Novice Needs Help!

[IamGhost]

Another totally unrelated question on this rig - it has factory A/C which was obviously DOA. If I wanted to go the route of a true "total" restoration vs just get it mechanically sound - is there some modern compressor I can swap in to replace the older compressor which would have the old refrigerant?

 

[Spike Strip]

Buy a Silver Star subscription ($20/year) and start posting photos. Will save everybody a lot of time and you'll get quicker, better answers. It will pay for itself 100x over.

(top tabs, under 'Store', click on Gold/Silver Star)

As for the A/C question, Reman Denso (OEM) are available and retrofit your system to R134a using appropriate compressor oil and dryer. A few threads on it.

 

[lcolon]

A/C is a whole other ball game and a non functioning system could be many things. Get your cruiser running right then worry about the A/C system. Denso compressors are still available. Quite a bit of diagnosis is required to figure out what is going on there...

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

Personally if you had NO spacer, I think your cam would have fried the actuating arm on the pump already and it wouldn’t be running. I used an aftermarket pump the first time I replaced w/ the spacer and the cam snapped the arm off w/in a matter of a couple starts. Then I tried an elect pump abd I hated it. It was a total pita.
The last pump I installed was a Kyosan from cruiser outfit. Since then all has been good.

 

[Dr. John]

OEM fuel pump: The pump has 1 inlet from tank, 1 outlet to carb, and 1 outlet that returns unneeded fuel back to tank.

 

[SteveH]

is there some modern compressor I can swap in to replace the older compressor which would have the old refrigerant?

You can use an R12 era-compressor with R134a, so don't worry about that for now. You can read many threads here on all the A/C fixes and solutions. Go very slowly on tearing into the A/C - mine barely worked and has now worked perfectly for 7 years after I simply added 1 can of R12.

Concentrate on all the other engine and fuel bits first.

 

[IamGhost]

Quick update -
I posted some photos of the engine, fuel pump, and a short video of it running and the terrible fuel flow in the second filter here.

I had a very short window to work on this today but ended up swapping fuel pumps and putting the old one back on (remember the new one made no difference AND one of the hard lines was hitting the oil filter). I also replaced the first (OE style) filter with a new one and then removed the second in-line filter and put a new fuel line from filter to fuel pump. This was a major improvement in fuel flow- as soon as I started the engine the new (now only) filter was full of fuel but also immediately has some debris floating around - I assume that 35 years has led to a good bit of trash and rust in the fuel tank.

I also pressurized the radiator today with a rental tool from a local parts store. I pumped up to 15 PSI (OE cap is rated to 13 PSI). After ~40 minutes, the pressure dropped from 15PSI to 13PSI. After 2 more hours, the needle was still in the 12-13PSI range but definitely a bit lower. There was no visible leak EXCEPT what looks to be a heater core/heater hose coming out of the firewall. See photo HERE. I'm not sure this makes any sense in terms of the few PSI I lost because I think this hose would be completely çlosed off on a cold engine from the radiator.

Any suggestions based on these new findings? Any way to clean out a fuel tank to get all the old debris and trash out? Should I run a larger filter/fuel water separator that had a drain bowl (like on diesel engines)? Any areas prone to coolant leaks I should focus on?

It definitely is running smoother with the fuel filter replaced - that must have been 1 of the issues, starving the carb/engine for gas. I'm sure there are more issues still though. I'm going to cut open the old filter tomorrow to see how bad it is. I will continue with the "new to me" checklist provided and keep working away. These few fixes have gotten me re-motivated to go through this thing bumper to bumper.

Thanks All!

 

[Gretsch]

I'm not sure this makes any sense in terms of the few PSI I lost because I think this hose would be completely çlosed off on a cold engine from the radiator.

Not sure what you mean "closed off from radiator". The system is all a closed system. A leaks a leak. Not sure specifically how many PSI you would lose with a leak like that, but if you lose PSI with a pressurized system then you have a leak somewhere. The hope is its a leak you can see (often times its not as its internal to the motor or just hard to see). Good news for you is you see the leak and you are losing PSI. Would just replace the hoses or the HCV on the FW and recheck the pressure test then. Anything on a Landcruiser thats not been replaced already is ripe for replacing. Welcome to it.

HTH.

 

[IamGhost]

Not sure what you mean "closed off from radiator". The system is all a closed system. A leaks a leak. Not sure specifically how many PSI you would lose with a leak like that, but if you lose PSI with a pressurized system then you have a leak somewhere. The hope is its a leak you can see (often times its not as its internal to the motor or just hard to see). Good news for you is you see the leak and you are losing PSI. Would just replace the hoses or the HCV on the FW and recheck the pressure test then. Anything on a Landcruiser thats not been replaced already is ripe for replacing. Welcome to it.

HTH.

What I meant was that on a cold engine, the thermostat is closed so pressurizing the radiator will only pressurize the system on one side of the thermostat. So I was thinking that pressurizing the radiator to test for leaks doesn't test the complete system. Does that makes sense? Sounds like from your reply that I am thinking about this wrong - will pressurizing the system test the whole system even when the thermostat is closed? I do plan to replace pretty much all the hoses, lines, etc. but the odd thing is that heater core hose doesn't look bad at all.

To be sure I understand - is HCV = heater core valve? FW = firewall?

Thanks!

 

[g-man]

Starting the motor means the water pump pressurizes the motor in one direction and when the t stat warms up and opens it completes the circuit back to the radiator...but a non running engine pressurized by the radiator would push pressure out both the inlet and outlet hoses on the radiator and push in either direction.
(edit) I think the inlet side of the heater control valve would be pressurized from the hose coming off the (edit) motor and the outlet side coming off heater control valve and returning to the (water pump?) would still be pressurized from the radiator pushing on the return side. The heater valve aka HCV or heater control valve is up high on the firewall (FW) at the middle you can see the valve arm and the cable coming to it.

 

[g-man]

Best to use toyota clamps on these heater hoses at the heater control valve. And NOT the SS band clamp that you get at a hardware store and tighten. Do a search for Toyota heater hose clamps.

 

[Gretsch]

To be sure I understand - is HCV = heater core valve? FW = firewall?

Apologies here. I should have been clearer. Chalk it up to tired early morning typing. Yes, HCV is the heater control valve which is located on the FW (firewall) as shown in your photo. Controls the level of coolant going through your heater core, to make the temp hotter or cooler. When you actuate the little arm inside the cab to turn on the heat, it pulls on a cable which opens the valve and allows coolant to flow into the heater core thus providing a heat source. I think its the heater temp arm (lower arm in cab) that does this cable pulling but someone set me straight on that please.

Thermostat sits in the little housing above the water pump. It may be closed but your pressure test should pressurize both sides of the thermostat the way the hoses are arranged. Its good you have done this test OP. Many folks don't and spend lots of time chasing down overheat problems. Still a leak in the system (which you have found) should be corrected. The cooling effectiveness of the cooling system is diminished when it leaks. Something to do with changing the boiling point of the coolant if its not properly pressurized. Again smarter folks can set me straight here. Sorry for the confusing earlier post. HTH.

 

[IamGhost]

Thermostat sits in the little housing above the water pump. It may be closed but your pressure test should pressurize both sides of the thermostat the way the hoses are arranged.

Thanks - after I read your post I thought maybe this was the idea - pressurizing the full system on both side of the thermostat. Thanks for confirming.

In this case, I will replace the heater core stuff as it's the only leak I saw. Are you suggesting I replace the actual valve or just the hose on that fitting and a new clamp? It was barely leaking from there so I don't think the valve is the issue. What do you think?

Thanks,
Ghost

 

[Gretsch]

Thanks - after I read your post I thought maybe this was the idea - pressurizing the full system on both side of the thermostat. Thanks for confirming.

In this case, I will replace the heater core stuff as it's the only leak I saw. Are you suggesting I replace the actual valve or just the hose on that fitting and a new clamp? It was barely leaking from there so I don't think the valve is the issue. What do you think?

Thanks,
Ghost

I would replace whatever is leaking. I couldn't tell in your photo if its the valve itself or the hoses going into it or what. If any of that has not been replaced already, its ready to be. The copper on the HCV is pretty soft so putting those hardware band clamps on them can crush them if too much pressure is applied. Using the Toyota clamps is prolly a better idea than the Autozone generic clamps. I used something like these when replacing my HCV setup:

They also sell the spring loaded ones like this:

No promises on if this does anything for you here in terms of cooling system effectiveness. You could have leaks you can't see giving you issues. It is a leak though so if it were my truck I would take care of it. At last check the HCV can be had new from Toyota so may want to consider getting one while they are still available. Just saying. HTH.

 

[g-man]

Leaking from the hose. The clamps on your heater hose are not original ...so someone been here before. Which means maybe the hose isn't rotten but just a bad clamping connection. 2x on being careful not to overtighen and oblong the heater valve pipes. I like the toyota clamp pictured in the bottom of the above post. 5/8 generic heater hose avail by the foot will work for a straight section otherwise you can still find $toyota hoses if you really need it.

 

[g-man]

That instagram pic of the engine is a bit too far away to be able to see much. I wasn't able to find the video.

 

[g-man]

Take a closer pic of both sides of the motor.

 

[lcolon]

Definitely replace that hose and any others that seem rotten/suspect. Not all of the original hoses are available from Toyota anymore, but I have found I could get the substitute ones I needed from napa. Keep the original around if you buy Napa hoses as you will have to trim them to fit.

Once you pull that hose off to replace it, you are going to need to "burp" the cooling system to remove any air bubbles. Do a search on this as it has been covered extensively. You will need to get the front end up on jack stands or ramps as a part of the process.

Personally I consider the "new cruiser to me" ritual to include replacing all of the coolant hoses....

 

[IamGhost]

Another quick update - I did a short test drive today, about 2 miles. Ran pretty well considering how long it's been sitting, but then it started to want to stall like before when it was getting no fuel, then ran okay, then ran great. Totally inconsistent. I got back and found an alarming amount of sediment in the brand new fuel filter.

This makes me think that MAYBE the sediment is interrupting fuel flow which is causing the inconsistent running. Either way - I definitely need to drain, clean and flush my tank to get all the junk out of there. Any advice on the best way to clean/flush the tank?

Any other thoughts on what might be causing the inconsistent running while driving? I am hoping to tackle as much as I can on this over the long weekend.

Attached photos of the sediment in the new filter for reference.

 

[g-man]

Siphon the gas out of the tank. Then remove the plug ( i think it has one) at the bottom of the tank and let the rest drain out. Maybe pour another gallon of fresh gas in while the plug is out and let that flush more crap out. If this doesn't work, you'll need to remove the tank and have it cleaned.

Otherwise you will prob just continue to go thru filters and possibly trash your carb. A problem you don't want to have to fix.