Builds Finally got my own...Meet BeBe

[hj 60]

I hope it is something simple but fear head gasket, my hj will refuse to overheat, it is winter here and after some light freezing I lowered the radiator curtain but with 18 degrees C on the highway 400 km it was a bit to hot (above half) so the curtain is up again.
Never overheats in the mountains up to 1500 meter trough the alps with boat trailer, 4000 km total also in 40 plus celcius.
I dont know if my fan is unlocking like it should but no roar of the fan, spins free when warm, seems ok.
Dont recall it locking up, rear heater is really hot (cant miss the sauna feeling when I forget to shut it off)
The radiator fluid is 55000 km old blue stuff, about to replace it coming weeks to avoid engine freezing up.
After 4000 km hard work add a bit of cooling liquid, dont see that as a problem.

I never idle a cold engine because it is just bad for the engine, I start, wait a few seconds for oil pressure and drive away with low rpm, our road to the road is a few hundred meters (farm) so I try to keep it in 2nd gear, 3rth when further ahead, idling does not heat a truck, working does.

 

[gregnash]

@hj 60 ..... SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH Don't say that!!!

I don't have the time to deal with a fracked bed right now!!!

 

[onemanarmy]

take the thermostat out?

run just water?

any hoses ballooning?

when its getting that hot (on the gauge), any overflowing into the overflow tank?

 

[gregnash]

Not yet. Got new things on the way so going to wait for those to come first. At that point will completely flush the system with something like Prestone Radiator Flush and go at it that way. I got ZERO maintenance history on BeBe when I bought her so who knows if it has ever been done.

As towards overflow from the overflow tank, yes that happened the other night when I added fluid.

 

[gregnash]

Ok went out tonight after taking the long way home which includes about 7 miles of freeway driving and then a couple miles through town to my house.
By the time I got home the gauge was hovering right below the red, couple times on the freeway it got right to the edge of the red but then backed off..

Temps are as follows:
- Head between temp sender and the heat riser ~271*
- Head, front, between two front most head bolts ~299*
- Big radiator inlet hose ~183*
- Front of radiator in front of inlet hose ~94*
- Top of radiator, drivers side ~215*
- Bottom of radiator, radiator outlet hose ~101*
- Top of radiator, passenger side ~191*
- Top of thermostat housing ~290*
- Head between spark plugs
- between #1 and #2 ~237*
- between #3 and #4 ~221*
- between #4 and #5 ~168*
- between #5 and #6 ~154*

Don't really even know what to think of these numbers... Measuring all over the front fins of the radiator had variance from 50* to 57*...

 

[Output Shaft]

Those top of head temps are way high. I'm not comprehending that 290° t-stat housing temp either. That seems like an incorrect reading. Mine always reads lower there than all the other head locations.

I'm wondering if there is air trapped in the top of the head still... or worse, the head gasket coolant holes have gummed up and are blocking the flow of coolant through the head.

See attached pics.
This was my engine. There was gunk growing at the coolant openings at the block/HG/head junction.. restricting the flow of coolant to parts of the head. I was horrified. Lots of coolant openings were partially plugged. A few completely blocked off.

My engine was having overheating issues.

********

These are the temps I was getting after I installed an all new cooling system and rebuilt head, using the same HF IR gun. About 3" from the surface:

• Radiator: New 4 core brass/copper CSF 2708 with integrated lower heat exchanger. (FJ62 style).
• Ambient Air Temp: 65º to 70º F
• Thermostat: New 190º F
• Temp at top driver's side of radiator (engine at operating temp): 185º to 200º F (avg. approx 193º)
  
• Temp of water outlet pipe (after hose) at bottom of radiator: 115º to 135º F
• Temp of top of head at front and rear: Approx 195-200° F depending on where I aimed the gun.

 

[gregnash]

Crap ok well that is the last thing I really wanted to do was pull the head...
Reconfirmed some numbers this morning, really only wrote down the highs because, well it was raining and I was doing in the office parking lot. Temp needle was about all the way to the red, only about a needle width between it and the red line...
- Between front head bolts ~244*
- Between heat riser and temp sender ~207*
- Radiator inlet hose 154*
- Radiator top, drivers side ~185*
- Rad front, in front of inlet hose ~190*
- Head between plugs
- #1 & #2 ~215*
- #2 & #3 ~200*
- #3 & #4 ~193*
- #4 & #5 ~145*
- #5 & #6 ~143*
- T-stat housing top ~197*
- Ambient temp outside, raining and 45*

Looks like I have a huge temp swing between the front of the block/head and rear of the block/head. Seems to me like the radiator is doing an adequate job of cooling but like @Output Shaft I have some blockage somewhere that is not allowing the front of the head to cool.

Question: only place that oil can come from that is up on top of the head, say pooling in the air rail plug allens, is from the valve cover gasket correct? I was going through and cleaning the top of the head to see if I could see anything the other night and this morning when I looked I noticed that all the allen head plugs are filled again with oil.

 

[Output Shaft]

Ok, all those temps look a lot better, except the reading at the front of the head.

Lets disregard that reading for a moment.

Since the temp sender is at the back of the head, that is where the cabin gauge is getting its reading.
But you shot the gun at that location and got 207°. That's a normal temperature.

So we know now that the back of the head is not overheating... but the gauge is reading near the red.

That only points to one conclusion: the sender or gauge is malfunctioning or getting an erroneous reading.

And since the FJ60 water temp gauge is notoriously unreliable with age...

What I would do is spend a day doing a bunch of test runs and temp readings with the gun and write them down like you're doing.

And use the gun as your temp gauge and disregard the cabin gauge.

Once you've done a bunch of readings, you'll get a feel as to whether or not the engine temps are stable.

If so, put a piece of masking tape over that damn cabin water temp gauge and ignore it.... then find a replacement.

 

[gregnash]

Thanks @Output Shaft
Yeah I will be keeping an eye on the temps religiously. But with the amount of oil that I am seeing up top, the fact I know that my rear main needs to be replaced and this going on I am thinking it is time for a small upper rebuild. But gotta gather costs on that to see if that is or should be a viable solution.

Don't necessarily want to spend close to a grand on bits and pieces for something that really should be replaced. Which then leads to doing a swap with another 2F, upgrading to a 3FE or something else. Ultimately I don't have the $4k+ to do a swap to something like vortec swap.

 

[Output Shaft]

If you're referring to the Allen plugs (which are now getting oil in them) that are installed to replace the air injection rail, the only source of oil at the top of the head that can weep into those plugs is from your valve cover gasket. It's leaking. Easy fix... or maybe the valve cover just needs to be tightened up a bit.

 

[gregnash]

Yeah sure that it probably needs to be replaced. Did I say that I have ZERO maintenance history. LOL

Isn't there a small crush washer or something for the valve cover bolts? Probably should adjust the valves as well while in there.

Don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water but there is a fine line between that and conducting a futile effort. Can you tell I am an analyst yet??!!

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Greg they are not crush washer they are washers with rubber inserts you may just have to tighten them up. They are still available through Toyota if you prefer new.


Sent from my iPhone

 

[gregnash]

Greg they are not crush washer they are washers with rubber inserts you may just have to tighten them up. They are still available through Toyota if you prefer new.


Sent from my iPhone

Sweet!! Perfect I will find torque numbers and tighten down and see if that helps. If not then I will buy new when/if I start head work.

 

[Output Shaft]

There's no torque spec for the 4 valve cover nuts, since they tighten against rubber inserts.

Just light wrist tight would be good. You can tell if you're over tightening them. The rubber insert starts squishing out.

 

[gregnash]

Ok perfect I was just looking through the FSM trying to find and wasn't coming up with anything.

 

[gregnash]

Well that was interesting. Took the air cleaner off and found a couple things....
1. Vac advance line from the distributor had come off at some point so who knows how long that wasn't functioning.
2. Temp sender connection, the black cover on the spade has completely disintegrated. The spade and wire are still connected though seems like the wire may break at any minute. Wonder if this is something that can be replaced???
3. The 4 bolts that hold the valve cover on were all loose. The middle two were actually so loose that I could just about pull them off. The front was barely tighter and so was the rear.

So looks like tomorrow night I have a date with the local coin op dollar car wash. Gonna clean the top off real good to see if that stops some of the leaking.

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Nice you got under their and found all that. Now it may make your rig drive better and no more leaks!
Good job man!


Sent from my iPhone

 

[gregnash]

Thanks @89fjlandcruiser nice to get things taken care of. I love and hate this truck at times but that is all part of the relationship. Was actually thinking that a cheap alternative should the engine be an issue would be to dump a 3FE in it from Cruiserparts.com with their conversion kit.

 

[cruisermatt]

Thanks @89fjlandcruiser nice to get things taken care of. I love and hate this truck at times but that is all part of the relationship. Was actually thinking that a cheap alternative should the engine be an issue would be to dump a 3FE in it from Cruiserparts.com with their conversion kit.

"Cheap"

"3FE"

:laughing:

Actually, that might not be such a bad idea.

Rebuilding mine wasn't that much but I got a major good deal. I bought my motor (with 175K miles) for $175. Machining everything was about $1200 and I've probably got about another $1000 in parts.
If you're going to rebuild it it really doesn't matter what mileage motor you start with as long as it has no major damage. And most machine shops won't be that expensive (I think Kline said his was around $300 to do his 2F).

Might be a better alternative to the V8. However, I don't know anything about making it work in an FJ60, but if you do go this route I'm ready to help

 

[gregnash]

"Cheap"

"3FE"

:laughing:

Actually, that might not be such a bad idea.

Rebuilding mine wasn't that much but I got a major good deal. I bought my motor (with 175K miles) for $175. Machining everything was about $1200 and I've probably got about another $1000 in parts.
If you're going to rebuild it it really doesn't matter what mileage motor you start with as long as it has no major damage. And most machine shops won't be that expensive (I think Kline said his was around $300 to do his 2F).

Might be a better alternative to the V8. However, I don't know anything about making it work in an FJ60, but if you do go this route I'm ready to help

Yeah cheap is a relative term I guess but it would be cheaper and quicker than doing the v8 swap. Cruiserparts sells a 3FE "conversion kit" that supposedly includes a lower mileage engine that is setup to be used in a FJ60. The description says that it is pretty much a drop-in, plugnplay other than a few areas that need to be addressed like fuel supply and electrical. For $2500 for this kit that is not a bad price considering the rest of my truck is in good shape. I could probably find a decent running 3FE engine w/o harness or computer from someone like Georg but then I have to worry about finding the correct harness and good computer, etc. Kinda a give and take.

Other option would be to just find another 2F (if major problems with mine, like I noted on my previous oil change there being pigtails of metal in the oil meaning the cylinder walls are getting scraped by the rings more than likely) which would then just be a pure plugnplay. Unfortunately a full engine swap would have to be done on the cheap depending on career status. If I get this new career move that I am looking for then I will be buying a econobox anyways so then I will end up doing the swap right.