Paying it forward, My LX450 "reset/complete rebuild" notes & lessons learned (1 Viewer)

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My LX450 Rebuild, The good, the bad and the ugly. This is my Pay it forward to MUD. Since those who want to do this type of work have (or should have) a FSM and access to various excellent videos (such as Otramm) I won’t duplicate those steps. What I will share are some things I didn’t get from any source. Things I wish I would have known, etc. I will only share a few photos.

First, my goal (use case for nerdy types). I wanted a vehicle that I could take my two dogs hunting. I go alone so I don’t have anybody with me to pull me out. While the most challenging terrain is usually BLM or Forest Service Roads in Montana, where I hunt the weather can play havoc on any road at any time. Also, while I want to be able to get where I want to go, if given an easy route and a difficult route; I’ll take the easy one. My goal with the vehicle was to basically have a “new” 80 series, doing a re-set so to speak. This would entail a complete rebuild. Lucky for me I have been wanting a project of that magnitude for a long while, so, you could call that an additional goal.

I must confess; I broke a major MUD rule. I fixed stuff that wasn’t broken. I had to, given my goal above.

The starting point vehicle needed to meet the following criteria (note: LC or LX didn’t matter).

No body damage.
Complete, stock, not modified
Interior in decent shape
No rust
Triple Locked
1996 or 1997

I started shopping in January of ’21, on Craigslist. In essence I was looking for a vehicle that was not driven off road, likely had high mileage, and, lived on the west coast (but away from the ocean). I scanned Craigslist daily from Washington to Arizona, north to Montana. I was starting to give up when in April I found my LX450 about 11 miles from my house. An excellent specimen. On the phone the seller (neighbor of the original owner), felt guilty about 372k miles. I didn’t care. I wanted to simply look the vehicle over. It wasn’t a bargain like I see people here on MUD get. But the no rust factor was worth it – as proof, during the project I never broke a bolt; however, I did soak most with Liquid Wrench before loosening.

The vehicle actually drove fine from the get go. It passed CA smog a few months before I got it. Per advice from MUD I drove the vehicle for a few months before the project. The only issue was a coolant leak from under the engine. Not surprisingly, the coolant leak was the bulging Pesky Heater Hose. In May I replaced the windshield washer diverter and the fuel pump and sending unit even though it was working fine; I didn’t want it to fail out in the middle of nowhere on a below zero night. Looking inside the tank showed it was spotless, it looked like new.

The Major part of the project Started in Early July. I purchased a hoist from Harbor Freight – I tried the cheap one but it needed to reach deeper so I had to get the bigger one. I also got the load leveler, a must have. I would recommend getting the best one you can afford. The HF one required me spraying grease on the threads frequently, not a show stopper, but far from ideal either. I also got an engine stand and digital torque wrench (1/2” drive) from HF.

In pulling the engine I followed the FSM with one big and important exception: The FSM lists steps that include leaving the transmission and transfer case (i.e., center differential) connected to the engine. All together that is a big unbalanced unit. Hence the need for a load leveler. The exception I made to the FSM instructions was to remove in front of the engine so that I would have more space to pull the engine, transmission and TC out. Oh my, I needed that clearance!

Pretty much everything else was standard rebuild stuff. Unbolt transmission, remove torque converter – watch ATF spill in every direction; what a mess. Bolt up engine in stand. Disassemble per FSM and Otramm videos. I marked plastic bags for various parts, fasteners, etc. My regret is that I should have taken more photos before removing stuff, and some while taking stuff off/apart. It’s better to have too many photos available during reassembly then not enough. I still have 2 kickdown cable holders that for the life of me couldn’t figure out where they should have gone. Photos would have made that a no brainer!

What I did, the “big picture.”

Engine Rebuild:

Note: I had a local engine machine shop that was recommended by the nearby NAPA do the head and block work. To say he was fantastic is an understatement (see below).
-standard head work. Valves and guides were good so they were reused. General cleaning, etc.
-block cleaning, inspection, bore measurement and honing. Here’s what’s awesome about “my” machinist; when I told him to measure the bores so I could order the correct pistons I fully expected him to tell me how far he’d need to bore the cylinders (it did have 372k miles after all). I got a call a few hours later, “all the cylinders are in spec, I just need to wait for a cool enough morning to hone them” (he said it needed to be below 75 degrees to hone properly – and it was August in California). He certainly could have told me I needed a bore job, I was expecting it. He’s a TOTAL professional (Kevin, owner of Bud Walmer’s in Orangevale, CA).

I replaced: Pistons, Rings, Rod bearings, Main Bearings and thrust bearings with all the same size because everything looked good and was running good before the rebuild. I also Replaced the timing chain, sprockets and guides. Spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. All hoses (complete vehicle), various valves under the intake manifold, fuel pressure regulator, sent out injectors for testing and rebuilding. I put on a new PS Pump and Water Pump, Toyota Remanufactured Starter and Alternator, and new Wire harness. I reused all nuts and bolts except I went with new OEM head bolts because they were all “borderline.”

Other work, brakes:

Replaced all rubber hoses – pro tip, loosen fittings with a really good 10mm flare nut wrench (MAC tools makes a nice one). I didn’t buy mine until after the job (of course) and needed to use a vice grips on all but 1 because the cheap wrench I used flexed just enough to round all the flats (insert dope slap emoji here). Rebuilt all the calipers with OEM “kits.” Used standard OEM brake pads and had the rotors turned by a guy I’ve used for years and trust big time. I also rebuilt the parking brakes and replaced the shoes, one side was worn out, the other wasn’t. I used Bosch shoes from Rock Auto. Ironically, my brake booster failed about 4 months later and was a pain to replace. Would have been way easier with the engine out. Oh well. New brakes are nice.

Drive train:

Replaced all U joints, Note: they ARE different between front and rear driveshafts, ask me how I learned that! I replaced wheel bearings front and rear and rebuilt the Birfields including switching sides. I replaced tie rod ends, pitman arm end, and, all 28 suspension bushings, the 18 that required pressing I had my trusty contact at NAPA do those. I replaced shocks with KYB Monomax. Installed new BF Goodrich KO2’s from Costco (5, ouch!) 285/75 R16

I replaced the radiator a few months after the rebuild w/OEM.

Parts…

I used OEM parts everywhere except:

Parking brake shoes
Some hoses, where OEM is NLA
Throttle cable (got from Rock Auto), it’s decent, but maybe should have went with OEM
Brake booster, NAPA remanufactured
Birfield kit from Cruiser Outfitters – fantastic!
Charcoal canister, AutoZone VC120
KYB Shocks (MonoMax) from Rock Auto

General Tips, admittedly some are obvious.

Remove the gas cap when you start the project. I didn’t and it took me days to figure out the gas dripping from the disconnected line was from minor pressure building up and forcing it out the line (because of the heat in the garage).

I wanted to clean everything to make re-assembly easy. I already had a mini old school solvent based parts washer, and everything I could put in there got a bath, often with the help of a wire brush. I used special gloves doing that and, I wish I would have used thin gloves for general disassembly. My hands took a beating. I’ll bet I spent over a dozen hours cleaning the transmission and transfer case. Dirt was just baked on. Not really much grime and gunk, I used everything I could and still wasn’t 100% thrilled with the end result. Mostly I used various types of engine cleaners (like “Gunk”), Simple green, 409, etc. It was a slow process. When I finished it was clean, but, didn’t have a brand new look I hoped for. Every part that looked like it could be waxed, I waxed. It took me awhile to get a system down to clean fasteners but here’s what I did. I put each bolt in my vise then I’d spray a little WD40 on the threads and use a wire brush in a drill and go around and around until the threads looked completely clean. Then I’d turn it around and with plastic jaw inserts on the vise I’d put the threaded end in the vise and wire brush the bolt head and flats. Similar with nuts. Those fasteners really looked like new, and certainly enhanced the accuracy of torque values applied to them.

I know I’ll be put in the MUD doghouse for this, but, I didn’t pull the coil wire and turn it over before I started it for the first time. It turns out that it took a while for fuel to get to the injectors so, in effect that “pressurizing” happened anyway.

I used a small quantity of locktight on most fasteners (not on internal parts).

I was able to loosen the crankshaft bolt with my ½” Drive IR pneumatic impact wrench. I did have to use my large 80 gallon compressor turned up to 120 PSI (no hope with the pancake compressor). I held it on for probably over a minute and, was ready to give up when I saw a slight movement, seconds later I had the bolt in my hands. I was pretty satisfied. Ironically, I had at least one (probable a few) suspension bushing bolts that would NOT budge with the same compressor/impact wrench setup. I tried freezing and heating. As a last resort I added a 5 foot cheater to my breaker bar. Those same nuts came loose so easy, I couldn’t believe it!

Engine rebuild thoughts, suggestions, reminders: Don’t forget to follow the FSM re: priming the oil pump; those instructions could be easy to miss. I used Red Line assembly lube liberally everywhere. Also, I applied a thin layer of grease to sealing surfaces such as the crankshaft ends as well as to the seals themselves. I also applied a thin layer of grease to various bearing surfaces like mains, Rod ends, camshaft, etc. Probably not necessary, but, I did it anyway.

I can’t tell you how great it felt to turn the key and hear that engine fire up for the first time. It was awesome, actually 30,000 miles later, it still feels so satisfying.

I used 10w-30 conventional motor oil for about 1,000 miles, and changed it to 5w-30 synthetic from then on. On a whim I sent a sample of oil from the first 5w-30 oil change to Blackstone and they found a bit of potassium in the sample, they suggested that it might be residual from before the rebuild, and recommended a check with the next oil change. Unfortunately, the next sample was a bit worse. Not terrible, but I was losing a little coolant. I changed the radiator (it needed it anyway), and replaced the oil cooler gaskets (a easy job, really) and awaited the next sample results. No change. At this point I was getting prepared to get a new cylinder head. I have a cousin with 2 wrecked cruisers and he’d send one to me, or I could get a new one. My machinist, Kevin insisted it wasn’t the head. So, I bought a new oil cooler and cover instead. That fixed the problem! I’ve had 2 nice Blackstone reports in a row and haven’t lost a drop of coolant.

At 15k miles post rebuild I changed the differential lube for F&R. The rear fluid looked like it just came out of the bottle. The front was black. I’m certain it contained Moly grease from the leaking Birfs before I did the rebuild. My guess is that that fluid will never end up “clean.” But I’m not concerned that it’s not getting good lubrication.

Regarding the Transmission, I didn’t do anything other than replace the front seal from the torque converter. I replaced the fluid with Eneos Eco ATF synthetic. Shifting is smooth (knock on wood).

Last week I did a complete coolant change. New sparkplugs (both @ 30k miles), the old ones looked good.
spark plugs, 30k miles after rebuild3.jpg
 
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New Oil Cooler Installed 1 Sept '22a.jpg

New oil cooler solved the problem of coolant seepage, thankfully:doh:
engine and trans going in.jpg

Engine going back in, I worked as fast as I could to get the project done, spent a bunch of time waiting for parts.
interior after rebuild.jpg
Interior shot I sent to my insurance company, they didn't want to believe me when I told them the vehicle is - awesome.:slap:
exterior after rebuild.jpg

Exterior (should have taken more photos - of everything:rolleyes:
which one is the new one.jpg
When this photo was taken, the 200 had ~35k miles on it. The LX had about 6k on the rebuild.
Which is the "new" vehicle?:beer:
 
My LX450 Rebuild, The good, the bad and the ugly. This is my Pay it forward to MUD. Since those who want to do this type of work have (or should have) a FSM and access to various excellent videos (such as Otramm) I won’t duplicate those steps. What I will share are some things I didn’t get from any source. Things I wish I would have known, etc. I will only share a few photos.

First, my goal (use case for nerdy types). I wanted a vehicle that I could take my two dogs hunting. I go alone so I don’t have anybody with me to pull me out. While the most challenging terrain is usually BLM or Forest Service Roads in Montana, where I hunt the weather can play havoc on any road at any time. Also, while I want to be able to get where I want to go, if given an easy route and a difficult route; I’ll take the easy one. My goal with the vehicle was to basically have a “new” 80 series, doing a re-set so to speak. This would entail a complete rebuild. Lucky for me I have been wanting a project of that magnitude for a long while, so, you could call that an additional goal.

I must confess; I broke a major MUD rule. I fixed stuff that wasn’t broken. I had to, given my goal above.

The starting point vehicle needed to meet the following criteria (note: LC or LX didn’t matter).

No body damage.
Complete, stock, not modified
Interior in decent shape
No rust
Triple Locked
1996 or 1997

I started shopping in January of ’21, on Craigslist. In essence I was looking for a vehicle that was not driven off road, likely had high mileage, and, lived on the west coast (but away from the ocean). I scanned Craigslist daily from Washington to Arizona, north to Montana. I was starting to give up when in April I found my LX450 about 11 miles from my house. An excellent specimen. On the phone the seller (neighbor of the original owner), felt guilty about 372k miles. I didn’t care. I wanted to simply look the vehicle over. It wasn’t a bargain like I see people here on MUD get. But the no rust factor was worth it – as proof, during the project I never broke a bolt; however, I did soak most with Liquid Wrench before loosening.

The vehicle actually drove fine from the get go. It passed CA smog a few months before I got it. Per advice from MUD I drove the vehicle for a few months before the project. The only issue was a coolant leak from under the engine. Not surprisingly, the coolant leak was the bulging Pesky Heater Hose. In May I replaced the windshield washer diverter and the fuel pump and sending unit even though it was working fine; I didn’t want it to fail out in the middle of nowhere on a below zero night. Looking inside the tank showed it was spotless, it looked like new.

The Major part of the project Started in Early July. I purchased a hoist from Harbor Freight – I tried the cheap one but it needed to reach deeper so I had to get the bigger one. I also got the load leveler, a must have. I would recommend getting the best one you can afford. The HF one required me spraying grease on the threads frequently, not a show stopper, but far from ideal either. I also got an engine stand and digital torque wrench (1/2” drive) from HF.

In pulling the engine I followed the FSM with one big and important exception: The FSM lists steps that include leaving the transmission and transfer case (i.e., center differential) connected to the engine. All together that is a big unbalanced unit. Hence the need for a load leveler. The exception I made to the FSM instructions was to remove in front of the engine so that I would have more space to pull the engine, transmission and TC out. Oh my, I needed that clearance!

Pretty much everything else was standard rebuild stuff. Unbolt transmission, remove torque converter – watch ATF spill in every direction; what a mess. Bolt up engine in stand. Disassemble per FSM and Otramm videos. I marked plastic bags for various parts, fasteners, etc. My regret is that I should have taken more photos before removing stuff, and some while taking stuff off/apart. It’s better to have too many photos available during reassembly then not enough. I still have 2 kickdown cable holders that for the life of me couldn’t figure out where they should have gone. Photos would have made that a no brainer!

What I did, the “big picture.”

Engine Rebuild:

Note: I had a local engine machine shop that was recommended by the nearby NAPA do the head and block work. To say he was fantastic is an understatement (see below).
-standard head work. Valves and guides were good so they were reused. General cleaning, etc.
-block cleaning, inspection, bore measurement and honing. Here’s what’s awesome about “my” machinist; when I told him to measure the bores so I could order the correct pistons I fully expected him to tell me how far he’d need to bore the cylinders (it did have 372k miles after all). I got a call a few hours later, “all the cylinders are in spec, I just need to wait for a cool enough morning to hone them” (he said it needed to be below 75 degrees to hone properly – and it was August in California). He certainly could have told me I needed a bore job, I was expecting it. He’s a TOTAL professional (Kevin, owner of Bud Walmer’s in Orangevale, CA).

I replaced: Pistons, Rings, Rod bearings, Main Bearings and thrust bearings with all the same size because everything looked good and was running good before the rebuild. I also Replaced the timing chain, sprockets and guides. Spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. All hoses (complete vehicle), various valves under the intake manifold, fuel pressure regulator, sent out injectors for testing and rebuilding. I put on a new PS Pump and Water Pump, Toyota Remanufactured Starter and Alternator, and new Wire harness. I reused all nuts and bolts except I went with new OEM head bolts because they were all “borderline.”

Other work, brakes:

Replaced all rubber hoses – pro tip, loosen fittings with a really good 10mm flare nut wrench (MAC tools makes a nice one). I didn’t buy mine until after the job (of course) and needed to use a vice grips on all but 1 because the cheap wrench I used flexed just enough to round all the flats (insert dope slap emoji here). Rebuilt all the calipers with OEM “kits.” Used standard OEM brake pads and had the rotors turned by a guy I’ve used for years and trust big time. I also rebuilt the parking brakes and replaced the shoes, one side was worn out, the other wasn’t. I used Bosch shoes from Rock Auto. Ironically, my brake booster failed about 4 months later and was a pain to replace. Would have been way easier with the engine out. Oh well. New brakes are nice.

Drive train:

Replaced all U joints, Note: they ARE different between front and rear driveshafts, ask me how I learned that! I replaced wheel bearings front and rear and rebuilt the Birfields including switching sides. I replaced tie rod ends, pitman arm end, and, all 28 suspension bushings, the 18 that required pressing I had my trusty contact at NAPA do those. I replaced shocks with KYB Monomax. Installed new BF Goodrich KO2’s from Costco (5, ouch!) 285/75 R16

I replaced the radiator a few months after the rebuild w/OEM.

Parts…

I used OEM parts everywhere except:

Parking brake shoes
Some hoses, where OEM is NLA
Throttle cable (got from Rock Auto), it’s decent, but maybe should have went with OEM
Brake booster, NAPA remanufactured
Birfield kit from Cruiser Outfitters – fantastic!
Charcoal canister, AutoZone VC120
KYB Shocks (MonoMax) from Rock Auto

General Tips, admittedly some are obvious.

Remove the gas cap when you start the project. I didn’t and it took me days to figure out the gas dripping from the disconnected line was from minor pressure building up and forcing it out the line (because of the heat in the garage).

I wanted to clean everything to make re-assembly easy. I already had a mini old school solvent based parts washer, and everything I could put in there got a bath, often with the help of a wire brush. I used special gloves doing that and, I wish I would have used thin gloves for general disassembly. My hands took a beating. I’ll bet I spent over a dozen hours cleaning the transmission and transfer case. Dirt was just baked on. Not really much grime and gunk, I used everything I could and still wasn’t 100% thrilled with the end result. Mostly I used various types of engine cleaners (like “Gunk”), Simple green, 409, etc. It was a slow process. When I finished it was clean, but, didn’t have a brand new look I hoped for. Every part that looked like it could be waxed, I waxed. It took me awhile to get a system down to clean fasteners but here’s what I did. I put each bolt in my vise then I’d spray a little WD40 on the threads and use a wire brush in a drill and go around and around until the threads looked completely clean. Then I’d turn it around and with plastic jaw inserts on the vise I’d put the threaded end in the vise and wire brush the bolt head and flats. Similar with nuts. Those fasteners really looked like new, and certainly enhanced the accuracy of torque values applied to them.

I know I’ll be put in the MUD doghouse for this, but, I didn’t pull the coil wire and turn it over before I started it for the first time. It turns out that it took a while for fuel to get to the injectors so, in effect that “pressurizing” happened anyway.

I used a small quantity of locktight on most fasteners (not on internal parts).

I was able to loosen the crankshaft bolt with my ½” Drive IR pneumatic impact wrench. I did have to use my large 80 gallon compressor turned up to 120 PSI (no hope with the pancake compressor). I held it on for probably over a minute and, was ready to give up when I saw a slight movement, seconds later I had the bolt in my hands. I was pretty satisfied. Ironically, I had at least one (probable a few) suspension bushing bolts that would NOT budge with the same compressor/impact wrench setup. I tried freezing and heating. As a last resort I added a 5 foot cheater to my breaker bar. Those same nuts came loose so easy, I couldn’t believe it!

Engine rebuild thoughts, suggestions, reminders: Don’t forget to follow the FSM re: priming the oil pump; those instructions could be easy to miss. I used Red Line assembly lube liberally everywhere. Also, I applied a thin layer of grease to sealing surfaces such as the crankshaft ends as well as to the seals themselves. I also applied a thin layer of grease to various bearing surfaces like mains, Rod ends, camshaft, etc. Probably not necessary, but, I did it anyway.

I can’t tell you how great it felt to turn the key and hear that engine fire up for the first time. It was awesome, actually 30,000 miles later, it still feels so satisfying.

I used 10w-30 conventional motor oil for about 1,000 miles, and changed it to 5w-30 synthetic from then on. On a whim I sent a sample of oil from the first 5w-30 oil change to Blackstone and they found a bit of potassium in the sample, they suggested that it might be residual from before the rebuild, and recommended a check with the next oil change. Unfortunately, the next sample was a bit worse. Not terrible, but I was losing a little coolant. I changed the radiator (it needed it anyway), and replaced the oil cooler gaskets (a easy job, really) and awaited the next sample results. No change. At this point I was getting prepared to get a new cylinder head. I have a cousin with 2 wrecked cruisers and he’d send one to me, or I could get a new one. My machinist, Kevin insisted it wasn’t the head. So, I bought a new oil cooler and cover instead. That fixed the problem! I’ve had 2 nice Blackstone reports in a row and haven’t lost a drop of coolant.

At 15k miles post rebuild I changed the differential lube for F&R. The rear fluid looked like it just came out of the bottle. The front was black. I’m certain it contained Moly grease from the leaking Birfs before I did the rebuild. My guess is that that fluid will never end up “clean.” But I’m not concerned that it’s not getting good lubrication.

Regarding the Transmission, I didn’t do anything other than replace the front seal from the torque converter. I replaced the fluid with Eneos Eco ATF synthetic. Shifting is smooth (knock on wood).

Last week I did a complete coolant change. New sparkplugs (both @ 30k miles), the old ones looked good.
View attachment 3239461
Hey just getting into this; great timing, thanks for the posts! Used to live up your way. Question: Why 96 or 97? Are there significant differences from '95?
 
Hey just getting into this; great timing, thanks for the posts! Used to live up your way. Question: Why 96 or 97? Are there significant differences from '95?
I just wanted the last generation of 80 series. I didn't "need" the vehicle, so I could be picky. But really, rust free was more important than anything.
 
95-97, was just wondering whether I missed something… :)
 
95-97, was just wondering whether I missed something… :)
The '95 model year was a bastard. Some vehicles didn't get the full complement of upgrades. Also the first year of a makeover and OBD2, so there's always the chance of some bugs. Same reason to avoid 91's and 93's.
 
It took me awhile to get a system down to clean fasteners but here’s what I did. I put each bolt in my vise then I’d spray a little WD40 on the threads and use a wire brush in a drill and go around and around until the threads looked completely clean. Then I’d turn it around and with plastic jaw inserts on the vise I’d put the threaded end in the vise and wire brush the bolt head and flats. Similar with nuts. Those fasteners really looked like new, and certainly enhanced the accuracy of torque values applied to them.
While I've done it myself, taking a wire wheel to fasteners scares me. I'm concerned that I'm removing the zinc coating or galvanized layer. I prefer dangerous chemicals and an ultrasonic cleaner, with plenty of nylon brush action. Sometimes a manual wire brush, but I cringe whenever I break down and push a bolt against a wire wheel. I've never seen a problem later, but I can't shake the feeling I'm doing damage.

Thinking about it, I should buy a sandblaster cabinet and some walnut media or soda or something else that's not super abrasive just for hardware.
 
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While I've done it myself, taking a wire wheel to fasteners scares me. I'm concerned that I'm removing the zinc coating or galvanized layer. I prefer dangerous chemicals and an ultrasonic cleaner, with plenty of nylon brush action. Sometimes a manual wire brush, but I cringe whenever I break down and push a bolt against a wire wheel. I've never seen a problem later, but I can't shake the feeling I'm doing damage.

Thinking about it, I should buy a sandblaster cabinet and some walnut media or soda or something else that's not super abrasive just for hardware.
Come to think of it I could'da used my rifle brass tumbler to clean those nuts and bolts, but, it would have got the media dirty pretty quick. Alas, the wire brush didn't do any damage either - scouts honor:rofl:
 
It could be the light, but I'm curious what you did to the surface of the bores before reinstalling the new pistons?
 
It could be the light, but I'm curious what you did to the surface of the bores before reinstalling the new pistons?
"my" engine machinist did a standard hone of all cylinders. Nothing else needed. So, in theory I've got another ~350k miles before the next look at the cylinders, assuming I live that long, or our lawmakers haven't outlawed ICE engines:flush:
 

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