My UZJ40 Build - 2UZ iForce V8 and a750f 5spd auto (1 Viewer)

[Solace in Solitude]

Magnaflow 11226. I just posted a video of it above so you can hear it



Thanks Danny, please come down and visit soon!

I can come by for a bit tomorrow, if you're not off flying... I have to drive down to Boulder Highway and Trop area to pick up my rebuilt Power Steering Gearbox... but, I will be driving my Tundra... so, no street racing...

Let me know... and text me your new address... I haven't been there yet.

 

[UZJ40]

Now that the engine was out, i wanted to get started on tearing the rest of it down. (Thanks to my parents for letting me use their garage and driveway as a junk yard!) Thankfully, there was a local 40 owner that bought the engine setup. Between the engine, seats, Tuffy console, and a couple other things, I had made about about $2800. So at that point, I was in it around $2,000.

Even though Dynomat is expensive, it had to come out. What a pain in the ass! My dad and I had to work together... as one of us heated it with a torch, the other scraped it off. I'd say it took about 3 hours to get it off the floor (you'll see plenty of Mtn Dew and/or Bud Light cans in my pictures).

Doors off, and most body panels

We did find some goodies under the seats and gas tank, but by far the best, were these glasses my dad had to try on:

 

[payney60]

Watching this one very cool build I have just bought a uzj100r here in aus i also have an fj45 in the backyard awaiting a start on it not sure what direction to take with the powerplant yet but this is definitely an interesting build cheers for sharing.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Magnaflow 11226. I just posted a video of it above so you can hear it

Very nice - Is it super loud in the cab, or fairly subdued? The cab is noisy in these trucks as it is, just wondering if a "beefier" sounding muffler is deafening in the metal echo-chamber.

 

[UZJ40]

Very nice - Is it super loud in the cab, or fairly subdued? The cab is noisy in these trucks as it is, just wondering if a "beefier" sounding muffler is deafening in the metal echo-chamber.

It is only loud under acceleration, but even then, it's MUCH quieter than it was before with dual exhaust coming off that Chevy motor and dumping off the side below the doors.

One other note- I have a large amount of sound deadening material in the vehicle, both in and under the tub. I'm sure that cuts down on the exhaust note somewhat

 

[Solace in Solitude]

I had the pleasure of seeing it again this morning - Riley has done an outstanding job!! Of course, I'm sure, @allan man helped along the way!!

Great job, Riley - enjoyed visiting with you again!!

 

[Fast Eddy]

You f'n tease. I want to skip down to the part about ECU, electronics and wiring up the gauges.

Want!

Should should've painted it back to the original best color ever though.

 

[Solace in Solitude]

Oh Eddy... You have no idea what a pleasure you have ahead of you!!! Patience, glasshopper!!

 

[UZJ40]

BUILD POST 3

With all the panels off and motor out, time to take the tub off. I used an engine hoist, and it actually went fairly smooth! Before anyone asks about me leaving the radiator support... the shop that notched and welded in the tube for the saginaw conversion thought it was necessary to include the radiator support in their project. So, it does not unbolt. They did a good job welding, so it doesn't bother me to leave in.

Bezel on right side up!

After taking everything else off the frame, it was time to get it sand blasted. My parents' neighbor did this for a living, and he offered to do it for free. In the end, it took about an hour and I donated 2 cases of Budweiser to him. My dad and I were ready to POR15 the frame right when we got it back home. I couldn't believe how well this stuff works! I got some on my arms and it took days for it to come off... I should have been more careful!

I originally intended to powder coat the frame, but I was so far from knowing my motor and transmissions mounts, I knew I would be better off with a paint. I'm glad I did in the long run. I have ground down and re-applied the POR in a few places, and you can't even tell.

 

[UZJ40]

BUILD POST 4

I knew whatever FJ40 I ended up getting would eventually receive a 2UZ from a Tundra. I had been looking around locally, and found one from an 03 Tundra at a local wrecking yard. I ran the VIN, and verified the mileage they told me, which was 53k. They wanted $1000 for it, which I was happy to pay, being that I got to inspect it first. It was extremely clean. No rust and out of a local vehicle. I even got to see the Tundra it came from.

Taking a Toyota heart back home to do a transplant:

I originally wanted to keep the manual transmission. At the time, my girlfriend lived in Tucson, and I was down there visiting her when I found a local buyer selling an H55. He was asking a fair price, so I grabbed some cash and bought it while I could. It was in great condition, and I figured a 2UZ, H55, and a split case would be an amazing combo!

The only pic I have of the H55:

 

[UZJ40]

BUILD POST 5

I had a few other things I need to do on the body to get ready for paint. First of, the rear sill. I had never welded before. In fact, I didn't even own a welder. I found a Lincoln on Craigslist that I couldn't pass up. That was my first big tool purchase for the project (of many)!

I practiced on a few pieces of scrap before starting on the rear sill. Overall, I was quite pleased with the outcome. I purchased the CCOT rear sill kit, which came with the inner brace and outer skin. The quality of these was outstanding. They were expensive, but well worth it in my opinion. It would have been much more expensive to have something of equal quality fabricated.

Cutting away the old:

First piece in:

Outer skin:

And, while I was on a roll, a bit more metal work that needed to be done:

The first time I saw an LX with triple wipers, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I was able to source an extra linkage so I could build my own. I PM'ed a fellow MUD member with an LX, and he gave me measurements from the wiper posts. The interesting thing about the factory measurements is that they were not evenly spaced apart! I expected them to be, but they were not. So, I modified them slightly. I did a full sweep of the wiper arm from many different positions and figured out where I'd get maximum coverage.

Not only did I have to cut the linkages apart and weld them together, I also had to modify how long the arm was on the motor. It need a smaller radius of an arm, giving each wiper arm less travel. They needed to be closer to 90 degrees, rather than 100 or 110. This was a lot of trial and error, but in the end, I got what I needed!

Taking measurements:

Marking:

Drilling:

Test fitting from outside:

Finished product! (welding skills not perfect):

Old arm cut off:

New arm set in:

New arm welded on:

DONE!

 

[Nothinghead]

Where in Boise are you? I'd love to run into you (it) sometime.

 

[UZJ40]

I'm sorry, I'm in Las Vegas now. My parents are still up there, but I moved here for a job. That part of the story will be written soon

 

[TheViking]

Nice build!

 

[Solace in Solitude]

BUILD POST 4
The only pic I have of the H55:

Yeah, right!! Where's the transmission??

 

[UZJ40]

BUILD POST 6

So for those of you wanting some technical information, here you go:

I had decided on the 2UZ, but I was still up in the air about the transmission. There were plenty of guys with 2UZ's in their 40's, but they all had either 5 spd manuals, or 4 speed autos. I wanted to do something different in this build, and I loved the a750f 5 speed auto. It is one of the smoothest, most drivable auto transmissions I've ever driven. It was also extremely reliable.

The easiest thing to do would have been to find a donor 4Runner V8 or 100 series Land Cruiser. There were things I needed off of both:

2UZ Motor
A750F Transmission
Offset 100 series transfer case
2WD 4Runner ECU
COMPLETE 4Runner wire harness
4Runner gear shift
4Runner drive by wire gas pedal
4Runner key transponder
4Runner key transponder ECU
4Runner key with chip
And about 100 other small things that will nickel and dime you to death at the dealer

Wanting the 5 speed, I knew I needed a 2003 and up 4Runner or 100 series transmission and ECU. If these years were fitted with the a750, the main engine ECU also controls the electronic transmission, so there was no mixing and matching, or separate ECU's.

I also knew I did NOT want VVTi. It produces a bit more power, but complicates wiring even more. These started being introduced in 2005 in Tundras, as well as other Toyota/Lexus models (I believe).

One other thing- many guys talk about cable actuated or electronically actuated throttle bodies on these 2UZ's. From what I have read, there were never fully cable actuated, rather they were electronically actuated with a cable backup. Although, I can't verify that.




Even though I already had an H55 in my possession (or my girlfriends, rather), I ultimately decided on the a750. My electrical skills are far better than my fabrication skills. I knew I could not reasonably make an adapter plate, bell housing, and all the other things to mate the two. There is a company in Australia that sells the bell housings, but they are VERY expensive, and I'd still have to source other parts as well (2UZ 5 spd auto ECU).

I searched on ebay and found a very nice a750 out of a 100 series, so it even had the transfer case still attached... And it only had 7,000 miles. Perfect! A week later, it showed up:

Test fitting:

There were a few things throughout my build that happened to line up perfect. This is one of those things. Even though it doesn't look like much, it saved me thousands of dollars, and hours upon hours of reasearch:

Not only did I need certain components out of this vehicle, I need about 10" of wire coming off of each thing. It is insanely expensive to buy plugs and wire leads from Toyota. I'm talking $15-$20 per plug!

Out of my shopping list above, here is what I was able to obtain. The years and sources are also listed:

2UZ Motor -- 04 Tundra, junk yard
A750F Transmission -- 03 Land Cruiser, ebay
Offset 100 series transfer case -- same
2WD 4Runner ECU -- 03 4Runner, ebay (the junk yard 4Runner I found was AWD. I wanted manual control of my 4WD shifting)
COMPLETE 4Runner wire harness -- 03 4Runner, ebay (again, I wanted 2wd, rather than AWD harness)
4Runner gear shift -- 03 4Runner, junk yard(I need this, as it has a cable running to it, rather than a rod. Therefor, I can place it wherever I want in my 40)
4Runner drive by wire gas pedal -- 03 4Runner, pulled myself from junk yard
4Runner key transponder -- 03 4Runner, pulled myself from junk yard
4Runner key transponder ECU -- 03 4Runner, pulled myself from junk yard
4Runner charcoal cannister -- 03 4Runner, pulled myself (I've heard the 2UZ will go into limp mode without the req'd emissions junk)
Tundra motor mounts -- 04 Tundra, pulled myself from junk yard
4Runner fuel tank w/pressure sensors -- 03 4Runner, pulled myself from junk yard

A few pictures of the above listed:

Fuel tank and charcoal canister:

Engine and transmission harness, as well as numerous other harnesses:

Shifter, steering column (for key transponder), shift cable (top right), gas pedal, motor mounts, and mass air flow sensor

Just for reference, this is the shifter from the 100 series. You can see it has a rod attached to it, so I would have had to mount it in a specific place. With the 4Runner setup, the cable is about 6' long, so there's a lot of freedom in mounting options.

 

[ginmtb]

Wow never welded before? Looks really good! (from someone who still has never welded...)

 

[mdsims]

Damn, you're doing everything right!

 

[UZJ40]

Even though this is a build thread, a lot has happened in my life throughout the last couple of years that has changed the course and outcome of my 40.

The night before I flew up to Oregon to buy my 40, I was sitting on an airplane from Denver to Boise, on my way back from Louisiana (work). Little did I know at the time, but the girl that sat next to me on the flight would be my future wife. We talked the whole flight, and I even showed her a picture of the 40 I was going to buy on the next morning. 2 days later, I picked her up in the 40 for our first date. We still joke that the 40 has been in my life one day longer than our first date, so it gets priority....

Our first date, up at Tablerock (for those of you familiar with Boise):

She has been extremely supportive and helpful, and loves my project. She's never once complained about the time or money I spend on it. She loves hanging out in the garage and helping when she can.

About a year after we started dating, I stopped my job where I commute back and forth, and I took a job in Las Vegas. She moved there a short time later as well. About 2 months after we moved to Vegas, I flew to Boise, rented a Uhaul truck and trailer, and loaded up my project 40. It's amazing how much room a 40 takes up when it's taken apart!!!

So, from this point on in the thread, the build takes place in Las Vegas.

 

[Solace in Solitude]

Great thread Riley!! Keep it coming!!