TOPIC: Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ105R 1998 4.5l 6cyl

Hiya folks!! I'm back again with a new thread mohaha

Before I'm grooving this car...
I am just to make a compression test on our Australian 4x4 8 seater as it overheats.
Radiator cap and thermostat changed, but engine still overheats. Engine has overheated so there could be a head issue.

More info:
This engine has no o2 sensors. It adjusts fuel based on IAT and MAP. It's using a direct ignition system (DIS) that I will convert after the groove to a CDI by MSD.

Engine type: 1FZ-FE late model
Dual Fuel: Petrol and LPG
Extras: Valve saver by Genuine Flashlube™ fuel additives Synthetic lubricants for the automotive industry - Genuine Flashlube™ fuel additives Synthetic lubricants for the automotive industry (which is a must if you do LPG)
Got repair manual for this truck.
Heavy Duty Energizers by Magnetizer®










Which hose goes to the PCV? The left one or the right one in the picture?


I don't know what half of all these hoses are good for... lol


Say hello to the latest family member!

I have a quick question, the original spark plug wires in the Toyota are very old so I will replace them with the Accel 4038. I found out that the OEM wires have no rubber cap and seem to lack the long hard plastic tubing that the OEM wires have.

Here's a couple of wires that look similar to what the OEM wires look like.


Here's the wires I got.


Will there be any issues part from that I might not be able to fit the wire cover back? I obviously can't bend the wires in a 90 degree angle with the Accel 4038...

Hey again Rikard! I think your pics are mostly the valve cover that's leaking oil, prob. a new gasket set needed there.

Check oil fill and rad. cap for milshake goo, look in radiator for crud/corrosion, etc. Might need a cooling system flush, maybe have radiator rodded out if clogged. Check spark plugs for condition. Does this one use/consume coolant, another sign of head gasket leak? So far I'm not seeing/reading evidence of bad head gasket. I'm unfamiliar with aftermarket LPG propane, etc kits. Do these type mods cause higher engine temps?

Plug wires-- get the right set those are the wrong wires ya got there. Correct pre-made set will have the correct long plastic ends w/ caps to fit top of spark plug wells. BTW, good wires will use a spiral-wound center conductor that looks like a tiny slinky spring wound around a flexible thin core. If you see what looks like fine fiber strands impregnated w/ graphite for the center conductor DON'T use that type. they are usually bad/going worse new in the box! The Blue wires in the pic are the right general type, those yellow ACCEL super Stock ones are wrong. MSD stuff rocks--just be sure engine is in good cond. IF ya go w/ MSD stuff ya need HeavyDuty plug wires for sure those yellow ones won't cut it! Ask whoever you plan to get your MSD setup from about which plug wires they have to go w/ MSD ignition, MSD puts out a gnarly hot strong spark:evil:!!

If MSD, ACCEL, or no one else makes a real hi-perf. plug wire set compatible w/MSD ignition that's complete pre-made for your Land Cruiser, it may be possible to fabricate a set re-using the old parts that seal the plug wells and the plastic extension boots. I've done that before, but I'd be surprised if someone doesnt make a good robustly built set w/ nice low resistance. Look on racing.com, or Jegs.com, dunno about shipping to down Under, shucks it ought not be that hard to get a good set, might be a bit pricey but you NEED good ones esp. w/ MSD!

PCV valve is the one in the pic on right closest to intake plenum, pcv valve is in grommet in valve cover, its hose goes to intake plenum, connects to manifold vac. Breather hose is short fatter one on far left, goes from valve cover to air intake duct before throttle body.

Your new Puppy is cute as All git-Out!

Hope all this helps ya, Mate!

TracyG Gadgetman Reno

Thank you so much for your input! It's very exciting to learn so much about engines on this forum! Thanks Tracy for the advice on PCV, I'll plug it once grooved. Just have to fix the overheating issue first... *sigh*

About the new ignition wires:
I need to use the Accel 4038. If I skip the long hollow hard plastic boot that is OEM, and instead just put down the Accel 4038 wouldn't that work too, provided I'm hi-tem silicone insulate the top so there won't come down any dirt? One way or another I have to use the Accel 4038! See, these wires are spiral copper had has almost no resistance at all. I cannot use a wire with resistance in my application. The spark will be very cold but way more powerful than the stock high-output CDI box... It will use exactly the same power as CDI, but the impulse will be higher. Check this:


MSD probably have wires with little resistance as well, but I just don't feel for buying another set of wires... Instead, I need to rebuild or just "use" the ones I have... It would be nice to have a good looking system when all is set up and running, so any ideas on how to rebuild them would be good. Just ordered a crimping tool so I can fit other connectors if needed.

Compression test results 2012 November 27

Cylinder 1 dry: 160 psi
Cylinder 2 dry: 175 psi
Cylinder 3 dry: 170 psi
Cylinder 4 dry: 150 psi
Cylinder 5 dry: 165 psi
Cylinder 6 dry: 172 psi

Minimum required pressure is 128psi according to the repair manual.
Stock standard is 171 psi.

Plug cyl 1:


Plug cyl2:


Plug cyl3:


Plug cyl4:


Plug cyl5:


Plug cyl6:


As you can see on the pics, cylinder 2 gives off oil.
And cylinder 4 has a lower compression. It's funny to see what the boot looks like on the ignition coil for cylinder 4, check the two pictures for comparison. Looks like the cylinder 4 is struggling a bit so the power is higher => eating off some metal on the coil connector?

Coil connector to struggling cylinder:


Good connectors to happy cylinders:

Hi Rikard! Ok, you are further along in knowledge (or ambition) than I first thought:P

Thing is, with plugs down in deep wells, how are ya gonna get the plug wire on/off the plugs w/o that long plastic boot? Need the boots to have something that supports wire and brass terminals for connection to plugs. Else it's like push/pulling spaghetti, damage to wires the likely result. And a cap for top of wells is needed to keep things clean/dry. Might be possible to use those Accel wires ya got, IF you can remove the plastic boot/cap from existing wires. You remove the plug boot from the Accel yellow wire and feed it thru the plastic boot/cap. Need spray silicone and probably silicone dilectric grease for this trick. Only works IF the existing old wires will come out of boot/cap! DO you have an ohm-meter to check wires' resistance like I described earlier? You need to know the wires resistance, esp. if you're gonna re-engineer wires this way, need to know that struggling with them has'nt damaged the internal conductor, ohm measurement before/after is only sure way.

And Plasma Spark is a whole step up in the game! I''m still looking at that deciding if I want to tackle it or just shell out the 500 clams to buy it pre-made.

Your plugs look fairly typical. some a bit oily some clean. Unusual firing tip design, albeit excellent--spark kernal is un-masked by ground electrode and spark can switch from one ground electrode to another. Looks like a pretty big gap already. Low resistance wires are definitely in order here.

Do whatever works for you Rikard-- but if you really want to "create you own" wire set you need really good crimping pliers (mine is an expensive MSD purpose-built plug wire terminal crimp tool think it was 50 bucks or more) most every other tool I've used just results in un-printable words! I have boxes of leftover various brass terminals, extra boots, leftover wire sections, etc. A good digital DVOM w. alligator clips to grasp the wire terminals, spray silicone and silicone grease, and Patience!!

Personally, if you aren't going to use Plasma Spark, then a good pre-made wire set w/ the boot/caps already there and resistance between say 200 and 1200 ohms is how i'd do it. The extra hassle to obtain a wire set with under 200 ohms per wire doesnt give THAT much benefit. The BIg gain is going from 1000's of ohm's down to under 1000 ohms in each plug wire. That's why a digital DVOM (digital volt ohm meter) is key.

I'm not completely current on state-of-the-art from the various ignition manufacturers for spark plug wires. So now that I've run my keyboard and your eyes w. my blather I think I'll go look around and see who's got what today. I usually just check Summit Racing--I'm spoiled their big warehouse/store is right here in town:P

But, like the old Burger King TV ad said--"Have it Your Way!"

TracyG Gadgetman Reno

Hiya Tracer and others!

I'm not entirely sure how I should go about with the wires. I will try to salvage the boots today. They sat so hard in the plug that when I pulled them up, I crushed a couple of them in the process But I think I can at least use sealing cap that goes on top of the cover.

The long plastic boot... I am not sure if I need that one if I get a VERY long nose plier. That way, I can use the existing rubber boot on the Accel 4038. I'll simply use the plier to insert / detach the spark plug leads. Since I need to fit a diode string and tubular braid as well all the way down to the spark plug, I think the plastic boot won't be a good idea. As there will be so much stuff going down to the spark plug, it won't fit in the well if I gonna get a long hard-plastic boot as well... BUT, as you suggested to use some silicone spray and see if I can re-use the old plastic boots, I gonna have a go anyway and see how it goes. It's just fun!

500 bucks for a pre-made plasma is a good way to go. It's not that much. I'm building it myself which is more fun, it's really simple. Most people get a bit frightened when they hear about it, but it seems the roof is high here.

I have a multimeter that can read resistance, so I'm good.

The spark plugs are strongly recommended by Toyota to use for this vehicle. They have even a warning sticker on the engine cover to urge the user to get such spark plugs. The engine gets quite hot, and with LPG - even hotter. That's why I love the idea of combining: Groove job, plasma and magnetizer's stuff. It will be so cold when I'm done with it. At least I hope so lol

When doing plasma, spark plugs and leads must have no resistors and hence as low resistance as possible for it to work.

I gave 52 bucks for the Accel crimping tool on Amazon. It looks similar to the one from MSD.

Awww lucky you you got Summit in town. I got my timing light from them... It took more than a month to get it over here from Summit. I almost gave up on them lol

I know this thread covers a lot more than the groove job. I will of course do the groove job on this vehicle, but the main thing I have to do is to fix the overheating issue. I will check the water pump today. If it's good, I can only think of a major flush of all cooling lines + radiator to solve it.

I'll have a go at the PCV as soon as I get time... The first time is always the trickiest huh?

Speaking of spark plugs, the plugs I will use after a lot of research are Extreme Spark – spark plugs ,auto parts ,mostly since I like their design, but also since they are recommended by the plasma researchers as being a jolly good plug! Don't they look cool? I think most plugs make a difference though even on a dyno, simply because the original standard plugs are so flawed by design. You just need to change them a tiny tiny bit, and suddenly you start seeing improvements. (Ron and others recommend increasing the spark gap for example!)

Wow Rikard so you're going for the Nuclear Option right at the start...Plasma Jet Ignition. Gotta admit that one has had me thinking for some time, combining that AND the Groove in one engine--'lil fuel molecules ain't gonna know what hit em!

About the overheating issue--look on the front page of the Forum here go to the post Ron has about halfway down titled ALERT To All GADGETMEN NOV 18th. Ron's doing a great thing pointing out essential tips/tech regarding troubleshooting w/ the Groove, there is a link midway thru Ron's post. Link leads to a new site--the 3rd post on the site discusses finding vacuum leaks. There is an embedded video there from Eric the Car Guy about diagnosing vac. leaks. When the video from Eric finished there is another one about diagnosing overheating. It's 25 min. long and chock full of very useful info!! Definitely read thru all 4 posts of Ron's and watch Eric the Car Guy's stuff, just like taking auto shop class at Community college:woohoo:

I wondered if you were going to go the Plasma Jet Ignition route, since you are, can you PLEASE post info/pics about that. I have the info package from Aaron Murakami already, but a couple tech questions about construction of the modded plug wires has held me back: specifically the diode configuration with the wires and exactly how to properly build that combo. I might suggest that if the rubber plug well caps are an issue, look for a cheapo wire set for 4 cyl that use the same type configuration rubber cap your new wires will need, buy that set to get the caps or see if you can get 'em ala-carte, though I doubt that.

I understand now what you want to do re: plug wires. You are going to be taking the plug boots off and terminals too I think. Look for "plug wire pliers" like these:




something like these will make install/removing your custom wires easier, you're gonna need to take care w/these!

I admire your adventurous spirit, Rikard, I've noticed for some time that folks from Down Under are bright and inventive, so, Good on Ya, Mate!

I'm sure everyone is wanting to see the throttle body (TB) from this Toyota and how you Groove it...

TracyG Gadgetman Reno

LMAO! The spark plug project will go from a straight plug-in...to a serious operation! I like them operation pliers. Especially the long one, that's probably the one I need to get the stuff in n out in them deep wells. Do you know what the name is of the long black plier? Or where I can get those from?

Thanks for the advice on overheating from ericthecarguy and more from Ron. I'll sift it all through as I need to get it DONE. I actually checked that ericthecarguy clip yesterday hah!

Just came back from checking the water pump. I loosened all belts and grabbed it. No matter how much I twisted and turned it and all it was connected to, it was all solid. Ron said, >0.127mm wobble and it's faulty. It's just sitting there so solidly! Gonna do the most obvious to check for debris covering, but the quick check revealed it looks like there's no air flow restrictions. Gonna take the high pressure cleaner and flush every hose I can find that goes to the radiator and water pump. Hope that will help as I'm soon running out of ideas.

The spark plug lead caps on the Mitsubishi van I'm grooving looks almost identical to the Land Cruiser spark plug lead caps.

I'll promise to post all about the plasma stuff + video the TB grooving on the cruiser. Good that you have the Murakami info package. It has all in it and is worth every penny as it's so much fun to read it. Cheap too. Anyway, when you build the plasma wires yourself, just start using non-resistor typ leads. Then you solder together the diode string and put it into shrink tubing. Swipe the solder pen over it to shrink it. If you have a car with a lot of electronics, make sure you have got some tinned copper tubular braid / sheathing to cancel the RFI noise. If you have an older car, you probably don't need that. Then just solder the diode string under the spark plug boot as the info package describes. Double check it as it's all there. When it comes to the amount of diodes, I'd start with 30 per spark plug. I read on energeticforum that one guy recommended 1 diode per 1k voltage going out from the coil. So if you have 30,000 volt, use 30 diodes. I think my MSD coils push about 40k so I obviously need 40 diodes in a string per coil. 6 cylinder, whoa, luckily I bought many diodes. Luckily they are so cheap it doesn't matter how many you use. Note that the simplest path of doing plasma is to start with a system that has CDI. If not, make it CDI. Cheap alternative is the MSD 5520. Make sure you check with MSD first so you don't end up with a lot of stuff that is not compatible!!! I made that mistake, but I was so eager to get started, I just couldn't sit still researching any more! So I got a little experience haha.

I see you found Aaron Murakami's project work on the plasma plugs.

He has a lot of great idea's and is very involved in energy efficiency.

The plasma discharge should work very well for those plugs.

Keep those cards and letters coming

Karl Fortner
Tacoma, Washington

Hi folks! Did you think I have forgotten you?

I fixed the overheat issue so now I'm good to go. I don't know if the reason was low coolant level or air pockets or the old thermostat. New thermostat fitted and made sure coolant is at good level with no air, so now it's mid-temp as it should more or less regardless of engine load. yiha!

One more thing before I cut the PCV, shall I cap both ends? If not, which end shall I cap?

And we're ready to groove again!

Rik-who

Welcome back, sounds like you've got it under control.



On the PCV - disconnect it from the intake manifold side, cap that port and move the hose to the plenum side near the TB intake.

Karl Fortner
Tacoma, Washington

Hi,

I must be a complete groove-noob I don't really follow...
Shall I move the hose, or remove it? If I 'move' it, where shall I connect the 2 ends to?

All the best!
R