Build 1965 Seminole Red FJ45 SWB

[middlecalf]

How’s your tailgate rattle, if any? Mine‘s a lot, mostly the handles and the rings that make the closure. Of course, I still don’t have rear windows so everything‘s loud, and my travel is all on dirt/washboard.

 

[wngrog]

How’s your tailgate rattle, if any? Mine‘s a lot, mostly the handles and the rings that make the closure. Of course, I still don’t have rear windows so everything‘s loud, and my travel is all on dirt/washboard.

His does not rattle. Mine does not either. If you get the tailgate chains covered that helps
a whole lot

 

[PAToyota]

To this cold adapted New Englander, every day in Florida is an AC day!

I feel like every day in New England would require a jacket and a heater.

We have the Spring Carlisle Car Show coming up at the end of April about half an hour from me that literally attracts an international crowd.

It's sort of funny because weather can still be in the upper 40's and 50's with chilly breezes and light rain. You've got people from northern tier states and Canada wandering around in flip flops, t-shirts, and shorts looking like it's a day at the beach while people from southern states and particularly Florida have down jackets, gloves, boots, and hats looking like they're on an arctic expedition...

 

[FJ60Cam]

Bump for a gentle thread wake up!

 

[jomelo]

Bump for a gentle thread wake up!

You got something to show us?

 

[FJ60Cam]

This is just a stalling tactic while the good pictures are getting developed at the photo lab.

We got the block and head back last week and spent yesterday and today getting the previous patient off the engine stand and the operating room cleaned and disinfected. Tomorrow we’ll have both cleaned up and looking fresh and dressed for success.

 

[FJ60Cam]

The plan for this one is a simpler twist on the oft-dreamed of 2FE swap, which pairs the 3FE head and fuel injection system with a 2F block. We’re skipping the complicated (visually and actually) factory EFI setup with a more spiritually appropriate 2F intake and Sniper EFI.

To pull this off we’ve got a NOS (carb) 3F head that Double-OG-Beno smuggled out of an actual live warzone in the Middle East just for this project. The sacrifices to smuggle a 3F head under live fire cannot be overstated, and for that we thank him for his service and dedication.

 

[FJ60Cam]

If we’re not using the factory EFI, why use the 3F head over a 2F?

Two reasons:

- It has a smaller combustion chamber, so we’ll achieve a bump in compression without even milling the head.

- A brand new one was available, which is a good enough reason in itself.

 

[FJ60Cam]

I don’t have the CC’s handy, but here’s the differences in combustion chamber volume:

2F:

3F:

 

[FJ60Cam]

If you follow the 2FE builds, you run into coolant plumbing issues when trying to make a 3/2F frankenmotor. The 3F head has zero plumbing arrangements for either a temp sender or for the heater supply. 3Fs and 3FEs do all of this in the thermostat housing. With some creative plumbing, you can make it work, but then you also have the issue of mating to the 2F waterpump.

Instead of going that route, we instead drilled and tapped two holes in the water jacket for a temp sender and heater.

The casting isn’t quite as built up as the 2F in this area, but there should be plenty of meat to seal these up:

 

[FJ60Cam]

The real star of this show are the custom rods & pistons from CP Carrillo:

 

[FJ60Cam]

When I first started doing 2Fs, my machine shop thought it would be cool to have a modern style piston instead of the tall, heavy OEM piston. I briefly looked into it, but the custom pistons and the required rods were too much of an investment to experiment without having a customer willing to fund the experiment.

Simultaneously, in another dimension and unbeknownst to me, @Gordobe was having the very same discussion with his machine shop and proceeded to have the first set made. Once I saw his thread, I couldn’t believe my eyes. His motor was so smooth he did a video with a glass of water in the valve cover and it barely made a ripple.

Since he lives in California and has to pass smog, it’s an otherwise stock build, but I filed this away for use in the future. I did end up building a couple, but so far they are still patiently waiting to be installed. I still haven’t seen one run in person.

 

[jomelo]

@wngrog is so ready to get this in.

 

[FJ60Cam]

Here’s the difference compared to a stock piston. It has a shorter skirt and the pin is moved up higher in the bore:

A longer rod makes up the missing difference with the new higher pin location. The stroke is still the same. The new combo is amazingly 1.15 lbs lighter PER CYLINDER. That’s almost 7 lbs less stuff spinning and reciprocating about the crank. It may or may not add much power, but should definitely spin up with less effort.

 

[wngrog]

Burnouts.

Gonna do some.

 

[deliverance]

Does the 3f head get the same valve work you do on the 2f heads and does the 3f flow any better? Same cam specs you do on these engines? Not looking for trade secrets, just curious.

 

[FJ60Cam]

The only difference on the heads is the size & shape of the combustion chambers, so we do all of the same things to them

3FE’s do prefer a stock/mild cam or can have idle issues due to the limited capabilities of the antiquated stock EFI system.

 

[FJ60Cam]

We were guaranteed to get hit with a lot of water sooner rather than later, so we had a limited window to clean & paint the block.

We made it back inside the climate controlled OR in plenty of time to ride out the storm. Before day’s end, we had the block clean enough to eat from, pulled a crank from the quiver, verified and fit-checked all of the components, swapped the crankshaft timing gear and then installed the crank.

For our efforts, we were rewarded with a nice cold dry front after getting hammered all day.

 

[FJ60Cam]

I weighed the three closest cranks and found one that was 3 lbs lighter, so of course that’s the one we are using.

Material removed while balancing:

 

[wngrog]

Picked up this Jewelry from Powder Keg today.

Before….

After.

Before

After

Also added the pretty restored ashtray back in its slot