Builds FJ 40 project

I wanted to begin posting the progress of my fj40. I started to entitle it "How to waste money, time, and effort... " but, i got sentimental and decided to not be coy.

So far.. I have bought parts... and took parts outta of other stuff for the build.

As of right now... it looks like it will be a frame off restoration starting with the drivetrain.

- 350 TBI
- 4l60e trans
- Stock toyota transfer case
- 3.70 front and rear


I plan to completely rebuild the trans engine and diffs. if I can find a transfer case rebuild kit I probably will rebuild that too.

The engine and trans is outta a 1994 Chevy Van. Diff gears have yet to be found.

I will try to document as much as I can.

Here are the picks I have now. I included a couple from the van for fun.

Special thanks to Josh, Pete, Larry, and Jeff for the help with the uninstalls

looking forward to seeing this!

No pics dude?

images..

Looks like I am going to have reduce my image sizes...

I will post in a few minutes.

omg that thing is nice. i wouldn't put a chebby in it but to each his own...


hope the project goes great!

Hi,
Any reason on the 3.70 gears over 4.10 or lower? Will this rig see any off-roading or will it be a daily driver? Are you planning on a lift with bigger tires? If so you may want to consider at least 4.10 gears to offset the larger tire size. With the overdrive tranny, I would think you will want steeper gearing. Very nice rig BTW. Are you going to keep it the same color? I prefer the white top, but to each his own. Good Luck

I really don't like the black top either... Going with a white..

It will be a daily driver but, I have a mountain house and I hope to do some mild wheeling.

I am going with 3:70 for gas mileage... My house in the mountains and is about 100 miles away.

I would stick with the toyota motor but, it is missing somebody converted it to chevy before I got it.

not planning on much lift... I am too short (5'5")

It is high enough for me anyway... The pics really don't do it justice. those are 33 on it now.

I will probably go to a gray or sand color

looks good. good luck on the project.

bezel police?

Got the engine out the trans configured and.. moving on.

Last night my brother Pete, my uncle Jerry and I removed the engine from the FJ40. It went pretty smooth and really did not give us any hassle. (Things were so much simpler back when cars were more simple.)

This is the engine and trans we removed:





It had a 350 with a Quadrojet carb on it. People ask me why I am changing the engine. Truth is I really just want to change it out for some features that I want the engine to have.

Ex:
Solid Brackets and Mounts for Components like PS, PB, A/C
Oil Cooler
TBI injection
Better Emissions
Better mileage
Easy to replace parts.

The 350 that it had it in was fine. I will probably sale the engine and trans (which has the conversion for the tranfer case done already) to recoop costs.

I put a couple pictures of that just so you guys can see what I took out.

I am changing the transmission for a very simple reason... overdrive. I need to do a little better than the 4 - 10 miles per gallon that I get now. I did run into one big surprise today...
What I thought was a 4l60e transmission was not...

It was a 700R4. Apparently they are basically same but, the 4l60e is and updated version that is more computerized than the 700R4. I guess I really don't care that I have a different trans then I originally thought.

The 700R4 is fine; it has the overdrive and that was the point. Telling the difference was between 4l60e and 700r4 is pretty easy it turns out: a 4l60e does not have a governer gear. Remove the tail housing of the trans...



Also note the speedo hook up in the tail shaft it should not be there on a 4l60e

look inside the main section.... if you see diagonally machined set of grooves in the output shaft. If you have them and also have a gear there that runs on it then... you have a 700r4.

If there is nothing there but, a output shaft then you have a 4l60e... At least that was not experience when I needed to figure it out. Now that I know the trans.. I was able to call Advanced Adapters and get the conversion kit I need.... I am actually thinking that the trans I have taken out, has the same kit but, I can not tell yet.


Once the kit gets here I will hook everything up and then mock it up for a good fit.

https://eshop.advanceadapters.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp;jsessionid=7E55229D0A9F2C529604F0642B3F780A?product_id=1567&czuid=1142467477250

After that Ill send the trans and engine off for rebuild... and have the new driveshafts made..

Since the engine and trans lengths are different I will need to move them back in car.... The rear drive shaft is going to be to long then...

I got a couple of folks here with similiar configs and they said they had to have a driveshaft made... This is the last worry I have because I am probably pushing the limit on how short the drive shaft can be.

I will continue to use this post as my place to document. I welcome your comments, questions and suggestions...

you got any shots of what your exhaust system looked like with those hugger headers? thanks!

No but, I will take a couple if you want..

How short of a shaft do you think you are going to have in the rear?

I have a Lt1 4l60e combo with stock transfer and my drive shaft is about 12"

Oh and what angle are you going to be at the rear? You will want to have the diff and transfer case to be at the same angle to offset each other.

Rob.

yea take some shots if you can it would help me out a bit.


thanks!

Thanks for the post Rob. I am concerned about the length of the rear driveshaft but, I am pretty sure it will be somewhere between 12 and 20 inches...

I really have no idea yet what it will be... My plan is set the length this weekend. I am going to set the tansmission, t-case, and engine in place and check the lengths.... I am replacing the long block and having the trans rebuilt. I will have the drive shafts made during then.

I want to have all the pieces to the drive line done by the end of april.


Bandy Rooster I will take those pics in the morning.

TOO SHORT at 5'-5"! Hell I am 5'-1" short and am SOA on 37's. YUP I guess I have Napoleon syndrome though. Have fun with the project!

Weekend Update..

This weekend was one of those that really just make you think... Man, why did I get into this! Everywhere I look there is something else on the cruiser that was either screwed up by a previous owner or is shoot from old age. Not exactly the excitement, I was looking for but, I have seen these days before I am going to continue on. (Another day older a deeper in debt... )

Last week we removed the engine from the FJ in preparation for the replacement. In doing so, I removed the trans and transfer case in order to get it ready to be repositioned. I want to use all the brackets that are on the engine from Chevrolet so I am going to have to move the engine back in the frame to make room for the fan. (I plan to use electric fans but, I want to leave room for the clutch fan if I end up needing it.)

I did a trial fit of the engine and the steering is in the way. The steering is a joke looks like a monkey and a clown put it in.



It may be a little hard to see but, the steering is really really silly.. It appears that the steering column is not even attached in side the cabin at all. Also note the cuts in the firewall in the pic above.



I took the seats and all the crap out of the interior that crafted by previous owners... I hate to bash them but, it was a bunch of ridiculus stuff. (I have done the same in the past.. But, this stuff was pretty lame.) I left the roll cage for now but, the welds are pretty bad so I may end up pulling it later.



One thing that I did learn this weekend... Make sure your helper is not more interested in her book than helping you.



My cousin Josh did come after my wife in the pic left... He was a ton of help and I hope he will send me the pics he took. Thanks Josh!

Another thing I learned... If you are changing engines... Take the 5 minutes it take to remove the front radiator support and grill. (Josh's idea)



For those of you purest out there I will be going back pretty stock with the body and interior. The driveline will be completely redone to late model chevy... Including the brakes but, the interior and body will be pretty stock if possible (including the rollcage.) I am going to have to find a inner fender and transmission hump because previous owners hacked them up pretty good.








I did degrease and steam clean everything. This also removes and loose paint. That is why you can see so much rust and blue paint. I am pretty sure that the blue paint is the original color... (Looks like this summer will be spent removing paint. )

This coming week, I hope to have the transfer case kit from advanced adapters. When I do I will document the trial fitting of the engine, trans and transfer case. This should be pretty exciting and I will try to documented it as best I can. When that is done, I will send the trans off for rebuild order the new engine from Napa and then clean up and fix any leaks in the transfer case. After that trial fitting is done and everything is set... its on to the diffs. (I started thinking about keeping the 4.10's, Ill let you know. )

New pics..

I got these new pics from Josh.

They show the steering and some other things about the build including the trans hooked up to a makeshift adaptor kit.



The new mockup engine.




Trans with transfer case and pretend adaptor



Crappy steering





Empty before cleansing

The kit is in...

I got my advanced adapters kit for hooking my 700r4 to the Toyota transfer case.

The hook up is very easy. I have it mocked up for right now.



Realistically, the kit comes with several parts.
These are the main ones.

The adapter case for the transfer case. This replaces the rear tail shaft housing on the transmission(if you are using the 2 wheel drive version of the 700r4) Another thing to note is that this is universal for all t350-t400 transmissions as well.




The tub shaft this fits over the rear output shaft on the transmission. It is used to adapt the splines of the transfer case to the transmission output shaft.






The new transmission output shaft. Because my transmission was a 2 wheel drive version it needed the output shaft changed from the one that was in it. Here is the replacement one.


One additional part I did not take a picture of is the extra spacer. It is the bright shiny alumn. piece. The is used to give more space between the output of the front driveshaft and the transmission. As a note ... This is still not enough space for the universal joint. I am going to have to buy a flange and modify the pan to allow the driveshaft to give it enough room. I checked with a couple other people and they have had this experience as well.


The whole thing hooked up looks like this.



Here it is installed.


I did not have time to put the new output shaft in the trans (or the knowledge) so I just cut the out output shaft off. Actually, my brother Pete did it and it was a hoss to cut.

This is what I cut off. I only cut it off so that it would be out of the way. I would not recommend doing this.




Now I have to set the engine in and get the motor mounts right.. After that I am going to have to take the engine and trans and have them rebuilt cleaned and prettied up. In the mean while I am going frame off and get ready for reinstall and mounting for permenant.

These next couple days will be the make it or break it time of the project. (Also, known as killing the wallet)

Thanks for Pete and Josh for the help setting this up and making it work.

First engine mock up.

I trial fitted the engine in the truck this afternoon after work. I did not get any really good pictures but, I got a couple.



Here is the engine as it stands.



Here is a pic of the motor mounts that are cut off. Tomorrow I will make the new ones and post those pics.



I am concerned about the transfer case being actually lower than the rear end. This would cause the drive shaft to go up instead of down...



Here is another pic..

Weekend update.

Things went sorta slow this weekend... (But, I tried to get a head start by laying out of work Friday kinda .. sorta..)

My plan was to get the engine and trans finish mounted so that I could take them out and send em off for rebuild. The failed to happen when I realized I was going to need my trans mount completely done before I moved anything. My brother and I plus Jeff got the motor mount completed and install more on that later but...

I visited Advanced Adapters site realized I would be spending twice the time and only saving half the money to build a trans mount just like this one.

http://eshop.advanceadapters.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=1811



Not that I am one to buy things I don't have too, but, this is so worth it.

Since I am skipping the fabrication on the trans mount I am going to jave to wait a week while the Advanced Adapters one comes in before I remove the engine, trans, and transfer case again...

Away, back to the engine and mounting it because I did get that done this weekend.

Last week I posted about the install of the engine and how the transfer case ended up being to low in comparison to the rear diff.



After prayful consideration I decided that in order to get the transfer case up, I was going to have to cut out the floor... I am not a "cutter of panels" (especially, if they are stock)... But, I had no choice.

I started out by removing the gas tank and then marking out what I thought I needed to cut. (I did decide that the gas tank is gone for good now. I don't want it in the cab any more. To dangerous... takes up to much room. )



Now that this is gone.. I got out my saw and then cut off the back part of the hump. The woudl be a piece I coudl save for later to rebuild the tunnel. I want it to look pretty factory when it is done this piece will make it back in the car... just a little further back.



After that I just moved it back and cut the rest of the tunnel that I did not need.



The other angle.


This is going to about a days work to replace but, I am sure there is no other good way to handle it.

After doing that the transfer case and rear diff lined up fine, so I moved on to the motor mounts.

I started by heading to Napa to pickup a couple motor mounts that woudl fit the block.

They were pretty cool and only 8-9 bucks a piece.
http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPages/NOLMaster.aspx?PageId=470&LineCode=BK&PartNumber=6021107&Description=Motor+Mount+-+Front

Then I went back to shop... with the engine in place and the trans set right... we had everything ready to make the motor mounts.

I took a 1/4 piece of plate and made scab plates for the frame. The we cut a 2x4 piece of square tubing and cut two diagonal pieces out of it. The just took a thick tubing pipe and cut them to fit.

Here is a pick of the pieces.



Welll then we just stuck them in with clamps and tacked them together. My brother Pete made it easy by doing all the crawling. We did not feel comfortable putting the car on the lift the engine etc.. hanging out of it.



Pete went ahead and welded them together while I cut some old ones off the frame and cleaned it up for welding...





And that was Friday...

Saturday Jeff and I went in for a little while... I forgot the camera..

All we really did was weld the mounts to the frame and we put the engine back in and tested the fit of the motor mounts.. It was perfect. Pete really made the difference here... Without my brother I would be lost.

Anyway.. After all that, I looked at the trans mount. That when I decided to buy the one I noted above... Saturday was pretty short but, I feel like we are conintually making progress so I am very happy.