Project Chronicle

The LX450 has been a long project, with the biggest curve ball being the unforeseen headgasket leak that prompted an engine rebuild. I had my patience tested with wanting to see this truck through, and I'm still a bit shocked I kept with it. The main driving factor was I've always harbored some regret when I sold my E36 M3 with a bad headgasket, largely out of frustration. I felt the 80 Series trucks had good potential for positive ROI and didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

So, we persisted, and it got down to Maryland about 2 months ago with a healthy motor. Of course, nothing is ever done, and all of the basic needs that come with a project I suddenly realized still needed doing. The biggest was the brakes: the stopping power was weak at best, and as this is the vehicle I transport my kids in, bad brakes were not an option. 

I bought a "performance" brake kit from Rock Auto consisting of huge vented rotors and carbon-ceramic pads. This made a nice improvement, and as an added bonus - when you remove the rear brakes - the parking brake cable is accessible, and since my original cable was seized, we could finally get this job done as well.

However, in inspecting the truck, it was discovered that the lift kit had seriously stretched the OEM brake lines, so those were tossed in favor of extended stainless steel lines from Slee Offroad. A simple brake job turned out to be anything but; however, with all of this work done, the truck brakes very well and it's one more step closer to using this like the daily I intended with full confidence in putting it through the paces of everyday use. 

My mechanic Jay called with the good news recently that the long-standing (and unintentionally long) Lexus LX450 / Toyota Land Cruiser project has finally hit its point of substantial completion - from the mechanical side, anyway.

The rebuilt engine has been turned up and run, with no apparent issues. Jay claims it runs well with no obvious issues arising from being torn down and rebuilt piece-by-piece after the long-festering headgasket issue revealed that the internal coolant intrusion has led to corrosion materializing between the head and the block. 

Jay has not only mated the decked and refreshed head with the cleaned-up block but also installed an Old Man Emu lift 3-inch lift kit, which looks fantastic in the photos he sent me. There's also a new ARB brush guard as well. A Gobi-X rear bumper is en route, and some IPF driving lamps will also be installed. Then, we kick it over to my body guy Nelson to fix the rust in the rear inner fenders; I may have him stick a slab of metal in the back to replace the rusty rear cross-member, but not sure if it really matters with the monster rear bumper on there.

More to come, but big time milestone days, for sure. 

One of the better updates I've gotten lately from Jay is that the engine is back in the LX450. Which means we're:

- a few days closer to it being fully tethered to the car and getting its first start (right now, the bellhousing is loosely attached, but that's it);

- a few weeks closer to it going to the bodyshop for rust repairs in the rear door inner fenders;  

- and then off for a quick stereo install, and hopefully, headed down to Maryland to resume daily driving duties. 

I haven't driven it since January, so yes, I'm excited to see it comes this far - but we're not home yet. 

Progress is progress these days, no matter if it's an inch or a mile. 

I swung by Jay's 4WD today to leave my beloved Trooper RS with him while we move on down to Maryland. Jay will fix the leaking headgasket and button up a few other details while it's there, which hopefully won't be for an extended stay.

In addition to dropping off the Trooper, I also checked out the LX450 which is getting closer to completion. The engine is reassembled and awaiting installation. Jay also installed the three-inch lift kit I bought from Old Man Emu, so plenty of other work is getting down while he prepares for the labor-intensive aspect of dropping the engine back in. Jay recommends getting a different caster kit than what came with the kit, along with longer rear sway bar brackets. 

Jay removed the full wiring harness to make egress easier, and also cleaned up some old heater hoses that serviced the now-inop rear seat heater. The truck still needs a good deal of sorting before it's running and driving, but at least we can see some major work has been done and that we're on the home stretch. 

The Lexus LX450 project is one of those unfortunate scenarios where things have definitely gotten out of hand. As mentioned previously, a long-festering headgasket leak left unabated by the previous owner resulted in the inline-six going from a basic gasket job to a full-on rebuild. 

This was obviously an unplanned level of expense, as this truck was supposed to be the most reliable vehicle in the fleet and been pressed into daily duty after I sold my 2010 BMW 328xi wagon. We're well past that plan coming together, but the good news is Jay has at least crossed the Rubicon as it relates to progress on re-assembly. 

While the truck has been a relative kick in the gut as it relates to the disappointment of discovering an issue like this, it is at least rewarding to see the engine cleaned up and looking quite tidy. I try to remind myself that as it relates to this level of investment in a vehicle, an 80-Series Land Cruiser is one of the more rewarding options out there in terms of ROI. 

Hopefully, we're on target for the truck to be ready by Labor Day, at which point I'm going to have to manage rust repair and a stereo refresh from across the miles. 

The list of projects I'm attempting to get done before we move to Maryland in a little over a month has me feeling overwhelmed, to say the least. Nothing is done to the level that I'd like it to be, and given I will be starting over with establishing new shop relationships, I'm feverishly trying to get as much done in the time I have left in Rhode Island as possible. 

Sadly, the LX450 will likely not be making the trip down with us, as backlogs in the machine shop delayed the project by several weeks. At this point, Jay Gaston is putting the engine back together when his schedule allows, which is not easy considering his full-time work is in full swing as boaters race to get their vessels back in the water.

He's been cleaning all of the removed components and painting the engine before putting it back together. While this adds time, it also makes sense to do before re-assembly, especially since we hope to not be taking this engine back apart again any time soon. 

Great day in the morning: the block for the long-sidelined 1997 Lexus LX450 (fancy Land Cruiser) is done, and Jay Gaston of Jay's 4WD has already snagged it from R. Johnson & Sons Engine Repair in Warwick, RI. The head was previously cleaned up and refreshed by Johnson's and Jay had retrieved it; the block then had to go over to the machine shop due to corrosion found on the deck. Jay had viable concerns about the head mating with the block and the visible corrosion leading to future issues. 

The team at Johnson's asked me to track down some oversized pistons, rings, a full gasket set, main bearings, and rod bearings. We went with .020 oversized components, mostly from DNJ. Remember, this is not a power build but rather just a reliable, stock setup that will allow this engine to go another 250K (or more.) 

From here, Jay will reassemble the engine and also replace the timing chain and pan gasket while the engine is out of the truck. We also plan to install a three-inch lift kit and refresh any other wear items, including hoses and belts. I may also replace the new-ish but cheap aftermarket radiator with a genuine Koyo unit, so there may be more opportunities to make improvements while we're in the re-assembly phase. 

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. 

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. 

I have a connection with the local Lexus dealer that has proven helpful over the years. Joe Manzi, a former technician with the now-defunct Oxford Motorcars, joined the Lexus dealer technician team in Warwick, Rhode Island, a few years back. Joe worked on my E21-chassis BMW 320 and my extremely obscure 1981 Toyota HiAce wagon. He was a life-saver time and again on that HiAce and I'm sure he was grateful to see it go onto a new owner. 

The Lexus LX450 I picked up recently had some needs. The power steering leak, non-working rear hatch, warm A/C, and no evidence of recent transfer case or transmission fluid changes. All told, I wanted to get Joe's capable eyes on it to address some standard, deferred maintenance along with flagging anything I should be mindful of over the long-term. 

He has yet to text me with an update, which is good and bad. It either means he's found nothing out of the ordinary or the list of needs has quadrupled he's afraid to call me. To that end, you have to take advantage of the few perks going to a dealer affords you, so I didn't hesitate to take the complimentary loaner car they offered me while they work on a 248K mile LX450 that is profusely leaking power steering fluid. 

And hey, for a brief minute, the neighbors may even think I've come to my senses and purchased a reliable, late-model vehicle. Joke's on them! 

The Lexus LX450 arrived with a pretty powerful stream of fluid terminating from below, and the best guess so far is the power steering oil cooler. Of course, the cooler consists of hard lines and therefore can't be replaced. 

There's the possibility that the leak is coming from the power steering reservoir itself, as there's a few accounts online of a misdiagnosed leak being traced back to the very cheap fix of replacing some O-rings inside the tank itself.

My friend Jeff, a professional mechanic who arranged the sale of the LX450, said it's the hard lines going into the cooler. I have no reason not to believe him, so I tracked down a used cooler assembly from a place in New Hampshire that deals exclusively in Land Cruiser parts. I've also got an appointment on the books for the truck to go to the local Lexus dealer for this repair along with proactively swapping the water pump, thermostat, and drive belts while it's there. My good mechanic friend Joe Manzi, from the now-defunct Oxford Motorcars, will be handling this job, which I'm pretty psyched about. Joe's a great guy and an excellent mechanic. 

The tags from Vermont should arrive shortly, and then we can get this thing some beach passes and take it on the sand! 

Well, although it seemed like a pretty done deal, I confirmed today I will finally be a Land Cruiser owner as of tomorrow. I've been searching for a very specific truck - the FJ80-series Land Cruiser with the Lexus trim, otherwise known as an LX450 - and my friend Jeff, a local mechanic, snagged this one from a customer. 

The cherry on top was to find one wearing the pretty shade of blue/green paint that was unique to the Lexus variant. This truck, which I inadvertently took a picture of in the background of a photo of my departed Trooper, belongs to a family from Newport, RI. I visited it in person today and while it needs a serious detailing and has some rot issues to resolve, it's surprisingly solid for a New England truck. 

It drives nicely; runs cool; and any negative surprises (so far) have been pleasingly mild. I keep forgetting this is a Lexus from the golden-era of Toyota's luxury arm over-engineering everything they built. The Lexus does have some leaks, primarily an oil leak from the pan gasket area and a power steering leak. The rear hatch took a direct hit near the lock mechanism, and as such, it doesn't open. The driver's window falls off the track if it goes down all the way, and the radio just blows static.

Overall, minor faults, and while the rust will need to be addressed, it's contained and I have a good local resource now for rust repair (even though he hasn't called me back about when the Cosworth can come by....) More to the point, we can use it as I've always intended, which is a vehicle we all fit into that can drive down to the beach and back when called upon. 

And, when funds allow, we'll find some must-have off-road pieces, like a set of wheels from 1552, larger tires, and an ARB brush guard with some period-correct off-road lights. Exciting!