Finally got a LC v2.0! (6 Viewers)

[n00g7]

You should just leave it in Texas with me.

 

[IanB]

Got a few minutes today while my daughter was napping, and got the 2X alternator and AC belts changed for new, wouldn't surprise me if they were the originals. Also snapped a quick pic of the new trans pan union with sending unit in place.

 

[IanB]

Ordered a mechanical boost gauge install kit, and Dawes manual boost controller today! Once the gauges are operational, the plan is to calibrate the boost compensator to 15psi, so I'm using the entire fuel pin grind, while not getting into fuel cut at my target boost level, and setting boost to 14.5psi for the drive to the west coast.

When we arrive in Vancouver area, ATEB is performing their "power rod mod" fuel pin and pump tuning upgrade, so I should have a nice bump in power for the drive home!

 

[ForealBoreal]

Trying not to bash ateb but you should invest the money it would cost in a tune and do it yourself. I have seen a few injection guys open the Tuned pumps from them, not so good. Not the safest tune either, powerful but there are issues with it. Spend the $200 and get a proper wideband gauge and play with it yourself, the mud gang will walk you through it.

 

[IanB]

Trying not to bash ateb but you should invest the money it would cost in a tune and do it yourself. I have seen a few injection guys open the Tuned pumps from them, not so good. Not the safest tune either, powerful but there are issues with it. Spend the $200 and get a proper wideband gauge and play with it yourself, the mud gang will walk you through it.

I do have an old Innovate Motorsports LM-1 wideband from messing with other cars in the past, but it could use a fresh O2 sensor I'm sure. It is my long term plan to get into tuning this truck on my own. Won't be time for that before this trip though.

 

[IanB]

Over the last couple of days, I got some more work knocked out on the truck. Weather has been amazing and I took advantage to hang out with the doors open, fresh air wrenching! I ran a wire into the cab for the trans temp sender, replaced the front driveshaft, greased both driveshafts, topped up the birfs with moly grease, painted my hub ends, gave the wheels and tires a good detailing off the truck inside and out, and re-torqued my front wheel bearings.

Planning to look at a plugged sunroof drain (thinking front left side as the frame rail was filling up), and sound deadening the rear cargo area/wheel wells, and cleaning and putting back in the rear interior finally!

I'm farming out some electrical work to diagnose an issue with my HID retrofit DEPO's where the highbeams blow the fuse immediately, so that should be fixed shortly which I'm looking forward to. I've been driving with only low beams for a long time now, and when it was all working properly they were amazing on high beam! Electrical is not my thing, outside of stereos.

 

[eca]

Trying not to bash ateb but you should invest the money it would cost in a tune and do it yourself. I have seen a few injection guys open the Tuned pumps from them, not so good. Not the safest tune either, powerful but there are issues with it. Spend the $200 and get a proper wideband gauge and play with it yourself, the mud gang will walk you through it.

What specifically were the issues with regards to the ATEB modifications?

 

[IanB]

HID retrofit is fixed, I left that WAY too long! Harness was providing power to the 100w halogen high beam bulbs through the HID relay, and apparently the draw was too much. Shop re-wired so the high beams run off the OEM wiring, and the bi-xenon projectors run off the HID relay harness pulling a signal from the stock wiring, and we're back in business. I'd forgotten how much light this setup throws, and I'm reminded that my aux lights are nearly redundant with everything working properly on the main headlights, a nice problem to have, lol.

I also got my front diff breather relocated, new breather caps on both diffs, and some fresh gear oil in the front diff as it was foamy (got wet at some point), I believe the water got in via old breather cap at some point (or several points), likely carwash related. And I reinstalled my front grille, for the 1st time in about a year as all my projects in that area are now complete!

 

[IanB]

Ordered a catchcan on a whim, hoping it arrives in time to install before the trip.

Landcruiser Autana 80 Series FJ80 Turbo Diesel Stainles Steel Oil Catch Can Tank

Also changed my lugnuts over to some new ones. I'd never liked the way they fit with the aftermarket wheels, and the new ones have a larger contact face on the bevel, and a lip to keep the socket from hitting the wheel when removing/replacing them. Plus the old ones were looking pretty grubby, lol. I had some help with this job as well!

 

[IanB]

Got some work done last night on my gauge pod, holesaw bits and files were the tools of choice, and got my gauges and Webasto timer into place! I think I'm going to really like the placement, everything is fully visible with the shifter in drive. Just need to finalize the pod placement, and make a couple more holes for the mounting bracket, and I can pull it all back apart and paint the pod to match the interior.

I had plans to use Auber Industries digital displays for everything dating back to my last HDJ81 (actually had everything purchased and lost it all in the garage fire), but the more I though about it, the more I wanted analogue gauges for ease of glancing and getting an idea where things are at.

 

[bj70_guy]

"This wheel is in essence as well as in outward form. You are satisfied with this one" - awesome!
Nice truck Ian.

 

[IanB]

"This wheel is in essence as well as in outward form. You are satisfied with this one" - awesome!
Nice truck Ian.

I can never refinish these wheels for that reason, lol!

 

[Douglas S]

I think you'll be happy without the Auber gauges. I'm not too impressed with mine.

 

[IanB]

VICTORY IS MINE!

My experiment paid off today, I was looking for a way to remove the cruise control speed limiter that all the JDM HDJ81's have, limits cruise control max speed to 108km/h, with my bigger tires I was able to hit 113km/h which really is fine when the speed limit is 100km/h (60mph), but falls short when the limit is 110, or on the freeways we'll surely be cruising along on our road trip while in the US. Research over the last few years only pointed to some VERY OLD posts suggesting that soldiering a certain spec resistor onto the cruise control ECU board would alleviate the issue. The scant details and prospect of frying my CC ECU made this a crapshoot at best IMO.

I had an idea, and started doing some research of my own a while back. Found a North American 80 partout from a '93-'94 that used the A442F trans, same as mine, and had the seller shoot me a pic of the connector and pins on the ECU, and compared to mine, they were a match! So I bit the bullet and purchased the CC ECU, it showed up today, so I popped it in and low and behold, I was able to set the cruise at 116km/h! Great success!!!

I had to swap the metal brackets due to the RHD vs. LHD differences, and I'm off to the races!

 

[IanB]

Last night I had a buddy come over and we drilled/tapped the exhaust manifold for the EGT probe. For anyone doing this down the road, I did have to remove the crossover pipe to get the manifold heat shield out of the way, which was a much smaller job than I expected it to be.

With the shield removed, I used a hole saw to put a hole over the area where the probe would be fitted to the manifold. I ziptied a sock over the turbo inlet so air could escape without a chance to chips getting in while we were drilling/tapping. We used a right angle air drill as space was tight in there. Started with the engine cold, as we neared the point where we'd break through, we greased the drillbit and started the engine to push any chips out rather than allow them to fall in.

This was a nerve wracking step for me, but didn't turn out to be as bad as I expected.

In other news, it looks like my catch can is out for delivery today, so I should be able to slam that in before I take off for the weekend!

 

[IanB]

Catch can showed up today, so I got that out of the way. Install took all of 20 min, it's the best product for a direct fit solution to a catch can in these trucks I've been able to find anywhere near the price I paid.

Landcruiser Autana 80 Series FJ80 Turbo Diesel Stainles Steel Oil Catch Can Tank

 

[IanB]

Got the gauge pod painted tonight, and the gauges and timer mounted for the final time. Before painting, I got the bracket to hold it to the lower dash in place and screwed in.

A few weeks ago I re-torqued my wheel bearings, then couldn't remember if I bent the ears on the star washer back over the outer nuts or not. So I ordered a set of the Trail Gear spindle nut kits, and re-torqued yet again, and got those installed. I feel much better knowing they're not going to come loose on me. I'm getting pretty quick at things apart and back together too, which is a plus!

 

[IanB]

I got my boost gauge T installed, and mounted the gauge pod in the truck tonight! Took it for a quick spin, and it looks like I'm seeing 9-10lbs of boost with the stock settings, driving around in my neighborhood. Doesn't look like it will go higher on a highway pull for example, but time will tell.

I'll wire up the signal wiring for the EGT and trans temp, and the wiring for power and illumination for the gauges early next week. I'm having a buddy make me up a nice harness for them, and helping me install.

One strange observation, the noise is louder when boosting than before. Is this a common side effect of a mechanical boost gauge that I hand't considered?

 

[IanB]

Got some more work in last night, did an oil change, new OEM filter and 9.5L of Rotella 5w40 synthetic oil. Also swapped in my clean air filter and washed the old one.

At my last oil change, I had put a magnet from an old hard drive on the end of the filter housing, and I wanted to see if it caught anything. I borrowed an oil filter cutter, and opened my filter up. These OEM Toyota filters are heavy duty, I'd always noted the heft of these units, but as they say, it's what's inside that counts. I was pretty impressed by the guts of these things, and snapped some pics I thought people might be interested in. Seeing what's inside makes me feel pretty confident in my 10K km oil change intervals, and supports the Blackstone Lab UOA results that suggested pushing the interval even further.

FWIW, there was absolutely nothing I could see sticking to the magnet at the end of the housing, so that's GREAT news! I'm realizing now I didn't get pics of it, but inside the internal metal housing that I'm holding in the pic, is another, different filter media that's very dense, the filter media shown is the "gauze" portion of the filter media. This ain't no cardboard and hot glue Fram junk!

I also got a few pics of my gauge wiring harness coming together!

 

[IanB]

Gauge harness got installed last night! It only took me ~5 years and 3 HDJ81's (including the parts truck), but I've finally got a set of functioning gauges in the truck! No new pics, or updates at this point. I'm going to take on the boost controller install tonight, and hopefully calibrate the boost compensator for 15psi tomorrow, but I'm quickly running out of time to be doing work on the truck, we leave after work on Friday and there's a lot to do to get ready besides wrenching.

I did get out with the dog for a hike on the weekend though!