Hey all,
I'm new here after purchasing a '91 LJ78 2LTE oufitted Cruiser. I have been perusing all the info on the light duty's for several weeks now and have put together a list of things to be done. I thought I'd post them under the various reasons why and let you all direct/redirect my thoughts as this work will have a pricetag. Also, if we get all these issues together on one thread, it'll help those who follow as I'm discovering these vehicles are just reaching the Canadian shores.
To give you background, the truck has 117,000 km and was brought to Tanzania in 2000 from Japan with 105,000 km on it. It currently runs 31" x 10" tires and has since being brought from Japan. I don't know what was run before that, even though I do know it affects mileage and speedo ratings. I purchased it in December of last year and, as you can see, it was hardly driven in those six years and mostly on pavement. My use will be everyday offroad use, and not just for fun (although fun it is), but driving for 3/4/5 hours a day on village dirt/mud roads that may or may not have been graded for six months. Water crossings are a dime a dozen, with about a third of those consisting of very minor rock crawling due to rock backfiller in order to combat the thick, black mud of East Africa. Think of some of the worst trails you've been on (minus snow for those in Canada), and that's something I encounter on a daily basis.
So, to address the normal cooling issue, which my vehicle has recently started having, I want to do the following:
Either flush and rod out/replace and increase capacity/or recore
the radiator...Those who have a preference speak to me
Increase the the exhaust diameter to 3" to address the EGT's,
minimizing twists and turns...muffler or no muffler anybody??
Are these two steps enough? Anything else to look at?
The 2LTE, as I understand it, had a factory spec of 135 km top speed (not that I a reason for that speed, but the loss of 35 km somewhere in the last 15 years is a little disturbing). I can barely get mine to 100 km, at which time I see whitish/blueish smoke burning...not a lot, mind you, but its there. Also, many times the green turbo light will be replaced by the red engine light at highway speeds: meaning they are NEVER on together, but seem to work in tandem. I was told it was a short by the previous owner, but even before I read some threads about overboost I had begun to think there was a pattern there that was trying to tell me something. Am I right in thinking this is the overboost signal? To continue, I'm going to do the following things addressing the smoke, lack of power, seeming lack of compression issues (which I see as related but sort me out if I'm wrong):
Check the head gasket
Check for cracks
Check the valve stem seals
Do a compression test
Assess how much liquid I'm burning (if I'm burning)
Inspect/Clean/Rebuild Fuel Pump
Inspect/Clean/replace injectors
Inspect/Clean/rebuild turbo
What else am I overlooking?
Other general issues I want to address are:
the week back end suspension especially, if not the entire
suspension...on that, who nows what stock coils are on the
LJ's...should I assume "light" b/c of it's light duty?
perhaps trying to decrease the air temperature going into the
engine in an attempt to further decrease water temp and EGT by
adding an intercooler as well as a snorkel?
addressing the issue of lockers, of which I have none. I
think I read that the 80's elec lockers are installable...anybody got
this process down yet with an estimate?
Last, being the 2lte, how do I safeguard against electronic issues
with all the water I encounter (rgrding non-electric, I already
lengthened both diff hoses)? I know the ecu is up high in the
dash, but what about low run wiring?
All right. If you've made it this far, thanks. I know it was long, but I'm not just trying to answer my own questions I'm trying to centralize information about LJ78's that is on this site but in different places, as well as info that is on other sites.
Cheers,
Jason
I'm new here after purchasing a '91 LJ78 2LTE oufitted Cruiser. I have been perusing all the info on the light duty's for several weeks now and have put together a list of things to be done. I thought I'd post them under the various reasons why and let you all direct/redirect my thoughts as this work will have a pricetag. Also, if we get all these issues together on one thread, it'll help those who follow as I'm discovering these vehicles are just reaching the Canadian shores.
To give you background, the truck has 117,000 km and was brought to Tanzania in 2000 from Japan with 105,000 km on it. It currently runs 31" x 10" tires and has since being brought from Japan. I don't know what was run before that, even though I do know it affects mileage and speedo ratings. I purchased it in December of last year and, as you can see, it was hardly driven in those six years and mostly on pavement. My use will be everyday offroad use, and not just for fun (although fun it is), but driving for 3/4/5 hours a day on village dirt/mud roads that may or may not have been graded for six months. Water crossings are a dime a dozen, with about a third of those consisting of very minor rock crawling due to rock backfiller in order to combat the thick, black mud of East Africa. Think of some of the worst trails you've been on (minus snow for those in Canada), and that's something I encounter on a daily basis.
So, to address the normal cooling issue, which my vehicle has recently started having, I want to do the following:
Either flush and rod out/replace and increase capacity/or recore
the radiator...Those who have a preference speak to me
Increase the the exhaust diameter to 3" to address the EGT's,
minimizing twists and turns...muffler or no muffler anybody??
Are these two steps enough? Anything else to look at?
The 2LTE, as I understand it, had a factory spec of 135 km top speed (not that I a reason for that speed, but the loss of 35 km somewhere in the last 15 years is a little disturbing). I can barely get mine to 100 km, at which time I see whitish/blueish smoke burning...not a lot, mind you, but its there. Also, many times the green turbo light will be replaced by the red engine light at highway speeds: meaning they are NEVER on together, but seem to work in tandem. I was told it was a short by the previous owner, but even before I read some threads about overboost I had begun to think there was a pattern there that was trying to tell me something. Am I right in thinking this is the overboost signal? To continue, I'm going to do the following things addressing the smoke, lack of power, seeming lack of compression issues (which I see as related but sort me out if I'm wrong):
Check the head gasket
Check for cracks
Check the valve stem seals
Do a compression test
Assess how much liquid I'm burning (if I'm burning)
Inspect/Clean/Rebuild Fuel Pump
Inspect/Clean/replace injectors
Inspect/Clean/rebuild turbo
What else am I overlooking?
Other general issues I want to address are:
the week back end suspension especially, if not the entire
suspension...on that, who nows what stock coils are on the
LJ's...should I assume "light" b/c of it's light duty?
perhaps trying to decrease the air temperature going into the
engine in an attempt to further decrease water temp and EGT by
adding an intercooler as well as a snorkel?
addressing the issue of lockers, of which I have none. I
think I read that the 80's elec lockers are installable...anybody got
this process down yet with an estimate?
Last, being the 2lte, how do I safeguard against electronic issues
with all the water I encounter (rgrding non-electric, I already
lengthened both diff hoses)? I know the ecu is up high in the
dash, but what about low run wiring?
All right. If you've made it this far, thanks. I know it was long, but I'm not just trying to answer my own questions I'm trying to centralize information about LJ78's that is on this site but in different places, as well as info that is on other sites.
Cheers,
Jason
