Tranny advice - newby

[Arm Auto]

Hey guys,
I am a new member on the forum & a proud new owner of a 85 fj60. I'll try to post a pic to follow this entry. I've been down the road of restoration in the hot rod world so i am somewhat familiar with the routine. I did a frame off resto on a 64 GTO just a few yrs ago (if you cruiser boys want to see it, I'll post a pic of it next time).
I found, believe it or not, a totally rust free 85 here in So Cal. a few dings here & there but no rust! I learned the hard way from my GTO experience to go with the best metal possible.

My 1st goal is to drop a diesel motor in it. I've figured out what I can legally put in it here in the land of nuts & more nuts. I am going with a GM 6.2 or 6.5.

My question to you pro's is: should I also swap out the tranny? I see a ton of post where people are doing that but I always thought the Toyota tranny/TC were bullet proof. I'd much rather avoid the additional cost if possible & put in an external OD. And if I do a tranny swap, what is the best GM option to pair with the Toy TC?

The rig will be my 4th vehicle, but I'd to be able to drive it daily once its done, a weekend to the mountains, or drive to Co for vaca.

Any advice from experience is GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you & God bless!

 

[tat2matt]

You may want to post this up in the Diesel forum if your plans are to go that route. Most people that are swapping trannies are for better highway speeds ie lower rpm in 5th with a h55 or they are looking for more crawl ratio. I don't know a single thing about the diesels you are talking about there seems to be more people putting in 4bt motors than chevy diesels but again post in the diesel thread they know more. As far as the gto sure if it's got lockers post it up lets see some pix of it crawling. Welcome to MUD

 

[Elbert]

people are running toyota transmissions with the 6.2 and 6.5? I don't recall that.... I think most are running the GM transmission 7004R. Seems to me that you would want to mirror the transmission the GM put behind the 6.2 and 6.5 and then adapt to FJ60 transfer case? Check out advance adapters for adapters...

I don't know if the NV4500 was an optional transmission with the 6.2 or 6.5's but that could be easily determined.

 

[Arm Auto]

uuhhh...GTO don't do crawling
But thanks for the heads up on the diesel forum!

 

[Arm Auto]

Thank you. I think the donor truck I'm looking at has the NV4500.

 

[SteveH]

You need to base your tranny choice partly on whether you will have the right cruising RPM for your engine (more important with a diesel) when you're done. If you install a diesel with a 3000 rpm redline, but your non-overdrive tranny puts you at 3200 rpm on the freeway, you're in trouble. (This is just an example). So, hang out in some forums and do the math with the tires you want to run, overdrive gearing, and rpm range of the engine.