Oh SNAP! New Project Vehicle!

[Leland Pate]

A discussion of the wiring alone would keep us entertained for a while.

I fell hard for the Dakota Digital HDX cluster that retrofits in the original cluster bezel.



Adapting this unit required a good amount of modifications to the wiring harness... once it was out on the floor, there was an aweful lot of "well, while i'm in here..."

[71T Targa]

Beautiful!

[pwd72s]

Very impressive list, Lee. More useful during a zombie event that any Porsche made... Dakota digital..one of those American success stories.

I've often wondered what happened to Bob Ragsdale's FJ. He a local GM/Toyota dealer here decades ago. Back when Jeep conversons to small block chevy power were pretty common, he had a GTO 389 Pontiac stuffed into his FJ...said he had no problem towing his hunting trailer over the pass.

Thanks for posting in your other thread that you still have the cue. Meucci is still making cues...a few of the top players use 'em. Of course, your model no longer made, so you may have a collectable.

[vash]

i love it man!!

i almost bought one a month ago..i would have stopped there..it looked like yours did at the beginning. call it a loving patina.

restoring it to better than new was not in the cards. you should have heard the shameless begging to my wife.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Great truck and worth all the work to get it there

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by cnielsen

Very cool! I put a diesel in my '97 4Runner and love it...try to go that route if you can

I have a '94 4Runner that I bought new that is almost perfect (paint/body/accessories) except it is way underpowered. I have always thought that i would wait for the 3.0 6cyl/auto to die and then put in a stronger power plant...but it will not die no matter how many miles. I would like a supra engine in it...but probably will end up just selling it as I cannot bring myself to break the stock config as long as it runs well. Just as well. Would probably cost a fortune.

[fintstone]

Great work, Leland!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by fintstone

I have a '94 4Runner that I bought new that is almost perfect (paint/body/accessories) except it is way underpowered. I have always thought that i would wait for the 3.0 6cyl/auto to die and then put in a stronger power plant...but it will not die no matter how many miles. I would like a supra engine in it...but probably will end up just selling it as I cannot bring myself to break the stock config as long as it runs well. Just as well. Would probably cost a fortune.

You have the 3.slow engine option

I too have a 94 4Runner but it's a UK spec. model and has the 3.0ltr turbo diesel engine. I've also thought about changing the engine.

Have you thought about a 1UZ swap?

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

You have the 3.slow engine option

I too have a 94 4Runner but it's a UK spec. model and has the 3.0ltr turbo diesel engine. I've also thought about changing the engine.

Have you thought about a 1UZ swap?

I think that would be a good choice...although i have not really looked into it.

[Leland Pate]

I may spin this off into a separate diesel rebuild thread. I'm about 30% deep into the rebuild of the motor I bought for this truck. The more I think about it, I would actually like to solicit input and advice of the Pelican crew on several aspects of this project. I've been almost exclusively using the 'Mud forum but solely relying on one community can often result in an echo chamber effect and it may do very well to get some insight from very sharp car folks from a completely different forum. Land Cruisers and Porsches are so very different and so very similar in many respects; for starters, both are icons in their own right.

Anyway, earlier this year, I happened upon this gem while talking to the owner of a respectable 'cruiser shop in California. I originally wanted a diesel engine for this FJ40 but couldn't justify the cost. In the end, I decided it was the only thing that was going to make me happy so out came the wallet.

1997 Toyota HZJ75 (or what's left of it).





It followed me home.

[Leland Pate]

The donor motor came from a Canadian mine truck.

Which leads us to our first lesson: "Never buy a Toyota diesel motor from a Canadian mine truck".


Not knowing any better, I forked over my hard earned cash and towed it home quite content. The next week, I pulled the motor and started a quick visual inspection to see exactly what I had bought.

You will note that almost everything on this truck was/is covered with a thick coat of alkaline dust. I quickly learned that it's highly corrosive to steel and aluminum. Yay. Cleanup was a lot of fun.




The motor came out easy enough with the help of a gantry (extra points for the t-shirt, right?).



Once on the engine stand, I started poking around to see what kind of shape it was in.



One of the first things I checked was the timing belt and the underlying gears. Almost immediately, I spotted trouble. The injection pump idler gear shaft and thrust washer were showing signs of galling.





Concerned, I probed a little deeper.

I popped off the rod bearing caps to look at the bearing condition and what I saw convinced me to immediately check out the mains. So, off came the main bearing cap.


The horror.







I think it was at this point that I was basically thinking that the engine needed a complete teardown and rebuild rather than a quick once over.

[Leland Pate]

I turned my attention to the cylinder head where my fears were confirmed. This engine was basically a ticking time bomb. All six pre-combustion chambers were cracked. #s 1 and 2 even had small bits that had come free and banged up the piston crowns pretty good.

[pwd72s]

I've never rebuilt an engine, Lee....but I'm thinking you spent some money in a machine shop...

[Rich Lambert]

Cool LC, too bad the pictures are gone.

[911boost]

I just used that shirt as a rag since the arm pits got all crunchy! I have the Blue one he did too....

That motor looks rough

[Leland Pate]

Rough, it is. I've totally thrown the wallet at this thing. I think I'm about $13,000 into it so far, between the original purchase price of the engine and the hoard of new Toyota parts I've been importing from the UAE. I would have been cash ahead if I had just bought a nice saw-cut truck from Japan. I jumped on this one because it was local and I could see it in action rather than writing a check for $8K and praying I don't receive a boat anchor.

As it turned out, what I bought was 7/10 boat anchor to begin with. But... what can you do.

The cylinder head rebuild is almost done. New intake and exhaust valves, valve springs, guides, seats, and manifold studs. Next up is the machining of the block and bottom end parts. Both the bore taper and bearing oil clearances were on the ragged edge of the factory limit so we decided to grind/bore .25mm over. I also need to get my pistons and rods ordered. In Australia, these motors are fairly common and there is a small hot rod cottage industry. A company called Engine Australia makes pistons and rods designed for turbocharged 1HZs. I'm going to bite the bullet on a set of ceramic/moly coated and Alfin inserted pistons with the larger gudgeon pins and beefier forged rods. Since I'm going to turbo this engine, I figure the added strength should help with my piece of mind.


So far, the most difficult aspect of the project has been the wiring... which is ironic because these diesel swaps are 'supposed' to be very simple in the wiring department. They are referred to as "one-wire" diesels as they technically only require 12v to the fuel cut-off solenoid to run. Where mine is getting complicated is that I want to retain the factory "Super-Glow" glow plug timer system and understanding the circuitry is proving difficult since I don't have a complete truck local to me to go look at. Yay.