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- Jul 22, 2012
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- 17,705
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- Winter Park, Florida
- Website
- www.cruisermatts.com
that is looking much much better then the last shop.
New to FJ40 Scene
- Thread starter FloridaLife
- Start date
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FloridaLife
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- #782
Thank you! He knows his stuff, and has fixed things that I never would have even known to look for. The next guy on his waiting list if I remember correctly wants to be able to see his reflection clearly from 20 feet away. He can and will do that, but that takes time, and time takes money. I don't need that. I'm looking for solid, safe, reliable, fun, and look good.
Definitely not such a pro but I appreciate it. More just making sure you have something that will last vs what those guys hid everywhere and was already cracking/failing. Went from just finishing painting some stuff to snowballing a different direction without spending crazy time and money.
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FloridaLife
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- #785
@Jdc1 meant Don. Al is a mutual friend and customer of his up in the northeast part of the country where they actually have 4 seasons. Here there are only 2 seasons... Hot, and Oh My Gosh it's HOT! (and humid)
FloridaLife
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- #786
It’s been a long week….
Heat and humidity will do that to you @Jdc1 … I can’t wait for the next 8 weeks to go by for several reasons. My biggest is going to be A/C unless there are some snowballs hiding out …
What I found interesting tonight was….. the weather guys always calculated snow in inches and rain in tenths of an inch. The last few weeks they are commenting on and predicting rain in inches. They’re looking at 2-4” of rain on Monday
What I found interesting tonight was….. the weather guys always calculated snow in inches and rain in tenths of an inch. The last few weeks they are commenting on and predicting rain in inches. They’re looking at 2-4” of rain on Monday
Our city engineer stated that we are getting approximately the same amount of rain for the year just in larger amounts at a time. Science I guess…
Just sent a 5.3/H55 swap home to its happy owner, wondering why this week felt so long, I forgot that I put shop time in Sunday as well to get it wrapped.
Dedication and commitment… when I was restoring old bikes I could look at the clock and its 4pm….look again in 15 minutes and it’s 7:30..
Hanging out with the Land Cruiser is the same
Hanging out with the Land Cruiser is the same
It’s already been long enough for you to forget?
FloridaLife
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- #793
I'll have to double check, but I think here rain is measured in 5 gallon buckets full. This time of year and through August we get several 5 gallon buckets full every afternoon / evening. It's so hot that it evaporates off all the lakes and pools, and then falls back down in the afternoons & evenings.
@Jdc1 - you need a day off! On the 5.3 LS swap rig you delivered to its happy owner this week, I'm guessing you used an automatic transmission? If so, what shifter did you go with? I've got to figure that out.
@cruisermatt - on the LS swaps with automatic transmissions that you do, what shifter do you prefer? Being an old hot rodder / street rodder back 30 years ago Lokar was popular, but I remember you saying something about they had become very Chinese and or plastic.
@Jdc1 and @cruisermatt - when doing a 5.3 LS swap with a 4L60E transmission is there anything or any adapters or converters that need to be used in order for the original factory instrument cluster to work correctly? Or do y'all usually swap that out? I kind of like the idea of using the original, and it would save money, but it is not a deal breaker for me.
@rkymtnflyfisher - come down here and we will give you a refresher course in both of those words / terms.
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I use my stock cluster gauges with my sbc. I not sure what adapters you'll need for the LS. You need to use the stock senders and adapters for the gauge cluster. Toyota uses 2 different oil and temp senders which is dependent on what gauge cluster you have. I dont recall the year they they changed the cluster. My 75 40 uses the later cluster and senders. I think your 71 uses the early clusters and senders. I think your temp sender is the long one, so you may need a longer adapter. I know I bought my temp sender adapter from Toyota. The oil sender has bsp threads and is very close to the same as the sbc threads and it threaded into the block.
Currently working on the day off. This swap and the next are running H55/Splitcase combos.
Most of my builds lately have been converted to Dakota Digital. Paired with the 5.3, the Dakota shows actual data, I like to use the BIM module to pull info from the ECU without having to hook a laptop up.
FloridaLife
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- #796
Very nice! I'll have to look at Dakota and see if they have a close match to the OEM cluster. 30 years ago Dakota was already a well respected company, and over the decades I've seen several cars on TV that had what looked like an OEM cluster, some of which you would NEVER think they would make (like '70's Land yachts with the BIG sweeping MPH dial & needle) and Dakota not only had it, but it looked AMAZING!
Hey Jesse, with your LS swaps, do you leave the engine as is, or do you change the plastic Vortex intake cover and/or add ignition coil covers? I ask because I've thought about doing something that looks nicer for the intake cover, and I've thought about coil covers and then adding something like "TOYOTA" down the top of each coil cover.
The Dakota RTX is the way to go- drops right into the opening and most of your wiring needed for the signals is there where the OG gauges sat. I saw somewhere that the RTX might be able to provide VSS signal but definitely don’t quote me on that one….
I’d recommend just getting the bare minimum in place to get her backing the road, there’ll be time to make the aesthetics a little better once it’s running driving and stopping. There are alot of small budget killing details that are needed to get a build like yours to the finish line.
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FloridaLife
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- #798
That looks great!
FloridaLife
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- #800