Gossamer- '87 FJ60 aka "The Red Monster"

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I know, I'm at the point in life where I haven't figured out how to balance dreaming vs excepting reality.. It will be quite a while before I'm ready to do the conversion. But it's always good to have something to look foreword too!

Goals are good things to have...

J

 

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***Replaced the broken heater wire to the heater valve today. Ran the motor for over an hour in the driveway. Temp gauge and temp gun both show 180 F, but the radiator coolant is luke warm at best and heater blows ICE COLD air... .. (any thoughts 4BT owners, Johnny..Mike..)

***Replaced the cut-off solenoid and can now kill the motor with the switch now....

***spliced into one of the capped tank lines and ran it up by the filler neck. Need to open up the filler neck to accommodate a diesel nozzle and add fuel cap. Hopefully this eliminates the half tank fill ups...


J

 

[boots4]

***Replaced the broken heater wire to the heater valve today. Ran the motor for over an hour in the driveway. Temp gauge and temp gun both show 180 F, but the radiator coolant is luke warm at best and heater blows ICE COLD air... .. (any thoughts 4BT owners, Johnny..Mike..)

J

J, I'm going to respond here instead of the PM. Here are my thoughts, several of which you probably already know and may have already tested.

I know that several say the motor runs cold but I've not had that experience with mine. I've gotten mine to dangerous overheating temps on long and steep pulls with a load. Mine seems to warm up just fine. Typically they do need a load to get more heat out of them so if your coolant is lukewarm I'd start there. 190-200F is a better range for diesels than gassers, in fact one of the things they are doing to improve gassers efficiency is to run them a little warmer for more complete combustion. This is even more true for diesels so you may consider your thermostat. It sounds like it's a 180F thermostat and for your set up (fueling, timing, gearing) it's a little to cold. Does the coolant stay cold even after a spirited drive? Do you have a trailer you can hook up and pull around to increase the load to see if you can get the coolant temp up? What happens when pushed hard? If the coolant still stays at 180F then I'd suggest swapping out the thermostat for something warmer. Also what about burping the system? Could you still have air in the there from playing with the block heater? If you want to keep the lower thermostat what about blocking part of the radiator with cardboard on one of your commutes to work?

Now if you've got warmer coolant temps it goes to heater hose routing and the heater system (although even with 180F temps you should be getting some warmth from the system). I don't have a wire on my coolant control valve into the heater core (heater control valve). Mine is mechanical so I'm not sure what this is but I'd verify that this valve is actually opening and closing. With your wiring jungle maybe this is getting screwed up. With the control valve working question the heater core. You could always pinch the lines on the firewall, remove them and flush the core to see if you get any debris. Not exactly something fun to do in the cold weather but you should be able to find out if the core is clogged. You did say it was blowing ice cold so I'll assume that the blower fan is working fine.

One last thing is the blower intake accessed behind the windshield wiper motor. Is that packed in with a critter's nest? Mine had a toupee of pine needles that slowed air flow.

Aside from those things I don't see what else if could be.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Good thoughts Mike. I responded to J via PM

My motor runs pretty cold. EGTs are hot, coolant temp is usually cold. Maybe your motor runs warmer because it has an automatic? I agree that a warmer thermostat would help as I'm considering doing the same thing.

Pretty sure by wire he meant the control cable for the heater valve, which kinda looks like a stiff wire.

 

[The Phoenician]

Not gonna be much help from a technical aspect, but ambient temperature affects my thermostat reading. It reads between 180-200, used to get to 210 under load and In the heat of summer with the ac on, but not since I replaced my radiator. No matter how cold it is outside my heater always blows out hot air once it gets closer to 180. Wish I was more help.

 

[boots4]

Good thoughts Mike. I responded to J via PM

My motor runs pretty cold. EGTs are hot, coolant temp is usually cold. Maybe your motor runs warmer because it has an automatic? I agree that a warmer thermostat would help as I'm considering doing the same thing.

Pretty sure by wire he meant the control cable for the heater valve, which kinda looks like a stiff wire.

Yes the auto is definitely part of it along with the engine tune, the timing, and the gears (meaning tranny ratios, diff gear/tire combo/weight).

Yea for wire I was definitely thinking electrical. With all of J's gadgets he may have had something fancy going on.

BTW Johnny, I've been taking pics on my front axle stuff. So an update is coming shortly.

 

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Yes, cable (wire) that goes from valve to dash controls. Drove it hard this morning and got the temp up to about 200F and EGTs around 1100F. Coolant is warmer than before but still not what I consider hot by any means. Hoses are warm at best to the touch. No warm air from heater.

I haven't changed out the block heater yet. I dropped off the spare radiator at the shop to clean it up and check it out. I have another new thermostat in the pile of parts so I will research what the temp is on it. I'll check the other items you guys listed tomorrow. I'll probably be asking more questions. I plan on tearing the dash out eventually so, maybe it's time to start that project..

Thanks guys,

J

 

[The Phoenician]

How long do you run the EGTs at 1100 for?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Yes the auto is definitely part of it along with the engine tune, the timing, and the gears (meaning tranny ratios, diff gear/tire combo/weight).

Absolutely. What's your IP timing set to? I've got my VE rotated towards the head about 1/8" from "stock".

BTW Johnny, I've been taking pics on my front axle stuff. So an update is coming shortly.

You're the man Mike, thank you

Yes, cable (wire) that goes from valve to dash controls. Drove it hard this morning and got the temp up to about 200F and EGTs around 1100F. Coolant is warmer than before but still not what I consider hot by any means. Hoses are warm at best to the touch. No warm air from heater.

I haven't changed out the block heater yet. I dropped off the spare radiator at the shop to clean it up and check it out. I have another new thermostat in the pile of parts so I will research what the temp is on it. I'll check the other items you guys listed tomorrow. I'll probably be asking more questions. I plan on tearing the dash out eventually so, maybe it's time to start that project..

Thanks guys,

J

Block heater will only help with startup. I've left my block heater on for 6 hours straight and while the head was warm to the touch, my temp gauge wouldn't read any heat.

As a temporary fix, put cardboard in front of the radiator to block air flow. That should help your motor build heat.

 

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How long do you run the EGTs at 1100 for?

Constant in the hills here.. My mechanic said 1000-1200F is sustainable with the 4BT and I run between that range to and from the jobsite.... actually 750-1300F. I let off (lower MPH from 80 to 65) pulling the higher passes on my way to work when i see 1300.. He says it'll be fine for a few minutes (2-5), but I'm not going to push it that high for a prolonged time period.

J

 

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Absolutely. What's your IP timing set to? I've got my VE rotated towards the head about 1/8" from "stock".



You're the man Mike, thank you



Block heater will only help with startup. I've left my block heater on for 6 hours straight and while the head was warm to the touch, my temp gauge wouldn't read any heat.

As a temporary fix, put cardboard in front of the radiator to block air flow. That should help your motor build heat.

As a temporary fix, put cardboard in front of the radiator to block air flow. That should help your motor build heat.[/QUOTE]


Johnny, I'll try this tomorrow and watch and see what the temp and heat does. Hopefully it's this simple. If so, a custom grill cover will be in the works.

J

 

[The Phoenician]

Constant in the hills here.. My mechanic said 1000-1200F is sustainable with the 4BT and I run between that range to and from the jobsite.... actually 750-1300F. I let off (lower MPH from 80 to 65) pulling the higher passes on my way to work when i see 1300.. He says it'll be fine for a few minutes (2-5), but I'm not going to push it that high for a prolonged time period.

J

I do my best to keep mine at or below 1000F. Depending who I talk to I get different recommendations on where the EGTs should be. I definitely keep it below 1200, which might lug the engine while going uphill.

M

 

[Wyoming]

J,
I only ever got heat out of the heater when I was going up the pass. I think it definitely has to have a load on it. That or the up angle did something. In that case, I would go with what Boots said about the system possibly needing burped. To be fair though, I never got much better heat out of the 383. So, maybe it's the other thing Boots suggested, the core is plugged. Additionally, the under seat heater always seemed to put out heat and more consistently. Just some thoughts.

 

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J,
I only ever got heat out of the heater when I was going up the pass. I think it definitely has to have a load on it. That or the up angle did something. In that case, I would go with what Boots said about the system possibly needing burped. To be fair though, I never got much better heat out of the 383. So, maybe it's the other thing Boots suggested, the core is plugged. Additionally, the under seat heater always seemed to put out heat and more consistently. Just some thoughts.

I will check everything (cleaning is a FIRST for this rig.) I need to get everything corrected/in-order, so I have a base to start with. I plan on tearing it completely apart anyhow..... Might as well start NOW!

J

 

[Pacer]

I absolutely feel its a clogged heater core. In my 62 the front heater is nearly enough to keep the princess happy, turn on the rear heat and it'll cook you out of the truck.
I see maybe 120*f out of the front vents on a meet thermometer, haven't measured the rear, but I bet it sees full engine temp.

My $.02.

Can't wait to see the resurrection J!

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Try the cardboard yet?

 

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OK... Today's projects started off with replacing the block heater. I started here because I knew I was going to end up beating my head against the rig as a stress relief.... WHAT A PITA... When I strip the body panels and fenders... The block heater is being moved to the other side where it can be accessed more easily.. Good thing the has small hands and is a trooper about helping on occasion!

Replaced both the element and cord. New one doesn't trip the GFCI or a standard circuit like the old one... But, I can't find a single thing visually that could be an issue on the old one. Oh well...


J

 

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Next course... Hood release latch. I'm a pro at these and they are truely a simple (1/2 ) task. Just need to order some new hood bumper bolts from Cruiser Corps, re-align the hood and fenders and it should work as designed..

J

 

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Third, was the gas tank filler neck workover.. I enjoyed this little item.. BUT, after it was done.. filled up and STILL 1/2 tank.. (per the gauge) So, I think the DAMN gauge is WRONG! Fuel came out my new vent hose above the filler neck. (yes, I blew into the new vent hose to verify it wasn't plugged..)

I have a spare fuel gauge, but don't have the time today to tinker with that. If it is truely bad... NEW gauges and dash will be pushed to the top of the priority list.

J

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Good spot for the vent! I'm going to have to do that.