......It's funny; I started my FJ experience an absolute virgin and an absolute idiot-I've been popping in from time to time asking questions, but quickly becoming gunshy once I opened my hood to reveal a mass of decaying vaccuum lines, and seemingly hazardous consequences......I brought my FJ in to my local Toyota dealer, where I met their "Master Tech." "Don't mess with ANY of this, he said-And *don't* touch any of these bolts, whatever you do! You'll snap every one off in the cylinder head."
Revering all of his words as divine, I then paid nearly $500.00 to fix my mysterious starting problem for my ailing FJ. When it was presented to me, sure enough, it fired over-Only, it ran with a slight 'lub.'
"......See? I fixed your choke pull-off!" The tech declared: "I'll bet ya it never ran this good before......!"
I drove off, only to have it bogged down-What the? The choke was pulled all the way out!
I drove back to the dealership. "Choke?!" The tech stammered-"It's not a manual choke-It doesn't have a cable-Does it?"
"Master Tech." I get it. I asked what *exactly* was done. Apparently, my $500.00 got a few T-splits in my vaccuum lines, a few bolts to plug others, and a twist of the idle screw. Speaking of screw jobs.........I was promptly advised to leave everything alone-Bearing in mind, I now lost the ability to choke my engine in the cold. During the nor'easter, however, my mighty FJ wouldn't start at all.
Today, I looked at the weber 32/36 and headers I'd bought, but been petrified to touch. I tried to start my FJ one last time-Nothing. Suddenly, I got that good ol' war movie: "AUGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!DIIIEEEEYOUBASTARD!!!!!!!" scream in my mind. The wrenches came out, air rails went flying in rusty shards.......An EGR that was rusted shut flew halfway across my yard.........I was in a frenzy-Something just came over me-Vaccuum lines? Hah! Screw them! They joined the EGR in a decaying heap.......The pile of parts grew.....And Grew......And Grew......!
Within ten hours, I became an FJ whore. Forget the virginal fear. I also had a Weber screaming with headers, and sheetmetal crudely cut to fit over my EGR opening..........A few snips and grinds here and there.......Hah! The linkage mated perfectly from the old Aisin.....The technician's advice echoed in my mind....."Don't touch anything......" Yeah....touch this!
I leapt in my rusty 94,000-mile ride, and it fired right up in the beautiful weather. I started off on my sidestreets, waiting for the Weber to act up, or need adjustment-Nothing. Without an exhaust, I sounded like the Harleys that came down the shore for the weekend, so I followed a few right onto the parkway.......45......55.......65.......75.......80........Previously, I couldn't pull 65, unless going downhill!
I'm still waiting for the 'catch,' however, I can safely say that this is the first time I've enjoyed my FJ since I bought it in a screw-job from ebay! (I bought it, and found that when I got it, it had a severe exhaust leak due to a broken bolt on cylinder 6 of the exhaust manifold, and the manifold had physically cracked away from the cylinder head. BTW-I heated the bolt cherry red with a torch, and then sprayed the bolt with a blast of from my fire extinguisher after the penetrating oil plus a bit from my gasket leak caught fire-To my surprise, the bolt blew apart in about 500 small pieces with a great flameout too!!!!!!)
My point to all of this ranting and raving? To some of the posters like myself who approach the engine compartment with trepidation-Don't! I had a blast working on my FJ today, and an even better blast knowing that all modifications were done by myself only-If you haven't given it a shot-GO FOR IT!
Revering all of his words as divine, I then paid nearly $500.00 to fix my mysterious starting problem for my ailing FJ. When it was presented to me, sure enough, it fired over-Only, it ran with a slight 'lub.'
"......See? I fixed your choke pull-off!" The tech declared: "I'll bet ya it never ran this good before......!"
I drove off, only to have it bogged down-What the? The choke was pulled all the way out!
I drove back to the dealership. "Choke?!" The tech stammered-"It's not a manual choke-It doesn't have a cable-Does it?"
"Master Tech." I get it. I asked what *exactly* was done. Apparently, my $500.00 got a few T-splits in my vaccuum lines, a few bolts to plug others, and a twist of the idle screw. Speaking of screw jobs.........I was promptly advised to leave everything alone-Bearing in mind, I now lost the ability to choke my engine in the cold. During the nor'easter, however, my mighty FJ wouldn't start at all.
Today, I looked at the weber 32/36 and headers I'd bought, but been petrified to touch. I tried to start my FJ one last time-Nothing. Suddenly, I got that good ol' war movie: "AUGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!DIIIEEEEYOUBASTARD!!!!!!!" scream in my mind. The wrenches came out, air rails went flying in rusty shards.......An EGR that was rusted shut flew halfway across my yard.........I was in a frenzy-Something just came over me-Vaccuum lines? Hah! Screw them! They joined the EGR in a decaying heap.......The pile of parts grew.....And Grew......And Grew......!
Within ten hours, I became an FJ whore. Forget the virginal fear. I also had a Weber screaming with headers, and sheetmetal crudely cut to fit over my EGR opening..........A few snips and grinds here and there.......Hah! The linkage mated perfectly from the old Aisin.....The technician's advice echoed in my mind....."Don't touch anything......" Yeah....touch this!
I leapt in my rusty 94,000-mile ride, and it fired right up in the beautiful weather. I started off on my sidestreets, waiting for the Weber to act up, or need adjustment-Nothing. Without an exhaust, I sounded like the Harleys that came down the shore for the weekend, so I followed a few right onto the parkway.......45......55.......65.......75.......80........Previously, I couldn't pull 65, unless going downhill!
I'm still waiting for the 'catch,' however, I can safely say that this is the first time I've enjoyed my FJ since I bought it in a screw-job from ebay! (I bought it, and found that when I got it, it had a severe exhaust leak due to a broken bolt on cylinder 6 of the exhaust manifold, and the manifold had physically cracked away from the cylinder head. BTW-I heated the bolt cherry red with a torch, and then sprayed the bolt with a blast of from my fire extinguisher after the penetrating oil plus a bit from my gasket leak caught fire-To my surprise, the bolt blew apart in about 500 small pieces with a great flameout too!!!!!!)
My point to all of this ranting and raving? To some of the posters like myself who approach the engine compartment with trepidation-Don't! I had a blast working on my FJ today, and an even better blast knowing that all modifications were done by myself only-If you haven't given it a shot-GO FOR IT!
