- Joined
- Jul 22, 2012
- Threads
- 637
- Messages
- 17,372
- Location
- Winter Park, Florida
- Website
- www.cruisermatts.com
Nothing wrong with cheap beer when you’ve got this many parts to buy 
Build 6.0 Vortec LQ9 - FJ60 Engine Swap - Old Blue's Heart Transplant
- Thread starter yukon721
- Start date
Member Build Threads
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Thread starter
- #22
Got the drivelines out.
Little afternoon siesta in the shade. You may feel inclined to say don’t forget the exhaust. Not to worry, i was fortunate to have the shop that put a new clutch in recently - completely forget to weld back up my exhaust hanger brackets when finished (after cutting them). Translation - a few rough roads later I discovered the shotty work and aquired an exhaust system completely broken at the manifold due to vibration. Very clean break I might add. Seemed bad then, seems great now. One less step.
Altho I cant say I’d reccomend the shop for future business.
1st Rookie mistake.
Took off the air cleaner without marking where it sits in relation to the hood. From what i hear most builds want the final resting place of the Vortec as high and close as possible to the underside of a closed hood. This helps avoid or minimize the dreaded oil pan clearance issue in relation to the front driveline
So have to put the air cleaner back on and get a mark on the firewall of how high the old 2F is sitting. (Which is pretty darn close to the closed hood on my FJ - i did take a look before i removed the hood and front clip)
Last edited:
Making progress. Radiator and Front Clip off. Taking off anything that will bind up a smooth transition as I pull it out. This portion is all pretty self explanitory. Nothing too complicated. Find what need to come off and take it off. Decided to label everything with blue painters tape and a sharpie. Easier now than when I’m trying to figure out what went where.
Drivelines will come off this eve. Should be close to ready for the cherry picker by around noon tomorrow. If not - Friday for sure.
This portion of the build was sponsored by Bud Light. (As can be seen below)
Disclaimer - its all that was available within walking distance..... to the fridge.
View attachment 1686244 View attachment 1686243
Quality of the work is directly affected by the quality of the beer
Seriously, much success to you in this endeavor. I did my swap over 2 years ago very similar to what your doing now. Amazing upgrade to the old truck! Stomp on the pedal and she shoots forward! Reliable as hell. It really expands the versatility of the truck. I routinely tow a travel trailer and this drivetrain has plenty of power and torque to spare. Mind you, I have a 5.3l so you’ll enjoy even more power and torque in the 6.0l.
Good luck and keep us posted!
-Ed
- Thread starter
- #25
Question -
Anyone have suggestions on what gears to run. I have bone stock 3.73s at the moment. I’m running 33” tires. But one day will spring over and run 35s. So a happy medium for both tire sizes and the motor combo? 4.11s would be my guess but experience always outweighs theory.
Also I believe I read somewhere that the ECU needs to be reprogrammed/flashed to whatever gears you are running. Is this correct? Seems strange - that would mean everytime you change gearing you would need a reflashed ECU?
Anyone have suggestions on what gears to run. I have bone stock 3.73s at the moment. I’m running 33” tires. But one day will spring over and run 35s. So a happy medium for both tire sizes and the motor combo? 4.11s would be my guess but experience always outweighs theory.
Also I believe I read somewhere that the ECU needs to be reprogrammed/flashed to whatever gears you are running. Is this correct? Seems strange - that would mean everytime you change gearing you would need a reflashed ECU?
Last edited:
Yeah, the computer needs the right drive ratio to get the shift points right. I upsized tires and now the transmission hunts for the right gear more than I’d like. Haven’t gotten around to having it updated.
I really liked the 33/4.11 combo I started with. Now I have 35s, and it seems to have lost a little bit of pep starting from a dead stop and on extreme grades (still a different league than the 2F).
I’ll likely go 4.56 at some point.
I really liked the 33/4.11 combo I started with. Now I have 35s, and it seems to have lost a little bit of pep starting from a dead stop and on extreme grades (still a different league than the 2F).
I’ll likely go 4.56 at some point.
- Thread starter
- #27
Thanks For the info Cam! 
- Thread starter
- #28
Game cancelled on account of rain.
Everything is ready. Just need to chain er up, remove motor mounts and crossmember.
This is project runway. (Or runaway depending how it goes -heh) Will it work? Guess we’ll find out. Need to run some screws to button the two pieces of plywood together. Seems solid. But..... time will tell.
Tomorrow is a big day. Get this old mule out of here. Excited!
Everything is ready. Just need to chain er up, remove motor mounts and crossmember.
This is project runway. (Or runaway depending how it goes -heh) Will it work? Guess we’ll find out. Need to run some screws to button the two pieces of plywood together. Seems solid. But..... time will tell.
Tomorrow is a big day. Get this old mule out of here. Excited!
Can you keep the lift stationary and just roll the truck back?
- Thread starter
- #30
I did leave about a car lengths room behind the truck just in case. So yes i can roll back. If things start looking a little shady I’ll enable that option for sure.
For anyone watching, this is not the optimal option for doing this. But its the only option I have. Cant let a challange get in the way of a new vortec for old blue. Dont try this at home kids.
- Thread starter
- #31
The Supervisor showed up today. Guess we got to do things by the book.
So after much debate, Calculus & Physics calculations (all done in my head of course) I decided against the runway idea above. Cameron confirmed my original intuition of just keeping the engine hoist stationary. So I utilized 3/4 inch plywood and chalked up all the wheels by utilizing small 2x4 pieces screwed down. The way it sits I have a slight slope to the right and slight downhill slope going away from the vehicle, so I didnt want anything getting away from me. I also used an additional piece of plywood under the transmission for the jack and chalked the wheels in the same manner.
Once we started lifting I was glad we did as both wanted to roll to the right a bit.
Once it was in the air the motor and trans. shifted regardless and the tranmission decided its happy place was against the right frame. This possed an issue as I couldn’t roll the truck back without hanging up.
So we decided to pull out a quad and hook up a winch to get the transmission sitting dead center and off the frame. Now we could push the truck back (or so we thought)
So after much debate, Calculus & Physics calculations (all done in my head of course) I decided against the runway idea above. Cameron confirmed my original intuition of just keeping the engine hoist stationary. So I utilized 3/4 inch plywood and chalked up all the wheels by utilizing small 2x4 pieces screwed down. The way it sits I have a slight slope to the right and slight downhill slope going away from the vehicle, so I didnt want anything getting away from me. I also used an additional piece of plywood under the transmission for the jack and chalked the wheels in the same manner.
Once we started lifting I was glad we did as both wanted to roll to the right a bit.
Once it was in the air the motor and trans. shifted regardless and the tranmission decided its happy place was against the right frame. This possed an issue as I couldn’t roll the truck back without hanging up.
So we decided to pull out a quad and hook up a winch to get the transmission sitting dead center and off the frame. Now we could push the truck back (or so we thought)
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #32
With the truck being on a slight incline and on gravel my father and I couldn’t push the truck back. Option B hook up another quad to winch it back. Problem solved.
After that everything went smooth as butter.
We dropped the motor down. Hooked up a qaud and moved the entire engine, hoist, and plywood (which seved as a sled) to an out of the way place in the backyard.
Successful day.
PM me if you need anything off an old 2F or an entire 2F. We’ll see if we can make a deal.
Next couple days will be cleaning up engine bay, frame, etc for a fresh coat of paint.
After that everything went smooth as butter.
We dropped the motor down. Hooked up a qaud and moved the entire engine, hoist, and plywood (which seved as a sled) to an out of the way place in the backyard.
Successful day.
PM me if you need anything off an old 2F or an entire 2F. We’ll see if we can make a deal.
Next couple days will be cleaning up engine bay, frame, etc for a fresh coat of paint.
Last edited:
Well done!
FYI: cherry picker rolled on 3/4 ply can be done...confirmed 15 years ago with a IHC V392...all 754 pounds of it...that event was also sponsored by Bud Light.
Strong work!
FYI: cherry picker rolled on 3/4 ply can be done...confirmed 15 years ago with a IHC V392...all 754 pounds of it...that event was also sponsored by Bud Light.
Strong work!
- Thread starter
- #34
Yeah, after today I 100% agree that the 3/4” plywood is plenty strong. My issue was that i had a slight slope so figured keeping it stationary was best. Bud Light may need to offer free beer to all those doing swaps on Ih8mud after all these free plugs. Haha
- Thread starter
- #35
Clean up on aisle six.
- Thread starter
- #36
Trigger happy grinder day.
- Thread starter
- #37
Fresh Coat of POR-15 to keep the rust demons away. The tin foil idea to cover areas that I don’t want painted was lifted off FJ60Cam’s build thread. Genius.
- Thread starter
- #39
I’m looking forward to it Elbert! All the build threads are helping a lot. Yours included. Thanks for documenting it all to help newbies like myself. Wouldn’t of attempted it without all the shared knowledge throughout the community here on Ih8mud.
- Thread starter
- #40
The next couple weeks will be waiting for parts to start arriving. Pretty much just ordering the parts I need to get the motor mounted and sitting right in the truck. This includes:
Advanced Adapter Transfer Case Adapter
Motor Mounts
Exhaust Manifolds
Oil Pan
Lokar Shifter
Transfer Case Rebuild Kit
Wiring Harness
Thats all I can think of. If there are items that I'm missing or items that are much easier to handle while the motor is out please don't hesitate to mention them. Trying to do it all in stages.
Stage 1 Removal of Old Motor - Accomplished
Stage 2 Mounting New Motor
Stage 3 Everything Else
Helps me stay organized and less overwhelmed I guess.
Transfer case rebuild will be the priority while I wait for the above parts. A little nervous about getting in there, but has to be done. Hopefully its not as complicated as it looks.
Advanced Adapter Transfer Case Adapter
Motor Mounts
Exhaust Manifolds
Oil Pan
Lokar Shifter
Transfer Case Rebuild Kit
Wiring Harness
Thats all I can think of. If there are items that I'm missing or items that are much easier to handle while the motor is out please don't hesitate to mention them. Trying to do it all in stages.
Stage 1 Removal of Old Motor - Accomplished
Stage 2 Mounting New Motor
Stage 3 Everything Else
Helps me stay organized and less overwhelmed I guess.
Transfer case rebuild will be the priority while I wait for the above parts. A little nervous about getting in there, but has to be done. Hopefully its not as complicated as it looks.