How much Horsepower Can a Fj60 Handle?

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K

Kurtis

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Feb 28, 2008
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I just took my 60 into the body shop and hopefully it comes out shiny and black, would like to put some type of chevy engine in it. I finally feel I have spent enough on Guns and Ammo and want to get down to business on the landcruiser.

Ideally 350-400 horsepower is the range I'd like to get and personally I don't mind carbs. I would like to run a 700r4 or the 4l60e automatic. Is the tcase/axles/ds in a sixty ok with 350-400hp?

The truck is sitting on 33s with stock gearing does the chevy autos do ok with this ratio?

What is the easiest swap? Im assuming a carbed engine would be the easiest but i'm in phoenix so my question on that is has anyone got a carbed conversion through emissions here?
If this is smog prohibited what is the best option?

I plan on doing this after this semester ends and I was hoping to spend in the 1.5 2k for the conversion plus whatever I end up deciding on for engine and trans.. is this possible or am I dreaming?

I read alot of the vortec swaps and they defiantly are impressive I just don't know if im up to all of the wiring.
 
carb and 4l60E??

Street of off road
Do you want to burn the crap out of the tires all the time?

It would hold up if you are not hard on the truck..
 
Vortec aint hard, and there is pretty much the same amount of wiring as with a carbed setup... only with a vortec you are plugging in more things. and have to relocate the ecu. It would be like doin a 2F-E swap or a 3fe swap... its all the same crap. IMO
 
I installed a 350 stroker motor (383) with the TBI and a 700R4. This is sold to me as a motor that is supposed to be a little under 400hp but that probibly was when it was brand new, on a good day and at sea level. I live at just under 9000 feet. The TBI has been great for offroad use.

I have broken both birfields and a front pinion so far. The front pinion was definitely operator error. Way too much skinney peddle in a finesse situation. Using "When in doubt power out" can get you into trouble at times. I now have some longfield birfields installed but they have not been heavily tested yet. When these break I will go with the 30 spline Longfields.

Bigger tires and lockers will put lots of stress on the axle parts. If you have bigger tires, lockers and lots of HP you can break parts on any rig.

I have installed an NP203 doubler to along with the split transfer case and that seems to hold up just fine. The lower gears seems to allow for a more controlled use of the torque from the V8 so I feel the end results is that its easier on the drive line.

Well that should more than 2 cents worth so I'll let it go at that.
 
My wife drives the land cruiser daily but we also do some offroading and camping with it. I use it once a while to pull a small trailer with some dirtbikes and quads. I get discouraged taking it on long trips with the 70-75mph top speed and the 40mph hill climbs up to the mountains here. Don't get me wrong I think the 2f is a great engine but i'm looking for some more hp and an automatic as it spends five days aweek in traffic.

Ill post some pictures up if I get it back from the body shop today.
 
I drive a Suburban with 3.73's, a TBI 350 & 700R4, and ~33" tall tires (285/75-R16's). Just did ~1000 miles touring part of central Nevada with it. The stock 3.7 axle ratio is too tall. To use OD effectively means going 75+ MPH. Any speed lower and using the OD actually costs me mileage. There is enough difference in mileage that on a long trip you can see it seat of the pants.

In looking into the stock tire size for that truck and computing the axle ratio to get equivalent engine speed to road speed I came out with 4.11's. So that is what my 60 will be getting since a 700R4 and 33's is the plan.
 
Do what I did and drop the 6.0, rated at 430 HP with about 400 lbs torque, it took a bit of time to do the conversion and you have to make custom headers but its very nice to drive, tow, burn outs, what ever you like. Drives like a ferrari with 35s, but also eats birfs for lunch, breakfast and dinner all on the same day.
 
Kurtis said:
My wife drives the land cruiser daily but we also do some offroading and camping with it. I use it once a while to pull a small trailer with some dirtbikes and quads. I get discouraged taking it on long trips with the 70-75mph top speed and the 40mph hill climbs up to the mountains here. Don't get me wrong I think the 2f is a great engine but i'm looking for some more hp and an automatic as it spends five days aweek in traffic.

Ill post some pictures up if I get it back from the body shop today.
Click to expand...

Why would this require 350 to 400 hp?

Most TBI 350's made less than 200 hp and hauled around lots of heavy trucks.
 
recap ..

a 60 drive train with 30 splines longs, locked will handle a 300 HP / 350 - 400 lb/p engine ? ( 35 - 37 tires )
 
I have a stock '98 5.7 Vortec & a mildly modified 4L60E in my '84, running 4.11s & 33s. Loafs along at 2,200 rpm in 4th locked @ 75 mph. Plenty of power. If I had my druthers I'd build it into a 383, but it ain't broke so...

You aren't going to get all the way for $2K plus the engine & trans, at least not going all-out. I recommend the Painless harnesses & at least get the Downey conversion guide for $25 & educate yourself.

Federal EPA requirements state the engine & trans must both be from the same type of vehicle & be newer than the rest. It will be tested to the same specs as the donor vehicle. You have to have all the original smog components or certified replacements in the same relative positon, E.g. O2 sensors, cats, etc.

Wagonner5 is the king of high-hp rigs, & doesn't seem to have broken a lot. He's also meticulous, though.

P.S. Why don't you put your location in your sig line so locals can help
 
You'll be fine with a stock TBI 5.7...if it can haul around a fullsize GM 1500 & 2500 then it will move the LC fine. But there's not to much you can do as far as mods to get more power out of a TBI, without spending a good bit of $$. Vortec heads are a popular option....Dart iron eagle heads are good too. The big limitation with the TBI is hte intake and the fuel supply. If you want some power on a budget then I would go with a carb.

But if you have to pass emissions and want serious power.....I would go with the 6.0 truck V-8. I like my vortec 5.7 and it has plenty of power, eaisly will do whatever I want it to do. The fuel injection setups can be a royal pain in the @$$ to get right, but once right they run fine. The only real thing that annoys me is the slight poping I have on the exahust at decel from high RPM. Other than that it runs fine. I don't have emission components on my truck and I'm sure the lack of some of the exhaust components contribute to the poping noise.

TBI 5.7 are very easy to work on, very dependable.... not the most powerful engine but it will be fine in stock form for a 60 swap. I was looking to put one in my truck at first, until i came across the vortec 5.7. You will save a good bit of money on a TBI compared to a late 90's vortec or one of the newer style 5.3 or 6.0 engines.
 
im about 2 weeks from droping a vortec thats should be putting out about 325hp. im also doing a SOA to my fj60, then im going to put some 37x12.5 or 38x15, havent really decited yet, and im going detroits front and rear, and in late july early august im doing a week long trip to the sand dunes @ dunefest in winchesterbay,ore ( for those who wana know) and if ya havent made a decsion by then ill let ya know how it worked.


as a point of referance i still got a 2f now, with 33bfgs, and i go to the dunes twice a month and rally the piss about the truck, normally use 40-50gals of gas and put 200ish miles on it.


altho i am keepting the 4spd cause i love manuals.


*edit* just realized this was slightly off topic.
 
don't know about "horse"-power...more like burro-power. i was thinking just the opposite - just how little HP could you deliver.... has anyone tried a small 4-cylinder engine from a smaller toyota vehicle with success? and, if you do go big...what type of gearing (as mentioned prior), any changes?
 
I would pick up a 5.3 with a 4L60e attached to it.

Get a new 3 wire hookup harness for it from one of the many, many suppliers out there.

The 5.3 is the biggest bang for the buck out there for Gen IV GM motors.

I have a 6.0 Gen IV in my buggy and it is just under 400 HP and it is a kick ass motor. I paid about $1000 more for it than I would have had to pay for a 5.3 with the same miles.
 
Tinker said:
...I have a stock '98 5.7 Vortec & a mildly modified 4L60E in my '84, running 4.11s & 33s. Loafs along at 2,200 rpm in 4th locked @ 75 mph. Plenty of power....
Click to expand...

X2... don't feel like i need more power running the same setup as Ticker.
 
I am very pleased with my set up.
383 stroked by a scat cam with a 750cfm 3110 holley carb on an edelbrock performer. Block hugger headers, 3 inch exhaust. HDI distributor. On the dyno I was getting 385HP
The tranny is a manual hf55 toyota 5 speed behind a Ranger torque splitter. The gears have been changed to 4:56, stock drive shafts lengthened for the SOA. ARB air lockers in the front and rear.
I have had no complaints or major problems with this set up. Its great for beating chipped diesels to the next redlight as well as crawling around moab.
I'm sure I could break something if I really tried..... but then again, cant we all break it regardless of what we drive.
It is a blast to drive.
 
alaska60 said:
I am very pleased with my set up.
383 stroked by a scat cam with a 750cfm 3110 holley carb on an edelbrock performer. Block hugger headers, 3 inch exhaust. HDI distributor. On the dyno I was getting 385HP
The tranny is a manual hf55 toyota 5 speed behind a Ranger torque splitter. The gears have been changed to 4:56, stock drive shafts lengthened for the SOA. ARB air lockers in the front and rear.
I have had no complaints or major problems with this set up. Its great for beating chipped diesels to the next redlight as well as crawling around moab.
I'm sure I could break something if I really tried..... but then again, cant we all break it regardless of what we drive.
It is a blast to drive.
Click to expand...

that sound like a nice dream setup .. can you share few pics of your engine and unders.. ?
 
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