The rebuild of a FJ80 (2FE) (2FE-Turbo) (1 Viewer)

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

lt1fire

SILVER Star
Joined
Oct 4, 2006
Threads
625
Messages
23,280
Location
Buckley, WA
So after doing the dumbest thing of my life and selling my 80 back in 2015 (financials forced my hand on that one). I bought it back last September.

It was in a sorry state when I picked it back up. The buyer had pretty much just let it sit for the five years since I sold it, where it slowly collected green growths on the exterior. Not a super easy thing to negotiate or even get the truck since I moved from NC to WA and the truck was in SC. It wouldn't start when my buddy @CharlestonG8R went to check on it for me.

So I flew to NC and made the trek down to the Charleston SC area to retrieve it. Thanks again @fourtrax and @4LowandSlow for the help in the rescue on that.
20200917_172537-jpg.2438985


Got it back to my buddy @GarnerFJ40 house in Raleigh and started to try and start it. First thing was to do an oil change since there was no clue when it was last done, maybe by me 5 years prior, and some new spark plugs.
Changed the oil........ found the milkshake, now we know why it sat for so long. Changed the plugs and found 3 with lots of moisture. Tried to start with starting fluid and no dice. This was back in September and I really only had half a day to mess around with it so left it at that point after my friends daughter gave it a bath. My buddy also changed out the starter I had ordered along with thicker wires from a mud member and a new fusible link. But still no start.

1600900329585-png.2444219



Went back to WA and I found a remaned 3fe just 10 miles from my house for a decent price so I jumped on it

20201124_162124-jpg.2505882



Fast forward back to December and I flew back out with a few more days to work on it. I was working remotely and visiting family also so I didn't have all the time in the world to put in to it. Start with doing a compression test. cylinder 1..... reads zero..... check the connections, still zero. Same for cylinder 2 and 3. At this point i'm thinking something is wrong with the gauge so we borrow another from autozone. Same thing.
Final numbers
#1 -0
#2 -0
#3 -0
#4 -148
#5 -150
#6 -165
Hmmm...... on to the boroscope. the valves aren't moving in 1, 2 or 3.




Pull the valve cover and see this

20201205_142013-jpg.2516129



 
So i'm thinking maybe bent push rods although they look fine on the surface. I take the rocker arms off and the pushrods come right out and are straight as can be. So either the cam somehow has ground down all the lobes from the first 3 cylinders or all of the lifters are seized in place. I try tapping them down but no dice.
I start to pull the pushrod cover but i'm running out of time at this point and even if I find the issue I won't have the parts to fix it and since I have the new motor in WA there isn't much reason to keep going at this point. (I do want to know what happened but will figure that out at the right time.)


So I start to look for shipping places to get the rig to me but shipping is crazy expensive right now and getting a non-op into my dead end street and up my driveway, facing the right way so I can yank the old motor and put the new one in, is getting to be expensive, cheapest quote was more than I paid for the new motor. Plus i'm still waiting on the title. The new, now previous, owner had packed it away for his move from SC to TX and can't find it at the moment.

So at this point the thinking is maybe just ship the motor there to fly back out and install.

But as i'm sizing this up a friend of mine in NC, @mtweller recently decided to pull his 5k mile 2fe to do a LS swap.
He built a 2fe along with parts and help from @Mtbcoach, another of my friends in NC and set it up on a mega squirt ecu.


The price that he would sell it to me is right about what I could easily sell my new 3fe for plus the ride to NC and i'd have a much better motor.
 




The dyno run was done in 3rd gear instead of 4th for some reason and with the large tires i'm guessing that the engine numbers are around 40-45% higher than the wheel numbers.
 
Last edited:
So anyway this is where i'm at now. Engine and truck are in NC. My 3fe is selling this month already took a deposit on it.

I've read through tons of 2fe threads..... @RockDoc is really the bible on this subject. Nice thing is that the thing is already built and running so I won't have to do much of anything there.
I've read through the two threads i've found where this was done in an 80.
@motorsargeT in this one 2FE into an FJ80 – discussion - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/2fe-into-an-fj80-discussion.373166/
and @landcruiser80 in this one Builds - Yeti my 80 series 2fe build - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/yeti-my-80-series-2fe-build.899891/


It would appear that this are the things I need to do to the truck and the current 2fe to get it to sit right in the 80
  1. 3fe accessory brackets. (I should have all of these in my garage to clean and paint, but if not all of them then all are in the actual 80 currently to swap over)
  2. 3fe oil pan and oil pump pick up and bracket. The 2f pan will hit the rear tie rod on the 80 axle. The oil pumps are the same but the pick up and the bracket for it are different. Only issue here is the gasket between the two seems to be NLA and I haven't found an aftermarket replacement yet. Would like to find ones before pulling the old motor to get the new motor as ready as possible
  3. 3fe flex plate out of a 62 not an 80. 80 series 3f flex plate have larger bolt holes on it for some reason. @IcutYourCruiser has me covered there.
  4. Body lift. The 2f block is about 2 inches taller. A 1.25 BL is the smallest I can do
  5. May as well do new engine mounts at the same time. Can still get from toyota

Plan is to get everything needed and ready and then fly out again in fall or early winter to get the swap done. Leave it with my buddy to drive around and make sure it is working fine. Then fly back again at some point to drive it from there to here and stop to see cruiser people along the way.

 
Last edited:
And then after all that is said and done.... install this, that has been sitting around for damn near 8 years now. I never got around to installing it on my 80 and the guy that bought it off of me never did also since he blew the head gasket.
1600902068189-png.2444246



1600902108825-png.2444247



Came off a 62 that moved to CA and had to remove it for smog. Ran perfect before removal. Water cooled garret turbo.


So it will be a 2fe-T. Joey @NLXTACY this is what I was talking about on Facebook.

@Land Speeder
 
Last edited:

Another worth looking through if you haven't already. An Australian 2FE turboed and intercooled with a lot of work done internally, running aftermarket control.
 
Last edited:




The dyno run was done in 3rd gear instead of 4th for some reason and with the large tires i'm guessing that the engine numbers are around 40-45% higher than the wheel numbers.


They dyno guy didn't trust my tires at 4th gear wot top speeds. Those older videos bring back some memories. I really should have driven and enjoyed that motor a lot more than I did, but so glad it's going in your 80 man!
 
Wow, well, no wonder we couldn't get it started. He and I both thought that it would crank right up if we installed a new battery... Then figured it had a bad starter since it was cranking so slow... Man, the corrosion is real.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom