V8 Hilux
New Member
Hi all
Just thought since i just noticed this new section i might put in some info about my lux.
i have had it running with the v8 for about 3 years now and have had a few hickup along the way. some expected and others not so expected.
i guess ill start with the basics. my hilux is a live axle not independant front end. when i did the conversion i mover the rear (gearbox) crosmember forward 45mm. this gave me clearance between the fire wall and the engine. also ment the shafts had to be altered. at the time i didn,t really want to do a body lift so when i fabricated engine mounts they were mad to sit the engine as high as possable and still be able to close the bonet without any rubbing. problem is that it didnt leave enough room for the sump to clear the diff. so i modified the steel part of the sump but just removing the corner that was near the diff centre. i mesured everything up and all seemed good with a few mm to spare. next thing to do was add some suspention lift. i was working for ARB at the time so old man emu's were the go. went for drive to do a brake test and found out just how much bumpstops compress. i cracked the alloy section of the sump with the diff. not a huge problem i just welded some 10mm spacer plates to the chasie where the bumpstop hits and so far so good.
its easy to get lost when you start telling a 3 year long story. but anyway i forgot to mention a few other things like the the gearbox im using is from a 3l td hilux surf. the bellhousing is a dellow and the flywheel was made by malwood auto in qld. he also suplied the clutch & persure plate. as for the slave cylinder i was told mine would fit which was wrong. anyway we boged up the mount for the slave and everything seemed to be working of for about a month or so when the clutch started to slip. most of the problem seemed to be adjustment but for some reason i couldnt get it to work right. worked out then where was just enough through when the clutch was new but once it wore a little was no good. ended up geting the slave sleeved down which seemed to fix the problem. a few more months went by and the clutch started to slip again but no matter how it was adjusted it just wouldnt stop sliping. pulled the box out and started looking for other problems which very quickly became evident. the bolts holding the presure plate had come loose and some had come out. this was strange because they had been locktighted in so did some more investigating. found that the holes in the flywheel had not been taped all the way to the bottom. i had checked the depth of the holes before installing the clutch but i hadden't checked the threads. it was only the smallest amount that caused the problem because the presure plate had been pulled up tight.
with all that fixed and box back in it was smooth sailing for quite some time untill coasting into a roundabout and the box started making horable noises. the day before i had a trafic light drag against a vx ss commodore ute (i wouldnt say i won or lost). i had striped 5 teeth of 2nd gear.
fixed the box up and its a while before i had the next problem again with the clutch. the clutch pedal feels really hard or should i say solid. i drove home whitout using the clutch started looking for the problem. found the push rod from the pedal to the master had made a bit of a mess of the washer that is suposed to stop the rod coming out. as a temporary fix i found a washer that would fit over the rod which was also to big to come out the enlarged hole problem solver temporarly. the next day i got a new clutch master and was planing on fixing over the weekend. friday afternoon and problems struck again. this time something went bang needing a few more tools to replace the slave then i had at my place i was headed for dads place again driving with out using the clutch. i had picked a rout that didn't have to many sets of lights and off i went. the misses realises that were not far from her favrite icecream shop and wants me to do a quick detore. got there and found a park right out front nothing in the way even a downhill slope (makes starting in gear easier) jump back in to go and hit the3 starter and just get a clicking sound. its was 40deg day and the icecream is melting quicker the you can eat it. bit of a problem cause i cant roll start because i have no clutch. dad came out and towed back to his place. replaced the master cylinder and bleed the clutch all seems well except still can't seem to get a gear. after some severe head scratching ended up pulling the box to fine the spring in the centre of the clutch plate had broken out and the lose spring was jambing everything up. the next fun bit was trying to find out what clutch i had so i could replace it. put in a call to mal wood to find out as he was the one who suplied it to begin with (also wasn't listed with part no. on invoice) and he couldn't help. ended up being a ford presure plate with 3 extra holes for mounting. and now had a disel hilux clutch plate which was the same dimentions as what it had but heavier springs and cousions in the centre.
thats about all the drive train problems i have had so far but there have been a few others like the alternator. i had it blow up a number of times first time was a problem in the stator winding then the contact rings wore out (i had them replaced before installing the engine) and then the wires from the contact rings broke causing lots of sparking which blew the reg. i found out the reason the contact rings wore so quickly was because they were geting powere steering fluid on them. so for the sake of a $30 pump seal kit i could have saved heapes. just wish i didnt have to learn all this the hard way.
even with all these dramas its heaps of fun to drive and the engine is just the sweetest sounding thing at redline.
i think i have forgoten lots of detail but i guess ill post it another time.
V8hilux
Just thought since i just noticed this new section i might put in some info about my lux.
i have had it running with the v8 for about 3 years now and have had a few hickup along the way. some expected and others not so expected.
i guess ill start with the basics. my hilux is a live axle not independant front end. when i did the conversion i mover the rear (gearbox) crosmember forward 45mm. this gave me clearance between the fire wall and the engine. also ment the shafts had to be altered. at the time i didn,t really want to do a body lift so when i fabricated engine mounts they were mad to sit the engine as high as possable and still be able to close the bonet without any rubbing. problem is that it didnt leave enough room for the sump to clear the diff. so i modified the steel part of the sump but just removing the corner that was near the diff centre. i mesured everything up and all seemed good with a few mm to spare. next thing to do was add some suspention lift. i was working for ARB at the time so old man emu's were the go. went for drive to do a brake test and found out just how much bumpstops compress. i cracked the alloy section of the sump with the diff. not a huge problem i just welded some 10mm spacer plates to the chasie where the bumpstop hits and so far so good.
its easy to get lost when you start telling a 3 year long story. but anyway i forgot to mention a few other things like the the gearbox im using is from a 3l td hilux surf. the bellhousing is a dellow and the flywheel was made by malwood auto in qld. he also suplied the clutch & persure plate. as for the slave cylinder i was told mine would fit which was wrong. anyway we boged up the mount for the slave and everything seemed to be working of for about a month or so when the clutch started to slip. most of the problem seemed to be adjustment but for some reason i couldnt get it to work right. worked out then where was just enough through when the clutch was new but once it wore a little was no good. ended up geting the slave sleeved down which seemed to fix the problem. a few more months went by and the clutch started to slip again but no matter how it was adjusted it just wouldnt stop sliping. pulled the box out and started looking for other problems which very quickly became evident. the bolts holding the presure plate had come loose and some had come out. this was strange because they had been locktighted in so did some more investigating. found that the holes in the flywheel had not been taped all the way to the bottom. i had checked the depth of the holes before installing the clutch but i hadden't checked the threads. it was only the smallest amount that caused the problem because the presure plate had been pulled up tight.
with all that fixed and box back in it was smooth sailing for quite some time untill coasting into a roundabout and the box started making horable noises. the day before i had a trafic light drag against a vx ss commodore ute (i wouldnt say i won or lost). i had striped 5 teeth of 2nd gear.
fixed the box up and its a while before i had the next problem again with the clutch. the clutch pedal feels really hard or should i say solid. i drove home whitout using the clutch started looking for the problem. found the push rod from the pedal to the master had made a bit of a mess of the washer that is suposed to stop the rod coming out. as a temporary fix i found a washer that would fit over the rod which was also to big to come out the enlarged hole problem solver temporarly. the next day i got a new clutch master and was planing on fixing over the weekend. friday afternoon and problems struck again. this time something went bang needing a few more tools to replace the slave then i had at my place i was headed for dads place again driving with out using the clutch. i had picked a rout that didn't have to many sets of lights and off i went. the misses realises that were not far from her favrite icecream shop and wants me to do a quick detore. got there and found a park right out front nothing in the way even a downhill slope (makes starting in gear easier) jump back in to go and hit the3 starter and just get a clicking sound. its was 40deg day and the icecream is melting quicker the you can eat it. bit of a problem cause i cant roll start because i have no clutch. dad came out and towed back to his place. replaced the master cylinder and bleed the clutch all seems well except still can't seem to get a gear. after some severe head scratching ended up pulling the box to fine the spring in the centre of the clutch plate had broken out and the lose spring was jambing everything up. the next fun bit was trying to find out what clutch i had so i could replace it. put in a call to mal wood to find out as he was the one who suplied it to begin with (also wasn't listed with part no. on invoice) and he couldn't help. ended up being a ford presure plate with 3 extra holes for mounting. and now had a disel hilux clutch plate which was the same dimentions as what it had but heavier springs and cousions in the centre.
thats about all the drive train problems i have had so far but there have been a few others like the alternator. i had it blow up a number of times first time was a problem in the stator winding then the contact rings wore out (i had them replaced before installing the engine) and then the wires from the contact rings broke causing lots of sparking which blew the reg. i found out the reason the contact rings wore so quickly was because they were geting powere steering fluid on them. so for the sake of a $30 pump seal kit i could have saved heapes. just wish i didnt have to learn all this the hard way.
even with all these dramas its heaps of fun to drive and the engine is just the sweetest sounding thing at redline.
i think i have forgoten lots of detail but i guess ill post it another time.
V8hilux