Project Blind Confidence (1 Viewer)

[bfBird]

Hey all,

I've decided to start a build thread. Although my family and friends feign interest in my progress, I think they are tired of hearing about it. (or at least don't match my level of excitement) I keep making bits of progress, and I want to talk about it. Unfortunately, I've found myself with a bad habit of getting halfway through something before I take any pictures. I'll work on it.

My current plan is to just have fun with it and see where it goes. I will most likely stay stock-ish. I'm more a functionalist than a purist. It will be a glorified grocery getter with a easy trail mixed in every once and awhile. I've never had a 4x4 before so I'm not sure what you do with them in Houston beside jump curbs in traffic.

If you're wondering about the name. It sounds better than stupid. I bought the FJ on a whim, during a pandemic, sight unseen. I did ask permission from the wife, and she said it was ok.

Here's my intro post bfbird Intro It's been a while since I checked in. Maybe this thread will keep things more consistent. I have some pics of things done so there'll be some catch up posts to start.

 

[Krondor]

Needs more pictures or it never actually happened.

 

[bfBird]

When picking it up the PO had issues getting it to start. We troubleshot for a while and went through the typical spark, gas, and air. He went to get some gas to see if it was just low on fuel while the battery charged up a bit. We got it to start, and it sounded very diesel-y. I now know that it's not a good thing, but in the moment I just assumed that's how they sounded.

The first task was getting it home. It towed well on the Uhaul, and nothing fell off that I could see. I did notice when unloading that the back of the fenders had cracked. I thought it happened on the freeway, but you can see the crack on the driver side in the picture above before we left so I'm guessing it was there all along.

My first task is to get the oil gauge working. I don't feel good about running it without knowing it has pressure. A quick inspection showed the oil gauge wire was not connected. I connected it, but the needle stayed submarined below the 0 mark full time. After digging through the forums and the trusty haynes manual, I had to bend the metal piece that moves the needle back to the 0 mark and clean the pins for the dash connector. I'm guessing the wire was grounded at some time and bent the little metal bar in the gauge with too much force.

And let there be oil pressure......then less...then less...then less. The needle was riding 0 after warmed up, but it would still jump up with revs. I figured it was potentially a bad/dirty sensor so I took it out to inspect. That's when I got a big whiff of gasoline so I turned my attention to the fluids.

Unfortunately I learned two things right away. I don't have any metric sockets big enough for the drain plug, and the drain hole in the pan is bigger than the hole on my oil catcher. I just wish I'd learned the first one before I started draining. (No pics of this event, but my garage is forever scarred) There was much more fluid than planned coming out because of a large amount of gas, and it was also much thinner than expected so it came out FAST.

At this point, it looked like I was destined to drop the pan and take a look at the insides.

 

[plink01]

Mate there is heaps of nuffys here who will love to listen all about your Landcruiser problems and progress. Its like AA but for little Landcruisers.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Hey all,

I've decided to start a build thread. Although my family and friends feign interest in my progress, I think they are tired of hearing about it. (or at least don't match my level of excitement) I keep making bits of progress, and I want to talk about it.

Story of my life, man - and many others here as well. My family actually calls the truck "Kevin" because it's like the 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon game...no matter what the conversation's subject is, I find a way to relate it back to my Land Cruiser.

My current plan is to just have fun with it and see where it goes. I will most likely stay stock-ish. I'm more a functionalist than a purist. It will be a glorified grocery getter with a easy trail mixed in every once and awhile. I've never had a 4x4 before so I'm not sure what you do with them in Houston beside jump curbs in traffic.

If you're wondering about the name. It sounds better than stupid. I bought the FJ on a whim, during a pandemic, sight unseen. I did ask permission from the wife, and she said it was ok.

I clicked this thread because of the title, as it reminded me of me. When I bought my truck the most "advanced" work I'd ever done on a vehicle was change the oil. So call it blind confidence or stupidity, it resonates either way! I started out wanting a "glorified grocery getter" and a fun around-towner. 8 years later and largely due to this forum, I spend a lot of time crawling it and going to offroad events that I swore I'd never do with my "classic." It's a slippery slope - be careful! No matter what you decide to do with it, you're gonna have fun doing it - 40's have a lot of personality.

When I bought my truck, I lived with my parents. I was supposed to be "saving for a house" so I assuredly DID NOT ask their permission before I bought it. I did, however, ask my girlfriend, and she graciously let me hide it in her garage for months until it ran respectably enough to break the news to mom and dad. Pretty much sealed the deal that she was marriage material so now we're married and the truck has a garage of its own.

 

[kerplunk]

Well, you managed to get the straps on the uhaul trailer around the front tires of a land cruiser. Already accomplished something I've never been able to do.

 

[bfBird]

Well, you managed to get the straps on the uhaul trailer around the front tires of a land cruiser. Already accomplished something I've never been able to do.

I've been thinking the tires looked small

 

[bfBird]

After cleaning the lake of gas-oil-ene, I dropped the pan, but there are a lot of bolts. (Future note is to put them somewhere safe, one returned to the wild by the time I was ready to put them back on.) Internals looked pretty clean. There was no major buildup and the cam lobes still had some lobe to them. The PO said it had 66k miles( on the speedo), but who knows how many times it's rolled over. The pan looked clean, no shavings or other debris. (No good open engine pics. I have a fuzzy pic of the inside of the pan, but it gave me a small headache trying to find anything interesting about it.)

I pulled off a few of the rod caps off to inspect bearing wear. All of them showed some wear and some streaks. There was definitely some grit passed through the engine at some time. The crank, which I have no pics of, showed the same scrapes. After some research i decided the scrapes weren't to big of a deal if I'm able to get pressure....and I'm not getting pressure so I'm worried.

If you want some frustration when you're already worried about your 2F being double F'd, go to a parts store and see if they have a plasti-gauge. I went to 3, and they all looked at me like I was crazy. I had to go home and figure out what color I needed to be able to measure the range for the bearing clearance. The answer is RED. If you're searching right now, get the red one.

Everything measured within spec, the worst was around .0035 - .0038 so there was definitely some wear which makes me skeptical about the 66k. I don't know how long the PO might have been driving with gas in the oil so wear may have been premature, but who knows.

Next step, check the clearance on the oil pump to see if it's failing.

 

[pjohnson]

Interesting. You made me think about what 'normal' wear looks like. So I had to google it.
This was an interesting read:

https://www.speedperf6rmanc3.com/content/Engine%20Bearings.pdf

Another:

Agkits | Tractor Parts, Tractor Manuals, Tractor & Truck Engine Kits

Learn how heat, stress, and corrosion can cause engine bearing failure. Find out how to diagnose and prevent it from happening in the future.

www.agkits.com

 

[middlecalf]

As far as fuel in oil issue I’d pull the fuel pump. They can be guilty of that.

 

[bfBird]

As far as fuel in oil issue I’d pull the fuel pump. They can be guilty of that.

It looks to have had a gas/oil leak from around the gas pump for quite some time. There's lot of gunk built up. A new pump and gasket is on the list.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

It looks to have had a gas/oil leak from around the gas pump for quite some time. There's lot of gunk built up. A new pump and gasket is on the list.

Yeah, small block Chevy's have the same issue, as do many mechanical fuel pump systems driven off the camshaft. The pump diaphragm fails, and thus the pump starts pushing fuel into the crank case and your engine oil. The 283 that came with my FJ40 suffered the same fate.

 

[bfBird]

Taking off the oil pump was easy enough, but getting the screws off of the housing without stripping was a painful process. I couldn't get enough torque to break the screws with a screwdriver, and I didn't have a philips bit large enough not to strip. A quick trip to the store fixed that issue, and I perfected the technique of clamping down around the housing and the top of the ratchet to get enough force. Clearances checked out to be well within range and there seems to be very little wear I put it back together and primed it with some fresh oil. A few spins with the the screw driver and I was able to shoot oil across the garage so I think it will be fine.

I of course clocked it 90 degrees off when putting it back together so I had to take it back apart. BTW, it was way easier to get the screws off with it connected to the engine. If you're going to take it apart, I'd recommend doing it while connected. It was a lot easier to get force on the screws.

 

[kerplunk]

I'm not sure what screws you are discussing, it's been a while since I've looked at that part of one of these engines.

But in general, I highly recommend one of these manual impact drivers if you don't already have one:
Amazon product ASIN B07R96M9VW
Especially with larger screws... Put it on the screw head as if it was a standard screwdriver, apply pressure similarly, and then hit it with a big hammer. Pressure from the hammer it used not only within the mechanism of this tool to turn the screw, but you also pushing the bit into the screw to prevent it from stripping.

And, as far as tools go, they are sort of inexpensive.

 

[bfBird]

I'm not sure what screws you are discussing, it's been a while since I've looked at that part of one of these engines.

But in general, I highly recommend one of these manual impact drivers if you don't already have one:
Amazon product ASIN B07R96M9VW
Especially with larger screws... Put it on the screw head as if it was a standard screwdriver, apply pressure similarly, and then hit it with a big hammer. Pressure from the hammer it used not only within the mechanism of this tool to turn the screw, but you also pushing the bit into the screw to prevent it from stripping.

And, as far as tools go, they are sort of inexpensive.

I'll look into one. I think there are a lot of torqued screws in my future.

 

[subzali]

By the way, Toyota uses JIS crossheads which are different from Phillips. Recommend investing in JIS crossheads. Vessel makes them.

 

[REZARF]

By the way, Toyota uses JIS crossheads which are different from Phillips. Recommend investing in JIS crossheads. Vessel makes them.

That is some nerdy stuff Matt... dang.

To the OP, looks like a great starting point. The only thing that can kill a 40 is rust. Looking forward to the project.

 

[bfBird]

By the way, Toyota uses JIS crossheads which are different from Phillips. Recommend investing in JIS crossheads. Vessel makes them.

Maybe that's what I bought. I went for the broadest, flattest bit I could find.

 

[bfBird]

I pulled off the fuel pump and found some fluid inside the casting around the lever that smelled like gas. I'm guessing that's where the gas coming from. It seems to be a common-ish issue from all the posts. (Thanks @RWBeringer4x4)

I took the pump apart to see if there were any noticeable issues with the diaphragm. It looked fine to me with no major cuts, tears, or scrapes. With the amount of gas in the pan, I would expect some larger hole. Either it's leaking from somewhere else, has been leaking for a long time, or is the diaphragm is worse than it seems. Oh, taking apart the pump is another exercise in not stripping screws.

I also read that it could be a leaky carb, but I checked the level in the bowl over a few days and it seemed to stay pretty consistent so it doesn't seem as likely to be the problem.

New OEM pump is on order. I do have a holley electrical in the garage, but I couldn't convince myself to go that direction. I keep saying don't spend money, but there's so many opportunities.

I also ordered a new twist in light socket for the dash off of ebay. I found I missing one when I was working on the gauges. I spent way too long checking wires going to the high beams switch before I figured out there was no light.

 

[bfBird]

I've got a few days while i wait for the pump to arrive. The pan looks like it's been sitting in the mud for a while so it's time for some beautification before I reinstall. Par for the course, I didn't take a pic before I started, but you can see the condition in the first pic. The pic was after the first application of rust dissolver. I don't know where all the paint went on it, or if there was every any paint on it. I didn't find any.

I used a wire wheel and some rust remover. (rinse/repeat) I was pretty happy with the rustoleum rust dissolver spray gel. I tried a couple of different rust dissolvers, and it did the best for me. It took white a while to get the pan all cleaned up, but I thought it looks pretty good. I need to look into my time management on things that no one will ever see.

I used 2 different brands of high temp paint. I could only find high temp primer in a different brand so I mixed. The primer laid smooth, but the top coat gave a bit of a crinkle look. I did some extra coats of paint to lessen the crinkle look. It got better, but it wasn't fully gone. I did a day of sun baking to get the paint set since my wife wouldn't let me use the oven. I wanted to cure it some before I installed in hopes to keep from scratching it up.