My wife's dad purchased this FJ40 new in 1978. He wheeled it all over Moab in the 80's and did most of the work on it himself with the help of friends. 305/sm465 swap, lockers, stuff like that. Unfortuantely he passed away young in 1999. For the next 14 years it sat at my mother in laws house before we purchased it off of her. We took it on some camping trips and ran it around a little for fun, nothing serious. An electrical fire took it off the road around 2018 and it sat again. There wasn't a ton of damage but it really wasn't my thing and my family was busy with young kids and our careers. During COVID I thought it it would be a good idea to seek out a shop to swap the 305 for a Crate 350, something pretty tame. I also had a rebuilt 465 and some other goodies like FI lined up to just make it a fun family car and occaisional trail runner. At the time I didn't have much interest in doing the work myself so I farmed it out to a shop. They had it for two years and never could get thing right. In the end I settled with them for the price of parts they bought and no labor. My family relocated back to Colorado and the truck sat for a couple more years. Last spring I reached out to a FJ40 / Toyota specific shop about getting things going again. I was fed up with chasing issues with the fuel injection and decided to go back to a carb. They got it running and fixed some safety issues and I have had it back for about a week now. I still have a long way to go. I'm fairly mechanical, able to swap most parts, have a decent tool collection, and a understanding of the basics. I've managed to put a few harley motors back together from the crank up that actually run... That being said I know I have a lot to learn, especially about cars.
So, in the week I've had it I've noticed I am way down on power on the top end. I'm pretty sure I have 4.88 gearing, it was swapped by my father in law, but I feel I should be able to maintain speed on a hill at 45-50 MPH. There is no timing indicator on the engine atm. I marked where the shop had it and ran it up down the road listening for pinging and backfiring. In the end I ended up pretty much back where the shop set it. Moving on from there I set the plugs to .040, I'm running an HEI, and replaced them and the plug wires. I'm up at 7500ft and at idle I'm pulling 10-11in Hg. Advancing the timing I can get about a in or so but the I backfire on decel on the hills. The carb is an Edelbrock 1405, currently running 0.098" Main with a 1457 metering rod and 0.089" secondary. The plugs read tan, I swapped the jets because it was really struggling with the 0.095" / 1451 rod Main and 0.100" secondary. I'm going to buy an o2 sensor since I have the port from the removed Fi system to try and dial in my A/F ratios. It picked up some power but I stil feel like its lacking. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Am I just over thinking things?
So, in the week I've had it I've noticed I am way down on power on the top end. I'm pretty sure I have 4.88 gearing, it was swapped by my father in law, but I feel I should be able to maintain speed on a hill at 45-50 MPH. There is no timing indicator on the engine atm. I marked where the shop had it and ran it up down the road listening for pinging and backfiring. In the end I ended up pretty much back where the shop set it. Moving on from there I set the plugs to .040, I'm running an HEI, and replaced them and the plug wires. I'm up at 7500ft and at idle I'm pulling 10-11in Hg. Advancing the timing I can get about a in or so but the I backfire on decel on the hills. The carb is an Edelbrock 1405, currently running 0.098" Main with a 1457 metering rod and 0.089" secondary. The plugs read tan, I swapped the jets because it was really struggling with the 0.095" / 1451 rod Main and 0.100" secondary. I'm going to buy an o2 sensor since I have the port from the removed Fi system to try and dial in my A/F ratios. It picked up some power but I stil feel like its lacking. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Am I just over thinking things?
