Hi Everyone,
First off I want to thank everyone on IH8MUD, this site is an awesome resource. ive been a super lurker for 5 years searching this site at random times at all hours whenever i ran into a snag on my FJ40 and it has been very helpful. I wanted to start a rebuild thread but with kids and work there just wasnt enough time unfortunately.
I started off restoring and rebuilding my FJ40 back in early 2014. It started out as a 1967, with the 236 inline six and factory transmission, tcase, the works. I drove it and wheeled it very hard for 7 years before 2014 with the original straight six until the rear main seal failed while driving it one day, and I darn near rolled it at 40 mph when the engine seized. Later, I found I couldnt rotate the crank with an 8ft chunk of thick steel tube, the crank and block had become one fused piece of metal! Felt like it anyway.
As much as i love that straight six and 3 speed trans i wanted to change it up because why not. So, i decided it would give it a spring flip, spring over suspension lift, a v8, and i wanted to go with the SM465 trans with the stock tcase because I like it so much, despite the aluminum case. I bought some spring packs off a member here, which was a great experience, took em apart, cleaned em and set them aside. Next was the front axle housing cut and turn. The threads here on cutting and turning proved invaluable, and made the job a snap really.
Next up was a luke 4x4 labs frombe steering kit which is so cool and works extremely well. I relocated the differential drain plugs higher to allow more fluid capacity, easy breezy. Because i was going v8 an anti wrap bar seemed like a good call, and it looks really cool, so i ordered the kit from ruff stuff and whipped that up. Moving forward, I boxed in the frame, and welded on lots of small gussets and tabs onto the frame in places where i thought it would look cool, lord knows these 40 frames came ready to party off the assembly line and dont really need more beef but what the heck.
For the power, i picked up an early 350 block off a neighbor and took it to a local machine shop. I had them add 4 bolt main caps and clearance the block for a .400 crankshaft. I wanted an engine that could be built and rebuilt again and again if needed so i went with a forged 4340 rotating assembly, i beam connecting rods, and 12cc dished pistons. Cloyes double roller timing chain, AFR 195 heads with 65 cc chambers, sanderson QP 1000 headers( saw these on IH8MUD, glad i took the pro tip), edelbrock performer air gap intake, holley 770cfm truck avenger, pertronix ignitor 2 distrib and second strike ignition module.
The truck has dual fans, derale 600 cfm ea with a dakota digital fan controller.
Im running a saginaw 3 turn (was such a tough call going with the 3 turn but its whats its always had so I just rebuilt it), mated to an astro van column.
I used Novaks master rebuild kit and hit the reset button on my sm465 transmission, which is mated to an advance adapters tcase adapter. I refreshed my factory transfer case and plopped it in.
Lastly i added 4 wheel disc brakes, a lock rite in the front, and bought a spare rear diff which i welded into a lincoln locker for once i get some miles on it and its ready to hit the trails.
I picked up a an exhaust kit from jegs in 2 3/4 in. And welded up an exhaust based what mud members were saying was the optimal routing, in front of the oil pan. I added an h pipe and zapped in a couple no name chamber muffs.
During the rebuild i replaced.all the bearings in the axles, as well as seals and shims, etc.
I fabbed up the drive shafts using a double cardan doner blended into .220 wall dom bookended by the factory drive shaft flanges. I went with super heavy shafts because i felt like a little more weight down low will help offset my cg being on the higher side.
I searched high and low on drive shaft fab and couldnt find a convenient way to balance them without taking them.to a shop so i tried a different approach. I figured that if i hand filed the welds off the old shafts at the flanges, and was careful to make sure the ends were square and welds not haneous, that the shafts might be inherently not too far out of balance. The .220 wall slid perfectly over the stock shaft tube, over where the weld used to be before i filed it down, and they run fine. No imbalance or vibes at all, and ive now had the truck to 70.
Lastly(this is getting lengthy) i picked up the widest set of alum mickey t rims i could get in 16" and beaded up a set of 37" maxxis creepy crawlers. Excited to see what these tires can do off road, my original set of bf goodrich 33s is still being used for garage rollers and that set was nigh unstoppable off road. Love those old 33s.
I think that about covers it, family cage and blue metallic paint that i sprayed in my garage last summer/fall.
hope you like the pics and thanks again everyone for all the awesome info on here and helpful sharing of knowledge that you do!
-Ed
First off I want to thank everyone on IH8MUD, this site is an awesome resource. ive been a super lurker for 5 years searching this site at random times at all hours whenever i ran into a snag on my FJ40 and it has been very helpful. I wanted to start a rebuild thread but with kids and work there just wasnt enough time unfortunately.
I started off restoring and rebuilding my FJ40 back in early 2014. It started out as a 1967, with the 236 inline six and factory transmission, tcase, the works. I drove it and wheeled it very hard for 7 years before 2014 with the original straight six until the rear main seal failed while driving it one day, and I darn near rolled it at 40 mph when the engine seized. Later, I found I couldnt rotate the crank with an 8ft chunk of thick steel tube, the crank and block had become one fused piece of metal! Felt like it anyway.
As much as i love that straight six and 3 speed trans i wanted to change it up because why not. So, i decided it would give it a spring flip, spring over suspension lift, a v8, and i wanted to go with the SM465 trans with the stock tcase because I like it so much, despite the aluminum case. I bought some spring packs off a member here, which was a great experience, took em apart, cleaned em and set them aside. Next was the front axle housing cut and turn. The threads here on cutting and turning proved invaluable, and made the job a snap really.
Next up was a luke 4x4 labs frombe steering kit which is so cool and works extremely well. I relocated the differential drain plugs higher to allow more fluid capacity, easy breezy. Because i was going v8 an anti wrap bar seemed like a good call, and it looks really cool, so i ordered the kit from ruff stuff and whipped that up. Moving forward, I boxed in the frame, and welded on lots of small gussets and tabs onto the frame in places where i thought it would look cool, lord knows these 40 frames came ready to party off the assembly line and dont really need more beef but what the heck.
For the power, i picked up an early 350 block off a neighbor and took it to a local machine shop. I had them add 4 bolt main caps and clearance the block for a .400 crankshaft. I wanted an engine that could be built and rebuilt again and again if needed so i went with a forged 4340 rotating assembly, i beam connecting rods, and 12cc dished pistons. Cloyes double roller timing chain, AFR 195 heads with 65 cc chambers, sanderson QP 1000 headers( saw these on IH8MUD, glad i took the pro tip), edelbrock performer air gap intake, holley 770cfm truck avenger, pertronix ignitor 2 distrib and second strike ignition module.
The truck has dual fans, derale 600 cfm ea with a dakota digital fan controller.
Im running a saginaw 3 turn (was such a tough call going with the 3 turn but its whats its always had so I just rebuilt it), mated to an astro van column.
I used Novaks master rebuild kit and hit the reset button on my sm465 transmission, which is mated to an advance adapters tcase adapter. I refreshed my factory transfer case and plopped it in.
Lastly i added 4 wheel disc brakes, a lock rite in the front, and bought a spare rear diff which i welded into a lincoln locker for once i get some miles on it and its ready to hit the trails.
I picked up a an exhaust kit from jegs in 2 3/4 in. And welded up an exhaust based what mud members were saying was the optimal routing, in front of the oil pan. I added an h pipe and zapped in a couple no name chamber muffs.
During the rebuild i replaced.all the bearings in the axles, as well as seals and shims, etc.
I fabbed up the drive shafts using a double cardan doner blended into .220 wall dom bookended by the factory drive shaft flanges. I went with super heavy shafts because i felt like a little more weight down low will help offset my cg being on the higher side.
I searched high and low on drive shaft fab and couldnt find a convenient way to balance them without taking them.to a shop so i tried a different approach. I figured that if i hand filed the welds off the old shafts at the flanges, and was careful to make sure the ends were square and welds not haneous, that the shafts might be inherently not too far out of balance. The .220 wall slid perfectly over the stock shaft tube, over where the weld used to be before i filed it down, and they run fine. No imbalance or vibes at all, and ive now had the truck to 70.
Lastly(this is getting lengthy) i picked up the widest set of alum mickey t rims i could get in 16" and beaded up a set of 37" maxxis creepy crawlers. Excited to see what these tires can do off road, my original set of bf goodrich 33s is still being used for garage rollers and that set was nigh unstoppable off road. Love those old 33s.
I think that about covers it, family cage and blue metallic paint that i sprayed in my garage last summer/fall.
hope you like the pics and thanks again everyone for all the awesome info on here and helpful sharing of knowledge that you do!
-Ed
