She's Cummin' along nicely (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Threads
7
Messages
91
Location
S DFW, TX
My Dad and I are in the process of putting a Cummins 6BT in a '85 FJ60. We've had the 60 for about 3wks now and its coming along quite nicely.

ugly28cc.jpg


To make the 6B fit in we had to do a SOA conversion to make room for the oil pan.

lfsoa5ey.jpg


While its down we put a bunch of sound deadening in it (mom hates the sounds of the diesel) we used eDead V1 and V3 from eDesignAudio

allquiet27er.jpg


so now we just need to get the rear SO finished and put everything back together and it time to hit the trail!

well, we are going to need some tires. What do you guys recommend? I don't want to go too big and I don't want mud tire since this is going to be a daily driver I would rather have a AT tire. (ie BFG TA/KO) I don't know how big we can go with the SOA, but I think a 33"ish would be about right. Opinions?
 
yeah, gearing is going to be stock. Putting in a NV4500 n TCase but the Axles are stock
 
33's will look too small IMOP. If it were me... I'd step up to a 35 or 37" tire and perhaps a 17" or at least a 16" wheel. You'd need to re-gear odviously.

You can purchase 4.11 complete third's from cruiserparts.net.
 
yetiman has a 4" lift on his and he is running 33x11?? on 16" rims and it looks pretty good, but the SOA is going to be a little taller then his spring kit. (shrug)
 
I have a 4BT in my 60 and am running 33X10.50 BFG AT's. Love them down the road. I went with a flat spring over. Use flat springs and you won't have any oil pan clearance problems and you will stay fairly low. I could do 35's but I think they would rub at articulation. The 33's work fine. Good luck.
 
sweet, how do you like the 4b?

So far we are going with the stock springs, we may wind up with something else later, but money and time are of the essence at the moment
 
I am also in the process of doing the same swap on my '84 60. So far everything is coming together nicely. One thing I have learned is that the stock spring will not be able to hold the weight of the cummins (at least for an extended period of time). I talked to lance at iron pig yesterday and he recommended getting the engine in throwing the stock springs on and driving it straight to a spring shop and have some customs made for it. I think this is the best option I have heard so far, but it is also going to be the most expensive. I have been toying with the idea of taking teh front spring/shackles off of an F-250 (they are flat) and makin' fit the cruiser. Another advantage of going this route is that the 250 springs have 2-3 leaves so they won't put the 60 to high over the axles. If you end up building up a cruiser spring pack to handle that much weight you are going to end up with a few extra leaves (over stock) each one giving you an additional .25" of lift. If yo don't mind that then go for it, I am trying to keep mine as close to 4-5" as possible. Just my thoughts on that subject...
As for tires..I'm thinkin at least 34's, but no bigger then 36's or so.
Question for you- do you know if any dodge NV4500 will bolt to any cummins 6bt? I have the engine out of an '89 and I have been told I can bolt up the NV4500 from a 94-98 ram, I am wondering what they changed in '99. can't wait to see how yours turns out, I'll get some picks as soon as I start tearing into it.
 
Go with a set of 33x12.5 BF Goodrich All Terains!! I have a set, and they are a beatyful all around driving tire!!:) :)
 
Let us know how the Edead works out. I want to do the same, but not sure which to go with. I've heard horror stories about "cheap" deadener (not necessarily the edead stuff) not sticking to vertical surfaces and falling off. That would suck! Good luck!!

rob
 
33's will be too small with the SOA, especially if you have to upgrade springs for the weight of the 6B engine! I am going with 33's on my 4" alcan lift with stock engine, etc. I would go with 35's but b/c of gearing I am sticking with 33's as well as I got my set of 33's for a great deal!

I say get the 4.11 thirds and get 35's. There is another guy on here who posted pics. I think the title was "facelift" he did a SOA and a shackle reversal (extra 1.5") and his 35's look tiny!
 
You may not even need gears since you are going to have 2-3x the torque available. I vote for 35's as well. A Cruiser looks about perfect with them.

35's and 3:73's may work out nicely... especially with the deep 1st gear of the NV4500. 2nd gear starts on the street in 2wd will be the norm and you have boat loads of torque so that won't be a problem. I don't think you need 4:10's or deeper to multiply the torque. You have plenty of it ;) .

Very cool project. I'll be following this one closely. I want to do something like this as well or an LS1 (all alum V8)/NV4500 setup.

What year 6BT? Intercooled? Mods?
What year NV4500? Clutch/flywheel selected?
Stock FJ60 transfercase? Advanced Adapter kit used?

I've heard that the stock axle housing itself can't support the weight of a 6BT (1000lbs+).... however there is an old school FJ55 with the 6BT conversion retaining the stock front/rear axle setups. It is on Pirate4x4.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=309331&highlight=Cummins+Land+Cruiser
I remember reading that his truck creeped in low so well that in order to catch up to the group he was wheeling with he needed to shift to 2nd to gain some speed.
 
I meant to add that you will not need to change the gears to go with 35's or even 37's. The motor has more then enough power in fith gear to make it over most mountains at reasoable speed. I am sure Andre will chim in soon about his 4bt setup with 35's on a fj55. Correct me if I am wrong but I think he is running stock gears and has no problem with the passes in Utah and that with less engine and more weight. Come on Andre let hear from you....
 
You will be fine with 35's and the stock gears. Other than the speeds not making ANY sense ;)

I love this conversion!!!


And Andre sucks big donkey balls :flipoff2:
 
Damn man. I wish that I had the money to buy the engine and tranny to do this conversion. I am so jealous!!!

How much did you get the engine and tranny for? $4000+?

Instead of getting the ultra-expensive customs, you could go with a set of OME Dakar Heavies and then add the extra leaf to make them ultra-duty. You might not even need the extra leaf though. Look into that. From my experience, custom springs are wickedly expensive, waaaay more than OMEs.

How much torque did the 89 have? 450ft/lbs?

Wow. Epic.

:beer:
 
OK, let me see if I can answer all the questions.

Bahndo111 - "Question for you- do you know if any dodge NV4500 will bolt to any cummins 6bt?"
As far as I know the 6B is the 6B. I do know the main block of the 6B is the same from when the started making it through at least when they put the 600 Common rail injected Cummins in the Dodge in '03. The NV4500 that we got cam out of a 95 V10 2500 4x4 and had the dodge bell housing on it. We got a dodge adapter plate that adapts the 6B to the dodge bolt pattern. I am pretty sure that this is a dodge part. I don't see any reason for the 89 engine to not bolt up to the newer Tranny, the motors were the same from the time they started putting them in the dodge till they went to common rail injection. the only differences were done on the top end and shouldn't affect the transmission.

sl33py as far as I can tell the eDead is going to stick quite well. The backing on this stuff is pretty much just tar. I know that when I accidently covered a bolt hole I had to WORK to get it uncovered.

gnx7 The 6b came out of a '91 Dodge D250. It is non-intercooled (they started that in '92) and has no mods done to it.
The NV4500 came out of a 95 v10 2500 4x4.
We are going to use the NV T-Case (don't remember the model) and the stock rear axle. we were talking to a guy who does transmissions for a living and he thought that you could unbolt and flip the t-case around. so we did, but we had to enlarge a couple of the bolt holes. Other then that the only thing we have to deal with is the vent which is easy. we are also going to have to put a funky drive shaft in it because of where Toyota put the 3rd member on the rear axle. I think a carrier bearing in the middle of the shaft ought to solve this little problem.
I have pics of the tail housing on the NV4500 but I don't have them ATM so I will put them up tomorrow.


GLTHFJ60 the engine didn't cost us anything. this time around that is. We pulled the engine out of our '88 suburban that was totaled by a uninsured, w/o drivers liscense idiot early this past summer. I think the engine ran us something like $3k the first time around. and we got about 180k mi on it since then. The transmission we practically stole from a guy for $750 i think. other then the tranny the most expensive thing we have in this 60 is the hysteer kit
I think the '91 6BT's are rated at 180HP and 400FT/lbs. but I could be very wrong on that. Its completly stock so whatever it is it is.

Alright now that I think I got those questions answered, its my turn to ask a few.

What is the stock Axle ratios? I know I can look them up but why, when I am sure you guys already know :D

What size are the stock tires ( in Inches please) I am trying to figure out how big of a change 33's vs 35's would be.

Anybody know of a good gear calculator?


Thanks a bunch guys
 
Stock ratios are 3.70:1

Stock was something like 28.5 or 29's...


www.google.com

:flipoff2:
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom