Jack-o-lantern build ‘92 4bt (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Jun 17, 2012
Threads
1
Messages
54
Location
Montrose, Colorado
***Current progress Picture***
IMG_7286.jpeg

Hello all,
First off I will introduce myself.
My name is Bryan and I am not new to Mud but it has been a better part of 10 years since I’ve taken on a project vehicle. I reside on the western slope of Colorado and have finally come to a financial position to purchase a project vehicle. Toyotas are not new to me but the land cruisers are. (1988 pick up on 40’s with 4.3 swap, 2006 Tacoma, 2013 Tundra) all were built to various degrees and what the pocket book could afford at the time.
Since the first build I got married, had two boys, moved 3 times, built a house and I focused most of my time on the family.
My mechanical knowledge is pretty slim. I was a 91B (diesel mechanic) in the Army Reserves for 8 years however my practical knowledge is Mostly trial and error or YouTube/forum searching. I work long weeks and my garage time is pretty limited so keep that in mind while reading the build thread.

Now that my oldest(7) has expressed Interest in helping me in the garage I felt it was time to get back into it.

On to the FJ.

Once the decision was made to get a project vehicle the search was on, budget set and absolutely no idea what we wanted to build.

Parameters were pretty straight forward. Comfortable seating for 4+ two labs and some gear. Budget was flexible based on mods that came with the vehicle. Starting from scratch or a partially built rig we were indifferent.

After a lot of tire kicking and passing on subpar vehicles from cherokees to LJ’s to JKU’s we decided they weren’t unique enough for what we wanted. Scouts were at the top of the list but impossible to find.

I came across an obscure add for a 1992 Land Cruiser that had minimal information. Intrigued, I got ahold of the seller who had extremely minimal mechanical knowledge.

Passing through on a hunting trip they obliged to meet. (400 miles from home)

I present to you Jack (short for Jack-o-lantern)

1992
213,xxx miles
4bt swapped w/built 700r4 (best guess 127k on 4bt)
Part time Tcase swap
OME 4” lift
Arb Front bumper
Custom rear Swing out
35” KM2
Weld on sliders
Snorkel
Stock interior
Body in excellent shape
Surface rust underneath


I was skeptical on the engine swap and the PO gave me the number for their mechanic. He was not the person that did the swap but knew quite a bit about it and let me know the owners had all the receipts.

I struck a deal and purchased the Land Cruiser in October 2022. PO provided receipts for the last 15 years for absolutely everything down to a $6 Oring.

Next was getting it home 450 miles over three mountain passes.
It was rather uneventful other than blowing a heater hose under the passenger seat and draining all coolant at 10,500ft. With no knowledge or service it was easy to diagnose and bypass the rear heater on the side of the road. After that it was smooth sailing.

25178D30-4F81-4206-AB1E-8B4BEA21FA40.png

Here it sits as purchased.
2C50F0B3-74C1-4460-A3BF-E2632933FEDB.png


D44F24D3-08CC-4258-B691-4BD4A6D1A495.jpeg


IMG_8731.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the forum and nice rig!

Also a cummins/landcruiser guy.

It sounds like a cool rig. What plans do you have in mind for it? It sounds like it checks most of the boxes you have for a fun hunting rig.
 
1st up was baselining the vehicle and inspecting it thoroughly. With the amount of custom work it was a little challenging backtracking through what had been done and when. All of this needed to be done before an impromptu Moab trip for Veterans Day.

1. Oil change +filter (filter needs to be relocated it was a PITA)
2. Diff flush
3. Brake adjustment
4. Tcase flush
5. Transmission flush
6. Bypass rear heater and remove
7. Replace battery tie down
8. Remove old window tint/ stickers
9. Rotated Tires
10. Checked every bolt I could find

No concerning finds in any of the fluids which was a plus.
Warning in advance, a lot of the pictures are taken by my 7 year old. Pretty cool since I’ve never really documented any of my previous builds.
E2AEDA8E-95A3-4DE6-98CC-D71A923BA226.jpeg

E8FE15D3-7843-40EF-A513-B4F32D146471.jpeg
 
No breakdowns on the trail which was the goal. Really didn’t push it and definitely didn’t take any hard lines.
A few good things and definitely a few things to address.

First off the 4Bt is a blast.
Second, the 4bt is a lot of fun.
😆

1. This whole trip was wheeled in 4hi as my Tcase wouldn’t stay in 4lo. It was intermittent and would pop into Neutral when not under load which is no bueno. However the torque and granny 1st gear didn’t really ever struggle.

2. The suspension is clapped out. From what I can tell the OME was medium dual rate springs in front which basically sagged under the 4bt/700r4 weight. Instead of fixing it they put air bags up front which were also blown. Shame on me for not catching this before our trip.

3. The front seats are extremely uncomfortable and the foam is done. Junkyard seats are in the near future.

4. 35’s aren’t going to cut it. Researching 37’s or 38’s
 
35's.....

Gateway tire. Then it's 37's, 38's 40's and 42's.
I don’t feel the need to get 40’s as my wheeling style has changed. With the kiddos i have no intention of trying lines I used to. But i definitely feel that 37’s or 38’s will wheel better and help lower RPM at highway speeds with the stock 4.10 gears. I don’t have a desire to chop up panels. Minor trimming I’m fine with.
 
After cleaning the rig I uncovered an oil leak inside the cab from who knows when. It came from the oil sending unit to the oil pressure gauge. It must have been going on for a minute because it saturated quite a bit of carpet and sound deadener.

I ordered a few things for my winter project.
Icon 2.0 shocks
OME heavy 4” f/r springs
Kilmat
Carpet from Stock Interiors
New Tach (they never converted factory tach)
electronic oil pressure gauge for obvious reasons
Aussie rear locker
Waiting to order bump stops until I can get some measurements. Will go with Timbren

B846282C-8DA3-4D3C-9C1A-0826BBAA748C.jpeg
22A15223-5EB5-4DC4-BB70-3E54DC415786.jpeg
2D5B1AA2-01B3-4146-BFD6-36021890963D.jpeg
 
Welcome I’m on western slope in junction, lived a long time in Gunnison and Crested Butte.
My buddy has 91 with 4bt and 700r4 as well. Swapped a full float axle into the rear, and 93 and up front calipers and rotors. He runs 488s as well for gears with 42s. Seems like you have cool project
 
Welcome I’m on western slope in junction, lived a long time in Gunnison and Crested Butte.
My buddy has 91 with 4bt and 700r4 as well. Swapped a full float axle into the rear, and 93 and up front calipers and rotors. He runs 488s as well for gears with 42s. Seems like you have cool project
Sounds like he might be a good reference for some questions in the future! I’m sure we will meet up at some point 🍻
 
Front axle has been removed to clean it up and to do a knuckle rebuild and inspect Birfields. Nothing was indicating the need however since it was coming out I wanted to get it all done.
CAF34B78-2F50-4E35-AC7E-A65863AC8659.jpeg
D45F75D0-9F3B-4252-B1FF-C3C6751E8F6B.jpeg
EAE93EA2-7924-49EC-BEBB-75F8F21DA350.jpeg
2A38F07E-ACA8-46EC-9F95-64E193492C20.jpeg
 
Lots of small things in the works right now that don’t show much progress.
-Lots of frame and underbody clean up
-front axle is 95% put back together. Lost the claw washer so that is on order.
-fixed exhaust leak
-wired in battery shut off
- replaced a lot of worn wires/fuses
- all front links painted

2B3B4910-D23C-4D1A-A969-A4BEEFB28616.jpeg


46462859-A3A6-4506-A381-1DE002525A4D.jpeg
 
Replaced a lot of worn wire, relays and fuses. Rerouted further away from turbo and added a master shut off.
1C0D9B88-E7C6-4B38-95AF-04A33AC9235C.jpeg
B5B1E152-421C-4C55-9BF5-AE3C1070FA30.jpeg
DB8ABE25-677B-4320-801D-84435E2AB2EE.jpeg
 
Rear axle pulled, cleaned and painted. Installed a Spartan Locker.
6F15AEAE-4F96-457B-A9E0-28EBCF9EA284.jpeg
77EAE06E-67B5-4267-8CFC-374392DA285B.jpeg
 
Rear axle installed. You can see a little bit of the framework cleaned up and painted from this angle
C6CB8F4A-B8FF-47C4-AF3E-E0A19B34EC7B.jpeg
 
Installed Stockinteriors carpet kit. The old carpet was ripped out and disposed of due to oil/coolant leaks and I wasn’t willing to lay it on top of the new carpet so we used a bed sheet. You can see the staining on the bed sheet in the driver footwell area that came from the original carpet.
We traced original with sharpie onto sheet then cut it out, laid it on new carpet and traced with chalk. Just used our elk skinning pocket knife to cut the carpet and had little issues.
We did not cut bolt holes as we weren’t sure how the tunnel was going to line up with the 700r4 shifter and part time Tcase shifter would line up.
In the third photo it shows we marked the holes on the body with LOTS of chalk and laid the carpet down on then marked and cut upside down. It worked great and all of our holes lined up and don’t show.

DF50B1A9-3D8A-40AC-9EB7-B4E202EB4BB6.jpeg
57207CBB-D649-425C-A7CF-D481BBDB21BC.jpeg
16C6077B-F81D-4B67-B176-1922268A8FD0.jpeg
150395F5-5D69-4E35-A6C9-D34C87EAF460.jpeg
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom