Builds GW Nugget's Family Haulin Lx450 build (2 Viewers)

[GW Nugget]

I'm all in scraping the head gasket of the block... fun, fun & more fun...

 

[1973Guppie]

oh fun, if you have not used castrol purple degreaser go get some, makes cleaning up that engine bay much easier, stuff is amazing, cleaned my bbq with it yesterday, it just strips grease off everything.....

 

[GW Nugget]

Is there a difference from purple power & castrol purple?

 

[1973Guppie]

castrol super clean is what I use.....

 

[GW Nugget]

Sunday, May 31, 2015
Fun, Fun & More Fun.

So at this point I'm waiting for parts, scraping head gasket off the block & general cleaning. There is lots to do still like pull off the oil cooler, install water pump & lower hoses. I did get help from a neighbor to get the hood off WOW! That made a big difference. I'm really looking forward to getting this back together I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Here some pics.
Now that I have the HG off you can see better where the failure is... actually both rear water ports faild.

I also got the oil cooler off. Not bad for 18 years of service.


One more thing I did was relocate the VSV.

 

[GW Nugget]

Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Old vs. New upgraded head gasket.

All the parts came in yesterday Wednesday the 3rd of June. The head gasket is a thing of beauty. It is upgrade & reinforced all over, more so in the rear where most failures happen. This thing will be ready for another 100,000 more miles. Here is a couple of pics...







Saturday, June 6, 2015
Installing new valve stem seals

Today I have been installing new valve stem seals & doing a general inspection of guides & valves. It's a slow process. I didn't have the tool to remove the valve spring clips & no time to order one so the Lord gave me the witty idea of making it out of a pvc 1/2" coupling. Hopefully tomorrow I will be installing & torqing the head. Things will go much faster after that.

 

[GW Nugget]

Sunday, June 7, 2015
Lapping my exhaust valves

I am no super mechanic here, I just want to make this clear. I'm just doing the best I can here with what I got. To be very honest I'm quite overwhelmed with all this. This is my DD not a extra hobbie rig. I'm just blessed with a history of high school & college shop classes and I just like sharing my story with you.

In my last post I was replacing valve stem seals which went fairly well with the intake side. I spun them around a bunch of times to clean the seats up. When I started the exhaust side it was a different story. From what I learned in shop over 25 years ago I need to lap them with that gritty stuff. I did my first one & I'm happy with the outcome.



Head completed & ready for install at 2 a.m.

 

[GW Nugget]

Monday, June 8, 2015
A/C dryer relocation mod.

I took a quick break from the head gasket replacment & twisted the A/C dryer over to get it out of harmes way.

 

[GW Nugget]

Monday, June 8, 2015
Finally, installed HG & torqued head.

Well the day finally came when the new head gasket went on & head was torqued. This was the apex event of the whole project. I definitely can now see light at the end of the tunnel now. It's all down hill from here.




​

 

[ToyotaDon]

That's awesome!

 

[GW Nugget]

Thanks Don, I will get this done soon hopefully.
Thank you for your support.
I have the lower intake on & injector rack in now.
I will post it all up at the day of completion.

I'm out...
Nugget

 

[GW Nugget]

I have the day off today &should be able to get it started if all goes well.
Here is a update:

Friday, June 19, 2015
It's going back together

6.10.15 Cams are in torqued & verified TDC
6.12.15 Lower intake, fuel filter & injector rack is in.
6.13.15 Upper intake on.
6.14.15 Oil cooler, water pump, belts, clutch fan, fan shroud, thermostat & hose neck.
6.15.15 Valve cover & all gaskets are on, stabed in the distributer in, (now I'm asking myself maybe is that 180° out?)
6.16.15 Rethread altinator bolt & tighted up belts.
6.17.15 The spark plugs, wires, cap rotor, lower rad hoses & heater hoses, & EGR on.
6.18.15 I worked 12 hr. shift & went swimming with my kids.
6.19.15 These are the big items left to do today:
Exhaust manifolds, throttle body, heater return line, modulator, pcv hose, a bunch of vacuum lines & many small miscellaneous items, install battery, washer fluid bottle & fill radiator, change out oil, double & triple check FSM list, prime & start.

These are my extra parts that I don't know what they are? The ones on left are for heat like the exhaust gaskets. What is a TWC?

 

[GW Nugget]

Friday, June 19, 2015
Oh what a Feeling, it's a Toyota!

Well, the LX is running as I type. It started right up. Oh what a feeling... I'm pretty pumped!!

It's holding temp & oil preasure... it's all good. I just need to get the hood on & that's it.

Freaking AWESOME!!!

 

[1973Guppie]

nice work, it's a good feeling, huh? probably sounds a lot quiter too? mine did for sure...

just the tic tic tic sound is wonderful.

 

[whitey45]

Just saw this thread, absolute awesome kick ass, rebuild bro!

 

[Phildoh]

Kick ass! I bought mine back in April, had it three days and the PS pump went south, and the pwr brake booster a day later. I was furious, and 350 bucks lighter in the wallet, but been OK since. PS pump wasn't bad, but a pain to get one. Brake booster I got at the same time, and both lifetime warranty. Had to special order both from Napa

 

[GW Nugget]

I just got back from a 40 mile road trip (no codes) with my girls... Moon roof open & all the widows down singing, laughing daddy's got his Cruiser back... oh what a feeling.

Man it's good to have this season of life behind me. I didn't enjoy it one bit, but the positive side is I feel real solid with it now. This thing is ready for another 100K.

My phone is having problems with pictures so I will post some up later.

Thanks all for the replies of congrats...

Hopefully very soon you will see some real camping & wheelin pictures...

Having fun with the LX & I'm out...

GW Nugget

 

[ToyotaDon]

These are my extra parts that I don't know what they are? The ones on left are for heat like the exhaust gaskets. What is a TWC?

I answered about the gaskets via text, but just saw the question about the TWC. It stands for Three Way Catalyst, and is basically saying that your catalytic converter is designed to deal with 3 polluting gasses; Hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon Monoxide (CO), & Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX). The older cats only dealt with the first two and were called Oxidating Catalysts (OC on the emissions label).

 

[GW Nugget]

nice work, it's a good feeling, huh? probably sounds a lot quiter too? mine did for sure...
just the tic tic tic sound is wonderful.

Weird, yes, it is a lot more quite... hmm...

 

[GW Nugget]

Just saw this thread, absolute awesome kick ass, rebuild bro!

Thanks whitey45, it's always good to here from you.