Builds Cara the white '84 FJ60! (2 Viewers)

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Alright, I officially will have a garage by the end of the month to put the truck in and start working on this swap! Time to start sourcing parts and planning things out in detail (like a new radiator). I'm still looking for a 2F - if you know anyone in Cali or in the Bay Area who might have one please let me know!

I'll also call Corsetti, thanks @HemiAlex. Trickiest thing will be figuring out how to get a whole engine up here to the Bay... renting a U-Haul pickup will be like $600 😅

First new "parts" have already arrived - got them custom-printed for ~$75 from printme1.com and seem like they're in decent quality:

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Update... the truck's still sitting in storage, but I'm hoping by the end of the month to have a garage to put it in, so I'm starting to look at two things:

1) where to find a good-condition 2F, as close to the Bay Area as possible. Open to any and all suggestions :) I'd love to meet someone in the Bay Area doing a swap, and I've also heard there's a shop in Riverside that does great work (Yota1 maybe? but they mostly have 4-cylinders on their site)
2) how to tow the truck with a tow dolly 100 miles (front wheels up, rear wheels rolling on the ground)? read through a few threads and there seems to be two schools of thought: one is put both transmission and T-case in neutral (which is what my owner's manual says), the other says put transmission in neutral and T-case in 2H (to avoid starving part of the T-case with oil). Yes, I know pulling the driveshaft would make this really easy, but that'll be really difficult to do when I pick the truck up. When would you want to do one versus the other?


The shop you are thinking about is Yota1 Performance in Riverbank, which is in the Valley just past Oakdale. About an hour and a half from the Bay. I recently went out there and swapped my old head for a rebuilt 2F head. They definitely know 2Fs and in fact had all kinds of random 2F parts in stock in their very small retail showroom. I have no idea if they have any 2F blocks but I would not be surprised. They at the very least should have a couple 2F heads as cores (my old one included).

Nick Redenbaugh is the guy to talk to there. They are busy, like all small shops around here, so don't be in a hurry.

As for towing... just upgrade your AAA to Premier. You can do it over the phone. It's easy, not that expensive and pays for itself in one 100 mile trip. I got a flatbed to Valley Hybrids in Stockton last year, about a week after upgrading and even the phone service seemed to be elevated ("Wow, cool car, sir.").
 
The shop you are thinking about is Yota1 Performance in Riverbank, which is in the Valley just past Oakdale. About an hour and a half from the Bay. I recently went out there and swapped my old head for a rebuilt 2F head. They definitely know 2Fs and in fact had all kinds of random 2F parts in stock in their very small retail showroom. I have no idea if they have any 2F blocks but I would not be surprised. They at the very least should have a couple 2F heads as cores (my old one included).

Nick Redenbaugh is the guy to talk to there. They are busy, like all small shops around here, so don't be in a hurry.

As for towing... just upgrade your AAA to Premier. You can do it over the phone. It's easy, not that expensive and pays for itself in one 100 mile trip. I got a flatbed to Valley Hybrids in Stockton last year, about a week after upgrading and even the phone service seemed to be elevated ("Wow, cool car, sir.").

AAA told me that my towing benefit is only for breakdowns or something like that. I needed to move my truck a few miles and ended up paying for a tow.
 
The shop you are thinking about is Yota1 Performance in Riverbank, which is in the Valley just past Oakdale. About an hour and a half from the Bay. I recently went out there and swapped my old head for a rebuilt 2F head. They definitely know 2Fs and in fact had all kinds of random 2F parts in stock in their very small retail showroom. I have no idea if they have any 2F blocks but I would not be surprised. They at the very least should have a couple 2F heads as cores (my old one included).

Nick Redenbaugh is the guy to talk to there. They are busy, like all small shops around here, so don't be in a hurry.

As for towing... just upgrade your AAA to Premier. You can do it over the phone. It's easy, not that expensive and pays for itself in one 100 mile trip. I got a flatbed to Valley Hybrids in Stockton last year, about a week after upgrading and even the phone service seemed to be elevated ("Wow, cool car, sir.").

Ah perfect, thank you! That is definitely who I was talking about. I'll give Nick a call and see what they've got.

AAA told me that my towing benefit is only for breakdowns or something like that. I needed to move my truck a few miles and ended up paying for a tow.

This is what I've heard too, when it comes to AAA - lots of people failing to get them to move projects around (if it didn't look like it was a breakdown). I do have Premier, but want to save it for real issues (like when I towed my 60 a couple months ago).
 
AAA told me that my towing benefit is only for breakdowns or something like that. I needed to move my truck a few miles and ended up paying for a tow.


Well, that's annoying. They towed mine 90 miles, no questions asked.
 
Moved into my new place near San Jose in the last week and a half, and towed the truck from Sonoma! Rented a U-Haul and a tow dolly (not technically allowed per U-Haul and I learned why...) and finally get to look at it every day.

But it was terrible doing it this way. First tried it in the dark on a weekday with a buddy, but the truck was stuck and hard to push out of its current spot, plus had trouble seeing and had no good way to pull the truck onto the tow dolly. Second time around brought a giant chain to tow the truck out to an open spot, and then a come-along to put it onto the truck. Used the 8-ton Harbor Freight come-along... never again, it was a ton of weight and really rather scary. This thing is a pig. If there's a next time I'm at minimum using a 4-wheel auto transport and probably just pulling it onto the trailer with a second truck and a giant chain. Also no, didn't bother dropping the driveshaft or anything - just left the transfer case in 2H and transmission in neutral. The way I'm thinking is that If I can pull off the engine swap I'll put in a H55 and rebuild the transfer case next anyway.

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And here it is in the driveway next to my daily driver (the cute '90 Miata).

Just working on getting ahold of a 2F long block now... if you happen to have one and you're somewhat near the Bay Area, please let me know!

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Some updates... hoping to really make progress over Christmas.

Still looking for a new longblock - been distracted by minute differences between years of 2F and what that could mean at the California smog man.

Got the truck into the garage and have been slowly tearing it down and cleaning out 35 years of grime... both fun work and a bit gross!

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I discovered two liters of coolant in the bottom of my oil pan, so... that would explain the incident and what happened!! RIP my head gasket. It was terrifying taking out my oil drain plug and just having water come rushing out.

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Ordered a new radiator - went with the Champion CC1213. Did a ton of research and was wavering back and forth between the Champion, CSF, Mishimoto, etc... wanted the cheapness of the Champion but was worried about reliability. Ended up talking to @orangefj45 and he told me that what kills the Champions is corrosion, which... is my entire cooling system, I've discovered. So going to replace all of those pipes and hoses and hopefully all of the metal will be out, GND the radiator properly, and then Georg recommended red coolant. Might just bypass the passenger seat/rear heater and interior cabin heater for now until I have time to get to them. If I end up breaking the Champion, I'll try getting someone to TIG weld it, and if that doesn't work I'll just pony up for a CSF. Pictured below is one of my coolant hoses, which is... very corrosive:

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Made some progress over Christmas but haven't quite pulled the engine yet, hoping to do that by next weekend. One thing did give me pause, however... is my rear engine hook supposed to be bent at an angle like this? Was really hoping to use it but if this is not by design it's rather terrifying.

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Also... what is the large black squat cylindrical object in the drivers-side back of the engine bay, just below the hood hinge? Appears to have a duct facing towards the engine. Am really rather curious and perplexed by it, and don't even know how to go about searching for it.


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That is your carb fan, you will want that to work. Tons of info on testing, wiring, and why you want it to work.

Ah ok yes, thanks. I've seen that mentioned in various places and that gives me another rabbit hole to go down :)

The hook doesn’t normally look like that but the bend might be intentional to make it easier to get the engine in and out (the chain often hits the firewall when hoisting). That leads me to wonder though... has this engine or cylinder head been pulled before?

It has to have been, as that's the only documentation I have from the PO. Back in September 2002 I have a receipt for a rebuild at a local engine shop that's still in business. Remachining the block and head, new rod bearings, valve springs and guides, oil pan, and other things that I can't read the handwriting for (really shows how the PO treated it...). Would a shop bend this hook intentionally to help with that... seems like it could be a dicey move.
 
Ah ok yes, thanks. I've seen that mentioned in various places and that gives me another rabbit hole to go down :)



It has to have been, as that's the only documentation I have from the PO. Back in September 2002 I have a receipt for a rebuild at a local engine shop that's still in business. Remachining the block and head, new rod bearings, valve springs and guides, oil pan, and other things that I can't read the handwriting for (really shows how the PO treated it...). Would a shop bend this hook intentionally to help with that... seems like it could be a dicey move.
I wouldn't think twice about using that hook to pull the head (80lb or so). I'd pull the head using the hooks then use a head bolt with some big washers for the block itself (that's what I did).

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More silly questions.. I see there is this large cylinder (motor?) that I'm pointing to in green that's mounted to the bell housing, and then there is some sort of spring and rod mechanism behind it (in red) that also looks mounted to the bell housing. I'm assuming that these have to come out with the bell housing, so I need to disconnect the red one (and wires from the green one which I've already done)?

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More silly questions.. I see there is this large cylinder (motor?) that I'm pointing to in green that's mounted to the bell housing, and then there is some sort of spring and rod mechanism behind it (in red) that also looks mounted to the bell housing. I'm assuming that these have to come out with the bell housing, so I need to disconnect the red one (and wires from the green one which I've already done)?

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The big one is the starter and the spring and rod is the clutch slave cylinder. When I pulled my engine without the trans I unbolted the starter and clutch slave from the bellhousing and left them hanging in the truck. The starter would be easy to unplug if you prefer but the clutch slave is connected to a hydraulic line so you’d have to flush and bleed that when re-installing if you choose to disconnect it.

Also, I had no idea what these were a year ago. You’ll be an expert in no time. :)
 
that's your starter

Thank you!

The big one is the starter and the spring and rod is the clutch slave cylinder. When I pulled my engine without the trans I unbolted the starter and clutch slave from the bellhousing and left them hanging in the truck. The starter would be easy to unplug if you prefer but the clutch slave is connected to a hydraulic line so you’d have to flush and bleed that when re-installing if you choose to disconnect it.

Also, I had no idea what these were a year ago. You’ll be an expert in no time. :)

Thanks Nate!! Learning more and more every time I look at the truck for a while!
 
Struggling to find the bolts between the transmission and bell housing on the passenger side... I see this plate with five bolts in it, are they the two at the top and bottom as the darker circles? Couldn't get a good picture of it - the best I got is this one right next to the transmission housing where the front driveshaft hooks up (but removed it).

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