hey hows it going, from Alberta Canada. recently bought a 81 4x4 in less than ideal condition lol. im a mechanic and fix up old Toyotas for myself on the side, my other stuff i'll just link to

1979 Supra, one of the first Supras made in January of 79. got some electrical issues and hasnt been running in a few years

http://oi43.tinypic.com/2qb8vo9.jpg

1991 Crown Royal Saloon, brought it from Tokyo years ago and fixed it up (7MGE headgasket, you know). my summer daily

http://oi39.tinypic.com/i4n8kz.jpg

2000 Silverado 2500 6.0 4x4, winter daily

http://oi39.tinypic.com/vr4spi.jpg

anyways, now why we're here. bought a 81 Toyota 4x4 4spd stick a few days ago. guy had it sitting in a farmers field close to the middle of nowhere buried under the snow. dug her out, fired it up and drove it on the road, and called a flatbed in for the 1.5 hour drive back to my place

has its problems. box was rusty and removed, shift linkage is extremely loose (can grab gears but the shifter has no resistance and slops everywhere), heater core is broken, blower motor is removed, headgasket is apparently bad, and it needs a good cleaning. runs and drives as is and 4x4 works, so for $500 it wasnt all that bad. everything is for sure but the headgasket, got it started once and the coolant reservoir started bubbling so i think it is the HG. rad cap was original so i changed it hoping the old one was bad, but being -40c out side i dont want to try running it lol

anyways heres some pictures as it is, as i said its been so cold that i just towed it back to the house and thats it. longterm just planning to rebuild the engine and make a flatbed









do have one question as it is. with the box being removed, theres only a large rubber hose going to the fuel fill for the gas tank. the last guy just shoved a rag in the hose. i put a clean rag in it and tied a plastic bag around the tube with elastic to at least seal it. anything better i should do?

thanks for any info

 

Id say if you're keeping it bedless you can shorten that hose down and stick a filler cap in it. Otherwise find the other half of a stock setup at the junk yard or from somebody online. If its staying flatbed you could always swap to another larger gas tank from another rig. Dodge ramchargers from 81-93 had optional 35 plastic tanks behind the axle. Later years had electric in tank pumps too.

 

thanks for the info. when it warms up in a couple days i'll look into removing the hose and decently sealing off the fuel tank. current gas tank is in decent shape so its probably going to stay, but the fuel gauge doesnt seem to be working so that needs sorting out

unfortunately looks like the HG is for sure toast, couldnt get it to start today but after 10 seconds of cranking the puke tank was a jacuzzi and the rad was at full pressure so i would imagine 1 or 2 cylinders have next to no compression lol. thats going to be a summer project. meantime i can try and see where the shift linkage is shot