My new obsession 94 FZJ80

[DevWin]

Starting to come together. Still waiting on a few parts to be delivered to button things up on the engine.


Finally decided on tires. Up in the air between AT, MT, Brands, Costs, but with all the money I have been dumping into the head gasket and baseline job I went a little more budget minded on the tires. I also don't know how much true off roading I will be doing quite yet. So I went with Atturo Trail Blade AT 285/75/16. They seem to have pretty good reviews so we will see.

 

[DevWin]

So I was very up in the air about removing the rear heater. Kind of a cool feature for the era. But the more I looked at the condition of the pipes I started to see the plus side of removal in terms of reliability. Well when I removed the cat to replace the gaskets I saw that now would be the best time in terms of accessibility. Boy am I glad I did. Just in removing one of the hoses one of the pipes cracked. So not turning back. I will remove the core and fan at a later date.

Also welded new pipe and flanges onto the down pipes. They were rusted through and I no longer needed the O2 bungs there since they will be moved to the manifolds.

And wheels are painted and dropped off to be mounted.

 

[DevWin]

So I realized it has been a long time since I made an update. This will be a long one.

Got the headgasket job done and back on the road in April. Got it put to work right away while I did coolant and oil flushes every week or two.

The work in the engine bay went off without a hitch...except I was having charging issues. Volt lights were coming on all the time, battery dying, and voltage changes were noticeable. I checked all grounds and swapped out the hacked up fusible link with the proper wiring.

Still not fixed, but not as problematic. So five months go by and the alternator decides to die. I swapped out the voltage regulator since I had already done the brushes. While disassembling I discover the nut on the positive stud had welded itself and broke when I removed it. So went to a u-pull it and took the rectifier out of the first Camry I came to. Reassembled everything and the charging system is as good as new.

Back in July we had a wedding in Maine I had planned to drive the 80 to while introducing my wife and daughter to camping. The week before leaving I decided I should rebuild the leaky front axle and change out all the fluids front to back. Had all the axle parts hot tanked and replaced tie rod ends and steering stabilizer while I was at it.





Purchased a new tent for the trip and spent some time figuring out a loading method for the back. Ended up with a couple Plano sportsman boxes. One for vehicle specific supplies and one for the kitchen. Also spent a lot of time planning stops and camping locations. Stuck to state parks and as little highway as possible with our time constraints. We camped in PA, NY, ME, NY again and had several nights staying at friends and family.

First night


Fun setting everything up and everything worked as expected. Only thing we discovered is how hot the passenger floor gets and my exhaust system is on it’s last leg. Family loved it and we are looking forward to another trip.

Table yoga


Swapping out driving duties to get a break from the scorching floor.

Leveled with rocks.



View up to the tent.

Some other random shots from the past few months.

Installed a Yakattack geartrac and cup holder as well as Ram x-grip.

Drug home another project.

With the in-laws G wagon.

With the wife’s 4th gen.

One last hood crawler.

 

[billymagg]

I’m just curious who in the hell gave up a sweet 94 LC and took a 05 Friggin Nissan Pathfinder as trade...dumbass!

Yeah, for sure, I was passed by a Nissan Pathfinder and a couple of Armada's on the way home from picking up my 94 in Columbia Missouri,, they are so damned ugly!! just ugly!

I know this is an old thread,, but I love the subject!
now this is a gorgeous Landcruiser!