Builds Project Lazarus: Bringing an LX470 back from the dead (1 Viewer)

[LJE]

I've been out on work travel this week (in Salt Lake City actually - too bad I don't need anything from CruiserTeq while I'm out here!), but before I hopped on an airplane Sunday I had just a little bit of time to put the exhaust headers on.

People always talk about how hard it is to replace the stock manifolds with the Doug Thorley headers - I'm not sure what they're doing wrong, but I found it really easy!

These headers look GOOD on such a clean engine!

There is one issue however - the driver side O2 sensor on the Doug Thorley headers is in a very different spot than the stock manifold. That means that the stock connector bracket makes the wiring a little too short. I think I can get a little creative and bend the bracket to make it all work while keeping it all under the heat shield that goes over top, but I do wonder why DT chose to put the O2 sensor where they did as compared to the stock position. The below picture shows the wire from the O2 sensor (on the right), and where it needs to go (connector on the left).

 

[LJE]

While I wait on the last bits for the engine (a timing belt actually - I had ordered all OEM Toyota timing parts for my '03 Sequoia a while back, but didn't order a belt because I didn't want it just sitting around for a year or two...), I decided to go ahead and get the suspension in order. I had previously pulled all the bushings out of the front control arms & 'shocks', but it was time to put it all back together. I finally had an opportunity to take some time off of work this week, so I think I was able to put about ~22 hours into getting all the suspension assembled.

I'm not sure if I had posted this before or not... but this was my IMPEX order once it came in finally, haha. I sorted the order into 'Hoses, gaskets, suspension, and hardware' boxes:

Look at these swanky new OEM bushings!

When I started this part of the project I didn't have a ball joint tool - which would be ideal to press this back into place (and is required for the No. 2/frame side bushing for the LCA), but these were easy enough to tap in:

I did the same thing for the No. 1 bushing on the LCA, but then bought a big ball joint press kit that makes things way better. Definitely recommended!

After getting my front control arms sorted, I moved onto the steering knuckle. I installed a new needle bearing, bronze thrust bushing, and seal into the backside of passenger side steering knuckle - not pictured below is the seal, or the NGLI #1 grease that coated all of this before I installed it. As a reminder, these were getting replaced as a result of a hack mechanic not putting the snap ring on the CV axle to hold it tight to the knuckle & instead just threw a bolt with a stack of washers into the end of the CV axle! The bearing was DESTROYED. The bushing didn't look bad, but might as well swap it while I'm in there:

First off was getting the new bearings from @cruiseroutfit installed into the front hubs - which meant cleaning off the leftover sealer that it looked like someone had used instead of a gasket the last time they packed the front wheel bearings. The old bearings didn't look bad, but meh, might as well start fresh here I figured. I carefully scrapped off as much as I could with a razer blade, then hit it with some red scotchbrite + brake cleaner to finish it off.

After getting that cleaned, I installed the bearing races with a combination of a bearing/seal installer (for the little one) and a brass punch for the larger one - the biggest bearing installer I had wasn't quite bit enough for that one. Once I got the races installed, I packed the bearings themselves with some synthetic Valvoline wheel bearing grease - I'm sure we can argue about which wheel bearing grease is 'best' until the end of time, but I'm pretty sure it's the one that you change every 30,000 miles, regardless of the brand haha.

All cleaned up and ready to go!

NOTE: DON'T FORGET to pack grease in the cavity between the bearings once you install them! I managed to miss that in the FSM (glanced over it somehow) and had nearly put the entire front end back together (minus the CV axle snap rings. Thankfully I saw @2001LC 's excellent post on wheel bearings & caught it due to his extensive attention to detail. I pulled the hubs back off so I could pack grease in the cavity between the bearings, leaving just enough room for the spindle as per the FSM. Once I addressed that, I put the front back together & measured my gap for the snap rings. I had to wait on some snap ring pliers, but I'll be installing those snap rings shortly.

I then moved on to installing the new front differential bushings. Since I ordered everything from Impex, it was probably an extra $50 (total) to purchase the entire mounting arm assemblies (vs just the bushings) for the side and rear mounts on the front differential, so that's what I did to save myself some heartache getting the old bushings out of those mounts. The front bushing you've got to get out (unless you want to replace the entire front cover of the diff), but that wasn't too bad and I covered that in a previous post.

Here's a side-by-side of the old vs. new bushing for the driver side mount - you can definitely tell the old one has settled some:

The mount on the rear of the diff didn't look great either, and the 'cushion' on it was definitely compressed some:

 

[LJE]

I did each bushing one-at-a-time: first I installed the front (had already removed it a couple weeks ago), then removed/replaced the driver side bushing, and then the rear bushing. That way the diff mostly stays in-place while you're doing all this.

Here it is all back together (plus my DIY-rebuilt steering rack)! I think I'll clean this all before I drop the new engine in, but we're making progress!

Once I got the front diff sorted, I moved on to installing the front control arms (well, I think I technically did the front control arms first, but that's not the order I took pictures in, hahah). The control arms drop in easily, but you have to make sure to NOT tighten down the bolts on the bushings until it's resting at normal ride height - leave them snug, but not torqued.
The upper ball joints seemed good (no play/movement/etc that I could detect in the wheel or the joint itself), but the lowers were toast. I ordered the whole 555 ball joint kit (lowers and uppers - I'll save the uppers for later I think). which also came from @cruiseroutfit.

One thing it doesn't explicitly tell you to do in the 555 instructions is to remove the boot before you press it in - it seems like most poor reviews of the 555 ball joints are likely a result of a boot getting torn upon installation & allowing contamination to ruin the joint prematurely, so removing the boot & reinstalling afterwards should avoid that:

No pictures of the joints installed, but I'm sure you've seen that before!

After getting the ball joints sorted, I reconnected the torsion bars. NOTE! On the nut that the bolts thread into, there is an arrow that needs to point towards the FRONT of the vehicle. This isn't covered in the FSM, but you need to pay attention here because the threaded hole is offset:

I also replaced the front swaybar mounting bushings and swaybar links, but I don't have any pictures of that...

After getting the torsion bars & swaybar reinstalled, I then installed the UCAs, and then the steering knuckle & wheel hubs. I followed the FSM procedure & set the preload to between 9.5-15 lbs:

Once I set the preload, I installed the lock washer & lock nut, rechecked preload, and then bent one lock washer tab over the rear nut, and one over the front as per the FSM & called it a night (it was about 10 hours to get to this point). Later that night I found out that I should have packed the grease in the cavity between the wheel bearings, so I took it back apart & put it all back together! Of course using different tabs on the lock washer this time.

My splined flanges are still good I think, very very little movement, so I'm going to reuse those. I've got them on my list for my next Impex order (since they're only $20/piece there!).

With the knuckles and the hubs all back together properly (minus the snap ring, since I was waiting on the pliers at the time), it was then time to move on to the front brakes. I had rebuilt these calipers previously with an OEM rebuild kit, so it was just time to install them and my new Slee stainless steel brake lines. I had the rotors turned, but these are new OEM pads, shims, clips, pins, etc. I managed to forget to order new pin retaining springs, but the old ones were in pretty good shape, so I'm not worried. The below picture doesn't have the anti-rattle clips, because the FSM doesn't show them... I'll install those once I pull the front wheels back off to install the engine:

The Slee stainless steel lines (you can just see one in the above photo) installed pretty easy - I know there were some complaints about the fact that they take an 18mm wrench to install, but that's not a big deal to me at all.

 

[LJE]

With the front suspension finished up (other than final torque on the control arm bushing bolts), it was time to move on to the rear. I started by removing the rear control arms one-by-one, replacing the bushings, and then reinstalling before moving on to the next control arm. I SWEAR I will buy an air hammer one day... but until that day, it's back to the whole 'drill out the rubber, slice the sleeve, and use a hammer, chisel, and maximum rage to get the old bushing out' routine:

NOTE: The bolts on the rear control arms have teeth under the head of them that will prevent the bolt itself from spinning (even with a good impact wrench!) You MUST loosen the nut side (which is on the inside, towards the centerline of the vehicle). The FSM doesn't talk about this I don't think, but you'll rattle your teeth out trying to loosen the bolt (ask me how I know....). The FSM wants you to replace the nuts - I didn't (because I didn't know that when I ordered all my parts), but reuse at your own risk.

I had stumbled across a thread here on MUD that had the part numbers listed for these bushings - however, the two lower bushings for the rear LCAs are different than the bushings at the top, which is not what the thread had stated. I went ahead and installed the new bushing anyway, but I'll order the correct bushing from Impex. Additionally, the panhard bar bushings part number they gave was also entirely wrong, so I'll order those bushing next time too. Not a huge deal, as the panhard bar is super easy to get to. I think I may post a thread with all the proper part numbers, just to help clarify it all for the next person.

The below picture shows the difference in the new bushing and the old lower bushing for the rear LCAs - the new bushing matches what is installed at the top LCA mounting point, but not the lower:

I also replaced swaybar links & bushings (both the bushings in the links and the mounting bushings). I couldn't replace the lower shock bushing yet, because I would have had to disconnect it up top too in order to get the shock off the post that sticks out from the rear diff. I have new upper shock bushings for all 4 corners, and the new o-rings for the AHC fittings, but I'm waiting to do that when I replace the original globes/flush the AHC fluid/etc. That way I'll only have to go through the bleed process once.


After I got each LCA & the sway bar sorted (but again, not fully torqued down), I moved on to the rear brakes. I ran the rotors to the machine shop to get them turned (they were ~17.8mm thick, 'new' is 18mm, minimum is 16mm, so these were still pretty fresh), and started on the caliper rebuild for the back. The below picture shows one of the pistons as it came out - just a little gunky, but otherwise in good condition. It cleaned up super nice with no scratches/scoring/etc, so the rebuild was the perfect thing here. $18 total to bring both calipers back to 'like new' condition? Yes please!

Once I had rebuilt the rear calipers (including cleaning the slide pins & installing the new boots) I went ahead and swapped all the rear soft brake lines over to the stainless Slee lines. One of the flare fittings (the upper fitting on one of the lines running to the axle) was stuck pretty good - hit it with penetrating oil over the course of an hour & ended up using just a little heat to get it moving. Otherwise, install on these went smooth as well:

I then checked runout on the rear rotors as per FSM, and placed them in the orientation that reduced it the most - got it down to +/- 0.001", but I realized I was measuring right at the edge of the face of the rotor, not 10mm inwards like the FSM states. That means my 'FSM' measured runout would be less, but +/- 0.001" is well within spec.

Then, I went to install the new clips & brake pads... this was PAIN! The FSM falls DRASTICALLY short here - there's two different style of slide clips ('pad support plate') and no mention of where the different types go and how they get oriented. I used the low-resolution drawings to the best of my abilities, but I'm not sure I got them exactly right - oh well, I'll pay attention to any squeaking I get in the back. The old clips were definitely installed in a weird mismash, so I couldn't use those as a reference. There's also two different styles of anti-squeal shims, and again, the FSM doesn't talk about it (and further more, the FSM shows 2 shims per side, whereas Toyota must have updated to a newer style that only has one shim per side on the rear).

But, I eventually got it all back together in a way that makes sense to me at least, put the rear wheels on, and then lowered it down. I checked the ride height in the rear, and it was at 'normal', so I went ahead and torqued down all the rear control arm/swaybar bolts. This sucked! I'm pretty fit dude, but there's not really enough room for me, a large torque wrench, and the LX470 to all exist in the same space at once underneath it, hahah. It didn't help that all the control arm bolts in the rear needed to get torqued to 110 ft-lbs... and you have to torque the nuts that sit on the inside, because the bolts on the outside have teeth that lock them into the control arm mount and prevent them from spinning.

But, once that was done.... Look at it! All the wheels back on! Just for a little bit though, I'll pull the front wheel and drop it as low as it'll go when I go to install the engine back in it. The front control arm bolts are not torqued yet, because it's not sitting at ride height in the front (a couple inches high actually) without the weight of the engine in it.

And that brings us up to speed for the moment - I'm going to be out on travel the next couple weeks again, so I won't have much time to work on it, but we're getting close to being able to drop the new engine in! I'm excited for sure.

 

[2001LC]

While I wait on the last bits for the engine (a timing belt actually - I had ordered all OEM Toyota timing parts for my '03 Sequoia a while back, but didn't order a belt because I didn't want it just sitting around for a year or two...), I decided to go ahead and get the suspension in order. I had previously pulled all the bushings out of the front control arms & 'shocks', but it was time to put it all back together. I finally had an opportunity to take some time off of work this week, so I think I was able to put about ~22 hours into getting all the suspension assembled.

I'm not sure if I had posted this before or not... but this was my IMPEX order once it came in finally, haha. I sorted the order into 'Hoses, gaskets, suspension, and hardware' boxes:
View attachment 3660524

Look at these swanky new OEM bushings!

View attachment 3660525

When I started this part of the project I didn't have a ball joint tool - which would be ideal to press this back into place (and is required for the No. 2/frame side bushing for the LCA), but these were easy enough to tap in:
View attachment 3660526

I did the same thing for the No. 1 bushing on the LCA, but then bought a big ball joint press kit that makes things way better. Definitely recommended!

After getting my front control arms sorted, I moved onto the steering knuckle. I installed a new needle bearing, bronze thrust bushing, and seal into the backside of passenger side steering knuckle - not pictured below is the seal, or the NGLI #1 grease that coated all of this before I installed it. As a reminder, these were getting replaced as a result of a hack mechanic not putting the snap ring on the CV axle to hold it tight to the knuckle & instead just threw a bolt with a stack of washers into the end of the CV axle! The bearing was DESTROYED. The bushing didn't look bad, but might as well swap it while I'm in there:

View attachment 3660512


First off was getting the new bearings from @cruiseroutfit installed into the front hubs - which meant cleaning off the leftover sealer that it looked like someone had used instead of a gasket the last time they packed the front wheel bearings. The old bearings didn't look bad, but meh, might as well start fresh here I figured. I carefully scrapped off as much as I could with a razer blade, then hit it with some red scotchbrite + brake cleaner to finish it off.
View attachment 3660314

After getting that cleaned, I installed the bearing races with a combination of a bearing/seal installer (for the little one) and a brass punch for the larger one - the biggest bearing installer I had wasn't quite bit enough for that one. Once I got the races installed, I packed the bearings themselves with some synthetic Valvoline wheel bearing grease - I'm sure we can argue about which wheel bearing grease is 'best' until the end of time, but I'm pretty sure it's the one that you change every 30,000 miles, regardless of the brand haha.

View attachment 3660513
All cleaned up and ready to go!

NOTE: DON'T FORGET to pack grease in the cavity between the bearings once you install them! I managed to miss that in the FSM (glanced over it somehow) and had nearly put the entire front end back together (minus the CV axle snap rings. Thankfully I saw @2001LC 's excellent post on wheel bearings & caught it due to his extensive attention to detail. I pulled the hubs back off so I could pack grease in the cavity between the bearings, leaving just enough room for the spindle as per the FSM. Once I addressed that, I put the front back together & measured my gap for the snap rings. I had to wait on some snap ring pliers, but I'll be installing those snap rings shortly.

I then moved on to installing the new front differential bushings. Since I ordered everything from Impex, it was probably an extra $50 (total) to purchase the entire mounting arm assemblies (vs just the bushings) for the side and rear mounts on the front differential, so that's what I did to save myself some heartache getting the old bushings out of those mounts. The front bushing you've got to get out (unless you want to replace the entire front cover of the diff), but that wasn't too bad and I covered that in a previous post.

Here's a side-by-side of the old vs. new bushing for the driver side mount - you can definitely tell the old one has settled some:
View attachment 3660520

The mount on the rear of the diff didn't look great either, and the 'cushion' on it was definitely compressed some:
View attachment 3660522

Ton of fun, isn't!

One thing I'll clear-up in your statement, regarding filling cavite of wheel hub (wheel bearings) with grease.

First: If wheel hub cavity not filled with grease. Centrifugal force, will force grease out of bearings, into empty cavity. Resulting in bearings & races getting red hot (burning up) on long high speed drive.

But we do not totally fill cavite, leaving only room for spindle. We need just a little air gap, between grease and spindle. Otherwise bearings run hot. They'll not burn up, but not run at optimal temp. The air gap reduce heat transfer from bearing to spindle. Allowing for better cooling.

 

[LJE]

Ton of fun, isn't!

One thing I'll clear-up in your statement, regarding filling cavite of wheel hub (wheel bearings) with grease.

First: If wheel hub cavity not filled with grease. Centrifugal force, will force grease out of bearings, into empty cavity. Resulting in bearings & races getting red hot (burning up) on long high speed drive.

But we do not totally fill cavite, leaving only room for spindle. We need just a little air gap, between grease and spindle. Otherwise bearings run hot. They'll not burn up, but not run at optimal temp. The air gap reduce heat transfer from bearing to spindle. Allowing for better cooling.

Sure, that's fair enough! Good point.

I'm confident in this case that there's still some air space in there - I filled the cavities with the hub on the bench, and then placed the hub on the spindle.

Had I then packed more grease in after I put the hub on the spindle, I'm sure I would have removed the (desired) small amount of airspace.

 

[davidp14]

This is my kind of build thread!

Great work so far and thanks for sharing.

 

[LJE]

This is my kind of build thread!

Great work so far and thanks for sharing.

Thanks! I've really enjoyed (and learned) from reading through a lot of the build threads here on MUD - so I thought I'd share some too. Glad you've enjoyed it!

 

[buddysharp]

Wow, what a wealth of info from a ton of work. Thanks for the tips!

 

[LJE]

I've got a bunch of updates I need to do here, but here's a sneak peak from last night... The eagle has landed!

 

[delz05]

It's ALWAYS a great feeling when the heart goes back into the beast! Great write up, great project!
Thanks for sharing...

 

[FamilyCamper]

Getting close to ready to pull the engine on my project, any tips for removing the hard to reach bolts on the top of the bell housing?? Also did you have any trouble with the torque converter trying to pull with the engine or a way you kept that in place??

 

[LJE]

Getting close to ready to pull the engine on my project, any tips for removing the hard to reach bolts on the top of the bell housing?? Also did you have any trouble with the torque converter trying to pull with the engine or a way you kept that in place??

Good questions! I think I got the two bolts on top of the bell housing from above with a swivel/universal impact joint, short (2") extension, and a normal depth socket. I fought more with the dang connectors that require both hands down there to undo!

The torque converter did pop out one click when I pulled it - I didn't realize that until someone on the UZJ100 Facebook group pointed it out in a picture I had posted - it was pulled out by about 3/8". It's no big deal to re-seat it though. There is a spec in the FSM for how far back it should sit from the face of the bellhousing - for my '05 the faces where the flex plate bolts to the torque converter should be more than 17.1mm. Mine ended up at 19mm-ish, and I assume the flex plate bolts pulled it tight against the plate when I reinstalled it.

 

[FamilyCamper]

Good questions! I think I got the two bolts on top of the bell housing from above with a swivel/universal impact joint, short (2") extension, and a normal depth socket. I fought more with the dang connectors that require both hands down there to undo!

The torque converter did pop out one click when I pulled it - I didn't realize that until someone on the UZJ100 Facebook group pointed it out in a picture I had posted - it was pulled out by about 3/8". It's no big deal to re-seat it though. There is a spec in the FSM for how far back it should sit from the face of the bellhousing - for my '05 the faces where the flex plate bolts to the torque converter should be more than 17.1mm. Mine ended up at 19mm-ish, and I assume the flex plate bolts pulled it tight against the plate when I reinstalled it.

Thank you this is very helpful. I was planning to go from the top also but just wanted to see what you did. Thankfully I was able to get those clips undone without too much of a fight but definitely some interesting poses to be in there with two hands haha

 

[LJE]

Thank you this is very helpful. I was planning to go from the top also but just wanted to see what you did. Thankfully I was able to get those clips undone without too much of a fight but definitely some interesting poses to be in there with two hands haha

My wife took this (very) flattering photo of me during that particular process...

 

[FamilyCamper]

My wife took this (very) flattering photo of me during that particular process...

View attachment 3678359

gotta do what you gotta do haha.

 

[LJE]

Alright - so, where did I leave off?

After I finished up the rear brakes, it was time to work on getting the engine timing belt on, buttoned up, and then the wiring harness put back on the engine. I don't really have any photos of that process, but the wiring harness actually wasn't too bad. Pretty well everything lines up exactly where it needs to go, so it was just a matter of swapping over a couple of broken connector housings from the 'new' harness I got with the engine (the 'new' harness is either a Tundra or Sequoia, so wouldn't work here. I ordered new housings to put back on that harness, and will sell it and recoup some $$$). Timing belt was also very straightforward to install using the FSM.

Here's the engine most of the way through the timing belt install:

Here's the backside - the engine came still with those blue/green plastic caps on the rear heater core take-offs!

The alternator that was on it was unlabeled, other than 'made in Mexico'. It didn't look that old, but I decided to go ahead and swap it out for a reman'd Denso from Rock Auto. I think it was ~$100 after the core exchange? Seemed like something worthwhile to start with a clean slate with.

I think this little hose between the rear fuel rail connector was the first hose (brand new, with new clamps too!) that I put back on the engine. I was worried about getting all the hoses in the right place, but for the most part, like the wiring, everything just sorta lines up. Partsouq diagrams also help out here too.

Next, I needed to address this broken connector on the intake plenum. @BullElk helped me out here when I created a thread asking what the diameter of this fitting was supposed to be. I ordered this fitting (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPJDW1HG?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) since I already had an 1/8-NPT tap set:

And here it is repaired! I drilled/tapped the hole, and added some loctite. Should be plenty strong enough for what this hose is for (idle up for the P/S pump).

At this point, it was time to do a roadtrip up to southern Michigan for vacation with the wife & kiddo. Apparently Michigan grass is much nicer than our Indiana grass, at least according to the 8 month old...

 

[LJE]

Just about the last thing I did before dropping the new engine into the vehicle was flush the heater cores - I wasn't sure how long they had been sitting with stagnate coolant in them, so I wanted to clean them out & check the flow. I bought this hose adapter and got to work. No terrible gunk or anything of the sort, and the flow seemed good! I then followed up by blowing the heater core lines out with compressed air, then filling with distilled water, blowing out with compressed air, refilling with distilled water, blowing out with compressed air, then filling with Toyota Super Long Life (pink) coolant. I wanted to make sure I got as much of the "hose" water out as possible.

Oh! And these were the heater tees that I pulled off... yes, that's a Sharkbite branded plumbing fitting, hahah. Using that is one thing, but if you had a plastic tee fail why wouldn't you just go ahead and hack it 100% by replacing both of the plastic tees? Sheesh. I replaced with OEM plastic + new hoses and clamps. Partsouq actually has the wrong part number for the clamps that connect the hoses between the engine and the tees - they spec out two different clamps (different one for each end), but one of those is to small. I can't remember which one now though, so uh, lemme know if you're going to do that job and I'll let you know what clamps I still have left over unused (i.e, the wrong ones)... I reused 2x of the old clamps & will keep an eye on them.

And with that, it was time to put the engine in! This step seemed like it was years in the making at this point, but it had really only been a few months since I got the LX and roughly two months after getting the new engine. It had been a TON of work to tear that engine down to the bare block & build it back up from scratch (having never built an engine myself before), but I learned SO MUCH doing it all.
I think if I were to do another one after this, I'd just buy one of the ~100K mile engines on Ebay from a reputable company, slap a new TB/waterpump/some gaskets on it and call it done, but it was worth it to me to do this myself at least once I think!

And here's a repeat of the teaser shot I posted earlier. With the help of a buddy, we got the engine dropped into place, mated with the transmission, and the mounting bolts put in loosely in less than a couple of hours. It really wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be! I realized that I should have left the passenger side O2 sensor connector loose, as it needs to wrap around the transmission cooler lines once they're in their bracket, but that was an easy enough fix. I'm not sure there's ever been a photograph of such a clean 2UZ going into a LC/LX with 255K miles before.

Next was to get everything bolted down, hoses connected, the wiring pushed back through the firewall to the ECU, etc. One thing helpful that I saw that @2001LC did was that he left his main engine mount nuts (one on each side) a little loose so that you can align the 2x bolts per side that mount the engine mounts to the frame. That made a lot of sense to me, so I repeated it here. I think cranked down on the mounting nuts as tight as I could get them through the wheel well. The FSM is lacking a torque spec that he or I could find, so German-spec (gutten-tight) it is! I used the method of linking two wrenches together to accomplish this:

Getting the wiring harness back through the firewall wasn't as bad as I expected it to be either - it sorta just pushed on in, and everything plugged back into the ECU nicely:

This was also a cool moment for me - the power steering lines that connect to the reservoir were the first thing that I disconnected when I took the original engine out. Reconnecting them (well, new hoses other than the high pressure line) sorta felt like I was closing a chapter here:

And here's all the accessories mounted & power steering lines in-place - just needs the fan of course. I had previously taken the old, split radiator out, so there was plenty of room to work here.

Next was connecting the exhaust downpipes. The passenger side was easy - everything lined up well. The drivers side sorta sucked though - I'm not sure if Doug Thorley misaligned their flange or what, but it was a little rough getting it all lined up and the bolts started. I'm hoping I don't end up with an exhaust leak, but it wouldn't shock me if it did. I think I was able to force the rest of the exhaust into alignment by tightening down all three nuts/bolts, but we'll see.

Here was a little side project - someone previously had broken off the front battery bracket bolt & lost the original battery bracket. I used a left-hand drill bit and the remains of the bolt spun right back out nicely.

Look at that brand-new, shiny bracket!

With the engine in-place, I was able to use a crank holding tool to torque down the crank bolt to 181 ft-lbs:

Next was time to fill the engine! I actually did this in several steps. When I tore the new techschool engine down, I literally washed & scrubbed the block with soap and water to make sure there was no debris in it. I then it with compressed air and used an entire can and a half of WD40 to make sure it didn't rust anywhere. However, that means all my cooling channels in the block had WD40 residue in them - maybe not a big deal, but, I wanted to get that out if possible.

I first mixed up hot water with dishwashing powder, put it in, let it sit for 15 minutes, then drained it via the block drains on either side of the engine. I followed up with distilled water, drained that, then more distilled water, drained that again, then finally followed up with Toyota SLLC after connecting the radiator & heater hoses. This is the procedure many people utilize when there's been a oil cooler failure or something else where oil and coolant mix in the coolant system - not common (or even heard of) on a 2UZ, but the principle holds.

With the radiator connected, transmission & flex plate connector made (making sure to installed the black locating bolt first!), ECU connected, fuel lines connected (after verifying that the full tank of fuel was good by using the fuel pump to push out a couple gallons and giving it the sniff test), radiator fan & accessory belt installed, vacuum lines connected, power steering fluid filled and bled, and everything else taken care of, the last step was to add some oil and test it out!

I went with Amsoil break-in oil for this tech school engine that had never been started before. Did I need fancy break-in oil? Maybe not. It was ~$100 for the 8 quarts that I ordered, which isn't a fun amount of money to spend on oil that you're going to discard in the after the first 20 minutes of running. However, hopefully it helped all the rings seat well for maximum life.
I looked at it this way: I've put all this effort & money into this engine, am I going to cheap out now on break-in oil?

Oh! There was one last thing... new air filter! Toyota OEM, because it was silly cheap when Serra was running their 25% off sale.

And here she is, all ready for the big debut! I first cranked the engine with no spark plugs + fuel pump fuse pulled out to build oil pressure. Without the sparkplugs the starter should turn the engine faster, giving the oil pump a better chance of priming it all. I gave it several 20-second cranks, with several minutes in-between to let the starter cool off.
I will say - this engine sounds WEIRD with no compression - I had to peek at the radiator fan to check if it was even spinning! Just a super odd, quiet noise.

Of note though - this car doesn't display any oil pressure readings while it's cranking. After several rounds of the spark-plug/fuel pump fuse out, I figured it had the be primed. Someone on here on 'Mud had rebuilt their Sequoia VVTi 2UZ and mentioned that their gauge showed zero oil pressure until they actually started it. That, combined with the fact that the RPM is also zero'd out clued me into the fact that that gauge just doesn't display anything while you're cranking. Just an FYI. @FamilyCamper - you might find that tidbit of info useful when you go to start your replacement engine.

And with that, it was time to put the spark plugs and fuel pump fuse back in, and see if it actually would start! To say that there have been only a few times in my life where I was this excited/nervous at the same time would be an understatement. I was so excited/nervous that I forgot to get the first startup on film.....

 

[LJE]

....hah! Got you. Did you really think I would forget to get something as momentous as the first-ever start of a brand-new 2UZ-FE on camera? Check out the below video. It takes a few seconds to push fuel through the system, but man, when it catches this 2UZ-FE ROARS to life! PROJECT LAZARUS IS A SUCCESS!



I feathered the throttle from 1000-2500 RPM over the next 20 minutes to help seat everything. I then drained my $100 in break-in oil directly afterwards to try to get all the assembly lube out of the system while it was still hot. As soon as the engine caught, the oil pressure gauge immediately shot up to where it was supposed to be. I didn't even have a check engine light - how wild is that!

A few days afterwards I took it on the first test drive. Turns out I very quickly lost power steering - I made a thread on it here ( Intermittent Power Steering (alternatively, how to get a surprise arm workout!) - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/intermittent-power-steering-alternatively-how-to-get-a-surprise-arm-workout.1343039/ ), but the short of it is I think the power steering pump that I rebuilt has a sticky pressure relief valve plunger which isn't something that I touched much during my rebuild, so it likely was faulty before then.

What this means is that at any RPM above 1000, I have power steering. At idle/when stopped however, I pretty well have zero power steering. I'm not sure why this is happening, as the bore feels good and the plunger feels good too - it's just that it gets hung up right at the top of the pressure relief cross-hole, so it doesn't seal very well. The FSM says that if plunger doesn't fall down it's associated bore freely under it's own weight, it's time to replace the entire power steering pump. Bummer, but at least it's not the steering rack that I rebuilt...

My new OEM power steering pump should get here Friday (8/2/24), so hopefully I'll be able to get that installed and that will take care of that issue. Once I get it running 100%, I'll get it aligned & will get it plated to be able to actually start driving it!

 

[LJE]

In the mean time, I then needed to button up some items & work on some less critical projects while I waited for my new power steering pump to come in. These Vessel JIS screwdrivers from @cruiserpatch are awesome - I had no idea what I was missing just using standard Philips head screwdrivers!
The JIS drivers just feel so much more secure in the screw heads. Enjoy a photo of me holding the stubby driver in the most awkward way possible for the camera:

The last major "ugh I don't want to do this' job I had left on the LX was to replace the upper AHC shock bushings. I knew this was going to be a mess, I knew the ones in the rear were going to suck, but I did it anyways and I'm glad I did. I also replaced my original (date code 2004) AHC globes at the same time, and flushed my AHC fluid.

Here's one of the front shocks out - I took the opportunity to drain the fluid from each shock, put a little fresh fluid in, shake that around, drain it back out, and repeat one more time. I then would extend each should back out to however long I needed it to reinstalled, then fill with fresh AHC fluid. I think this helped me not have to bleed as much air out later, but it did make for an even messier job - if you compressed that shock AT ALL you were going to send a stream of fluid FLYING out of that top fitting.

Of note - The FSM says to replace the o-ring and backup ring in each of the female AHC fittings whenever you do this. I replaced the ones in the front, but left the ones in the rear due to space constraints.

This shot made the pain all worth it though - I originally was sure that Impex had sent me the wrong part...

...but then I checked the part number on top. They match! Wow, that's a lot of permement deformation over the course of 19 years I guess. I'll never know if these actually made a difference in ride quality, but I can sleep easy knowing I should have the cushiest ride AHC can provide!

The front shocks were a little bit of a pain to put back in. That's because there's not really enough room to get a socket + ratchet in above the nuts due to the body sheet metal, at least until you get them most of the way on. You also can't use a ratcheting wrench, because of the 'cup' of the flang that the AHC fitting bolt onto (via to 12mm headed bolts) flairs upwards. The below photo is the solution I figured out: socket + Knipex pliers to get it started and most of the way, at which point I could sneak my torque wrench in there to finish tighening that top 22mm nut. It should also be noted that I had already previously changed the lower shock bushings in the front while they were still mounted to the truck. In retrospect, I would have waited until I took them out to do that. That's how I did the back ones, and it's much easier that way.

The passanger side front was the first one I did, so it took a while to figure it all out, but the drivers side front then went much quicker - which was great, because I was rushing to finish before grilling dinner for the wife + kiddo.
I was super proud of how quick the driver side went... until I was all done, looked down, and thought 'huh, that old bushing laying there on the ground looks really good still... almost like it's a new bushing - wait a minute...' Sure enough, I had somehow forgotten to put the second (top most) bushing back on before reassembling it all.

Oh well, at least I was super quick at it now, right?!?

Anyways, after taking care of that it was time to move on to the back upper (and lower) shock mounts. Going into this I was prepared to drill a couple access holes from above. I know @suprarx7nut thinks people are crazy for doing this, but let me tell you, I really don't think there's a way around it on a '03+ LX (unless you cut the shocks off right under the mount, but I needed to save those). Earlier versions (98->2002) that have the charcoal canister up front in the engine bay might be doable, but the driver side rear shock mount on an 2003+ has 4x fuel lines running RIGHT where you need to be able to get anything up there to access (should have taken a picture there) due to the charcoal canister. I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to avoid cutting holes in the floor of my LX, but I was only successful in getting the first (most rearward) 12mm AHC connection flange bolt out of there. But knowing that the 'cup' of the AHC connection flange would prevent me from using a 22mm wrench, that meant that I would need enough room to get my socket + breaker bar up there, which just wasn't going to happen with those 4x fuel lines running where they do. I also had low confidence in being able to reconnect any of those AHC lines afterwards - so the hole saw came out. I started with the pilot bit of the hole saw in place until the actual saw had made a good grove, then took the pilot bit out to make sure I didn't hit something I didn't want to with it when I punched through.

I nailed the driver side location based on some info I found here on 'Mud & a 2.5" hole saw. This hole allowed me to get the AHC fitting off, then the 22mm nut. I took the shock out, cleaned it, replaced the lower bushing, and then put it back in with new upper bushings. Getting it back in also sucked - with the new bushings there's not enough thread engagement to start the nut without compressing the bushings, which takes a pry bar and creative body positioning to be able to pry on that outside the truck while you're trying to put the 22mm nut on inside the truck. Not fun at all, but I got it done.

The passenger side rear was actually in a little different location in reference to the interior body trim as it turns out - so I ended up drilling two overlapping holes. Not ideal, but I made up some sheet metal & bent it all to cover these holes. I cleaned up the edges of the holes, de-greased them, primed them, and painted them. I then covered them with a gracious amount of metal-safe silicone (no acetic acid! I used stuff intended to seal penetrations in metal roofs), covered the surrounding area in silicone, then pressed the sheet metal firmly into place. Once the silicone had cured I followed up with some sound-dampening rubber sheeting on top of the sheet metal.

Once I got that awfulness all out of the way, it was on to more serious projects... like changing out the cabin air filter! Someone please tell me that some versions of these filters came gray?!? Please?!? Otherwise the filters I pulled out were gross:

Yuck.

Other minor projects included swapping out the interior lights for some swanky LEDs from @FullyLitLED - these look great! New on the left, old on the right. They're a nice 'natural white' without having a blue tint to them. I went with the red door lights, so I'm excited to see how those look. I haven't actually installed the door lights back into the doors yet, as I don't want to run down the battery with the doors open as much as I have them right now.

One of the things I haven't loved is that fact that the rear license plate trim was loose on the passenger side due to some broken clips...

However, while I was in there swapping the reverse light bulbs with the new ones, I noticed that the reverse light housings are held into the license plate trim by this conveniently located M6 stud:

So I cut/drilled/bent a little piece of aluminum that fits down over that stud and presses against the interior sheet metal of the tailgate! I repeated this on the drivers side for good measure. Now the license plate trim is super secure, and doesn't make that annoy rattle when you shut the tailgate. I thought this was a super cheap/clever solution for a non-critical (but still annoying) problem.

After taking care of that, I then figured out how to add soft-close to my tailgate - checkout this thread ( Possible to soften/dampen the lower tailgate when opening? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/possible-to-soften-dampen-the-lower-tailgate-when-opening.1308750/page-2#post-1557857 ) for more details - but the below video shows it nicely:


Moving on from there, while waiting on my new power steering pump, I decided it was time to address the paint on the side mirrors - it was just BAKED. This is the passenger side, but the driver's side wasn't any better:

I went through the process of sand/prime/basecoat/clearcoat/wetsand/polish, and turned out with this in the end - not too bad! First time doing any painting to this level. The color-matched rattle can paint was pretty decent - maybe a touch darker, but that could also be due to an overly heavy application of this metallic paint by yours truly. Still, definitely way better than it was! There was some permanent pitting/scratches in the housing that would have required body filler to correct, but that seemed a little silly to do on a vehicle with 255K miles on it. The rest of the body is actually in pretty good condition, other than peeling paint on the front bumper (oh gee, guess I better get an ARB bumper then - darn! haha) and some scratches on the hood that I'm hoping will polish out.

The most recent thing that I've done is to refinish & coat the headlights - I used the Cerakote kit, and I'm pretty happy with it. The kit has you start at 2000 grit after wiping them down with several de-oxidation wipes, but I started at 400, then 600, then 1000, then 1500, then the 2000->3000 that was included in the kit. Needed? Maybe not, but the previous Sylvania kit I used on my Sequoia had you start at 400. The below picture somehow simultaneously makes the untouched (left) headlight look better than it really did in real-life, and the refinished/coated light (right) look worse than it does in real life, haha. The refinished/coated headlights really do look like new now.
I've got nearly all the parts I need to retrofit the Morimoto Micro D2S projectors into them, just waiting on @Luke111 to start selling the brackets again. Definitely not a huge priority, as I still have plenty to do on this vehicle...

And with that, we're back up to date! I'm super excited that it's nearly driveable! I'll need to set my torsion bars/AHC sensors/etc too at some point, but I did get Techstream up and running so I'll tackle that once it's driveable.