Builds Mike's 1978 FJ40 Turbo Diesel Refit Project and Cross Country Road Trip!

[Godfather90]

You can see how cozy its all getting under the tunnel:

Installed everything and threw a half a jerry can in the tank to check plumping:

All good so assembled it all:

off the fuel station:

My tank must hold a hair over 30 gallons if you include the fuel i dumped in it before taking of to the filling station. Plenty for this truck considering it gets 27-29mpg

 

[Godfather90]

A few more little details to take care of:

I didn't like how the stuff in the console would get stuck under the CB radio to here's a divider:

Angled forward and tight to the radio to maximize space:

Gasket on the bottom to keep things from sliding under it.

Painted the traction bar:

When I rebuilt the transmission I changed all the detent springs to heavier ones to stiffen up the shifter with the long stalk:

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures with the new springs. This is just a picture before disassembly to show what i'm talking about. If someone is interested I can help them out.

 

[Godfather90]

On the same token as the springs I machined some M8 12.9 cap head machine screws to fit snugly in the shifter slots. I tapped the shift tower to accept the screws and it tightened up the shifter a ton compared to the old peened over rivets they replaced:

Another touch was I replaced the tower centering springs with ones that I had laying around from a different gearbox that had much stiffer springs:

I had ordered a short shifter from marlin crawler but they repeatedly messed the order up and finally they just told me they didn't know when they would have my parts and mailed me a refund check (to my parents address in NY for some reason?) I love marlin, but its always something with those guys.

However in retrospect- these changes made a world of difference in my shifting feel, and I much prefer this to the shift shifter anyways.

Anyways the transmission shifts great. It was a little notchy for the first 10-15 miles and now its silky smooth. I did a gear oil change after about 100 miles:

Nothing too offensive there.

I also did an inspection of the pilot bearing and tip and they are in excellent condition. I replaced the pilot bearing and throw out just because it was apart.

This is good news because it means the adapter plate I made has proper alignment finally.

 

[Godfather90]

That pretty much brings everyone up to speed. Since putting it backtogether I have just been driving it and taking it camping and wheeling.

On a side story I decided to drive my beat up daily to Panama:

About 6000 miles into the trip I got stuck at the border in El Salvador and had to leave the car because of COVID-19:

This is were it will sit until someone takes it I guess.

It was great 2 months of exploring though! It sucks that I cant finish the drive to Panama but this virus has had a much worse impact on others, so I wont complain too much.

So we had to abandon the car. Here's my replacement:

2.4L 5 speed manual 4wd. It has 4.56 final drive, 3.85 first gear and 29" tires. The week I bought it I left for a trip to Seattle and back and averaged 30.5 MPG over the next few weeks

Thanks for reading,

Mike

 

[tmarx]

My new favourite thread on MUD .... absolutely awesome sir ... you actually have me thinking about a 2nd engine swap on a LX ... I feel like an engine slut !

 

[mtquivr]

Great thread! I was thinking of doing a snorkel similar to yours. What's the diameter, looks about 4"?

 

[Godfather90]

Great thread! I was thinking of doing a snorkel similar to yours. What's the diameter, looks about 4"?

So this is recycled aircraft conduit. It is 4" OD I believe. Pretty heavy wall aluminum. The snorkel head is the largest one I could find. It came from china and took about 2 months to get here. The ID of the snorkel head is 90mm, so I had to make a little step in the 4" pipe to get the head to slide over it in order for it to work properly.

The pipe is heavy enough that one time about 2 years ago I had a little whoopsie and the tube was against a rock and the pipe was enough to support most of the weight of the truck on its side without much more than a few gouges. The aircraft stuff is either 6061 or 7075, so its much stronger than the universal piping you can get at most auto parts retailers online.

Mike

 

[Godfather90]

My new favourite thread on MUD .... absolutely awesome sir ... you actually have me thinking about a 2nd engine swap on a LX ... I feel like an engine slut !

There are a lot of great threads here on MUD, to be part of someones favorite thread really means a lot! I should try harder to keep things updated haha

Looks like from your signature line you have some pretty neat projects yourself!

Mike

 

[Godfather90]

My buddy has a little project going on out in the desert.

I volunteered the cruisers services:

He had some bent up shipping containers we needed to straighten and add bracing to:

And we dropped them into a big hole:

 

[Godfather90]

After performing its tractor duties we decided to goof off a bit on the dirt pile:


Sorry for this s***ty iPhone footage, but its better than nothing!

 

[Godfather90]

We went for a cruise out in the desert:

Found a desert tortoise that just came out of its hole:

We found this sweet truck bed laying in the middle of nowhere, so went back picked up a trailer and went for a salvage run:

 

[Godfather90]

Dragged it back to the yard:

Desert yard art because... why not?:

And to use up my 5 photos per post:

Another sunset from camp:

Dragged my trailer home for a bit the next morning:

That's all for now.

Mike

 

[toddm]

Nice build!! I'm impressed with the fuel mileage you are getting! Mine is not nearly that good. I need to investigate.

How did the acoustic experiment work out? (Eggcrate foam on the roof)

 

[fjdiesel]

@toddm what kind of mileage do you get with the 1kz? How is the power output? Did you convert it, or was it non North America?

Sorry Mike for the hijack. It's neat to see what others get compared to our VW conversions.

 

[toddm]

My build thread such as it is, is in my sig. Mileage is about 14 or so at the best. I recently put in 4.56's to get the rpms up higher while cruising in 5th. I havent run a tank through it yet with those changes. It had been lugging the engine down too much at highway speeds. I think my first step will be to pop test the injectors and maybe shim them up a little higher if the patterns look good. The best run on the Dyno was 152Rwhp/276ftlb. I can easily make it more but I'm not sure if I should!

 

[Godfather90]

Nice build!! I'm impressed with the fuel mileage you are getting! Mine is not nearly that good. I need to investigate.

How did the acoustic experiment work out? (Eggcrate foam on the roof)

I bought this and just threw it on top of the roll cage. There is enough room above the cage and below the roof that the foam is gently held between. I can still slide it around up there if I wanted:
Amazon product ASIN B00P7FFR6A
It had been a while (~1.5 years) since the top was on last. The truck is actually really quiet now. I can easily hold a conversation while going down the freeway at normal volume. The cabin noise is low enough that I can hear the Orion wining under load.

It's hard to say if it did anything because I changed so much at once. One of the largest improvements in NVH was a result if putting foam in the shift boots. I had insulated the tunnel, but the shift boots don't do much to block sound. You can stuff a few microfiber towels in there to test it out. I have 4 shifters so it definitely made a large difference for me.

Sealing up the bad doors with the new hatch frame and tool tailgate did a ton to make the exhaust quieter as well. The carpet went in at the same time as the top and the foam headliner so its really hard to say.

Most of my noise is the wind in the top left corner of my hard top where the gutter was bent away from the fiberglass. I can see light through there and there is a large gap.

It must be pretty quiet because I can easily pin point and leaks or rattles int he interior now. Most of my rattles from from the lever on the heater box, and the rear hatch lift springs. They only rattle at certain rpms when accelerating and on washboard roads so I don't mind. I'm pretty anal about rattles and it doesn't bother me so that's saying something.


Installing the fuel tank below the drivers seat is likely going to dampen a lot of sound as well.

I have a pretty large stereo and I find my self listening to it at pretty low volume now. The other day on the way to big bear my buddy and I were both on a few phone calls while going down the freeway ~75mph and had no issues at all. I don't think I used to be able to do that.

A little breakdown in my NVH journey in a relative of an order of magnitude:

Getting the engine and transmission mounts dialed in
Vibration isolating the steering wheel
Going from Bias-ply off road tires to radial tires
Getting a proper driveline balance
Proper gasket sealing between all the doors and rear hatch
Isolation of the hood and modified hood hinges
Tightening up door latches and hinges
Taking apart the latches and isolating their vibrations/rattles
Tracking down and fixing air leaks
Making sure all suspension components are tight
Installation of the snorkel- Now this is kind of application specific. My turbocharger is unbearably loud without the snorkel.
Foam under the shift boots
A nice thick rear tailgate full of tools in tool pouches
Isolating rattles from the Hi-Lift jack
Sound deadening on the tunnel
Isolating the D-rings with urethane spacers
Aiming the exhaust towords the ground below the rear bumper- It's a old production car trick
Foam above the roll cage
Carpets
Mounting the ECU behind the engine on a shield to block sound


Up next is probably the body mount replacement.

Other than other obvious things like exhaust rattles ect that's the gist of it.


Actually I can say that the loudest thing below 65-70MPH would be the OEM heater blowing on its hi setting- Maybe that can help quantify the improvements?

Hope that helps,

Mike

 

[Godfather90]

My build thread such as it is, is in my sig. Mileage is about 14 or so at the best. I recently put in 4.56's to get the rpms up higher while cruising in 5th. I havent run a tank through it yet with those changes. It had been lugging the engine down too much at highway speeds. I think my first step will be to pop test the injectors and maybe shim them up a little higher if the patterns look good. The best run on the Dyno was 152Rwhp/276ftlb. I can easily make it more but I'm not sure if I should!

A commonly overlooked thing on these trucks is a proper 4wheel alignment. Maybe throw it on the rack?

Does everything spin over freely off the ground? No brakes dragging ect.

What kind of tires? Bias ply tires make a ton of heat.

Sounds like it's breathing fine from the output you're getting.

Whats your EGT look like when cruising at 65mph?

What does the RPM look like a cruising speed?

You can easily cut mileage in half with just tires and a tweaked alignment.

Mike

 

[Godfather90]

My build thread such as it is, is in my sig. Mileage is about 14 or so at the best. I recently put in 4.56's to get the rpms up higher while cruising in 5th. I havent run a tank through it yet with those changes. It had been lugging the engine down too much at highway speeds. I think my first step will be to pop test the injectors and maybe shim them up a little higher if the patterns look good. The best run on the Dyno was 152Rwhp/276ftlb. I can easily make it more but I'm not sure if I should!

Having an IDI diesel by its self can account for a 20% reduction in economy. I just looked up the 1KZ-T engine.

Other more involved reasons could be:

Do you have a charge cooler? What kind of fuel are you running?
Maybe the fuel injectors are plugged up from recycled oil? How was the timing set?
Does the engine have excessive blow-by?

With the IDI diesel engine I pulled out most tanks I would get 14-17MPG.

The best tank I ever got was 22-23MPG. That was a freeway trip with a bit of a tailwind.

I haven't read your thread yet, I will check it out. Have you had it running for a while? I assume so.

Mike

 

[toddm]

I'm fairly sure my tires are bias ply. They are old dry and worn out. I'm planning on replacing them very soon. Good point on the alignment. I don't recall if I've ever had it checked. Thanks for all of the tips on NVH! I have alot to do!

 

[Godfather90]

I'm fairly sure my tires are bias ply. They are old dry and worn out. I'm planning on replacing them very soon. Good point on the alignment. I don't recall if I've ever had it checked. Thanks for all of the tips on NVH! I have alot to do!

Yea if it were me i would do it in this order:

1-Check for dragging on the drive line
2-Alignment
3-Tires

Then if you still haven't resolved it start looking a the engine.

Let me know what you find!

Mike