Finally – An Oil Change Done Well

Over the years I’ve accumulated 5-6 bottles of brake fluid. This is nasty stuff that needs to be recycled. I’m up for a trip to the dump!

Since the truck has gone 6k (km) since last oil change, I can kill two stones with one bird and change the oil before going to the dump.

I’ve several new tools to my the oil change easier.

1) My new “open top container”

New excellent open top oil container. No spills! This thing is huge. For scale this photo shows the tank with 6 quarts of oil in there.

2) Larger flexible tip funnel.

Large flexy tip is great for refilling without any spillage.

3) Pad of Pig Mats to wipe up any mess

Have these ready to wipe up, also good for resting tools and the sump plug.

4) 2 gallon bottles of rotella t6 (5w40 synthetic)

Factory maintainance is to change oil every 6000 km, change filter every 12000 km, so no need for filter this time.

Steps:

1) Drive son to friends house to heat engine oil.

2) Emplace container beneath engine sump (this time using my new Open Tank Technology(tm))

3) Undo sump plug with 19mm socket.

4) Watch oil cascade gracefully into large open tank. I actually stacked the new tank on top of the old one so oil didn’t have so far to fall. No spills, no mess. Awesome!

5) Wait a few minutes for all oil to drip out.

6) Put in sump plug.

7) Remove oil cap.

8) Add 6 quarts of oil to engine (its 7 if you also change the filter), using the awesome new flex funnel.

Why did I use that tiny funnel for so many years? This this is the bomb!

9) Apply oil cap.

10) Check dipstick (yes, the oil level is nice and high (and oil is clean?!))

11) Start engine and listen to the purr. Nice!

12) Transfer oil from open tank to my closed funnel tank (for trip to hazard site), wipe out tank with Pig Mat.

About to transfer oil from open tank to closed tank (for spill free transport for disposal).

13) That took me 12 minutes. Nice! This change was after 6000km, but most of that was on freeway. You can’t tell from the photo above but I think the oil is starting to look less black. I could sort of see its color as it flowed out of the engine where previously the old stuff was very solidly opaque.

Wow an oil change sure goes faster when you don’t spill any oil. No hours spent scrubbing the driveway.

Conclusion: If you’re changing your own oil then you can afford to spend 20 bucks on the right gear. Easiest oil change ever!

For reference: here is the 3b oil change page from the maintenance manual:

Toyota 3B Oil Change Instructions

Toyota 3B Normal Maintenance Schedule

Toyota 3B Severe Service Maintenance Schedule.

How Not to Change the Oil

I suppose I was more cautious when I first got the truck. Went to change the oil and was surprised how easy it was. Not a drop spilled.

• Ok, its been 5000km, time to change it again, this time I’ll involve the kids. We take her for a spin, get engine warmed up, then park it.
• We gather the oil change paraphernalia, pan, wrench, new plug washer, oil.
• I align the pan, open the funnel plug, also the air plug, then undo the plug.
• Bam! Out comes the hot oil into the pan, perfect! Except that it didn’t actually land in the hole, it hit the pan. Falling from 2.5 feet it bounces in a fan of hot black oil – all over the side of my head and shoulder. “Gah!!” I cry. “Oww!” My kids look on in amazement, maybe enjoyment. They get me some paper towels so I can contain the mess. Align the hole so it stays exactly in line with the stream of hot oil.
• I suppose last time I was smart enough to keep the hole aligned perfectly. This time I forgot and let nature take its course. Lesson learned!
• Lots of scrubbing to get that motor oil out of my hair, ear, beard, armpit… glad it wasn’t fully up to temp!

So remember, its 2 gallons of hot oil, it’ll come zinging out, you need to catch it and contain it.

• Probably you want to elevate the pan so the oil doesn’t fall 2 feet
• Take care to ensure all the air passages in the pan are open or the oil won’t flow in quickly enough.
• Align the oil entry with the stream so it doesn’t fill the funnel top of the pan.

Used Rotella t6 5w40. Oil was black but no debris. Filter was clean too.

 

The Fluids Change and Ye Olde Abusive Previous Owner

I read somewhere that before an old Land Cruiser is sold it is ritually and satanically neglected by its owner. I guess the duration of this process depends. It is also a truism in life that whenever someone gains control of anything, the first phase, the honeymoon, is easy because the previous owner is to blame for everything. So… take the rest of this with a grain of salt.

Land Cruiser in the Garage getting fluid change.

I lost confidence in previous owner after seeing the extremely dirty engine oil, clearly more than a year old. That nasty stuff “informed my decision” to give the rest of the vehicle a flush. This being an old school 4wd, there’s quite a few reservoirs of oil:

• engine oil
• transmission
• transfer case (a second transmission that control selection of 2wd, 4wd and 4wd low)
• rear differential
• front differential

I looked everything up on IH8Mud. Incredible resource! Since I won’t be flooding the drive train with river crossings I can reward the car with the best oils. Honestly this vehicle was designed to consume old school oil, this synthetic stuff is overkill. There would be no issue running the $12/gallon 80w90 from Walmart. Since this vehicle is so new to me I want to experience the best and perhaps improved fuel economy (don’t hold your breath on that one). Later on after the honeymoon I can cheap out and see if there’s a notable difference.

• Engine oil is Rotella T6 5w40 that I had around the house for the motorcycle and Porsche 930. ($21/gallon at walmart).
• Transmission oil is tricky. The H55F transmission has “yellow metal” inside, used for synchronizers and it is corroded by some implementations of the GL5 gear oil spec, something about sulphur. I also read that some implementations don’t corrode yellow metal. From IH8Mud I see happy users running Redline MT90, this is a GL4 spec oil, but synthetic 75w90. Retail is $60/gallon.
• Transfer case is separated from transmission by a seal that often fails. For this reason its a good idea to run the same oil in both places, so I use the same Redline MT90 75w90 gear oil. $60/gallon.
• Differentials are high load and don’t contain yellow metal, they can use the best modern gear oil without a problem. I read high and low and decided on Delvac 75-90. Mostly from recommendations by Porsche race technicians. I see prices from $80/gallon at porsche race shops down to $40/gallon at reasonable places.

I really need to get the transmission done since I can feel the gears spinning on every shift. Am waiting up to a second for the gears to stop before I make the next shift. Where to find redline mt90? There are Redline Distributors, but they don’t sell to the public. There are lots of places that carry Redline motor oil, but no one seems to carry their gear oil. Amazon sells MT90 for $15/quart or $60/gallon. I happen upon “Oil Can Henry’s” in Issaquah. They have the Redline MT90, but don’t sell to the public, only if you get a transmission change. Hmm. How much for a transmission change with MT90? $69.99. How much oil does that include? Up to 5 quarts. Cool! Given that MT90 list price is $15/quart, I’m getting $75 of oil, in my transmission, for $5 cheaper than retail for the oil alone. I won’t question that and head right over. When I arrive and am asked how I can be helped:

“I need 4.9 liters of Redline MT90 in my transmission, how much will that be?” $69.99. Cool! Ok, lead the way sir! I drive into an immaculate engine bay, bustling Cap and Bow Tie Wearing mechanics surround the car. They start checking all fluids. They do this for free, “Its policy”. I realize later that this is a great perk. They have impact tools to free up stubborn fill bolts. I have them to thank for the ease with which my fill bolts later came out when I did the other fluids.

As they’re filling the transmission I ask how much to have the transfer done. “$69.99.” How about the diffs? “69.99 each”. Wow! I guess that’s off the table. A full service for this vehicle would be $70 * 4 == $280. I ask if I might be able to purchase 3 more quarts of MT90 for my transfer case. Uh.. Sure. But we don’t have a container. “How much? $8 a quart.” “Sweet! I’ll go home and get a container. Charge me now.” I’m back in 20 minutes with an old gallon oil container and so have obtained the oil for the transfer case.

Shifting is much improved and transmission is much quieter. I can feel a small amount of gear movement as a shift, but more like my Porsche now and not a problem at all.

I decide I need all the new fluids before replacing any fluids at home. No point cleaning up twice. So where to find the diff fluid?

I call around the seattle area. None of the usual places carry delvac. There’s a truck stop 30 miles away that will sell it, but too far and only in gallons. Diffs only hold 2.5 + 3 liters, I need just under 6 quarts. Finally I stumble on Autozone in seattle, they don’t have it but they know of a local oil change place that sells it. I call up the local oil change franchise. Yes they have delvac 75w90 but they don’t have a computer code to sell it to me. I hem and haw, and talk the guy into selling it to me. Again $8 a quart! I need 2.5 liters for the rear diff, 3 for the front. I’ll bring my own container.

I arrive 40 minutes later with a store-bought $2.99 oil receptacle that can hold 12 quarts. Good news, the guy found some old quart containers and filled them for me. Bad news he only had 2.8 liters left. Dang! Thats ok, I can use it in teh rear diff. Deal done I return the oil receptacle to autozone and purchase 3 quarts of Mobile 1 Synthetic S 75w90 Gear Oil. Whatever. Front diff won’t be used much at all, it’s the rear diff and transfer that matter.

At home I move the frankencruiser into the garage so as to work out of the rain. Climb under car to survey and spray powerblaster on the drain and fill plugs. Wow its great having lift on the truck, it’s really comfortable to work on without bothering with any jacks.

Look for socket. Uh oh. What size? I’ve no socket that fits. Socket is needed since drain plugs are recessed.

Again I read IH8Mud and it comes through with an answer. Factory size is apparently 24mm, but there’s strong recommendations to use a 15/16″, which is 0.2mm smaller. Hmm. Interesting. I hit up the local Auto parts store in the unenviable position of needing a single socket. $8 for a 24mm socket, $25 buys me an entire set of hardened black deep impact sockets in standard sizes up to 1″. I already have the metric edition of this set from Performance Tool and they’re the best fitting and most confident sockets I own (though the metric set only goes to 22mm). I go for the $25 full set (Performance Tool SAE Deep Impact 1/2″ Drive: (M590DB)) instead of the overpriced chrome junk, and hope the 15/16″ recommendation is correct.

What you know, 15/16″ is perfect, great tight fit for the soft metal of the plugs. The fill plugs are soft yellow metal, maybe brass and the case is alloy. Very bad if the alloy threads get stripped.

Front Diff:

I change front diff first since I need to reuse the long pointy containers in order to fill the rear diff and transfer. Front diff is milky and overfilled. I don’t know what might cause that. Water contamination? Not really possible to overfill a diff since the fill plug is on the side at the proper level. I’m able to add fluid using the pointy mobile 1 gear oil bottles.

Rear Diff

I carefully pour the Delvac into the mobile 1 containers to fill the rear diff. Again plugs come lose with moderate pressure on a 1 foot ratchet. Rear diff oil is gross! Brown nasty. Also overfilled. More water contamination? I don’t know. Rear diff is easy to add fluids to, only a steel cable that’s slightly in the way.

Nasty brown gear oil from rear diff.

Nasty brown gear oil draining from rear diff.

Nasty rear diff oil coming out of fill hole (overfilled? corrupted with water?)

Transfer case:

I carefully pour my 3 quarts of MT90 into the mobile 1 containers. Transfer fill plug was really snug. Oil Can Henry’s didn’t touch this one. I am unable to gain sufficient force without the ratchet rocking. I’m very careful not to strip the plug. Eventually I set up my floor jack to support the socket, then can reef on handle with both hands. It pops free with just about maximum force.

Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.

Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.

Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.

Training transfer case. Oil was worst of all.

Transfer oil is the worst. Opaque brown and stinky. Transfer fill is out in the open, no issues adding fluid using the pointy bottles.

Summary:

Each of the drain plugs had a magnet inset into it so part of each job was cleaning out the small metal flakes. Fortunately I found nothing big. Also a good idea to feel around inside the drain plug with your finger in case a bolt is lying there. Happily this found nothing.

For each of the plugs I used torque wrench and gave 27-28 foot pounds of force. Didn’t replace gaskets, we’ll see how that goes.

That was three hours under the car changing the fluids. Its dark and cold. Cajole and threaten the family out into the car and out for a victory lap. Hmm! Vehicle likes it. Much smoother and quieter. Put into low and coasted down a steep hill. Wow. Sounds great. No whining from transmission or from the children beside me in the bench seat.

http://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/50283-service-specifications-lubricants-land-cruiser-fj-bj-hj-60-70-series.html

• H55F Transmission: Redline MT90 75w90 Gear Oil, 4.9 liters.
• Transfer case: Redline MT90 75w90 Gear Oil, 2.2 liters.
• Front Diff: GL5 Gear oil, 75w90, 3 liters (I couldn’t get enough Delvac so used mobile 1 synthetic 75w90)
• Rear diff: GL5 Gear oil, 75w90, 2.5 liters. (Delvac 75w90)

For filling oil: on my truck with 2″ lift it was all done using the pointy gear oil bottles, I didn’t spill a drop.

Other stuff you need:

• a GOOD tight strong 15/16″ socket.
• socket wrench (mine’s a foot long and worked fine except for transfer fill)
• Something to support the socket if it doesn’t want to move (like a floor jack)
• Tighten each plug to 27 foot pounds (that’s not much!)
• Drive a little, then check that fluids are still full (in case there’s a burp).

Things to do better next time:

• Order all fluids ahead of time.
• Buy a pump so fill is easy.
• Order gaskets for everything: http://www.man-a-fre.com/parts_accessories/drainplugs.htm
• Consider allen-keyed replacement plugs http://www.man-a-fre.com/parts_accessories/drainplugs.htm

I was hoping I’d finally have an excuse to buy an electric impact wrench, but everything came apart too easily, next time… next time…

The morning after

Wake the next morning feeling Terrible. Under a car in the mud with a grinder, my eyes ache, I’ve burns on my face and forehead. Feel I have had the briefest taste of manual labor in years. Body sore all over, and sort of pissed about the amount of work I needed to do to get the car ready to leave.

There’s also the matter of an old land cruiser in my driveway now, under my care, expecting maintenance…

I do need to go to work, but first thing I need to deal with the Washington State Licensing as the BC Travel Permit is only good until the end of the day. Licensing is good and wonderful, but I need to pay a bunch of money for sales tax, or import tax, or whatever they want to call it. Then they reveal that washington state requires both parts of the BC Insurance Registration form. They can’t actually register the car until they have the second half of that form. Shit. I text the seller, he’ll mail it to me asap.

I get temporary washington plate taped to teh back window, and head to Discount Tire to replace the tires, at least the two rear ones which are missed and dangerously old.

Discount tire is empty and has a reasonable selection. The guy there admits that while my front tires (Michelin ltx at) are too old for them to touch, he thinks they have plenty of life left. There’s quite a range available, from off-road to highway. As this is primarily a highway/snow vehicle I’m looking for a highway tires that can handle the weight. Michelin LTX AS are popular with minivans, quiet, good grip and 80k mile guarantee, I get a pair for the rear. The swap is complex:

• rear wheels are rusty and crappy
• I’ve good shiny wheels in the back with tires that went through a car fire

Discount tire puts the new tires on the shiny wheels. I keep on of the current rear tires on crappy wheel as a spare, and discount tire disposes of the remaining 3 tires. Yes?

Handling of car is greatly improved with same-size tires on the rear.

On way home I stop at Toyota Dealer for my first oil filter and gasket. Parts lady is very helpful, oil filter is $5.50, gasket is $1.25. I decline to purchase a fuel filter for $83 or an air filter for $58.

Oil change is super easy…

• Undo oil fill on engine
• Sit under the vehicle with paper towels at the ready
• undo enormous drain plug and ensure that oil falls into drain pan
• replace drain plug
• using funnel, pour 6.5 quarts of oil into engine (until dip stick reads full), I used rotella t6 5-40 (same stuff as in motorbike and Porsche 930)

Now replace filter. I undo the oil filter sized canister on the side of the engine… wow, its rusty. Been a while since it was changed. Wow, its really on there, need a filter wrench… Whats this… diesel! Shit. I’ve just undone the fuel filter. I screw it back on and go looking for oil filter. Down under the engine, in another honestly convenient location is a huge oil filter, a Mahle OC374. Dang, Toyota parts lady gave me a filter for a Camry or something. Ok, I’ll change the oil filter later.

Start engine and smell diesel. See diesel dripping from fuel filter. I tighten with wrench (a no no according to book) but leak is still there. Shit. Probably the filter gasket is toast.

Look on internets, this is 3b motor, fuel filter is a Napa 3386 (wix 33386). I drive to Napa for the filter. Guy looks up vehicle, his machine says it takes a Napa 3396 (wix 33393). I get the 3386 anyway: $5.50. Also get an oil filter, a Napa 1515 (which is slightly smaller than the Mahle that was on there before).

Return home and install the 3386. Engine has a little priming pump built-in on the side:

• take off old filter, pour fuel into yoghurt container
• rub some motor oil on the new filter’s gasket.
• hand tighten filter to filter mount
• tubing over nipple next to filter mount and into yoghurt container
• open nipple with wrench
• priming hand pump is built into engine about a foot below the filter mount
• pump primer until fuel comes from tubing, keep pumping until all air is out
• close nipple with wrench

After cleaning up I start the engine. Still leaking! I remove filter and take photos of filter mount. It looks good. Feel around… feels good. Hmm. I dunno. Defective filter?

I call Napa and ask him to compare the 3386 and 3393. He says the 3393 has a slightly smaller diameter gasket. Shit. Well, that would do it. Gasket too large won’t seal against the smooth surface.

Back to napa and purchase the 3393. Dang its an inch longer and $10 more: $15.50. At this point I’m sort of shaking my head. Why the heck would the diameters be different?

Sure enough the 3393 seals perfectly. No issue at all except maybe it now extends quite close to the engine now, might be tough to fit a filter wrench on it when its time to remove.

Hopefully doesn’t spend all its time like this.

Back under the car for the last step, the oil filter. Fortunatly the oil filter is MOSTLY right side up so removing it doesn’t pour oil all over everything. Filter looks to hold about a quart! Unscrew and a bit of blackness spills but mostly contained. I fill the new filter with new oil, not quite to teh top, slick a little round the gasket and screw it back on. definite benefit to lifted truck, the maintenance is comfortable!

Start the engine, sounds better, cleaner. Maybe psychological but the engine seems to be waking up from a slumber. Next morning is below zero and car had a much easier time turning over, I credit that to the 5-40 oil. Some people worry that the first number is too low. The first number in oil weight is the cold viscosity (thickness), second number is hot viscosity. Cold oil is naturally very thick, like syrup. It thins with temperature until it has the consistency of alcohol. Having oil that’s thinner when cold has little to do with its ability to protect the motor when warm. When oil is too thick it won’t flow properly on startup. Motor oils with a broad viscosity tend to fall apart sooner, but the shell is proven stuff so no worries there.

Next steps will be air filter, transmission fluid, transfer case fluid, and fluid for both diffs.

Lots of steps to go but vehicle sure looks like it needs it.

So, for reference, my 1984 BJ60 wants:

• wix 33393 fuel filter (napa 3393)
• wix 51515 oil filter (napa 1515)
• wix 52159 air filter (napa 2159)

For motor oil I used Rotella T6 5-40 (which is probably overkill in every way, but should ease start-up).

Hey kid, watch that sugar drink doesn’t spill and stain teh seats!