FZJ80R from Devon

[kingtom]

Looks like fun. If I was at home would have liked to have gone. All us Devon Bays should meet up at some point and do something similar

 

[Ben Stratford]

A great idea kingtom, sorry i missed this one it looks like kr was a stonking day Rich.
CB would be good, my son just put one in his hilux and he has a right laugh with all his landrover / cruiser mates

 

[Richard Turner]

Good idea I have the route from this one we can use if we want a ready made route, it's 55miles and takes about 4/5 hours and includes rest fuel stops etc.

When would be a good month to do it, I am busy now till the end of April.

 

[Ben Stratford]

Good idea I have the route from this one we can use if we want a ready made route, it's 55miles and takes about 4/5 hours and includes rest fuel stops etc.

When would be a good month to do it, I am busy now till the end of April.

Like the sound of the 55 miles. is there somewhere to camp overnight Rich?
Dont have lockers yet, will I make it??

 

[Richard Turner]

You will do it without lockers, I think I was the only one on the route with lockers. The only point it will be hard is at Simms, but you will get up, and if not I can tow you or we can just go around it.

As for camping we could either find a nice campsite or... I believe wildcamping is allowed on certain parts of Dartmoor but I will have to look into it.

 

[Richard Turner]

Well a while since the last update, I have done a few bits and bobs. Mostly been driving and enjoying the Cruiser. I don' think I quite feel as attached to it as my old Peugeot Expert Van it replaced, but I have not really got any good use out of the Cruiser yet.

It has got us out of trouble a few times, in the snow it just drove through like it was a normal road and saved my sister's birthday weekend. When we got stuck in France it was big enough to take us all back from the airport where it sat for 2 weeks in the snow with no problems and started straight up. When I had to do double shifts at work for a week due to staff shortage it was great to get in it after work, put it in drive and cruise control and just enjoy the heated seats on the way home!

So it's getting there. But 13/14 mpg is taking a heavy toll on the bank account, so I am pushing on with the LPG conversion.

 

[Richard Turner]

I have moved the exhaust to be a side exit, as it means I can take the LPG tank on and off much easier. Also, I had caught the tail pipe on a slope and crushed it against the rear bumper so it was distorted.

It's close to the tyre, but not right next to the gas tank like before!

Sound is not excessively loud, probably only slightly louder than before, and the exhaust note sounds a bit more urgent than it was!

All the bolts just undid easily which I was surprised and pleased about. Only cost was a cutting disc and a bit of mig wire.

 

[Richard Turner]

Slow progress lately, the LPG tank is ready to fit though.

Also got rid of the troublesome M3 and replaced with this...

 

[chapel gate]

Ah, a toyota. Ive heard there pretty good..

 

[Richard Turner]

Broken coil spring.

 

[Richard Turner]

The rear junction box is now connected and working, a few more connections to make yet though. Reverse sensors work - sort of. 2 of the sensors keep making the alarm go off constantly. I think they are either too tight in the tubes causing them to hear the other sensors pulses and get a false echo.

I have been working on the LPG installation but finding it very hard going. The problem is that it has to be considered as a whole, you need to know where to mount every component at once and there are drawbacks to nearly every location. Also I am trying to make it look like a factory type installation, I have looked at some installations on the net and they look a bit rough to say the least.

I am trying to mount the LPG ecu in the same place as the normal ECU rather than in the engine bay like most of them are. But space is tight! Luckily I have no air con gas still so can take the heater box out for access. Want to get this job done though so I can get the air con working.

I had wanted to mount the evaporator on the chassis rather than in the engine bay and use the pipes for the rear heater to give it the hot water it needs to evaporate the gas. But the rear heater actually is controlled by the main heater tap, instead of - having hot water through it all the time, and the blower controls the output into the back.

Getting hot water out of the engine is not very easy as there is only a short piece of pipe from the block to the heater tap, I don't want to mess up either the heaters function or more importantly the cooling systems function.

I am thinking of bypassing the heater tap for the rear heater so the rear heater runs constantly and is controlled by the blower only. Tested this theroy on the motorway earlier, with one hand behind the seat! Seems to work, there is no hot air I can feel when the blower is off.

 

[Richard Turner]

Got the heater blower and a.c. evaporator out to start mounting the ecu. Have taken to work to give them a clean up.

Here' the ECU to be mounted, it's about the same size as the normal engine ecu but of course I need both!

A bit more room to work.

Lots of room up here where an airbag would be fitted in a later model. Mounting option 1.

Moved the cruise control computer up a bit, Toyota have kindly provided 2 mounting studs correctly spaced so I can easily mount it! This recess is mounting option 2.

I was going to mount the LPG ecu in front of the normal ecu, but it will be tight, and pressed against the speaker, I worry that the speaker magnet would give interference.

I will repair this wire that has been cut for immobiliser whilst I am in there too, and route the ariel cables properly.

 

[Richard Turner]

Cleaned a/c evaporator, it has not made a very significant difference, it is incredibly difficult to clean, the most effective way I found was spraying foaming cleaner into the dirty side and hoovering it out.

Afterwards:

The heater blower has been squeaking slightly at slow speeds so decided to strip it and check for worn bearings - big mistake. It's not really servicible, taking it apart was just breaking it. I have repaired it as best I can and it is not squeaking when I spin it but not sure how long it will last.

What I should have done was simply remove the one screw and unclip that rectangular cover, and spray some penetrating fluid in the motor. I think you should be able to do this with the heater motor still fitted, probably by just looking under the dashboard.

 

[chapel gate]

Some fiddly involving work there. I like that sort of stuff myself.
good job.

 

[Richard Turner]

Thanks C.G. , will be great to have the LPG up and running as I would like to get on with some other jobs, 2 weeks camping in Dordogne planned for September and I would like to get some kind of kitchen in the back of the truck (I have a few ideas) but my friend challenged me to finish the LPG first (by saying you spend HOW much on petrol?) so must push on with it.

The scrap MR2 keeps giving, made the mount for the LPG ecu today and found some brackets in the MR2 for the white box ecu that is bolted on top. Good source of Toyota nuts and bolts too.

Got the heater motor it of it but it is ever so slightly smaller, I could possibly get the motor out of the housing if needed but I will see how I get on with the 'repaired' original.

Pulled the rest of the lower dash trims off and cabled in the ecu feed. I may swap the fuses around so 'Fog' is actually in the fog slot instead of in ECU-B and use the ECU-B for the LPG ecu.

Flash lube bottle is mounted and the wire for low level is through the bulkhead and earthed.

The changeover switch will be mounted next to the rear heater switch, and the low Flash lube led will be mounted there too.

Ran all the wires nicely and re routed the cables I had put in for the radio so they are neat now.

 

[Richard Turner]

Here's the plate for the ecu, it is cut out of stainless plate and threaded so the ecu bolts too it. It seems all the brackets I have come across have the same bolt spacing so it's easy to mix and match brackets,

And mounted up under the dash, where the passenger airbag would be if I had one.

Next job cables into engine bay.

 

[Richard Turner]

Cables all through the bulkhead now, most of the dashboard cables are in and secured. Dropped the water and started trying to get the heater taps off so I can modify the pipes, but they are absolutely brutal to access, I think I will have to get the inlet manifold off to get to them properly, luckily I need to remove the inlet anyway to drill the gas and Flash lube injector holes.

The gas switch and level gauge, the led hole is for the Flash lube low warning. The bezel for the led is rubbish though so I have ordered some nicer ones from eBay.

The wiring diagram for the LPG system.

The diagram for cutting the injector wiring.

At the point I am now I think I have to be a bit careful, many changes have been made to the car and if there has been a mistake it could be very difficult to find.

If I take the inlet all apart and change it, and chop the ecu wiring about, if I get a problem or the car won't run well...

This job is very difficult to break up into smaller chunks to be able to control it better. I think it would be best to get the dashboard back together and give it a run to make sure all's still good before working in the engine bay too much.

Here's the list of what's left. It's not in order, but filling the LPG tank is definitely last!

 

[karl webster]

what make kit is it rich?

 

[Richard Turner]

Hi Karl, it is an Emer kit. Most of the electronics in it are made by AEB but branded Emer. It is a multipoint injection kit. It seems fairly good quality but I haven't seen any other kits to compare it against.

No pictures, but I have got the heater pipes off today and found a fairly neat way to re pipe them. Had to take the top of the inlet off to get to them but that wasn't too bad. Also 2/3 of the dash now back together.

 

[karl webster]

thanks richard.

i have a multipoint also on a petrol 80 thats not working. are you any good with the diagnostic/fixing side of things?

thanks