Project Hundy Build Thread - 2000 UZJ100 Land Cruiser (Deathstar)

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Great build Kurt! Been following it with interest.

It's getting to be new tire time and I'm torn on what to do.

Now you've done it. Ask about tires. It will be page 17 before you get the thread back on track :worms::D
 
Great build Kurt! Been following it with interest.

Thanks!

Now you've done it. Ask about tires. It will be page 17 before you get the thread back on track :worms::D

No worries at all, chat away folks. I'm enjoying hearing all the different tire opinions and I've yet to make up my mind. The rig is currently getting a set of Doug Thorley headers installed along with a new front output seal and bearing. Other than that I swapped the oil and air filter last week and it'll be ready for a 3500 mile Baja trip :cool:
 
Kurt, how many miles do you have on this bad boy now?

Just shy of 190k if IRRC. New bearing on the front of the t-case and a rear driveline are the only non-typical wear items I've had to deal with thus far.
 
Is there a thread somewhere either here or on Expedition Portal documenting your race support role? I'd love to see photos and read about how the 100 handles it and how your build holds up. Although I ended up in an 80 I am trying to emulate your thought pattern and system in the build. Although I expect my build to take years and not 72 hours. Truly amazing work!
 
Is there a thread somewhere either here or on Expedition Portal documenting your race support role? I'd love to see photos and read about how the 100 handles it and how your build holds up. Although I ended up in an 80 I am trying to emulate your thought pattern and system in the build. Although I expect my build to take years and not 72 hours. Truly amazing work!

Nothing yet, I have planned to document that aspect of things and better yet, Adam Tolman will be documenting it for TCT Magazine. Adam will be traveling with us for the Baja 1000 next month and covering the "Chase" side of the race with Dan Markovsky covers the race side of things for TCT. Long and short, the 100 is a crew transport and chase rig... We have 5-6 such rigs to get everyone and all of our spare from the top of the Baja Peninsula to the bottom. I start in the race truck (200 Series Land Cruiser) in Ensenada in the navigation seat and then switch to drive after ~6 hours. I'll drive for about 6 hours and hand off the truck to the next pair and at the same time get back in my 100 and move south to our next assigned pit. Quite the process and cruiserhead Dave Connors lays out all the chase plan for our team each year :cool:
 
Desert racing season is in full swing and the Baja 1000 race is just a few weeks away. As such I've been spending 2-3 days/nights a week wrenching on the 200 Series race car with our team (Canguro Racing) which hasn't left me much time for personal vehicle projects. I was able to enlist the help of teammate and Toyota master tech Will C. on the Doug Thorley header install and replacing the t-case front output seal. It had been weeping for quite some time and the bearing was a little loose as well. All fixed now and the headers seem to have added a bit of giddy up as well? At a minimum I won't have any exhaust leaking in the future. Along with that I went ahead and replaced the front O2 sensors on the manifolds (headers) themselves. One had a code following the install and while it didn't come back after a resent, they were 180k old and I wanted to replace them before I re-installed the skid system. While I had it back in the shop we swapped some rear brake pads and adjusted the park brake. I sure do miss the self-adjusting park brake setup.

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DT Headers installed, no more exhaust tick at startup!

On the tire front, I had made up my mind to stick with BFG. Other options came with great reviews but I have an agenda to stick with not only what has worked well for me personally, but also a company that supports our desert racing endeavors. With that said, the new KO2's in the 285 size were just becoming available here locally. I was really torn on dropping a tire size (approx. 1/2") 3to get the new model or just sticking with the tried and true 295 KO I have been running for the last two years. Price is a near wash between the two. I languished far too long over such a trivial thing BUT tires are freaking expensive and I didn't want to regret the purchase. My buddy and Canguro Racing team mate Dave C. is also re-shoing his 100 Series for Baja and was dead set on the KO2's, he called me to tell me they arrived at the local warehouse and his 5 were en route to the tire shop. I called my tire guy and there were no only 2 left in Utah, the other 3 would have to come from Grand Junction, CO with a $25/tire shipping charge if I wanted them soon. That made the decision... 295/75R16 BFG AT's got mounted yesterday.

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It didn't end there however. After mounting the tires they tried to align the truck and my rack had too much play :eek:. I had know about a little play and had ordered in a couple of OEM Toyota inner tie rod ends hoping that was the culprit. It wasn't... the rack guides were gonzo on the drivers side. They had it apart at the tire shop to inspect and quoted me 2 hours to swap a rack. I doubted the possiblity but had a new Toyota rack sent over anyways. Sure enough after a few hours battling it, they didn't even have the hoses off. They buttoned it back together in 20 minutes and I took it back up to my shop. My buddy (and old shop hand) Jake offered to come rock out some late night wrenching and by 10'oclock we had the rack swapped and R&R's a lower ball-joint with a torn boot. Both LBJ's were new 555 units but this boot appears to have been the victim of a rock or branch? Last project is to lower the motor back down and bolt the motor mounts back up, low and behold my drivers motor mount is shot, one more project to knock out before B1K. This poor girl is having a rough month. Crazy thing, it still drove like a dream albeit a tiny shimmy at 75+ mph, gotta love the robust Land Cruiser!

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Next up, the big drive down the Baja peninsula chasing a much faster 200 Series :cool:
 
You're doing some fantastic things at the shop Kurt! Congrats!

Just shy of 190k if IRRC. New bearing on the front of the t-case and a rear driveline are the only non-typical wear items I've had to deal with thus far.

I just had the same t-case issue as well. Did the seal fail and then cause the bearing to go out from dirt/mud/water ingress?
 
You're doing some fantastic things at the shop Kurt! Congrats!

Thanks, we've been growing a lot this last year and there is no stop in sight :cool:

I just had the same t-case issue as well. Did the seal fail and then cause the bearing to go out from dirt/mud/water ingress?

My bearing was clean (no debris) and thus our synopsis was that the bearing developed play and took out the seal. It can certainly go both ways.
 
Final prep... I think.

I'm just handful of days away from departing to Baja and I'll be out a few of those for SEMA, so it was now or never on prep for the 100. While lifting the motor for the steering rack replacement (the only way I can imagine doing a rack R&R fwiw) I noted a loose motor mount. It was hard to tell while mounted just how bad but after removal it was full on goner. Toyota had one headed my way and we did a quick swap on that yesterday.

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Think this is bad?

The last big item was tunage i.e. radio. My stock Toyota head unit had followed many others and swallowed a few CD's, refusing to play them as well. This left the tape deck or AM/FM, not super ideal for cross-country traveling. My good pal and Canguro Racing team mate Ryan started down the path of his home audio (Ratio AV Inc.) career as a car AV installer and is known in the LC circles as an 12V guru. He had a head unit in mind and was able to source the needed goodies from his supplier and offered to help me with the install. We'll have access to tunes and movies as we spend 75-80 hours in the 100 the next few weeks and perhaps watch a movie or two in the pits as well :cool:

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New tunage!

Time to roll.
 
@cruiseroutfit what in-dash radio do you have in that pic? Is it touchscreen?
 
@cruiseroutfit what in-dash radio do you have in that pic? Is it touchscreen?

It is a touchscreen setup, Pioneer AXH5700 as I recall? The install got finished up on Tuesday and I left town for SEMA Wednesday so I haven't had much time to play with it but I did watch a move in the shop for a few minutes :D
 

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