Oyaji's FJ60

[OyajiJon]

Bottom Line Up Front: Don@FC Fab is a metal master, and if you want to REALLY improve your rig, properly install your seats!

Anyone who knows Don, or has seen his work, knows that I've stated the obvious, but If you want to know why I'm posting about it, read on about my seat bracket...

One word on the impact of a seemingly insignificant modification...un-freaking-believable!

A little history:
When I bought my FJ60, I thought the seats were the most uncomfortable that I'd encountered in a rig during my 5 hour drive home from the purchase. I have long legs, so I had some "risers" bent at a sheet metal shop and installed them between the factory sliders and my Hunsaker Synkro seats. While I was instantly satisfied by the chair-like seating position, I didn't like the flat seat profile. I also didn't like the fact that my head was in the headliner or the fact that I had to crane my neck down to see stoplights.

Enter my visit to Valley Hybrids to get an un-named hippie to do some work on my junk. I interrupted Don while he was busy at work on the Crop Duster to talk about the art he was making on the thing. I explained that I was interested in his making me a seat frame that would:
1) bolt to the existing mount points in the 60
2) have a tilted base for my seating comfort
3) accommodate 5 point harnesses
4) accommodate my beloved Tuffy console

Well, the below pictures are what Don came up with, and the 2.5 hour drive home allowed me to discover that it is EXACTLY what this rig needed. It rounded out the package, and I can't wait until the next time I get to drive it.

My first impressions:
I was previously disappointed in my OME springs because I felt there was too much roll when taking long curves at highway speeds. Boy, was my disappointment misplaced! Some things happened when Don and I installed this bracket. Don mentioned that it may reinforce the body, and he couldn't have been more right. I was able to hold speed through corners, on the way home, that I always felt real uncomfortable with before tonight.

Sitting IN a seat is completely different than sitting ON a seat. I previously stated that I "loved" these seats. What I felt before pales in comparison to how I feel about them now. When a seat is sturdily mounted with the base at the proper angle, it keeps you planted and ergonomically correct. Now I know why real sports cars mount the seats the way they do!

If any of you have the opportunity to take on this upgrade to your rig, do it! I would put proper seating right up there with proper headlights with regard to drivability. Thanks for enduring my rambling, now here are some pics.

 

[sl33py]

My son plays soccer for the Santa Cruz County traveling team, and I LOVE that town. Too bad the Navy doesn't have any ships there...

I fully intend to hit you up for advice regarding some LED upgrades. Thanks for the offer. Where is "Emerald City?"

With tonight's upgrade, I'm nearing the "build phase" on my rig and hope to be putting it through some paces in the very near future. Once I finish my thesis and graduate, it will be hard to keep me from getting out and enjoying this thing for what it is. Thanks, again, for the comments!

Jon - pm me and we can chat. I'm a LED geek...

Emerald city = Seattle. Not a bad neck of the woods either... Lots of cruisers - some even wave! hehehe.

 

[Landcruisin'60]

How are you mounting those shoulder belts? The lap belt mounts appear to be single shear?

 

[OyajiJon]

Don is making me a removable cross bar out of DOM tube that will bolt into the C-pillar and have tabs for the shoulder harnesses. I want to retain my rear seat as I use this truck as my daily driver and family hauler on the street. The idea is to fold the rear seat down and bolt in the crossbar when going off road as it is usually only my son and I when we go out.

The lap and anti-submarine belts are in a single shear configuration.

 

[Welltech]

Jon - Great thread! You have a sweet rig. I think the most impressive thing is how fast you pulled the pin the 2F and did the conversion. I am still up in the air about doing a convesion, I still have good compression and the engine runs great. Its the auto transmission that bugs me. I have plans to do a 5sp. conversion soon.

Thanks for the information on the seat frame.

Bummer about you FJ40 - some people just suck ....

 

[MANUCHAO]

Those bracket seat look beefy......
I like yer seats they look like the WRX seats I put into my rig....!!!

 

[OyajiJon]

Thanks for the kind words, fellas. It's been a bit of a run getting this thing going, but it's SOOO nice to drive now. I appreciate the support!

Welltech, I would not have done this swap if my 2F hadn't sh!t the bed. It is a VERY expensive and intense procedure, and it's hard to keep the project from cascading once it starts. Make a plan for your build, and hold yourself to it, or you'll enter that "terminal build up" that people get into and lose interest in your rig. Before you know it, a couple of months will turn into a couple of years, you'll have to move your truck in pieces, or you'll decide that the pile of parts that was once your rig is more valuable as cash in hand, and you'll part it out. How many times has that happened? Finally, if you can't do the work yourself, find someone TRUSTWORTHY to work on your truck, no matter how far you have to drive to get it to them. The fact that you'll end up with a rig in the driveway instead of your parts being sold under your nose will be well worth the cost, time, and frustration of some out of town work. I know you didn't ask for all of this cr@p, but I don't want ANYONE to repeat my experience in trying to get a good running rig. I'll be watching to see what you come up with.

Anyway, I've got some more things in store, so I'll document them once I make progress.

 

[Ducks]

Wow! Great story. Nice progress is an understatement. The h55 is really an awesome transmission. Georg is great to work with. There are some NorCal Wagon members in your area, I think. I think they have 80s but some might have 60s. (It's a large group.) Get on their yahoo group. Going on trips with the NorCal Wagon group is a lot of fun. They really know how to cook!

80scool_usa_norcal : Northern California Land Cruiser Wagons

Chad

 

[OyajiJon]

The move, new (to me) first home and 140 mile daily commute have kept me away for a bit. Georg has kept me from selling/trading my rig, but I've seriously thought about parting ways with it for something more "sensible" (is there really such a thing). I daily drove the thing for a month and spent $950 in gas. Now I have a commuter bike (1250 Bandit) and get sick every time I see it collecting dust in my drive way. My wife told me that I better stop thinking stupid thoughts since the bugs are worked out of the engine bay and the money spent. I suppose I should listen to her...

When I was down here in SOCAL on my own for two months, a good Marine Corps friend of mine took me on a jaunt to Anza Borrego for a day trip. Here are a few pictures of the rig in action. The V8 was the s*** when climbing the hills with the 5 speed.

Sorry for the picture dump...

 

[orangefj45]

awesome pics john, looks like you guys had a geat time.

georg

 

[OyajiJon]

Hey Georg,

We did have a good time. I really want to get out again but working with the Reservists is pretty time consuming. I'm taking leave for a couple weeks to hang out with my kid before school starts up again and will try to get out and about. I'll give you a call a little later so I can talk about maybe swinging up your way for a day.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[geocrasher]

Oh man, I love the Anza Borrego desert. We went there when I was a kid and we did some hiking. I'll never forget it. Those slotted canyons are the stuff of my dreams. Perhaps one day I'll be able to go down there in the winter and do some wheeling in the area.

 

[OyajiJon]

I made a run to Stockton to see Don and Georg for some work.

First, let me just say that Georg is a stand up guy and did follow up work on the t-case and diff work he previously did with no questions asked. It took him a day to get it all done with my dumb-ass looking on, and once again, I learned a lot. Thanks again for the hospitality, bro!

Don, on the other hand, worked more metal magic on the Wag. When he build my seat pan, he integrated a tab on the pan behind the seat for the shoulder harnesses to temporarily bolt to. He said he didn't like the angle of the belts pulling on my shoulders, so I asked about the possibility of making a removable harness bar that I can use while off-road with my kid, but that we can still use the rear seat for passenger duty on the road. He gave me exactly that.

As you can see, the bar bolts into the location of the brackets that lock the rear seat back into place. Don welded a scab plate in and added a third threaded hole for the bar. To use the bar, I just fold down the rear seat, remove the factory brackets and bolt in the harness bar. With the bar removed, I can put the factory brackets back in and use the rear seat as normal. When the bar is in place, it really stiffens up the body, and I like it A LOT.

The other thing Don did for me was weld in a plate with a welded nut for the Toyota optional shoulder belts that I ordered from Cruiser Dan a while ago. I fiddled around with the idea of doing the epoxy/fender washer thing and didn't like it, so this is the solution we came up with. Now when the rear seat is in use, I have shoulder belts that are securely fastened for the precious cargo that rides back there. Thanks again, Don!

The last thing we talked about at length during my visit was topping and caging this thing. Damn, I'm on the edge and slipping...

 

[orangefj45]

good to see ya again bro!

did you get the "hybrid" fuel level sender finished and installed? outta work like a champ.

georg

 

[OyajiJon]

Just throwing this out there for those of you with/doing/contemplating Vortec swaps.

I always thought there was an every so slight strange sound when under power and going up hills after I finished my swap. I also had repeated problems with the engine occasionally going into an erratic idle at seemingly random times. Well when I downshifted and floored the throttle to get around a guy on 15 in San Diego while going up hill two days ago, I lost total compression on #4 cylinder.

Step back a little...When changing the spider to the MPFI update a year ago, I noticed that the intake manifold had a lot of carbon on top of it. I tried to clean it as well as I could, but always kind of wondered what things looked like under the manifold. Instead of checking it out, I just buttoned things up and drove it as was. Backing up even further, I thought about freshening the heads while I had the engine on the stand before starting with the engine swap but didn't.

Back to today...after I pulled compression numbers last night, I went to a machinist to talk about getting the heads refreshed. During the course of the conversation, he told me he's been doing this job on ALL varieties of this era of Vortec heads and that the valves sticking is a very well known issue by GM. The local dealerships have been farming the work to him for a while now.

To the point at hand...if you are one of the people I mentioned in the beginning of this monologue, it would behoove you to take a look at your top end and see if there is nine kinds of carbon gunking up your junk before you have the same problem I did at a more inopportune time. At least I was on the highway and not in the middle of nowhere. I can't imagine wanting to deal with this s*** while I was in the desert not too long ago...

Cheers,
Jon

 

[ntsqd]

Bummer!
"Vortec" seems to mean a different thing to different people, so I'm not really sure what engine we're talking about. AL heads or iron heads?

If iron are the seats going to need replacing too? That can get spendy. Anyone who says that they can lap or grind those induction hardened seats and get good life out of them should be replaced by a more knowledgeable machinist.

I've been looking at the GM replacement Corvette heads for my engine. Nice, small intake ports for low speed torque and aluminum for better heat control/higher compression ratio tolerance.

 

[OyajiJon]

Sorry, Thom, I've got the L31 truck engine with iron heads that I'll know the condition of once I get the top end pulled apart.

I was on the verge of a referee session when this happened, and I need to get this thing certified. I would like to entertain a different version cylinder head with the trouble these are known for, but this refresh should take me down the road a way before I need to worry about it again. I should probably try to talk to you before I take them to the machinist so I can be sure I'm asking the right questions and know what to expect.

Thanks for posting.

 

[OyajiJon]

Got set back a bit by an unrelated event, but after all the yapping I did in the exhaust manifold thread today, I decided to get off my dead ass and get the heads off the Vortec. As mentioned before, I dropped compression in cylinder #4. Here's why...

Nasty cylinder head...

Really nasty intake manifold. I found that the metal Felpro gaskets were installed, so the intake manifold has been off before. I have no way of knowing if the heads were reconditioned or not.

I can't understand why the front half of the intake is so caked with s***! I did notice that there were flakes caked in what I assume to be sticky oil from the K&N filter. I can't think of anything else that would be gummy like that. The flakes are from when I tried to clean my MAF sensor and it let go.

Front half

Back half

What an FJ60/Vortec engine bay looks like with the monster top end of the Vortec removed. That's a lot of stuff! I'm thinking of re-positioning my ECU using the bracket that Elbert posted a GM part number for.

 

[OyajiJon]

Some Progress and questions

Well, I decided to spend a little cash and put in the Comp Cams Magnum roller rockers and some chromoly pushrods. I guess I figured "what the hell" since I was in as deep as I was anyway. They made hitting "zero lash" as easy as it could've been, I suppose. I also installed the ARP head studs with 12 point nuts. The head job wasn't much fun in a lifted 60. Here's where I stand.

Here's what is holding me up:

The old Felpro lower intake gasket is made of metal with substantial rubber to seal the passages. The new one is plastic with MUCH less rubber to effectively seal things up. Should I try and get the metal gasket as a standalone item? Also, should I put any sealant around the water passages? A couple of google searches say some different things, so I was hoping someone here might have some insight. Also, does anyone happen to have a manual that they can scan/take a picture of the torque sequence and values for the intake manifold and upper plenum? I can't find my printout that my GM guy in Monterey gave me before my last move.

Thanks for any help you all can provide. I'm really excited to get my truck back on the road!

 

[ntsqd]

This help any? (from: SBC assembly spec) Since you don't appear to have the middle 4 bolts I think that you can just start with bolt No. 5 in the sequence below and be OK.



On the intake gaskets, I don't know which is the preferred gasket these days. I do know that the race engine shop that I sometimes do fabrication for always uses the "Right Stuff" RTV for a bead around the outside of the sealing bead on the water ports (only!) on both sides of the intake gaskets and instead of what ever is supplied for the end rails. They use a gasket adhesive to stick the gaskets to the heads, build up the end rails with the RTV, and then set the intake in place. I am unclear on if they allow the RTV to 'skin' or not.