I am finally starting the Build thread for my 1990 HDJ81 VX limited.
Here she is as purchased. The PO purchased this truck from Land Cruisers Direct owned it for less than a year and decided to sell it. I purchased it this march and drove it home to Denver from South Dakota, I got 17.5 mpg on the drive home!
LCD installed a OME 2.5 inch lift (medium springs and shocks), a ARB bumper, Safari Snorkel, and some Yokohama 285's. They also moved the factory winch to the ARB bumper, replaced the BEB's, and base-lined the belts and fluids. The truck was imported with just over 70K miles and it is sitting a little over 80k now.
When I got the truck it seemed suspiciously fast. I had read that these engine are dogs in their stock state, but this one seemed almost as "fast" as my 94 1FZ. The PO had a Auber instruments EGT gauge installed told me he keeps the temps under 1000f. Once I got the truck home I found that the EGT probe was installed after the turbo, so the readings were pretty much worthless. On day 2 of ownership I moved the EGT probe to the intake manifold and discovered that this thing was running over 1400f just going stoplight to stoplight. The safe ceiling for these engines is around 1250.
It was clear to me that the injection pump had been mucked with (likely by the Japanese owner) and it was dangerously over-fueled. After a ton of reading over on the Diesel/24 volt forum I jumped in. I summed up my experience with this post.
After I had the engine running safely (and slowly) again, I turned my attention to the 4x4 Labs dual swingout kit sitting in my garage. I don't have much for pics of that build, but here is the mostly finished product minus the jerry can holder.
As you can see in this pic, I also installed the Prinsu rack, tent and awning from my other 80.
The next item on the list was to tackle the starter. For those who don't know, cold weather spec HDJ's come with a complicated 24V starting system. It uses a 24v starter and a 24 converting relay which puts the dual batteries in series for starting. The rest of the electronics on board are 12v. This starting system while very effective for cold weather starts is a ticking time bomb for anyone who like to be in the back country. The first issue is that the 24 converter relay is prone to failure without warning. The next issue is that the batteries are connected in parallel permanently, so if one battery fails they both do. The last issue is that you need both batteries to start the car, and if your batteries do die on you it will take 2 batteries and 2 sets of jumper cables to jump you.
So obviously this had to go. I was able to piece together a 12v starter by using the rear section of a denso starter for a '92 dodge ram cummins mated to the front section of my OEM starter.
This seemed like a good time to get a proper dual battery setup as well, with one battery for starting and OEM electronics, and another "house" battery for my fridge and accessories. I used the slee diagram. Here is how I mounted the Marine switch and combiner solenoid.
With that time bomb defused I was finally able to move on to something a little more fun. After a decent amount of research I decided on the HPD series 2 front mount inter-cooler kit. Shipping from Australia was brutal but the kit is really nice and the install was super smooth.
With every thing bolted back on unfortunately I don't notice much of a difference in EGT's. I really don't think the inter-cooler is getting much air flow behind the winch. I might reinstall the stock boost tube for a little while and see if I can get some more scientific testing in.
That pretty much brings us to the present. I have done some other little mods here and there that I may make future posts about. Up next is to continue rewiring some of the things put on by previous owners, and add a more legit power block in the rear of the truck.
The list of major mods to still do:
Build drawer system
move sliders over from other cruiser
3" exhaust
Whole Sale Automatics Valve body
Trans cooler and temp gauge
on-board water system
change up suspension
Here she is as purchased. The PO purchased this truck from Land Cruisers Direct owned it for less than a year and decided to sell it. I purchased it this march and drove it home to Denver from South Dakota, I got 17.5 mpg on the drive home!
LCD installed a OME 2.5 inch lift (medium springs and shocks), a ARB bumper, Safari Snorkel, and some Yokohama 285's. They also moved the factory winch to the ARB bumper, replaced the BEB's, and base-lined the belts and fluids. The truck was imported with just over 70K miles and it is sitting a little over 80k now.
When I got the truck it seemed suspiciously fast. I had read that these engine are dogs in their stock state, but this one seemed almost as "fast" as my 94 1FZ. The PO had a Auber instruments EGT gauge installed told me he keeps the temps under 1000f. Once I got the truck home I found that the EGT probe was installed after the turbo, so the readings were pretty much worthless. On day 2 of ownership I moved the EGT probe to the intake manifold and discovered that this thing was running over 1400f just going stoplight to stoplight. The safe ceiling for these engines is around 1250.
It was clear to me that the injection pump had been mucked with (likely by the Japanese owner) and it was dangerously over-fueled. After a ton of reading over on the Diesel/24 volt forum I jumped in. I summed up my experience with this post.
After I had the engine running safely (and slowly) again, I turned my attention to the 4x4 Labs dual swingout kit sitting in my garage. I don't have much for pics of that build, but here is the mostly finished product minus the jerry can holder.
As you can see in this pic, I also installed the Prinsu rack, tent and awning from my other 80.
The next item on the list was to tackle the starter. For those who don't know, cold weather spec HDJ's come with a complicated 24V starting system. It uses a 24v starter and a 24 converting relay which puts the dual batteries in series for starting. The rest of the electronics on board are 12v. This starting system while very effective for cold weather starts is a ticking time bomb for anyone who like to be in the back country. The first issue is that the 24 converter relay is prone to failure without warning. The next issue is that the batteries are connected in parallel permanently, so if one battery fails they both do. The last issue is that you need both batteries to start the car, and if your batteries do die on you it will take 2 batteries and 2 sets of jumper cables to jump you.
So obviously this had to go. I was able to piece together a 12v starter by using the rear section of a denso starter for a '92 dodge ram cummins mated to the front section of my OEM starter.
This seemed like a good time to get a proper dual battery setup as well, with one battery for starting and OEM electronics, and another "house" battery for my fridge and accessories. I used the slee diagram. Here is how I mounted the Marine switch and combiner solenoid.
With that time bomb defused I was finally able to move on to something a little more fun. After a decent amount of research I decided on the HPD series 2 front mount inter-cooler kit. Shipping from Australia was brutal but the kit is really nice and the install was super smooth.
With every thing bolted back on unfortunately I don't notice much of a difference in EGT's. I really don't think the inter-cooler is getting much air flow behind the winch. I might reinstall the stock boost tube for a little while and see if I can get some more scientific testing in.
That pretty much brings us to the present. I have done some other little mods here and there that I may make future posts about. Up next is to continue rewiring some of the things put on by previous owners, and add a more legit power block in the rear of the truck.
The list of major mods to still do:
Build drawer system
move sliders over from other cruiser
3" exhaust
Whole Sale Automatics Valve body
Trans cooler and temp gauge
on-board water system
change up suspension
I jumped the rig with one cable on the driver side also. Worked without issue.
