[boots4]

Originally Posted by CRZA1

Your exhaust is nearly identical to what I have done. Still looking for more 3" mandrel bent tube (havent really looked that hard). I'm interested in where you frame side mounts end up vertically on the frame rails. Mine are a few inches below the rails, but I have the vertical fluid filles type. I am going to work on it this eve so I'll try to start a thread so you can see my project. You have quickly caught up to me and I am a solid year deep.

I should have more accurate pics of where the motor sits in relation to the frame this weekend when I work on the frame side mounts. I'm in it 5 months so far. Lets see your build!!

[kling-on]

all I can say is WOW

[boots4]

Originally Posted by gifu

Looks like this will be a real nice truck. I noticed that when you put the torque-converter on, you said, "
Slid right on but I don't think I got it lined up quite right because it sticks out too far to mount on the flexplate." This has me a little worried; when you install a torque-converter, you are supposed to slids it on, then rotate it while pushing... there should be two more "steps" as things line up and the torque converter slides all the way on. You'll know it's on all the way, if... once the motor is mounted to the tranny... you find that the converter must be slid forward 1/2" or so. If it was already touching the flexplate... you didn't do it right. And I understand this could potentially damage the converter. I'm not expert... this is just what transmission guys have told me.

otherwise... looks real nice.

Yeah it's not on all the way but I didn't force anything and it's not hooked up to the flywheel. The tolerances on my instruction sheet were tighter than 1/2" and it talked about shimming if it had to be pulled to the flywheel too far. It didn't talk about the rotate and push technique. I don't plan on running it as is and will separate the tranny/engine to put it in correctly. I'll have to try that technique.

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by boots4

I never had a problem with it in front of the 2F. I've been reading about relays and how to wire up the fan so that when I get to that point I'll have a plan. I was planning on buying a wiring kit (and maybe I still will) but with enough knowledge it doesn't look too hard to get it right.

Actually not .. you place a electro termo switch that activate the fans at desired temp .. quite easy. My question about cooling come from the Intercooler idea .. that it's one more " thing " in the air way to the factory rad ..

I can't figure how much cooling need a 4BT but since it's a turbo diesel could be more cooling requirements ..

[boots4]

Originally Posted by Tapage

Actually not .. you place a electro termo switch that activate the fans at desired temp .. quite easy. My question about cooling come from the Intercooler idea .. that it's one more " thing " in the air way to the factory rad ..

I can't figure how much cooling need a 4BT but since it's a turbo diesel could be more cooling requirements ..

Now I follow you. The other local 4bt FJ60 hasn't had any issues with cooling using his factory radiator, granted he isn't running an intercooler. From everything I've read about other 4bt swaps I feel comfortable using the factory radiator. I do have a mechanical water temp gauge I'll use along with the dash gauge but will probably have to wait until next summer to really test it since it's already cooling down up here.

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by boots4

since it's already cooling down up here.

Good point .. I'm always thinking all have the same temp issues as we have down here in Panamá

[GreasedPiggy]

Man, I miss a few days on your build and look how much stuff happens!!!

Really appreciate the exhaust routing photos, since my former motor is an I6 too, I am considering what you did. I was thinking of using some of that exhaust wrap stuff, since my idea of metal heat shielding would not lower the total under-hood temps. The wrap lowers pipe temps and diverts the heat downstream.

Those mounts are real artwork! Gusseting looks really good. It may be the angle of the photo but there is a potential stress riser at the aft edge of the notch for the turbo lube return... ...probably nothing, just my eyes.

Your build is really looking great, I'm learning a lot about what to expect. Now considering a different tranny...

[boots4]

Wow, no pics on this page yet, I can fix that!

I had a great friday and then a slow saturday so i guess it evened out. I kept passing by the old pair of mounts that I cut off the frame and started to wonder how those would work out. The angle was wrong but that was easily fixed with some measurements and a cut-off wheel. With the engine in the bay where I wanted I figured out the position of the mounts. I pulled the engine and tacked them on.

Driver



Passenger





Put the engine back in to see where the studs would hit and marked them on the mounts so that the engine can slide down.

Driver



Passenger



Pulled the engine back out and cut out the slots. I also cut out some gussets and welded it all together. I put the gussets downward so water wouldn't have a place to sit and rust.

Driver



Passenger, the motor mounts stud's are offset so that's why this side's slot is in a different spot than the other side. Both frame mounts are at the same spot on their side of the frame.



Finished, I'll paint them before I put the engine in for good.



Wheeled the engine back into the bay and fit it on the mounts. Weight of the engine is on the mounts with the tranny supported by a rachet strap underneath it wrapped around the frame (mock tranny mount). Slid in good and I have clearance on the firewall to the downpipe off of the turbo.

Driver



Passenger, I'll either cut off the bottom of the frame mount or wrap it under the frame with some more gussets.



Height of the 4bt in the bay. That's the hood line and I might rub on the liner in which case I can just trim some out.





I picked up these 4L80e 4x4 tranny mounts and that ended friday. On saturday I dove into the tranny crossmember. These mounts looked like they's absorb vibration well... but ended up being too deep to fit inbetween the tranny and doubler. I found this out after fabbing up my crossmember. I'm going to need something with less beer gut so I took these back to napa and searched through their picture book. I found some I thought might work but none had diamensions and they didn't have them in stock. I'm going to check with the tranny shop that I bought my shift kit from and see what they have before calling the manufacture of the mounts I was looking at to get the diamensions.





Once I figured out those mounts weren't going to work I also realized that I didn't think about clearing the front driveshaft. I didn't finish the crossmember so I'll get that incorporated too. Just some more cutting and welding.



This is the my Art Carr shifter. Since I was going to be shifting this like a stick I wanted something that could stand up to that on a daily basis. This has nice big numbers that will be easy to see to know what gear I'm in while driving. 4th will be my overdrive. For now I will leave the gates and see how I like it instead of cutting them out for the 1st to Rev. throw.



It came with the mounting console that I wasn't planning on so that was a nice suprise. There is a nice little shelf below 1st that I think I'll mount my switch for my lock-up on the torque converter.



Being stuck without tranny mounts I moved on and started putting the second coating of spectrum inside. I also did some test fitting of the stepvan gas tank. Once I got to looking at it I needed to know how many gallons it was to see if it really was going to be worth the time to mount it. I had never filled the old cruiser tank more that 17 gallons but research says it is a 23 gallon tank (I guess E didn't really mean empty on the gauge) and the stepvan's tank is only 30 gallons. If I were to drive conservative and got 25MPG I'd gain 170ish mile range with the 30 gal tank. With the cruiser tank I'll still get close to 600 miles so I decided the time wasn't worth mounting the stepvan tank. Maybe I'll come back to it later but for now I'll just put the old tank back in and deal with a 500 mile range.

[brokenparts]

nice.... I really wish I would have held out for an art carr shifter and not gone with the rat-sh*t shifter.

[CRZA1]

Boots, would you grab a measurment from the bottom frame rail to the lowest point of the oil pan? Wanna see where mine is in comparison. Thanks

[boots4]

Originally Posted by CRZA1

Boots, would you grab a measurment from the bottom frame rail to the lowest point of the oil pan? Wanna see where mine is in comparison. Thanks

Sure can, I'll get it after work.

[boots4]

Originally Posted by CRZA1

Boots, would you grab a measurment from the bottom frame rail to the lowest point of the oil pan? Wanna see where mine is in comparison. Thanks

I measured last night and got 8 3/8" Let me tell you how I measured because that part of the frame slopes downward.

I hung the tape measure from the hole circled in the pic, got a big level and held it up to the bottom of the pan keeping it level so that one side of the level crosses by the hanging tape measure and took a reading. This way I got the lowest point on the bottom of the pan and using that hole you should be able to replicate it exactly.

[CRZA1]

Sweet. I'll check tonight. Wanna see if I'm too low or if my mounts are gonna work. I must say, your mounts look awesome.

[boots4]

Thanks again CRZ1. I never got a good measurement on the bulge in the hood so there may be even more room there then I realize.

[redcorn]

It's getting cold and wet.....

Any approximate completion date?

Looking great nonetheless!!!!!!

john

[boots4]

Originally Posted by redcorn

It's getting cold and wet.....

Any approximate completion date?

Looking great nonetheless!!!!!!

john

Yeah that cold and wet stuff has me a little worried since I'm doing this outside. I am under cover but still outside. Fall sure has stepped in within the last two weeks. I'd like to have it on the ground in a month and drivable in two. Some things I'm trying not to worry about until later i.e. new rear panels, sliders, finishing the rear bumper, AC functional.

Once I get that crossmember done I can get angles for the differentials and get the axles set up including the cut 'n turn. I need to pull the engine one more time for mounts/frame painting and to correctly install the torque converter and then I should be able to put it in and leave it. Wiring to get it running should be simple. We are planning on driving it to Calif. for christmas so most everything will need to be working by then and I'd sure hope I can get some testing in it before then! Plus all this great rain is making great mud and I sure miss wheeling.

[boots4]

I went out hunting again for tranny mounts but this time I didn't come home empty-handed. I eventually ended up a baxter auto parts and after explaining what I was doing he told me I could look at his inventory for myself. Perfect! That's what I wanted to do but didn't know I could ask. So I hung out in the back opening boxes to check the size ( I brought my adapter with me so I'd know) There were a couple of choices but ultimately choose a pair of motor mounts. Since the tranny is heavier and I added another 80 pounds on with the doubler I think these will work out nicely. Plus they are similar in design to my motor mounts and it should better absorb vibration from the engine (that's what I'm thinking at least). When adapting parts together that weren't ment for each other KISS is a good principle to follow. After I found the mounts the parts guy thought it looked like a chrysler application but couldn't find the number in his book, so I included the number for anyone thinking about doing the same/similar thing.



The offset worked out to my advantage. I couldn't have the mount stick out to far passed the adapter because it would run into the front driveshaft (actually the crossmemeber would in order to accomodate the mount).



The studs were bigger so I needed to drill and tap to have the mounts screw in. I was thinking of bolting on a flat piece so that I could use a center mount but that would have made getting to the bolt holes on the adapter difficult under the rig. As it is right now I'll need to mount the adapter on the tranny first and then the doubler to it.



Mounts are on



The mounts also needed to be no deeper than the adpater to fit inbetween the tranny and the doubler. These work.





It took me all weekend but I finished the transmission crossmember. It was originally designed for the other mounts I had but those didn't work so I had to modify the crossmember in a couple of places. I probably just should have started over but I didn't want to waste the metal. I'll get better pics once I take it all out for painting



Passeger side. Big notch for the driveshaft. I also had to notch the top to clear the rear heater lines.



Driver side. This part of the frame is angled so the frame side mounts made up the difference.



Tranny mounts



The weight of the engine/tranny is on the mounts, the strap is not holding any weight I just tighten it back up. The engine mounts distorted a little bit so I might shim under the tranny mounts to level it some more.



Now I can pull it all back out and paint it. I will also gusset those frame-side mounts once everything is out of the way. I took some time building another work table for outside (got tired of working off of saw horses) and I had to chop some wood so the family could stay warm this week. I also finished my last bit of lining on the interior so now I can put the seats back in and work on placement for the shifter.

[Tapage]

It looking incredible dude .. thanks for posting and keeping us up to date ..

[cali-cruiser]

What turbo housing are you going to be running? It would probably be a good idea from what is probablt a 15 or 17cm housing to either a 12 or a 9 cm housing. This was the best thing I did to my 4bt. the 12 on my cut the turbo lag to near nothing. As for radiators I'm running my stock 40 rad with a Volvo 760 intercooler in front of that. The only time I've ever had a problem was running for 3-4 hours in 85 deg. heat on a trail andI forgot to turn on my fan, started smelling antifreeze saw some drips, so I flicked on the fan and it was cool in a matter of minutes.
Any more questions holla. Nice looking work.

Josh

PS get ready to replace motor mounts often, I went through 3 pairs of the ones like you have before I went to a new design with 2" poly bushings.

[boots4]

Originally Posted by cali-cruiser

What turbo housing are you going to be running? It would probably be a good idea from what is probablt a 15 or 17cm housing to either a 12 or a 9 cm housing. This was the best thing I did to my 4bt. the 12 on my cut the turbo lag to near nothing. As for radiators I'm running my stock 40 rad with a Volvo 760 intercooler in front of that. The only time I've ever had a problem was running for 3-4 hours in 85 deg. heat on a trail andI forgot to turn on my fan, started smelling antifreeze saw some drips, so I flicked on the fan and it was cool in a matter of minutes.
Any more questions holla. Nice looking work.

Josh

PS get ready to replace motor mounts often, I went through 3 pairs of the ones like you have before I went to a new design with 2" poly bushings.

Glad to hear you liked the 12cm housing because that's what I got too. Mine is wastegated and I've thought about fixing it shut to get more boost but I think I will run it first to get a baseline before playing with it.

Well, now you need to share what you did for your new design on your motor mounts. Did you use poly on your motor mount or your transmission mounts, or both? How did the old ones fail (wear out, rip)? It would seem like polys would transmit more vibes to the frame.

[cali-cruiser]

my current set up is, two polys up front on the motor, with a large rubber mount on the back of the t-case. The rubber motor mounts I was getting would either smash flat on the passenger side or tare apart on the drivers (the bottom end of the 4BT is amazing). The polys don't seem to transfer to bad of vibration but it definitely is is not like running in a Cadillac. The bushings are these :
http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/...&cat=28&page=1


The other engine mod I did that made a big difference was the 3GSK. now it pulls all the way through the gear not just the first bit.

Josh

[boots4]

Thanks for the info. The guys on the 4btswaps site that have used these mounts haven't reported any problems so I'll keep an eye on those once it's on the road.

I'm assuming you did the govenor spring in your injection pump, did you get your 366 spring from pier's diesel or somewhere local? Did you need to bleed the injection pump after you opened it up to replace the spring?

[cali-cruiser]

Originally Posted by boots4

Thanks for the info. The guys on the 4btswaps site that have used these mounts haven't reported any problems so I'll keep an eye on those once it's on the road.

I'm assuming you did the govenor spring in your injection pump, did you get your 366 spring from pier's diesel or somewhere local? Did you need to bleed the injection pump after you opened it up to replace the spring?

Yeah the governor spring I did, I got it from PDR. It ended up being a two month ordeal to get it back running again. I ended up bending the fuel shot off lever inside the pump so that it would not ride on the full fuel screw and thus would not let any fuel to the injectors. I was going to school and had no time to work on it then, but after a new fuel filter and a new lift pump, I finally realized the problem and ended up welding the crack on the arm inside of the pump. Its been running ever since. As for bleeding, just crack the injectors and crank it, this will work out any air that is still in the pump either that or run your electric pump for a bit with the key on and it should run fuel through the pump and out the return line.

I'm running my exhaust the same way and find it is the best way I have found. I just added a single chamber flowmaster and found that it knocked down the noise quite a bit, now all I hear is the sweet song of the turbo. the egts were a bit high before intercooler, but with it is a dream.

Josh

[boots4]

I got outside the last two nights and have been putting the interior back together. I needed to get the driver's seat in so I could see about positioning the shifter. It looks like I'll want to build a little plateform to bring it up to a more comfortable position. Since I'll need to shift this like a stick I want it to be comfortable to reach.

Another package showed up today with 4 relays. The plan is to wire the headlights with relays (one for low, one for high) to get some more voltage to them (will make them brighter). Another relay will go with my spal fan controller (suppost to be here tomorrow) to run the contour fans for cooling. And the last relay will be a spare until I get the little compressor wired up for on-board air.

[redcorn]

Adding the 7" Roundeyes headlamps was one of the best mods I made for travelling in my rig.
Stock lamps blow

[boots4]

Originally Posted by redcorn

Adding the 7" Roundeyes headlamps was one of the best mods I made for travelling in my rig.
Stock lamps blow

I definitely agree with that! I'm wiring in the relays to get ready for adding more powerful headlights in the future. Still need shocks and drivelines so those take $$ priority. But there's always christmas right around the corner.

[boots4]

We had some dry weather this last weekend so I got some painting done. Before I painted I added gussets to the front spring hangers and tranny mounts. I also painted the motor mounts (motor side), tranny crossmember, and my 203 access cover.

I only painted the inside frame to the middle. I can finish up the rest with the drivetrain mounted. I have some acid etching around where the battery was. I want to clean that up a little more before I paint it too.



Gussets on the front hanger. I was going to do something fancy with the gussets but decided to just get on with it and spend time on more important stuff.





Tranny mounts finshed up









While the paint was drying I worked on getting the shifter mounted. After trying a couple of positions I decided it needed to come up to be more comfortable so I fabbed up a base. I also trimmed the plastic base to make it shorter. I haven't coated the tranny access cover because I'm not sure were the TC shifters are going to come through.





The base will fasten to the floor with the bolts I tacked on inside.



Holes



The base





Painted the base and put the shifter in to see how it looked. I have about 1 inch of room off the dash when the shifter is in Park.





While the engine was out I separated the tranny to install the torque converter correctly. I did the push and turn trick a couple of times and felt it go in deeper. Then I put the tranny back on to line up the torque converter. The instructions that came with it said that a gap of 1/16" - 1/8" was fine but that anything bigger needed to have washers/spacers put inbetween the TC and flex-ring to get it to that spacing. Mine was more like 3/16" strong so I got some grade 8 washers (those seemed to be the most consistent in thickness) and put those in. That brought me within the range on the instructions. Now getting them in there was tricky and took me some time, but with enough patience I finally got them all in and started to tighten the bolts. I brought in the TC a little at a time and moved to the next bolt trying to be as even as possible. It suggested that the TC could produce unwanted vibration if it were misaligned by tightening one bolt down all the way and then moving on to the next. I turned the engine with a rachet to turn the flywheel while tightening the bolts. Here's a pic of the spacing. All mounting surfaces were sanded before putting this together.

[boots4]

With the engine back in the bay after the paint dried and hopefully for the last time, I started positioning the intercooler/radiator. I came up with a mounting strip to joint the two together. Again I used pieces off the stepvan frame.



It's hard to see but it's the piece with the bolts on it and it goes inbetween the radiator and intercooler. All holes were pre-existing so I just tacked bolts on this piece that lined up with the holes.



I clearanced the flanges on the radiator so I could get the intercooler down.





This is where I mounted it to the radiator.



It's just placed in there right now and will need mounts to the frame or the radiator support. I was concerned that I'd have hood clearance problems but from what I can tell it looks like I'll be fine. I won't really know until I get the engine hoist out of there (no reason for it to be there now) and test fit the hood.

I tested my mech. water temp gauge to make sure it works before I put in the time fitting it in the dash. I ordered a pair of Marlin's new front axle seals and those showed up; I bought my rebuild kit before those came out so I'll use the ones in that kit as spares. I also got my Spal fan controller. It's smaller than I imagined and looks pretty nice.

[CreeperSleeper]

Wow, the amount of work that you get done in a weekend amazes me... I need to come over and watch you so I learn how to do that!

Everything is looking great, as usual...

[concretejungle]

this is really an amazing build. Your attention to detail is awesome, right down to the LED lights!!

Could you post a link of this 4bt conversion forum you speak of occasionally? I would like to educate myself a bit.

Thanks and keep diggin'