Time to upgrade my Trail Pig... (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Threads
42
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1,669
Location
Bend, Oregon
Well, my 'trail pig' has been sittin' in my garage since last July when it 'blew up' on the drive home from the McGrew Trail Ride. My focus has been on finishing an engine swap on my other pig and making it reliable/comfortable for daily driving. Now that I have recently finished some more detail work on my other pig and seeing as Spring is here, I have been itchin' to fix my trail pig.

Here's a pic of how she looks right now...
IMG_3104 copy.jpg
 
My engine/transmission in the pig have always been loud and leaky (1970 F engine, 3 spd trans). I have replaced a bunch of gaskets in the engine over the years but it still leaks. Anyway, it has always sounded strained when I would try to run her at highway speeds. I always wondered when it would fail me, never worried when wheelin' close to home, but the 'commute' to trails a couple hundred miles away always made me nervous. My fear became reality when my oil pressure began to drop after about a hundred miles of driving 55-65 or so after wheelin' all weekend. We were still miles from home and sorta in the middle of nowhere-ish. I kept tossing oil into the engine on the rest of the attempted-drive home, but it was losing it quickly. My truck was leaking like a 'sieve' at this point and I was trying to limp it back home. Didn't quite make it. Began losing power (along with the oil) and eventually heard a somewhat catastrophic-sounding, metal snapping/clunking type of noise and the truck immediately loss almost all power. I finally called AAA. I parked the rig in the garage last July and I just fired it up this last weekend to move it around in the garage for ease of dismantling...

I recently posted up some questions about my engine problem in the Tech section...Here is a link for folks that are interested: https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/209415-1970-f-engine-diagnosis-help.html

I also posted up a vid of the rig right after AAA dropped it off in my driveway after the 'incident'. YouTube - Is This Bad?
 
So, I am motivated to finally start working on this rig, again. I was originally just going to find a 2F engine in decent shape and swap it in and drive it that way for another couple years. But, I have been thinking about just dropping the pan and swapping out anything that doesn't look 'good' anymore and then pressing my luck a little longer. This would mean perhaps new bearings and a gasket or few. Hopefully cheaper than a donor engine...

I have also been contemplating tossing in a four spd transmission and transfer case I have sitting on the garage floor. I believe I may have heard something about mixing the four spd transmission with the three spd case for lower gearing. Anyone done this yet? I will be reading more about that, but I do have all the basic parts on hand. I will need to address the driveshaft issues of course.

I have other ideas/upgrades of course, but I'm going to try and get her running again first. Then body armor, lockers, SO, BUUAHHAAHAAAHAAAA!
 
Barely scratched the surface thus far, still trying to figure out if I am going to bother 'fixing' this engine or if I should just rip it out and toss a 2F in. A couple pics of stuff after a little clean up and begining inspection. I thought for sure the rear main seal was toast but it looks fairly dry. In fact most of the oil pan gasket is dry as well. The oil pan gasket looked like it was leaking 'bad' on the rear driver's side of the pan. Oil must have spread from there, and maybe some other spots...


I'm going to go look for 2F's...
IMG_3115 copy.jpg
IMG_3116 copy.jpg
 
Nice looking nest of Pigs you've got there.

I watched your youtube vid and I think a 2F may be the way to go.Like you said,you can spend a bunch of cash to prolong the life of the F or get a decent 2F now.You know anyone ripping one out to do a V8 or diesel swap?
I recently picked up a four speed tranny with a three speed tranfer case out of a '74 FJ40.Apparently that was the combination in '74 at least in the 40's so maybe the transfer cases are easily interchangable with other years.Someone will chime in.
Can you tell me what lift and tires you have on your trail rig?Looks great.
Good luck with the upgrades.
 
Thanks for the kind words and response oldFJ40- I'm running Man-a-Fre's 4" Safari spring lift with Old Man Emu shocks and a shackle reversal. It easily clears the 33 x 12.5 BFG mudders.I may just swap it all onto the princess pig, and then take the original springs from the princess pig and use them to SO the trail pig. We'll see...

I am definitely leaning towards a 2F swap. I have a rebuildable 2F in pieces in my garage also but I still think that will be more money and hassle then finding a decent engine to swap in.
 
... and the saga continues.

So, a couple of you may remember this pig. It has been sitting for almost 2 years! Its a pity, I need to get this thing rolling soon...

I finally dropped the oil pan today to see what had gone wrong with the engine. A few folks, including myself, thought the issue was in the lower end of the engine. I assumed when I dropped the pan I would find some carnage, metal shavings, chunks, or parts even. I found nothing really at all. I also tried inspecting whatever I could and nothing seemed out of place, broken, etc. I need to make a more thorough inspection. Anyone have any specific hints as to what/wear to really check?
 
its not in the engine, you just burnt out the flux capacitor,,,, nice to see you working on trail pig again.
 
... and the saga continues.

So, a couple of you may remember this pig. It has been sitting for almost 2 years! Its a pity, I need to get this thing rolling soon...

I finally dropped the oil pan today to see what had gone wrong with the engine. A few folks, including myself, thought the issue was in the lower end of the engine. I assumed when I dropped the pan I would find some carnage, metal shavings, chunks, or parts even. I found nothing really at all. I also tried inspecting whatever I could and nothing seemed out of place, broken, etc. I need to make a more thorough inspection. Anyone have any specific hints as to what/wear to really check?
Howdy! Years ago I had a problem with my original 2F running really bad for a while, then it would be fine for a while. Ane when it was bad, it was very, very bad. Almost undrivable. I went crazy going the the electricals one week and then the fuel & smog the next. Then back to the electricals. I could not find anything wrong. I drove it nearly every day for 4 months like this. Finally I do an oil change, and I find WAY too much metal bits in the old oil. I pull the pan, and I notice that when I rock the flywheel, the crank pulley on the front does not move right away. HMMM??? So I start popping off bearing caps, beginning with the rear main. When I pop the cap on #5 rod, the oil hole goes all the way around!! I could literally run a butter knife clear thru the crank. A busted crank, and the rod cap was the only thing holding it together. Only in a LandCruiser!!
I hope your problems are not that bad, but you do have to look in all the nooks and crannies. Problems don't always jump right out at you. John
 
So I start popping off bearing caps, beginning with the rear main. When I pop the cap on #5 rod, the oil hole goes all the way around!! I could literally run a butter knife clear thru the crank. A busted crank, and the rod cap was the only thing holding it together. Only in a LandCruiser!!

wouldn't be hard to check for. you've already got the pan down, just pop the caps off real quick. pull all the rods, if no issue, assemble and pull one and three mains and inspect, reinstall, then four and two and inspect. (iirc, there are four to deal with...been a while since i tore into an f motor).
 
RHINO- HA! I knew it... now where is that pesky flux capacitor hiding in my rig?

inkpot- Great story, I hope it's not that bad... I'll have to tear into it more to figure it all out I suppose. I'll let you know what I find.

PabloCruise- No, I have not checked the compression. I know I probably should have, and that it was suggested to me previously. I had planned to purchase a compression tester dealy-o and never got around to it. Oops.

I have a bunch of other excuses, too. :)

nuclearlemon- I guess I'll grab my manual and figure out exactly what ya'll are suggesting and get back to you after I have had a chance to tear into it some more. Should be fun...


Thanks and cheers everyone, Carlos
 
So, I grabbed the manual, and looked around some more...

Question: Aren't the polished lobes on the cam shaft supposed to be polished? I have some wear on the edges of most lobes on the cam shaft. Its a bit rough, tiny gouges even. Is that bad? Poor oiling?

I have not dropped the rod caps yet... Getting to it. I may be checking out an FJ60 parts rig today... good be the perfct donor. :)
 
Eureka!

I was poking around under the engine, inspecting the connecting rods and mains more closely. Turns out the no. 6 connecting rod had quite a bit of play in the lower end. This of course lead me to believe I probably toasted the 'bearings'. Sure enough, when I popped the cap off, there was barely any lower bearing left. I thought at first it was completely destroyed, but I noticed some roughness on the crank shaft surface. Upon closer inspection, I realized I was touching/looking at the remainder of the bearing. It had disitegrated and some of the metal was still holding on. It was basically shredded... must have failed and then whatever came apart was grinded to a pulp by the rest of the engine.

This is probably why there seems to be a bit of roughness on the cam, etc. :)
 
Eureka!

I was poking around under the engine, inspecting the connecting rods and mains more closely. Turns out the no. 6 connecting rod had quite a bit of play in the lower end. This of course lead me to believe I probably toasted the 'bearings'. Sure enough, when I popped the cap off, there was barely any lower bearing left. I thought at first it was completely destroyed, but I noticed some roughness on the crank shaft surface. Upon closer inspection, I realized I was touching/looking at the remainder of the bearing. It had disitegrated and some of the metal was still holding on. It was basically shredded... must have failed and then whatever came apart was grinded to a pulp by the rest of the engine.

This is probably why there seems to be a bit of roughness on the cam, etc. :)
Howdy! OK, now you found it, but how do you fix it? If your real lucky, the crank journal is OK, and it is just the bearing and cap that are damaged. You MAY be able to clean up the crank, polish it, mic it, and replace the rod bearing with a new one, then put it together and go. You may be able to get a lot of life out of it without a total rebuild. It that works, then start assembling another engine that is fresh. Ta Da!! How lucky do you feel? Only the Micrometer knows for sure!! John
 
Howdy! OK, now you found it, but how do you fix it? If your real lucky, the crank journal is OK, and it is just the bearing and cap that are damaged. You MAY be able to clean up the crank, polish it, mic it, and replace the rod bearing with a new one, then put it together and go. You may be able to get a lot of life out of it without a total rebuild. It that works, then start assembling another engine that is fresh. Ta Da!! How lucky do you feel? Only the Micrometer knows for sure!! John

Exactly! I do feel lucky... for now. I need to remove what's left of the bearing, and check the crank journal, I suppose. Micrometer eh? I have one of those, specs must be in the manual I assume. Hmmm, can you buy one rod bearing or do have to buy a set? Are they the same bearing as in my 2F... can I swap a slightly used 2F rod bearing in there? Or is that asking for trouble? :)

Thanks again John and everone else. Cheers, Carlos.
 

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