Skreddy’s Dark Blue Metallic 87

[Skreddy]

In the words of my wife “why TF do you need another project Landcruiser?!”

I don’t have Facebook but Mrs. Skreddy does. Just like my daily driver silver 60 series, she stumbled across this dark blue metallic 87 on Facebook and asked “isn’t this like the silver one?” Sure is! And I’m a sucker for a cheap project with a title! This has been on Facebook a few weeks but no one had gone to look, just casual messaging. The Mrs. Sent him my number and after some texting, I told him if it did have legitimate title and looked similar to the pics, I’ll buy it.
The biggest reason I was interested: this cruiser came with a spare engine and I want one to rebuild for my other 60. Why does it have a spare engine?……. Story I was told, this cruiser was parked about 8 years ago when, a few days after an oil change it started “making a noise”. A friend of the owner told them the engine was toast (apparently, just from the description of the sound, never heard it themself). So it got parked and the original owner’s daughter and son in law bought their house and this was still there so they decided to sell it. That’s where we are now. Last Friday my 5 year old and I loaded the trailer and engine hoist and took a 2 hour drive down there to get it. Parts of it are worse than I was hoping but other bits were better. Overall, for what I’m into it, I’m very pleased.

I’ll get better pics in a couple weeks when I start tearing into it. Was full of spare wheels and tires, no headliner, mossy seat covers and smells like cigarettes and sadness, perfect. Mileage says 132k and based on paperwork and the info I was given, I think it may be accurate. Was told they were the original owners.

Plan is to look it over well and hopefully, get it back to a reliable and safe driver and sell it. If it’s too far gone I’ll part it, but I think the first option isn’t a stretch.

 

[Gimme a 60]

In the words of my wife “why TF do you need another project Landcruiser?!”

I don’t have Facebook but Mrs. Skreddy does. Just like my daily driver silver 60 series, she stumbled across this dark blue metallic 87 on Facebook and asked “isn’t this like the silver one?” Sure is! And I’m a sucker for a cheap project with a title! This has been on Facebook a few weeks but no one had gone to look, just casual messaging. The Mrs. Sent him my number and after some texting, I told him if it did have legitimate title and looked similar to the pics, I’ll buy it.
The biggest reason I was interested: this cruiser came with a spare engine and I want one to rebuild for my other 60. Why does it have a spare engine?……. Story I was told, this cruiser was parked about 8 years ago when, a few days after an oil change it started “making a noise”. A friend of the owner told them the engine was toast (apparently, just from the description of the sound, never heard it themself). So it got parked and the original owner’s daughter and son in law bought their house and this was still there so they decided to sell it. That’s where we are now. Last Friday my 5 year old and I loaded the trailer and engine hoist and took a 2 hour drive down there to get it. Parts of it are worse than I was hoping but other bits were better. Overall, for what I’m into it, I’m very pleased.

I’ll get better pics in a couple weeks when I start tearing into it. Was full of spare wheels and tires, no headliner, mossy seat covers and smells like cigarettes and sadness, perfect. Mileage says 132k and based on paperwork and the info I was given, I think it may be accurate. Was told they were the original owners.

Plan is to look it over well and hopefully, get it back to a reliable and safe driver and sell it. If it’s too far gone I’ll part it, but I think the first option isn’t a stretch.


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Wow!! Awesome find.

I wouldn’t mind getting another project 60 series.

 

[Beams37]

Great find !!

 

[Skreddy]

Oct 86 build, just for future reference. I’m excited to get going on it. My door springs on my new shop should be set this week then I can bring it inside. I’ll borescope the cylinders and see if I can turn it over. Oil looks good and full so will see what the deal is. Can’t wait until it thaws out and all those smells inside really come to life!

 

[Arlo89]

Should clean up pretty good. You may be able to massage that passenger quarter mostly out. Hopefully youll find something simple on the engine. I got lucky once and bought a vehicle with a bad engine noise cheap and it was a bent push rod....straightened it and it was fine, no other issues ( not fj though)

 

[406Cruiser]

I would have bought it for the original radio alone.

 

[Skreddy]

I would have bought it for the original radio alone.

I am tempted to swap it into my other 60.

 

[onemanarmy]

following along!
nice find

 

[Skreddy]

Working nights this weekend and woke up earlier than I planned. Perfect time to go wash this thing and check it over a little better. It’s been below freezing for a week and no signs of letting up, I didn’t want the snow and ice melting off in my shop so took it to the car wash.
Once home, I stripped the nasty seat covers and tossed some garbage. Found a few receipts back to 05 with similar mileage to what’s on it now, leading me to believe the mileage may be accurate (and seat cover tells a similar tale). He said the in laws parked it 8 years ago, but could’ve been ‘08 too…. Sister in law driving it at the time was late 20’s and she’s 40’s now.

Anyhow, interior is better than I expected but the body is about what I expected. No rust found yet but some bondo in the back pillar and hood at least.
Haven’t tried turning the engine over yet but I scoped the cylinders and they don’t look bad. Going to squirt a little oil in and probably try turning over by the flywheel this week. Cylinder pic is same across all 6.

Spare engine sat in a pole building with no plugs in it for 8+ years. Was supposed to be a runner but there’s definite dust sludge from not being sealed up.

 

[Skreddy]

Spark plugs from engine in 60 and scope pic from spare engine.

 

[Skreddy]

Ok, maybe preemptive, but I’m getting excited. Put a spare battery in it and hooked a remote start button to the starter and it spins very freely! Kind of an odd noise every other rotation but it’s sounds like a weird air “whomp”. Step 2 compression test: 1-3 and 5 are all 140 psi. 6 is 125 psi and #4 is 30 psi. Hooked air to the cylinder and it blows into the intake no matter what position it’s rotated to. Guess it’s time to pull all the spaghetti and the air cleaner and take a look under the valve cover.

But first!

 

[Skreddy]

Ok, enough dilly dallying. Cover is off, pushrods look fine, valves open and close as they should. Air going into cylinder 4 will blow out whatever other cylinder has its intake valve open. Could it be just a bad valve?! I did find an oil bottle seal in the top of the head.
Found remnants of a mouse condo but no corpses. Food and poo in the air cleaner housing but the filter kept them from going any further.
The other thing I am wondering to myself (and now you): has anyone ever been this far into this engine? The bolts holding the air cleaner housing to the valve cover look like they’ve never had a socket on them and there’s no extra witness marks where they’d have been tightened. Same for hoses, etc.

 

[Skreddy]

Head pulled, all the emissions stuff in tact is a pain! Nothing obvious with the head or valves. Kind of odd. Now I may just take the whole engine out so I can clean it up and get a good look at the bottom end before putting it back together.

 

[Skreddy]

There’s no turning back now, engine is out. I’ll get it stripped down next week and see how the bearings look but all cylinders look fine and spins easy enough by hand. All the accessories also spin freely with no noise so I’m very curious to see what the problem is/was.

 

[Skreddy]

Best guess on that low compression cylinder 4 must’ve been some petrified mouse poop holding a valve open or something.

Engine stripped down and good thing! Shrapnel in the pan! #1 and #6 rod bearings are toast! The rest are on their way out but likely wouldn’t have been making noise yet. I’ll see if a crank grind and oversize bearings will take care of it, otherwise I’ll start into the spare engine that came with this one.

Good news is that rods and cylinders look great, clutch looks fairly new and still shows the machining marks on the flywheel from a recent (run time) surface.

#6 rod bearing on left, #5 in the middle (and looks similar to 2-4), #1 on the right.

 

[Skreddy]

Took the head off the engine that came with this 60 today because it sounds like I may need it for my other 60. Cylinders look good besides the junk in there likely from sitting. Head looks fine, valves move and rocker shaft assembly wasn’t rusty and looked good. No bent pushrods either. I’ll try to clean up the cylinders a little and see if the pistons are standard or oversize. Head gasket was intact: so far looks like it may be a decent spare, rebuildable engine. But who knows what secrets that bottom end could be holding……

 

[Skreddy]

Crank is back from grind and polish and looks great. They checked out the rods on the 2 bad journals and said they were fine. Also got the head back from clean/mag and surface. Should be able to start getting this engine back together in the next week or so.

 

[Skreddy]

Taken longer than expected to get on this one. Cleaned the block today. Used oven cleaner and the hose. Planning to start reassembly next week.

 

[Skreddy]

And the time keeps ticking….

Block is cleaned and I did a quick dingle ball hone on the cylinders; not to really remove any material but just for some fresh cross hatching. Cleaned all the oil passages, etc and started assembling and I got the wrong main bearings. It was right box/part number but no way those bearings were going to fit. Sent them back yesterday and started on the head today. Had 1 broken off air rail fitting I had to drill out. Once I drilled it to almost size, it twisted right out. Made a tap from a broken air rail fitting to clean up all the holes. Galley plug tomorrow then waiting on the main bearings to start assembly.

 

[Skreddy]

I have the short block assembled, should get it the rest of the way together over the next week. All journals are right in the middle of spec (plastigage) and rotates nicely with the cam installed. Can’t wait to get this one driving again and decide what to do with it.