Another L92 Swap (1 Viewer)

[ButterManJones]

Hello ladies and gents. I'll keep the preamble short: I have a triple locked LX450 on 35's that needed more power, so it's getting an L92 and a 6l80e. I planned on setting a record for how well I was going to document this swap process, but I have done an exceedingly terrible job at this. Then again, I also planned on having this thing running 2 months ago. I'll try to keep this thread at least mostly updated as I get things done, but this is mostly meant as a resource for people to ask questions from a guy who's tackling a project that's waaaaay outside the scope of the kind of work he should probably be tackling on his own.

This picture is of the LX getting bogged down on "the wall" at Spring Creek, and was the first time I really started to consider swapping out the 4.5

 

[ButterManJones]

Here is the donor vehicle. It's a 2008 Escalade that supposedly has 100k miles on the engine/trans. The thing was a disgusting piece of toddler stricken garbage otherwise, so I got a screaming deal on it. I would definitely recommend doing this swap with a donor vehicle if for no other reasons than accessibility to every possible original L92 part and body parts to sell on craigslist. I have a running total of money in and out for this project, and at the time of writing this, I'm actually $400 into profit.

 

[ButterManJones]

I got extremely lucky again, and the project started with a local(ish) guy paying me to swap my old engine/trans into his Cruiser (this is also a big factor as to how I'm at a profit for the project so far).

 

[ButterManJones]

Once I was done losing all of my project time to work, weather, part shipping times, and putting lifts on buddies' trucks, I finally got around to refreshing the new engine. I took it down as far as the heads and replaced every gasket I could along the way. Right before this, I had thrown the Trail Gear 3.1 low gear into the transfer case. That was a good indicator for the rest of the swap was going to go. 2 bearings murdered themselves on the way out, and the new gear had a coating in the threads that I couldn't remove without destroying a couple of bolts. Between the bearings and bolts, that put me back almost 3 weeks just waiting for parts to come in. Finding part numbers to order alone took a couple hours on the phone with the local dealership.

 

[ButterManJones]

I of course got the Marks4wd kit that makes this whole thing possible. Every other thread I've come across had people making new motor mounts even with the kit. I don't know if I was the only one brave enough to try or if Marks just updated their kit, but I was able to bolt the engine in on the stock frame mounts. I had to switch the L and R side motor mounts from Marks to compensate for the steering being on different sides, but it fits great. There's a VERY slight angle to the engine because of this, but it's not enough that anyone but me will ever even notice it, and I couldn't care less. The transfer case adapter, however, gave me mixed feelings. Everything bolted up perfectly to the transmission, but putting the transfer case onto the back was a massive pain in the ass. Half the threaded holes in the adapter stripped with insanely light pressure (aluminum threads are a plague on mankind), so the tcase and adapter are now connected permanently. At least you don't need loctite if you cross thread it. I had to put the tcase in after mounting the engine/trans because I didn't have anyone around to help me with that much awkwardly placed weight on the hoist. I would STRONGLY recommend mating the entire drivetrain together outside the car and being patient enough to wait for a second or third pair of hands to help from there. Can't complain too much about an engine that bolted in first drop in though. The trans crossmember was a different story though. I was expecting a 5 minute bolt in, but it took me about 8 hours to get mounted. Just bad luck with tolerance stacking and pinch points, so I don't think it's worth going into other than I got it in.

 

[ButterManJones]

Pro tip, cutting this bit of fin off the power steering fluid reservoir gets you a lot more room, but you will have to weld it up as this opens up a hole into the reservoir. Thankfully part of my preparation for this project was buying a tig welder. At this point, all of the big physical parts are back together. Driveshafts clear (I already had a Tom Woods DC shaft in the front. Just had to flip it 180, so we'll see if that causes any weird driveline vibrations later), headers clear (I'm using knockoff hooker swap headers from Ebay that I got for just over $100. I can shoot a link to anyone that may want it), tons of room up front, beautiful firewall clearance, and it looks like the hood might even fit over the stock alternator mounting location. If the hood doesn't clear as is, I was already planning on adding venting to it anyways, so I have no plans of moving the alternator.

 

[ButterManJones]

This of course leaves me at everyone's favorite point: spaghetti dinner. I just got all the harnesses (minus BCM wiring) freed of their looms this evening. It was honestly funny the difference in quality between the two. The Lexus looming was still very solid, while the much newer Escalade loom more or less fell apart. Here is where I will ask others for guidance. I can't seem to find reliable EWD's for either vehicle, and there's no way I'm going to start removing anything until I'm 110% positive I have it nailed down. I was supposed to meet up with a local guy from Mud who's done a similar swap to pick his brain, but he has since ghosted me. I don't expect anyone to magically have a merged harness diagram for me, but anyone with an EWD would be repaid handsomely.

 

[Fj80oregon]

In the resources section they cruiser EWD is available for free to download.

 

[ButterManJones]

In the resources section they cruiser EWD is available for free to download.

Well that's a huge step in the right direction. Thanks!

 

[ButterManJones]

Well, after almost 2 moths of radio silence, I'm finally making progress again. After spending hours and hours stressing out while staring at wiring diagrams and tearing into harnesses, I decided to suck it up and get a pre made harness. I ordered one from wiring specialties that should be here within a week or 2. It comes with a tuned PCM, a BCM type module that handles all the trans controls like tap shifting and tow/haul mode. Aside from that, the Lexus is waiting for its first start. Fuel lines are done, including the charcoal canister rework to keep it from over pressurizing. I had an incident last summer where it was fire hose blasting fuel out of the tank while several miles deep into a trail. I didn't think to get a picture or video, because I was too concerned about manning the fire extinguisher incase there was a spark that burned down the car or the forest. I know a lot of people put the fuel regulator down by the frame, but I opted to throw it right on the fuel rail to maintain as much factory fuel line as possible. You'll notice I also opted to not use the fancy painted wrenches for the AN lines

 

[ButterManJones]

I spent all day today getting the tcase shifter into place. I had assumed that the Mark's adapter would be a more or less bolt on ordeal, but apparently the fj80 and fzj80 tcase shifters use different mounting brackets. I started by cutting a bit of the sheet metal away, as the new mounting location moved the shifter up a bit and clearance was an issue with the pivot point on the shifter. I then fabbed up an ugly bracket (hoping I never have to look at it again) and straightened the bend that comes factory in the shift lever. I forgot to grab a pic of the shift lever torn apart, but there's a roll pin under the rubber that holds the 2 rotational axes together. I popped that all apart, threw some heat at it, and straightened with a bfh and a tiny lil anvil that the previous owners of my house left behind. I put it all back together with the roll pin, epoxied the upper portion of the lever back on (it was originally held on with glue from the factory that converted to smoke after heating it), and bolted it all together. Shifting feels very smooth, and now it doesn't have that weird rear facing angle in low gear that it came with

 

[leonard_nemoy]

 

[White Stripe]

I spent all day today getting the tcase shifter into place. I had assumed that the Mark's adapter would be a more or less bolt on ordeal, but apparently the fj80 and fzj80 tcase shifters use different mounting brackets. I started by cutting a bit of the sheet metal away, as the new mounting location moved the shifter up a bit and clearance was an issue with the pivot point on the shifter. I then fabbed up an ugly bracket (hoping I never have to look at it again) and straightened the bend that comes factory in the shift lever. I forgot to grab a pic of the shift lever torn apart, but there's a roll pin under the rubber that holds the 2 rotational axes together. I popped that all apart, threw some heat at it, and straightened with a bfh and a tiny lil anvil that the previous owners of my house left behind. I put it all back together with the roll pin, epoxied the upper portion of the lever back on (it was originally held on with glue from the factory that converted to smoke after heating it), and bolted it all together. Shifting feels very smooth, and now it doesn't have that weird rear facing angle in low gear that it came withView attachment 3381014View attachment 3381015View attachment 3381017View attachment 3381018View attachment 3381013

Haha I used the same method for labeling my wires except I used green masking tape. Eventually I just bought a label maker which looks really nice. How are you going to get passed emissions?

 

[ButterManJones]

Haha I used the same method for labeling my wires except I used green masking tape. Eventually I just bought a label maker which looks really nice. How are you going to get passed emissions?

This engine runs a fair amount cleaner than the stock one, so I'm hoping with the escalade cats welded in I can sneak through. If not, Arizona plates

 

[ButterManJones]

Well, first start up happened a couple weeks ago. It only runs for a few seconds without stumbling and stalling with no o2 or intake sensors plugged in right now, but it starts! Now just the millions of tiny projects to get it driving. First up was fabbing a throttle pedal bracket. The pedal out of the Escalade was never going to fit in a way that I liked, so I got a generic pedal off of Amazon and swapped the sensor over from the Escalade pedal. From there it was just a matter of eyeballing and holding it in the spot I wanted until I found the angles required for the bracket. It sits a little low, but that just means I can operate it with my big toe when I drive barefoot. Hits full travel just before hitting carpet.

 

[ButterManJones]

Here's a quick bracket I bent up to mount the oil catch can. I'll get a picture when it's all cleaned up, but I also got a custom power steering hose from Mosley Motors. It wasn't cheap and required some bending to make it fit, but I'll take what I can get to make this project go faster at this point (I'm only 7 months past my original timeline after all).