1994 FZJ80 5.3L swap aka Bumpkinator (1 Viewer)

[BelfairBumpkin]

Hey y’all so I am adding my name to the list of envious fools who made the best bad decision ever documented on this forum.
I started this build in late August and worked on it up until I had to put a hold on it until I get home in April.
So at this time the major parts are in and I am at the point of last wiring and finishing exhaust.
the build is a 1994 FZJ80 LHD with 400k miles on the odo.
original motor blew a head gasket but she still got me home. Fortunately I had been planning to swap and had most my parts sourced so I was able to get her started relatively soon after.
I bought a running pull off eBay with trans and all the fixings out of a 2004 Chevy avalanche with a lil less than 60k on it.
I referenced all the great builds on here pretty heavily and my plan is to only post the things that I did differently.
Motor:
2004 5.3L vortec with a Bryan tooley stage 2 cam, and a deep motor intake.

transmission:
Chevy 4l60E with stage 2 B&M shift kit and stock converter.

exhaust:
hooker cast iron block huggers powder coat black, into 2” dual into single 3” magnaflow muffler.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Motor mounts:

I used the original FJ motor mounts and rubber, with a set of modified universal LS swap mounts from advanced adapters
713088 : GM Vortec LS series engine mount kit | Advance Adapters

They aren’t the most elegant I have seen but they were simple and easy to fit with little modification. All mods were easy to do with my basic home tools.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Motor placement:

I oblonged the holes on the transfer case mount (not the frame holes) to give me 3/4” forward placement of the engine. this allowed me to keep my firewall intact on the passenger side.
I also biased the motor 1/2” to the driver side measured from center of the crank shaft.
I then placed the motor as high as I could for driveline clearance. With my 4” OME suspension, low profile trans pan, Camaro oil pan, and by flipping the front drive line I was able to avoid a custom drive shaft

Oil pan
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-2002-...553884?hash=item3b3218c25c:g:YfoAAOSwD-dc6a67

Transmission pan
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m4084.l1313&_nkw=4l60e+shallow+pan&_odkw=4l60e+shallowhttps://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Hood clearance

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

DBW throttle pedal assembly:

Of all the modifications so far this one was relatively easy to accomplish. The pedal assembly is from the donor vehicle that the motor and trans came from (04 Avalanche)

First I disassembled the pedal by removing one screw and then drilling out the three rivets that hold the position sensor to the pedal mounting bracket.

I then cut back the insulation around the steering column to give me access to the fire wall where I needed to mount the pedal.

The bottom hole on the pedal bracket is almost perfect as is. But I opted to oblong the hole vertically to give me options.

The top bolt hole location on the fire wall does not line up with any existing holes in the pedal bracket. So I lined it up as best I could and made a mark as close to center as I could. Then after drilling the new hole I oblonged it about a half an inch to the left and right to give me options when mounting.

After mounting the bracket in place I reassembled the pedal in place, this is kinda difficult as the springs require angles that you don’t have room for under the dash. But it is possible just takes patience and a whole lot of cuss words.

I am rather pleased with this whole deal as it looks OEM and lines up perfectly without any adjustment of the pedal height knob.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

More pedal pics.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Turning down the temperature sensor (the Bumpkin Method)

For the water temp gauge on the dash to work with my wiring harness I needed to retain the stock Toyota sensor and wiring. The problem is that the port on the passenger side head of the 5.3L Vortec is smaller (12mm x 1.5mm) thread and the stock Toyota sensor is (16mm x 1.5)

The sensor body is thick where the threads are and has enough material that I was able to mill it down and thread it to the size I needed while retaining structural capacity.

My solution was to lightly clamp the sensor in my drill press chuck by the probe end and then use my super fancy Harbor Freight mill vise to position a file so that I could slowly grind away the threads and body down to the diameter I needed for the die to retrhread it.

Note: the file didn’t work that well (kept getting clogged with brass) so I ended up using an end mill bit clamped in the vise like the file is in the pictures with the tooth positioned to cut.

this is not by any means a proper way to accomplish this task. But it is within the realm of my abilities and tooling so I tried it. And it worked out pretty well you just have to be careful not to tighten the chuck too much or apply too much side load on the file/bit or you could damage the sensor.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Dash gear position lights

The 4L60E transmission is a DBW that displays the gear position via digital signal. In order for me to have the gear selection lights in the dash to work I had to come up with a hack or buy a fancy converter box. I chose to go full redneck and try something different.

The Toyota transmission gets the gear position signal from the neutral safety switch on my model year LC.
The shifter shaft on the 4L60E transmission is only a little bit larger than the Toyota shaft. So I thought maybe I could bumpkin rig the Toyota NSS onto the Chevy transmission.

I started by removing the Chevy NSS from its mounting plate and then aligning theToyota NSS over the center of the hole where the shaft goes through.

after a few hundred test fits and fine tunings I was able to find the proper location of the Toyota NSS and drill holes in the Chevy NSS mounting plate to hold it.

I then used longer screws to hold the Toyota NSS to the mounting plate threading into three existing holes on the body of the Toyota NSS.

next I had to drill out the center of the Toyota NSS to fit the Chevy shaft snugly 5/8”.

Note: in the pictures you can see where I left some of the threads on the selector collar as I originally planned to make them work on the flat part of the Chevy shaft. these broke off during test fits and weren’t needed as the shaft fits snugly enough to operate the selector once everything is bolted in place with the shift lever torqued.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Stock oil pressure sensor for dash gauge

To get the oil pressure dash gauge to work you have to retain the stock sensor and wiring. The LS motors have a sensor port that provides a digital signal for the ECM and can be used to provide a signal to the dash gauge but it requires a converter box. The oil pan I purchased came with a secondary oil port/block off plate on the oil pan directly above the filter (Chevy part number 12577903) This secondary oil port has a precast port that was unthreaded and blocked off that I used for the stock Toyota sensor.

I purchased the oil pan off eBay for about $200 it is a low profile 98-02 LS Camaro #81075. I chose this oil pan because it came with a block off plate that had an angled port precast in that can be drilled and tapped to accept the Toyota sensor. This part has a hollow tube that is solid at the base where it bolts to the oil pan, this made drilling and tapping very simple for me just had to be carful not to go too deep in the pocket.

To adapt the Toyota oil pressure sensor onto this location you will need a 1/8x 28 BSP (British Standard Pipe) it is important that you don’t confuse this with US standard pipe thread or NPT as it will not fully seat and cause leakage.

To drill and tap this for the Toyota oil sensor you will need a 21/64 drill bit, and a 1/8”x28BSP tap (Irwin Hanson #1911ZR)

 

[nukegoat]

Looks LHD to me

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Looks LHD to me

You are correct I wish I could blame that on autocorrect

 

[dallen341]

Turning down the temperature sensor (the Bumpkin Method)

For the water temp gauge on the dash to work with my wiring harness I needed to retain the stock Toyota sensor and wiring. The problem is that the port on the passenger side head of the 5.3L Vortec is smaller (12mm x 1.5mm) thread and the stock Toyota sensor is (16mm x 1.5)

The sensor body is thick where the threads are and has enough material that I was able to mill it down and thread it to the size I needed while retaining structural capacity. View attachment 2163049View attachment 2163050View attachment 2163051View attachment 2163052View attachment 2163053

My solution was to lightly clamp the sensor in my drill press chuck by the probe end and then use my super fancy Harbor Freight mill vise to position a file so that I could slowly grind away the threads and body down to the diameter I needed for the die to retrhread it.

Note: the file didn’t work that well (kept getting clogged with brass) so I ended up using an end mill bit clamped in the vise like the file is in the pictures with the tooth positioned to cut.

this is not by any means a proper way to accomplish this task. But it is within the realm of my abilities and tooling so I tried it. And it worked out pretty well you just have to be careful not to tighten the chuck too much or apply too much side load on the file/bit or you could damage the sensor.

I used the Toyota 2 wire ECT sensor that the ECM looks at and grounded one lead for the gauge. Worked fine and same thread profile as the Chevy head. Fit it at the passenger side rear port.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

I used the Toyota 2 wire ECT sensor that the ECM looks at and grounded one lead for the gauge. Worked fine and same thread profile as the Chevy head. Fit it at the passenger side rear port.

I was looking at that sensor first but I couldn’t find anything out about it. If you have any pics or wiring diagrams on how you did it I would appreciate them. I wasn’t sure if it would send the proper signal to operate the gauge or how to wire it up so I went with the one I knew for sure would work. Thanks for the info and I may try this out just to see how it works if only to post some pics and info for the next person.

 

[JeepinPete]

Nice start. I really like your ingenuity on the temp sensor mods.

Its been awhile, but I am pretty certain the Chevy PCM needs the GM NSS on the 4L60E for proper operation.

 

[baldilocks]

Nice work and informative thread with lots of pics as well as explanation. This idea crosses my mind but my 1fz is on a fresh HG and has only 299k miles.

 

[thatcabledude]

Nice start. I really like your ingenuity on the temp sensor mods.

Its been awhile, but I am pretty certain the Chevy PCM needs the GM NSS on the 4L60E for proper operation.

It doesn't.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Nice start. I really like your ingenuity on the temp sensor mods.

Its been awhile, but I am pretty certain the Chevy PCM needs the GM NSS on the 4L60E for proper operation.

Thank you I am really trying to find the cheapest easiest methods I can for this swap and then post them for others who may be considering a swap like this. As for the Chevy 4l60E NSS from what I have been able to find online the NSS is just for the starter interruption It does not send shift position signals for operation. As far as I can tell all of the signals for the PCM to operate the transmission come from the transmission case connector. Also my after market wiring harness did not come with a plug for the NSS so it was going to be deleted anyways. I am not certain if it is like that for all models and I can only hope that I am correct at this point since I dun butchered the NSS and they are not cheap to replace

 

[dallen341]

I used the Toyota 2 wire ECT sensor that the ECM looks at and grounded one lead for the gauge. Worked fine and same thread profile as the Chevy head. Fit it at the passenger side rear port.

Sorry but don’t have pictures. Took one lead and grounded to the head. Other lead to the gauge. If I recall I looked at the FMS for resistance values based on temp and determined they had the same resistance range. Was a while ago so memory fuzzy. Worked fine though.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

Transmission Shifter:

I originally chose to use a stock 1992-93 Toyota console shifter that had the 4 speed positions PRND32L, as opposed to the 3 position four speed PRND2L shifter that my 1994 came with. Now although this makes for a cleaner stock look I ultimately decided to use a B&M Mega shifter BMM-80690 I chose this route for two reasons the first one is that the shifter I purchased here on iH8MUD in the parts classifieds was a little worn and as soon as I began fiddling with it the shift position indicators began to flake off from the inside of the window. From what I could decipher from other builds this is a common issue with the Toyota shifters and so I started looking at a different route than I had seen done before. I have used the B&M Mega shifter on other builds in the past and despite what people say I like it aesthetically as well as functionally.
The only question I had was wether it would fit beneath the center console and be the right height for my driving position. The internet was not helpful in providing any kind of real dimensions that I could use so I bit the bullet and just bought one off of summit racing. When it arrived I realized right away that it was close but it would take a lot of modifications to make it fit. I ended up cutting off a lot of material from the front and the rear of the shifter, and then I had to fine tune the fit with a grinder to make it fit under the original 1994 shifter window cover.
I had to modify the shifter window cover by laying the shifter boot from the B&M over the top of the shifter window cover, and marking the cut areas. The cut areas turned out to be almost everything except a small flange lip along the edges and just about right where the shifter window base meets the console in the back, and a little bit forward of where the Toyota shifter cover bends down in the front.
After I Had the old shifter cover/window base modified to accept the B&M shifter boot, I welded the B&M shifter onto the original Toyota shifter plate that mounts to the trans tunnel. To make it fit I had to gut the old shifter completely and trim the tabs/feet of the B&M shifter.
NOTE: in the 1994 FZJ80 there is a small coin pocket in front of the shifter that is molded into the center console. This "Cup holder" will interfere with the shifter cable on the front of the B&M shifter. To correct this I used a razor knife to cut the bottom out of the cup just above the bottom. I then removed about 1 1/2" from the sides as uniformly as I could manage with the razor knife as I don't own a fancy mini grinder or dremel. I then Epoxy glued the bottom back onto the shortened side walls of the "Cup Holder" and the center console fit flushly with little sign of the modifications.

 

[BelfairBumpkin]

A couple more pics of the shifter sorry I don't have any of the console installed or the modified cup holder I mention in the post above. I will add them later when I get them sent to me.