Well I guess this is a good an introduction as ever. This is the start to hopefully a long Expedition build thread, I'm sure I'll have questions along the way as Land Cruisers are a new world to me. I've always dreamed of over landing and owning a land cruiser. I happened to be bored one day and came across an extremely cheap 94 FJ80 with a front end noise. Had my brother go look at it and before I knew it I had purchased my first FJ for $600! That being said....it does have some issues....okay so a lot of issues. But these are all things I'm trying to work out in the mean time. I'll be updating as much as I can throughout the process of me working on it and getting things done in preparation for going on trips (when my medical conditions permit it). In the mean time here's a few pictures of it before what I got done today.
So...Now with my introduction finally out of the way its time for some work to be done! I finally was able to come home from college now that I'm graduated (thank god) and spend some time with my new toy. First biggest thing. There was oil. Everywhere. It was layered on so thick that I needed to go through two cans just to get the head done alone, the block its self still needs another can.
Someone obviously let this oil leak go for a long time....I for some reason didn't get what it looks like cleaned (but will get some tomorrow, I think its mostly because I believe I found out where the clunk is coming from. The PO had told my brother it was the ring and pinion, but after looking at the seals on the axle knuckles and how much gear oil is leaking past them I'm almost 100% sure that the passenger side Birfield has had all of the grease pushed out of it and has no lubrication other then the thinner gear oil making it pop and click...especially in turns. Just my guess though....Need to tear it apart to be sure...It pops and clicks going forward and reverse but its the worst when turning, I've also been lurking for awhile on here and seen it could also be the drive flange? Just trying to figure out all my options...
After all that was done...I was sick and tired of looking at the rotted out running boards on my FJ80 and decided to take them off. What a PITA that was....NY rust makes EVERYTHING worse. I wound up having to pound a socket on at least two bolts and cut the rear mounts off of both sides on the rear...here's some action shots of me gaining some ground clearance
All I have to say to the running boards are....Good riddance.
With that being said...I hate rust, growing up in NY and working on cars/trucks/suv's/anything has taught me plenty of ways to be much more patient when working on anything. Seeing it also drives me insane....so I couldn't stop with the running boards...The hitch had to come next.
The being said I am VERY happy with this Impact, even with one bar left on the battery it took the 19mm bolts out like nothing.
This is the hitch....It needed to come off anyway, there was a nice hole in the back of it right behind the reciever...bet it would've been safe for use anyway. Sadly no pictures of that....been pretty busy with everything now that I'm moved back and I've been jumping back and forth between moving and this.
I would have liked to remove the spare tire as well....but I bent every single one of the extensions that Toyota supplied to try and remove it....not sure how I'm going to get it down just yet. If anyone else has any imput let me know, It needs to come down and get out of the way....because Ironically, I hate mud. I'm more into rock crawling and I can defiantly see this getting ripped right out from underneath the LC....here's how she sits now! Hopefully more updates tomorrow....
So after day 1 here's the breakdown...
Fixed:
Better idle, runs smoother (cleaned the distributor and some of the connections under the hood)
Massive amount of power steering fluid and oil everywhere
Gas cap
Gas door (sort of)
Ground Clearance
Problems Pending:
ABS Light
BRAKES Light
Check engine light
Seats not on track
Exhaust rattle
Front axle (Birfield?)
Powersteering
Newly developed trans cooler leak
Passenger Rear window Inop
Okay....so that list is longer then I wanted it to be...but I'm pretty thorough with everything I own (OCD Sucks) so It's all going to be a work in progress. I thought about giving up on it earlier...but every time I look at it I know I can't. Give me some incite guys! I defiantly have my hands full...especially with how busy I am now. If anyone has any easy fixes to whats wrong or any tips let me know, Any help is worth while. Thanks and hopefully I can keep these updates coming along like this when life doesn't get in the way.
Spent some time today already working on the LC. Washed and cleaned the interior as well as fixed some vacuum leaks under the hood. Got it to stop stumbling under idle....for awhile. As soon as it started to warm up it started stumbling choking itself out. I started it back up and watched the exhaust....small puffs of white smoke. Checked the oil and coolant, coolant is good but the oil did have a small amount of milkiness to it... I'm pissed off. Going to cool the engine off and begin compression checking all the cylinders....Hoping I'm wrong but I'm 99% sure the head gasket just let go. Will update shortly.
Well I'm done compression testing the engine. I'm baffled. It's defiantly not eating coolant in any of the cylinders, all of them are holding a strong compression and there isn't to great a difference in between cylinders so they're all wearing pretty evenly. When a head gasket blows on the 1FE does it usually fill the cylinders or does it blow somewhere else like into an oil gallery? I'm confused. If anyone has some words of wisdom I could defiantly use them.
Also some small things I found that may cause the milkiness that I had seen in the engine...also decided to check the air filter....No wonder half the s*** thats wrong with this Land Cruiser is as bad as it is.
Yes its defiantly not been looked after. I cleaned a chocolate milk shake out of the carpet that must've been spilled at least 5 months ago and had mold growing on it. Its been an experience so far. Haha
I actually just graduated from UNOH so I got mine for half price, only reason why I bought all my snap on tools. Still had to sell and sacrifice a lot just for a very basic set with the impacts. I do really enjoy the impacts though, for electric drive they're pretty impressive.
Thank you. I recently did a ton of more work to it in another thread of mine seeking out some help with the engine. I'm familiar with diagnosing things but having OBD1 is a bit of a crutch for me, it'd be nice to be able to view live data streams so I can visually see what's going on with it. I'm currently at a stand still with the build due to the front axle causing me some problems....I'm either in need of a new axle or just replacing the drivers side birf assembly. I'll post some pictures of what I've done recently from my other threads
Figured I'd post this for anyone still following. Some things that got done today;
New throttle body gasket
New valve cover gasket and spark plug tube seals
New plugs and wires with cap and rotor
New TPS
cleaned the intake manifold, throttle body and under the valve cover
Flushed the oiling system
Changed the oil
Replaced a bunch of broken and cracked vacuum lines along with the destroyed intake runner.
That being said it runs amazing...until it warms up. Chokes out and dies again. It seems like something is progressively backing the idle down until it misfires and chokes itself out. To tired to be able to tell what it is at this point, ECT tested good last time I ohm tested the sensor. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Also unplugged the 02's to get the computer to run in closed loop. But that's just what I have on the engine done so far.
Update again, I've been in and out of the doctors lately so I haven't had much time to spend on the 80. I was able to pull off the upper cat heat shield that was rattling like absolute crazy when it began to miss fire. Thank god its gone. I ran it afterward thinking that my clattering would be gone...I was wrong. The Honey cones inside the Catalytic converters are banging around inside the housings. I'm assuming that could really be affecting the air flow...Never had one loose like that before so thats new on me. This is the result of 30 minutes of fighting this thing off.
While I had a break after the doctors I went to the junkard in hopes of finding anything toyota to source some parts for the 80 and found nothing-of course. But, I did find a good (Or seemingly good) powersteering cooler hanging out of the front of a 96/97 V8 ZJ and figured it'd be perfect for my Land Cruiser. So I picked it up, cleaned it up when I got home and cut the $300 stupid metal cooler lines out from under the Land cruiser.
So After getting everything cleaned up I flushed the old power steering cooler and mocked it up in front of the condenser. I used tranmission line with regular hose clamps and buttoned everything up and put fluid in the reservoir. Started her up and bled as much air as I could without turning the wheel and added when needed...No leaks! Just need to get it mounted and for $35 I have a much better powersteering cooler with a greater capacity. Beats the hell out of $300 for some cheap metal lines.
Also because of a small surgery I had this morning I wont be able to work on the land cruiser for a few days. Will try to do a few things once my stitches are all Healed.
Another update, I recently called around in search of a front axle for my land cruiser. Of course almost every place I called had no LC's in their yard.....except one. I lucked out and found a 1991 FJ80 sitting in a yard next to the skyway. I went there to check it out and make sure it was in good condition....Checked the window and found out it had been sitting in the yard for 10 YEARS. I couldn't believe it, considering the LC itself was in pretty good shape, other then being T-boned of course. I did some research on here and got some help from some other members and determined that the Axle should work fine in my FZJ80....Did more research and found that its the perfect candidate for a Manual Hub/Part Time conversion. I'm going to Re-seal and Re-build the axle along with put lock outs on it while I'm there to begin my part time conversion. I was also lucky enough to score the CDL switch out of the cluster so I've got everything I need except for the Hubs and the spool for the T-case. Going to go Aisin off an FJ60/62 if I get lucky enough to find one near by or someone willing to part with theirs on the forum. Anyway here's some more pictures.
I wound up having to pound a socket on at least two bolts and cut the rear mounts off of both sides on the rear...here's some action shots of me gaining some ground clearance 
Good riddance. 
Sadly no pictures of that....been pretty busy with everything now that I'm moved back and I've been jumping back and forth between moving and this.
