V8 Swap, SOA, Paint, Tires, GX470 8 Passenger seating (1 Viewer)

[Kurtis]

This project has snowballed much farther than I have ever dreamed so I figure I would put a concise thread with everthing together. The engine swap is complete The paint is done and this weekend I'm going to do the spring over and possible the seats. Heres some pics of the progress so far.

 

[specialk396]

wow, barely looks like the same truck

 

[sl33py]

did you put new tires on it?










































just kidding!

Looks great! Are you doing SOA w/ those springs? Pics of interior parts or do we need to wait for them to be installed/done?

GL!

 

[alpinecowboy]

What are the details on the GX470 interior upgrade??? Are you doing all three rows? Pics please!!

 

[Kurtis]

Here are some pics of the seats and the V8. The engine has 100k on it and the tranny is a mildy built 4l60e. theres a couple little things left like heater and snorkel but its close. Here is a link to the engine swap https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/288395-tbi-swap-4.html. I put a breakdown of what it cost me to do and just about every individual part I used to do it.

The plan is to put the power buckets up front. leave the middle row and have it redone in leather so I can keep the cool fold down storage/ sleeping area. Then install the middle row from the lexus in the rear with a way to remove them quickly. I saw Proffits did this and it looked pretty cool and I was looking for some leather power bucketes and found this set so I figured what the heck. They need cleaned up since theve been sittin for a while but other than that there good to go.


As far as the spring over when I installed the 5.7 and 4l60e my transfer case ended up 3 inches back and 1 inch down from stock location. This and I have to have a new driveshaft made anyway, i'm going to forgo the cut and turn as I'm not worried about pinion angle. With an aftermarket long travel high angle drive shaft and the t case setup I should be good. Castor I'll set at 4-5 degrees. The springs on the truck are stock with a long add a leaf and Ii think I will keep this setup for spring over and see how I like it. If I don't like it I'll take out the add a leaf or have a better riding set made. The truck has a body lift on it now which some or all of it off will come off when completed. As well as extended shackles that are defiantly coming off and returning to stock before the soa. I'm using Marlins high steer kit and ruffstuffs SOA kit. Both companies are great to buy from.

Anyone running an Auburn limited slip... I saw one for a cruiser and I need sometype of locker. I like Limited slips for on road and snow. I like that they just kick in automatically but I think an arb might win out due to overall traction and coolness.

 

[Kurtis]

Spring over has begun/ almost finished. I did it this weekend. When I was taking out the old steering arms the Trunion bearing popped apart and the little needle bearings went into the knuckle so I ended up doing a knuckle job at the same time. Toolsrus on the board really hooked me up as he had an extra knuckle rebuild kit and bap had some koyo wheelbeerings so I was able to finish the front up this weekend.

I'll snap some pictures tomorrow and send them. The front is bolted up just needs a brake line that I busted taking apart and the hubs installed. I set the preload to 5 lbs on the trunion bearings since I have decent sized tires per Toolsrus's advice. I did not do a cut and turn as I needed a new front drive shaft anyway and I have a good 3 -4 inches more of driveshaft length now with the engine swap and the spring over. Castor I left exactly at stock. I'll get some numbers when I'm in an aligment shop and possibly take it up a couple of degrees with shims depending on what it looks like. i havent driven it yet but I'm thinking about 4 would be ideal. That Said its Huge. I'm probablly going to leave at least 1 inch of body lift on because I really like the way it looks with the negative backspacing rims and wheel spacers.

Two Thoughts on this.

Spring over is not that hard and not that expensive I spent $950 not counting the driveshaft or shocks. Drive shaft will be 140-300 depending how much I want it to flex. Parts needed are Highsteer, perches shock mounts ubolts spring plates, knuckle kit, driveshaft, shocks, lots of greese and degreeser. and about 15-20 hours of time if you are rebuilding the knuckles.
My cruiser is a little different but I would wonder how neccesary a cut and turn is even on a stock truck. Having it apart it woudn't have been that hard but I'd rather just get a better driveshaft then cut and turn. The only point I could see in the cut and turn would be to get your diff out and up away from obstacles, and save you a 300 dollar drive shaft.

Rebuilding A knuckle is not that hard either. Just a little time consuming and messy.

 

[Slowerthanu]

Spring over has begun/ almost finished. I did it this weekend. When I was taking out the old steering arms the Trunion bearing popped apart and the little needle bearings went into the knuckle so I ended up doing a knuckle job at the same time. Toolsrus on the board really hooked me up as he had an extra knuckle rebuild kit and bap had some koyo wheelbeerings so I was able to finish the front up this weekend.

I'll snap some pictures tomorrow and send them. The front is bolted up just needs a brake line that I busted taking apart and the hubs installed. I set the preload to 5 lbs on the trunion bearings since I have decent sized tires per Toolsrus's advice. I did not do a cut and turn as I needed a new front drive shaft anyway and I have a good 3 -4 inches more of driveshaft length now with the engine swap and the spring over. Castor I left exactly at stock. I'll get some numbers when I'm in an aligment shop and possibly take it up a couple of degrees with shims depending on what it looks like. i havent driven it yet but I'm thinking about 4 would be ideal. That Said its Huge. I'm probablly going to leave at least 1 inch of body lift on because I really like the way it looks with the negative backspacing rims and wheel spacers.

Two Thoughts on this.

Spring over is not that hard and not that expensive I spent $950 not counting the driveshaft or shocks. Drive shaft will be 140-300 depending how much I want it to flex. Parts needed are Highsteer, perches shock mounts ubolts spring plates, knuckle kit, driveshaft, shocks, lots of greese and degreeser. and about 15-20 hours of time if you are rebuilding the knuckles.
My cruiser is a little different but I would wonder how neccesary a cut and turn is even on a stock truck. Having it apart it woudn't have been that hard but I'd rather just get a better driveshaft then cut and turn. The only point I could see in the cut and turn would be to get your diff out and up away from obstacles, and save you a 300 dollar drive shaft.

Rebuilding A knuckle is not that hard either. Just a little time consuming and messy.

Let us know if you ge the death wobble or a binding front shaft. The three reasons for a cut and turn is increased caster, better driveline angles and getting the diff out of the way.

When I was spring under with lift springs I had a death wobble prior to aknuckle rebuild, with my SO and cut and turn it tracked beautifully.

 

[alaska60]

Spring over has begun/ almost finished. I did it this weekend. When I was taking out the old steering arms the Trunion bearing popped apart and the little needle bearings went into the knuckle so I ended up doing a knuckle job at the same time. Toolsrus on the board really hooked me up as he had an extra knuckle rebuild kit and bap had some koyo wheelbeerings so I was able to finish the front up this weekend.

I'll snap some pictures tomorrow and send them. The front is bolted up just needs a brake line that I busted taking apart and the hubs installed. I set the preload to 5 lbs on the trunion bearings since I have decent sized tires per Toolsrus's advice. I did not do a cut and turn as I needed a new front drive shaft anyway and I have a good 3 -4 inches more of driveshaft length now with the engine swap and the spring over. Castor I left exactly at stock. I'll get some numbers when I'm in an aligment shop and possibly take it up a couple of degrees with shims depending on what it looks like. i havent driven it yet but I'm thinking about 4 would be ideal. That Said its Huge. I'm probablly going to leave at least 1 inch of body lift on because I really like the way it looks with the negative backspacing rims and wheel spacers.

Two Thoughts on this.

Spring over is not that hard and not that expensive I spent $950 not counting the driveshaft or shocks. Drive shaft will be 140-300 depending how much I want it to flex. Parts needed are Highsteer, perches shock mounts ubolts spring plates, knuckle kit, driveshaft, shocks, lots of greese and degreeser. and about 15-20 hours of time if you are rebuilding the knuckles.
My cruiser is a little different but I would wonder how neccesary a cut and turn is even on a stock truck. Having it apart it woudn't have been that hard but I'd rather just get a better driveshaft then cut and turn. The only point I could see in the cut and turn would be to get your diff out and up away from obstacles, and save you a 300 dollar drive shaft.

Rebuilding A knuckle is not that hard either. Just a little time consuming and messy.

I am also interested to see how this rig drives with the front axle in 4wd.
Please let us all know if your driveshaft binds up. I have only seen one other SOA that was not cut and turned...... That was in Alaska back in 1991. The front axle did not have a shaft on it when I saw that rig in 91.

 

[Kurtis]

I don't think its possible to flex it far enough to bind a high angle long travel driveshaft....It have to dop alooonnnngggggg way for that to happen probably 5-8 inches farther than It will flex right now Not to mention the shaft itself is pretty long after the swap.... As far as castor goes how would it track differantly with the same as stock? I have 1-2 degrees at the moment and I'll probably bump it up to 3-4 with a shim. I'm not seing the logic in these comments but maybe i'm missing something. I'm up 5-6 inches higher than stock. You can run a 4 inch kit with no mods at all to drive shaft. My drive shaft is going to be custom made and overbuilt and 4 inchese longer than stock. Castor was retained at stock...

On top of this my transfer case is an inch lower than stock. This means a spring over axle only nets me 4-5 inches in increased drive shaft drop from stock position with a 3.5-4 inch longer shaft.

I'll let everyone know the results in the next day or two. Like I said I didn't have a problem with a cut and turn I just didn't see it as necassary in this application.

 

[alaska60]

I don't think its possible to flex it far enough to bind a high angle long travel driveshaft....It have to dop alooonnnngggggg way for that to happen probably 5-8 inches farther than It will flex right now Not to mention the shaft itself is pretty long after the swap.... As far as castor goes how would it track differantly with the same as stock? I have 1-2 degrees at the moment and I'll probably bump it up to 3-4 with a shim. I'm not seing the logic in these comments but maybe i'm missing something. I'm up 5-6 inches higher than stock. You can run a 4 inch kit with no mods at all to drive shaft. My drive shaft is going to be custom made and overbuilt and 4 inchese longer than stock. Castor was retained at stock... In fact as far as I knew technically you want your pinion and transfer case angles to match in order to reduce vibrations at high speeds.

I'm just interested to see if I did all this work to mine for nothing......maybe I am missing something?

 

[Kurtis]

I could have saved my self 3-400 in a driveshaft if I would have cut and turned but I figured i might as well just get a new shaft made and then everything is new

 

[BMAN]

Kurtis,

Looking good brother. That top hose is aweful though. Try a top hose from a 1970-ish Cordoba. I cut about 3 inches off and it is a perfect fit. I'll try to track down the part number.

 

[Kurtis]

Thanks I'm going to try and get out to the meet on friday with this if possible. I'll have to try and track that down.. Yea I don't like that hose to much either. V8 is night and day though thats for sure. You still selling your 60?

 

[BMAN]

Thanks I'm going to try and get out to the meet on friday with this if possible. I'll have to try and track that down.. Yea I don't like that hose to much either. V8 is night and day though thats for sure. You still selling your 60?

EVERYTHING is for sale. I'm hoping to have the 255's on for the meet. I'm still looking for that gates part number for ya. I'll find it eventually. It was crazy because I went into CarQuest with a piece of welding rod that I bent up and the dude pulled the hose off the wall that was the exact shape plus a couple of inches. I remember it was 70's Chrysler but the pix on the gates site don't look right to me for some reason. I know I have the number somewhere at the house. If you look at my ROTW thread there's a pic of the motor where you can see how it runs to the inside of the alternator. It's almost like they made it for this application.

EDIT***
I think I found it.

Gates part #20875

click click

If you click on the part number you will see a pic of the hose. The left side of the hose goes on the water neck and the right side, after some trimming, goes to the radiator. I believe that I had to put a little bend in the hose for a good fit but over time it's shaped itself to the curve.

for comparison click here

I hope this helps brother.

 

[alpinecowboy]

Kurtis
Did you get the seats installed yet? I'd love to see pics of that when you do.

Also, on the paintjob - how did you go about getting it done? I need to repaint my rig but was fully discouraged after getting price quotes from the local bodyshops...

Thanks
Koby

 

[Kurtis]

I just got the spring over done minus shocks. I'll snap some pics in the daylight. The seats are up next. I'm going to have to throw down a little extra coin for my front driveshaft and extended my rear so I'll have to wait a bit to have the middle row reworked in leather to match. As far as paint goes I honestly just wanted to see what the cruiser looked like in black and i had a couple of good dents in the rear so I just took it to a macco. I wasn't expecting much and went middle of the road but I couldn't believe the body work they did though on my rear quarter panel all metal work no bondo whatsoever it was as good as the clean side. The paint came out pretty good to. If you want it to look factory i'd say 2k would be in the fair range. The shop here was slow and I got a few price quotes to let them compete . It ended up being about 1100 with body work. If your body is clean i'm sure you could have them do same color for 5-700 bucks. I figured i'll pin stripe it up anyway so I just went the reasonable route and I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

 

[alpinecowboy]

Thanks, I was quoted $8K from a local bodyshop to sand/strip my rig and repaint it.... I had to confirm that we were speaking in dollars and not yen... that is with no bodywork needed - I have no rust and no dents... just stripping paint and then repainting.... it definitely shook my confidence as I'm not a body guy.

the local maaco has a bad reputation but I will be calling around....

When you can, please post more pics of the black as that is what I am considering.

Thanks
Koby

 

[Kurtis]

8k is rediculous. if you have no dings or dents to worry about it shouldn't be more than 2k to 2500 to get a really nice paint job. Changing colors gets a little more because of the airbrushing on the insides of the doors . I have to have that done yet but I wanted to see if I liked the black first. Black does look amazing when its clean and I love it but it is a pain to keep clean. I'm sure its going to show scratches more after I take it out as well but thats why I went cheaper on the actual paint job as I figure I'll just do it again in a few years. Honestly I would try to find a good painter who does it on the side or something. As long as he has access to a booth. If he has good references and you can see some work it'd be worth it. I bet you could get it for around 1500.

 

[alpinecowboy]

Thanks man, I'll definitely be calling around for other options... I just couldn't believe the first quote was so crazy.

 

[aus_matt7]

$8000 is alot for painting a car
just get some code matched rattle cans, works great for me
but i still go to school so im not really made of money

Matt