Builds Turbo 1FZFE FZJ80 Build

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

Sorry guys part of this is my fault that it has stalled a little. I had hoped to have started on my 80, but I ended up having to do some traveling for work and won't be back for a couple months. I have no doubt in EMS's ability to make this happen. Maybe Baktash can throw up some pics of Brett's truck, I know they are also installing a dyno, working on like 10 other cars, trying to do tubular headers, more exhausts, etc, it is a busy place, but the quality is good.
 
scottryana said:
Sorry guys part of this is my fault that it has stalled a little. I had hoped to have started on my 80, but I ended up having to do some traveling for work and won't be back for a couple months. I have no doubt in EMS's ability to make this happen. Maybe Baktash can throw up some pics of Brett's truck, I know they are also installing a dyno, working on like 10 other cars, trying to do tubular headers, more exhausts, etc, it is a busy place, but the quality is good.

Thanks for the update. All it takes is a quick update to quell our concerns. I hope baktash posts something soon. Typically any good shop is always very busy... If a shop is not busy there is usually a reason.
 
Just a disclaimer I am not affiliated with the shop in anyway, so I am not trying to speak for them, just wanted to let everyone know that it wasn't EMS that stalled on working on my truck it was me.

Thanks for the update. All it takes is a quick update to quell our concerns. I hope baktash posts something soon. Typically any good shop is always very busy... If a shop is not busy there is usually a reason.
 
Excited to see progress on this. More power without the diesel conversion issues. I have a 1994 FJZ80 waiting for a kit assuming all goes well with your progress.

A turbo 1fze is definitely my choice over a diesel swap as well. Makes great power and keeps things simple since there is no engine swap.
 
I'm very interested in this, have been interested in a turbo since I bought the LX several years ago. I'm sure the TRD supercharger is a big improvement over stock, but I'm more interested in a turbo. I've been very curious about a diesel swap but it seemed like such a waste to ditch this tough engine. Robbie Antonson baselined it - new HG including machine work, and an early 80 series solid copper radiator - so it's somewhat prepped for boost.

Our turbo kit should out perform the red supercharger without breaking a sweat. We'll leave it up to the dyno graphs to show the results when we get to put the next turbo'd 1fzfe on the dyno.
 
I spent another hour or so this morning surfing the Internet looking for power/economy upgrade options for my 1994 FJZ80.

The turbo approach seems like the most viable. No smog/registration issues like a diesel swap and I can use my stock tranny/running gear. All my existing features, ie. cruise, tach, indicator lights will work without issue or adapters.

I understand that because '94 is not OBD2 I may need a different fuel management system.

I'm really excited about this conversion. Please don't lose momentum, I'm ready for BOOST.

With the 94 it is slightly different with the electronics but still able to do a turbo setup for sure.
 
How much and how soon?

We can turbo your cruiser right now if you'd like but it would need to be installed and tuned at our shop. Let me know if you'd like to set that up and we can go over the details. Or if you'd like a mail order kit it will be ready for mail order setups around November or December.
 
Thanks for the update! Standing by...
 
Price???
 
I think this may have gone stale... I have posted three times as well as PMing baktasht and I've not seen any response. I noticed he's now posting about some 80 series tubular headers.

My '94 80 is still chugging along but I'm starting to look for rebuild/repower options. This sounded like a great option but slow/no response greatly concerns me. I don't want to get stuck with serious $$$ invested in a half designed/built kit.

Keeping my fingers crossed for some signs of progress.

Not stale at all. As scotttyana mentioned we are always quite busy here. The last 2 weeks have been unusually busy along with some major upgrades and equipment being setup at the shop. I'm just barely getting home from the shop and its 11pm :) if you're interested in having us turbo charge your 1fzfe and you are bringing the truck here to our shop for the work we can get it done right away. If you're interested in a mail order DIY install kit it will be ready for public consumption around November or December. Let me know if you have any questions.
 

There are many different components that go into a turbo kit that sway the price greatly. We will be narrowing the options down into a stage1, stage3, stage3, and stage4 package. This way it will be much easier for even a novice to choose which level of performance package theyd like to go with. Pricing for the mail order setups hasnt been determined yet, but I can tell you that it will be very reasonably priced.
 
We are getting closer to putting my truck back together. The head is now done, but we have decided to go the full distance and refresh the short block since there was some minor scoring on the rod journal bearings. My machine shop got the block, crank, rods/pistons today and they will have a diagnosis for me early next week. Probably deck and hone the block for new rings; clean and coat the pistons; and polish the crank for new bearings. The crank timing gear was missing 3 teeth so that will be replaced with a new gear that has been shotpeened.

Here are a few pics of the head work now complete. The intake port was opened all the way to match the ported intake manifold and blended into the ported bowls. The exhaust is mirror finished with tear dropped departures from the stems. The combustion chamber was polished with a mirror finish on the deck. The block will get a mirror finish on the deck as well...
Intake port finished close up.webp
Port with tear drop from valve stem.webp
IMG-20120915-00199.webp
 
Really, unless you invest in the whole kit including upgraded injectors, fuel pump and computer, you're still going to be paying a lot of money and not even get close to the reliable performance of a properly setup system.

Sure, we all have budgets to work with I'm one of those people that can only afford to to the job properly first time, as I can never afford to do the job twice. I took my cruiser for a blast yesterday... seriously, it's awesome.
 
Really, unless you invest in the whole kit including upgraded injectors, fuel pump and computer, you're still going to be paying a lot of money and not even get close to the reliable performance of a properly setup system.

Sure, we all have budgets to work with I'm one of those people that can only afford to to the job properly first time, as I can never afford to do the job twice. I took my cruiser for a blast yesterday... seriously, it's awesome.
I really love what you did with your motor. I have to disagree with you when you imply that going turbo isn't worth it without fueling/ECU modification. My truck ran for close to 1000 miles before the HG went (the truck had a radiator leak and overheated prior to failure, but it also had 230K miles) and it felt like it was twice as powerful on only 5.5 psi of boost. We'll see how much boost the stock North America fuel system allows us to apply here soon, but if I stopped right there it was money well spent.

Eventually, when I am ready to upgrade the transmission, and I decide to go all out with the AEM (or some other ECU stand alone set up)/new injectors (and a 2nd Walbro) the motor is prepped for 20psi. All it will take is the computer and injector swap with an addition of a 2nd fuel pump. Very little double spending if any.
 
I like the porting and polishing of the head, nice job. Some day, I may sit down and do this to an extra head just so the efficiency goes up, even in a NA engine like mine. If you had this done, can you give us a rough $$ figure?
 
I like the porting and polishing of the head, nice job. Some day, I may sit down and do this to an extra head just so the efficiency goes up, even in a NA engine like mine. If you had this done, can you give us a rough $$ figure?
I did most of the head and the intake, opening it up to match the gasket and removing imperfections throughout; not being shy, but being carefull to not be too aggressive.

Kotzur Racing Engines took what I did to it's limit of efficiency. They said that I did over $1000 worth of porting and they finished up with $500 worth (300 on the head, and 200 on the intake). The underside of the intake where it meets the head is very thin and I actually went through on one runner. They welded up my breakthrough and all runners at that same trouble spot before doing their porting.

The combustion chamber is also an important area for attention. They added flow clearance, polished it and coated it. They also went around the edge and took away the sharp transition.

Make sure if you get a spare head you have it's cam caps. They are not meant to be interchangeable since the caps are cast with the head. Mine were lost and I had to donate the head off of my truck to complete the built head. They were able to swap the cam caps with very little modification so I was lucky. They also ended up using the valves and shims from the donated head so it ended up not being such a big deal that it had to be sacrificed.
 
Looks really great! What series are you racing your 80 in? ;) kidding obviously, but that is some nice head work for an old tractor! Who did the work?
I will end up taking it to a track to see what it does at some point. :grinpimp: The torque converter is also getting replaced with a 2600-2700 stall which should be enough to eliminate spool up time completely when under full throttle. Kotzur Racing Engines did the head and they are now doing the short block and assembly as well.
 
Last edited:
This question is for those of you with dyno runs: would you say that a NA engine puts about 120hp and 180 ft-lb of torque at around 3,000 rpm? If so, we're all dragging arse! I don't know about others, but my rpms mostly stay below 3,000 rpm and this is where I'd like to see a bump in hp & torque values.

I believe our engines are rated 212 hp at 4300 rpm? Obviously my engine will never see those hp as I don't drive at those rpms. If we could see 212hp and 250 ft-lb(at rear wheels) at around 2500 rpm, that would satisfy my needs. What is the typical % driveline loss that people tend to use for calcs?
 
I have heard 30% loss in the drivetrain with automatic, viscous transfer case, and fulltime four wheel drive. And that would be just about right looking at my dyno chart. I would like to see at least 275hp 350ft/lbs at the wheels.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom