FJ62 OEM inline 6pack, worth keeping?? (1 Viewer)

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May 16, 2020
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Location
Fayetteville AR
LC Fam, I need some advice, tough love welcomed.

I bought my 88FJ62 last fall, and right away I went to making sure the divetrain is solid. The rig is dead stock, with the exception of some late 90's aftermarket wheels, and 31*10.5 mud-T tires. This is a short list of the repairs, OEM replacments.

1) I have debugged the T-case, which did not activate using the 4H push button. After replacing the selonoid under the hood, and the sensor that threds into the T-Case, all works as it should.

2) I had massive oil leaks. I think i was leaking oil from every possible point on the engine, main seal, oil pan seal and others. Jason and J&M auto in West Fork AR dang near tore the engine down completely. He did a great job. After many rounds of seal replacmens and much much more, the oil leak ..."LEAKS" have stoped. Amazing!!

Many other parts were repaced in the chase down of all the oil leaks. Im confident, NOW, that the engine is properly selaed and the oil pressure is up to code. Jason did ID a few things that I may want to address.

1) I have an exhaust leak. One of the bolt heads that tension down the header has sheared off some how. This presents a mild to moderate exhaust leak.
2) At some point, one of the catalytic converters was replaced with a non-stock part. I have two very different Cat's.
3) The solution to both of these issues would be to replace the exhaust ….. header to tail pipe. If I do this, I would go with a dual set up, straight pipe, eliminating the cat's. $$$$
4) I have also desmoged the engine using the BB method, which yielded the great and expected results. I intend to remove the smog system components in a comprehensive manner.

I have already spent over $4K on getting the OEM engine, t-Case, and transmission in good working order. before I spend any more on this drivetrain, I have come to this very important delima.....Will this OEM set-up EVER be worth a darn?? I will say, I very much like the idea of keeping the OEM 6Pack. They are just cool. These are the issues I'm having, and my understanding of solutions, if any.


1) the throttle is almost totally unresponsive in 1st gear until i have the gas pedal 2/3 of the the way to the floor........at which point, the engine will rev from 800-1000 rpm to 2500 rpm, as if I have stomped the gas pedel to the floor.

2) even a mild incline, city streets and highway, I loose speed. The auto transmission will down shift and rev back to 2500-3500 rpm's. When i turn onto my neighborhood street, which is a transition from roughtly 10 degrees to 25 degrees.....DRASTIC, I live on a very steep hill, If I'm not going at it with speed, 15-20mph, I bog down to a point that i come to a dead stop. I have to put the rig in N, and shift the T-Case to Low. This is, IMO, the biggest sign something is not right.

3) MPG is just horrible, 8 mpg on average. with all the engine on such a high rev most of the time, I'm not surprised. Like I said, it seams like I have the gas pedal to the floor. I get looks from pedestrians as if this is intentional. It's not!

4) I have almost no throttle response at a stop light until the gas pedal is halfway to the floor. The engine engine shudders and the RPM's drop to about 500. Once the pedal is pushed past half way, it JUMPS to 2000-2500 rpms, and Im off. It feels like Im in a second gear from a dead stop, but I know I'm not.


All this said. I do think I have a reasonable expectations for how an 88 3FE-I engine should preform as I have or had many rigs as old or older, but not an FJ60 or 62. IMO, with a stock ser up, it should preform ….only "so so". Nothing impressive like my 2006 LC100. However, as this FJ62 preforms now, it is simply not sustainable, as I live in a city with a lot of hills. I can't imagin that in 1988, if rig preformed as it does today, that it would have become the most notible 4WD of its time. Do I have more corrective actions to take on this OEM 6pack with a chance of it preforming only "OK", or should I stop the bleeding and just go with the LS swap? BTW, i can live with "ok" at this point "ok" would be a dream come true. Ha!!

I fully intend on keeping this RIG 4-EVER. It is not my daily driver, and it is not my primary off road rig.....thats what the LC100 is for! I plan to put a 2.5-3" OME lift and 33x10.5 tires on it, as part of the resto...... but as is drives now, i can't imagine larger tires as the current tires can hardly make it up a steep city street, and my MPG is a joke. What are all of you doing to get up to 15mgp as I read on this forum??

I know this is probably the same painful question many of you ask yourself.........am I going to swap this RAD original inline 6pack out for a V8??? Or can I live with the OEM set up, which is pretty much a DOG. 213K miles on it, low IMO. I fully intend to put 1mil miles on it.

Thoughts??
 
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I spent 4500$ on my stock 2f

it’s a great motor. Works like it should

then I spent 1000$ for an LS v8

I wont/wouldn’t be going back to stock landcruiser motors unless your trying to keep it original.

v8 power is cheaper to swap in than fixing what you got, as long as you can do the work yourself
 
Have you checked and adjusted the throttle cable and kick-down cable? How about the throttle position sensor? The throttle position sensor can be adjusted, I used both an analog and digital multimeter. It's a little tricky at first but fairly easy once you do it a few times. The analog multimeter helps because you can easily see the needle jump when checking continuity. And have you cleaned the throttle plate? It can stick in the bore if gunked up.
 
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The 3FE is a pretty good motor. Much better than the 2F. It sounds like you have transmission problems-hopefully just a bad cable adjustment.

A well sorted V8 conversion is going to cost north of $15k so keep that in mind. Talk that over with Mosley Motors in Memphis. He knows 60s and can give you an honest appraisal.


If you really want to get the most out of the motor, you should do an H55f swap. A 5 speed manual is much better suited to this truck and it should have come that way from the factory.

One other thing to consider, is that the transmission is very sensitive to gearing changes and tire size. That truck came with 28 inch tires and you're running 31s. It effectively moves the shift points and doesn't feel right. Hurts in town fuel economy too. Once you sort out the throttle cable/kick down cable adjustment, try stock size tires and you'll be surprised how much better it feels.

If you're averaging 8mpg, something is massively wrong. That automatic is a massive black hole of power loss for sure, but it can do better than that. I get 12-14 in town and 15 ish on the highway. I've seen 17mpg if I'm careful.
 
8 mpg, something is wrong.
Here is what mine runs like with well over 400k, 33s, and lots of extra weight. They'll never be "fast" and the A440 is not a super responsive trans, but that combo will take you anywhere.
 
You need to trouble shoot the engine. Are you throwing codes? It sounds like a TPS problem.
Dyno
 
Have you checked and adjusted the throttle cable and kick-down cable? How about the throttle position sensor? The throttle position sensor can be adjusted, I used both an analog and digital multimeter. It's a little tricky at first but fairly easy once you do it a few times. The analog multimeter helps because you can easily see the needle jump when checking continuity. And have you cleaned the throttle plate? It can stick in the bore if gunked up.
I haven’t down these but will give it a shot!
 
Do you want to stay with the automatic?
 
You need to trouble shoot the engine. Are you throwing codes? It sounds like a TPS problem.
You need to trouble shoot the engine. Are you throwing codes? It sounds like a TPS problem.
Dyno
Would throwing codes result in warning lights, like the engine light? I don’t have any warning lights so far.

“TPS”. What is that? Thanks!
 
You could swap in a new Toyota 5 speed. Many mud members have done this swap and it sounds like an H55 with a 3fe really brings the engine to life.

one of many threads

 
I wonder if you're starting in 2nd gear (due to a misadjustment)? Can you feel all 3 shifts (including overdrive)? You are at sea level, and your engine should not be such a dog. Desmogging will gain you very little in additional horsepower, so keep your expectations low there. If your cat(s) is plugged, of course that should be replaced or bypassed.
 
I wonder if you're starting in 2nd gear (due to a misadjustment)? Can you feel all 3 shifts (including overdrive)? You are at sea level, and your engine should not be such a dog. Desmogging will gain you very little in additional horsepower, so keep your expectations low there. If your cat(s) is plugged, of course that should be replaced or bypassed.
I will take a video of the acceleration and post in in about an hour.
 
8 mpg, something is wrong.
Here is what mine runs like with well over 400k, 33s, and lots of extra weight. They'll never be "fast" and the A440 is not a super responsive trans, but that combo will take you anywhere.

Wow! Mine is not preforming like this at all. I take a video myself and post it.

are you running the auto transmission?
 
Wow! Mine is not preforming like this at all. I take a video myself and post it.

are you running the auto transmission?
Yes, the stock automatic. Truck weights probably 6400 lbs in that video as well..
Do you have a factory service manual to use in doing diagnostic tests? They make it easy.
 
TPS = Throttle Position Sensor

TPS.jpg
 
Yes, the stock automatic. Truck weights probably 6400 lbs in that video as well..
Do you have a factory service manual to use in doing diagnostic tests? They make it easy.
I have an owners manual, not a service manual. I will look for one online!
 
I wonder if you're starting in 2nd gear (due to a misadjustment)? Can you feel all 3 shifts (including overdrive)? You are at sea level, and your engine should not be such a dog. Desmogging will gain you very little in additional horsepower, so keep your expectations low there. If your cat(s) is plugged, of course that should be replaced or bypassed.
It feels like it, but it will run through the other three gears.
 

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