Builds Matubrembrem’s FJ60 build

[matubrembrem]

Here’s an anecdote that is relevant to our discussion of bypass hoses. Around 2014, I had this t-case rebuilt at a well known shop in CA near where I grew up. All was well cruising around in 2wd and I headed off to school in AZ. About a month after the rebuild was done, I wanted to go explore a 4wd area near Wikenburg, AZ with my girlfriend. We drive out to the trailhead and I shift into 4Lo to get past the gatekeeper obstacle, some piled up boulders. Start creeping forward and as I’m going toward these boulders, I hear a sound like liquid falling on sand nearby. I look in my side mirror and see a trail of liquid in the sand behind me. F@CK! I stop, hop out and see that oil is pouring out of my t-case! It was leaking profusely from where the 2/4 shift fork exits the case. The area was remote and I had no way to fix it there, so I hop back in and tell my girl we’re goin home. Then I drove the truck home ~60mi and call a local cruiser shop that had good reviews to get it fixed. After the repair, the shop told me that shifter seal was installed backwards and had failed. (I don’t really see how that’s possible after rebuilding it, it very clearly goes in one way.) To my surprise, the case survived and continued to serve until I destroyed the output gear during my rebuild … Long story short, if I had a bypass hose installed I could have lost my t-case and tranny. Also, these trucks are TOUGH.

 

[matubrembrem]

Gearboxes are in!

 

[matubrembrem]

Motor woes. I got to drive the truck around a couple times during the last two weeks. First drive I noticed the motor was a lot “noisier” than the old one. Sounded like loose valves and I figured since I hadn’t set them hot yet, that was the culprit. I got the valves dialed in hot, yet, the noise remained. Weird. Poked around with an auto stethoscope and heard some awful sounds around cylinder 5-6 area that could only be described as metal impacting metal. Pulled the spark plugs, rocker assembly, pushrods and inspected the inside of the cylinders. No smoking gun. Spark plug from cylinder 5 was a bit oily compared to the rest but nothing crazy. And two pushrods from valves 4 and 5 were very slightly bent. I putt around town a bit more and get the carb adjusted nicely, but this noise is just nagging me. Finally, My father in law and I do a compression test and boom low compression on cylinders 2,5 and 6. SOB! He suggests we retest and do a little redneck trick to try and determine if the rings or valves are the culprit. Squirt about 5ml of oil in through the spark plug hole then test. Thought being, if it’s bad rings, the oil will help to seal it up and compression will increase. If it’s the valves expect no change. After administering oil and testing compression did increase. Bummer. At this point, I’m thinking I either run it as is, til I can save for a 1HD-T and cross my fingers it doesn’t die before that or pull the motor and tear down the bottom end, find the cause of the noise and refresh with new rings and bearings.

 

[kirvesmies]

I got lucky and got a deal on a rebuilt 2F for less than what it would have costed me to rebuild my motor,

Motor woes.

that sucks, i'm assuming you've not put very much mileage if any on the rebuilt one. i just skimmed thru the thread, didn't study it. what i'd be asking myself is, is my heart set on that dizel? if the answer is yes, start saving, scrounging, stealing(not recommended) for it n run the 2f till it pukes. just curious, how were the numbers in relation to the others?

 

[matubrembrem]

that sucks, i'm assuming you've not put very much mileage if any on the rebuilt one. i just skimmed thru the thread, didn't study it. what i'd be asking myself is, is my heart set on that dizel? if the answer is yes, start saving, scrounging, stealing(not recommended) for it n run the 2f till it pukes. just curious, how were the numbers in relation to the others?

I bought the motor rebuilt which, in hindsight, was a mistake. Live and learn. I’m hesitant to spend more money on the 2F because i’m certain I want to convert this truck to diesel. I’ve been back and forth about which motor though.

 

[matubrembrem]

Tested after a drive around town so the motor was warm.
Test 1: 145, 115, 135, 125, 105, 105
Test 2 with 5ml oil: 155, 130, 150, 140, 120, 115

 

[kirvesmies]

Tested after a drive around town so the motor was warm.
Test 1: 145, 115, 135, 125, 105, 105
Test 2 with 5ml oil: 155, 130, 150, 140, 120, 115

yeah, if that were mine, i'd flog it till it puked. just don't plan for long trips with it

 

[matubrembrem]

Installed new front leaf packs and 4plus u bolt flip kit front and rear.

 

[ozarkmud]

I had a first gen 4Runner with a supposedly rebuilt transmission. I lost the transmission oil out of the transfer case. I'm not sure if the breather was plugged or they had the seal backwards. But it was quite the expense. The bypass hose does seem like a good idea, even though I'm not 100% convinced either way yet.

Quite the story with this rig! I regret selling my 60, but at the time the reasons for selling it made sense.

 

[matubrembrem]

Little update. Back in May, I dropped the oil pan to make sure nothing catastrophic was goin on with my “new” engine. I didn't find anything. No metal pieces in the pan, everything was tight, crank looked good. Cool. A couple people I trust and have WAY more automotive experience than me, have listened to the truck and suspect the noise I’m getting is from a wrist pin so I’m going with that.
Fast forward to now, I’ve taken the truck on some 300+ mi trips and its been solid. The noise is still present, and gets louder or quieter at certain rpm and load conditions. I’m getting around 13mpg, adjusted for tire size, on long trips and around 11mpg, mixed driving. It is still slow as ever on steep mountain grades but keeps up with traffic on flatter highway just fine. The underdrive gears are awesome, great ratios for the 35’s. Feels peppy in 1st and 2nd. No gear whine in high range and the low range sounds about as loud as the old gear set, to my ear.
I’m getting a bit of tire rub, mainly on the passenger front, and the new OME packs feel a bit soft compared to my old ones. I ordered an add a leaf for the front packs so that should fix it. I also replaced my old, rusty muffler with a cheap glasspack and it sounds pretty sweet. Couple of poser shots.

 

[matubrembrem]

I replaced the exterior lighting on the truck with LED’s using the list in this thread:

FJ60 LED Light Bulb List (Interior and Exterior)

I just swapped out all of my old light bulbs in my 1986 FJ60 Landcruiser for some LEDs from Superbrightleds.com. Instead of writing up an excel sheet list here's a shared cart with everything I got that you'll need...

forum.ih8mud.com

I used the “natural white” 67-NW12-G option on the reverse lights and running lights and I think they look nice. I’m not a big fan of the blue hue most of the cooler LED’s have.
Bought the LED flasher relay from odd iron off road. Works great. Cruiser trash also sells a modified OEM relay.

 

[matubrembrem]

They are very bright

 

[matubrembrem]

Soon…

 

[4LOW60]

Soon…

View attachment 3711953

Are you finally doing the diesel swap?

 

[matubrembrem]

Yes

 

[toy_tek]

Yes

following

 

[matubrembrem]

Dialed in my caster angle. I ended up with a 4* shim in the front and none in the rear. Steering is stable, light, and return to center is a bit faster. Having a shim in the rear was causing some vibration and noise at highway speed due to the pinion angle being wrong.

 

[franklin40]

Yes

View attachment 3715677

hoho! nice one!!

 

[matubrembrem]

Been chipping away on the 606. Cleaned and painted the block. Swapped to a rear sump pan. New rear main seal. Checked out main bearings and crank. Pinned cam gear. New valve guide seals. +30% valve springs.