Builds 77 FJ40 Build, It begins...and may take a while (1 Viewer)

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

have 4:56 which should work out well. another mud member had the same engine tranny combo and he went from 4:11 to 4:56 and said it was perfect
 
so I'm reading that the electric fans should not be used with 4 core rads as they cause too much resistance and are hard on the fans. not sure how true this is. i still want to go this way but am wondering if i should be looking at aluminum 3 core rad which suggest they can still cool up to 500 hp V8 engines. i have seen cruiser corps, cool cruisers, champion, be cool ($$$) and redline all having drop in aluminum rads. cool cruisers is a 4 core again though. cruiser corps has more fins which makes me think that even though its a 3 core it may still have higher resistance than stock 3 core rads. anyone used any of these or other drop in rads and have good things to say? i don't want to get a radiator thats only going to last 3 years before having troubles.
 
Last edited:
Champion has a good name and works well..
 
have 4:56 which should work out well. another mud member had the same engine tranny combo and he went from 4:11 to 4:56 and said it was perfect

I have 4.56s, when I get rich and buy the air lockers, I'm going with 5.38s - even in low range it still moves right along, it's certainly not my H3 with its 4:1 low range.

I know how much the haters hate my old C3 Corvette - but as you bring up cooling with a 4 core... it does apply

to be honest, even the Pantera's cooling is rocket science compared to the C3 Corvette. It has several issues:
1) it's angled so that the air has to come up from the bottom (they are bottom breathers), make a 180* turn then somehow find its way out of the engine compartment
2) even with a mechanical fan, when you were above 120 mph it simply couldn't cool
3) not so much a 4x4 issue - but by doing that air flow, GM designed the nose to lift at speed because it pushed against the hood before it went through the radiator.

That said, it was an 11:1 compression motor with a stupid-large cam (that sounded so sweet, and would flat scoot about 4500 rpm), an 850 DP Holley carb, side pipes and unwrapped heaters.... and never, ever got warmer then 185* - which was the setting I had the fans come on. It was an aluminum 4 core radiator that I stupidly changed when some internet brainaic convinced me that aluminum would cool better then copper.... (it also informs why I have such a low tolerance of keyboard jockeys). It didn't, but dual fans on a 4 core worked just fine. What I did do that solved all the cooling problems was created easy paths for the air to leave. The gills on the side of C3 Corvettes are blocked from the factory - I opened them, and the hood scoop was there to let the heat out. I never overheated - even when doing open road runs here in Washington at 140 mph plus.
 
well i talked to my rad guy and he said the 4 core I have is just fine with a good fan and shroud. I got it pressure tested and cleaned up and put this on it today
image.jpeg

is the flex a lite black magic fan. not cheap but looks like it was designed to fit the rad. it is perfect!! I figure while crawling this will cool better than a low rpm engine driven fan. comes with thermostat and mounting stuff. I'll probably put a kill switch in too some can shut it off for water crossings and then flip it back on. we'll see. at least I know where my rad and fan will sit so I can continue on now with engine placement!!
 
mulling over fuel tank options. id like put one under the truck and get rid of the in cab one. one like the Downey tank. if I were to do this I may need to put my shocks in front of my axle to make room as my axle had been moved back a little. any problem with putting them in front?
 
Last edited:
no problem with shock location in front of the axle
 
with it sprung over I'm going to build an anti wrap bar so im not worried about axle wrap so much. just handling characteristics. I didn't think it'd matter and a few of you guys with loads of landcruiser experience all seem to say the same thing
 
The reason I stuck with the stock tank is weight. I've noticed when I have 2 people in the back of my 40 the worse it hooks up-especially on climbs. Night and day difference. So I avoid loading up the back, if it's a steep climb I make the back passengers get out. So I figured a tank of fuel behind the rear axle would be bad for weight distribution when wheeling as well. 20 gallons of fuel is a lot of weight. I've thought about getting the long range tank that mounts under both front seats, but I think I'll just think ahead and top off b4 I go on a long journey as I have been for now.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't worry about an anti-wrap bar unless you start having troubles. Problem with the anti-wrap bars include: limiting articulation, creates another hang-up point underneath. You could do a sliding-style traction bar, but those tend to get rusty and freeze (along with a sound like your car is coming apart when they unload then load). Another idea is use half a spring as an anti-wrap bar.... all have limitations, but honesty unless you have the hp and/or gearing it's really unneeded and could make the over-all handling/traction substantially worse*

16_18.jpg


*I have a friend who we put a track bar on his F350 4 door cab 4x4 - it wasn't terribly good off road before (too many trees in the PNW), but I have a great picture of having to pull him out of a wet field because the suspension simply couldn't hook up.... I pulled him out with my 81 2wd shortbed chevy truck.... yeah, it was pretty bad (the rest of the story is the field was clay and I pulled him from dry ground)....
 
most of my style off road is going to be adventure trails that i want range for. I'll be doing trails that have lots of steep muddy creek crossings and sandy hills. not much for rocks in my part of the world. I may branch out later into rocks but this rig is supposed to be a very capable truck that I can drive to the trail. that's why I thought the bigger tank would be nice plus i like the idea of it being outside the cab. with good springs I should be able to handle the weight back there no?

as for anti wrap bar my thoughts were I've seen guys with low gears snap a pinion accidently by loading it climbing a hill. now it's a mistake to let the rear compress as you hit the gas and I dont drive like that but I'd hate to do all this work and then find I wish I had it later. I'm not going to have crazy power but good low end torque with 4:56. am I over killing this idea? the rest of my build is overkill!!
 
Run a conventional antiwrap bar with your springover. Make it as flat as possible and as strong as possible. Shackle should hang down from the mount to the bar.

Like this is perfectly functional
250921d1150854034-traction-bars-antiwrapbar.jpg
 
most of my style off road is going to be adventure trails that i want range for. I'll be doing trails that have lots of steep muddy creek crossings and sandy hills. not much for rocks in my part of the world. I may branch out later into rocks but this rig is supposed to be a very capable truck that I can drive to the trail. that's why I thought the bigger tank would be nice plus i like the idea of it being outside the cab. with good springs I should be able to handle the weight back there no?

as for anti wrap bar my thoughts were I've seen guys with low gears snap a pinion accidently by loading it climbing a hill. now it's a mistake to let the rear compress as you hit the gas and I dont drive like that but I'd hate to do all this work and then find I wish I had it later. I'm not going to have crazy power but good low end torque with 4:56. am I over killing this idea? the rest of my build is overkill!!
Whether u build it for rocks or sandy and muddy hills it will affect how it climbs. Lots of guys run rear tanks though for more distance. More than likely whatever springs u run will handle the weight of a rear tank fine. Just keep in mind as I mentioned earlier u can get a long range tank that mounts under the front seats if u want. Man a fre sells it.
 
whats with all the guys having neck or back problems! i had the day set aside to go work on my 40 and woke up nearly (ok ill be honest...actually) in tears with my neck. I've had some neck muscle troubles recently and just started physio for it this week. man was today bad though. even th original injury didn't hurt like today did!! i'm totally bummed about it as i don't get many chances to take a full day to work on the 40. thankfully i have tomorrow off too and am hoping things will have settled enough to use tomorrow instead. i think i'll at least try at least to go get some metal to make some new rear frame gussets as buying them is like $400. metal isn't worth that much. i just have to see if i can get the right size channel. maybe this is a sign i'm getting old. boo!:(

on the upside though i think the downey tank is going to fit so i may drown my sorrows by buying some parts
 
Last edited:
so finding that shape and size of c channel is going to be more difficult than I thought. I might just have to pay the crazy high price as its not worth my time to build them even at that cost. c channel would be easy but to cut and bend sheet metal and still have to weld it all up. that'll take too much valuable time away from actually moving forward with my build. maybe a can find some good used ones
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom