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As if dripping/pouring transmission fluid all over the garage floor, on my clothes, in my hair, and everywhere else wasn't enough, I decided to take on the classically messy knuckle rebuild project not even a week after replacing the transmission valve body. After a quick call to Bryce @cruiseroutfit for a rebuild kit and a stop at the hardware store for some ABS pipe and 12 pack of shop towel rolls, I was ready.
Yuck. Not a moment too soon.
Ran into a challenge seating the longer axle shaft and trashed the inner axle seal. No solution for that on a Saturday evening. @bushdoctor was over to help, which he did, but his decision to quit working on the truck and go get some beverages was his most appreciated contribution.
Pictured here, the FIRST bottle of sake. Not helping that inner axle seal at all.
Then some sort of Applejack, Cynar, and mezcal concoction took all thoughts of finishing a knuckle rebuild out of mind.
The next morning after sleeping in, finding a new inner axle seal locally, drinking lots of water, the job is finally done. Should be good for quite a few more kilometers!
I think this is the first birf rebuild post I have seen with more pictures of booze than of the actual work being done.
No wonder you and Bushdoctor drunk dialed me after the sake and drinking those mezcal concotions.
Birfs, valve body, steering box...why stop there when it comes to messy jobs?
Ochenta developed a slight leak coming from the injection pump on cold starts. It seemed to be getting worse, so with no other messy work to do, the time had come for a rebuild. Thanks to @orangefj45 for the encouragement to pull the IP myself and have it rebuilt locally...which I did...spoiler alert.
While I was in there and the truck was down, I took care of a few other fun/messy bits including adjusting the valves and changing the intake manifold.
After hours of surgery, the dirty, leaky heart had been removed
The day after I dropped off the IP (and injectors) at Advanced Diesel Injection in San Diego, I received this scary picture
I also dropped these greasy old things to be rebuilt. 330K kms and they looked ready for some attention. Note that I had multiple conversations with the shop to ensure they knew what they were getting into with the pump and these dual stage/spring injectors after reading stories here about very few people in the US being able to properly rebuild these.
I'd gone this deep, so why not also replace the seeping intake manifold gaskets? The old crusty gaskets and just about every hose in the lower half of this picture were also replaced with Toyota parts in the process (except the 12mm fuel lines which I had on hand).
I decided taking on the tangled mess of fuel lines would be best done on the bench and with a sexy new ratchet I recently picked up
Injectors after their spa treatment and with new rubber rings (not pictured: new injection nozzle seats)
Something went haywire with the delivery of Toyota's SST to set the timing on the injection pump, so I played with another SST and checked valve clearance...which lead to more downtime since I needed 5 new shims to get valve timing spot on. Thanks to Partsouq, those were in hand quickly.
Fast forward several days and MANY engine rotations to get to TDC to set the IP timing, and here's the nearly final product:
Still need to do a few fuel-related adjustments to dial everything in, but Ochenta is feeling pretty good. No fuel leak, far smoother idle, not a hint of smoke, and hopefully I'll be able to tune in a bit more power/torque with a refreshed injection system.
love this post!!!! Side question, what's the green wheel? I think the red is extreme, what's green? Grunter?There's no denying it. Land Cruisers are a slippery slope. Let's just embrace that together, shall we?
With that, when you just spent a small fortune on an intercooler, rebuilt your injection pump and injectors, installed an "extreme" valve body, yada yada and still feel the itch and haven't heard back from the Long Ranger folks about an auxiliary fuel tank, there's really no choice. It's not your fault. Right? You have to replace your turbo and try to squeeze more juice from the lime, right? Right? Right.
Enter turbo porn. NSFW. You've been warned.
It seems a small, legitimate miracle of modern commerce, but I placed an order late Thursday night (San Diego daylight time...after X number of procurement-influencing beverages) and on Monday...yes Monday, this piece of art arrived. Amazon has nothing on the folks at GTurbo.
Mmmmmm. All the bits that you need.
Gratuitous AF (you were warned)
Don't blame me...
Out with the old, in with the new as they say. Still bleeding CT26 all sooty and messing up my Harbor Freight moving blanket right. New, moving from the right lane to the left goodness on the left.
Sadly on an HDJ81, this is the last we'll see of this beauty.
Initial driving impressions are very good. Without any tweaks to fuel, boost compensator, aneroid pin, smoke screw, or all that other cool stuff you read about here or whatever craziness @ForealBoreal got us into here or here...c'mon...seriously? And @Dan_J-spec_fj62 , your posts from a long time ago didn't help my bank account. Just sayin'. I'm pretty pleased with this upgrade and am looking forward to putting all the massive horsepower and torque gains to the test this weekend with @Dan2722 who'll likely only see tail lights and dust with his gasser 80.
love this post!!!! Side question, what's the green wheel? I think the red is extreme, what's green? Grunter?
who did you use for a machine shop?Unfortunately started to see blue smoke in the exhaust and oil seeping out from under the head at the back of engine. Maybe the added boost and fuel were too much for a 30 year old head gasket or maybe stuff just happens, but either way, after spending some time on the phone with shaman and Land Cruiser seer, @Onur , a parts list was put together and the work started...
Ochenta is back on the road now, this time after pulling the head, getting it refurbished, replacing the head gasket and a number of while you're in there items.
So many bits to install
So many nuts and bolts later...
Made life a bit more difficult by forgetting to disconnect the grounds at the back of the head
Off to the shop for a once over (valve grind, stem seals, crack test, etc.)
The original exhaust manifold "o-rings" put up a fight. Seen here, new bits in place an hour or so later
Back from the machine shop all shiny and in spec. Thanks @Loober for the shop recommendation!
My arms won't be the same for a while after yanking on the 26 head bolts, then again, then again...
The truck fired right up which was a relief. A bit of smoke as expected, but it idled perfectly...then started dripping oil.
Thankfully I tracked the leak to the dipstick o-ring I had apparently tweaked while pushing the intake manifold, injectors lines, etc. around.
For posterity, here's a list of the "while you're in there things" I also replaced:
-Exhaust manifold studs, nuts, and gaskets
-Semicircular plug at the back of the head
-Turbo water bypass hoses
-Turbo oil pipe (slightly newer design)
-Thermostat and gasket
-Water temperature sender/sensor
-Intake manifold gaskets, rubber washers, nuts
-Coolant
So far, the blue smoke is gone, no obvious oil leaks and the truck overall is running very well. As a bonus, since I've been driving my BJ74 while working on Ochenta this thing feels like a luxury sports car! Time to hit the track.
Appreciate the write up. I’m about to swap a turbo for a few reasons and plan to do some of the “while you’re in there” items as well on exhaust manifold, coolant, etc.Unfortunately started to see blue smoke in the exhaust and oil seeping out from under the head at the back of engine. Maybe the added boost and fuel were too much for a 30 year old head gasket or maybe stuff just happens, but either way, after spending some time on the phone with shaman and Land Cruiser seer, @Onur , a parts list was put together and the work started...
Ochenta is back on the road now, this time after pulling the head, getting it refurbished, replacing the head gasket and a number of while you're in there items.
So many bits to install
So many nuts and bolts later...
Made life a bit more difficult by forgetting to disconnect the grounds at the back of the head
Off to the shop for a once over (valve grind, stem seals, crack test, etc.)
The original exhaust manifold "o-rings" put up a fight. Seen here, new bits in place an hour or so later
Back from the machine shop all shiny and in spec. Thanks @Loober for the shop recommendation!
My arms won't be the same for a while after yanking on the 26 head bolts, then again, then again...
The truck fired right up which was a relief. A bit of smoke as expected, but it idled perfectly...then started dripping oil.
Thankfully I tracked the leak to the dipstick o-ring I had apparently tweaked while pushing the intake manifold, injectors lines, etc. around.
For posterity, here's a list of the "while you're in there things" I also replaced:
-Exhaust manifold studs, nuts, and gaskets
-Semicircular plug at the back of the head
-Turbo water bypass hoses
-Turbo oil pipe (slightly newer design)
-Thermostat and gasket
-Water temperature sender/sensor
-Intake manifold gaskets, rubber washers, nuts
-Coolant
So far, the blue smoke is gone, no obvious oil leaks and the truck overall is running very well. As a bonus, since I've been driving my BJ74 while working on Ochenta this thing feels like a luxury sports car! Time to hit the track.