Builds Skreddy Bought an 87 FJ60 (1 Viewer)

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Skreddy

SILVER Star
Joined
Feb 3, 2020
Threads
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Location
Deer Park, WA
I never get out of the 40 forum, so this is a new experience for me.

I’ve wanted a 60 series for awhile and my wife saw this 87 posted on Facebook yesterday with a bad head gasket (posted as an 84). She messaged him for me and I hooked up the trailer. Couple hours later and some difficult pushing and we had it loaded on my flatbed.
Was told it was bought less than a year ago with a bad head gasket. I don’t trust anyone I don’t know so in my mind, at worst I need a new engine (no offense, he’s a member here and seemed like a standup guy). Battery was dead so no chance of a compression check but I could spin it over by the belts/pulleys. The body looked great in the dark and interior looked good too: pretty complete, seats that need recovered and some typical peeling clear coat on the paint. Very little/no rust so that’s a plus.
Today in the light I’ve had a little time to look at it better. Really pleased with the overall condition and I was able to get it to run! Has a man-a-fre Weber conversion and desmogged. Ran like crap; definitely a few dead cylinders. But no weird noises and it would idle on its own (poorly). I’ll get a compression and leak down test and see what’s up. Telltale signs of “head gasket in a can” snake oil fix residue on the rad cap.
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Oh, and it came with a 3FE in the way back. Word is that engine is good so we will see.
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Had a spare few minutes for a compression check. Not great results but not much worse than expected.
0
0
145
140
10
15

No wonder it runs like crap. I’m surprised it even idled!
 
Awesome! Can't wait to watch you bring this one back to life. 👍
 
Great options,- a 3FE swap, 2FE conversion..........
I will most likely sell the 3FE. I’m in no hurry so the 2F works for me. I have a Sniper setup in my FJ40 so if I do efi, I’ll likely go that route. But, I haven’t looked much into the 2FE conversion yet.
 
Head is off. Wonder why there was no compression? Could blow air in cylinder 1 and come right out plug hole for 2. Same with 5,6.
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guess you found out why there was no compression between those 2 cylinders
 
Woohoo! Glad to see you in a 60 now as well! Would be fun to make a 2FE with those two engines. :D
 
Woohoo! Glad to see you in a 60 now as well! Would be fun to make a 2FE with those two engines. :D
I don’t think a 2FE is in my near future. I read a lot of threads about it the last couple days. Since it seems it is just a head gasket, can’t justify the work for the 3FE. I’m not ruling out a sniper though….
If I keep this one i need to sell my 4Runner. Just have to decide the trade offs between the two. BTW, the coolness of a 60 is far outweighing the comforts of a 4Runner…..

I am going to ditch the Weber and put a stock carb on it for now. Get it close to original and drive it a bit to see if a 60 is as great as my imagination has built it up to be.

So if anyone needs a complete 3FE….
 
I’m waiting on the head to get back from checking for cracks and surfacing. In the meantime, I’ve blasted the intake and exhaust manifolds and painted them. Today I started rebuilding the brand new Amazon knock-off Aisin carb. What?! Rebuild a new carb?! I’ve dealt with a few of these and they’ve ranged from good out of the box, to real bad. This one was ok but would’ve given me some tuning issues. I bought the Keyster kit right when I ordered the carb. I use the keyster gaskets, float needle and accelerator pump plunger. Usually, I find these full of manufacturing shavings that’ll clog passages and this one didn’t disappoint. The rest of what I did to it is just fitting parts better. I have a machined flat surface I put some 400 grit sandpaper on and with firm, but gentle pressure, sand all the mating surfaces in the carb. It’s surprising how far out of straight these are. The middle of the carb body to top gasket didn’t even have impressions in it from being bolted together. Here’s some pics. The vacuum secondary diaphragm housing was so bad it wouldn’t even hold vacuum.
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Hard to tell but really “choppy”, not smooth or level surface before sanding.
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Sanding the plastic mid spacer.
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Secondary diaphragm housing with half sanded, the other as delivered.
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After a bit of sanding. 2 opposing corners aren’t even getting sanded yet since the others were so high.
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Yikes! Why not just get an early non vac 2barrel aisan and rebuild that? Assuming you're going to desmog?
 
Yikes! Why not just get an early non vac 2barrel aisan and rebuild that? Assuming you're going to desmog?
It’s already desmogged (but needs some uh…. attention…). I may go the sniper route and I couldn’t see spending the prices I’ve seen on the early carb. Besides my time, only into this carb $100.

I’ve had pretty decent luck with these cheap carbs and the minor attention they need.
 
Got the head back today. Made new EGR block off plates and got pretty much everything back together. No coolant because I didn’t have big enough hose clamps for the big radiator hose off the water pump. But I’m impatient and wanted to see, so I tried starting it anyway. It lives! Sounds pretty good but ran less than 30 seconds. The idle solenoid wire is (I’m assuming) taped up in the harness so I need to find it and hook that up. Also tried disconnecting a big power wire that was coming off the coil to feed the electric choke. The coil stud snapped so I need to try to find one of those tomorrow.
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When I was underneath it, I saw these skilled welds on the exhaust…. Every connection from the down pipe back has these. So that’s on the list
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Looked at it a little this morning. I am guessing all these cut wires go to the various switching components related to emissions (that’s no longer there). Some of these wires definitely got hot! I found what I believe is the stock fuel solenoid wire and temp hooked it up.
I need to find a wiring diagram but so far can find for 88 (efi so not the same), or just the generic ‘80’s Toyota manual with generic wiring schematic.
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Short version: it’s on the road!

I stopped by @mr2m1 house yesterday to look at his wiring. Then TONS of forum reading last night while I was working…. Only on my breaks of course…. Found the proper fuel solenoid wire. Hooked everything back up, added a pcv port to my intake block off plate and it runs awesome! About 10 miles on it to go drive a loop and get some gas.

Tach is stuck/doesn’t work (but it did the first time I started it). Ac doesn’t have a belt so need to look at that. Clutch pedal disengages all the way at the floor. But I love this thing so far!

Next item: a good wash.
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Quick wash.
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Today I took some brakes from the cruiser….. C’mon, that’s funny (maybe with more context)….

Parking brake wasn’t working so I assumed the bell cranks were seized and I was correct! I love being right. Drivers rear was seized with parking brake activated (good thing I didn’t drive around too much yet). Was a pain but got it loosened off just enough to get the drum off. Passenger side was seized not activated because the wire inside from crank to actuator lever was snapped. Once drums were off I verified neither rear wheel cylinder did anything when the pedal was pressed. Besides that, rusty drums, cracked shoes, dead spiders. Typical brake job after sitting for years. Blasted the drums for paint and waiting on parts. Front brakes work well and look pretty decent so they’ll get bled with the rest then look at them deeper when I get to the knuckle rebuild.
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Looks like it's got a lot of potential. Congrats!
 

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