Paddler Ed
Well-Known Member
We have a couple of BJ70 and RJ70's around here, about the same as the 73/4, but from what I've heard the 73/4 became comp trucks quite often.
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RJ70 Build Thread.
- Thread starter Ben
- Start date
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- Oct 13, 2010
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A little update.....................
I decided I needed to swap the perspex covers on the instrument clusters around as the new one I acquired was quite scratched.
They are very similar but they both red line at different RPM's and the speedo's go up to different top speeds.
So with this new one my red line has increased from 4500 to 6000 RPM.
And my top speed has dropped from 180kmh to 160kmh, which is more than enough and by loosing that 20kmh its made more space between the numbers which should make it a bit easier to read maybe.
That bolted in perfectly and looks great!
I paid for the most expensive part of the whole build this week, the engine conversion kit.
I've been trying to sell the alluminium roll cage and soft top on Gumtree for a few months as I dont need them.
Then this week I got a call from a chap who originally owned and resprayed RJ 8 years ago, who had seen my add on Gumtree.
He sent me some photos...................
1 before the respray.
And 1 with it in the blue before the flames went on. He actually said he preferred it without the flames.
Off to Melbourne over the next few weeks to go shopping for the build!
I decided I needed to swap the perspex covers on the instrument clusters around as the new one I acquired was quite scratched.
They are very similar but they both red line at different RPM's and the speedo's go up to different top speeds.
So with this new one my red line has increased from 4500 to 6000 RPM.
And my top speed has dropped from 180kmh to 160kmh, which is more than enough and by loosing that 20kmh its made more space between the numbers which should make it a bit easier to read maybe.
That bolted in perfectly and looks great!
I paid for the most expensive part of the whole build this week, the engine conversion kit.
I've been trying to sell the alluminium roll cage and soft top on Gumtree for a few months as I dont need them.
Then this week I got a call from a chap who originally owned and resprayed RJ 8 years ago, who had seen my add on Gumtree.
He sent me some photos...................
1 before the respray.
And 1 with it in the blue before the flames went on. He actually said he preferred it without the flames.
Off to Melbourne over the next few weeks to go shopping for the build!
Last edited:
I must say I agree with him Ben!
Love the truck though, whatever the colour is, and the interior looks 100% better already
Love the truck though, whatever the colour is, and the interior looks 100% better already
. Have to agree with the lads, nice colour but imo flames just don't suit a landcruiser
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
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Thanks guys.
Just back from a weekend in Melbourne and I managed to pick up a few bits for the build!
I saw my old boss at Piranha Off Road and he kindly donated some bits for the build.
Got something every 70 should have, a Doug's Tub to keep everything neat in the badly designed glove box.
He also gave me a plain battery tray with top mount and J bolts, as I'm not sure exactly where in the engine bay I will put the battery yet, so with a blank tray I can weld some mounts on and then just get the whole thing re-electroplated.
I took a few parts down with me as I hoped the wreckers yard would have what I need but they didnt.
I need a pair of sun visors (like the one below which is out of LJ), a stereo surround that hasnt been butchered for a double din one and a fuse box cover (like the one below which is out of LJ).
Their all just standard 70 series parts so they shouldnt be too hard to find in Australia, its not like their Bundera specific or anything.
Hopefully the engine conversion kit will arrive this week!
Just back from a weekend in Melbourne and I managed to pick up a few bits for the build!
I saw my old boss at Piranha Off Road and he kindly donated some bits for the build.
Got something every 70 should have, a Doug's Tub to keep everything neat in the badly designed glove box.
He also gave me a plain battery tray with top mount and J bolts, as I'm not sure exactly where in the engine bay I will put the battery yet, so with a blank tray I can weld some mounts on and then just get the whole thing re-electroplated.
I took a few parts down with me as I hoped the wreckers yard would have what I need but they didnt.
I need a pair of sun visors (like the one below which is out of LJ), a stereo surround that hasnt been butchered for a double din one and a fuse box cover (like the one below which is out of LJ).
Their all just standard 70 series parts so they shouldnt be too hard to find in Australia, its not like their Bundera specific or anything.
Hopefully the engine conversion kit will arrive this week!
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 6,058
- Country Flag
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- Country Flag
I got my portable aircon unit setup in the garage this week, so work can continue on RJ, no matter how hot it is outside.
I did a tiny bit more work on RJ's rear bar, got it outside and smoothed some of the welds down.
And then re-fitted it.
I've decided to put the rear bar and bullbar on hold for now and concentrate on the engine conversion instead.
I needed to turn RJ around ready to drop the new engine in, so for the first time in 8 months RJ saw sunlight again.
Getting it out was easy as the driveway slopes down to the road, but I knew getting it turned around and back in wouldnt be as easy.
But thankfully I had LJ on hand with the tricked up Warn 8274 on the front.
Ran the winch rope through a snatch block off the back of the Astra.
The Mrs jumped in and steered for me.
Attached the hook to the front of the chassis and winched RJ in the rest of the way.
The next day I pushed RJ back outside so I could de-grease the engine bay.
With a bit of space in the garage with RJ outside, I removed the engine from the stand.
With RJ now nice and dry from being in the sun all day.
I could winch it back in.
I stripped some more off the front of the car to make room for the engine.
Then got to work on the engine conversion.
I'm not sure why but the Aisin clutch had been removed from its box, the box cut up and reassembled inside out and the clutch then put back in it.
Its almost like KS Racing didnt want me knowing which clutch disc it is.
Anyway.............................
I needed to remove the ring gear and attach it to the new flywheel.
I just needed to carefully cut through all the welds with a thin disc in the grinder.
With the ring gear in the vice I could then carefully hammer out the center.
I then put the ring gear in the oven for 20 minutes.
And the flywheel in the freezer.
The ring gear almost dropped straight onto the flywheel, but it did need a few taps with a copper mallet.
I decided to put a few neat little TIG welds on just to make sure the ring gear cant slip or come loose.
I fitted the Koyo bearing in the end of the crank.
I fitted the clutch fork, thrust bearing, slave cylinder and alluminium adapter on the end of the input shaft on the gearbox.
I fitted the flywheel and thread locked and torqued all the bolts up.
My clutch tool came in handy next fitting the clutch.
I then got the gearbox bolted to the engine.
I dont particularly like how close the clutch slave cylinder is to the exhaust, but it should be ok.
Then it was time to lift the engine in.
I used some steel angle to protect the vulnerable power steering pipes.
So the engine is now sat roughly in place, with the gearbox bolted in position on the cross member.
I knew it would be tight but its a bit tighter than I would have liked.
The oil filter is quite tight, but I'm not too worried as I might just buy or make an adapter to remote mount it.
But the power steering pump is far too close to the steering box. Lifting the front of the engine up does improve things but then the back of the engine is too close to the top of the firewall.
Ideally I would move the whole engine and gearbox forwards 20-30mm, but looking at how the cross member mounts, I dont think that will be easy without welding the chassis, which I'm trying to avoid.
Next step is to look at the engine mounts and notching the sump around the front diff pumpkin.
Huge thanks to Ryan for helping me and advising me on this conversion.
This link he sent me for a copy of the factory service manual has proven invaluable.
http://lexus-doc.ru/RepairManual1991.php
Another thing I'm looking at doing is changing the front indicators for clear lenses, which I think would look a lot more modern.
I havent found any yet but I will keep looking.
I did a tiny bit more work on RJ's rear bar, got it outside and smoothed some of the welds down.
And then re-fitted it.
I've decided to put the rear bar and bullbar on hold for now and concentrate on the engine conversion instead.
I needed to turn RJ around ready to drop the new engine in, so for the first time in 8 months RJ saw sunlight again.
Getting it out was easy as the driveway slopes down to the road, but I knew getting it turned around and back in wouldnt be as easy.
But thankfully I had LJ on hand with the tricked up Warn 8274 on the front.
Ran the winch rope through a snatch block off the back of the Astra.
The Mrs jumped in and steered for me.
Attached the hook to the front of the chassis and winched RJ in the rest of the way.
The next day I pushed RJ back outside so I could de-grease the engine bay.
With a bit of space in the garage with RJ outside, I removed the engine from the stand.
With RJ now nice and dry from being in the sun all day.
I could winch it back in.
I stripped some more off the front of the car to make room for the engine.
Then got to work on the engine conversion.
I'm not sure why but the Aisin clutch had been removed from its box, the box cut up and reassembled inside out and the clutch then put back in it.
Its almost like KS Racing didnt want me knowing which clutch disc it is.
Anyway.............................
I needed to remove the ring gear and attach it to the new flywheel.
I just needed to carefully cut through all the welds with a thin disc in the grinder.
With the ring gear in the vice I could then carefully hammer out the center.
I then put the ring gear in the oven for 20 minutes.
And the flywheel in the freezer.
The ring gear almost dropped straight onto the flywheel, but it did need a few taps with a copper mallet.
I decided to put a few neat little TIG welds on just to make sure the ring gear cant slip or come loose.
I fitted the Koyo bearing in the end of the crank.
I fitted the clutch fork, thrust bearing, slave cylinder and alluminium adapter on the end of the input shaft on the gearbox.
I fitted the flywheel and thread locked and torqued all the bolts up.
My clutch tool came in handy next fitting the clutch.
I then got the gearbox bolted to the engine.
I dont particularly like how close the clutch slave cylinder is to the exhaust, but it should be ok.
Then it was time to lift the engine in.
I used some steel angle to protect the vulnerable power steering pipes.
So the engine is now sat roughly in place, with the gearbox bolted in position on the cross member.
I knew it would be tight but its a bit tighter than I would have liked.
The oil filter is quite tight, but I'm not too worried as I might just buy or make an adapter to remote mount it.
But the power steering pump is far too close to the steering box. Lifting the front of the engine up does improve things but then the back of the engine is too close to the top of the firewall.
Ideally I would move the whole engine and gearbox forwards 20-30mm, but looking at how the cross member mounts, I dont think that will be easy without welding the chassis, which I'm trying to avoid.
Next step is to look at the engine mounts and notching the sump around the front diff pumpkin.
Huge thanks to Ryan for helping me and advising me on this conversion.
This link he sent me for a copy of the factory service manual has proven invaluable.
http://lexus-doc.ru/RepairManual1991.php
Another thing I'm looking at doing is changing the front indicators for clear lenses, which I think would look a lot more modern.
I havent found any yet but I will keep looking.
Last edited:
Paddler Ed
Well-Known Member
I've got the exhaust on my 4Runner quite close to the slave cylinder as well... and I've got heat issues. Don't forget that you can't change to DOT4 fluid to get a higher boiling point.
I'm looking at a braided/insulated clutch line and then an idea of a heat shield like the one used a manual RA Rodeo V6 as they have a similar problem - I just spent 20 minutes on the phone to a mate who works in a brake and clutch place talking about this problem. He says that the heat issue is a common one on Commodores and Astras, as well as a few other things as they have the slave mounted a bit more inboard, but Isuzu/GM engineers picked up the issue with the RA Rodeo V6 and made the little shield that bolts on.
Lookin' good Ben. Some good progress being made there. Shouldn't be too tricky for you to fab some sort of heat shield to bolt on. Also, is it possible to move the PS pump to the other side? Someone will have done whatever is needed.
A nice stage of progress Ben, at least it's in,
for the moment....
for the moment....
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Thanks guys.
Work is progressing well, currently modifying a spare gearbox cross member to shift the whole lot 15mm forwards. Not sure if that will be enough, but fingers crossed, as to get more than that would probably involve designing and making a new cross member from scratch.
I will make an aluminium heat shield for the clutch slave cylinder, great idea guys.
I'm going to see how much clearance I've gained once the cross member has been modified, if that's not enough then I will look at moving the power steering pump.
Will try and get an update up over the next few days showing the progress and the new bits that I've just had delivered.
Work is progressing well, currently modifying a spare gearbox cross member to shift the whole lot 15mm forwards. Not sure if that will be enough, but fingers crossed, as to get more than that would probably involve designing and making a new cross member from scratch.
I will make an aluminium heat shield for the clutch slave cylinder, great idea guys.
I'm going to see how much clearance I've gained once the cross member has been modified, if that's not enough then I will look at moving the power steering pump.
Will try and get an update up over the next few days showing the progress and the new bits that I've just had delivered.
Sounds like Father Christmas has come early there Ben…
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- Oct 13, 2010
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- Country Flag
Update............................
I worked out I could move the gearbox forwards by 15mm without altering the cross member too drastically.
Got my spare cross member on the bench ready to be modified.
Clamped it to the bench and prepared to weld some 6mm plate to it.
TIG welded it together.
Drilled some new mounting holes 15mm further in.
Into the vice next to elongate the holes with the die grinder.
The new creeper has proven invaluable for working under RJ.
Bolted the cross member on.
(These bolts will all have thick 5mm washers under them which I will weld to the cross member.)
Thats as far as I got on the cross member.
I had some deliveries.
New timing belt.
As I need to alter the pipework to move the clutch slave cylinder from the passenger side to drivers side, I bought a pipe bender, flaring tool and cutter.
I pulled the power steering pump off.
I had actually broken one of the hoses off for the idle up control valve as it was hitting the steering box.
Fortunately it isnt really needed and can cause problems if/when they fail as it pumps power steering fluid into the air intake, so I needed to remove it and blank it off.
Broken the plastic top off.
Which left me this bit to weld up.
Cut it down.
Cleaned it up.
And welded the hole up.
Screwed it back in.
Next I had a look at the radiator/fan situation to make sure it would all fit in the space left in front of the engine.
Bolted the standard 1UZ viscous fan back on.
RJ came with an alluminium radiator which I'm hoping to use as I can easily weld it to modify it.
Unbolted all these bits.
Sat the rad in place.
The fan was a bit too close though really.
Not a problem though, I had a cunning plan! To use a thinner fan off a 2lt which also had much less off set.
(Anyone spot the obvious problem in the pic below?)
It bolted on perfectly.
And provided much more clearance against the rad.
Engine mounts next....................................
Now I was reasonably happy with the position of the engine it was time to look at engine mounts.
My aim was to try and mount the engine using the standard 2lt/22r rubber engine mounts and without welding/altering the chassis, so fully bolt on.
One thing that needed consideration was the engine oil dip stick running right through where the engine mount would normally sit on the chassis.
Pulled it off.
Removed a wheel to give me slightly better access to the mount.
Still pretty buried though which made this job a lot more difficult than it would have been with clear access.
I could have removed the exhaust manifold which would have helped, but I wanted to make sure the mount I was going to fit would also clear the manifold.
I thought I had enough steel to make the mounts with but I didnt.
Being Christmas eve and a Saturday I was pretty limited with what steel I could get, so in the end I bought the biggest section I could from Bunnings, got some 7mm thick galvanised lintel.
Cut a piece to length to bolt to the chassis.
Drilled it.
Cut and drilled another piece to bolt to the engine.
I now just needed to bolt these bits together.
Like this.
Had to drill a hole through the engine plate for the nut on the engine mount to go through because the engine mount was just too tight with the rubber mount and 2 pieces of 7mm plate.
I managed to get a couple of tacks on it with it bolted to the engine, then I pulled it off ready to fully weld it.
Added another piece of 6mm flat to brace it.
Fully welded it top and bottom.
So I needed 4 fixings in total, 2 to fix the adapter plate to the chassis using the original 2 engine mount holes in the chassis, then 2 more to fix the rubber engine mount to the adapter plate in its new position.
One of these bolts would be behind the center of the rubber engine mount, so I needed to weld a threaded stud to the adapter plate without a bolt head sticking up on the other side.
So the adapter plate bolts to the standard chassis mount first.
Then these 2 get bolted together.
Slid in place and bolted on.
Here you can see where one of the bolts for the new engine mount position goes. It goes through a 30mm hole in the center of the original engine chassis mount, into which I found a 30mm x 3mm thick washer to act as a crush tube in affect, with a big thick square washer on top of that, followed by the nut.
That was that side done and I was even able to refit the dip stick.
Other side next that would prove to be much harder as although the engine is actually spaced further from this chassis rail giving more space, the steering box is in the way meaning most of the work had to be done from below.
Sat the standard mount in position to see how far out the chassis mounts were, to the engine mounts.
Marked out some more of the galvanized flat bar.
Drilled the 10mm holes.
Cut it to length.
Drilled the second plate.
Cut the corners off and welded the threaded M10 stud in.
Bolted it all in position.
What followed next was pretty painful!
Lying on my back trying to tack weld some metal to the horrible galvanized metal that kept spitting at me, resulted in a big molten metal hot rock finding its way through my welding jacket, down my arm and then getting trapped in my jacket against my elbow!
But I did manage to get some pretty shit looking tack welds that miraculously held while I unbolted it all.
Cut some 6mm flat, welded it in and gave it a coat of paint.
Bolted the rubber mount on.
Bolted it in position.
Both done!
Again, a shout out to this little baby, its been so handy!
Back to the engine and I bolted the power steering pump back on, which now clears fine and has plenty of room around it after pushing the engine forwards that 15mm.
Sump next....................
I got the front of the chassis supported on my big axle stands so it was nice and high off the ground.
I could then remove the front springs and jack the diff up to see how much needed cutting off the sump for it to clear.
Marked roughly what needed cutting off.
Removed the sump then drained the last bit of oil out of it.
Cleaned it inside and out and got it on the bench ready for surgery.
The underside is sadly a bit scratched from where I had to drag the Lexus onto the trailer (damn coil overs being set so low).
A bit more measuring and checking.
The bump stops would need spacing down to prevent the sump hitting the diff pumpkin.
But most worrying, it looked like the front prop/drive shaft would be really bloody close to the slave cylinder on the bell housing.
I bolted a shaft on to check.
Yes really bloody close! Too close!
The slave cylinder is in perfect alignment with the prop shaft.
I believe this is a fault with the design of the KS Racing bell housing. I think the Dellows bell housing comes with the option of having the slave cylinder on the left or right. If it had been on the other side then this wouldn't be an issue, but the KS Racing one only comes on that side.
There are a few options I could do to fix the situation, one is to cut that big chunk of alluminium off the side of the bell housing and try and fit a hydraulic throw out bearing instead and this is something I may well end up doing.
For now I'm going to carry on with the rest of the build and com back to it.
Made a cardboard template for the notch in the sump.
Marked the sump.
Cut the sump.
Test fitted it.
Cut a piece of 2mm steel to cap the cut off of with.
Got a few tacks on it, then fully welded it.
Then flipped it over and ran another seem of weld around the inside.
Cut out the drain plug and boss from the cut out bit of sump.
It had been in the wrong place anyway as it was above the front diff previously, I moved to the other end where the oil will have a clear path down to a drain tub.
Drilled it out with a step drill.
Clamped the boss in position.
Welded it on.
Gave the whole sump a good clean followed by a few coats of satin black enamel.
Re-fitted it.
And thats where I'm up to. Lots more to do, but I'm making progress.
I worked out I could move the gearbox forwards by 15mm without altering the cross member too drastically.
Got my spare cross member on the bench ready to be modified.
Clamped it to the bench and prepared to weld some 6mm plate to it.
TIG welded it together.
Drilled some new mounting holes 15mm further in.
Into the vice next to elongate the holes with the die grinder.
The new creeper has proven invaluable for working under RJ.
Bolted the cross member on.
(These bolts will all have thick 5mm washers under them which I will weld to the cross member.)
Thats as far as I got on the cross member.
I had some deliveries.
New timing belt.
As I need to alter the pipework to move the clutch slave cylinder from the passenger side to drivers side, I bought a pipe bender, flaring tool and cutter.
I pulled the power steering pump off.
I had actually broken one of the hoses off for the idle up control valve as it was hitting the steering box.
Fortunately it isnt really needed and can cause problems if/when they fail as it pumps power steering fluid into the air intake, so I needed to remove it and blank it off.
Broken the plastic top off.
Which left me this bit to weld up.
Cut it down.
Cleaned it up.
And welded the hole up.
Screwed it back in.
Next I had a look at the radiator/fan situation to make sure it would all fit in the space left in front of the engine.
Bolted the standard 1UZ viscous fan back on.
RJ came with an alluminium radiator which I'm hoping to use as I can easily weld it to modify it.
Unbolted all these bits.
Sat the rad in place.
The fan was a bit too close though really.
Not a problem though, I had a cunning plan! To use a thinner fan off a 2lt which also had much less off set.
(Anyone spot the obvious problem in the pic below?)
It bolted on perfectly.
And provided much more clearance against the rad.
Engine mounts next....................................
Now I was reasonably happy with the position of the engine it was time to look at engine mounts.
My aim was to try and mount the engine using the standard 2lt/22r rubber engine mounts and without welding/altering the chassis, so fully bolt on.
One thing that needed consideration was the engine oil dip stick running right through where the engine mount would normally sit on the chassis.
Pulled it off.
Removed a wheel to give me slightly better access to the mount.
Still pretty buried though which made this job a lot more difficult than it would have been with clear access.
I could have removed the exhaust manifold which would have helped, but I wanted to make sure the mount I was going to fit would also clear the manifold.
I thought I had enough steel to make the mounts with but I didnt.
Being Christmas eve and a Saturday I was pretty limited with what steel I could get, so in the end I bought the biggest section I could from Bunnings, got some 7mm thick galvanised lintel.
Cut a piece to length to bolt to the chassis.
Drilled it.
Cut and drilled another piece to bolt to the engine.
I now just needed to bolt these bits together.
Like this.
Had to drill a hole through the engine plate for the nut on the engine mount to go through because the engine mount was just too tight with the rubber mount and 2 pieces of 7mm plate.
I managed to get a couple of tacks on it with it bolted to the engine, then I pulled it off ready to fully weld it.
Added another piece of 6mm flat to brace it.
Fully welded it top and bottom.
So I needed 4 fixings in total, 2 to fix the adapter plate to the chassis using the original 2 engine mount holes in the chassis, then 2 more to fix the rubber engine mount to the adapter plate in its new position.
One of these bolts would be behind the center of the rubber engine mount, so I needed to weld a threaded stud to the adapter plate without a bolt head sticking up on the other side.
So the adapter plate bolts to the standard chassis mount first.
Then these 2 get bolted together.
Slid in place and bolted on.
Here you can see where one of the bolts for the new engine mount position goes. It goes through a 30mm hole in the center of the original engine chassis mount, into which I found a 30mm x 3mm thick washer to act as a crush tube in affect, with a big thick square washer on top of that, followed by the nut.
That was that side done and I was even able to refit the dip stick.
Other side next that would prove to be much harder as although the engine is actually spaced further from this chassis rail giving more space, the steering box is in the way meaning most of the work had to be done from below.
Sat the standard mount in position to see how far out the chassis mounts were, to the engine mounts.
Marked out some more of the galvanized flat bar.
Drilled the 10mm holes.
Cut it to length.
Drilled the second plate.
Cut the corners off and welded the threaded M10 stud in.
Bolted it all in position.
What followed next was pretty painful!
Lying on my back trying to tack weld some metal to the horrible galvanized metal that kept spitting at me, resulted in a big molten metal hot rock finding its way through my welding jacket, down my arm and then getting trapped in my jacket against my elbow!
But I did manage to get some pretty shit looking tack welds that miraculously held while I unbolted it all.
Cut some 6mm flat, welded it in and gave it a coat of paint.
Bolted the rubber mount on.
Bolted it in position.
Both done!
Again, a shout out to this little baby, its been so handy!
Back to the engine and I bolted the power steering pump back on, which now clears fine and has plenty of room around it after pushing the engine forwards that 15mm.
Sump next....................
I got the front of the chassis supported on my big axle stands so it was nice and high off the ground.
I could then remove the front springs and jack the diff up to see how much needed cutting off the sump for it to clear.
Marked roughly what needed cutting off.
Removed the sump then drained the last bit of oil out of it.
Cleaned it inside and out and got it on the bench ready for surgery.
The underside is sadly a bit scratched from where I had to drag the Lexus onto the trailer (damn coil overs being set so low).
A bit more measuring and checking.
The bump stops would need spacing down to prevent the sump hitting the diff pumpkin.
But most worrying, it looked like the front prop/drive shaft would be really bloody close to the slave cylinder on the bell housing.
I bolted a shaft on to check.
Yes really bloody close! Too close!
The slave cylinder is in perfect alignment with the prop shaft.
I believe this is a fault with the design of the KS Racing bell housing. I think the Dellows bell housing comes with the option of having the slave cylinder on the left or right. If it had been on the other side then this wouldn't be an issue, but the KS Racing one only comes on that side.
There are a few options I could do to fix the situation, one is to cut that big chunk of alluminium off the side of the bell housing and try and fit a hydraulic throw out bearing instead and this is something I may well end up doing.
For now I'm going to carry on with the rest of the build and com back to it.
Made a cardboard template for the notch in the sump.
Marked the sump.
Cut the sump.
Test fitted it.
Cut a piece of 2mm steel to cap the cut off of with.
Got a few tacks on it, then fully welded it.
Then flipped it over and ran another seem of weld around the inside.
Cut out the drain plug and boss from the cut out bit of sump.
It had been in the wrong place anyway as it was above the front diff previously, I moved to the other end where the oil will have a clear path down to a drain tub.
Drilled it out with a step drill.
Clamped the boss in position.
Welded it on.
Gave the whole sump a good clean followed by a few coats of satin black enamel.
Re-fitted it.
And thats where I'm up to. Lots more to do, but I'm making progress.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 6,058
- Country Flag
Update............................
I worked out I could move the gearbox forwards by 15mm without altering the cross member too drastically.
Got my spare cross member on the bench ready to be modified.
Clamped it to the bench and prepared to weld some 6mm plate to it.
To weld the other side I clamped a piece of 20mm thick steel plate underneath as I couldnt use the bench top as all the other corners of the top were taken up with the vices and guillotine.
TIG welded it together.
Drilled some new mounting holes 15mm further in.
Into the vice next to elongate the holes with the die grinder.
The new creeper has proven invaluable for working under RJ.
Bolted the cross member on.
(These bolts will all have thick 5mm washers under them which I will weld to the cross member.)
Thats as far as I got on the cross member.
I had some deliveries.
New timing belt.
As I need to alter the pipework to move the clutch slave cylinder from the passenger side to drivers side, I bought a pipe bender, flaring tool and cutter.
I pulled the power steering pump off.
I had actually broken one of the hoses off for the idle up control valve as it was hitting the steering box.
Fortunately it isnt really needed and can cause problems if/when they fail as it pumps power steering fluid into the air intake, so I needed to remove it and blank it off.
Broke the plastic top off.
Which left me this bit to weld up.
Cut it down.
Cleaned it up.
And welded the hole up.
Screwed it back in.
Next I had a look at the radiator/fan situation to make sure it would all fit in the space left in front of the engine.
Bolted the standard 1UZ viscous fan back on.
RJ came with an alluminium radiator which I'm hoping to use as I can easily weld it to modify it.
Unbolted all these bits.
Sat the rad in place.
The fan was a bit too close though really.
Not a problem though, I had a cunning plan! To use a thinner fan off a 2lt which also had much less off set.
(Anyone spot the obvious problem in the pic below?)
It bolted on perfectly.
And provided much more clearance against the rad.
Engine mounts next....................................
Now I was reasonably happy with the position of the engine it was time to look at engine mounts.
My aim was to try and mount the engine using the standard 2lt/22r rubber engine mounts and without welding/altering the chassis, so fully bolt on.
One thing that needed consideration was the engine oil dip stick running right through where the engine mount would normally sit on the chassis.
Pulled it off.
Removed a wheel to give me slightly better access to the mount.
Still pretty buried though which made this job a lot more difficult than it would have been with clear access.
I could have removed the exhaust manifold which would have helped, but I wanted to make sure the mount I was going to fit would also clear the manifold.
I thought I had enough steel to make the mounts with but I didnt.
Being Christmas eve and a Saturday I was pretty limited with what steel I could get, so in the end I bought the biggest section I could from Bunnings, got some 7mm thick galvanised lintel.
Cut a piece to length to bolt to the chassis.
Drilled it.
Cut and drilled another piece to bolt to the engine.
I now just needed to bolt these bits together.
Like this.
Had to drill a hole through the engine plate for the nut on the engine mount to go through because the engine mount was just too tight with the rubber mount and 2 pieces of 7mm plate.
I managed to get a couple of tacks on it with it bolted to the engine, then I pulled it off ready to fully weld it.
Added another piece of 6mm flat to brace it.
Fully welded it top and bottom.
So I needed 4 fixings in total, 2 to fix the adapter plate to the chassis using the original 2 engine mount holes in the chassis, then 2 more to fix the rubber engine mount to the adapter plate in its new position.
One of these bolts would be behind the center of the rubber engine mount, so I needed to weld a threaded stud to the adapter plate without a bolt head sticking up on the other side.
So the adapter plate bolts to the standard chassis mount first.
Then these 2 get bolted together.
Slid in place and bolted on.
Here you can see where one of the bolts for the new engine mount position goes. It goes through a 30mm hole in the center of the original engine chassis mount, into which I found a 30mm x 3mm thick washer to act as a crush tube in affect, with a big thick square washer on top of that, followed by the nut.
That was that side done and I was even able to refit the dip stick.
Other side next that would prove to be much harder as although the engine is actually spaced further from this chassis rail giving more space, the steering box is in the way meaning most of the work had to be done from below.
Sat the standard mount in position to see how far out the chassis mounts were, to the engine mounts.
Marked out some more of the galvanized flat bar.
Drilled the 10mm holes.
Cut it to length.
Drilled the second plate.
Cut the corners off and welded the threaded M10 stud in.
Bolted it all in position.
What followed next was pretty painful!
Lying on my back trying to tack weld some metal to the horrible galvanized metal that kept spitting at me, resulted in a big molten metal hot rock finding its way through my welding jacket, down my arm and then getting trapped in my jacket against my elbow!
But I did manage to get some pretty shit looking tack welds that miraculously held while I unbolted it all.
Cut some 6mm flat, welded it in and gave it a coat of paint.
Bolted the rubber mount on.
Bolted it in position.
Both done!
Again, a shout out to this little baby, its been so handy!
Back to the engine and I bolted the power steering pump back on, which now clears fine and has plenty of room around it after pushing the engine forwards that 15mm.
Sump next....................
I got the front of the chassis supported on my big axle stands so it was nice and high off the ground.
I could then remove the front springs and jack the diff up to see how much needed cutting off the sump for it to clear.
Marked roughly what needed cutting off.
Removed the sump then drained the last bit of oil out of it.
Cleaned it inside and out and got it on the bench ready for surgery.
The underside is sadly a bit scratched from where I had to drag the Lexus onto the trailer (damn coil overs being set so low).
A bit more measuring and checking.
The bump stops would need spacing down to prevent the sump hitting the diff pumpkin.
But most worrying, it looked like the front prop/drive shaft would be really bloody close to the slave cylinder on the bell housing.
I bolted a shaft on to check.
Yes really bloody close! Too close!
The slave cylinder is in perfect alignment with the prop shaft.
I believe this is a fault with the design of the KS Racing bell housing. I think the Dellows bell housing comes with the option of having the slave cylinder on the left or right. If it had been on the other side then this wouldn't be an issue, but the KS Racing one only comes on that side.
There are a few options I could do to fix the situation, one is to cut that big chunk of alluminium off the side of the bell housing and try and fit a hydraulic throw out bearing instead and this is something I may well end up doing.
For now I'm going to carry on with the rest of the build and com back to it.
Made a cardboard template for the notch in the sump.
Marked the sump.
Cut the sump.
Test fitted it.
Cut a piece of 2mm steel to cap the cut off of with.
Got a few tacks on it, then fully welded it.
Then flipped it over and ran another seem of weld around the inside.
Cut out the drain plug and boss from the cut out bit of sump.
It had been in the wrong place anyway as it was above the front diff previously, I moved to the other end where the oil will have a clear path down to a drain tub.
Drilled it out with a step drill.
Clamped the boss in position.
Welded it on.
Gave the whole sump a good clean followed by a few coats of satin black enamel.
Re-fitted it.
And thats where I'm up to. Lots more to do, but I'm making progress.
*EDIT* I cant seem to get rid of the pics below, they shouldnt be there and every time I delete them they come back.
@Crispin ?
I worked out I could move the gearbox forwards by 15mm without altering the cross member too drastically.
Got my spare cross member on the bench ready to be modified.
Clamped it to the bench and prepared to weld some 6mm plate to it.
To weld the other side I clamped a piece of 20mm thick steel plate underneath as I couldnt use the bench top as all the other corners of the top were taken up with the vices and guillotine.
TIG welded it together.
Drilled some new mounting holes 15mm further in.
Into the vice next to elongate the holes with the die grinder.
The new creeper has proven invaluable for working under RJ.
Bolted the cross member on.
(These bolts will all have thick 5mm washers under them which I will weld to the cross member.)
Thats as far as I got on the cross member.
I had some deliveries.
New timing belt.
As I need to alter the pipework to move the clutch slave cylinder from the passenger side to drivers side, I bought a pipe bender, flaring tool and cutter.
I pulled the power steering pump off.
I had actually broken one of the hoses off for the idle up control valve as it was hitting the steering box.
Fortunately it isnt really needed and can cause problems if/when they fail as it pumps power steering fluid into the air intake, so I needed to remove it and blank it off.
Broke the plastic top off.
Which left me this bit to weld up.
Cut it down.
Cleaned it up.
And welded the hole up.
Screwed it back in.
Next I had a look at the radiator/fan situation to make sure it would all fit in the space left in front of the engine.
Bolted the standard 1UZ viscous fan back on.
RJ came with an alluminium radiator which I'm hoping to use as I can easily weld it to modify it.
Unbolted all these bits.
Sat the rad in place.
The fan was a bit too close though really.
Not a problem though, I had a cunning plan! To use a thinner fan off a 2lt which also had much less off set.
(Anyone spot the obvious problem in the pic below?)
It bolted on perfectly.
And provided much more clearance against the rad.
Engine mounts next....................................
Now I was reasonably happy with the position of the engine it was time to look at engine mounts.
My aim was to try and mount the engine using the standard 2lt/22r rubber engine mounts and without welding/altering the chassis, so fully bolt on.
One thing that needed consideration was the engine oil dip stick running right through where the engine mount would normally sit on the chassis.
Pulled it off.
Removed a wheel to give me slightly better access to the mount.
Still pretty buried though which made this job a lot more difficult than it would have been with clear access.
I could have removed the exhaust manifold which would have helped, but I wanted to make sure the mount I was going to fit would also clear the manifold.
I thought I had enough steel to make the mounts with but I didnt.
Being Christmas eve and a Saturday I was pretty limited with what steel I could get, so in the end I bought the biggest section I could from Bunnings, got some 7mm thick galvanised lintel.
Cut a piece to length to bolt to the chassis.
Drilled it.
Cut and drilled another piece to bolt to the engine.
I now just needed to bolt these bits together.
Like this.
Had to drill a hole through the engine plate for the nut on the engine mount to go through because the engine mount was just too tight with the rubber mount and 2 pieces of 7mm plate.
I managed to get a couple of tacks on it with it bolted to the engine, then I pulled it off ready to fully weld it.
Added another piece of 6mm flat to brace it.
Fully welded it top and bottom.
So I needed 4 fixings in total, 2 to fix the adapter plate to the chassis using the original 2 engine mount holes in the chassis, then 2 more to fix the rubber engine mount to the adapter plate in its new position.
One of these bolts would be behind the center of the rubber engine mount, so I needed to weld a threaded stud to the adapter plate without a bolt head sticking up on the other side.
So the adapter plate bolts to the standard chassis mount first.
Then these 2 get bolted together.
Slid in place and bolted on.
Here you can see where one of the bolts for the new engine mount position goes. It goes through a 30mm hole in the center of the original engine chassis mount, into which I found a 30mm x 3mm thick washer to act as a crush tube in affect, with a big thick square washer on top of that, followed by the nut.
That was that side done and I was even able to refit the dip stick.
Other side next that would prove to be much harder as although the engine is actually spaced further from this chassis rail giving more space, the steering box is in the way meaning most of the work had to be done from below.
Sat the standard mount in position to see how far out the chassis mounts were, to the engine mounts.
Marked out some more of the galvanized flat bar.
Drilled the 10mm holes.
Cut it to length.
Drilled the second plate.
Cut the corners off and welded the threaded M10 stud in.
Bolted it all in position.
What followed next was pretty painful!
Lying on my back trying to tack weld some metal to the horrible galvanized metal that kept spitting at me, resulted in a big molten metal hot rock finding its way through my welding jacket, down my arm and then getting trapped in my jacket against my elbow!
But I did manage to get some pretty shit looking tack welds that miraculously held while I unbolted it all.
Cut some 6mm flat, welded it in and gave it a coat of paint.
Bolted the rubber mount on.
Bolted it in position.
Both done!
Again, a shout out to this little baby, its been so handy!
Back to the engine and I bolted the power steering pump back on, which now clears fine and has plenty of room around it after pushing the engine forwards that 15mm.
Sump next....................
I got the front of the chassis supported on my big axle stands so it was nice and high off the ground.
I could then remove the front springs and jack the diff up to see how much needed cutting off the sump for it to clear.
Marked roughly what needed cutting off.
Removed the sump then drained the last bit of oil out of it.
Cleaned it inside and out and got it on the bench ready for surgery.
The underside is sadly a bit scratched from where I had to drag the Lexus onto the trailer (damn coil overs being set so low).
A bit more measuring and checking.
The bump stops would need spacing down to prevent the sump hitting the diff pumpkin.
But most worrying, it looked like the front prop/drive shaft would be really bloody close to the slave cylinder on the bell housing.
I bolted a shaft on to check.
Yes really bloody close! Too close!
The slave cylinder is in perfect alignment with the prop shaft.
I believe this is a fault with the design of the KS Racing bell housing. I think the Dellows bell housing comes with the option of having the slave cylinder on the left or right. If it had been on the other side then this wouldn't be an issue, but the KS Racing one only comes on that side.
There are a few options I could do to fix the situation, one is to cut that big chunk of alluminium off the side of the bell housing and try and fit a hydraulic throw out bearing instead and this is something I may well end up doing.
For now I'm going to carry on with the rest of the build and com back to it.
Made a cardboard template for the notch in the sump.
Marked the sump.
Cut the sump.
Test fitted it.
Cut a piece of 2mm steel to cap the cut off of with.
Got a few tacks on it, then fully welded it.
Then flipped it over and ran another seem of weld around the inside.
Cut out the drain plug and boss from the cut out bit of sump.
It had been in the wrong place anyway as it was above the front diff previously, I moved to the other end where the oil will have a clear path down to a drain tub.
Drilled it out with a step drill.
Clamped the boss in position.
Welded it on.
Gave the whole sump a good clean followed by a few coats of satin black enamel.
Re-fitted it.
And thats where I'm up to. Lots more to do, but I'm making progress.
*EDIT* I cant seem to get rid of the pics below, they shouldnt be there and every time I delete them they come back.
@Crispin ?
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