The kinked bottom hose is only very slightly kinked and I'm pretty sure when the engine gets up to normal temp the pressure in the system is enough to push the kink out, but I will double check next time I drive it.
Regarding the thermostat.........................
I actually cut the center out of any old stat about a month ago so all that is left is basically a big washer with the rubber seal around the outside and the center hole must be 30-40mm, so it should have good coolant flow.
I'm thinking of going for a drive with the heater set to cold and the electric fan switched off and monitor both the standard gauge and my more accurate after market one and see how long/how many k's it takes before the engine starts to over heat.
At that point I can turn the fan and heater on which will quickly cool the engine back to a safe temp.
Then the next day do exactly the same thing only this time remove the electric fan and cowl before setting off.
That should prove if the cowl has anything to do with/is causing the overheating.
Nice find with the high flow thermostats Rich, I've not seen those before.
OK guys got to change the subject away from my over heating engine for a minute as its time for an update!
Firstly my winch re-build.
I was hoping I would be able to clean up the crack inside the bottom housing using the finger linisher.
But it was 5mm too short and so wouldnt reach.
So I had to sand it by hand through the hole where the drum mounts to.
I was then able to fill it with chemical metal.
After work I sanded down the chemical metal and cleaned the drum up on the bench grinder that had a wire wheel on it.
The pile of bargain genuine Warn parts ready for the rebuild.
Back to the Frankenzuke build....................
I welded some brackets on to an air tank.
Test fitting in the car.
Once I was happy with it and after checking the seat would clear the tank I got it fully welded, painted and re-fitted.
I then made up a bracket to mount a pair of air compressors under the drivers seat.
With the compressors and tanks plumbed up I re-fitted the seats.
We rigged up some temporary switches.
This horrible auto box is getting changed, the shift pattern is terrible!
This is why the engine is getting changed, tell tale sign of a blown head gasket..................Mayonnaise in the oil cap!
I got the new spring perches fully welded and painted.
Then with the air tank, compressors and air lockers linked up it was time for more playing on the rocks.
As were now happy with everything the engine and gearbox are now getting pulled out and changed. To make it easier we decided to cut out the front slam panel out.
I drilled and fitted riv nuts to bolt the panel back in place.
Drilled out the spot welds and fitted more riv nuts.
Made up 2 aluminum plates to help hold it in place.
I'm hoping to re-build the winch after work tomorrow.
Then Friday were off at lunch time to the 4x4 competition.
Then next weekend I'm in Tasmania for 3 days 4wding.
My boss has got some mad projects lined up for me once Frankenzuke is finished!
Were building an Air Boat next from scratch! So we will get a load of sheets of 5-6mm aluminium weld them altogether to form the boat and then mount a car engine on the back with a big propellor.
The tray on the ute is a genuine Toyota one which he imported from South Africa.
Toyota Australia never sold that style of tray here, hence why he had to import one. He actually imported 2 and the first one sold before it even got here.
The gearbox is a Vitara 3 speed Auto that has been manualised and modified quite badly.
Were fitting a refurbished standard 4 speed Vitara auto box which should be heaps better.
I've just got home from the 4wd club meeting and I've got some awesome videos and pics from my last club trip.
Just done 14 hours straight and just got home (10pm). Got some great pics to update the thread with but cant do it now as need sleep! Got to be up at 5am for the gym.
Then half a day at TAFE and were off to Heathcote for the next winch challenge weekend!
Sorry Chas cant say publicly, its totally top secret.
Guinness World Records are on board as well as 4wd TV, a few high profile magazines and a load of sponsors. What we are going to do is going to be amazing!
If you and anyone else wants to know what were doing drop me a PM and I will tell you.
On Thursday we removed the engine and auto box from the Jimny.
The old oil looked healthy!
Refurbished block with new piston rings, oil seals, bearings and gaskets.
A lot of the old engine parts will get cleaned and fitted to the new engine block.
I started making another batch of twin tank compressors.
I really hate welding pressure vessels as its so easy to blow holes in the tanks. Fortunately the tanks already come with an inert gas in them under pressure, so its quite clear if/when I blow holes in them.
I gave the now rust free winch drum 10 coats of this.
I made and fitted a 3rd battery tray under the bonnet of Michaels 80 and then had to modify the fuel filter bracket to make it fit.
I also made some brackets and mounted 2 amplifiers in the rear quater panel.
And removed his Warn 8274 winch ready for it to be converted to twin motor.
If you wondered what went wrong with the front diff on Michaels Suzuki on the last trip..................................
He sheared the splined end off one of the half shafts inside the diff!
I got all the windows tinted on the Astra last week. I feel a lot less exposed when driving now and no longer feel like I'm driving round in a green house!
This will be the one and only mod the Astra is getting.
So on Friday I finished TAFE at lunch time and went home and got changed and threw my camping gear in the Astra and drove to work. I put the camping gear in the back of the 80 and we set off on the 3 hour drive to Heathcote Raceway where our weekends competition was.
Beautiful weather for camping.
A huge American pickup towing the biggest comp truck at the event. A massive GMC thing.
We unloaded the comp truck and got our tents setup. We then went for the drivers briefing and were then instructed to go to the start line and get ready for the evenings night stage.
We were then handed loads of stickers that we were told we must put on the vehicle.
My bosses son James was supposed to be co-pilot but as he still hadnt turned up I was going to do it.
I had the helmet on and was sat in the car about to set off on our first run when he got there and said hed be co-pilot.
But he did kindly say I could be co-pilot the next day.
So I returned to camp for a beer and got the pig lit.
I had a few beers and then wondered back to the start of the night stage and found my boss and his son waiting to do the second stage. The first stage had been cancelled after one of the competitors had a heart attack and got carted off in an ambulance.
We stood and watched all the other teams setting off.
The organizers had this time setup a huge screen on the back of a lorry playing 4wd videos next to a huge bomfire which was cool.
I was talking to the guy in this Patrol as he was waiting to start and he was saying that spacing the bonnet hinges up made a huge difference to his engine temp. So I think I might do it on LJ.
Every team was getting stuck and some got so stuck they required the huge earth moving machine to drag them out.
The night stage was pretty chaotic in that every team got stuck and not many completed the course with in the allotted 20 minutes.
The huge earth moving machine had all 4 wheels spinning and the tyres smoking a few times trying to pull some of the trucks out, thats how stuck they were!
It was after 1am by the time our team had attempted their lap, gone over the allotted time and got a DNF (Did Not Finish). We cooked some sausages on the pig and had some tea and then went to bed about 2am.
The next morning we awoke to beautiful weather!
This truck was rolled at the last event but had since been repaired and re-sprayed.
Lining up at the start line for the first stage.
We drove to the first stage and walked the course.
We watched the first few teams.
They snapped their winch rope and so had to tie it back together.
Their team mate in the Jeep was unable to winch them out so the earth mover was called in.
Even the big machine struggled to extract it and snapped a snatch strap in the process as can be seen on the video below.
Soon it was our turn.
Lined up at the start line ready to go.
No pics unfortunately as I was running around with winch ropes and snatch blocks for the next 20 minutes as we fought our way through and across stage 1 and 2.
On stage 1 we had to winch 3 times and didn't do as good as we could have. But on stage 2 we did really well and up to that point were the only team to even get to stage 2 as all the other teams had got DNF'd on stage 1.
It was good fun but very tiring and I ended up soaking wet and covered in mud from running around in the swamp. The first winch pull we did I ran to the front of the truck to pull the winch line out, put my foot down on the ground on what I thought was a puddle. That puddle came up to my groin!
I must say I was a bit concerned about snakes, but more on that later.
Few pics after our stages.
We then walked back over to stage 1 and 2 and watched some of the other teams. We saw lots of snapped winch ropes but no roll overs this time.
This team were winching when suddenly some one shouted FIRE!!!
One of the battery terminals had melted and fallen off.
So their team mate in the red tray backed 80 series dragged them out and they too got a DNF.
Next team.
They got it totally wrong! They should have done what we did which was to hug the tree in the center of the pic. We drove quite a way on this section before needing to winch, where as some of the other teams shot straight into the middle where the ground was very undulating.
They too snapped their winch rope.
And tied it back together.
In the end they were so stuck they had to get assistance from the earth mover.
Finally out.
We walked back over to stage 1.
A lot more cut up than when we drove it.
The next team drove this stage perfectly as can be seen in the video below.
Unfortunately they had a few mechanical problems on stage 2 and lost a lot of time.
They used a nice technique I've not see before. The winch rope was jammed on the drum and rather than hooking it to a tree and slowly reversing like you would normally do in a 4wd situation, they wrapped the rope round the bull bar and then winched in and out a few times to un jam it.
We left stage 2 and walked back to our truck.
Saw this on the way which I thought looked cool.
We drove back to camp.
Lots of mud racers had started to arrive ready to provide the Saturday night entertainment.
We had to leave by 1pm on the Saturday and miss the rest of the competition as it was Michaels engagement party that night.
So we packed all the tents up and loaded the comp truck onto the trailer.
Just as we were taking the tents down my bosses son James who was stood next to where we had camped started shouting quick come and look at this.
He had spotted a snake!
Now I should point out that contrary to what a lot of people think about Australia the place isnt crawling with snakes and spiders (pardon the pun). Yes their out there but you don't see them very often. I've been on loads of 4wding and camping trips this year and hadnt up to this point see any snakes or spiders.
Anyway back to the snake............................
It was an Eastern Brown! The worlds second most venomous snake. 1 bite contains enough venom to kill 100 people!
It was clearly a bit camera shy as no sooner had I taken a few pics of it basking in the sun than it shot off and bloody hell it could move!
I dont think Id be able to out run one and id say I'm reasonably fit going to the gym and running 4 miles, 3 times a week!
It shot into a hole/burrow in the bank and so must have been living directly under where my tent had been.
We stopped on the way back at a fuel servo and spent 40 mins washing all the mud off the comp truck.
Then in the evening I went to Michaels engagement party where I got chatting to 4wd TV presenter Simon Cristie.
I told him id love to have LJ featured on the show but that I want to get the re-spray done first, so some time next year would be awesome.
I showed him some of the pics on my phone of Frankenzuke the Jimny I've built and he like it!
He wants me to send him all the build thread pics.
Anyway.................................
Back to the comp for a minute..................
Its basically a mix of comp safari (high speed sections) and winch challenge and the idea is that people run in teams of 2 vehicles. So the 2 teams work together and help each other. So their is always 2 co-pilots to help rigging the winches up etc. and another vehicle to assist snatching the other vehicle free.
At the last event we got paired up with a 60 series but as the 60 weighed twice as much as our Suzuki it didn't work too well.
So the plan is at the next event we will run two trucks! Me and James in one and my boss and Michael in the other.
We just need to decide which other Suzuki to use. We were thinking of using Michaels Vitara and tray backing it, fitting a Warn 8274 winch and a load of bar work to it.
But it would still have the weak front axle and he wont let me convert it to live axle as it would no longer be road legal.
So the other option is to use one of my bosses other Suzuki's. Hes got a Vitara that has been converted to live front axle but it needs a new roll cage. So my next job might be building a new cage for it.
I did think of using LJ and I would like to but really I'd need to tray back it as the body would get in the way and end up smashed. And being a rare car over here and worth considerably more than it ever was worth in the UK it would be a shame.
Also tray backing it would make it impractical for my normal hardcore 4wding and camping trips.
Most of the guys run Nissan Patrols and this is because their much cheaper than cruisers and the running gear is a hell of a lot stronger!
So buying a cheap Patrol and turning it into a comp truck is an option but then wed be too heavy to compete with my bosses Suzuki based comp truck. So really it needs to be a Suzuki.
Watch this space.
OK I've rambled on far too much their! Back to the pics.....................................
Yesterday we got the new engine and auto box fitted to Frankenzuke.
The inlet manifold and rocker cover have been sent away to be polished and they should be back later this week.
Were getting a custom exhaust made for it and its going to the panel shop to be resprayed.
Then I've got to finish trimming the guards and fill in the inner guards and add some wide flares.
Then finish making the rock sliders and make a really mad looking front bar.
I'm trying to convince my boss to let me make an American style stinger bar with a big hoop coming forwards from the vehicle to stop it tipping over forward.
After work on Thursday I want to get my winch rebuilt, then this weekend I'm off to Tasmania for an epic 3 day LandCruiser Adventure.
Then 2 weeks later is my Otways trip and weve been talking to one of the guys from 4wd TV whos got an 80 series and hes hoping to come with us and show us some of the harder tracks!
There is one track that took a bunch of guys in comp trucks running 37"+ tyres 48 hours to complete!
I'm putting off turning the air con on at home, and working out how to fix the air con in the 4Runner!
We're still dropping to zero at night up here, but hitting 25* daytime or higher... Maybe back up to the low 30's again here, and high 30's down on the plains in Tamworth.
I've got to do our tax returns... I've started but am battling with the healthcare/insurance bits as they're more complicated than they were in the past.
Downloaded and installed the program from the government website and then spent 3 hours going through all the pages answering all the questions and entering all the information.
Then as I click submit a message comes up saying I cant do it on line and will instead have to print off and fill in forms.
I think its because I only became an Australian resident this year.
I've never had to do a tax return before as I've always been employed, but over here everyone has to do one. Not all bad though as they owe me $800.
OK guys super quick update then I need to pack for my Tassie adventure.
Firstly Frankenzuke the Jimny build.......................
So we've changed from a 4 speed ECU controlled auto box for a 3 speed vacuum controlled auto.
The new box was a lot shorter than the old box so I had to make a new mount to get it to bolt up to the cross member.
New mount.
Bolted in place.
The engine is almost done.
Were just waiting for the rocker cover to come back from the polishers.
The inlet manifold came back and is now nice and shiny.
Safari kindly donated a snorkel.
It will be going off to get resprayed next week hopefully.
On Thursday we had a brand new pick up truck in and I had to design and make a battery tray for it. A lot of modern engine bays are so full when they leave the factory that there isnt any room to fit another battery under the bonnet.
We already make trays to fit a battery in the pick up bed, thats what all the other trays I've been making have been. But some people cant fit a battery in the pick up bed as they've got other things fitted there, so the only other place is underneath.
I made a cardboard template.
Drew around it onto the steel and cut it out.
Folded it and tack welded the corners.
Added some brackets.
Added a section of tube to protect the corner of the 13" optima battery.
It was a nice little project and once its done and tested and goes into production we could sell thousands over the next 10-20 years.
Winch rebuild next!
Michael got his winch back from his winch guy freshly built up with the new Gigglepin twin motor top hat.
Amazingly its heavier than the huge Red hydraulic winch.
This meant hed got his old main shaft spare for my rebuild.
Warn 8274 exploded diagram.
Box full of winch rebuild tools.
First job was to fit the new bottom housing seals and bushes.
Used a seal/bearing tool to push the new bush in.
New main gear went in next.
At this point I'd put the main gear in the wrong way round but I didnt realize straight away.
Main shaft off Michael.
Compared to my rusty worn old one.
New parts.
I realized the main gear was in the wrong way round when I couldn't get the little metal locking plate to drop down.
Gear turned round and plate dropped in place.
I got one of the mechanics to have a quick look and see if everything looked OK. He said the intermediate gear needed all the rust cleaning off it and on closer inspection spotted that some of the teeth on the inside were quite worn.
So I decided to stop at that point and I will source a new gear. Its more expense but it seems mad not to change it when I've changed everything else and obviously using an old worn gear with a new one will wear the new one quicker.
So thats where I'm up to with the winch.
So back to the over heating issue.............................
Today I got back from TAFE early and decided to do part one of the experiment to determine whether my home made radiator cowl is indeed preventing airflow and causing the engine to over heat.
LJ started first turn despite being sat undriven for the past 3-4 weeks.
It was 20 degrees outside but the engine temp had got a little higher as it had been sat idling for a few minutes.
I set off with the electric fan turned off and the blower set to cold air.
After 1.5 miles the standard gauge was showing halfway, so normal operating temp.
And the aftermarket gauge was showing.
I picked a nice windy climb up the Dandenong Ranges.
2.5 miles in and the temp is starting to rise above normal operating temp.
At just over 3 miles in I pulled over as I was getting close to the red on the standard gauge.
I put the fan on and turned the heater on and the engine temp soon dropped to the normal operating temp again.
I will remove the radiator cowl and fan and do the exact same drive and see what happens. If/when it starts over heating I can turn the heater on full and if that doesnt drop the temp to a safe level I will just pull over and wait for it to cool down.
My mate is coming over at the start of December and he will bring my viscous fan with him that I forgot to put in the shipping container, so I may re-fit it, but I'm guessing it will need a cowl and if so I need to know that a home made cowl wont cause over heating issues like I suspect the current one might be doing.
ARB used to make 2 types of bullbar for the 80 series. A normal low mount winch one and one specifically for an 8274 high mount winch. Michael has the high mount bar but the new twin motor gigglepin top housing has made it incredibly tight.
Trip report to follow, when I get back from what should be a 3 day epic adventure in Tasmania.
Were you not complaining how cold it was in VIC the other day? And then you're going to TAS?! Mad man...
I need to work out what to do with the lack of fan shroud on the 4Runner; I might go home made, and stick with the viscous fan (and use the idea of the flappy bits to aid cooling) in the long term as a new one is $160 or so... but not sure how much materials are going to be if I go home made...
Good Luck with Tassie, and watch out for the snow!
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