LUVTruck.com

Thought I would share some of the fun I've been having on this Little 79'. I bought it for $900 and the guy was kind enough to deliver it since he had a trailer. The breakdown of the condition when I bought it:

Main Harness partly melted with wires spliced everywhere.
Points pretty much done, (wire broken in the dist)
Emissions parts there but not connected with vacuum lines plugged or just laying open
No turn signal switch on the column
No side or rear view mirrors
No door panels, carpet, seat belts, and cracked dash.
Missing passenger side headlight trim
Broken hood and E-brake cables
No condenser for the a.c.
Broken CV boots
Messed up throttle cable
No 4x shifter knob or dust boot
Exhaust pipe hanging with a cat where the muffler should be, actually looks like someone put the whole thing on backwards.

I actually have no idea if anything works on this truck. But so far its been fun working on it. I do know the wheels and center caps are stock.

So the good things

"Feels" like it has a 5 speed trans
Weber carb (stock intake )
Supposedly the rear end was rebuilt
A few minor dents nothing serious, although the left front fender has been replaced and it looks like the wheel-well floor-pan seal was redone.
3" body lift, Not sure if I want to leave it lifted.
Looks like original glass all around and sliding rear window
All the marker lenses are good even has most of the chrome trim
No major rust.

What I've managed so far.

Pulled out all of the wiring under the dash and hood, including the voltage regulator and relays. Bought a wiring kit and went to town...........






Took out the stock column and installed one from an 81 Toyota truck so headlights, wiper and ignition are on the column.


Worked out good with the lift parts for the original


Had to cut the whole in the firewall a little wider but with the Toyota plate it covered it, even the notch from the lift.


Took out the pump and installed a internally regulated alternator.

Installed a newish fuel pump and hooked up a bypass line on the Weber



Ran into a problem with the Pertonix kit, it works reverse of there bench test. So when it fires the rotor is out of position, so no power to the plugs. Very frustrating since I checked every possible problem.


I was surprised when I took the valve cover off to check the timing, expected to find a sludgy mess but found this.






Almost like it was just rebuilt but the head looks like it has never been off the block. The valve cover even has the cork gasket still intact.

I would like to thank everyone here for all the great info and ideas, otherwise I don't think I would have even tried saving this poor LUV.

Wow. Glad to see a luv being saved.

Looking good. I'm in the process of rewiring my truck as well. The new wiring should be a lot better than the original. keep up the good work.

Nice truck. I like the front hitch. I'm going to do that on my Ford, to park my trailer in it's spot at home easier. If I had a smaller hitch, I would put one on my LUV as well.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

wow you lucked out with that head it looks like it just came out of a hot tank!
how many hours have you spend rewiring the truck so far?

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

I thought the hitch on the front was a nice touch, it used to be a yard truck so it may have been used to push trailers or just put on to fill the gap from the lift.

Not sure how much time I have in rewiring, actually compared to the original wiring this is much easier and should be allot better without so many circuits running off a single fuse. Of course when I start wiring under the dash it may be a different story

Quick update Good and Bad

Good news, my replacement ignitor kit arrived and works great. Starts up and runs for a few seconds then dies.

Bad news, it dies.......not getting enough fuel. Pump the gas pedal like crazy and it will sputter for a few seconds more. Pulled the carb and opened it up, looks like water may have been sitting in the float bowl. Some scaly film that probably clogged the idle jets. I should have checked first, but it looked so clean all around, Oh well should have the rebuild kit by the end of the week.

Sounded smooth while it was running, no pings or knocks, Valve cover gasket needs replacing and one area of the head gasket looks like it may have leaked a bit. So it looks like I may have to do more than I wanted to get the LUV up and running. At least I'll get to see how the pistons and cylinders look

Fun Stuff, rebuilt the Weber and the LUV started right up, some quick adjustments to the carb got it idling fairly well, as it was idling I could hear the throw-out bearing whining then the UPS truck shows up with my head gasket kit a week sooner than I thought it would. Then the HOA sent notice to not park on the landscaping, even though it is in front of the R.V. gate next to the driveway...........So we had to push my sons Focus farther back into the side yard (bad transmission) then his Honda, whatever it is, had 4 flats and we could not push it. So the Luv (calling it "Lil Squirt" now) got its first job, pushing the Honda outa the way

Even more fun, white smoke from the exhaust..........2 bolts missing on the intake and none really torqued on, so it was leaking coolant into the cylinders, luckily no oil found in the coolant or vice-verse. Tied up the cam pulley, tried to secure the tensioner, pulled the head and what a mess, this thing had been running rich. While cleaning all the crud off the head I discover G200...........WTF really..........start looking around on the block, sure enough I find G200 behind the alternator So somebody swapped the motor and trans and left the stock dizzy from the G180, guess it was cheaper to leave the stock stuff. I put the head back on after getting it all cleaned up, but I may have to look into finding a 180 head

Now I have to pull the timing cover and probably will have to change out the chain and tensioner. So a couple questions. Can I use a timing chain kit for a G180 or does it have to be the G200? I can tell the tensioner is different, not sure if that matters?

Also, Is there supposed to be a small hole in the intake between number 3 and 4 where the heater hoses connect allowing coolant into the head? Thinking I may wait for some funding and get one of them Offy intakes from Mokadeth.

Seems this minor project is turning into more than I expected, should have just been tires, fix some wires, and a tune up. Thanks to everyone here for all the information, without it I think "Lil Squirt" would just be rusting away in some yard. I'll try to get pics up later.

Should this have a hole between 3 and 4?


You can definitely tell where the leaks were, somebody got lazy about tightening bolts and left 2 off.

On the hole between 3 and 4 to the water gallery of the intake, yes it is supposed to be there. I think they intended it as a bypass for the thermostat to get the heater some warm water a little sooner. It also functions to bleed air out of the system when you are filling it.

That head gasket looks pretty good and new from here, can you see where it was leaking? It almost looks like the intake gasket was the problem really. None of the cylinders looks steam cleaned or anything either though, like not much water was getting into it.

Be sure to really really check around the exhaust valve seats for cracking. My 79 had a perfectly good head gasket but a faint crack near the #3 valve seat that went to the cooling system. Didn't look like much but it was enough to turn it into a fog machine.

I have never looked into the differences between the timing sets for a G180 or G200. I have a 1980 LUV I bought with a hybrid, G200 block and G180 head. It runs well enough but has a loud rattle from under the timing cover area that I wondered about timing gear compatibility. I just did a quick comparison on rockauto.com and it looks like the chain is the same (also fits a bunch of BMWs ) and the gears are the same between LUV g180 and Isuzu g200, but the guides and tensioner have different part numbers. Post what you find out if you do get in there. This might solve a 10 year old mystery for my 1980.

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95 Isuzu Trooper Daily Driver
86 Isuzu Trooper reliable backup
77 LUV 2wd stock beltway blaster (resting)
79 4x4 LUV project: 2.6L, 5spd, 31s (eventually)

MEPR: Man, my 4x4 makes all other LUVs look good

Thanks 800xl I'll definitely look over the head one more time, I might have to drill out that hole in the intake though, managed to get some of the crud out with a screwdriver but it's completely plugged.

Seems that the tensioner is the main difference without having a side by side, but the g200 kit is about 30ish more dollars I'll post pics on what I find in a day or so.

Who needs a fancy engine picker, this is how I got the nickname Jethro.

Been busy getting parts together, went to the salvage yard in Prescott and found three LUV's. A 74, 79 4x4, and a 78 Mikado. Very Sad to see but I was like a kid in a candy store, with a pocket full of change, so limited on what I could get So mainly got some of them little parts, e-brake cable, hood release cable, door armrests, and some other stuff. Grabbed the dual headlight buckets from the 74. Pulled the head off the 4x4, not good, cross threaded spark plug, semi crispy valves. Had a new head gasket but there was severe rust in 2 cylinders that were steam cleaned.

Pulled the Mikado head, unlike the 4x4 this truck was maintained, new head gasket, valves pretty clean, and the engine all stock. I think it ended up in the yard because the cam sprocket was worn out and the chain was down in the pan.

So some side by side pics of the 200 head and 180, the big difference I noticed was the 180 has better intake flow, more symmetrical. The 200 has the better cam assembly. The shiny parts are off the 200.

200 above 180 below, the 180 has been stamped .015 so I think it has been shaved.




200 intake port, not to symmetrical around the base of the valve.



The 180 intake port.



The 200 parts look like they provide better oil flow, little slits along the rocker rails and slightly larger holes and much larger rockers.



So I ended up using the 200 cam, springs, rockers, rails, and caps. Since the 180 valves cleaned up really nice I used them, strange that the 180 intake valves, and the numbers for both sets are correct, are a bit larger in diameter than the 200's while the exhaust valves are the same diameter but the 180's are slightly longer.

I know the bore on the 200 is slightly larger than the 180 but the difference between head and piston is nearly a half inch

So the rest of my mess, this started as just needing some wires re-ran. I had to make some throwout bearing retainer springs since one of the originals broke and the other was ready to break, throwout bearing was toasted, and completely fell apart. So new clutch kit.

Question, is the clutch arm lever supposed to be kinda floppy?

Front crankshaft oil seal shot, so may as well pull the timing cover, New timing chain kit. I was not happy with the new tension guide. The sleeve that allows it to pivot allowed to much forward and back play, so I swapped the sleeve with the old tensioner. Not sure if that much play would cause funny noises, but I don't think it should move front to back like that.

Also new oil pump, and water pump. E-bay is a great source for parts Picked up an open box special on a PaceSetter header, and today's project, 16" Spal thinline puller fan.

Thanks to Mokedeth for keeping the Offy intakes in stock, this thing looks nice.

Finally got to drive my LUV Saturday..............Still grinning.

Still have to finish the wiring under the dash, get the exhaust done, and about a million other little things but she ran great.

Cool!

Thanks Ben

Driving the LUV sure brought back memories of my younger days........Good Times.