Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Brandon over at olympiafj60.net mentioned to me on the Whiskey Dick trip about a thread over on ih8mud.com in the 60-series forum on an adjustment that can be made to the Toyota Land Cruiser 3FE engines. There happens to be some type of fuel regulator on the fuel rail near the firewall that be adjusted. People are reporting increased power and even better yet, increased fuel ecomony.

You can see the thread at What the deuce is this thing?.

Well I went ahead and popped the plastic cap off and tightened the screw a couple of turns. Initial impressions while driving around my house seemed to be an increase in low end torque (a very unscientific approach).

I now need to take a test run over Snoqualmie Pass to check against my baseline mpg of 13.4 when traveling from Federal Way to Ellensburg, Washington. Hopefully, I’ll have a little more power on the climb to the summit. When I have the data, I’ll report it back here.

Thanks Brandon for the tip.

Steve

Here is a photo preview of an upcoming article about my Land Cruiser Cargo Box/Drawer System Build.

I finally got around to start building the cargo box/drawers for my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser.

My goal was to have have a place for my dog to ride as well as having quick access to tools and equipment without unpacking everything I had strapped down. I also needed a place to house an auxiliary battery since its not an easy task to locate a spare battery under the hood of an FJ80 powered by the 3FE engine.

Future photos will include the drawers and wings between the box and interior panels.

See additional photos at Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser Cargo Box Build

After only having my Land Cruiser for about three weeks, I had had my first equipment failure - the number three belt that powers the air conditioning unit broke (the belt closest to the engine).

Normally, I replace belts on a regular basis and use the existing belts as spares in case of a failure, however this time around they looked in good shape so I waited. Luckily, it was only for the air conditioning pump and I wasn’t far from home on some back road adventure.

Since I haven’t done my research to find out the best belts to purchase (probably Toyota OEM) and because I wanted to get the project done as soon as possible, I visited my local auto parts store and purchased the needed belt. While there, I asked for the price and availability of the other two belts and found out that they only stocked the belt I needed and that one belt was available from the warehouse and the other is a four day order. The local availability of the other belts confirmed the need to have a full set of spare belts while traveling, especially if you need to rely on a small town auto parts store for a replacement.

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