550hp 2JZ 1978 Hilux Build

Anticlimactic post, but the Hilux went for it's first drive this year! I've spent the past week working on the wiring, which is 100% new and done myself. And holy shit, I'd expect something this basic would be easy but there is so much going on. At this point the rear blinkers, running lights, brake lights, and hazards work. I've also run the wires for the low beams and front blinkers but not hooked up yet.

This is the first time out of the shop since the bed sides, and I think only the second time with the new seats. It fired right up after sitting for months, and runs like an absolute champ! I think I figured out how to bleed the cooling system too, it seems like I need to lift the rear end which I'm guessing is needed to get the engine level so the engines rear vent port will let the air out. Ran like an absolute champ though, this thing is such an absolute to drive! I think the turbo is still a few months out, maybe mid summer? Kind of leaning towards getting the EMU Black ECU and doing the wiring for that while I'm doing the rest of the wiring, and then I can get the 2JZ to run correctly before throwing boost at it. But we'll see, still plenty of stuff to install before I should start thinking about buying more. It's Hilux season!

 

Lux-yeah!

 

What an awesome build. Well done.

 

Definitely glad this was bumped. Awesome build.

 

Some build inspiration, if that’s even what you’re going for. It just reminded me of this bad boy!

 

That is very cool! Looks like he solved the radiator issue the same way I did.

 

Happy to revisit this awesome thread!

 

That is badass.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Then it occurred to me that even if I had the bitchen workspace, machinery, and tools, I'd just be a monkey in a big shop.

@snivilous Don't take this the wrong way, but people like you kinda' piss me off! You know... talent, skills, the motivation to actually use them, keen mind for problem solving, blah, blah, blah.

I wanna' take a nap just from reading this thread.

Awesome work as usual man, keep it coming.

 

Hahahaha

 

The only thing cooler than an old 2JZ pickup is an even older 2JZ pickup! That thing is absolutely pristine, though a TH350 of all trans is a real turn off imo, and makes me feel less inferior

Motivation isn't really lacking on the Hilux, it's been my daily essentially all year. For a solid 6 weeks I didn't even touch the Tundra which is the longest period it's ever gone not being driven. Lately my focus has been on working on friends projects, installing a gas heater in the shop, and getting the buggy ready for KOH. I think this spring the Hilux will get some work done, right now I'm thinking I'll supercharge it with one of those dirt cheap GM 3800 superchargers. It'd be way cheaper than a turbo, a lot more unique than most 2JZ builds, more than enough power to make the Hilux scary, and allow for an insane sounding exhaust with no turbo in line. Plus you know I like superchargers but thats for down the line, lately is other projects and a lot of CAD work behind the scenes for those projects.

 

Hilux hasn't gotten driven in awhile and was sitting here until a week or two ago.



In the past (maybe I had posted it) I had the Vibrant AN-20 coolant lines randomly start leaking. I had that happen AGAIN, this time on the coolant line that had been fine so far. One day I was driving the truck, next day come out and there's a puddle on the ground. The coolant lines run ~$250 a piece, and while straightforward to do, I didn't feel like replacing it and had other projects to play with. I finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago and ordered the stuff to fix the cooling line. On top of that, I decided to fix the radiator that had the hoses going the wrong direction.


Starting with the radiator: the reason I wanted to "fix" it was the water inlet/outlet were backwards. And I can't say I planned what direction they should go in the first place, but it turns out a 2JZ has a reverse flow water pump meaning the inlet and outlet are swapped from what normal vehicles are I guess. What that meant though was the water outlet from the radiator was on the high side and the inlet on the low side, which is fine, but if the cooling systems has a leak or runs low it means an air bubble can form on the high side of the radiator and water will stop flowing into the engine, so the cooling system always needs to be absolutely topped off.

Additionally, since the radiator is at a pretty extreme angle on the rear cage, filling the radiator was a bit of a bitch. I also thought this was contributing to the difficulties I've had bleeding the cooling system, so I decided I would re-angle the filler cap.



I started by cutting the inlet/outlets, the radiator cap cap neck, and then used a hole saw to cut out where the drain plug was an add another hole below the radiator cap.



I had bought a new radiator cap neck to weld in, but ended up being able to reuse the one that came on it. I then welded a tube at the angle of the cage to make the cap sit straight up:



The inlet/outlet I was able to reuse and flipped which side of the radiator they were on. I then cut some filler plates on the plasma table and capped off the original positions:





It turned out pretty good! I had to make a few tweaks to the radiator hold down plates, but otherwise was pretty straightforward.

With the new hose locations, I could now remake the AN lines that had shit the bed. This ended up turning into an absolute cluster fuck. Going back to the original issue, the passenger side cooling line had started leaking originally and I had enough AN fittings laying around to swap the screwed up section with some aluminum hardline. Kind of defeats the purpose of why I wanted the AN line so I could easily reroute it in the future, but it saved me buying another expensive line. The passenger side thus ended up being a couple feet of AN-20 from the engine to a 1.75" aluminum hard line which terminated at the back of the cab, and then another 2ft or so of line from there up to the radiator. Now the goal was to fix the driver's side that had started leaking also, but this time I just went ahead and bought a new AN-20 line (from somewhere else, either Earl's or Fragola, not Vibrant again) and this one is a stainless braided line instead of the nylon braid (as if that should matter). Well it now turned out that from moving the radiator interfaces that the new 10ft AN-20 line I bought was barely too short, and the passenger side short line to the hardline was also barely too short.

Definitely not wanting to buy a 10+ foot AN-20 line, I said screw it I'll just add an aluminum hardline to the driver's side also, same thing running from the ~back of the engine to the back of the cab. Somehow I have an entire box of AN fittings that I've bought and didn't work, and just so happened to have enough AN-20 fittings and weld bungs to make the new hardline which worked out great. I build the new hardline and the new AN sections so the driver's side is good to go. Except literally while I'm under the truck working on it, the front section of original AN-20 just randomly starts leaking. You can't make this up.



That photo is actually wrong, because that photo is from AFTER replacing that front section and this was the replacement piece and it did the same thing and then I got the photo.

I'm standing under the truck, and it just starts dripping out of the complete blue. I wasn't near the line, I wasn't touching any end of it, I wasn't doing anything and it just started dripping through the skin. The fittings are fine, the line just shit itself. The ONLY possible thing I could think of was I was welding tabs on crossmembers for the new hardline, and somehow it shorted through the anodized aluminum fittings into the stainless inner core and that melted everything? Though that's never happened to me with any other lines, plus when I first started having this issue I wasn't welding on the truck but had been driving it for weeks and parked it and came out to a puddle. I even talked to Vibrant Performance and they said the use case and fluids were fine and they had no explanation (or help) for $500 of hoses literally thrown away after 18 months.

Oh and it gets better. I pull the passenger AN lines to replace them, the rear being too short now and the front leaking. And of course one of the AN reusable fittings is seized up and the threads rip out. It's aluminum threads, what do you expect, I can live with that. But I've now had a fitting also get wasted by this shitty line, and now am out of AN-20 fittings so have to buy and wait on parts to show up. Ahhhhhhh

Anyways, eventually get all that shit sorted out.




The one other thing I decided to do while I had it up on the lift was to weld the differential. I figured when in Rome, and the thing can't put power down to save its life. This was an easy hour or so task.



Four driveshaft bolts, four bolts per hub, and then the 3rd member bolts. Spray off with brake clean, spray off with isoproyl, and welded the spider gears together and back in she went!

I forget how fun the Hilux is when I haven't driven it in awhile, I guess all the vehicles I own are like that the welded rear is a lot of fun, you still have to be careful getting going since it'll spin the rears easily but at least forward motion somewhat occurs instead of sitting in one spot, and its a drifting machine now! The manual steering however is an absolute pain as one can imagine. I still have a Prius power steering unit and rack and pinion sitting here to go in, with the welded rear that might accelerate the need for adding power steering.

And lastly, and what drove me to make this post and get ahead of the updates, my neighbor has a turbo off a 5.9 Cummins laying around so I ordered all the goods to do the cheapest turbo build possible Sub $500 on ebay, and I have a turbo exhaust manifold, piping kit, intercooler, blow off valve, and other shit I can't remember. My neighbor is big on diesels and turbos, and thinks the turbo will work great since it's meant for a truck with double the displacement but half the rev range, so the overall air moved will be about the same. If anything he said it will spool up too early. Because the intake manifold currently crosses over the engine so the intake is above the exhaust, I'm going to chop up the intake and make my own setup like you see on fancy Supras. I have the intake from the spare 2JZ (not sure if I posted that in here, but I picked up another 2JZ for $300 that I'll eventually build and just hot swap for the current one), so I'll use the spare intake to cut up and build my own intake and then drop it in.

Exciting times for the Hilux! Couple months down, but it's back and better than ever and in a week or two should be seeing some boost!

 

Well, since it's been neglected a little, shoot me your address and I'll come take it off your hands.

 

Give me a week to double the horsepower and turn it into a proper death machine and then I'll hit you up

 

Hell yes.

 

Odd question but is that your Honda Talon 4 seater behind the truck?

 

No sir, my neighbor was storing it under the covered parking for a bit. I only have the 2 seat Can Am X3.

 

When's the YouTube channel starting?!?!

 

Dude the amount of times I've thought about starting a channel that's literally just the build threads in video form....

The time that must take though, just for the occasional video I throw together from a GoPro takes literal hours and those are like a minute of footage total It would certainly be cool though, but writing novels about how much I hate cooling lines will have to suffice

 

You should! You have a killer recipe right now! A 2jz build would be killer to watch. You have a couple inspirations right around you down in southern utah. I'm sure you can guess. All the adventures you have would be SICK to watch.

Video editing is a time suck, you aren't wrong.