My '78 FJ40 Project

[crash80]

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Just wanted to show my '78 off to everyone. It was given to me when I was 15, and now that I am 28, I want to make it the way I want it.

SOA was the first part of my project and at the same time, I converted the rear to full float axles and disk brakes. I used spindles and hubs off of a
'85 Toyota pickup. Same size as the 40 spindles and hubs, just a solid disk rotor. Should work great on the rear.

Dropping in a Gen. III Chevy 5.3 was my next project that I am still working on. At first I was going to use the 4L60E tranny,
but I didn't like the idea of a 1 foot long rear drive shaft. So I swapped it out for a SM465 with stock Land Cruiser T-case.
Built my own adapter and cut my own spline on the drive gear of the T-case to fit the 35 spline output shaft of the 465.
Should work great, but you never know though.

Getting a flywheel to fit the 5.3 was a big pain in the rump Apparently, when I started this part, the 5.3 were not available in a manual transmission package on any vehicle. I was told this by the dealership parts department, and research on the web. Might have changed by now. Anyway, I would have thought that the 4.8 flywheel would bolt right up to the 5.3 crank. Well, same bolt pattern, but the crank was about 1/2" short. Flywheel hit the block. Damn the luck. So, I built an adapter to space out the flywheel and house the pilot bearing. Another one of those should work great, but you never know ideas.

Enjoy,
T.J.

 

[alkarich]

Welcome to Mud. Would be better with pictures.

 

[crash80]

Sorry, wanted to upload more than 3 pics. Guess I need to find another source to upload my pictures to.

Anyone know of a great source to use for downloading pictures?

T.J.

 

[Hogan]

Nice 40

 

[cruiserjunkie]

If you buy a star you can post more pictures. Welcome cruiser is looking good

 

[rsc71]

you can use Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket to host your pics

 

[crash80]

Ok, I am currently working on the exhaust. I am trying to decide on what mufflers I want to use. I like the sound of Flowmasters but I don’t know if that sound goes well with a cruiser. It might be more of a muscle car tone instead of an off road rumble.

What do you guys think? Flowmaster 40s, 50s, Delta or not, or just run a turbo muffler and keep her quiet. I like the idea of others hearing what is under the hood, but it might be too much.

Thanks,
T.J.

 

[cruiserdoc]

I have flow master on mine with a sbc, they have a nice sound and it isn't overly loud and obnoxious. I am curious about the header setup you have in your pics, I know for motorcycles that the closer you can get to each exhaust tube being the same length the better the performance, but I don't know how big of a deal that is in reality.

 

[crash80]

The header I am building is not for performance, just cant find what I need to stay inside the frame rails, clear the pickup motor mounts that were on the engine, and allow me to cross over the passenger exhause fast and easily in front of oil pan. I have seen the LS1 headers for the camaro and they look nice, but I didnt want to invest in them when they looked like they would hit th e Pickup mounts. The headers I am building will probably hurt high end HP performance, but not the torque. I think i can spare some of the 285HP. If they dont work, I will then look at changing the motor mounts and changing to the camaro headers.

Which flowmasters do you have? Single or dual exhast?

I will take pictures of the passenger side in the next few days. You will see what I am talking about.

Thanks,
T.J.

 

[alkarich]

Nice looking 40. As for muffler/s. I think the quieter the better.

 

[crash80]

Photos of my passenger exhaust manifold.

See how it dumps down at the front. This is where I am going to cross over.

This is a picture of the driver side dumping back next to the body. The passenger side will end up next to it when I get it all hooked up and to that point.

T.J.

 

[crash80]

O.K. More pics of the exhaust. It seems to take forever to make any progress. I guess that is expected when a person only gets an hour here and there to work on a project. But, I wouldnt trade the time I spend with my girls for anything. They are growing so fast.

Enough rambling, here are some photos.

Passenger side.

Crossover.

 

[crash80]

More.

Driver side.

The Y joint into 3" tubing.

Enjoy!
T.J.

 

[BJ44V]

Looking good man. Did you do the SOA yourself?

 

[crash80]

Yes I did. I think it was easier than this exhaust is working out to be. But, in the long run, I feel like having the exhaust run out the back and on the driver side like original will be great with the V8 package.

T.J.

 

[lostmarbles]

Supurb photos and workmanship!

Thanks for sharing what you're doing.

 

[vk7ybi]

Interesting rear FF conversion.. What axle shafts are those, and does the spindle sleeve into the axle housing, or is it just butt welded to the axle housing? I have a similar RDB conversion, I think you'll find it works great..

 

[crash80]

The spindle bolts on to a flange I welded to the housing. I basically made the spindle attach in the same manner as the front. I first made my flanges with bolt holes, then I welded them, and last, I chucked up the whole housing in the lathe and machined the rest around center. Went pretty fast and worked out great.

As for the axle shafts, I havnt got any yet, but I am planning on building my own out of spare axles I have. I will just cut them in half and then weld them together. I will go through the whole pre-heat and post-heat process to try and make them work. If that fails, I will have some made from mosier. We have had them make our shafts for our rock crawler in the past. Great axles at a good price for custom shafts.


T.J.

 

[vk7ybi]

I understand..

 

[crash80]

So the Land Cruiser has been sitting for the past 9 years untouched.....life happens! Now my girls are getting older and driving the Land Cruiser again while making memories with them in the outdoors has become a priority.

Wrote down all of the primary projects that I needed to complete on the Cruiser and I’m going to start from front to back. I think the jumping around killed all my enthusiasm last time, just didn’t seem to get anywhere!

With that said, I have started to finish my steering to complete the SOA I started many blue moons ago. I bought a high steer hit and I’m in the process of reassembly.

Here are a few new pics of the re-lit fire under my a$$!

Enjoy!
T.J.