collector? Perhaps.

Lots of folks eager to help here. Good on you for keeping it.

 

[1989FJ]

Thanks for the input @Godwin @LCnAZ.

Time to pull the valve train and give it a good scrub.

The goal for the truck for now is to baseline things and do enough maintenance that I feel comfortable taking it into the backcountry.

FSM is on it’s way, so it’s time to get going.

Current to do list:

• Clean up the valvetrain - follow link in previous post
• Adjust valves
• Compression test?
• Spark plugs, maybe wires too?
• Replace distributor and rotor?
• Replace coolant / radiator hoses
• Replace vacuum lines
• Flush and refill coolant
• Drain and refill transmission
• Frequent oil / transfer case / diff fluid changes to flush out gunk
• Replace temp sender / troubleshoot temp gauge
• Replace speedo cable
• Replace and old / deteriorated rubber bits
• Replace brake lines
• Bleed brakes
• Replace 4x4 VSV

Any other maintenance suggestions are welcome

Once maintenance is taken care of:

• Sliders
• Install a proper fuse block for accessory wiring
• Driving lights
• GMRS Radio
• Grille paint refresh

 

[LCnAZ]

That's a good and busy list. Frankly, those need to be done to feel comfortable just driving to the hardware store in an aging Cruiser.

 

[1989FJ]

Making good progress on getting things taken apart and cleaned up

Dirty parts are becoming clean parts

Any advice on how I should far I should take this? I’m thinking clean the valve cover, rocker assembly, and push rods, and hope that frequent oil changes will clean up the top of the head and valve springs. I’ve also seen adding a quart of ATF to the oil suggested to help clean things up, so I’m thinking about trying that as well.

 

[1989FJ]

I haven’t been doing a great job of updating this thread, so it’s time for an update after a summer of work.

Valvetrain got cleaned up and reinstalled, and valves adjusted.

New spark plugs, wires, and distributed cap and rotor.

The thermostat gasket was done, and the thermostat itself had a crack in it, so both of those got replaced. Also replaced the temp sensor and got the gauge working again.

 

[1989FJ]

Radiator was nasty, so it got cleaned up and painted.

 

[1989FJ]

The knuckles had a significant drip going, so they got a rebuild. Some nasty soup came out when I cracked them open.

Lots of parts to clean, paint, and organize.

Sipsey came to supervise.

The driver side hub cracked a while back, and a shop patched it back together with JB Weld. This got replaced with a new Aisin unit, and the old one will be a trail spare.

 

[1989FJ]

Also made a spacer for the LSPV with some uni strut I had in the garage.

 

[1989FJ]

All this work was to get the truck baselined and ready to be the get away car for our wedding in June.

 

[1989FJ]

I ordered a set of 70 series wheels earlier in the summer, but they sat in the garage for a while while I waited for tires to arrive.

Tires finally got here this week, and a local shop mounted them.

I got them on the truck today, and installed new calipers at the same time, to replace a pair that was sticking.

Km3s on steel wheels definitely aren’t light. 91 lbs compared to 82 lbs for the km2s on aluminum wheels I was running before.

 

[cruiserinsanity]

It's really cool to see what's happening with this truck. @Godwin spotted this cruiser on AU campus about four years ago when it had a rack made of 2X4s.

Creeper thread

Met a new neighbor at the gas station. Super clean 62 the owner got it as her first car when she turned 16 and has had it ever since.

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[1989FJ]

It's really cool to see what's happening with this truck. @Godwin spotted this cruiser on AU campus about four years ago when it had a rack made of 2X4s.
View attachment 3425945

Creeper thread

Met a new neighbor at the gas station. Super clean 62 the owner got it as her first car when she turned 16 and has had it ever since.

forum.ih8mud.com

Thanks @cruiserinsanity I’m glad I can finally give it more attention these days. That photo would’ve been during my fourth year of architecture school. I used to park there and bike to studio, since that was the only place Auburn would let you park for free.

Sometimes I miss the 2x4 racks…. They weren’t pretty, but they weighed way less than the garvin basket. And from a dollars spent to utility perspective, they’re hard to beat. I need to come up with a new cross bar solution.

 

[1989FJ]

Unfortunately I have to ask a scary question that I think I already know the answer to. I think this motor has a rod knock, but I need a second opinion.

Any thoughts?

 

[SteveH]

3FEs are noisy engines by design. I've heard far worse sounding videos. Don't panic yet.

Is your oil pressure good, and have you measured it with a real gauge both hot and cold (not the dash gauge? Did something happen to precipitate rod knock (like letting it run out of oil)? Can you remove one plug wire (one-by-one) while it's running, and locate the bad rod? (Removing the plug wire takes the stress off the bearing, causing it to be quieter).

If you need to pull the oil pan to replace the gasket (as most of us have), you could pull the bearing caps and look and check with plastigage. You have many options to explore.

Steve

 

[1989FJ]

3FEs are noisy engines by design. I've heard far worse sounding videos. Don't panic yet.

Is your oil pressure good, and have you measured it with a real gauge both hot and cold (not the dash gauge? Did something happen to precipitate rod knock (like letting it run out of oil)? Can you remove one plug wire (one-by-one) while it's running, and locate the bad rod? (Removing the plug wire takes the stress off the bearing, causing it to be quieter).

If you need to pull the oil pan to replace the gasket (as most of us have), you could pull the bearing caps and look and check with plastigage. You have many options to explore.

Steve

Thanks Steve,

I haven’t checked oil pressure with a real gauge, but the dash reads around halfway when driving, and dips at idle. I’ll pick up a real gauge and see what it reads.

No loss of oil to my knowledge, unless a passage is blocked somewhere. No overheating or overrevving.

I’ll pull plug wires tonight and see if anything sounds different.

Replacing the oil pan gasket would probably get rid of some drips in the driveway, so it couldn’t hurt to pull the pan and see what it looks like in there.

I’m also planning to send an oil sample to Blackstone.

Would a compression test be useful data for troubleshooting this? I’m also thinking about getting a cheap boroscope and trying to get a look inside.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[1989FJ]

After some more thought, what are the odds that this noise is an exhaust leak?

I notice the noise when the engine is warm, and the video I posted was taken after about a half hour of driving.

I cranked it up today to pull the plugs one at a time, and it has idled and come up to operating temp with no knocking noise.

I can also smell the exhaust standing next to the truck.