My '84 60 build, "Wallace"

[ntsqd]

Home, sick today - figured that I'd post pics of current progress.

Stainless steel T-stat housing, I have way, way too much time into making it look like an off the shelf part. It clears everything by not very much.
The little gauge is a glycerin filled, 316 SS movement 60 psi industrial gauge destined to become a fuel pressure gauge. Plan is to mount it somewhere near the throttle cable housing anchor bracket.

I've also made the late 80's K5 transfer case shifter fit into the stock hole and mount like it was a stock part. I'll be using the original lower boot as just a gasket between the shifter base and the trans tunnel. Once I have the lever shaped to work the stock upper boot will work and look at least nearly stock. To make the GM lever fit under the dash I had to shorten it. So that meant that I had to alter the lever ratios so that everything ended up back in the same place and that the lever wasn't too hard to move.

Shifter base sans lever and shift lever gate:

Levers and op-rod just before test fitting the jam nuts. I need to grind the nearest strong-back on the t/c lever for nut clearance. I need some longer M8's and Nylox and to remove the excess lever length. Then all of the lower stuff can go in for good.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

It is going to be one hell of a day when this roars to life.

 

[ntsqd]

It is going to be one hell of a day when this roars to life.

Amen, brother, Amen!

 

[ntsqd]

I finally got the t/c shifter finished! It took a long time just to get it bolted into place. I'm undecided on which knob set to use. With an adapter on the t/c shifter lever I can use both original knobs, or I can use the 7 ball from my Suburban and the Winter shifter's stock knob.

Stock knobs:

"Aftermarket" knobs:

Underside linkage, I'm contemplating some Seals-it washers for the SRE's. Partly to keep grit out and partly to stop it from rattling:

I also got the front dress finalized except for needing longer bolts for the clutch fan. At some point in it's past the donor had an alternator fire that wiped out the front tab for the alt's main bolt and part of the bracket itself got chewed up by the alt's fan. I made a new sliding sleave, only thicker than the OE stamped sheet metal part, and a new tab for it to slide in. While I was welding aluminum I extended the new front tab and added a second hole, and added a second tab with a hole in it. These are to mount the eventual york based OBA. I''m starting to think that I'll have to use the 'mini york' from a Volvo due to space limitations. I kept the Kilby pulley from the Sub and installed it to the Alt. I'm going to let the used serpentine belt polish off the surface rust on the pulleys before replacing it.
Also installed today was a Stewart Components Stage I water pump. I used one on a previous project vehicle and was really happy with the reduction in operating temperature that resulted just from installing it. While I had things apart I did a little 'aerosol over-hauling' with some satin black Rustoleum and knocked the casting flash off of the LF corner of the block. I'm not into a show car polished block, but I don't like gashing my body on unnecessary sharp corners either.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Those aluminum welds look great, so they must be TIG. I've tried and had good results with flat stock AL but it's hard to make welds that pretty with real world applications. What welding setup are you running?

 

[ntsqd]

Thanks! The machine is an early 80's era Miller SynchroWave 250 that came in the bundle of machine tools that I bought from my former vintage race & touring car prep/race employer. It's not a fancy, late model inverter machine. Those welds look better in pictures than they do in person. The trick with aluminum castings is a form of pre-heat, I've taken to calling it "background heat" because it is slightly different than pre-heating. The goal is to just generally heat up the part so that it welds easier, but you don't need to get the whole thing smoking hot - just 200-300 degrees is enough. I used a MAPP gas torch to warm the first weld zone, and then kept at it while the casting was hot.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Thanks! The machine is an early 80's era Miller SynchroWave 250 that came in the bundle of machine tools that I bought from my former vintage race & touring car prep/race employer. It's not a fancy, late model inverter machine. Those welds look better in pictures than they do in person. The trick with aluminum castings is a form of pre-heat, I've taken to calling it "background heat" because it is slightly different than pre-heating. The goal is to just generally heat up the part so that it welds easier, but you don't need to get the whole thing smoking hot - just 200-300 degrees is enough. I used a MAPP gas torch to warm the first weld zone, and then kept at it while the casting was hot.

Definitely a good idea to pre heat the part prior to welding. Very cool! We used some nice inverter Millers and AC to weld aluminum. It didn't take long to get the hang of it in a lab environment. The weirdest part for me was that AL doesn't show it's heat like steel does. Steel gets "red hot" while aluminum stays the same color. Burned myself a couple of times that way

When do you expect to have this beast done by?

 

[ntsqd]

Aluminum does change color when hot. It just is very hard to see with a std. lens. A cobalt blue lens will let you see it easily, but they are difficult to obtain and are only known by me to be tinted for Oxy-fuel use. A gold plated arc lens makes seeing the color change possible, but you have to really look for it. It looks more like a halo or corona around the metal than the obvious color change in steel.

I don't know when it'll run. I have the cooling system to build (hope to order the radiator today), the mandrel bent SS exhaust system to build, and the wiring to sort out before I can try for fire. Then I need to center the rear diff before I can drive it. I'll probably add the new 4.11 gears and ARB's before I do drive it. Which means another knuckle rebuild. Oh, JOY!!!!

 

[fj60cruizer]

7 ball? Thats different I guess.

 

[ntsqd]

No idea where it came from, and none of the others were with it. Seemed like the thing to do with it.

Ordered the Seals-It washers from Speedway Motors today. Still waiting on a radiator quote.

 

[ntsqd]

Been going pretty hard and fast on the new house. We have a month to do way, way too much - even with a contractor working on it. So progress has been made on Wallace, but pictures are lacking.

The radiator arrived last night. I have a plan for it's mounts to also include bracketry for the engine oil and ATF coolers. We'll see how that works out.

I've also finished the trans shifter mounting. Note the exposed ugliness and the barely visible gold iridated brackets below the top cover in this picture:

I got to looking at the old 4 speed's shifter hole and wondering if I could sink the new shifter into it. Since the new shifter is not sealed and totally exposed to the elements I had to build a box for it to fit into. That box then needed to have something that replaced those gold iridated brackets that anchor the shifter cable housing 7-1/2" to the rear of the shifter's pivot point. I used a tight fit around one of the rubber boots on the shifter cable to seal the cable into the tubular cable housing anchor. I also had to bend the shifter shaft about 20* to keep it out of the HVAC ducting when in park. It's a little bit of a reach to pull it out of Park (have to lean forward off the seat back), but the 3-4 shift is just about the right reach for me. I'm sure this will make more sense with pictures, which I hope to take tomorrow morning.

 

[ntsqd]

Pichures!!!
Top view of the shifters, taken thru the window because some numb-nutz left the keys elsewhere ( ):

Underside from the pass side:

Underside from the driver's side:

I need to splash some paint on those socket heads before they rust.

 

[ntsqd]

I thought that I remembered something about being able to use the 80 series re-usable air filter element in the FJ62 air filter can, but couldn't find the thread. Pulled up the Rock Auto page and the Wix replacement filter element is the same p/n for a '91 (3FE) as it is for a '96 (1FZ), so I need to order one of the OE 80 filter elements soon.

Received a Speedway Motors order with the first of the T304 SS mandrel bends for the exhaust system. Also got the carbon steel 3.5" mandrel bend needed to make the 62's air filter can lid mate with the rest of the induction plumbing. Now if the 034 Motorsports order would just get here I'd have all of the bits except one part needed to build the induction plumbing. That one part I need to make and it's going to stretch me a bit. I tried using .062" thick material and it's too thick. Going to get some .032" and 0.040" and see how well that works.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I love this thread. Keep at it man!

 

[ntsqd]

Gonna be some delay on further progress. Getting harnessed this Saturday.

Poor progress on that one part - not working out as hoped for. Re-think has me going in a simpler direction, but one that I previously didn't think would work. After seeing Speedway Motors' 3.5" mandrel bent exhaust tubing it might work. Need to get a few more.

 

[lehiguy]

Looks like the upper radiator hose is just a big 90 degree job. The perfect fit for the original SBC T-stat housings is from a '68 or '69 (can't remember which) GTO with the 400 motor. It will likely fit yours just as well with some trimming on the engine end.

 

[ntsqd]

A large 90* is exactly what it needs to be. This engine is odd (to me anyway) for a Chevy, the upper hose is smaller than the std. SBC upper hose size - or at least I think that it is. I'd have to measure it again, but something about 1-3/8" would be in the zone of working. Any idea what the Pontiac hose size is?

 

[Dynosoar]

Indeed the upper TPI is strange. I think it is 1.25. I used this slick piece and it all hooked up well. JEGS Performance Products 51157 JEGS Inline Radiator Hose Drain

I pulled out the petcock and put in a plug. It is a good place to run a temp sensor too.


Dynosoar

 

[ntsqd]

The radiator that I ordered and now have is a high fin density, close core tube spacing 3 core unit designed to fit in the donor Z-28, so it has the matching small hose bib on it's inlet. The Z-28's puny 2 core AL OE radiator fits in the core support opening like it was made to be there. So I ran with it. I am planning on the combination of a shrouded clutch fan (vs. two electrics) and the heavier duty core more than offsetting the heavier duty use in the FJ. We'll see how that works out for me.....

 

[alaska60]

I am very interested in your fuel lines. You brazed or sodered the an fittings on your toyoto lines? what are the blue hp lines you have? did you have those custom built at a hose place?
Im currently trying to set up a fuel line system for a 5.3 swap.