Was an 80-Series the right choice for me? Having second thoughts...

[Chris]

Thing about these exhausts is that most people go from a standard exhaust to a something like the Prospeed and THINK that it's the quality of the new exhaust making the difference. Well in the main it's not. What they don't experience is just having the standard one modified. It's the dire quality of the original that's the issue. Sawing the damn thing off at the turbo will give you a huge increase in performance. I recently cut my mid and rear sections out so that the squashed pipe over the rear cross member was gone. Increase was immediate and significant and cost me nothing. So what I am saying is that a posh exhaust on an 80 isn't necessarily the answer, it's getting rid of the rubbish one that is probably on there that makes the difference. Mine just pulls and pulls and pulls now.

 

[StarCruiser]

Hmmm… I was wondering about doing a side exit after the centre box for the time being. Reasoning that it would remove the squished bit and give more clearance as the standard tail pipe is a bit of a plough. Especially with all my tools on board. [emoji4]

 

[Chris]

I cut the box out, chopped the rear bend into bits, slit it so it would push together and joined it with clamps. I intended to weld it all up lovely with bits I had bought but in the end, made this with nothing but an angle grinder and a 13mm spanner.

 

[Scott]

To be clear, the advice was not to run without an air filter. It was to take it out for a hundred miles or so while getting the engine to begin the decoking process and then put it back in. That's all. Not days, not weeks, not months but hours and I did qualify that saying avoid dusty environments. Not run without an air filter.

Yes, that was all understood, but it only takes one thing to go through the turbo and they'll more problems than just the original loss of power. A new standard air filter won't be restrictive.

I know what your end result is, and its a perfectly valid suggestion. I once bought a normally aspirated diesel car which had 90K on the clock and had never been rev'd much at all, it ran beautify but was slow to accelerate. Over the course of the next couple of thousand miles I gradually loosened the engine up, by pushing it harder and harder, and it become a very nice engine to drive. One of my colleagues in the motor trade at the time drove it and said it was the best N/A diesel that he'd driven. So I agree, a tight diesel can be loosened up.

 

[MikesVX80]

My 80 had recently had a stainless steel exhaust system recently fitted just before I bought it; I've no idea of the make or bore unfortunately, but will try and get under the car to take a look when I'm back home this weekend. Hopefully as it is an aftermarket system it will be designed to breathe a bit more freely and not have the squashed area of pipe as it runs over the rear crossmember....

I'm still a bit unsure/uneasy about these suggestions of running such a concentrated dose of Wynns through a 21 year old engine. I definitely agree it has not been driven hard and needs loosening up, but having had 145,000 'easy' miles I am not sure thrashing it with such a high-concentration of Wynn's is a great idea! Re: the air filter, can always stretch a pait of tights over the airbox intake to prevent any foreign objects getting in, I guess...

 

[Shayne]

Full bottle in half tank is what i did , twice , though i couldn't discern anything different after the second application . Possibly home brew fuel was what had my pickup clogged up .

 

[StarCruiser]

I cut the box out, chopped the rear bend into bits, slit it so it would push together and joined it with clamps. I intended to weld it all up lovely with bits I had bought but in the end, made this with nothing but an angle grinder and a 13mm spanner.

What does it sound like Chris? I mean, early morning start, are the neighbours going to grow to hate me if I did that given that they are right close to the other side of the truck?

Low burble or loud annoyance or something in between?
[emoji6]

 

[Chris]

We're in danger of hijacking the thread here really and this is on my build page, but no it's not loud. The front box is still in there. If you rev it hard on the drive it's good and throaty but just normal driving isn't making people look around. A properly made full system would be nice but like I said, I truly believe that the majority of the enhancement is simply the removal of that crushed bend rather than the crafting of the rest of the system.

 

[StarCruiser]

Thanks Chris and apologies for straying from the path. I'll take a look at your build page.

 

[StarCruiser]

Mike, at 145,000 miles your engine is nicely run in. I've read somewhere, I think on this forum, that these engines are used extensively in marine applications delivering in excess of 300 HP. In short, as long as your engine is in good health, booting it is not going to do it any harm. I was concerned about high dosages until I did it. I never ran from the can but have done the dosage I stated many times without even noticing it's in there. It's a gradual process, the engines are solid, well built, under stressed lumps and work best when clean. Your call, but I personally would have no hesitation PROVIDED IT IS IN GOOD MECHANICAL CONDITION.

 

[Dave2000]

Full bottle in half tank is what i did , twice , though i couldn't discern anything different after the second application . Possibly home brew fuel was what had my pickup clogged up .

I agree Shane, it is difficult to 'overdose' the system and in fact if we had a car come in that could not meet the emissions it was quite normal to replace the fuel filter once we had filled it with an injection cleaning solution. Connect the exhaust to the fume evac system and start it up and run it about 4,000 rpm for a few minutes. The entire amount does not go through the injectors as a lot is taken by the spill tubes, some returned to tank and some to the fuel pump.

As long as the emissions had fallen drastically we would let it go through knowing they would more than likely continue to fall as the injectors cleaned up. FWIW I stick a bottle into a full tank full about every six months in the LC, same with the workshop van.

regards

Dave

 

[MikesVX80]

Right, finally got back to the car today after 2 weeks away from the old girl! Took her for a little spin and noticed as well as a firm ride there was some real steering wobble at around 50mph.

So, I checked the tyre pressures (as I said, haven't been near the car for the past fortnight!) and sure enough they were waaaay too high, about 40psi all round!! So have lowered them all to 30psi all round as suggested on here, and its riding better already - not a huge improvement, but noticeable enough.

Then I nipped down to my local friendly tyre guys and, sure enough, despite being refurbished wheels and virtually new tyres, the balance weights were all over the place (one was 500gms out!). So they have now been balanced properly too, and it's driving much nicer.

As the fuel is nearing the red light, I've also chucked a bottle of Wynn's Xtreme Diesel System Cleaner (http://www.halfords.com/motoring/en...ives/wynns-xtreme-diesel-system-cleaner-325ml) to really flush through the entire fuel system. I went for this as it does the whole system rather than just the injectors, and being designed for more modern engines it certainly won't do any harm to the old LC. So will drive around with that and give her a good going through the rev range once warmed up before I fill her up again!

Steps in the right direction...next Friday she's off to JV and Overland Cruisers for a once over and some fuel pump tweaks

 

[MikesVX80]

Well, good news today! Took the car down to Overland Cruisers for Julian to give it a thorough once-over and assessment of the vehicle before I get any further into the build. Basically, this was make or break for me and the LC...

Firstly, we took it for a test drive and yes, it was certainly down on power (or boost and fuel, to be precise). So JV made some tweaks to the fuel pump, both to the diaphragm side and the adjuster screw to pep things up a bit. It certainly felt perkier on the test drive, but it was on the 100 mile drive home I really noticed and appreciated the difference - the car is transformed! It's definitely a bit quicker, but more than that is how improved the driveability is! With boost now available well below 2,000rpm (where it kicked in previously) I can now make great progress down fast A-roads, no need to change down on long uphill sections...basically it is 100% better to drive from a power perspective.

Secondly, the suspension is tired - it's not hitting the bump stops, but after 22 years it's tired and needs replacing. Not a problem, as I was going to replace it anyway, but good to know it's that and not anything else - all the bushes seem in good condition, which is great news.

Finally, JV's assessment: one of the best 'standard' 80's he's seen in recent times, he was very pleasantly surprised how good condition the car is in, which is great news! It means I made the right decision buying a standard car to build up, rather than buying an already modified vehicle.

So the good news is I'm keeping it. I know once the suspension is replaced with some decent kit it will finish the transformation in terms of driveability, so that is my next job. Big thanks to JV and Overland Cruisers for their help and efforts this afternoon, will be back for some suspension soon I'm sure!

 

[Beno]

Mike very glad to hear that you had a great result and are much happier with the landcruiser. Looking forward to following the progress of your VX 80 series.

 

[froggy Steve]

good news all round

 

[StarCruiser]

Nice one Mike, may this be the start of a long and happy time with your 80. Looks like you got yourself a good 'un. [emoji4]

 

[Chris]

Yes praise indeed if JV says it's a good one.

 

[MikesVX80]

Yep, much happier now - dare I say I'm even feeling excited about the build again, which is important when you're doing this kind of prep I feel!

 

[Paddler Ed]

What they don't experience is just having the standard one modified. It's the dire quality of the original that's the issue. Sawing the damn thing off at the turbo will give you a huge increase in performance. I recently cut my mid and rear sections out so that the squashed pipe over the rear cross member was gone. Increase was immediate and significant and cost me nothing. So what I am saying is that a posh exhaust on an 80 isn't necessarily the answer, it's getting rid of the rubbish one that is probably on there that makes the difference. Mine just pulls and pulls and pulls now.

+1.. Toyota exhaust designers could really do with going back to school... It was the same with my 4Runner, I've managed to gain a gear by fitting a set of decent extractors (2" secondaries, running to 2.5" when the 2 banks join up again) compared to the original ones, that also created a major hot spot at the back of one cylinder bank, and that runs into the stock system at the O2 sensor, just in front of the cat. I'll be interested to see what happens when I get the rest finished!

Glad to hear that you've picked up some speed; Italian Tune ups are vastly underrated; my Aunt used to run her cars with rarely more than half a tank of fuel in them (it saved weight you see... and that meant saving money!) and always kept the revs fairly low, then wondered why performance was down. Full tank of decent fuel, Italian tune up and it worked a lot better.

 

[clivehorridge]

Bit late on this, but good news all round Mike, it seems .

IMO, replacing the suspension will transform the ride and handling dramatically, whatever set up you choose. Good move going to Julian's place, I wish I could find an equivalent place here, the search continues....