1983 FJ60 to BJ60 Diesel Swap

[RoadRamblinFJ60]

Hi all, I'm brand new to the forums, trying to get a feel for what I've got myself into.

Over the past summer I traded a day's labor for a 1983 FJ60 with 201k miles and a thrown push rod in the engine. The owners had bought the vehicle new in Colorado when they lived there, and had put $15k into the body and engine to get her road-worthy again. After the engine work (not a rebuild) the engine threw a rod and they put it up for good. About 15 years later, I came along and fell in love with the Cruiser, so it went home with me.

To me, the engine is not worth rebuilding myself. I know the 2F's were great engines, but for my personal preference I would like a diesel in the Toyota. I had been looking at Cummins diesels, Deutz air-cooled industrial diesels, Yanmar diesels, and just about anything one could think of. I took some time to think on it before deciding, and my current plans are to acquire a BJ60 with the 3B diesel power plant and swap that into my Toyota.

After searching for possible leads online, I found a BJ60 within range of myself that I could not only afford, but was in bad enough shape to warrant me pulling the engine from the truck. I checked out the guy's BJ60, and sure enough the body was shot, but the heart was salvageable. This 3B had about 400,000 kilometers on it before it lost compression and I figured that would be a worthy candidate for a rebuild and swap. I have not bought the BJ60 yet, because I have been saving paychecks. I plan on putting a down payment on it this week.

My thought with getting a used 3B diesel already sitting in a Toyota is that not only will I get the engine I want, but also a 5-speed transmission and a set of extra axles and driveshafts along with the whole package, for $1,500.

This thread will be my build progress as time passes and a place for me to seek advice and ask technical questions. I hope in return for everyone's help I can entertain them with my wanderings in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This build will be a slow one, and I am sorry for that, but being in college drains money from the bank account.

Let me know what you guys think of my rig and my end goal for the Toyota, I welcome any sort of advice! As a side note, the poo brown Toyota is my first one with the good body but a rusty frame, and the blue Toyota has the 3B diesel engine in it, with a very rusty body and frame. I am still working to get all the lichens off of the paint on the brown Toyota.

If this thread is posted in an inappropriate spot, feel free to call me out and I will stop. I have been reading and seeing others that have done a similar swap, and I think my post is in a good spot. Thanks everyone!

-Jake

 

[Gimme a 60]

How did the swap go?

 

[RoadRamblinFJ60]

How did the swap go?

Boy howdy, I neglected this thread haha

Long story short. The blue FJ60 in those phots above was sold before I could buy it. Had to go another route. So I had the original 2F engine rebuilt and it ran for one lap around a parking lot before it seized up, the engine guy that worked on it installed the crankshaft bearings upside down. The oil journals that line up vertically with the oil passages in the block were 180 degrees apart and as soon as the assembly grease burnt up... the engine locked up and was pretty much welded together at the crankshaft.

I ended up going with a Chevy Vortec V8. I like the swap a lot more than I ever anticipated. My goal was to maintain the factory look and feel with my 60, so it still felt as if I was driving on dirt roads in the 1980's. Kept the original H42 manual gearbox and adapted the Chevy engine to it. There's still a small list of things to be done to make it much more reliable than it even is now, new radiator, oil pump, water pump, and I have some wiring issues to look at. But with the V8 power I feel like the truck now drives down the road as I always imagined it should brand new. The 2F is still a great motor, but I wanted to make sure I had an engine I could still buy parts for 20+ years down the road.

I'm second owner of the brown FJ60. I am friends with the granddaughter of the folks that bought it brand new off the lot in 1984 in Denver, CO and I drive the truck by their house every so often so they can see it running still. I thought about selling it a handful of times over the years, but I just cannot bring myself to do that. I love it too much and drive it enough in the summers to justify keeping it.

I just keep doing a little bit of work at a time to her keeping it running and looking nice. I'll add some more recent photos of the truck here soon. I traded a bottle of nice whiskey for a brush guard that bolts to my factory chrome bumper. We've had plenty of fun adventures in the old rig now. It's been a lot to learn. Lots of trial and error. If I had to do it all over again there are definitely things I would do differently. But it's been a blast.