The Resurection of 'The Beast'

[71-CRUISER]

Get them planed......

Bolt the intake to the exhaust manifold with new gaskets and whatever seperator you want to use. Now take it and have it PLANED. Once you have the intake bolted to the exhaust lay a streight edge over the gasket surface and I will bet that there will be atleast a 1/16" gap between the center of the intake and the #3 & 4 exhaust runners.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Thanks Michael.

Will planing off the ceramic coating on that edge muck up the adjacent coating?

I shot ya an email too - pls let me know if you have a thermostat housing for a 1983 FJ60 2F. Mine was a 4 bolt.

 

[Southeast Overland]

I just talked w/ the machine shop. The owner said to loosely bolt the intake and exhaust manifolds together, then bolt these tightly to the block, and then tighten up the intake and exhaust manifolds together. He said that will pull them together right.

I'll try this with dry gaskets a time or two and see how straight I can get the manifolds to align. If it doesn't work I'll bolt everything together with copper sealant and take them to be planed. I'm worried though that they won't be able to be planed correctly b/c the exhaust is a 3 piece and from what I've read the three piece has to be tack welded together for planing - that will be kinda hard with the ceramic coating.

 

[FJ40Jim]

Don't use a gasket for the bolt-up. Let the flat side of the cylinder head act as a surface plate for alignment of the 2 manifolds.

They can be tacked together for milling, or they can be clamped. Since many modern vehicles use swiveling exh manifolds, this is no issue for a competent machine shop.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Don't use a gasket for the bolt-up. Let the flat side of the cylinder head act as a surface plate for alignment of the 2 manifolds.

They can be tacked together for milling, or they can be clamped. Since many modern vehicles use swiveling exh manifolds, this is no issue for a competent machine shop.

Thanks Jim!

I meant I would put the gaskets dry between the manifolds but not between the manifold and the block to do a test fit. If they seem to line up OK I'll then put the manifold to block gasket in and the copper sealant.

I just sent you an email Jim. I need another plug for a tstat housing.

 

[71-CRUISER]

I bolt them tight and just have them surfaced that way you know that both surfaces are 100% flat. Im not saying that it wont seal his way but I KNOW that it will seal my way.

Also I looked and the only 4 bolt t-stat housing that I have is from a 62 and not the same.

 

[Southeast Overland]

I will bet that there will be atleast a 1/16" gap between the center of the intake and the #3 & 4 exhaust runners.

Well you were pretty close. I bolted the manifolds together VERY loosely, then bolted them tight to the block. I had a ~ 1/16" gap between #5 exhaust and #5 intake (if I numbered those right).

I have OEM bolts on the way. To get these suckers planed should I bolt them back together the say way with the SOR separator plate and 2 gaskets w/ copper, then take them to the shop to be planed? Thats what I was thinking.

I'm really in need of a lower half of a thermostat housing for a 83 FJ60. I have only been able to find 2 - MarkA has one and the dealer has another. If I can't find one closer I'm sending $ today to MarkA.

Other new problem with with my 3 piece exhaust manifold. One of the end pieces now is REALLY loose. I can pull it out by hand and wiggle it in place some. I'm afraid it won't seal correctly and I'll have a heck of a leak. I pulled it out and all I see are two metal circular ring type seals. I thought there was supposed to be a spring in there somewhere. The other side is REALLY stiff. I had to use a rubber mallet to get it to move enough so I could align the bolt holes and bolt it to my block.

 

[FJ40Jim]

The seal rings on the manifold ends are like piston rings. They need to be able to float & expand in the groove. The loose end piece has rings that are stuck.

Soak the ring w/ b'laster for a day, then tap at the ends w/ a blunt chisel, see if it will pop loose and move/expand in the groove.

It only has to move once, for assembly. Once the manifolds are on the engine and settled, relative motion will stop and the rings will once again rust in place.

 

[71-CRUISER]

Bolt the upper and lower together like you would for final assembly (because this is). It doesnt matter at this point exactly how flat the head surface is because it is going to get planed. I do try and make it as flat as possable to reduce the amount of planing that is necessary.
The shop that I use planes them either together or he will pull the end pieces out and do them seperate if need be. He has also had to weld up the low corners in some realy bad cases.

 

[Southeast Overland]

The seal rings on the manifold ends are like piston rings. They need to be able to float & expand in the groove. The loose end piece has rings that are stuck.

Soak the ring w/ b'laster for a day, then tap at the ends w/ a blunt chisel, see if it will pop loose and move/expand in the groove.

It only has to move once, for assembly. Once the manifolds are on the engine and settled, relative motion will stop and the rings will once again rust in place.

Awesome - I'll soak them tonight. Thanks!

Bolt the upper and lower together like you would for final assembly (because this is). It doesnt matter at this point exactly how flat the head surface is because it is going to get planed. I do try and make it as flat as possable to reduce the amount of planing that is necessary.
The shop that I use planes them either together or he will pull the end pieces out and do them seperate if need be. He has also had to weld up the low corners in some realy bad cases.

Gotcha. I'll do that as soon as I receive my new OEM bolts from Toyota. Thanks!

 

[Southeast Overland]

A BIG thanks to Mikesta - he hooked me up with a tstat housing! I should have it hopefully Friday!

Sweeet!!!!!

 

[Southeast Overland]

Thanks for the past Jim and Mike!

Tstat housing is finally together and on the 2F. Manifolds are ceramic coated and bolted together. They will be planed Monday (hopefully).

I ground the remainder of the factory insulation off of the roof. The adhesive is still there but that stuff doesn't want to come off. I'm going to paint the roof with white (I think) Rustoleum with some texture added.

2F goes in this coming weekend. I need to figure out which hoses I need to hook everything up and finish a bit more prep.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Well I got in a hurry and worked too fast last night. My welder was acting up. When it worked well it would burn NICE and hot and I was happy. When it wouldn't work it wouldn't work at all. Sometimes it seemed like I had a bad ground which I know I didn't. Other times it seemed like I was welding a dirty area which I wasn't b/c I wirewheeled the crap out of the weld area first. I'm going to go back tonight and grind some of the areas and see if it helps any.



ETA: I dropped off my manifolds at the machine shop to be planed. They were WAY off. I'm picking them up today.

 

[Southeast Overland]

I just picked up my manifolds from being planed. The machine shop had to take off a bunch of material but it is nice and flat now.

I'm going to install the manifolds tonight on my 2F and try to fix my boogered welding on my swingarms. I hate it when I get in a hurry...

 

[inkpot]

Well I got in a hurry and worked too fast last night. My welder was acting up. When it worked well it would burn NICE and hot and I was happy. When it wouldn't work it wouldn't work at all. Sometimes it seemed like I had a bad ground which I know I didn't. Other times it seemed like I was welding a dirty area which I wasn't b/c I wirewheeled the crap out of the weld area first. I'm going to go back tonight and grind some of the areas and see if it helps any.



ETA: I dropped off my manifolds at the machine shop to be planed. They were WAY off. I'm picking them up today.

Howdy! Are you using a MIG? If so, there are several posibilities. Bad wire: it can rust/corrode eventhough it is indoors and protected. Look it over for little random dots on it. May need to replace the tip on the handpiece as it can bind up on the wire or it can loose contact with the wire if you have cleaned it out too many times. You may have a kink in the sheath between the handpiece and the welder. This can be very difficult to find. It will bind on the wire only when it is in just the wrong position. Bad gas; straight CO2 will work OK a lot of the time, but some steels really need the right mix of Argon. Wrong size wire, if your doing heavy work with 0.023 instead of 0.035. You may need to clean the contacts inside of the handpiece and/or the main breaker. I may think of more in the next few minutes, as I am on the way out to go weld on my new Saginaw box support bracket that I am making from scratch. I will be doing a thread on it when/IF I ever get it done.Hope you get it sizzling smoothly soon. John

P>S> OOps, here's another one:dirty/loose drive wheel not pushing the wire out to the handpiece. DUH!

 

[Southeast Overland]

Howdy! Are you using a MIG? If so, there are several posibilities. Bad wire: it can rust/corrode eventhough it is indoors and protected. Look it over for little random dots on it. May need to replace the tip on the handpiece as it can bind up on the wire or it can loose contact with the wire if you have cleaned it out too many times. You may have a kink in the sheath between the handpiece and the welder. This can be very difficult to find. It will bind on the wire only when it is in just the wrong position. Bad gas; straight CO2 will work OK a lot of the time, but some steels really need the right mix of Argon. Wrong size wire, if your doing heavy work with 0.023 instead of 0.035. You may need to clean the contacts inside of the handpiece and/or the main breaker. I may think of more in the next few minutes, as I am on the way out to go weld on my new Saginaw box support bracket that I am making from scratch. I will be doing a thread on it when/IF I ever get it done.Hope you get it sizzling smoothly soon. John

P>S> OOps, here's another one:dirty/loose drive wheel not pushing the wire out to the handpiece. DUH!

Thanks inkpot. I think I figured it out last night - here is what I did.

1) Cleaned (read ground to bare, clean metal) all surfaces to be welded. This did NOT help.

2) Ground my ground area down to bare metal. This did NOT help.

3) Grabbed a random piece of metal to weld. This did NOT work.

4) Hmmmmm - checked wire feed - it was good everywhere.

5) New tip - did NOT help.

6) Cleaned gun end (whatever you call it) - did NOT help.

7) Wire speed up - did NOT help.

8) Wire speed down - did NOT help.

9) Power down from 4 (max) to 3 - oooo, this worked.....wait, nope, did NOT help.

Now - good welding was intermittent - every now and then my welder would burn long and strong...maybe better than it ever had...then it would crap out.

I was using 0.035 wire.

10) Switched wire out to 0.023 wire - this WORKS!

Hmmmm - I think I have bad wire. I'm about 2/3 of the way through a spool of cheap ass Harbor Freight wire. I'm going to stop by Lowes on the way home and pick up some better wire.

I did take the time to clean up all my weld areas so once I get the new wire and hopefully get this problem fixed I can just weld everything up and call it good.

On a separate note - I did install my planed manifolds - they went on very nicely! Also installed the carb isolator with two new gaskets from SOR. The bottom gasket had to be carefully removed as it was a piece of $hite. I gouged the isolator a bit but hopefully the sealant I used (gasoline resistant) will work. It appeared to seal up good.

I put my old carb on and DANG!!! it is dirty compared to everything else. I don't have time to clean it well so it will just have to stay dirty for the time being. I know the engine as a whole won't be clean for too long.

I'm picking up some fluids for my install this weekend and getting a tag for the truck. I couldn't find my dang title last night - that means I'll have a fun time at the DMV.

 

[Southeast Overland]

PS - I read to use copper sealant on the manifold to block gasket and also to install it dry - I went dry. Hope it works!

 

[yooper]

Dry should be fine, I've done it that way twice with zero problems.

Bad wire is VERY common. Keep you wire sealed up in ziploc bags or tupperware or an ammo can with dessicant - it corrodes quickly and that kills it. I learned that the hard way.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Dry should be fine, I've done it that way twice with zero problems.

Bad wire is VERY common. Keep you wire sealed up in ziploc bags or tupperware or an ammo can with dessicant - it corrodes quickly and that kills it. I learned that the hard way.

Yeah, it would be easier if I just had a freakin' laser on my head...

 

[inkpot]

Yeah, it would be easier if I just had a freakin' laser on my head...

Howdy! Let me know when you figure out that laser setup. I'd luv to have on myself!!

Like Yooper said, I will corrode, eventhough it is copper coated. I've had it happen here in Arizona, and I keep my welding stuff stored indoors. I have had wire go "bad", so I keep a spare spool of both sizes in stock. I am kinda cheap, so even at $35 for a 10# spool at HF, I save the "bad" wire for garbage welding: anything I grind way down or that won't be seen. I also found a neat little gizmo at the welding supply shop. It is a pack of little felt pads that clean/lube the wire. You put it between the spool and the drive wheels. It does seem to help. Sometimes, you can pull off 20-50 feet of wire and get past the junk. Can you see the little spots of rust on the wire? John