Alrighty, so here is a re-cap on the engine install and what we had to do to fit it along with a few things we encountered. I think most if not all of this is standard for anybody doing a swap but if this helps anybody, great!!
First up, the Marks Adapter comes with some funky o-rings they call "sealing rings". When we fitted these it was obvious these were not a very good design. They go on the trans end of the adapter and get smashed if you torque down the adapter. After a quick call to Australia Marks informed us it is an old design and the only adapter they have ever made with these "sealing rings". They said leave it out if you want which we did. We just used a high quality ultra black sealant on the adapter sealing surfaces. We did have to shorten I think it was three bolts because they were bottoming out in the holes before the adapter was fully tightened down. Other than this fitting the adapter was super easy. One final note though, the stock LX t-case shifter won't work with this adapter without modifying. It does not line up with the mounting bolt holes on the adapter and the configuration of the mounting bolt holes is also different. We will definitely be using the 90-91 FJ80 shifter so we have 1-2-3-D rather than 2-3-D. If it looks like the FJ80 t-case shifter stuff will work we will use that too. If not maybe FJ60 shifter stuff or simply go fully custom.
When we first stabbed the engine in the LX we bolted up the transfer case adapter to the stock cross member in the stock location. This caused the engine to be back all the way against the firewall. FYI, the Chevy block is 32" long and the 1FZ is 37" long approximately plus there is that recess in the firewall for an inline-6. We also had like 5" or so between fan and radiator. When Peter bought the LQ9 from Turn Key I advised him to get a mechanical fan which he did. Turn Key supplies the engine ready to go for electric fans but does not include fans. I like mechanical better and don't want to get in a mechanical vs elctrical right now but basically I like mechanical due to past experiences with v8's in Cruisers. So we decided to modify the stock cross member and move the engine forward about 2.75". To do this we made and then welded a plate onto the stock cross member that is 2.75" approx in front of the stock trans mount holes in the cross member. We decided as well to move the whole power train about 3/4" over to the RHS which we built into our cross member mods. The reason for this is because the 1FZ is not mounted center in these trucks, it is offset to the LHS a bit. On top of this clearance issues will be encountered for exhaust manifolds and power steering pump on the LHS due to the steering box and few other small items. So in summary we moved the v8 engine 2.75" forward and 3/4" to the RHS approximately from how the 1FZ sits in the engine bay. The t-case shifter mount on the Marks adapter lines up nearly perfect with the original hole for the t-case shifter in the trans hump.
Now the t-case cross member is pretty much your locater in a swap like this unless you are fabbing your own cross member from scratch. As mentioned we moved the whole power train forward and there is only a few ways to do that for the trans/t-case cross member. I personally did not and do not feel like moving the cross member mounts on the frame, it is easier to modify the mount on the cross member in my opinion. If you were to try and move the cross member forward you will also have to narrow it which is a lot of work to do right. So to start layout and placement of the engine we used the cross member and just like I said above, we didn't like the stock set up so we modified it to suit our build. We picked the easiest way to do this and actually simply modified an old 80-series cross member I had around that suited a 5.7L vortec v8 and 4L60e. By moving the power train forward it gave us great clearance at the firewall for the engine, tons of room which is super nice! No more PHH!! It also gave us fairly good clearance for fan to radiator as you can see in the picture I posted above, it is about 2.5". All this needs is a custom fan shroud and it is rock and roll time.
Next up was height of the engine in the engine bay. Once again the trans cross member locates everything however there is a sweet spot that the rubber mount likes to sit in and not be stress or torqued which in my opinion will shorten life of the rubber mount a lot. We played with height a lot, mostly to try and get the engine (and in turn the t-case rear output) at the stock Chevy 5*. We were unable to do this because the hood has to close! The motor is just to high to set it up at those degrees. Peter is super against body lift but I think I have him convinced to do a 1-1.25" and he really doesn't have much choice. We set the engine and t-case output at 3.5* because that is the best we could do, even with a 1" body lift. He may even have to run a hood scoop anyways on top of the body lift, unsure right now but it is looking like he only has to do that if he wants to run the top cover on the engine. A person can leave off the top cover on the engine and gain maybe 1/2" and gain another 1/2" by clearancing the mounts for the cover on top of the manifold. With the top cover left off the engine the hood will close on the first ltach but not the second so it doesn't need much to cure our issue here it is just up to Peter how he wants to go with it. The fan lines up nearly perfect with the radiator, not to high or to low so I am happy with the height of the engine in the engine bay. Pinion angle on rear diff is 2.85* with a medium amount of weight in the truck and t-case output like I say is 3.5* so that is good too.
For engine mounts we used Ruff Stuff LS mounts. That covered the engine side of things but not the frame side. For the frame side we just fabricated our own. We used some 3/8" wall 2" box tubing and welded the poly bushing sleeve to that. We then scribed and coped the tubing on the frame side to fit the frame rails. After these were made and welded in place we came back and put a gusset under them which is 3/8". Super strong and beefy that is for sure. Also easy to install or remove with plenty of access to get at the bolts. Not knowing exactly how and where the new engine mounts would play out and land is why we plated the frame. I like plating a frame when I add things because it allows me to burn on the "whatever" with a fair amount of heat and not worry about burning through the frame. So the frame plates were not really needed but I like them and it let me toss some heat at the mounts when I welded them on.
In relation to the height of the engine as well as forward to back placement. We ended up with 4.5" under the oil pan to the tie rod. The LQ9 did come with a low clearance oil pan so we have that already. Even with the engine all the way back in the engine bay the oil pan was still above the tie rod. Unable to raise the engine higher we just went with the 4.5". Currently the LX has a 2.5" OME lift. It may have to get more lift, bump stops dropped or even steering reconfigured if the tie rod into the oil pan becomes an issue. Dropping the bumps I think is a for sure for now to stop any issues but other things can be done as well.
IIRC, Turn Key supplied us with Camero exhaust manifolds. We have test fited these and there is plenty of room for the dump off them and running exhaust inside the frame rails. This was a concern because I have had this issue on my last v8 FJ80 I had. All is good though and with these manifolds plus our engine placement no issues at all which is really nice.
That is about it folks, my part in all this is now done. We were going to take the LX to Boise today to drop it off for wiring, exhaust, driveline and other work but a blizzard blew in last night. Plus there was still a half day worth of stuff to do this morning. So we canceled that plan and I will take the LX over to Boise sometime in the next week or so to drop it off. I am super jealous of Peters truck! I have a really nice UZJ100 right now I like a lot but the 80-series is simply my favorite USA spec Cruiser hands down. In particular with a rocking brand new 390hp v8! Best truck you can get in this country in my opinion.
Here you can see the frame side mounts we fabricated. I would like to see the top of the mount on the outer edge closed off with a small plate welded in at an angle but we didn't have time for that last night. Right now it will trap water/mud so it either needs to be closed off on top or a couple holes drilled on the underside for drainage.
And here you can see how much room we gave ourselves on the LHS due to steering box, brake and fuel lines.
Oh ya, one last thing. The Turn Key LQ9 came with a standard Saginaw P/S pump. The low pressure hard line sticking out the side of the pump is an issue. It won't clear the steering box even after we offset the engine 1/2-3/4" to the RHS. So this will have to be modified and dealt with but all in all fairly minor to overcome in the grand scheme of things.
Cheers
