Builds g-man's land cruiser story (1 Viewer)

[g-man]

worked on the exhaust again today. I couldn't get the down-pipe loose from the second pipe in front of the cat. The exhaust clamp squeezed them together and made a groove. Tried hitting the insulator bracket clamp in front of it to move the down pipe forward but no go. On top of that one of my exhaust studs is stripped at the nut. I managed to get the nut of with an impact wrench but not sure how I'm going to get that stud out. I can get a vice grip on it but with the handle facing straight there is not enough torque to turn it. Maybe try tomorrow with a torch on it.

The flange on top of the down pipe is smooth but the thin metal lip (the actual pipe sticking up past the flange) that the gasket has to slide down on is bent. I was finally able to get the gasket on after some struggling. Still didn't seal the exhaust leak. May have to take it back to the muffler shop.

 

[60 toy ota]

Hmmm, i have a welder. I also thought about running a dremel grinder around the smashed edge so I can get at it with a socket. I do have an old wits end allen head plug that I was using for my tcase before I tapped it out.

Sounds like the right one...found the video

 

[g-man]

Fixed my exhaust leak at the down pipe flange. I had a slightly bent flange and even though I ground the metal down at the bolt holes it still leaked. I doubled up two gaskets and its holding.

Installed Trail Tailors AC bezel and the Blue Sea dual USB charger.

 

[Beehanger]

Awesome!

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Just read through your thread. Love your approach to the 60. Interestingly enough. Got my first 60 in 06. Been hooked ever since. Curious as to the year of your truck. You mention early on its a 87, but your seats are from a pre -86.

 

[g-man]

Just read through your thread. Love your approach to the 60. Interestingly enough. Got my first 60 in 06. Been hooked ever since. Curious as to the year of your truck. You mention early on its a 87, but your seats are from a pre -86.

Good eye on the seats! My truck is in fact 87. But early on in my ownership (prob 06 or 07') I was pretty ignorant on repairs. My seat covers were worn so naturally I just thought to replace the entire seats.(read sarcasm here). I bought them off a mud member in Canada. The WHOLE seats. They do have the different 2 tone stripe pattern. They were cheap ...like $50 bucks for the pair. So my dumbass sent my perfectly good seat frames, my originals, to the land fill and bolted on his seats.

One thing I remember about this event was getting hit with import duties by the UPS guy when he delivered the seats. He wouldn't leave them unless I paid him right there in the driveway! Something like $90 ...or in other words more than the cost of the seats. When I complained to the mud member from canada, he was kinda flip about the whole thing and said ...."they are your (as in USA) duties! I had no idea. Would have been nice if he had given me a heads up.

If I had to do it all over again I would have just looked for a decent set of covers and recovered them.

 

[CenTXFJ60]

Good eye on the seats! My truck is in fact 87. But early on in my ownership (prob 06 or 07') I was pretty ignorant on repairs. My seat covers were worn so naturally I just thought to replace the entire seats.(read sarcasm here). I bought them off a mud member in Canada. The WHOLE seats. They do have the different 2 tone stripe pattern. They were cheap ...like $50 bucks for the pair. So my dumbass sent my perfectly good seat frames, my originals, to the land fill and bolted on his seats.

One thing I remember about this event was getting hit with import duties by the UPS guy when he delivered the seats. He wouldn't leave them unless I paid him right there in the driveway! Something like $90 ...or in other words more than the cost of the seats. When I complained to the mud member from canada, he was kinda flip about the whole thing and said ...."they are your (as in USA) duties! I had no idea. Would have been nice if he had given me a heads up.

If I had to do it all over again I would have just looked for a decent set of covers and recovered them.

ah ha. that makes sense. and I understand the "import duties" deal. I live in a rural setting so UPS just sends me a bill every time I've had a shipment from Canada. Have never paid one as I treat it like like toll bills . Fortunately they seem to stop bothering me at some point.

 

[g-man]

finishing up on lots of exhaust work. The manifold to exhaust pipe flange was leaking again. I had double gaskets in there which had helped for a while. I knew it was goobered up. Earlier I had tried grinding the exhaust pipe flange flat at the bolt holes but double gasket was the only way to keep it from leaking. I knew I had stripped some of the threads in one of the manifold stud holes at the exhaust pipe and it was going to be a pain to work on. So I took it to a near by muffler shop thinking that if I just threw money at it they would make my problems go away.

I bought the aftermarket flange off ebay, thinking they could weld it to my toyota downpipe. Also brought them new toyota studs and nuts and new flowmaster muffler. When I went to pick up the truck, the exhaust sounded terrible. I drove it home and the next day checked it out. I had a terrible leak at the manifold and a pea hole at the top of a weld at the pipe to muffler. I took it back and they fixed the weld leak. But the leak at the manifold they said was coming from the heat riser joint. Ugh!


The muffler shop threw my original pipe out. Ugh! They bent a new aluminized pipe and totally re-engineered the flange connnection. They flared their pipe and left the flange loose. Later, when I removed my manifolds I realized they re-drilled the manifold stud hole and re tapped it with coarse threads! They did this while on the lift. Twisting their necks to look up...the hole ends up being about 15 degrees off of square. They also wallowed a hole in the brand new flange to get the tilted stud to go through it. All this without a phone call to consult me.

I went back and argued with the owner but of course I couldn't get anywhere with him. In the end I realized that I had to fix this myself...due to the leak at the riser joint.

It took it home and took it all apart. Ordered all new gaskets a block off plate for the riser and some new hardware too. I managed to get all apart without wringing any bolts or stripping anything. Several days of spraying( EDIT: PB blaster ) helped loosen things up.

I had a spare exhaust manifold I had bought off Willard a while back and it had good stud holes and the heat riser valve retaining bolt looks better and not pitted like mine. So I used his manifold and bolted to my intake. I wanted to get the heat riser joint machined flat but the contour in the exhaust manifold prevents this. In the end I just got the gasket material off and cleaned up the surfaces with a die grinder and abrasive pad. The machinist who worked on my head told me about a trick to remove the remaining metal gasket material that was sticking to the cast iron. Tapping with a ball peen hammer while hitting it with a torch flattens out the metal and it breaks loose. Pretty good trick I though. At first I thought my heat riser insulator was good but upon further inspection found a slight crack in it at the corner.

So I opted for a Cruiser Outfitter block off plate at about 1/2 the price of a Toyota insulator. I struggled with this decision. The Block Off plate pins the heat valve open always. As in always angled to deflect the exhaust down and out the exhaust pipes. This keeps it from warming up the intake ...making a longer warm up with less atomized fuel in the warm up stage. But the advantage is that the intake manifold will never have the dreaded crack developing the bottom of the bore ...below the carb.

Following advice found here on the forum, I loosely bolted the manifolds together, making sure I had flipped the heat riser valve to the hot position. You have to reach through the exhaust manifold and turn it to the hot position and while holding it there with your thumb in the exhaust pipe hole, bolt everything together...both gaskets and the block off plate. Once done, I put it on a spare cylinder head I had on my bench and then tightened up the joint. Then off to the machine shop to work on the cylinder head to manifold surface and spot face the flanges where the bolt heads rest.

this is getting really long, I'll follow up with some pics and a few other details.

 

[g-man]

I removed my EGR cooler and the bolts were badly corroded. To the point that one of them had very little left to grab on the head. I was afraid of rounding the head of the bolt. Luckily I managed to remove it. But I found out the bolts I replaced at the heater control valve (riser joint) are just a 1/4 inch shorter but have plenty of thread. So I used them to replace the worn out EGR cooler bolts. I had ordered new bolts for the heater control valve joint.

So what I'm saying is you can use these manifold bolts to replace these NLA EGR cooler bolts:

 

[tmxmotorsports]

I hate exhaust shops

 

[g-man]

I hate exhaust shops

I'm starting to. But I hate exhaust work even more. Like plumbing...a can of worms.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

I'm starting to. But I hate exhaust work even more. Like plumbing...a can of worms.

I don't like exhaust work either but I truly think they don't either. I do all my ls swap
Exhaust no way do I trust them to do it and make it look good and use the factory hangers.

 

[g-man]

After some driving I noticed a pft, pft ,ppft sound. Almost like a ticking and sometimes sounds like a playing card clicking on the spokes of a bicycle. Put my hands around it and found a leak at the egr pipe inlet where it mounts to the exhaust manifold. I tried another gasket but when I went to put the nut on the inside stud it wasn't on straight and I didn't verify it. Easy to do when you have to reach way up in there and there is little room to move your hand to turn the nut plus it's pretty dark and my flashlight wasn't the best. Then I mistakenly tightened it down with socket and stacked extensions and totally stripped the stud. I ordered another stud and nut from SOR. Once they came in, I tackled removing the stripped stud. I was able to remove it with the manifold still on the truck. It wasn't easy but a few rounds of mapp gas torch and PB blaster and it started to turn. I replaced the stud and put another gasket and still the leak is there. It's in the belly between the studs where the flange is obviously no longer flat. Ordered the SS egr pipe from SOR. Gonna try this again. Unfortunately the egr cooler is gonna have to come off the truck and on a bench b/c there is no way to turn that big nut under the truck. No room and the exhaust pipe is right up next to it. My egr pipe is loose in the nut but even if I can get it out I'm pretty sure it will move the ferrule and then the new pipe is NOT going back in.

 

[g-man]

Is it just me or does anyone else hate "torque to fit" nuts. They are made oblong if you look inside the nut they're not round but oval. This to insure a "grab" when torqued down. These seem to be a one way ride. When I have tried to remove these in the past I have either stripped the stud or had the entire stud come out of the manifold. I'd much rather have a lock washer. Maybe I'm over torquing them?

 

[g-man]

Finished up on the EGR pipe yesterday. What a drag. But newer EGR valve installed. New Stainless Steel EGR pipe from SOR. New EGR gaskets. And a new ferrule on the EGR pipe thanks to @CruiserTrash for the ferrule.

New Gedore 36mm wrench cut to fit...

This shows how much room there is to fit the wrench into position. Yes I did have to unbolt the exhaust pipe to get the EGR pipe to slip between the motor and the exhaust...ughh..

image of the new beefy SOR SS pipe flange. brown stuff is some high temp never seize

tightening up the last bolts at the pcv to intake pipe.

 

[g-man]

Got this press master 0560. Now can make proper electrical repairs. rebuilt the ICS connector at the carb.

ToyotaMatt sent me a good connector with new terminal ends.

 

[g-man]

New side cover gasket installed. Sprayed some copper rtv on both sides to help adhere and reduce leaks. Replaced the oil cooler o rings and copper gaskets. Replaced the oil filter mount to block gasket. Painted the oil cooler, oil filter mount, alternator mount and the side cover. New plugs, wires, dizzy cap and coil. Got into the dizzy and greased the breaker plate bearings and replaced the stop pin bushing. Replaced the heater hose and piping for the oil cooler circuit and the heater lines that go across the side cover plate. Pictures really don't it justice for the amount of work. But, hey good news is that I have no more oil drips. (for now).

I cleaned the front timing cover and that shoe horned shape piece that comes down behind the crank pulley. There is a slight oil leak there. It's not dripping but a drip forms and so it still leaking slightly. I'll leave it for now but a new front seal, timing cover gasket etc will be in my future.

 

[g-man]

and another.

 

[g-man]

When I first put the dizzy back and tried to start it ...there was no fire! I was a bit nervous but a quick check and I realized that I forgot to plug in the signal generator wire. It was stabbed right and just needed a timing light to dial it.

 

[Beehanger]

How many hours a week you work on your truck?