Hi all, this is going to be my progress thread on doing an LS swap on this 1992 Land Cruiser. It's my GF's car. I'll be honest, I hate this car. I don't hate FJ80s, just this particular one. The previous owner really sold her a POS. In between the poor maintenance, half assed mods, and incorrect installations, this has been a real can of worms, and quite honestly, pretty scary to drive. I've been redoing quite a bit of stuff on this car, but every time I dig deeper, I find more stuff that needs attention. This particular project started as coolant getting into the oil pan. I could not find the source during testing, so I decided to pull the engine and see what was going on.
Turns out the cylinder head was cracked. It was time to make a decision. I kicked around the idea of rebuilding the 3FE, but it was such a dog, it was apparent this needed a powerplant upgrade. I mulled over a 1FZ, a UZ V8, but ended up on the LS engine. I asked my GF what she wanted to do and she immediately approved the LS swap. I got in touch with the local smog referee supervisor and made sure this was doable, which it is. So went out and found a donor car. A 2002 Suburban 2wd with a 5.3 flex fuel LS. This is what was left of it:
I picked it up at an auction. Ran and drove great. Transmission worked great and fluid was clean. The engine ran good. Had about 200k miles. Decided to pull the engine apart and inspect it, then re-ring, re-bearing, and reseal it. Unfortunately, upon inspection, it had wear on several rocker arms/push rods, and it had too much piston to wall clearance. Even if I had replaced the pistons, the clearance would have been right at the limit of the acceptable specs. So I ended up having the block bored out. I replaced the pistons, rocker arms, push rods, and lifters. I also had a valve job done on the cylinder heads. Basically a full rebuild. I also polished the crank and cam. I kept everything factory, with the exception of a few reliability mods. I put in a higher flow oil pump, upgraded the rockers trunnions, and replaced the plastic barbell with an aluminum one. I won't bother posting engine build pics, as there are a million of those on the net. I'll just add the relevant ones. Here's the marks4wd oil pump pickup installed:
Here is the marks4wd modified oil pan installed, as well as the marks4wd engine mount brackets:
I bought a complete swap kit from marks4wd. Their products are top notch. The only thing I wish would have been different is if they would have used a pan with the oil level sensor boss. No big deal, but it would have been nice to have.
Next up was to put the transmission and transfer case together.
Turns out the cylinder head was cracked. It was time to make a decision. I kicked around the idea of rebuilding the 3FE, but it was such a dog, it was apparent this needed a powerplant upgrade. I mulled over a 1FZ, a UZ V8, but ended up on the LS engine. I asked my GF what she wanted to do and she immediately approved the LS swap. I got in touch with the local smog referee supervisor and made sure this was doable, which it is. So went out and found a donor car. A 2002 Suburban 2wd with a 5.3 flex fuel LS. This is what was left of it:
I picked it up at an auction. Ran and drove great. Transmission worked great and fluid was clean. The engine ran good. Had about 200k miles. Decided to pull the engine apart and inspect it, then re-ring, re-bearing, and reseal it. Unfortunately, upon inspection, it had wear on several rocker arms/push rods, and it had too much piston to wall clearance. Even if I had replaced the pistons, the clearance would have been right at the limit of the acceptable specs. So I ended up having the block bored out. I replaced the pistons, rocker arms, push rods, and lifters. I also had a valve job done on the cylinder heads. Basically a full rebuild. I also polished the crank and cam. I kept everything factory, with the exception of a few reliability mods. I put in a higher flow oil pump, upgraded the rockers trunnions, and replaced the plastic barbell with an aluminum one. I won't bother posting engine build pics, as there are a million of those on the net. I'll just add the relevant ones. Here's the marks4wd oil pump pickup installed:
Here is the marks4wd modified oil pan installed, as well as the marks4wd engine mount brackets:
I bought a complete swap kit from marks4wd. Their products are top notch. The only thing I wish would have been different is if they would have used a pan with the oil level sensor boss. No big deal, but it would have been nice to have.
Next up was to put the transmission and transfer case together.
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