BUILD:1993 Toyota HDJ80 - 1hdT, 5 Speed, 3x Locked, LHD. My dream vehicle!

BryceD

Member
I’ll start with the history of the truck and purchasing: The truck came from France and legend says it was used for a couple weeks every year to trip to Morocco and back. The owner in France was the original owner until he passed. His daughter sold it to the man which i bought it from in Montana. It had just about 275k KM on it and seemed to be beautifully maintained, yet used how a cruiser should be used. Small dings and scratches, dust everywhere, small signs of true adventure.

Once I drove it to my dad’s garage in CO from Montana, I had a small list of things to do before drib=vine it home to CA.

- Rebuild the Starter with new contacts
- Change Oil w/ OEM Filter
- CLEAN EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING was coated in fine Moroccan red dust... EVERYWHERE
- Repaint the window trim. It was very faded and that black window outline is one of my favorite features of the 80 series.
- Install my DIY rear drawer system from my old cruiser.
- Install the Rhino Rack from my old cruiser.
- Swap tires with what was on my old cruiser

Once all was well, My partner and I took the long way from CO to CA and had out first amazing adventure in our new second home!!!

You can follow our adventures and the build on our instagram accounts: @bryce_drobny & @la.cruiser

More to come:
*first night in the garage before the work commenced*

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BryceD

Member
After driving to LA, more work began. Duke drove smoothly and beautifully. Couldn’t be more happy with my new daily driver And escape vehicle. Living the dream.

I ordered and rounded up as much as I could knowing the work I was planning on doing. The truck did not come with any documentation or maintenance records. Everything seemed clean but I had no dea what filters / fluids were used.

Over the course of the trip I used SeaFoam when I filled up. I ran two full tanks and two full cans of SeaFoam knowing i was planning on changing all the filters / fluids.

Over a few days I:
  1. Changed the oil (Shell Rotella t4 10W30 + zinc additive)
  2. Changed to an OEM oil filter
  3. New Transmission oil (Royal Purple 75W90)
  4. New Transfer case oil (Royal Purple 75W90)
  5. New Front and read Diff oil (Castrol 80W90)
  6. New OEM fuel Filter
  7. New Resco .3 micron fuel filter (used in Resco fuel / water separator filter)
  8. New FRAM air filter
I also installed a small oil catch can:


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I repainted the grill to freshen it up:

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Sloppy shot of the engine compartment:

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More to come!
 

BryceD

Member
Next in line was the coolant flush:

It went smoothly. I ran prestone coolest flush additive and distilled water through the system 3 times before topping off with Prestone concentrate (60-70%) and distilled water.

We then took a trip to Alabama Hills in CA, camped, had a great time. When we parted back at home I noticed a somewhat major coolest leak... F@CK! After investigating, it seemed at thought water pump gasket had failed after the flush...

I ran to specter off-road which is luckily down the street from me and snagged a new water pump, seals, gaskets, and a new timing belt kit (Since i would have to remove it anyways to get to the water pump)

After a couple of days of work, all was well! I tore my hands and arms to shreds trying to get the tension spring back on... UGH.

Only picture I took during the process...

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My workspace... No power tools. Simple simple.

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Everything is running and working beautifully. Started right up with the new water pump and timing belt. YAY!
 

BryceD

Member
Next Job - Replace the intake Manifold Gaskets and bolts:

Job was fairly straight forward. I replaced everything with OEM, which was not what was in the truck.


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everything torqued to spec and ready to roll! This project are such a life saver while locked inside avoiding COVID-19
 

BryceD

Member
I finally got around to deleting the ACSD... what a headache. I heard it was a super simple job but... not for me. It was damn near impossible to get access in the LHD model. The steering pump blocks everything, PLUS I have an additional fuel filter that takes up even more space.

The 5mm Allen bolts round off soooooo easily... I spent two days trying to get the bolt underneath the ACSD with no avail... I eventually just cut my losses and pried it off. Luckily there were enough threads saved, I could use a longer bolt.

I had the plate my up in Aluminum by a buddy of mine. I used the original O-ring, because it seemed fairly new and fresh.


The rounded bolt... -_-

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Green = Good / Red = Ripped threads

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Access was tight...

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Got it on, adjusted the idle and everything works great! WHJAT A HEADACHE!

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Feels good to check this one off of the list.
 

BryceD

Member
Had to recover with a fun easy job... organizing the tool drawer! We don’t have a garage or any storage for that matter, so I store most of my tools in the truck:


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Easy access to everything... ahhhhhhh
 

BryceD

Member
Got around to replacing the old fender flare seals. Passengers side had its fair share of damage and repair... Did the best i could. I think i would love to pull them off and got the truck a more ‘poverty pack’ look in the future.

The Old:

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Found standing water and clogged drain plugs in the rear quarters:

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The New:

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All cleaned up and dry... Already feeling the need for a new project. Quarantine is gonna be the death of me.
 

BryceD

Member
Switched over to 15w40 yesterday to kill some time. Also sourced a small leak from under the timing belt cover, seemed to be some under-torqued bolts! I’ll keep my eye on it and report back!


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lumpskie

Independent Thinker
Awesome rig and great work so far! (Did you grab it from Dave at Back50 by chance?) I've got over 70,000 miles on my 1HDT swapped FZJ80 and I absolutely love this rig. I didn't see an EGT gauge or boost pressure gauge on there yet. (maybe I missed it) Those would be my first mods. It took a littel tuning to get my EGTs to stay below 1250. I now have a Gturbo GTX, PDI front mount (with trans cooler mounted to the front) and a PDI airbox. With those mods, I have my aneroid on the most aggressive side. I can cruise on the highway with 700-800 degree EGTs and my rig never needs to downshift going up hills.

Anyway, congratulations on getting what I consider to be the pinnacle of Land Cruisers! (80 series, 1HDT combo)
 

BryceD

Member
Awesome rig and great work so far! (Did you grab it from Dave at Back50 by chance?) I've got over 70,000 miles on my 1HDT swapped FZJ80 and I absolutely love this rig. I didn't see an EGT gauge or boost pressure gauge on there yet. (maybe I missed it) Those would be my first mods. It took a littel tuning to get my EGTs to stay below 1250. I now have a Gturbo GTX, PDI front mount (with trans cooler mounted to the front) and a PDI airbox. With those mods, I have my aneroid on the most aggressive side. I can cruise on the highway with 700-800 degree EGTs and my rig never needs to downshift going up hills.

Anyway, congratulations on getting what I consider to be the pinnacle of Land Cruisers! (80 series, 1HDT combo)
Thanks so much! I found it on craigslist in Montana. A guy named Josh had two of them and decided to let this one go. have not added those gauges. I’ve been on the fence about modding too heavily with new intercoolers and such. Everything seems to run tip top and temps and pressures are stable going 75 up a steep mountain grade. It is an incredible combo, no doubt. I have a provent catch can in the mail And will add that this week. Do you recommend any gauges or threads about EGT and boost gauges?
 

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