Builds Golden Boy / was 'an as-yet unnamed gulf spec diesel 1991 HZJ pickup'

[WarDamnEagle]

Exhaust looks great. Just curious if the OEM is still available? I recently replaced the entire exhaust on my '94 FZJ-F pickup and everything was still available including the hangers. Price wasn't bad either - shipping was another story.

 

[OGBeno]

Exhaust looks great. Just curious if the OEM is still available? I recently replaced the entire exhaust on my '94 FZJ-F pickup and everything was still available including the hangers. Price wasn't bad either - shipping was another story.

Yes, OEM is still available.

 

[cruisermatt]

Exhaust looks great. Just curious if the OEM is still available? I recently replaced the entire exhaust on my '94 FZJ-F pickup and everything was still available including the hangers. Price wasn't bad either - shipping was another story.

Yes it is and we debated using it however cost-wise this custom work wasn’t much more - and will last longer and should offer some performance improvement. It is 3” vs the OEM ~2.5”

 

[John Young]

Yes, when we went over the numbers a larger stainless was too tempting. My reading on 1HZs also suggested the difference should be material.

My younger boy and I are in Oman for a few days and making use of the autostrada cruise control on this petrol manual 80. The unit is pricey but it is making a huge difference on this long trip. I'm mulling over adding it to Golden Boy when I get back to the US.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing how much better in terms of roadability the pickup is after all of the changes.

 

[John Young]

The EGT and boost pressure gauges are going in. I had planned on putting in the sub tank binnacle where there is a lot of extra space but Matt's team found a better location.

I think I would have preferred on the other side but perhaps there was no space. Nevertheless this is a great location.

 

[John Young]

Golden Boy is up and running and sounding mean!

 

[cruisermatt]

Yeah, it sounds like a Peterbilt now.

 

[John Young]

Big day today!

My younger boy picked up the pickup from @cruisermatt and is driving it the hour or so home to Port Orang (Daytona Beach).


We have the EGT and Boost gauge in a temporary location. My son says that at steady state 120 it stays at about 700F (I will be setting the meter to metric units--I can't stand Imperial any more).

The hard rule we have set ourselves is not to run it for any length of time above 1000F, based on readings here and elsewhere. @cruisermatt has things set up just about right. Well done, Matt! I like being able to exceed safe minimums but to know it when I do and keep it to very limited occasions. Can't wait to drive it but I am in Dubai until March.

 

[John Young]

One thing is plain, I have to get after the interior of the truck. Take the instrument panel apart and clean it. probably change the seats. Lots of stuff. But it is fantastic to have the truck running and driving in a very practical manner.

 

[John Young]

My son reports that the clutch is slipping a bit in higher gears under full throttle. I'm going to head to the US in a couple of days to help my son change the clutch (under @cruisermatt 's guidance) for the heavy duty version that came with the Safari kit, but that we did not install, thinking it unnecesary.

And I have a repalcement PTO shaft for the mechanical winch that I am cleaning up and will put in my luggage. I needed some help to get it apart because I do not have a shop here currently.

One thing I forgot was that one of the line shaft bearings was frozen. And I did not rediscover that until I got home. Otherwise I would have gone back and tried to get another complete unit. But sometimes you just have to deal with the situation in front of you. I reached out to my most reliable parts guy and asked him for these items:

(This very helpful image was found here on Mud, BTW.)

Fortunately it looks like the bearing is completely standard. I'm hopeful that Ryan can get me some of these by Tuesday night so that I can do the bearing swap in Florida.

 

[John Young]

In the meantime, I have prepped and am in the process of painting the parts before sticking them in my luggage.

(Yay Evaporust!)

 

[John Young]

Making some progress, but I am no Georges Seurat

I'm more of an impatient 1st grader slopping it on.

I decided to try brush on paint this time because I wanted it pretty thick.

I like my decision to point the shafts yellow. Not too many people even know about PTO winches. Having a little extra warning about potentially spinning shafts seems sensible to me. Nevertheless, a few 'friends' have derided my decision to paint the shafts yellow, making unhelpful comments like:

"if anyone working under your truck needs safety yellow to know which objects not to touch, i’m going to say they shouldn’t be under your truck unless the truck rolled over them or something."

But I like the safety yellow color and anyways it will get bunged up when I change the bearing on one end.

It does take a couple of coats of enamel to get a solid color over the red oxide primer.

 

[janyyc]

 

[LDRF]

In the meantime, I have prepped and am in the process of painting the parts before sticking them in my luggage.
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View attachment 3532817
(Yay Evaporust!)
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Evapo-Rust is magical!
The yellow looks good.

 

[John Young]

I finished up the paint and cured most of it in the oven last evening. Just packing stuff to come with me on the flight to Florida.

A friend of mine here in Dubai gifted me a 70 series transmission hump console that I will try on Golden Boy

 

[John Young]

Well the PTO shaft turned out to be an exercise in futility. I must have been for a 60 series.

And in other news my boy has been having fun with the truck.

And as a good citizen he cleaned up after himself


But Golden boy did end up with a bit of damage

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Welcome back John. I see you still haven't turned those windshield blocks around.

 

[John Young]

I am about to head to Florida and I decided to bring Golden Boy a new, stronger, bumper.

70's have been coming with two types of rear bumpers, strong ones and weak ones. The one on Golden Boy had been the weak bumper. I went up to one of my favorite places in Sharjah today and had a look.

I took the Omani Diesel (now with turbo 24 valve out of the HDJ81). It has been in process for quite some time. Wind noise was pretty bad and it pulls to the right, but I had a lot of fun. Drove 125km on 7.6 liters meaning it is geting 17.9 MPG--but the speedo may be 10% high, have to check again.

The weak bumper is on the right, the strong is on the left

While I was there, I saw this...

They even have the shorty bed. It is pricey, but I've aways wanted to build a 4 door 70 series. Mulling it over.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Factory diesel four door with what looks to be a complete interior. Nice.

 

[John Young]

Factory diesel four door with what looks to be a complete interior. Nice.

It's very, very tempting. I can't get a frame for it in Sharjah so it would have to go on something else. Maybe a 75 frame? Could be a great project for retirement. They have a couple of them I think. But these are the first 4 doors I've seen in salvage.