Cheap Thrills, my '64 FJ40.

[RustyRanger]

I did buy the engine I went to look at this afternoon. 350 out of a 1973 C30, might try and source some bigger valve heads with smaller chambers, it has the 1.73/1.50 open chamber heads.


I've got it torn down to a short block. Bores are good, some wear but with a hone and rings it will be fine. Came with a a HEI and most the external parts. No carb, but I don't want to run a qjet so that's all good.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm glad you got a 350 rather than a 283

as for heads - vortec heads are the only choice, means you have to get a different intake but the power and economy are well worth it.

 

[RustyRanger]

Small update, it turns out this engine has had a rebuild done before. .010 bearings on everything and fresh valves, guides and seats. Stock bore still. So I have to exchange the bearings I ordered. It's too bad the guy I bought it from ran it for a few seconds when he drove the truck off the trailer, without checking the oil. pumped sludge up into the bearings, the bearings juuuuust started to gall a bit when he/it shut down. No major damage to anything aside from the bearings.

 

[RustyRanger]

wow, I have some great neighbors.

Houston we have Fullie heads!





462 chambers and valves-


991 chambers and valves.


I've done the math, looking at about a 9.4-9.55 compression ratio depending on head gasket thickness.

He also gave me the 3spd and Tcase he had from his cruiser and is going to find all his parts he has for a toyota disk swap and the rear cross member he's got from his first SBC FJ40 swap.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

awesome score!

as you might guess, I like Buicks - and those motors require packing the oil pump so that when you first start it, it won't run dry. I bought a 350 Buick where the guy had spent big bucks on it.... and didn't pack the pump. Entire bottom end was trashed - I think he ran it thinking it had pressure to break in the cam.... it seized up solid. Still, I paid $50 for the motor and got a complete set of ARP bolts, forged pistons, ARP rod bolts, main and head studs, highly modified heads (done very well).... I still feel sorry for the guy - but it worked out okay for me

 

[RustyRanger]

Had to look that one up. Gotta love some of the oddball engineering that shows up out there.

 

[RustyRanger]

Man the good news keeps on coming, these heads were rebuilt not that long ago( wear wise). Only one valves a bit on the worn side and has a knurled guide, someone had the other guides machined/replaced and all the seats machined.

 

[RustyRanger]

Bit of an update.

I'll be doing the engine swap shuffle this winter if everything works out and I can make or find some used engine mounts this fall. First the now more radical 350 goes in my 67 Biscayne, then that 283 gets freshened up and goes into the Cruiser. It's a good runner, pushes the 'cayne around alright.



I also ended up with a roll cage for $50, so that's covered now. Aside from that, not much has happened with the cruiser this summer. A bit more rust repairs and wiring cleanup but not much else.

 

[RustyRanger]

Rise from the dead, ancient thread!

Lots of things happening in the past few years kept me from doing anything with this project. No more 350, that got rebuilt and sold off a while ago. It ended up being a motor that would have destroyed every other part of this cruiser had I used it( 9.5:1 compression, big valve double hump heads, air gap intake, edelbrock 650 carb, long tube headers, fairly hot cam, good parts kept falling in my lap for a really good price). It went with a '67 Chevy Biscayne I got cheap and hot rodded( huge sway bars, stiff springs, shocks, 4.11 with a posi, cro-molly axles, gutted interior, the works). That was fun, good learning experience and I nearly broke even when I sold it, lol.

I burned out on car projects for a while and between work and college classes on the side I didn't feel like spending much time or money on stuff, so the cruiser has just been sitting under a cover the past 3 years.

So I'm on the hunt for a motor right now.

Currently waiting to hear from torfab in seattle if they have any pulled engines worth using that they might want to sell me and if they do, what that might cost. Not sure this is my preferred option but I figured I'd try. They didn't seem all that into the idea of selling a complete engine though, sounds like they strip them for parts most of the time. Put up a wanted add but I don't want to go though the added expense of shipping a engine. If I could find one near enough in the PNW to go pickup over a weekend that's cool too.

Otherwise I've settled on finding a junkyard TBI 4.3 V6 from a Chevy pickup considering I've already got a complete AA mount kit and downy bell housing/3spd floor shift parts in a box and I want this hulk mobile. Buddy has a 1/2 ton pickup with one, damn reliable motor, good power and most of his issues have been caused by PO neglect and the truck just being old.

Junk yard has a '93 gmc s15 with a engine that might be perfect. To TBI or not, that is the question. Really, This seems like the cheapest option going into the future for parts or replacement engines should something go wrong. Don't want to rebuild another old v8, would be overkill for the direction I plan to take the cruiser anyway.

Plan as I see it now is ( Unless a complete, decent F/2F shows up at a good price that I can just drop in)

4.3V6. TBI probably. Depends on what I find. If I do this, electric fan and stock rad or Aluminum universal in it's place. External fuel pump mounted to the frame. Run just an alternator if I can figure out a belt system to do that. Weld up a basic exhaust system. Keep it pretty simple.

3spd/stock transfer. Manual steering and drums. Leave as much alone as possible. Just fix things as I find them or they become problems. I ran into the problem of trying to preemptively fix/mod everything on the car, I ended up not being able to drive it for 9 months because I had it torn down to a shell while I rebuilt everything.

Probably go dual circuit on the brakes and makeup new lines, though I did find a absurdly good price on the single circuit MC's on rock auto which has me tempted to try and run the single circut system and see how it is. Based on shopping parts all over the web, I think I could rebuild the original system for like $300-350 as long as my wheel cylinders are all rebuild able.

31x10.5 tread wright mud tires on the stock wheels, uncle had a set on his Tacoma, worked fine until they wore out after like 35k miles. It seems like once you add the word " Mud" to a tire the price goes up $100+ each.I can work 5 of those into the budget this year.

I've thought about 33's but I don't want this to snowball into a giant never ending money pit where I upgrade stuff that worked fine just because.

Back to making lists of parts and costs.

 

[SteveH]

Thanks for the update. I'd still look for a 2F (any vintage) to stick in it. I did a nice '83 2F install into a '65 FJ45, and it helped preserve the value and had plenty of power for anything that truck should ever do.

 

[RustyRanger]

You know, I've been trying to figure out what to do about seat belts in the rig for a few days now. I've got a set of lap belts but i'm not really comfortable with just those. I've also got a single parts set for a 3 point shouler belt setup that was for a HUMVEE( I put the other one as the drivers belt in the biscayne), I see that I can still get those for a decent price.

. My worry is that the stock drivers seat is so hinky with the multitude of hinges and whatnot that any seat belt might not work well in a wreck?

I'm pretty safety consious so I'm already planning on putting a cage in the rig, I bought one from my neighbor that's built around a stock mid 70's bar out of his, has one of the aftermarket front hoops already welded on.
I'll beef up that rollcage when I make it fit my rig better, with a few braces and extra triangulation before I install it. I could even add a harness bar and run 5 points, if I want to go that far and replace the seats.

 

[RustyRanger]

Dug the FJ out of the snow and did some work today. Pulled the master cylinder and most of the hard line off.

I'm thinking I'm going to machine out a firewall adapter that let's me run a GM, dual circut, manual, drum Master cylinder. I have one already from a previous project car that I put power brakes on, it fits in the space available, the push rod fits like it was made for it, it has the same bore as the toyota part (1"), has built in reservoirs and I can get new ones for around $35 all day long and will be able to for the foreseeable future. The mind boggles that it's impossible to get a toyota dual circuit for much less than ~$150.
I managed to save most of the 9mm tube nuts and fittings but I figure I might as well go to standard size fittings and be done with it.
Also going to replace all the wheel cylinders with new ones for a mid 70's Fj40. I can't find anything telling me they won't fit, so it seems like the way to go.

For the hardline and softline I found a kit from Speedway with bulk hardline, brackets, fittings, tube nuts ,adapters, 18" long stainless braided hoses for $110 all in, all I would need otherwise is 2 or 3 -3AN to 10mm inverted flare fittings which will be about $15 and a few 10mm tube nuts to use on the wheel cylinder lines. I ran their brake parts kit on my last project car, decent stuff for a good price. Looks like I can have a entirely new brake system for about $300.

 

[RustyRanger]

Picked up the master cylinder. Got one for a 1967 chevy nova with drums. 1" bore, fits the firewall, the toyota rod seems to fit fine. Going to make a adapter tonight. Not going to get much done for a few days otherwise, supposed to get 1.5ft of snow in the next few days.

 

[RustyRanger]

A 1967 Chevy drum brake master cylinder fits up almost like it was made for this rig with a spacer plate made out of 1/4" aluminum and some 3/8" bolts.
The only complication is the rib on the inside of the firewall. A bit of time with a file and the bolts line up well enough. The Toyota push rod has plenty of adjustment to take up the slack and the boot fits the Chevy M/c perfectly.

Waiting on parts now. Ordered a brake line kit from Speedway motors with 4 18" stainless braided hoses, hardline and a bunch of fittings, t's, mounts and the like good deal at $110. I measured the stock hoses and they are 17" so these should work fine.
All I needed otherwise was some -3an to 10mm adapters for the braided lines to wheel cylinder connection, some 10mm tube nuts to do the wheel cylinder connections and 1 each 1/2" and 9/16" tube nut for the Master cylinder. The 4th hose and a few other fittings will be used on the clutch system. Going to order all new, mid 70's wheel cylinders to replace my current 9mm fitting models and new mid 70's clutch cylinders while I'm at it.

I'm thinking of putting a set of skyjacker or rancho add a leafs in when I've got the suspension pulled apart for new bushings and shocks. There's only about 4" of travel in the front right now and that's with the drive train out, the springs have sagged quite a lot over the past 50 something years. I figure 1.5" of spring lift and a .5-1" of shackle lift might be just the ticket. Looks like monroe gas shocks have enough length and travel for a 1.5-2" of lift if the specs for the "2" lift rancho's are right. Can't work $1000 into the budget for new springs but a few hundred for add a leafs could be done.

 

[RustyRanger]

Not so fun discovery. Some moisture got into my transmission while in storage in the shed. Luckily it didn't seem to eat into anything too bad, the shift forks are the rustiest part with this weird rust slime on it and 1st/reverse gear has some spots on it but I'm going to pull it apart to scub the rust off. Transfer case is fine. Must have got in though the shift tower.

In one of those " Never would have seen it coming" moments, it turns out the J30 I got from a neighbor is in better shape than mine. Nevermind it being stored outside, uncovered for years while mine was in a shed wrapped in a tarp. So I guess I'll go though that one as a replacement if this one blows up.

 

[mberbusse]

If you do go Chev swap, I can really help out on a lot of the misc. stuff. Interestingly, the only real difference on transmission input shaft is the length. The adapters simply space the bellhousing 1" further from the transmission....

As for the rest, it's a remarkably simple swap - and you may even be able to find all the parts used on here, lots of people are going back to the Toyota motor for authenticity from Chevy motors.

the 283 is an amazing motor in the '40, long stroke, small bore = torque. Another great motor for the swap (and oh forgive me for this) is the 302 Ford.... it puts the distributor on the front of the motor and is a smaller package. As you recognize, the gear ratio already in the vehicle makes that swap pretty smart. I've had 2 - 302 powered FJ40s, a 73 and a 74. I did neither swap, but I really liked the motor (and I'm anything but a Ford lover).

Use the Toyota radiator.

I also presume you'll fabricate some pad mounts to employ the stock, toyota mounts.

the transmission doesn't move - driveshafts stay the same.

Weight, you'll save nearly 100 lbs by going with the SBC

Fuel economy - you'll gain about 2 mpg. I went from 10 mpg to 13 in my prior carb-topped swap.

to recap, high hp, greater rpm range, lower cost, more torque, better fuel economy.... other than that.... lol

I am the original purchaser / owner of a 1974 FJ40. Did a 350 sbc swap in 1979. Ran beautifully for thisty years. Replace the worn out 350 with a GoodWrench 350. All worked well But the radiator hoses are 30 plus years old, soft and porous. Replace the top with a universal hose. Bottom hose is a problem. Universal hose will not bend without kinking. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks from an old guy.

 

[pb4ugo]

In the future you probably should start a new thread instead of pulling up an 8 yr old thread with 6 pages. Rust hasn't been here since either. We're all willing to help. We all like like pics too, in a new thread.
The search function works too, either, here or the internet and clicking on mud posts.

I use gates hoses 20573 and 20416 for upper and lower for my SBC's. Makes a nice factory look.

 

[charliemeyer007]

Make a stainless steel coil spring and screw it into your hose.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I am the original purchaser / owner of a 1974 FJ40. Did a 350 sbc swap in 1979. Ran beautifully for thisty years. Replace the worn out 350 with a GoodWrench 350. All worked well But the radiator hoses are 30 plus years old, soft and porous. Replace the top with a universal hose. Bottom hose is a problem. Universal hose will not bend without kinking. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks from an old guy.

big fan of making an adapter between the hoses. The FJ40 outlet is a lot smaller then the SBC. Thus, I take a piece of hose the size of the SBC outlet with a 90 degree bend, I buy a piece of hose that fits the FJ40 side. I make a metal piece that goes between the two, sizing down as needed. I never overheat, other bonus is on the lower 'adapter' you can thread the heater fitting thus smacking 2 birds with one fitting.