Gimme a 60s 3B Engine Swap

[Gimme a 60]

Hello landCruisers ! At age 16 I have happily bought my first landCruiser! Its a FJ 62 with the thirsty 3FE engine and I am spending crazy money on gas. SO I have been thinking about swapping in a BJ60 engine. If I were to do this I would buy a whole other parts truck. Now what do you guys know about swapping the engine and transmission over? I imagine it wouldn’t be too hard because the frames and body’s are the same and the 3b is primarily mechanical. Just need to know what I’m getting into thanks !

 

[OSS]

It’ll take a decade of driving to recoup the cost of the swap via fuel savings. The 3B is even more gutless than the 3F-E by a long margin.
After the novelty wears off, you’ll realize you ended up with a stinky, noisy, slow, rattly engine that costs a little less in fuel to run.
(Obviously I’m not a fan of the 30 year old 4 cyl 3B)

 

[MarkBC]

Yeah it's funny how when you floor the gas pedal absolutely nothing happens. I'd talk to Steve at EBI cruisers in Poco to see what he suggests. Will you do the work or get a shop to do it?

 

[Gimme a 60]

It’ll take a decade of driving to recoup the cost of the swap via fuel savings. The 3B is even more gutless than the 3F-E by a long margin.
After the novelty wears off, you’ll realize you ended up with a stinky, noisy, slow, rattly engine that costs a little less in fuel to run.
(Obviously I’m not a fan of the 30 year old 4 cyl 3B)

What engine is your personal choice? What wrong with the 3b?

 

[MarkBC]

You can put a turbo on the 3B with bigger exhaust which makes it peppier.

 

[Zjohnsonua]

There's nothing wrong with the 3B when in the correct application. However, a 60 is definitely an incorrect application. Why Toyota ever offered it is a mystery to many.

A 60/62 is simply too much mass for a B to pull around comfortably.

Peppier, sure. But not enough pep to make it a drivetrain that works with today's highway speeds and loads.

 

[diesellibrarian]

Yeah if a diesel swap is what you're after, a 3B is about the worst choice you could make for a 60. Later Canadian 60s came with a 2H that will mate nicely with your A440f trans, but you're still looking at some fab work for body mounts. You'll also need to work on the fuel delivery aspect, and remember that many if not all Canadian BJ and HJ60s are 24v. A 2H will also take a turbo well, if that's your jam.

You live in the land of the JDM land cruiser, so you could also look at a 1HZ or 13B-T or 12H-T swap. All depends on your skill level and/or how deep your pockets are.

The 3FE is not great on fuel for sure, but I haven't found mine to be catastrophically bad. What is the state of the engine? Has it had a recent tune up? Air filter? Timing? Plugs? What size tires are you running? How much extra weight are you carrying? How heavy is your right foot? All of these things have an impact on the mileage. But like someone said above, you can buy a lot of gasoline for the price of a diesel swap, and even then you're only likely to gain 6-7 miles per gallon. It's still a 2-ton car.

 

[Gimme a 60]

Yeah it's funny how when you floor the gas pedal absolutely nothing happens. I'd talk to Steve at EBI cruisers in Poco to see what he suggests. Will you do the work or get a shop to do it?

I would do the job myself. As long as the job is not too too hard, that’s why I’m asking all of you.

Yeah if a diesel swap is what you're after, a 3B is about the worst choice you could make for a 60. Later Canadian 60s came with a 2H that will mate nicely with your A440f trans, but you're still looking at some fab work for body mounts. You'll also need to work on the fuel delivery aspect, and remember that many if not all Canadian BJ and HJ60s are 24v. A 2H will also take a turbo well, if that's your jam.

You live in the land of the JDM land cruiser, so you could also look at a 1HZ or 13B-T or 12H-T swap. All depends on your skill level and/or how deep your pockets are.

The 3FE is not great on fuel for sure, but I haven't found mine to be catastrophically bad. What is the state of the engine? Has it had a recent tune up? Air filter? Timing? Plugs? What size tires are you running? How much extra weight are you carrying? How heavy is your right foot? All of these things have an impact on the mileage. But like someone said above, you can buy a lot of gasoline for the price of a diesel swap, and even then you're only likely to gain 6-7 miles per gallon. It's still a 2-ton car.

Yea that’s all true I guess. It’s a pretty healthy engine with 33”s but the main reason is that I don’t like the automatic transmission.

 

[Gimme a 60]

Yeah it's funny how when you floor the gas pedal absolutely nothing happens. I'd talk to Steve at EBI cruisers in Poco to see what he suggests. Will you do the work or get a shop to do it?

Steve said to go for it though ! He’s a really helpful guy.

 

[OSS]

I would do the job myself. As long as the job is not too too hard, that’s why I’m asking all of you.

Yea that’s all true I guess. It’s a pretty healthy engine with 33”s but the main reason is that I don’t like the automatic transmission.

Install a manual transmission in it if that’s your main gripe. Several people here have done it and they’re all smiles.

 

[Gimme a 60]

Install a manual transmission in it if that’s your main gripe. Several people here have done it and they’re all smiles.

I don’t think I can do the swap. So that’s why I would just put in a engine that is already a manual.

 

[3_puppies]

I don’t think I can do the swap. So that’s why I would just put in a engine that is already a manual.

you under estimate yourself
if you are comfortable performing an engine and trans swap, you could surely keep your existing engine and swap in an H55
costs will be some what cheaper just doing a trans

 

[Seth S]

You could swap in a 4 speed as well and save $2k to $3k.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

Buy a Toyota Tacoma 2wd and drive that around then take the 62 on trips or something like @OSS says it will take a lifetime to recoup the fuel savings for the swap he has been driving A landcruiser for a long time

 

[bottombracket]

Parts availability for the 3B is diminishing. These are all 30+ year old engines, and more and more parts and pieces are becoming NLA.

If you’re going to swap in a Toyota motor, put a 1HZ in there. They are still making them new.

We can discuss (argue) the merits of turboing the IDI 1HZ versus a 1HDT all day.

Honestly, I would just appreciate the 3FE for what it is. Desmog it, and if you want to wake it up, drop in an h55. It really is a night and day difference.

 

[mano002]

I have a FJ60 with a swapped 3B/H55F with a 13BT exhaust manifold and turbo, and I had a FJ62 for a while at the same time. The 62 is peppier around town for sure. There is something charming about being the slowest vehicle on the highway, and not ever worrying about needing to find a place to pass.

 

[Gimme a 60]

Parts availability for the 3B is diminishing. These are all 30+ year old engines, and more and more parts and pieces are becoming NLA.

If you’re going to swap in a Toyota motor, put a 1HZ in there. They are still making them new.

We can discuss (argue) the merits of turboing the IDI 1HZ versus a 1HDT all day.

Honestly, I would just appreciate the 3FE for what it is. Desmog it, and if you want to wake it up, drop in an h55. It really is a night and da

I have a FJ60 with a swapped 3B/H55F with a 13BT exhaust manifold and turbo, and I had a FJ62 for a while at the same time. The 62 is peppier around town for sure. There is something charming about being the slowest vehicle on the highway, and not ever worrying about needing to find a place to pass.

Yes I’m okay with it benign slow, how hard was the swap ?

 

[georgebj60]

Yes I’m okay with it benign slow, how hard was the swap ?

If you have a complete donor vehicle, the physical swap will not be that difficult. You'll likely need to swap the axles along with the rest of the drivetrain. I did it with a 2H into an FJ60. The wiring might be a challenge, depending on how good of an auto electrician you are. Since there isn't much electrical-wise a diesel needs to operate, you should be able to build a harness to take care of the glow and EDIC.

 

[Gimme a 60]

If you have a complete donor vehicle, the physical swap will not be that difficult. You'll likely need to swap the axles along with the rest of the drivetrain. I did it with a 2H into an FJ60. The wiring might be a challenge, depending on how good of an auto electrician you are. Since there isn't much electrical-wise a diesel needs to operate, you should be able to build a harness to take care of the glow and EDIC.

Yes wiring is one thing, why would I need to swap axles? They should all be the same ratio right ?

 

[Lead Head]

I really don't understand your logic here.

You're worried about the difficulty of swapping a transmission, but not worried about the difficulty of swapping an engine, transmission and all of the associated wires, lines, hoses and everything else?

You're worried about fuel costs, even though the cost of the swap will buy you literally years and years worth of gasoline for your 3FE? When you factor in that diesel fuel has a cost too, the pay-off is likely to be 10+ years.