'94 FZJ80 Budget V8 Swap - SBC vs Vortec (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Mar 2, 2016
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Location
Albany Oregon
Hey H8rs,

I've been doing some research into moving forward on a swap in my '94. It's got a 2.5" lift, factory Elockers, and some new duratracs. I've been exceptionally pleased with everything about the vehicle, except for one thing... It's 278K miles and the motor is showing signs that she is on her last legs. So I've been doing some digging into getting her a new heart.

I'm mostly posting this thread for two reasons, one to gather opinions on which would be the easier and more cost effective swap, and the second to keep track of my thoughts and progress as I move forward. sort of like a build thread.

Notes:

I'm okay with an Automatic transmission, that doesn't bother me at all.
I'm a little unfamiliar with transmission or T case work, as this is my first serious 4x4 project.
Budget is a primary concern. I would like to keep costs down under $2,000. less spent the better.


I'd like to put out an open question to gather your opinions, many of the newer vortec V8's are becoming very affordable out of junkyards, but SBC's are real easy, real simple, and real cheap.
I'm not really towing anything, I just want something with a healthy mix of power ~250 HP ~250 TQ and decent mileage. At least 10 MPG hwy.

thanks all for your help. I'll be continuing to read through other peoples threads as I go. any hints or tips on this matter are always appreciated, keep up the good work!

/Rex
 
There are two big things that give me the indication.
1) I get some pretty heavy oily smoke on startup and on acceleration.
2) I can hear what I assume to be the beginnings of a knock

also, not as serious, but the front of the engine when I purchased the truck was basically covered in a mass of built-up oil. I cleaned it off with a pressure washer to watch where it is coming from, and it seems to be either the front main seal (easy fix) or whatever is hidden behind a small plate on the lower right of the engines face.

also EGR is toast and many of the hoses are wrapped with sealing tape. kind of a mess to be honest, fun project though.

edit: I have zero information on when ANYTHING was done to this truck, in the sense of any sort of servicing. I imagine that it wasn't very well taken care of in it's early years.
 
I picked up an 80k mileage perfectly running 6.0l lsx with 4l80 attached on ls1tech for 700 bucks last year. I would keep my eyes peeled for 5.3 or 6.0 and 4l80e they can be had cheap if you look. I hear advanceadapters has a 4l80e to hf2a adapter
 
Correct onthe 4L80E adapter.

And $700 for a lsx and a 4L80??! I'd have the swap done and truck sold three times by now if I could find something like that.

$2k for a full swap is extremely ambitious. The adapter alone to make your t-case work with a chevy transmission is $1400.. and you are unlikely to find it much cheaper anywhere else. Add up all the other stuff.. f-body oil pan, motor mounts, stock headers won't work, cable kit for the shift linkage, etc etc etc..

All of that said.. there are literally dozens of threads in this section about LS/vortec swaps. Anything you want to know has been covered at length.
 
Yep I don't think 2k is reasonable unless you manage to find a motor that bolts up directly to that transmission 94 is an a442 tranny right? How will you control that tranny once you swap out the motor?
 
Buy a spare 1FZ motor and go thru it, fix whatever needs tp be done, and swap it in. Saw a 330,000 motor swapped out with a 140,000 mile motor for less than your budget. Easy peasy!!
 
Not going to happen for 2 grand. You can buy a good used engine for around 1 grand.
 
ya for 2k you can rebuild your current engine. Id go that route maybe get some head work done, cams and exhaust for a little pep but youre limited with your stock EFI
 
Like @Box Rocket said, do a leak down test. Your smoke is most likely coming from bad valve seals. If the leak down passes, use your money for a head refurbish and head gasket. Then do a cooling system redo and you should hit budget and be good to go to likely 400,000
 
The adapter alone to make your t-case work with a chevy transmission is $1400.. and you are unlikely to find it much cheaper anywhere else.

just a psa....today 1 us dollar bought 1.32 aus dollars. also, aussies build tax into their prices and it gets backed out when shipping overseas. shipping from oz to us seems to run $40 us? which seems like a lot, but a junk yard just gouged me for $20 to ship a pcm from idaho to colorado :meh:, so not that bad imo. so you shave $400 or so off the adapter, still difficult to sneak in under $2k w/ a gm imo.
 
There is absolutely no way you can do any kind of swap for 2K, not gonna happen !

If you do it yourself, shop extremely smart and get incredibly lucky, you 'might' get in done for 5/6 K but even that's gonna be a stretch.....
 
It can be done if you can be patient and have the time. Find a salvaged Truck with the engine you want. Pull everything you need and part out the rest. Sell all the parts that you no longer need in your 94 (ecu etc) By doing this I paid for the cost of the vehicle so I got a free engine and tranny and cover part of the cost of the adapter. That being said, the small stuff really adds up so be ready for that.
 
With all that I've read on here, combined with some further research on my end, it does indeed look like keeping with the 1FZ-FE is going to be my best choice. I am worried about that little bottom end knock that I think I am hearing, of course it could just be a really...noticable tick/tock of something else.

My gameplan is most likely going to be finding a low mileage 1FZ-FE and doing a refresh on it while it is on an engine stand. I've found a couple examples of engines from $900-$1200, and I've budgeted in a couple hundred bucks for things like new water pumps, gaskets, plugs, etc. I'll just need to do some more research on what sort of years are cross compatible, since my truck is an OBD1 (1994). I imagine the process of upgrading from OBDI to OBDII is far too much of a hassle to be worthwhile, so I don't think I'll be embarking on that journey, and just search for early model 1FZ's.

The other alternative would be to purchase a cheap parts truck and split it with a buddy. I've got a lot of new things to research and I really appreciate all of your help! I'll keep this page running to keep you privy to my progress. Maybe I'll take a video of the truck idling so that you guys can tell me if I'm crazy or not hearing what I hear.

thanks again, you guys are great!
 
These motors aren't exactly quiet...

Fix the leaks, drive it like hell.

You can replace a lot of seals in an engine for $2000. Or buy a lot of oil. :hillbilly:
 
No joke, hahah.

Well, I'll grab a video and show you guys. If I can be convince it isn't a rod knock, hell I'll just pull the head and get it rebuilt. have a good time! I have a check engine light because the EGR is all borked too, so maybe I'll delete that while I'm in there. one more thing to research. I've heard that the 1fz was originally designed to run WITHOUT EGR, and that it was just sort of 'slapped on' to meet US regs. I'll do some digging, but I have a feeling I'm gonna get to know my 1fz very closely.

thanks again.
 
Yep. I don't believe anywhere else in the world has EGR on the 1FZ-FE.

I'm not an expert but I'm curious if other parts of the world have HG issues like some do here in the states. The EGR dumps in to #6 which is a fairly popular failure point on the 1FZ-FE. Maybe it's just a coincidence...
 

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