Jzilla's FJ60 to BJ60 conversion (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Threads
195
Messages
1,780
Location
Sherwood Park, Alberta
Website
fawcusfitness.com
Been thinking about this for a few years now, looks like it might actually happen soon! Nothing is guaranteed until I actually get the truck up here though! I have great timing too… I am getting married in August.
So the plan is to head down to California near the end of May to pick up an essentially rust free FJ60 and drive it back home to Vancouver. Trying to figure out the best way to approach and prepare for the swap before I get the truck up here. I am hoping to have the diesel engine swapped in and the wiring (which I know very little about) done with as little downtime as possible. I need to have the truck drivable asap as it is my daily driver, I can swap the suspension and other parts in later. I just spent over a month redoing my turbo setup, exhaust and painting rusty bits and pieces to make the swap look good and go quickly. Will try to post up pics soon.

Have an 81BJ60 503,000kms Daily driver for 9 years, runs great, has rebuilt 5 speed, turbo, manual glow and no powersteering, lift, 4.11’s. About 8 years ago the following were done: new head, stainless precups and rebuilt injectors.

Have an 84BJ60 315,000kms (picked up recently for parts) Engine runs really well, no smoke, has 5 speed, powersteering and superglow.
Will be getting an 84FJ60, comes with brand new fuel tank because of warranty, also newly recushioned and reupholstered factory seats as well as all new lenses and the nice big mirrors.

So here is what I am thinking…
Take the powersteering parts out of the 84BJ60 clean and paint what I can and have it ready to bolt on to the 81 engine.
Use the wiring harness from the 81? From what I understand the manual glow system is a better way to go anyways?
Cut engine mounts out of either truck and weld in to the FJ60.
Apparently the 81 vaccum pump is better, so can I take that off and bolt it to the 84BJ60 alternator?
What to do with the FJ60 engine, transmission and transfer when I get the truck up here(where to put it…doing this all in parents driveway and carport!)? Put for sale on MUD and craigslist now? That way while it is in the truck people can see that it works? Or maybe take a video of it running?
Other than that what else should I be thinking of (to get it running asap)?
Thanks for any input!
 
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3B transplant

You have asked many questions and that is nothing but good! I completed a similar project about a year ago now. My 3B history sounded much the same as yours, no fault of the new chassis but I experienced a major engine failure about 15K Kms after the "new" Cruiser was on the road (my worst night mare the whole time I was involved in the transfer of the drive train).

Several points from my own project:

* Wiring was the big one for me. Rather than use the whole harness from my BJ60 I chose to keep the FJ harness in the truck to run anything not related to the diesel. I then removed the diesel harness and plugged all of the diesel related controls (EDIC, Glow, sedimenter, tach, alternator etc) into the harness on the bench. I then opened the harness and removed any wiring not related to the diesel. There were times when I looked at the "birdsnest" that I had going and wondered if my idea would ever work! It did though and I was very satisfied with the result after rewrapping what was left and running the diesel harness along side of the original FJ wiring. The wiring diagram in my FSM was invaluable through all of this!

* Mounts went very well. I drilled 1/8" holes through the tabs that lap onto the frame before cutting the mounts out of the BJ chassis. Then I fabricated a frame between the two mounts to keep them in the correct relative position with one another as they came out of the BJ. I then set the complete assembly into the FJ chassis and used the holes in the mounting tabs to line up in the FJ frame according to the position of the holes in the old BJ frame rails. Picture from when the whole assembly went into the FJ chassis is attached.



The transmission mount X-member also has to be changed. From previous experience I had found that removing the transmission cross member was a hassle without taking the "ear" off of one side of the frame. However, because I had installed a 1" body lift I found that I could get away with welding the X-member mounts to the frame (rather than bolting in place as in the BJ) and still be able to sneak the tranny mount out over the "humps" in the frame brackets.

This is getting to be a long and drawn out post and I type like I am in the dark ages so I will summarize a couple of other points.

* Shifter pans were different on the 2 trucks and required "hybridization".

* I was lucky enough to get an FJ with working air conditioning and came up with a pretty cool compressor mount for the 3B. I actually have an extra set of plates if you find yourself in the same position.



Any other specifics, I would be glad to try to help you out with my limited experience.

__________________________








Been thinking about this for a few years now, looks like it might actually happen soon! Nothing is guaranteed until I actually get the truck up here though! I have great timing too… I am getting married in August.
So the plan is to head down to California near the end of May to pick up an essentially rust free FJ60 and drive it back home to Vancouver. Trying to figure out the best way to approach and prepare for the swap before I get the truck up here. I am hoping to have the diesel engine swapped in and the wiring (which I know very little about) done with as little downtime as possible. I need to have the truck drivable asap as it is my daily driver, I can swap the suspension and other parts in later. I just spent over a month redoing my turbo setup, exhaust and painting rusty bits and pieces to make the swap look good and go quickly. Will try to post up pics soon.

Have an 81BJ60 503,000kms Daily driver for 9 years, runs great, has rebuilt 5 speed, turbo, manual glow and no powersteering, lift, 4.11’s. About 8 years ago the following were done: new head, stainless precups and rebuilt injectors.

Have an 84BJ60 315,000kms (picked up recently for parts) Engine runs really well, no smoke, has 5 speed, powersteering and superglow.
Will be getting an 84FJ60, comes with brand new fuel tank because of warranty, also newly recushioned and reupholstered factory seats as well as all new lenses and the nice big mirrors.

So here is what I am thinking…
Take the powersteering parts out of the 84BJ60 clean and paint what I can and have it ready to bolt on to the 81 engine.
Use the wiring harness from the 81? From what I understand the manual glow system is a better way to go anyways?
Cut engine mounts out of either truck and weld in to the FJ60.
Apparently the 81 vaccum pump is better, so can I take that off and bolt it to the 84BJ60 alternator?
What to do with the FJ60 engine, transmission and transfer when I get the truck up here(where to put it…doing this all in parents driveway and carport!)? Put for sale on MUD and craigslist now? That way while it is in the truck people can see that it works? Or maybe take a video of it running?
Other than that what else should I be thinking of (to get it running asap)?
Thanks for any input!
Mount jig.jpg
 
Thanks for the reply, not quite clear on two things you said though...
First, why did you drill the 1/8holes in the tabs on the engine mounts on the frame? I don't see them in the picture.
Second, just to see if I get the wiring thing that you did...you took out the diesel harness and plugged the diesel specific stuff to it such as the edic, you then removed wiring from the diesel harness that is already on the gas harness? Then you ran the diesel harness along the routing of the gas harness in the truck?
Would not be fairly easy to just remove the diesel harness and pop it in? I guess it might take some time...(wiring scares me!)
 
By drilling holes through the mounts AND frame before you remove the mounts you can compare positions once the mounts are moved over to the new frame. Measure position of hole in frame where the driver side mount was in the old frame and move the driver side mount to the same dimensional position in the FJ frame. "Registration" marks in the printing industry!

Think about it this way. If you wanted to reinstall the mounts in the old frame you would just have to line up the holes and weld!

I actually finish welded the mounts without ever placing the engine in the frame rails. Dropped right in place! I credit much of that to the bracket that maintained the mounts in the correct relative position to one another.

Wiring scares me too, that is why I wanted to leave the existing wiring in place as much as possible and it didn't seem to make sense to put a wiring harness from a rusty old BJ into a nice fresh FJ chassis. Corrosion can impact on connecters as well as body panels!
 
...

* I was lucky enough to get an FJ with working air conditioning and came up with a pretty cool compressor mount for the 3B. I actually have an extra set of plates if you find yourself in the same position.


__________________________

I'll be watching this thread jzilla. I plan on doing this conversion next winter. My 84 BJ60 parts swapped into a decent 87 FJ60.

I don't quite follow the plan with the trucks? You want to swap the parts from the 500k truck into the FJ60, or the good running 300k stuff from the parts truck? That would buy you time if your 81 is your daily driver.

Not sure what approach I'll take on the harness in my project. Probably pull the dash and swap the whole harness from the BJ60. Unfortunately some of the exposed parts of the harness have corrosion, but mostly in the harness leading to the back. Hoping there is a plug for that sub harness (haven't looked), but if not might need to splice the two together. Not thrilled with the idea of unravelling the harnesses though.

CanCrusher: My FJ60 has working a/c that I think I want to keep. Any chance you could post up some pics of the compessor bracket/mount?
 
I understand the hole drilling now thanks! As for the wiring, yeah the corrosion is a good point as well.

Basically I was going to put the engine and tranny from my 81BJ60 in because it has the turbo, newer head, newer waterpump, rebuilt injectors, rebuilt transfer and tranny. Yes the kms are higher but it runs really well, it has taken me everywhere and I guess I am attached to it! As for the 84BJ60 yes it runs well also but I know nothing about it other than that.

I suppose I could put the 84 engine, tranny and transfer into the FJ60 until I have everything sorted out.
This would give me the 81 to drive around in. Then when all wiring, mounts and other issues are sorted out I could swap in the 81 engine etc... Maybe I am just making too much work...
I would prefer to use the 81 stuff though.

Or...just use all the stuff from the 81, take the PS off the 84 and put on the manual PS from the 81 and use the 84 to drive around in. The 84 is just veryyy rusty, so I am not that confident about driving in it too much. Other option is ride my moutain bike everywhere for a while!
 
AC Mounts 2F compressor to 3B Block

Picture of preliminary mount and install. In the final version I made a slight mod to the bracket to better align the belts. An adjustment to the CAD file would take care of the misalignment.



CanCrusher: My FJ60 has working a/c that I think I want to keep. Any chance you could post up some pics of the compessor bracket/mount?
AC Brkt.jpg
AC Brkt2.jpg
 
jzilla, Ya see Can crusher just spilled the beans on the mount jig.

I measured the crap out , Im in with 2mm ..

Great thinking CanCrusher.

Im into two swaps with a bunch of trucks. Just 4 Me .. Not a biz just personal.

TIME and research .. there are days that why not just buy a figgin diesel overlander truck with all the toys , or the one's I want , plus ..

Im 2 years into this and as Raymond says about a hundred dollars. jzilla, I still get boinked from the wife. Always keep the boinker happy , this fever can get frustrating , and a new beginning with a brought on nightmare of truck , needs to be kept in perspective.

Im lucky that I have Mould and growing fungus while Mr CC is just getting mould .
Congrats on the marriage , Im well versed and none always the wiser.
VT
 
nice project dude, swapping the main wiring harness is a pain in the ass but if you do swap them; over those couple days you will learn lots inside your truck. its not really that hard, and your rear harnesses will plug into the bj harness

i did this in a hj/fj swap


IMG_3619-1.jpg


IMG_3654.jpg


IMG_3707-1.jpg


IMG_3704-1.jpg


IMG_3656.jpg
 
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Picture of preliminary mount and install. In the final version I made a slight mod to the bracket to better align the belts. An adjustment to the CAD file would take care of the misalignment.

Thanks for posting that :cheers:.

nice project dude, swapping the main wiring harness is a pain in the ass but if you do swap them; over those couple days you will learn lots inside your truck. its not really that hard, and your rear harnesses will plug into the bj harness

i did this in a hj/fj swap

Good to know.


Jzilla, your plan makes sense as far as going with the parts you have a known history on. I work really slowly so I know I would end up without wheels if I took 3 wagons apart expecting to get one back together in that timeline. That southern FJ60 looks good.
:beer:
 
I know what you mean BC40, things always take wayyyyyy longer than expected. I will have to think about this. The plus side is that I have the use of my parents vehicles quite a bit, not that I want to rely on that too much.
The turbo and exhaust revamping I have been doing has taken 4 weeks longer than planned!
I will post up pics of that when I am done.
 
Your Future Wife have a Dowry that comes with a car ?

If your not good with wiring & reading Schematics then a harness swap is the way to go. Every foam and plastic for the southern car is toast , while the canuk is the doner there , I bought a few tape / foam for doing the ducting and the harness anti rattle stuff.
See just stuff like that can add weeks.


Jzilla , you have a nice heated shop & a hoist , guns Air ?? Or are you weather worked ?

VT
 
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Not much of a dowry...
I have a carport to work in...I do have air.
What is this foam you are talking about for antirattle?

As for the wiring I have not decided which way to go yet...I am always willing to learn.
Most things I do are a learning experience it seems.
 
jzilla,

I probably would like to see your rust free fj60 some time. Im just south of you in the frasier valley area.

What did you pay for the truck?
 
I have not got it yet, but the owner is asking $2750 US. So a bit less since we have a strong dollar.
The owner has put quite a bit of money into it. The seats cost him $900 alone!
 
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