New addition to the Stable (Project Magilla) (1 Viewer)

[jamarquardt22]

It sounds too late now. But why not switch to a shorter car intake. Or is that more involved then it's worth.

 

[matzell]

I have looked at a bunch of mounts. If I do it I think I will use the factory GM mounts and the mount from the frame that I unbolted and modify it to fit in the 80 frame once the stock mounts are cut out. I think the GM motor mounts will keep the vibration down. The AA mounts are stupid simple but I think they are a little too rigid. I will keep following and see how yours turns out. I have a couple LS combos that need homes!

 

[matzell]

It sounds too late now. But why not switch to a shorter car intake. Or is that more involved then it's worth.

Truck intake gives you more torque. There is something to be said about having it all "stock" when looking for replacement parts.

 

[Stoshu]

It sounds too late now. But why not switch to a shorter car intake. Or is that more involved then it's worth.

I thought the same thing Andy, but the primary reason behind keeping the truck intake is the positioning of the drive accessories. The truck engines keep them up high and tighter to the engine, where the car accessories are lower an wider. This is because the throttle body is lower to the water pump and creates the clearance issues with accessories on the car engines.

I have looked at a bunch of mounts. If I do it I think I will use the factory GM mounts and the mount from the frame that I unbolted and modify it to fit in the 80 frame once the stock mounts are cut out. I think the GM motor mounts will keep the vibration down. The AA mounts are stupid simple but I think they are a little too rigid. I will keep following and see how yours turns out. I have a couple LS combos that need homes!

Lots of guys on the 80 series swap thread use the Dirty Dingo Universal Hot Rod mounts with good success. Marks told me these would work with my early 1991 FJ80 and I never questioned them or thought about the RHD/LHD issues. I'll get these to work, but it's taking some time and effort.

ETA: I like the fact that the Marks mounts use an OEM style rubber isolator block between the engine and chassis post, which is why I'm trying to make these work. Fingers crossed that everything lines up correctly this time.

 

[Stoshu]

Stosh Jr. came back today and he burned in the scab plates on the frame rails. We positioned the engine and trans again, modified the Marks chassis posts to fit the new engine position, and tacked them in place. Verified all clearances and made sure the hood would close. Only have about 1/2" of clearance between the intake cover stud and hood insulation, but the plastic Vortec cover isn't high on my "keep it" list anyway.
Here's how the motor mounts finally fell on the frame. Fresh coat of paint, so they're still shiny.
(Passenger side)

(Driver side - excuse the sloppy brake line paint. New lines being plumbed in anyway>)

Also got the transfer case installed and checked clearances. Looks like the front drive shaft will be a tight fit to the trans pan in one spot, but should clear. Will know if the pan needs to be clearanced once I can flex the suspension a bit.

Lastly, I got the TCM reinstalled in the transmission after PSI reflashed it. New filter, gasket, etc...

Next up is swapping in the F-body oil pan, windage tray, pick up tube and dipstick.

 

[Stoshu]

Got the F body oil pick up tube, windage tray, oil pan and dipstick installed. Much happier with the pan clearance now. Bottom of the pan is flush with the trans bell housing now. Also created much more room next to the front pinion flange, which I was worried about with the truck pan. Oil capacity goes from 6.5 quarts to 5.5, but I can live with that.

Also installed a couple solutions to allow the factory water temp and oil pressure gauges to work properly. The first one I found at Wit's End. It is an OEM Toyota FZJ water temp sensor that they turn down and rethread to fit the port in the GM heads. Really slick solution, as the other port is used for the GM sensor to the ECM.

Second one took a little research. This engine has VVT and needs to see an oil pressure signal for that system to operate correctly. This adapter allows the OEM Toyota oil pressure sending unit (1/8" BSP) to be threaded into the side and the GM sensor to the top port. The great part is the middle section utilizes compression fittings, so you can rotate the assembly and keep the Mr. T sending unit between the intake manifold and firewall.

 

[Stoshu]

Spent the last couple evenings running the engine harness wiring and plugging everything in. Not much room under the dash or behind the glove box of an 80 on the passenger side, so ended up mounting the ECM and fuse/relay block under the driver's side where the OEM cruise control unit was.

Couldn't get the GM drive by wire pedal to mount up in the stock Toyota location, so Stosh Jr. fabbed up a nice bracket. It utilizes the stock mount mounting points and positions the pedal away from the trans tunnel where it needs to be for proper travel.

Working on the fuel system and plumbing in the fuel lines next. Was having some fuel delivery issues with the 3FE, so I need to verify the stock pump operation first. If that checks out, and with any luck, I may be able to fire the engine sometime next week.

 

[Stoshu]

Kind of a slow week for progress. Determined that the original fuel pump was toast, so got a replacement and dropped it in. Then ran a new wiring harness from the PSI FP replay to the fuel pump factory connector and soldered it in. Plumbed the fuel lines to an LS Corvette regulator and filter that I mounted on top of the passenger side frame rail. Had to wait over a week to get a 12mm to 6AN banjo fitting for the top of the fuel tank, as the first one got lost somewhere between NJ and PA by USPS. Here's how the new pump discharge looks on top of the tank.

One of the problems the swap presented was going from the GM power steering pump to the Toyota steering box and the associated fittings. To complicate things, the pump and steering box are REALLY close together. Took both halves of the hose ends to an old school hose shop in Scranton and the guy knocked out a perfect hose in about 15 minutes. Perfect fit and a breeze to install. Pump discharge now makes a U turn under the pump body and turns up into the HP steering box port.

Decided it would be a good time to add a P/S cooler to the system, so a new aluminum heat sink cooler was mounted to the front cross member between the frame rails then plumbed in and wrapped with abrasion resistant sleeve.

Planning on fitting up the radiator, cooling and heater hoses next. Then cross my fingers and turn the key...

 

[Stoshu]

Fire in the hole!

 

[caz]

Yowsers, makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Awesome!

 

[Stoshu]

Worked on getting the trans cooler lines plumbed. They exit on the opposite side of the transmission than the Toyota lines, so had to use braided stainless reinforced flex lines and wrap them in heat reflective barrier due to the proximity of the exhaust system.

Then ran the lines to the radiator cooler and to the external cooler. Also installed a new A/C condenser owing to the fact that the original literally fell into pieces when it was removed. Surprisingly the old one still held a charge! I need to work some magic on the compressor hoses, but have some ideas there.

Installed the new Flex-A-Lite dual 13.5" fans and shroud. They are rated at 4,600 cfm of air flow, so I'm hoping that will be sufficient to cool things down. They fit surprisingly well and only needed minor trimming of the shroud around the hoses. Top radiator hose is a bit convoluted, but it needs to be in order to make the trip from driver to passenger side. Hoping that the OEM radiator and this fan set up does the job. Looked at the Ron Davis unit that a lot of the other LS swaps use and about fell over when I saw the prices!

Next up is the intake and air box, fan relays/wiring, and the transmission shift linkage. Then it is off to the exhaust shop to have a new system built.

 

[Stoshu]

Spent an entirely unreasonable amount of time figuring out a shifter cable arrangement and mounts for each end of the cable. The Toyota shifter actuates reverse of what the GM lever travel was, so wound up flipping the arm on the transmission up side down and fabbing up a braket to raise the cable mount up higher.

On the shifter end, I was able to locate a couple of threaded bosses on the trans housing and bent up a bracket to get the cable end parallel with the end of the shifter arm. Getting the throws and detents to match up was a bit of a challenge and required a few revisions. Think an adjustable arm on the trans linkage may still be in the future, but for now it is solidly operable.

 

[Stoshu]

Worked on cleaning up the surface rust on the drive shafts, painting them with chassis saver, and getting them installed with some new hardware. Front shaft is pretty close to the transmission pan, but with the part time kit, it won't be spinning at highway speeds. Guess I'll know more if there's going to be any interference once it gets some trail time in 4WD.

Also installed new front calipers and Slee braided stainless brake lines on all four calipers. Old rubber hoses were pretty humble.

Then whipped up a bracket next to the OEM fuse box and installed a Blue Sea fuse panel to power all the independent GM circuits, as well as a mini oil catch can. This way the PCV system isn't shooting oil vapor back into the freshly cleaned intake manifold.

 

[Stoshu]

Ordered up some A/C barrier hose and parts from Cold Air. Fitted up a high and low side hose with O-ring fittings on each end and charge ports, then tigged on a matching nut to the OEM Toyota hard lines. This way the hoses can be removed from the system if the need ever arises.

Installed:

Good news is I found a local guy to build a custom exhaust system. Bad news is he can't get to it until the end of April.
Looks like the road testing and wheeling will be delayed a few weeks, but that will give me time to tidy up some loose ends on the wiring and get the cruise control integrated.

 

[Stoshu]

Spent the last couple weeks cleaning up wiring and integrating cruise control to the truck. Using the OEM components with the newer engine management was overly complicated and cumbersome. Decided to go with a stand alone unit that interfaces with the GM canbus signals. Fairly straight-forward installation once the proper leads are located in the truck side wiring harness. Even got to keep the OEM "cruise" light on the dash!

Also painted and installed the Trail Gear front bumper and Come Up Seal Gen2 winch I had sitting around 4 years for this project.

Then finished up the intake mount, cleaned everything up under the hood, and installed a little hybrid twist to the "Vortec" engine cover.

Truck heads to the exhaust shop this week for stainless custom exhaust. Getting close now!

 

[Stoshu]

Just got word from the exhaust / tuner shop that the truck should be done this week. Its been there an agonizing 10 weeks waiting for stainless V-band clamps and the right muffler. Apparently there's been a back log for this stuff recently.

So Mrs. Stoshu commented on the project name and said "The truck looks great, but.....It looks more like a Magilla Gorilla than a Silverback". After my delicate sensabilities settled down, and considering the comment, she's right. So the name has stuck and the thread title changed accordingly.

 

[Stoshu]

So after 5 agonizing months and numerous set backs, the truck is finally back from getting the mandrel bent stainless exhaust installed. Once the exhaust was finished, the shop gave it a base tune and a few dyno runs. Happy to say it sounds great and pulls like a freight train! Here's a few pics of the exhaust routing. Not a lot of room under there, but they did a beautiful job with it.
Front drive shaft area:

2 into 1 Magnaflow muffler:

Over the rear axle:

Took the truck for a few shake down runs around town and was really happy with the end results. Steering was pretty vague and the input shaft seal was belching ATF everywhere, so I brought it into the shop today and installed a freshly rebuilt steering box. RedHead did a nice job utilizing all the factory seals and 105 Series sector shaft parts I sent to them. Big shout out to @Crusha for hooking me up with a rebuildable steering box!

Next up is getting the rest of the frame wire brushed and painted. Then install the WKOR sliders and it'll be time for some trail runs!

 

[surfishjoe]

lets hear it run now with that new exhaust!

 

[Stoshu]

Here ya go @surfishjoe . Sorry about the sound quality, no tripod to setup the phone by the exhaust tip.

And here's a short walk around of the rig as it sits now.

 

[dr_dobro]

Pretty sick Stan, really love it !
How did you wrap the exhaust under the oil pan?
Did you do a “T” , I am just curious
Dan