The Good, the bad and the ugly! (1 Viewer)

[83FJ604ME]

The Good:

I finally got me a new Defender Roof Rack! It came in handy on my first road trip. The Cruiser felt a little heavy fully loaded down, but it ran well. Does anyone know if 12 MPG is typical for a loaded Cruiser? I thought that I had better service than that, but thats all it came out to. All in all, a nice camping trip in the Cruiser.

The Bad:

The week before my trip I changed the oil pan gasket, because it was leaking like crazy. Simple job right? NOT! It took me 8 hours, 3 screw drives, 3 lb. mallet and a crow bar to get the damn thing off! Oh, then 1 1/2 hours to s****e the old gasket off and replace it with a new one. I figured the worst was behind me....wrong!

The Ugly:

I noticed while I was cleaning up all the old oil and mud off the oil pan and drain plug that the there was an plastic gasket, Teflon tape and some high temp sealant on the drain plug. It kinda got me thinking...what was the PO thinking? Well, after cleaning off the pan I saw why. It appears the the idiot PO was attempting to take the drain plug off with a pair of tweezers and a hammer! The idiot left the oil pan drain area pretty UP! I continued with the re-install of the gasket and filled her up with oil. All was good until the next morning...there was oil leaking from the drain plug! So, I had two choices...replace the oil pan (meaning order one or try and find one in a junk yard) or Mickey Mouse It the way the PO did. Since I was leaving on my trip in 3 days there was not enough time to complete the first option....so it was the Mickey Mouse Option. Well, option two worked well...but what a pain in the ASS! Hope none of you have to go through it....

Here are some pictures from the trip....

 

[rfj62]

I hate when that **** happens. I would say that 12 MPG seems about normal.

 

[jtreehorn]

Was that thing a bear to install up there? It looks heavy. I need to get something like that in the next couple months for a long camping trip with some buddies that's going to take up a lot of space i nthe cabin and I need to stuff gear up top, IKEA commercial style.

 

[Tvaldriz]

Leaky oil pan and 12 mpg? Welcome to Landcruisers!.

When I got mine, it honestly looked like a rear main seal was blown.
Oil from the front of the engine and fairly clean oil south of the oilpan. I pulled the inspection plate over the flywheel and was relieved that it was not a rear main seal.

A good tune up can increase your gas mileage. I run 31's on my
truck and after a tune-up get 18.4 mpg on the highway.

Glad it worked out for you.

 

[Dave-T]

Howdy! Where did you get the roof rack from? It looks really nice.

Did you head over to Morro bay? I recognized the smoke stacks in the first pic. They look like the ones in the Monterey bay.

 

[83FJ604ME]

Was that thing a bear to install up there? It looks heavy. I need to get something like that in the next couple months for a long camping trip with some buddies that's going to take up a lot of space i nthe cabin and I need to stuff gear up top, IKEA commercial style.

I actually got the rack from 4 Wheel Parts, they delivered it in about 3 days...just in time for my trip. It is more awkward than heavy, but it's a two man job. I ran about 800 bones...but it sure was worth it to me.

 

[83FJ604ME]

Howdy! Where did you get the roof rack from? It looks really nice.

Did you head over to Morro bay? I recognized the smoke stacks in the first pic. They look like the ones in the Monterey bay.

I took the pictures in Morro Bay. The camping went well even if there was rain and hella winds the first night...and food attacking raccoons at 3 AM the second night. In all....good times!

 

[83FJ604ME]

A good tune up can increase your gas mileage. I run 31's on my
truck and after a tune-up get 18.4 mpg on the highway.

Wow...what kind of magic tune up did you give your rig? Or is it Magic Gas? Please let me know because I must be doing something wrong. Thanks!

 

[lovetoski]

The Good:

Does anyone know if 12 MPG is typical for a loaded Cruiser?

With 31's and no rack, I got 16 on the freeway at 65mph.

Now that I have 33's and a lift and a rack, I get 14 at 65. At 70 I get 13. I tried 55, got 16 mpg again, but was nearly run off the road because I was going too slow.

I've heard that 50 is the optimum speed for a cruiser (in terms of fuel efficiency) but I'm afraid to try it.

 

[InsanityIsBorn]

A good tune up can increase your gas mileage. I run 31's on my
truck and after a tune-up get 18.4 mpg on the highway.

Wow...what kind of magic tune up did you give your rig? Or is it Magic Gas? Please let me know because I must be doing something wrong. Thanks!

I got 19mpg and 18mpg the other day in my FJ62. one way I went super slow cuz it was dumping snow....(the lower mpg was cuz it tok longer and the engine was running longer.) But it was over two large mountain passes! I got a really good tune about 1000 miles ago and it helped a lot after another "break in" period from the tune!!

*edit* thats with 31s and a roof rack.

 

[bigDcruiser]

i'm happy if i get in the 12's during normal driving conditions. my best yet was 12.7. more often i see mid 11's.

 

[beaufort-fj60]

don't forget to correct for tire size... the factory Speedo is calibrated for 29" tires.

12mpg with 33" is really 13.55mpg. With 29" tires one rev of the tire takes 7.6' (694.40 revs/mile), with 31" tires one rev takes 8.1' (643.90 revs/mile), with 33" tires one rev takes 8.6' (613.95 revs/mile).

or

with 33"s the 12mpg only represents 88.41% of the actual gas mileage.... (you are really getting 13.55mpg)


or

with 33"s the Speedo is only showing you 88.41% of the actual distance you traveled.... (if you went 200 miles, you really went 226.2 miles)



there are a bunch of threads on the correction..