Builds Sentimental Restoration of Family 1990 FJ62 (1 Viewer)

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Oil Gallery Plug JB Weld Sealing

Decided to initiate preventative attack on the oil gallery plug today. I began cleaning it and the area with diluted Dawn and a toothbrush. I graduated to a toothbrush and lacquer thinner. Finally scrubbed it best I could with a rag. As you know, access is not easy. I spent a while examining it by positioning a shaving mirror and flashlight such that I could visually examine it after each cleaning pass. I pulled the #5 spark plug cable and practiced accessing it with my left index finder with a good exam glove on.

When I was confident of how it felt and that I could navigate quickly to it, I mixed up the JB Weld. With a good bit on the pad of the finger, I began by working it around the plug rather than over it. I kind of built it up, and then could "cap" the main surface of the plug with subsequent amounts/layers.

Probably not necessary, but I guess a little peace of mind...along the with new low pressure alarm that is coming soon, will be nice.
 
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Pushrod (Side) Cover Gasket Replacement Coming Up

I was at a local dealership today picking up Sequoia after airbag recall work. As luck would have it, one of the older, most senior techs was out front for something, and we got to talk about replacing the pushrod cover gasket. They gave me a "worst case" labor required quote of four hours. Of course the shop rate is high, but I'm going to have them do it. The old pro tech is a master mechanic and has done a few of these, so I'm going with experience on this one. I'll get it done in mid-October after the oil pan gasket and previously mentioned mods are complete.

Edit: This is on hold for a while to monitor.
 
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It appears the UV oil dye may have been a very valuable test. The most leak is near the junction of the oil pan gasket and rear main seal, but it appears to be forward of the rear main seal. We pulled that little cover on the tranny just below the junction where oil would pass if the rear main was leaking. Nothing in there was wet. There was no fluoresce in the region nearest the rear main seal. That rear main seal was replaced with tranny rebuild about 35K ago; should be okay. We saw a little of the same at the front of the oil pan, but less. So verdict is move forward with oil pan gasket replacement. Fingers and toes crossed.

Tranny ATF oil temp gauge, sensor assembled into NPT extender and into black 6AN T-fitting. Overheat alarm will be secured to back of gauge with mounting tape. The gauge bezel will attach under the dash with Gorilla Grip mounting tape roughly under the AC/heater controls. The alarm wires are so small that I rigged a way to secure them permanently so that they are not exposed. The wires for it to the overheat light and ground will also secure there but not endanger the small wires.
View attachment 2790676
The black T-fitting with temp sensor will be inserted to one of these custom 6AN tranny cooler lines...whichever is output from the tranny.
View attachment 2790684
New silicone vacuum lines. I pulled all the OEM and went to work. I hope I remembered where they all go.:oops: Just kidding; one at a time. Lord knows I've probably done things that stupid in my life.:rolleyes: Still need to work on the larger diameter lines.
Here's a progress report on mods and services I've mentioned. The oil pan gasket replacement has gone well, although as advertised by everyone, it is difficult to get the darn thing to stay in place...and it takes multiple re-torqueing of the bolts over several days. They just keep loosening up as the gasket seasons.

The ATF temp sensor is in place, and was an easy installation. The gauge is not dash mounted yet due to other work, but I had a chance to drive it and see how it works. It was a mostly level 25 minute drive. It took ten minutes to warm up, but then stabilized at about 130F-140F. Nice.

The oil pressure sensor/sendor mods have slowed things down because it took a while to find out what type of threads the OEM gauge sender in the oil filter block are. Turns out that 1/8 BSPT is the ticket. I finally found an adapter at GlowShift that was male BSPT, with 1x BSPT female (for OEM gauge sender), and 2x 1/8 NPT female ports (for the additional oil pressure gauge sender and the low oil pressure alarm sender switch). The OEM gauge sender pretty much fell apart when being removed. New one on order, arriving in a day or so. Photos of the cluster of oil pressure sensors/senders when complete.

Final photos of the gauges will be coming. I may also try to do a video to demonstrate the low oil pressure alarm.

Here is a photo of the ATF temp sensor. That is located behind the skid plate. The dripping on the hose is oil from the oil pressure gauge work above.

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Got a step closer to completion of this today. Everything is run and ops tested except for the OEM gauge (the OEM sender fell apart when removed). We used an external oil pressure test gauge connected at the sender port(s) to verify operating pressure from idle to about 2500 RPM. It stays remarkably stable at 59psi to 69psi. The low oil pressure alarm works fabulously! It sounds with key on, but goes off about a second after start up as pressure tops 4psi. It is seriously loud...which is what it needs to be. I plan to post a video of the completed new gauges and alarm. I'll also be providing more photos, including the oil pressure "tree" of sensors/senders.

Waiting on Toyota for a new OEM gauge sender. We had a new one, but it was faulty (pegged the OEM gauge at full travel). Once it arrives in two days, I'll be able to mount the gauges in place and dress all the cabling. EDIT: Not faulty. Connected to ground spade not knowing this would fry the OEM in-dash oil pressure gauge. Used replacement coming.

BTW, the oil pan gasket replacement appears to be great, although has required re-torqueing.

Another possible misidentified leak is associated with the push rod (side) cover. The power steering reservoir has been slow leaking a long time. I think what I thought may have been a push rod cover leak may have been ATF fluid from the power steering reservoir leaking down to that area...for quite a long time. Replaced the reservoir o-ring. Old one was flat/shot. Should have figured that one out a long time ago.

Of course, the two gauges will mount above where seen here under the dash in front of the shifter. I've added color tape index marks/arcs to minimum and maximums just for easy reading.
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Success! Gauges and Low Oil Pressure Alarm Project Complete.

Got the Cruiser back this morning so that I could work on cable management, mounting, etc.. I have photos and two videos for you.

This photo is of the sender cluster created to accommodate two additional senders at the OEM sender location under the oil filter. The adapter came from GlowShift...the only place I could find a 1/8 BSPT/1/8 NPT adapter. On the left is the sensor/sender for the new aftermarket GlowShift oil pressure gauge. On the right is OEM oil gauge sender. At bottom is the Holley 5 PSI low pressure sender/switch. The purple ground spade cover is to prevent the use of that spade. It was used unknowing that it would fry the OEM dash oil pressure gauge. Used gauge on the way. I have used a split, braided 1/4" jacket for all this new wiring under the hood to protect it from heat.

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Here are the two new gauges. On the left is oil pressure. On the right is auto transmission oil temp. These are mounted via a strip of Gorilla Mounting Tape...so removal is "easy," if ever desired.
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The low oil pressure alarm is designed as an emergency shut down alert in the case of a catastrophic oil pressure/system failure such as the oil gallery plug blowing. The first video is the system "test" at start up. As soon as the key goes to ignition, the alarms sounds. It goes out about immediately at start up with the rise in oil pressure.


This video demonstrates the alarm as the oil pressure decays below 5 PSI.



Pretty cool, huh. Tomorrow I'll run a test drive up the local mountain a ways to see how ATF temp does.
 
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Mountain Road Test for Tranny Temp

Took a drive up the Catalina/Mt Lemmon Highway this morning to push the auto tranny and see how all the thermal management mods are working. My frame of reference is a drive on the same highway before all the mods. On that drive, I got the AT overtemp light at Windy Point (about 6500 MSL). After all the mods (new aluminum radiator, external cooler in series with the radiator, active 12" fan between cooler and condenser, and passive heat shield of exhaust adjacent to tranny)...including now an ATF temp gauge, I wanted to see how it would perform with an extended uphill grade.

To cut to the chase...the tranny ran at very comfortable temps. This morning I intended to go just to roughly Molina Basin, but the tranny temps just weren't yet challenged there...so I kept climbing. I went a few miles past the Hirabiyashi Camp so that I had a good long time on a good grade with most of the time spent in 3rd to maintain 35-40mph. I only had to downshift to 2nd once for a about 5 seconds. The tranny temp stabilized in this climbing at 150F +/-10F. I finally gave up and headed back downhill. Of course, going downhill the tranny cooled down to 120F.

Nothing like a little peace of mind.
 
Success! Gauges and Low Oil Pressure Alarm Project Complete.

Got the Cruiser back this morning so that I could work on cable management, mounting, etc.. I have photos and two videos for you.

This photo is of the sender cluster created to accommodate two additional senders at the OEM sender location under the oil filter. The adapter came from GlowShift...the only place I could find a 1/8 BSPT/1/8 NPT adapter. On the left is the sensor/sender for the new aftermarket GlowShift oil pressure gauge. On the right is OEM oil gauge sender. At bottom is the Holley 5 PSI low pressure sender/switch. The purple ground spade cover is to prevent the use of that spade. It was used unknowing that it would fry the OEM dash oil pressure gauge. Used gauge on the way.

View attachment 2825486
Here are the two new gauges. On the left is oil pressure. On the right is auto transmission oil temp.
View attachment 2825490
The low oil pressure alarm is designed as an emergency shut down alert in the case of a catastrophic oil pressure/system failure such as the oil gallery plug blowing. The first video is the system "test" at start up. As soon as the key goes to ignition, the alarms sounds. It goes out about immediately at start up with the rise in oil pressure.


This video demonstrates the alarm as the oil pressure decays below 5 PSI.



Pretty cool, huh. Tomorrow I'll run a test drive up the local mountain a ways to see how ATF temp does.

I wonder if you could add a delay relay on initial startup so you didn't get that alert every time you start the truck?
 
I wonder if you could add a delay relay on initial startup so you didn't get that alert every time you start the truck?
I'm sure you could find a way to do that. Problem with that is...how will you confirm the integrity of the system on a regular basis? It kind of defeats the purpose of protecting you and providing peace of mind that you have that protection. Murphy's Law would certainly be tempted to strike if that was neglected after going to the trouble of creating the alarm system.

A "press to test" system could be created to test the electrical integrity, but not the functional integrity of the low pressure sender/switch. With the start up as is, you test all of the system (sender switch and electrical integrity). Pilot/aviation stuff motivating me. ;)
 
I'm sure you could find a way to do that. Problem with that is...how will you confirm the integrity of the system on a regular basis?
Good point...
 
@LCnAZ

Did you use a relay with the pressure switch to buzzer?

I'm thinking of using a Cole-Hersee combo LED/Buzzer in-dash for the alarm triggered by a simple 4 lb switch (amz won't ship the holley switch to Kalif because of Prop 65).

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@LCnAZ

Did you use a relay with the pressure switch to buzzer?

I'm thinking of using a Cole-Hersee combo LED/Buzzer in-dash for the alarm triggered by a simple 4 lb switch (amz won't ship the holley switch to Kalif because of Prop 65).

View attachment 3040547

I looked at these but did not use it or a relay. I wasn't confident that the buzzer would be loud enough or unique enough. When that sucker goes off, I want there to be no misunderstanding of what it is. I kind of train myself with that sound to react quickly wherever I am, should it go off. Yep, probably overkill, but I'm down with that. The cheap alarm/siren I used is loud as s***e! lol I actually customize that with a single layer of simple tape over the exit hole.
 

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