FJ40 12HT Swap & 60 Series Axles (1 Viewer)

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Just got in from the shop at a lovely 2:05am.

Took a major setback tonight.

First the good news:
-Power steering reservoir is mounted
-Power steering lines are all crimped and installed
-Driveshafts are installed and look perfect
-Engine has oil and doesn’t leak

The problem:
I filled the engine with coolant and had a steady leak out of the turbo coolant pipe. I prayed for a loose bolt or fitting. No luck.

I have a small crack in the line. Tomorrow I’m going to hopefully remove it without having to pull the entire turbo off, then weld the crack closed.

No room for failure here.

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Major progress tonight.

Repaired the coolant line, also came up with a solution for a stainless steel alternative.

Also finally finished the wiring, labeling, and loom.

Every single relay, fuse, and ground is now labeled. I built the harness using Star Grounding and double fusing (separate fuses for relay activation wires and circuit wires). Very burly, very redundant, easy to troubleshoot.

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Struggles continue. Coolant tube is repaired but the main water pump had a leak.

Had to pull a ton of pulleys and belts and brackets but I took it off.

Turned out there was a small bit of old gasket stuck to the pump. That piece was causing an uneven sealing surface. I buffed it flat, applied a thin coat of sealant then a new gasket.

Should hold.

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Another night until 2am.

Made huge progress.

-Pulled the pulleys, belts and leaking water pump
-Found an old piece of gasket under the pump that was making the surface uneven
-New gasket and a touch of Dirko sealant and it doesn’t leak anymore.

-Re-assembled all engine components and made it back to where I started
-Added remote diff breather system
-Custom cut and welded a seat adapter for my spare FJ60 seat.
-Installed seat and seatbelt
-Installed FJ60 parking brake
-Re-installed turbo coolant tube and leak tested it


The leg room is amazing. TONS of space to stretch out. Only downside is that the steering angle is very low so the wheel is very close to your thighs. Another issue is that in second gear the shifter is almost against your leg. I’ll need to re-angle the shifter arm a bit (maybe swap it for a RHD model?)
The parking brake system is very cool in my opinion and works very well. I will be adding more supports and stabilization to it in the future

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Finally.

All critical mechanical tasks are done. It’s by no means polished, and no project is ever truly “done”, BUT, tomorrow I’m firing it up.

Todays tasks completed:
  • Grease all springs and tie rod ends
  • Install Dashboard
  • Cut long U-Bolts
  • Tighten all trans bolts and mark
  • Secure wires behind dash and finalize electrical
  • Air filter check and hose clamp
  • Alternator tension and bolt tension
  • Coolant overflow tank: build bracket and install
  • Oil in tcase
  • Oil in diffs
  • Pin shock nuts
  • Install passenger front shock
  • Tighten tie rods, pitman arm nut etc
  • Test fuel tank
  • Prime fuel system
  • Seal off air lockers
  • Turbo support bracket install
  • Install FJ60 speedo cable to tcase
 
Three steps forward, two back.

I started the engine today, but I’m really at a loss and need some help.

Today I finally fired up the engine in the car for the first time.

Important info: I converted the truck to 12V, glow screen isn’t hooked up, and the starter is a new manufactured non Toyota 12V unit for a 12HT.

Problem #1: Shrieking and engine load:
The truck fires up quickly after cranking for about 3-4 seconds. The engine doesn’t idle comfortably. You need to give it burst of throttle to keep it alive. It feels like it’s under load from something, despite the transmission being in neutral and the tcase being in neutral.

Once the throttle is released, the engine slows and then there is a terrible shrieking sound like a bad pulley before the engine abruptly stops. It’s almost like it’s being stalled out.

From my testing, it sounds like the noise is coming from the starter potentially.

My thoughts: could the starter be seizing and not retracting, adding drag to the engine and then as idle slows it kills the motor and shrieks?

My plan: I’m going to loosen all belts and pulleys to eliminate them as potential causes. I’m going to manually turn the crank and see what I hear. I’m going to bench test the starter, and if absolutely necessary I’ll pull it off, put on a 24V one and test with that one.

Thoughts?

Problem #2: It took a while to prime the injectors, but after a while I was seeing a thick spray of diesel mist coming from the engine bay. Even with a light I couldn’t pin-point the source. There is lots of fuel collecting on top of the block under each injector. I can see the return fuel line leaking despite being past factory torque spec. The rubber isolators between the injector body and block are also leaking fuel with air. You can see little bubbles coming around the seams of some. All nuts are torqued to spec. Thoughts?


 
samc2447 said:
Pull all the belts and try it.

What's going on here with your fan? It looks like it's made contact with your radiator. What is your fan clearance? Are there fan blade marks on your radiator now?

View attachment 3370871
Click to expand...
No contact. It’s close but no it doesn’t make contact.
 
Updates:

I loosed all the belts. The shrieking has stopped and the truck idles on its own and is very stable at a nice 500rpm-ish idle. The sensation of "drag" is gone.

I think one of the belts was just exceptionally tight (I tested them all and they felt fine). All of the pulleys are spinning freely, and the AC clutch spins free. Im going to re-tighten the belts but leave them a touch looser this time around.

FUEL: Ok so I pulled the turbo cross-pipe and intake pipe to get more access. The lines are clearly leaking around the crush washers. Those crush washers were supplied by the company that rebuild my injectors. Im going to remove them and swap them for metric copper crush washers and see if that solves the issue. What I don't understand is why there is fuel leaking upwards from the injector tube and out of the rubber isolator? Im going to tighten everything just a little bit more and see if it improves.

Progress progress.
 
samc2447 said:
Pull all the belts and try it.

What's going on here with your fan? It looks like it's made contact with your radiator. What is your fan clearance? Are there fan blade marks on your radiator now?

View attachment 3370871
Click to expand...
Another note: I had to trim the leading corners of the fan blades to give myself enough space between the blades and the bottom of the radiator. The cuts weren't de-burred so it looks like they're being chewed up.
 
Glad you’re getting back on track. Who did you use to rebuild your injectors?
 
Kmehr said:
crush washers aside, would you use them again? I'm looking for someone to refurb my 12HT injectors.
Click to expand...
Well I cant vouch for anything but their speed of service and quality of finished product. I havent tested the new injectors much. They were very fast, and they looked brand new when I received them. They gave me a breakdown of how each injector performed before and after rebuild which was nice. Total rebuild cost was $380 or so if Im not mistaken (DM me and I can get the receipt).
 
Updates:

It gets hot. Temp gauge hit 210F.

The sensor is at the back of the block (not factory placement) but the engine is definitely getting pretty warm. I cooled it off with a hose to the radiator.

Question: I tried to burp the air but I barely got any bubbles.

Thoughts on why it’s not cooling? The radiator is a brand new champion that’s rated for a 300HP LS…. Brand new water pump.

Oil pressure: when it’s cold, oil pressure is 80PSI at idle.

Once it’s hot, oil pressure hovers between 10 and 20 PSI. Even at 2,000rpm the oil pressure is 20PSI (I know that’s within spec but it seems low?)

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KeepCruzin said:
Updates:

It gets hot. Temp gauge hit 210F.

The sensor is at the back of the block (not factory placement) but the engine is definitely getting pretty warm. I cooled it off with a hose to the radiator.

Question: I tried to burp the air but I barely got any bubbles.

Thoughts on why it’s not cooling? The radiator is a brand new champion that’s rated for a 300HP LS…. Brand new water pump.

Oil pressure: when it’s cold, oil pressure is 80PSI at idle.

Once it’s hot, oil pressure hovers between 10 and 20 PSI. Even at 2,000rpm the oil pressure is 20PSI (I know that’s within spec but it seems low?)

View attachment 3371577
Click to expand...
Bad/Incorrect/Upside down Thermostat?
 
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