Project Chronicle

A few days ago, Jay of Jay's 4WD called me with a query. He said after removing the head, he was surprised to see just how far the chain reached down into the oil pan. Jay recommended replacing the chain as a sensible "while you're in there" project, but after seeing how it snaked through the very lowest point of the engine, he suggested we remove the whole assembly. This would free up space in his shop while waiting for the head to come back from the machine shop, and also make it possible to replace the oil pan gasket and rear main seal as further "while you're in there" projects.

Unfortunately, in an unrelated call today, Jay mentioned we're going to be spending more time at the machine shop. Upon closer inspection of the block, Jay noticed signs of rust on the surface where it mates with the head. He said he could just throw it all back together, but that he wouldn't feel comfortable offering anything close to a guarantee that I wouldn't have future headgasket issues. Further, he said most shops wouldn't even do the work knowing there was rust around the cylinder bores. 

This creates two problems: one, of course, is that this truck continues to be more of a project than I ever anticipated. The second problem - and more of a concern - is the timeline. I was hoping to have it back at the end of March but the machine shop is already working out several weeks, if not months. At the end of the day, there's really not much of a choice here, especially since Jay has a relationship with this shop. We'll do piston rings and guides at the same time, and while all of this is spiraling way out of control, it continues to further guarantee the LX450 will be damn near bulletproof when it's done. 

Are we having fun yet? 

One of the few bright spots of the surprisingly endless Lexus LX450 project is the mechanic I have working on this truck. Jay, of Jay's 4WD, first came into the picture when I searched for someone to revive the long-dormant Isuzu Trooper RS project. Jay is a talented wrench, and he's since taken on the revival of my '98 Dakota R/T project.

I've used the local Lexus dealer for repairs on the LX for two reasons: one, a mechanic I knew from a previous project had since taken a job there, and two, it's entirely convenient because the dealer is close to my house. But when the headgasket issues materialized, I decided to move it down to Jay because I was growing weary of the dealer mentality that they would fix anything I'd like but didn't necessarily have the intuition to deduct months ago that headgasket issues were looming.

Jay has already dived in, and within two hours on a Saturday morning, he had the head removed from the LX450's inline-six and was in my neighborhood shortly after that to drop off the head. I'm going to run it over to a local machine shop that Jay has used for his boat engine repair business, and hopefully, we'll find the head is free of any cracks and can be decked and cleaned, ready to drop back in. 

While I have been bummed out by the amount of work the seemingly most-reliable vehicle in my fleet has needed, I'm excited at the prospect of having a truck with almost every major mechanical component replaced - some much-needed peace of mind for a truck I intend to make my daily driver in the spring. 

I regret to inform you I did not escape the dreaded headgasket failure on my '97 LX450. 

Truthfully, I saw it coming. I had ignored some of the tell-tale signs and written them off as irrelevant. The entry in the history file indicated around 230,000 miles, an overheating event occurred, with subsequent entries showing a new thermostat, water pump, and radiator did not resolve the issue. Then it goes quiet, and another 20,000 miles are logged before I buy it. 

I noticed a good amount of dense steam at startup - warm weather or cold - that looked like condensation but also had that awful smell that only burnt coolant smells like. But it would go away once the truck was warm, and I wouldn't see it again until the next cold start. 

Then, an overheating event on the way back from vacation seemed to be tied to a dead fan clutch. Two more months of even-temperature gauge bliss. But in December, on a frigid night, I ran out of heat and the truck began to run warm. It was parked at the local Lexus dealer for a month wherein my friend Joe, the lead tech, observed the radiator was empty. He thought it was not the headgasket as a pressure test revealed no sign of exhaust gases in the system. But with no other explanation as to where the coolant was going, and the radiator otherwise intact, he pulled the spark plugs and saw the dreaded sign of internal coolant leaks. 

To be perfectly honest, this was not an expense I anticipated. And I had just decided my plan going forward was to sell my E91 in the spring to shore up the maintenance budget; buy a 996; and use the LX450 and Dakota R/T for occasional daily driving duties. 

The new plan is to get the Lexus down to my friend Jay, who revived the Trooper, and works almost exclusively on old Toyotas. This pushes everything off a bit but I need to get the Lexus buttoned up once and for all. And truthfully, once the HG and chain are done, there's very little else that can go wrong on this thing. God willing. 

As you may recall, the Lexus LX450 - what should be the most reliable project in my fleet - has been sitting at Lexus of Warwick after an intermittent loss of heat and temperature gauge spike occurred one early winter night. The heat would cut in and out and then just stopped, and the only way to get the temperature gauge down was to open the vents up to full-blast mode. 

This was maddening, as the cooling system has been completely gone through. My mind jumped to a heater core job (miserable and expensive on this era of Land Cruiser) or worse, a failed head gasket. 

I left it alone for several weeks, getting through Christmas without so much as texting Joe Manzi, my mechanic. I finally broke down and asked him to give me the news, which turned out to be better than expected. Joe couldn't find any leaks and even tested the cooling system to make sure it was free of any exhaust gases. The only culprit he found was a radiator that had lost a gallon-and-a-half of coolant. Now, this is good news because more than likely we are dealing with a faulty radiator as Joe noticed dried coolant around the base of the radiator and the previous owner swapped in a Chinese-made replacement not long before I bought the truck. 

It could be a case of it being too good to be true and to be honest, I haven't heard from Joe since last week (guessing he's moved on to other things after babysitting my truck for a month and potentially finding a root cause.) I would be ecstatic if this mysterious heating/cooling issue turned out to be a case of a faulty radiator. 

The LX450 was supposed to be my gateway into Porsche ownership. Why? Because if the LX450 proved reliable enough, I would sell my E91 - which, as I've noted, is growing long in the tooth - and use that money to buy a decent but cheap 996-chassis 911. 

The problem is the LX450 has not exactly been, how do you say - daily-ready. I bought it knowing there would be a fair amount of deferred maintenance to deal with. It had been used as a daily by the previous owner, but like most older vehicles, the list of non-essential repairs left for someone else to deal with began to grow. 

We've sealed every leak; changed every fluid; replaced every cooling component; and fixed a variety of issues, from a seized A/C system to blown rear shocks to a spare tire mount so rusty it was deemed a road hazard.

I got to drive it for several weeks without issue, sort of a litmus test for becoming my eventual daily. I was going to have some rust repaired and move it over to a conventional insurance policy. But then last week, the heat became intermittent and my temp gauge began rising and falling, rising and falling. 

The truck was already slated to go back to Lexus for a quick oil change to a heavier-weight oil to see if it helped with some to-be-expected oil consumption, transitioning from synthetic to Shell Rotella 15W-40 diesel oil. Except now, we also get to diagnose whether the heater core needs to come out. 

As you can see, the seemingly most reliable vehicle in my fleet is becoming a bit of a nuisance. 

We took the LX450 to Martha's Vineyard this past week, where my entire goal of getting it over-serviced was driven by the goal of driving it on the beach. So, we did this and it was awesome. Combine the experience of driving overland with the shoulder season dynamics of there being far fewer people on vacation than at the height of the summer and we had the whole place to ourselves. We cannot wait to do it again.

Prior to leaving, I grabbed my Scan Gauge tool out of the Eurovan so I could turn off a pesky check engine light with the dreaded P4101 code, which is usually an impossible-to-find vacuum leak. In keeping it hooked up, I was also able to monitor the temperature. 

Now, a few things were happening in the background that gave me pause: one, I didn't hear a fan roar when the aux unit should kick in, and I didn't notice a dip in the RPMs when said fan kicked on. I also saw on the first drive out onto the beach with low range selected that the temperature gauge moved ever-so-slightly (which, in this truck, it never has.) 

I have driven the LX pretty regularly since I got it, and never noticed the temp gauge so much as wiggle. I chalked it up to my being overly-cautious in my first time on the sand and also having low range engaged. However, this was the definitive "canary in the coal mine" moment. 

When driving home, I kept an eye on the Scan Gauge and noted it was sitting right at 194, which is exactly where it should be. Once or twice, it kissed 210 on the island, but with operating temp range being 180-210, this was not out of line. However, a diversion into congested Providence to pick up a cake saw the gauge move in dramatic fashion towards the red, and temps spike to 220. We had to keep shutting the truck down and waiting for gaps in traffic to make it home without overheating, but given the water pump, thermostat, and radiator are all new - and combined with the silence of the fan blade assembly - I am very confident we have a dead or dying fan clutch that may have given up the ghost when the truck was working hard over the sand. 

Needless to say, I ordered what is known as a LandTank modified Aisin fan clutch that is customized to trigger the fan at 95 degrees and also uses a higher-threshold fluid to ensure steadfast, high-performance operation. Hopefully, there's no long-term damage caused by the brush with the danger zone and this modification otherwise makes what was an excellent first outing with the truck repeatable without the panic of a rising temp needle. 

I have been on a bender with the Lexus Land Cruiser. Here's why: we leave for Martha's Vineyard in a few days and I want to drive it on the beach. This means my wife and two young children will be in tow. 

So, that's why the A/C had to work; why the leaks had to be stopped; why the bodywork couldn't be dented; and so on. It was a mixture of having it be comfortable and also not look like a heap (my wife is more concerned about that last part than I am.) 

The A/C was a big deal; the truck is very comfortable inside. But grinding my gears on a personal level was the trashed driver's seat and the not-much-better passenger bucket. The good news is a company called L-Seat out of Houston sells very reasonable genuine leather kits, and in a color called "Oak" which is a very good match for the Lexus leather. 

I took the truck up to my new go-to for upholstery work, Charles St. Auto and Boat Top. Dave, the owner, works very quickly and does great work. The kit also included new material for the center armrest and armrests above the door handles. I also spent a ton of time steam cleaning the entire cabin, removing what stains I could, and refreshing the rest of the leather. 

Overall, it feels clean; smells good; and the front buckets will make both me and my wife very happy to spend a week in this truck. It goes back to Lexus tomorrow for a very quick check-over before we leave the mainland. 

Another day, another hidden spot of rust on the LX450. 

Joe Manzi pulled apart the drier on the A/C to replace it as it began leaking as soon as the rebuilt system was pressurized. In doing so, he discovered that two fairly important lines that support the automatic transmission cooler were so rotted out, he didn't want to attempt the scheduled transmission flush for fear of disturbing the rusty-but-not-leaking hoses. 

Thankfully, the biggest Land Cruiser used parts specialist in the country resides in New Hampshire. James tracked down the necessary parts and saved the day yet again. I've previously purchased a power steering cooler from James along with new handles for the rear gate. He has the market cornered on scrapped/trashed Land Cruisers, so spare parts are never an issue. 

Due to the dealer wanting to close out the end of the month, we're going to settle up tomorrow on all the work done so far. Then, the truck will stay at the dealer for yet another weekend while we get the hoses in hand and then hopefully knock out that job next week. 

As I mentioned, a friend of mine (Joe) works for the local Lexus dealer and he's worked on my vintage projects in the past. He agreed to take on the LX450 and has been dissecting the truck in a fairly comprehensive fashion. Here are the updates on what we knew and what we didn't:

-The A/C system is completely seized up. Basically doing a complete tear down here, in addition to replacing the condenser and compressor. 

-The power steering leak actually wasn't the cooler but just every damn hose. Effectively, every hose is being replaced. 

-The suspension is pretty tired. Shock bushings = gone, same for sway bar bushings. I'm going to save a major suspension refresh for when we lift it but replacing all bushings and rear shocks in the meantime.

-Rear hatch didn't work because the inner latch was gone. Pretty simple fix. 

-Going to replace water pump, thermostat, and flush transmission fluid proactively. 

-Crank seal leaking oil. Joe is going to try and sneak this into the A/C job. 

-Spare tire mount is completely rotten. Replacing chain mechanism with assembly from a Texas truck. 

More I'm forgetting! It's a long list but nothing too scary, and will make me way more confident putting the family inside and heading out to beach at some point this summer.