My HDJ81 (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Threads
108
Messages
622
Location
Asturias(Spain)-London(England)
Website
www.sybaris-expediciones.com
Hello.

I had already posted pics of my Land Cruiser when I bought it in my first post:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/165370-hello-europe.html

But now, after a few months, some mods and a trip to Africa, I'd like to post a few more.

First of all, I added 2" Eibach Springs (They are very good springs, used in competitions like Baja 500, but I want more lift, and more weight capability, so I want to replace them with the OME heavies), I also mounted Koni Raid Shocks, extra heavy duty, these are really hard shocks, used in competition. They are similar to the OME LTR. Then, I mounted 32" BF Goodrich A/T tires. Here's the result:

recovered435639fz4.jpg


This version VX Limited, has some particularities, like the spare tire carrier as stock equipment, cruise control (limited to 60 mph), automatic climate control, a fridge between the two seats:

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a compass and a scale:

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But, strange enough, it hasn't got light height control (very bad for me) or dash light intensity control. Every other 80 series I've seen in Spain and England have these except mine.

It also has this snow version advise under the bonnet, but I still can't find any particularity that is designed for the snow, different from other 80 series.

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Then, after breaking the transmission. (Is very easy to find a 80 series with the automatic transmision broken in Spain, specially if you do hard off road, this is because of the bigger torque of the diesel engine), i decided to fit a heavy duty transmission oil radiator (is thinner than the original, but it's got a bigger surface and the pipes are much thicker).

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Even with this, i had to stop once in Morrocco, after doing 40 miles of a sand track at maximun speed, cause the A/T oil temperature turned on. It turned off after 3 minutes, but i think the next step will be to mount a ventilator on the transmission radiator, or even a bigger one. The best thing would be to get a heavy duty transmission from Rodney, in Australia, but i need a lot of Euros for that, so I think I'll have to wait.
 
Next thing I did, was mounting 1" Trim Packers in the front to level the truck, a safari snorkel and replacing the 15" aluminium rims for 16" stell rims, and the 32" BF Goodrich A/T for 285/75/16 size. (I wish I had chosen M/T, but that will be the next time).

This is how it looks now:

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Here, with the truck fully loaded, you can see why I need the Heavy load spring in the back:

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Wow, after all the punish I done to mine, I never saw the A/T oil temp on, taking in mind that my cruiser when fully loaded with the roof tent, the Engel fridge topped, aux and main gas tank full and who knows what else I carry for a 3 week trip were no food is available, it should weight perhaps over 1000 lbs more than yours !!!!!!!

Must be very hot were you went !!
 
Here you can see some pictures of the Morrocan trip, and, for me, the definitive proof that this car is really tough, this video of a "take off" I did in the Erg Chebbi desert, with the truck completely load to the roof. A week before, another diesel 80 broke its front axle in a dune jump near there (that was an even bigger jump). In my case it didn't cause any damage at all (but I didn't try againg, not to tempt my luck too much).

YouTube - www.unlimitedmultiaventura.com


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Your are righ Robmir, I was carrying lots of weight, but not nearly as much as you.

But the problem for the overheating of the Automatic Transmision, apart of the weather, cause it was very hot, was the sand tracks. Have you done sand tracks with all that weight you mentioned?

Driving very fast in the sand makes the torque converter to slipper several times more than it would on the road. The more you drive and the faster you go on the sand, the hotter the oil goes.

Anyway, I know there are lots spanish people that have seen the A/T oil temp driving in Africa, but everyone that built in the heavy duty radiator never saw the A/T oil light again...except me. I checked the level of the transmission oil and it was ok, so i think I will have to take the car to the guy that made the transmission rebuilding so he can check it, I would't like to break it again.
 
Your are righ Robmir, I was carrying lots of weight, but not nearly as much as you.

But the problem for the overheating of the Automatic Transmision, apart of the weather, cause it was very hot, was the sand tracks. Have you done sand tracks with all that weight you mentioned?

Driving very fast in the sand makes the torque converter to slipper several times more than it would on the road. The more you drive and the faster you go on the sand, the hotter the oil goes.

Anyway, I know there are lots spanish people that have seen the A/T oil temp driving in Africa, but everyone that built in the heavy duty radiator never saw the A/T oil light again...except me. I checked the level of the transmission oil and it was ok, so i think I will have to take the car to the guy that made the transmission rebuilding so he can check it, I would't like to break it again.

I did sand tracks but my cruiser were then not so heavy loaded and I am quite sure ambient temp was close to 40 C. Check your fan clutch to see if it's up to spec's and by the way do you recall if your engine temp was also high when your transmission overheating happened ? Mine came with a heavy duty radiator and that should help keeping my engine and transmission temp under control and my fan clutch is in optimal conditions.

Did you have lockers in yours since you did the sand tracks so effortless ?

Love your pictures !!!!! Dan envidia
 
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I've also had my transmission temperature light on in 20c weather after climbing a long steep "logging road". I'm concerned about it, so do you believe the new cooler corrects this problem? I really don't want to drop a tranny out in the hinterland. By the way, great pics , I'm the guy who has the same "bling" paint job.... goes to show you ... doesn't matter what colour you paint an LC ... it's still an LC. Cheers, Tony
 
I've also had my transmission temperature light on in 20c weather after climbing a long steep "logging road". I'm concerned about it, so do you believe the new cooler corrects this problem? I really don't want to drop a tranny out in the hinterland. By the way, great pics , I'm the guy who has the same "bling" paint job.... goes to show you ... doesn't matter what colour you paint an LC ... it's still an LC. Cheers, Tony

Additional transmission cooler should be the final upgrade after clearing all other possible causes. Transmission cooler is located inside the lower radiator tank and it's perfomance is directly related to the OEM radiator behavior.

AFIK, USA spec cruisers got the extra cooler as to protect the transmission when towing, a learned taste that's not so common in the rest of the world.
 
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The heavy duty cooler should be enough.

I checked my fun clutch and it's perfect, and the engine temperature was right, the same as driving on the road on a cold day.

When doing the sand tracks, 99% of the time I had only the centre diff lock. I used sometimes the rear, but I think in the sand is not very useful. The key not to get stuck in sand is accelerate hard and lower the pressure in the tires. (both 80 had the turbo pressure modified as well so they both have about 180 HP, that helped a lot as well).


The automatic cruisers here have what is called in spanish a serpentin going into the engine radiator. I don't know how to translate in english, but it is like spring shape tube where the transmission oil flows inside. I think the engine water is supossed to cool down the transmission oil.

Is that what you mean?


I have to check the setup of my radiator, cause, I'm starting to think, that they may connect the radiator directly to the transmission whitout crossing that serpentin. I mean, leave all the cooling job to the new air radiator instead a combination of the stock radiator and stock serpentin.

Is that possible?
 
Hello.

I'm still thinking about the overheatin problem in my transmission and i just thought.

Is is possible to mount two radiators in parallell?
 
"snow version" could be referencing a cold weather package with a heated element on the bottom of the fuel filter and possibly heated seats.
 
thread resurection:
ummm, aux tranny cooler and wash the lower rad out after playing in the mud will make a world of difference on the auto. a extreme valve body kit would be a good idea as well...
 
Hi Cañonero,

I searched but couldn't find... where did you end up mounting your tablet/RAM mount arm? Mine is attached to my passenger seat bolt, but I find it's always in the way.

Andrew
 

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