i have a 73 fj40 with a 3 speed tranny. a few people have told me that the inline 6 was a chevy motor that toyota bought the rights to and a v8 would bolt up to the 3 speed and all i would have to do is buy motor mounts. are these guys full of it or am i about to do a v8 swap. thanks
another 350 question
- Thread starter bigjakeok
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I though the sbc would bolt up to the 3 speed
inkpot
SILVER Star
Howdy! This swap is easier than many, but certainly no piece of cake. Do some searching here on MUD for engine swaps, and contact some vendors to see what all is required/available to do this. Spector Off Road, Manafre, Downey Off Road, and Advanced Adapters are some of the major suppliers. John
There is an old chevy bell housing that will bolt up the the 4 speed tranny. When my PO was setting mine up the guy that rebuilt the 350 in mine came up with one. So there is one out there.
Cruiserdrew
On the way there
There are plenty of Chevy bell housings that bolt up to Chevy 4 speeds, but not to a Cruiser 4 speed. The input shaft of the Cruiser trannys are longer than Chevy input shafts by a small amount, and that's why they are not compatible.
There are Custom bellhousings that adapt SBC to LC 4 speed
And you can use 3 Speed Land Cruiser bellhousings to adapt an F or 2F or 3FE to Chevy 4 speeds.
inkpot
SILVER Star
I think that was the old cast iron bell from the Chevy pickups from the 50's and 60's. Seems like ya had to drill out the threads on two holes so you could use the right bolts in the right direction. Two front to back, and two back to font? I think that did require a centering plate. The hole in the back of the bell is a bit bigger than the step on the front of the transmisison, so a 1/4" plate with the smaller hole is used between the two. It just mounts on the same 4 bolts holes. I think AcLCA just picked up both the bell and plate when they bought up the inventory of a small shop that went out of business. I almost used that setup 30+ years ago when I dropped a 350 into my 72 FJ40, but I opted for the SM 465 instead. I still have my AA books from then. John
Mark's of Australia makes the most painless small block Chevy conversion kit, though currently it is running around $1300 USD. It is designed to work with the 4-speed transmission, but it will work with the 3-speed if one of the mounts is altered. It has also been used with the so-called Aussie 5-speed, but I do not know if anything needs to be altered for it.
The kit inserts a second bellhousing between the SBC and the stock Toyota bellhousing. The Mark's bellhousing contains the Chevy flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. There is a long splined shaft and a throwout bearing shaft that connects it to the Toyota bellhousing. The Toyota bellhousing has the throwout parts, including the hydraulic clutch cylinder. This setup uses a Chevy starter. All that needs to be altered on the FJ40 are two scab plates that are welded to the frame for the SBC motor mounts, which are included in the kit. There is no cutting of the firewall, as the SBC is speced forward enough to clear. The stock radiator can be used. My understanding is that this kit will also work with a Chevy 292 Six, since the bellhousing pattern is the same. I don't know about the motor mounts. Advance Adaptors sells these kits. Check their website.
Block hugger header can be used, but on my setup two tubes touched the stock steering box and had to be dimpled. I'm going to replace these with cast iron Rams Horns hopefully before summer is out.
If your transmission and transfer case need to be rebuilt, this would be a good time to upgrade to a 4 or 5 speed, the latter being quite a bit more expensive, but hey, overdrive is well worth it.
Another expensive alternative is to install a Ranger overdrive between the SBC bellhousing and the Toyota transmission. This spaces the SBC forward enough so the firewall does not need to be cut.
Conversions that use a different bellhousing only often have issues with spacing the SBC ahead of the firewall. Either the firewall has to be altered, or the stock transmission must be moved forward, with all the headaches that involves.
The kit inserts a second bellhousing between the SBC and the stock Toyota bellhousing. The Mark's bellhousing contains the Chevy flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. There is a long splined shaft and a throwout bearing shaft that connects it to the Toyota bellhousing. The Toyota bellhousing has the throwout parts, including the hydraulic clutch cylinder. This setup uses a Chevy starter. All that needs to be altered on the FJ40 are two scab plates that are welded to the frame for the SBC motor mounts, which are included in the kit. There is no cutting of the firewall, as the SBC is speced forward enough to clear. The stock radiator can be used. My understanding is that this kit will also work with a Chevy 292 Six, since the bellhousing pattern is the same. I don't know about the motor mounts. Advance Adaptors sells these kits. Check their website.
Block hugger header can be used, but on my setup two tubes touched the stock steering box and had to be dimpled. I'm going to replace these with cast iron Rams Horns hopefully before summer is out.
If your transmission and transfer case need to be rebuilt, this would be a good time to upgrade to a 4 or 5 speed, the latter being quite a bit more expensive, but hey, overdrive is well worth it.
Another expensive alternative is to install a Ranger overdrive between the SBC bellhousing and the Toyota transmission. This spaces the SBC forward enough so the firewall does not need to be cut.
Conversions that use a different bellhousing only often have issues with spacing the SBC ahead of the firewall. Either the firewall has to be altered, or the stock transmission must be moved forward, with all the headaches that involves.
I have had a SBC in front of a 3 speed trans in my FJ40 for 30 years. I did the swap on my 74 in 1979;
The Advance Adapters kit had a spacer to put between the bellhousing and the transmission to get the proper spaving for the Toyota input shaft.
I used a 1953 Chevrolet passenger car bellhousing for the swap and it fit fine and has worked well for thirty years.
I also used the slave cylinder bracket from AA to get proper spacing.
At the time, Advance suggested using a GM Borg and Beck style three finger pressure plate as they said it allowed more movement between the clutchand pressure plate.
The Advance Adapters kit had a spacer to put between the bellhousing and the transmission to get the proper spaving for the Toyota input shaft.
I used a 1953 Chevrolet passenger car bellhousing for the swap and it fit fine and has worked well for thirty years.
I also used the slave cylinder bracket from AA to get proper spacing.
At the time, Advance suggested using a GM Borg and Beck style three finger pressure plate as they said it allowed more movement between the clutchand pressure plate.
The 292 does bolt up to the SBC bellhousing. How ever there is something that I think may create headaches if you try using the Marks kit to put a 292 in a 40. The 292 is about the same length as the F and 2F so this would require the tranny and transfer case to be moved back the same amount as the depth of the Marks BH. This would negate the positive aspects of using the Marks BH with the SBC to keep the tranny and TC in the stock location.
Downey
SILVER Star
Big Jake, just about everything I read above is correct. Your main issues are:
(1) The Landcruiser input shaft is too long, consequently a spacer must be built-in or go between the bellhousing and tranny to keep from cramming the input shaft into the Chevy crank!!!
(2) There is also the question of engine-to-tranny alignment. You loose that when you merely redrill a Chevy bellhousing. Alignment must be established on machined surfaces, that's why you need an adapter!!!
(1) The Landcruiser input shaft is too long, consequently a spacer must be built-in or go between the bellhousing and tranny to keep from cramming the input shaft into the Chevy crank!!!
(2) There is also the question of engine-to-tranny alignment. You loose that when you merely redrill a Chevy bellhousing. Alignment must be established on machined surfaces, that's why you need an adapter!!!
you're killin me, too much info. i was wondering the same thing.
