So I figured it's time to start documenting my 80 series build as things are getting really serious. This whole story is truly a Tale of Two Land Cruisers
1993 Toyota Land Cruiser (White) - "The Cow Crusher" aka "Great White"
This Land Cruiser reads 460,xxx on the odometer and it's showing its wear. It was a gift from a close friend of mine, and was purchased by his family with 12 miles on it back in '93. They've put every one of those miles on there, drove it all over creation, and really gave it a hard working life. When I got it, the battery was dead, it was barfing power steering fluid, smelled to high heaven, and had been sitting for a long time. However, the nostalgia of my buddy's old LC was too much for me to turn down. We got it fired up, loaded on a trailer, and it came home with me so I could breathe some new life into it.
1994 Toyota Land Cruiser (Green) - "The Green Machine"
This Land Cruiser was found by a friend of mine on Craigslist. It had been a beautiful green LC from the dry southwest that almost completely rust free. However, it had been in an accident, was badly banged up, and the frame was bent. However, other than the front end, the body is in great shape, and it only had around 255,xxx miles and was extremely well taken care of other than the accident.
Between the two rigs, I figured I had one good LC in there. The white LC would serve as a parts cave as well as a donor frame, as the frame is largely rust free, with only one small patch on the rear cross-member needing welded. It would also provide what body panels were wrecked on the green cruiser. The green land cruiser would provide the vast majority of the body, as well as the drive train, newer disk-brake equipped axles, and a much lower-mileage engine. The original plan was to assemble one land cruiser from the two, do a 2.5" lift, 285\75\16 tires and keep it as stock as possible.
That idea has since gone completely out the window.
I wanted to build the ultimate camping adventure vehicle. I've already got a CVT RTT that I run on my F-150 that I am absolutely in love with. I basically want a capable off-road and on-road vehicle that I can take camping any where I want. Since I live in the middle of corn fields, decent MPG is critical, as I have to drive a long way to get to the best camping spots. It's not going to be a dedicated rock crawler, but needs to be capable off-road and have good manners on road. In a perfect world, most of my camping gear lives in the truck, and when I want to disappear for the weekend, I fire it up and off we go!
Here's the new plan:
The Engine: I'm currently looking into a 6BT cummins diesel out of a 1996 Dodge Ram 3500 from a local guy in my area. The engine would provide all the torque and power I'd ever need, near-indestructible engine, and the best MPG of any of the swap options. Moreover, thanks to the absolutely killer kit put together by dieseladapters.com, all the guess work is taken out. The adapter kit is a lot of money up front, but it really does take every bit of guess work out of the swap. I'm not planning on doing a lot of performance on the engine; simplicity and bomb-proof-ness is the name of the game here.
The Transmission: The dieseladapters.com kit is designed to work with the factory A442 transmission. The factory transmission is pretty tough, but the plan is to find someone to rebuild it and install a West Coast Crusiers A442 Nomad Valve Body to give it a little more beef to handle the gobs of torque put out by the 6BT.
Transfer Case: Evidently, it is strongly advised NOT to install a part-time kit with a 6BT as the torque biasing done by the transfer case in full time 4WD mode saves the factory axles from being trashed by the massive amounts of torque. Plus, you know, full time 4WD. Other than some new seals and a general refresh, I don't plan to mod the t-case too much. I am open to suggestions.
Suspension\Wheels\Tires: Planning on ordering the OME extra heavy duty kit with the extra heavy duty rear springs for all the gear I plan to haul. This suspension should provide sufficient ride quality for the heavy 80 series with the extra-heavy 6BT. It should also give me enough clearance to run 315\75\16 on the factory rims. I plan to get the wheels sand-blasted and powder-coated black. They're very pitted, so salvaging the factory look is basically out of the questions. For tires, I'm thinking Good Year Wrangler Duratracs. I've been running these on my F-150 for about a year and a half now, and I have nothing but good things to say about these tires. Yes, they're expensive, but they're so very, very worthwhile.
Axles\Lockers: I'm planning on sticking with factory 4.10 gears; with the big tires and the diesel engine, the final drive ratio should be just about perfect. I've already rebuilt the rear axle and the front was rebuilt about a year ago. When the time comes, I plan to run Yukon Zip Lockers Front and Rear. Currently they only have a front locker available, but I've been in touch with the guys over at Yukon and they are working on a rear locker as we speak. I plan to stick with toyota axles verses chrome-moly because this truck is going to see a lot of road use, and the chrome-moly is much better for dedicated offroad rigs. Between the locking center diff, over-engineered toyota axles, lockers, and diesel torque, I should have all the traction I could ever possibly need.
Bumpers\Winches: I'm planning on running a 4x4 labs rear bumper with the tire swing and jerry can mount. The front bumper will have to be custom, as the install location of the intercooler for the 6BT makes installing a winch tricky. That is a long ways away, so I'll keep everyone posted on what I decide to do when I get to that point.
Lets start here, with the major points. Once I get through the next bunch of big moves, I'll keep posting on all the small goods (lights, customization, etc). I need to organize some pictures, and then I'll post them as well.
1993 Toyota Land Cruiser (White) - "The Cow Crusher" aka "Great White"
This Land Cruiser reads 460,xxx on the odometer and it's showing its wear. It was a gift from a close friend of mine, and was purchased by his family with 12 miles on it back in '93. They've put every one of those miles on there, drove it all over creation, and really gave it a hard working life. When I got it, the battery was dead, it was barfing power steering fluid, smelled to high heaven, and had been sitting for a long time. However, the nostalgia of my buddy's old LC was too much for me to turn down. We got it fired up, loaded on a trailer, and it came home with me so I could breathe some new life into it.
1994 Toyota Land Cruiser (Green) - "The Green Machine"
This Land Cruiser was found by a friend of mine on Craigslist. It had been a beautiful green LC from the dry southwest that almost completely rust free. However, it had been in an accident, was badly banged up, and the frame was bent. However, other than the front end, the body is in great shape, and it only had around 255,xxx miles and was extremely well taken care of other than the accident.
Between the two rigs, I figured I had one good LC in there. The white LC would serve as a parts cave as well as a donor frame, as the frame is largely rust free, with only one small patch on the rear cross-member needing welded. It would also provide what body panels were wrecked on the green cruiser. The green land cruiser would provide the vast majority of the body, as well as the drive train, newer disk-brake equipped axles, and a much lower-mileage engine. The original plan was to assemble one land cruiser from the two, do a 2.5" lift, 285\75\16 tires and keep it as stock as possible.
That idea has since gone completely out the window.
I wanted to build the ultimate camping adventure vehicle. I've already got a CVT RTT that I run on my F-150 that I am absolutely in love with. I basically want a capable off-road and on-road vehicle that I can take camping any where I want. Since I live in the middle of corn fields, decent MPG is critical, as I have to drive a long way to get to the best camping spots. It's not going to be a dedicated rock crawler, but needs to be capable off-road and have good manners on road. In a perfect world, most of my camping gear lives in the truck, and when I want to disappear for the weekend, I fire it up and off we go!
Here's the new plan:
The Engine: I'm currently looking into a 6BT cummins diesel out of a 1996 Dodge Ram 3500 from a local guy in my area. The engine would provide all the torque and power I'd ever need, near-indestructible engine, and the best MPG of any of the swap options. Moreover, thanks to the absolutely killer kit put together by dieseladapters.com, all the guess work is taken out. The adapter kit is a lot of money up front, but it really does take every bit of guess work out of the swap. I'm not planning on doing a lot of performance on the engine; simplicity and bomb-proof-ness is the name of the game here.
The Transmission: The dieseladapters.com kit is designed to work with the factory A442 transmission. The factory transmission is pretty tough, but the plan is to find someone to rebuild it and install a West Coast Crusiers A442 Nomad Valve Body to give it a little more beef to handle the gobs of torque put out by the 6BT.
Transfer Case: Evidently, it is strongly advised NOT to install a part-time kit with a 6BT as the torque biasing done by the transfer case in full time 4WD mode saves the factory axles from being trashed by the massive amounts of torque. Plus, you know, full time 4WD. Other than some new seals and a general refresh, I don't plan to mod the t-case too much. I am open to suggestions.
Suspension\Wheels\Tires: Planning on ordering the OME extra heavy duty kit with the extra heavy duty rear springs for all the gear I plan to haul. This suspension should provide sufficient ride quality for the heavy 80 series with the extra-heavy 6BT. It should also give me enough clearance to run 315\75\16 on the factory rims. I plan to get the wheels sand-blasted and powder-coated black. They're very pitted, so salvaging the factory look is basically out of the questions. For tires, I'm thinking Good Year Wrangler Duratracs. I've been running these on my F-150 for about a year and a half now, and I have nothing but good things to say about these tires. Yes, they're expensive, but they're so very, very worthwhile.
Axles\Lockers: I'm planning on sticking with factory 4.10 gears; with the big tires and the diesel engine, the final drive ratio should be just about perfect. I've already rebuilt the rear axle and the front was rebuilt about a year ago. When the time comes, I plan to run Yukon Zip Lockers Front and Rear. Currently they only have a front locker available, but I've been in touch with the guys over at Yukon and they are working on a rear locker as we speak. I plan to stick with toyota axles verses chrome-moly because this truck is going to see a lot of road use, and the chrome-moly is much better for dedicated offroad rigs. Between the locking center diff, over-engineered toyota axles, lockers, and diesel torque, I should have all the traction I could ever possibly need.
Bumpers\Winches: I'm planning on running a 4x4 labs rear bumper with the tire swing and jerry can mount. The front bumper will have to be custom, as the install location of the intercooler for the 6BT makes installing a winch tricky. That is a long ways away, so I'll keep everyone posted on what I decide to do when I get to that point.
Lets start here, with the major points. Once I get through the next bunch of big moves, I'll keep posting on all the small goods (lights, customization, etc). I need to organize some pictures, and then I'll post them as well.
