Little boys never grow up, their toys just get more expensive. Everyone should have a garage full of fun cars.
Sorry I haven’t updated in a while. I’ve been busy playing and tinkering on the new toy (ota). I’ve learned a lot about the diesel Land Cruisers in the past few days. Thankfully I still am very happy with the purchase. There haven’t been any surprises that made me regret taking a chance on importing a vehicle from half way around the world without ever seeing it in person.
I was a little worried about the engine the first couple of days. It was really hard starting it. It would smoke horribly and shudder like it was throwing a tantrum. I cleaned up the contacts on the glow plug circuit and figured out how it all worked. That improved things a bit but not much. The biggest improvement in starting and idle quality came when I decided to run a can of Sea Foam through the fuel filter. It only took a few minutes to see an improvement. It worked so well I decided to order some Lubri Moly Diesel Purge and give that a shot. All of the German diesel guys swear that this stuff works like magic in old engines. I’m hoping it improves cold starts and idle quality. I bought four cans of the stuff so that should be plenty of magic.
I can’t start it in the garage. Well, I can if I don’t mind the house stinking like diesel fumes. The exhaust pipe points in a direction where almost all of the fumes end up staying in the garage. I’m going to need to get that changed. The tailpipe needs to point straight out the back so I don’t have to push the thing part way out of the garage to start it.
Right-hand-drive vehicles are fun to drive. I was pretty nervous about it at first. I’ve got about 75 miles in behind the wheel now and I’m starting to feel comfortable. I took it to Farmington yesterday during a major snowstorm and it handles crappy roads almost as well as our 4Runner. The shorter wheelbase of the BJ42 makes it steer a lot quicker than the longer wheelbased 4Runner. It takes a little getting used to. It reminds me of what it was like driving the 79 Jeep CJ5 I had so many years ago.
I’ve got to figure out how to get the engine to put out a little heat in the passenger area. It’s cold in there. The defroster doesn’t work well at all. I think the thermostat isn’t working properly so I ordered a new one. I might need to partially block off the airflow to the radiator like the big trucks do.
The list of projects for the BJ42 is pretty endless at the moment. I haven’t tinkered with cars like this since we moved from California. It’s fun. It’s also nice having a heated garage to tinker in. 
Did I mention that I’m spoiled?