Builds GCRad1's 1992 ADV80 LAND CRUISER (1 Viewer)

1992 FJ80 Toyota Land Cruiser aka: "ADV80" - Purchased July 18, 2008

Hello fellow FJ owners! I finally got my own! I've been an FJ fan from long ago and just never thought that I personally would have the opportunity to own an 80-Series. Thought I would have wound up with a 60-Series. Love those 50/55's TOO but not as practical and or not funded to take on such a project as this vehicle will be my DAILY DRIVER!

But before this FJ80 came a few off-road adventures with a '85 Toyota Pickup built desert pre-runner style with widened A-arms, fiberglass, caged, 4:88 gearing, LockRight locker and DAILY DRIVEN.

Then came the 2WFD rally car with welded/locked front end - AWESOME! Not daily driven but consumed massive amounts of time and money.

For the family I built from salvage a 2002 Subaru WRX Fam'Wagon and that became the family outing car that we took it to the mountains quite a bit! After the rally car I found myself on a KTM 950ADV and then the real adventure's began! But, I have family and my selfish adventures needed to included the family as we love to get out but the wife, two kids and dog all do not fit on the KTM 950ADV.

As my kids got older we literally outgrew the Subaru WRX Wagon. The wifes vehicle switched from the Subaru WRX wagon to a nice slightly used Jeep 2WD Commander. I learned long ago to not mess with the wife's vehicle from long ago, so no messing with this new to the family Commander!

While getting new tires some time later for the Jeep Commander, I noticed this Toyota Land Cruiser sitting behind the shop with a FOR SALE sign in the window so I inquired about it. The price - RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP!!! Something must be wrong with it, I stated! They handed me the keys to go drive it and I did and called the wife. While it did have minor issues like front axle leak + no lockers, I bought it! This is going to be a worthwhile ADVENTURE!!!




So, I get the RIG and first things - get to get it off the tarmac for a little dirt test drive!

Living in Southern California's Orange County is a bit dirt deprived but we do have this little spot: Trabuco Creek Rd is the quick escape road that goes up to the Holly Jim Hiking Trail. Nothing major at all, but when you got to touch dirt, you have to touch dirt! And it is also the quick alternative to the larger Saddleback road that is currently closed!!!

On the first to repair list, this is a big-ticket item to tackle:


With the awesome help of the mud community, details like this are great to know:

On the Vin# tag, look at the row of text/numbers just below the bar code in the middle and see the K292.
K292 = NO FACTORY LOCKERS

I found this info on this thread:
Lockers or no-lockers / Buying an 80 warning / advice – Post #8 tells the story:
Buying an 80 warning/advice - https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/39293-buying-80-warning-advice.html

I will be spending a lot of time in this section:
FAQ for 80/LX450 -Mar 2011 - Added concretejungle's 1FZE overhaul:
80-series FAQ for General Info, Modification and Repairs - https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/84888-faq-80-lx450-mar-2011-added-concretejungles-1fze-overhaul.html

Looks like a good base. Do the front axle yourself, save a ton and learn more about your cruiser.

Also looks like the coil spring is not fully rotated to the stopper. Congrats on the purchase. I 'heart' my 80.

Congrats and Welcome.

Dirt TIME!!

Truck is a week old in my possession and it's time to hit the dirt! Me and my co-worker Andrew are off for a little dirt time. See link below photo for report.


ADV-FJ80 First Quicky Adventure July 26th, 2008

Sorry, no tech stuff yet, but it's coming! But in the mean time, you can check out the little ride report - just hit the link above "ADV-FJ80 First Quicky Adventure"

Congrats from another owner of a '92. (By choice!!) Some don't appreciate these, but they are great. I love mine. And believe me, that front axle leak is not as bad as some. And for sure do the work yourself. You will be more mindful of maintenance when you do it yourself. Anyway, congrats again and welcome to the Mud addiction.

Have some service that is going to need be performed so doing my local shop research in / around Orange County:

Costa Mesa - South Coast Toyota

Long Beach - Cabe Toyota with TLCA "good guy" price.

San Juan Capistrano Toyota of San Juan Capistrano

Laguna Hills - Laguna Viejo Auto Service

Corona - Yota Masters

Gardena - Jim Dickey Land Cruiser Specialist

Welcome! where abouts in the OC are you?

Costa Mesa. You in San Juan Cap?

cruiserruf said:

Welcome! where abouts in the OC are you?

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Heading out of town and ADV80 pee's all over the place!

UPDATE: Water Leak

My ADV80 getting it's first service and coming at a time when time is not possible - the day we are leaving on the FAMILY TRIP!


The adventure-machine decided to pee on the ground just as we where about to leave the ADV80 behind as we where about to leave out of town on our family get-a-way. Yes, the day of departure, I discovered water on the ground! Guess the ADV80 was feeling left out, but it has not been gone through yet and did not trust making a big trip with it and lucky as this does not look good!

Worst of all, this is just rusty looking water, not coolant! So it looks like we will be tackling coolant issues before oil leak issues and front axle wiper issues.


This view is shot from the ground looking up at the motor. Water seems to be coming from the water pump just above the crank.

So it's time to get on the horn and start calling and did not want to go to the local Toyota Dealer. So I narrow the list down to Laguna Viejo Auto Serivce as these guys are sorta' close to my work and they are willing to take the ADV80 in and should be able to button it up while we are gone on the trip!


The wife following behind in the Commander - it's loaded and ready to go, but a quick side trip to drop off the ADV80. The Commander is 2WD and better gas milage and A/C is working and you know how important that is for the wife and kids! Yea yea yea, more task items to add to the ADV80 TO-DO list!


Called Harry to make sure I could drop it off and made way down to their location.
Harry - Head dude with all the 80-Series Friends
Mark - head FJ80 mechanic
Laguna Viejo Auto Service
27140 Cabot Road, Suite A
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
949.582.7262 - tell'em Rodney sent ya!!!


Milage as of Aug 14th [Thursday] as dropped off with Harry & Mark at Laguna Viejo Auto Service. I've only managed to put about a thousand miles on it since purchased July 18th.

OK, I'm back on Monday and itching to see how bad this is going to be.

Mark getting into the nitty-gritty of what should be a simple issue but looking to be a can of worms right out the gate!

1] There is a rigged device in place of the bracket for the alternator to stay in place with tension on the belt. new bracket needs to be purchased and replace rigged-device.
2] chiseled bolt on the adjustment pulley from what seems due to either not having metric socket/wrench and or not enough leverage to break the bolt loose previously. That issue needs to be sorted as well as pulley bearing replaced!
3] idler pulley bearing is shot and needs replacing.
4] Then we can start talking water cooling issues and will learn more on that soon!

SO - the list of TLC-DO's is now starting to come to life!
Cooling issues to be sorted and some 14+hoses need replacing.
A/C not cooling
front main seal leaking oil.
Front Axle wipers leaking.

I know a few of you say I should be tackling these issues myself and yes I should... BUT, I have a two-car garage in a town-home!!! Wife's car goes in the garage and all my toys are on the other side making it currently IMPOSSIBLE for any work in the garage and the TH-association will not allow me to be working on the car outside the garage. Time to start sorting the toy collection:

PM #1 - Cooling Issues getting sorted

Stopped by Laguna Viejo Auto Service after work yesterday to look into what is really going on as Mark had dug further into the cooling issues.

Where is all starts - the radiator and the old saying "what goes it, comes out" or "bad stuff in, bad stuff out" comes to mind...

It's RUSTY looking down in there! Basically the radiator is CLOGGED! So the radiator will be replaced and system will get flushed, flushed and more flushing!


You can see rust everywhere. Basically, when I purchased the truck, it only had water in the system - no coolant! Not even Distilled Water, just plain ol'tap water.


This is the area where the water pump is attached. You can see the rust in the block and you can just imagine it's throughout the block. Cast Iron block and water is not the best of friends. So we will do several flushes over the next few months and include agents to help remove rust from the block.


The tensioner will be replaced as it's spun a few laps too many!


This pulley, the previous owner must own a chisel and hammer instead of vice-grips.



Backside of the water pump. The water was escaping from the backside as the gasket gave way and begain the dribble session. Will be replacing this whole unit and will see if this unit is reservicable.


This pulley did not have the seating cover so the washer was off-center and wiping the bearing and not centered. So a new bearing cover will get installed.


Engine bay needs some house cleaning! Lots of PM's to be done here!!!

So, hopefully the next images will be good news and wheelin again stuff!!! I hope to have the ADV80 back in the dirt by the weekend!!!

Do a search on the PHH, it will likely need to be replaced as well.

hfd crusher said:

Do a search on the PHH, it will likely need to be replaced as well.

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Its a '92...

My bad, sorry.

GCRad1 said:

Costa Mesa. You in San Juan Cap?

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Yessir....


that's some heavy duty rust you have on. how much is this costing you? if you don't mind me asking.

Laguna viejo is pretty good. harry helps me out every time I take my cruiser or my van but i mostly let him take care of the big stuff.

what in the world is an ADV80?

landtank said:

what in the world is an ADV80?

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Evidently it is an FJ80 that has never had any service done on it and repairs made by or with commonly available household items. Attention Deficit Vehicle? Acutely Disregarded Vehicle?

Good luck with that one! Looks like the PO/POs didn't do anything to it except drive, makes me wonder what other surprises you're in for - maybe some Canola Oil in the diffs?

Nothing to hide - I paid FULL RETAIL!!! Not proud of it, but it is what it is... I'm $2,554 into it so far with Laguna Viejo Auto Service. And going the truck is back for three more hoses of the 14-total hoses that I will have to replace. I've replace about 8 or 9 so far. Keep reading, story takes a twist against my weekend plans...

cruiserruf said:

Yessir....


that's some heavy duty rust you have on. how much is this costing you? if you don't mind me asking.

Laguna viejo is pretty good. harry helps me out every time I take my cruiser or my van but i mostly let him take care of the big stuff.

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Adv80 = adventure eighty

ADV80 = ADVENTURE EIGHTY
It's off to a wild adventure so far with the cooling system!!!

But it's the nickname for my truck like the KTM950ADV that I ride, I wanted to have a little flavor for my simple FJ80... adventure its going to be, after the adventure woe's I'm in now with the PM's.

landtank said:

what in the world is an ADV80?

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I WILL NEED L.U.C.K.

Learning Under Correct Knowledge

Yes, while the vehicle itself body-wise and interior are in overall good condition, but its is going to need a lot of service. But for the price I paid for it, I got what I got and once I go through the whole truck, it will be up to par.

little_joe said:

Evidently it is an FJ80 that has never had any service done on it and repairs made by or with commonly available household items. Attention Deficit Vehicle? Acutely Disregarded Vehicle?

Good luck with that one! Looks like the PO/POs didn't do anything to it except drive, makes me wonder what other surprises you're in for - maybe some Canola Oil in the diffs?

Click to expand...