The Godfather - 1993 Toyota Land Cruiser (1 Viewer)

[FMC80]

Good day, mud,

The purpose of this thread is mainly to document the journey of this Land Cruiser. I unexpectedly bought this LC when I drove it up from Melbourne, FL a couple of months ago. I was driving it to my home in TN, to perform a pre-purchase inspection and to help my friend’s wife sell it.

In the beginning of that 10 hour road trip, I decided I reallly liked this cruiser despite all its flaws. So I asked my friend’s wife if I could buy it, and she agreed.

The PO was a dear friend of mine who unexpectedly passed in Oct 2024. He and I served together in Japan when nK was acting dumb. Extraordinarily dumb. Anyway, he is a first gen, Italian immigrant who learned English and got his citizenship and served our country for three decades beginning as an E-1 and retiring as an O-6. He was my commander and my dear friend. After I got to know him, I dubbed him, “The Godfather” and that’s what he went by for a few years before retiring. He was a great dude who brought a lot of light into this world, and so in his honor, I’ll dub this cruiser, “The Godfather”.

Finally, I already have two 80s so this one will go to my son who is just shy of 15 yo…in the meantime my wife loves this cruiser so she’s driving it for work.

Paint: 5/10. Mainly dull/faded and scummy. Needs some rehab and it’ll be good to go. That single stage 045 is nice

Body: 5/10. Dealer installed roof rack is corroded. Big time. Many dings/dents/shade-tree body worker fixes here and there.

Engine: 9/10. The thing purrs. Yes, it needs a full baseline of new fluids and rubbers, but damn that engine is smooth. I ran a compression test when I first brought her home. 1-6 were all 175 or better.

Interior: 7/10. All of the plastic is intact, except for the dash. An Escape Gear dash mat in en route today from Cape Town, SA so ignorance will be my buddy. Oh, and amazing cloth seats. Indestructible. To keep them well maintained, I’ve removed the third row and more Escape Gear products will cover the seats.

Onto some pics.

 

[Fj80oregon]

Looks like a good candidate for some light refreshing, love that interior!

 

[1TonLC80]

Lovely story and a great way to honor a hero.

 

[VAcruiser]

Good day, mud,

The purpose of this thread is mainly to document the journey of this Land Cruiser. I unexpectedly bought this LC when I drove it up from Melbourne, FL a couple of months ago. I was driving it to my home in TN, to perform a pre-purchase inspection and to help my friend’s wife sell it.

In the beginning of that 10 hour road trip, I decided I reallly liked this cruiser despite all its flaws. So I asked my friend’s wife if I could buy it, and she agreed.

The PO was a dear friend of mine who unexpectedly passed in Oct 2024. He and I served together in Japan when nK was acting dumb. Extraordinarily dumb. Anyway, he is a first gen, Italian immigrant who learned English and got his citizenship and served our country for three decades beginning as an E-1 and retiring as an O-6. He was my commander and my dear friend. After I got to know him, I dubbed him, “The Godfather” and that’s what he went by for a few years before retiring. He was a great dude who brought a lot of light into this world, and so in his honor, I’ll dub this cruiser, “The Godfather”.

Finally, I already have two 80s so this one will go to my son who is just shy of 15 yo…in the meantime my wife loves this cruiser so she’s driving it for work.

Paint: 5/10. Mainly dull/faded and scummy. Needs some rehab and it’ll be good to go. That single stage 045 is nice

Body: 5/10. Dealer installed roof rack is corroded. Big time. Many dings/dents/shade-tree body worker fixes here and there.

Engine: 9/10. The thing purrs. Yes, it needs a full baseline of new fluids and rubbers, but damn that engine is smooth. I ran a compression test when I first brought her home. 1-6 were all 175 or better.

Interior: 7/10. All of the plastic is intact, except for the dash. An Escape Gear dash mat in en route today from Cape Town, SA so ignorance will be my buddy. Oh, and amazing cloth seats. Indestructible. To keep them well maintained, I’ve removed the third row and more Escape Gear products will cover the seats.

Onto some pics.

View attachment 3939158View attachment 3939159View attachment 3939161View attachment 3939162

I'm really digging those seats....

 

[CharlieS]

It is a beauty! Same paint and interior as mine (but the body is in a lot better condition!).

 

[FMC80]

Thanks fellas. The cruiser is definitely a work in progress but far from a project. I have to unfornicate quite a few janky repairs from the past.

Two days ago my wife told me she smelled something sweet when she shut down the cruiser. I opened up the passenger door and felt the carpets and luckily they were dry.

I checked the Rad cap. Pretty old but OEM. Pretty old though. Compromised gasket. Spring was fine.

Checked the radiator and see no evidence of milkshake.

Checked the dipstick. Good to go. (Gtg)

Checked the thermostat. It’s Toyota so that’s good. Jiggle valve at the 12:00 o’clock position. Threw the bitch inside a pot of hot water and she didn’t open until over 200°. Simple fix.

Now, I’m in the engine bay and it’s barely torn apart, so instead of performing an extensive baseline, fixing things that sent broken, I plan to replace the big items, HCV, PHH, wires, plugs, distributor, etc.

Already purchased a slew of parts, including new OEM brake calipers, rotors, short block (though I ended up not needing it. It’ll go to my other 80) and a bunch of other s*** I can’t remember why I bought or where it goes, so I have to get back onto Partsouq and figure what and why I bought what. Fun stuff.

Old is still closed.

These horns are on deck to be install but one of the old POs hacked the horn harness, so that’ll have to take a seat on the back burner. I have these same horns in my cruiser and like me, they’re loud and proud. Heterosexually of course. Ahem. Just a joke fellas. But not really.

Anyway, my son ditched me for church camp, so I’m wrenching alone which is nice, but it’s better to have a tool bitch, I mean my son to learn and help.

Talk soon

 

[FMC80]

Need a little help…I am missing the long bolts that hold the bottoms of our radiator in the bracket/support. The PO used some janky bits and pieces to hold it in place; I’m not doing that.

BUT for the life of me, I can’t find it in any schematics either. I’m not talking about the shouldered lugs that ride horizontally in the middle. Partsouq is kicking my ass.

Can anyone help a brother out?

Disregard the above. I was out of my mind and literally overlooked the number no less than 17 times.

I am working at a snails pace it seems. Today, I worked for a few hours and disabled the EGR via the HuddExpo kit. The engine wire harness has the original wrap that literally falls apart when you touch it. You guys know what I’m talkin about. I wrapped that with some 2000°F tape. An inspection showed no frayed/chaffed/compromised wiring.

Also partly installed the radiator, fan clutch, we fan, rad shroud and am awaiting parts. Need to find those bolts for bolts for the radiator!

God bless the USA!

 

[LongDuck]

Blood sacrifice?

All of my vehicles have bloody fingerprints in some of the most obscure places,...

You said your wife-unit smelled the sweet coolant scent. Have you figured out from whence? Looks like you caught that heater control valve just in time, too.

 

[FMC80]

Blood sacrifice?
View attachment 3940465
All of my vehicles have bloody fingerprints in some of the most obscure places,...

You said your wife-unit smelled the sweet coolant scent. Have you figured out from whence? Looks like you caught that heater control valve just in time, too.

Yeah, sliced my middle finger ever so slightly, but bled out like a stuck pig.

When my wife mentioned it to me, I couldn’t smell it. Basically, I checked for leaks, the rad cap, thermostat, head gasket, heater core.

It ended up being a bad thermostat. Was not opening at 180° like advertised.

I’ve decided to button her back up after a basic refresh of most of the rubbers, ignition, fuel, and a few other things for PM.

 

[FMC80]

Good day, I fixed the cracks in my dash. It looks brand new and it was a relatively cheap and quick fix. For those of you who have cracked dashes, I can’t recommend Escape Gear enough. Great stuff and great customer service. My son chose “charcoal” to go with his blue cloth interior. Looks fantastic!

Next up are my seats. They’re cloth so I definitely want to protect the bolster area where it seems to wear holes. Still waiting on the third row. I removed the third row seats, but I’ll wrap them in the escape gear seat covers for more protection while in storage (lmao). I’m sure my son will want to install them when he starts toting his bros around.

The second row of this cruiser has stripped seat anchor bolts, so I have to clean up the threads or run a tap through it. Gotta buy taps. Yes, I don’t have a single tap. M8-M14 is probably what I’ll buy. Matter of fact, my 94 cruiser also had missing second row seat bolts, though they were stripped like this one’s.

Anyone experience same the thing? Do people often cross thread these seat anchor bolts? FFS, it isn’t difficult. Idk.

Also, changed out the rad a while ago, and have been flushing it out; approx 7 flushes finally got the green stuff out and the red stuff in. I know @Bludozer (like me, I don’t think he’s around much these days), will roll his eyes at that.

$$$$$

 

[Mdej3]

I'm happy to see this thread.

 

[FMC80]

I'm happy to see this thread.

Thanks, brother. Appreciate your support through this process..

 

[Fj80oregon]

Radiator bolt part # that holds the bottom brackets to the big rubber cushions.

9165160850​

 

[FMC80]

Radiator bolt part # that holds the bottom brackets to the big rubber cushions.

9165160850​

Thanks brother. I found it a while back, but forgot to update my thread. I must’ve been smokin some good stuff that day. I stared at the parts diagram multiple times and somehow missed the part number every single time. I would have asked my wife to find it for me, but I’d never live it down. Lmao

 

[baldilocks]

Cool thing you are doing here Pell. Can’t believe I haven’t seen this thread until now.

 

[FMC80]

Cool thing you are doing here Pell. Can’t believe I haven’t seen this thread until now.

Thanks, Steve. My wife has been driving this baby. She prefers it over everything else. In the last couple of months, she’s put about 8k miles on it. She’s a traveling therapist, and she racks up the miles. Good thing she out in her notice! I told her, she needs to buy an electric vehicle if she wants to keep working. She decided she’d rather quit than do that lmao.

Lots more to do on this one. She consumes oil, probably worn valves.

 

[baldilocks]

Thanks, Steve. My wife has been driving this baby. She prefers it over everything else. In the last couple of months, she’s put about 8k miles on it. She’s a traveling therapist, and she racks up the miles. Good thing she out in her notice! I told her, she needs to buy an electric vehicle if she wants to keep working. She decided she’d rather quit than do that lmao.

Lots more to do on this one. She consumes oil, probably worn valves.

I agree with her concerning electric vehicles. When do you see blue smoke?

 

[FMC80]

I agree with her concerning electric vehicles. When do you see blue smoke?

I haven’t seen much blue smoke if at all. I don’t see any leaks on the ground either. Where is the oil going? I confirmed it isn’t in the cooling system.

 

[Broski]

Same as Steve just found this thread and will be following along

 

[FMC80]

What’s up fellas. My wife’s been driving the hell out of this cruiser. She just rolled over 250k and will finally slow down in September.


Regarding my loss of oil, I’m not seeing any blue smoke or drops below the cruiser, yet I’m adding about 1 qt every 1,000 miles. I think I read that’s about right. Maybe time for a rebuild?

What do you think?


In September, my goal is to complete the knuckles, brakes/rotors/new/new/blah/blah, and maybe some valve train inspections. Could my valves be worn? Would I see blue smoke if that were the case? I’m willing to bet my throttle body and intake plenum are black and cruddy.