Builds V8 (SBC) to V8 (Gen III Vortec) swap in my FJ60... (1 Viewer)

[orion]

Oh yeah...almost forgot...

I also bought an 80-series roller, cut most the body off...and I'm thinking I'll put this 60 body on it. Maybe.

I'm honestly 50/50 on swapping the chassis (or welding all the 80-series suspension onto my 60 frame and retianing the front 9.5" axle)...but I like wheeling it on leafs. However, links and coils are cool, too.

Stay tuned!

- Brian

 

[Heckraiser]

Lucky you to have that decision to make. Having both, I actually kinda prefer the simplicity of leafs. Predictable, easy to dial in with regard to caster and pinion angle, easy to modify to suit your needs. I can't deny the 80 does ride smoother though.

 

[cruisermatt]

I like a good 52-55” long leaf spring better then the 80 rear suspension. None of the wacky roll steer characteristics it has when lifted due to the short parallel upper links

 

[rhah]

The 4.8 is a good cheap stepping stone, but I wouldn't try to pass it off as a better motor in any way. A 60 is not a vehicle to be ripping around at 6k. You want the torque and grunt of a 6.0. Same size motor. Price is about the only good reason to do a 4.8.

295 ft lbs vs 370 is not a small difference.

6.0 also came with a Th400 in 99-00 so you dont need the thicker spacer. they already have the longer crank.

Manual vs automatic application

if you use a manual motor you don’t need an adapter

why he was searching for a 4.8 vs the over priced 6.0’s now

 

[rhah]

glad I’m not the only 4.8 out there

 

[cruisermatt]

Brian how long have you been driving this swap pretty much completely trouble free? 4 years now?

 

[rhah]

 

[cheeze]

Oh yeah...almost forgot...

I also bought an 80-series roller, cut most the body off...and I'm thinking I'll put this 60 body on it. Maybe.

View attachment 2627066

I'm honestly 50/50 on swapping the chassis (or welding all the 80-series suspension onto my 60 frame and retianing the front 9.5" axle)...but I like wheeling it on leafs. However, links and coils are cool, too.

Stay tuned!

- Brian

That frame rust looks pretty buggered to my sensitive California eyes.

 

[cruisermatt]

That frame rust looks pretty buggered to my sensitive California eyes.

That’s fine for east coast beach rig.. it’ll
Sandblast fine

 

[orion]

Brian how long have you been driving this swap pretty much completely trouble free? 4 years now?

Yep....right at 4.5, actually. EDIT: Trouble free in the sense that the motor swap / wiring / etc...has been perfect. The fuel delivery problems I'm fighting with would have been present, engine swap or not!!

That frame rust looks pretty buggered to my sensitive California eyes.

It's a little muddy, so it looks worse in pictures than it is...but it's rusty, too. Surface rust from salt air and beach cruisin'. No "rot", nothing too crusty.

Like Matt said...nothing a little scuffing or sandblasting won't take care of!

- Brian

 

[orion]

Alright - As mentioned in my last update, I've been having fuel supply/delivery issues again. Decided it was finally time to drop the tank, see what was really going on.

The short history is: Fuel injectors got completely plugged at GSMTR 2019, and I cleaned them out, replaced filters, and flushed the system...and all was well until November 2019. Went on a club ride with the HOT South guys, and it was pinging under heavy load (?). Fuel pump pre-filter was full of trash, AGAIN, and the main filter caught a bunch of debis...but the injectors and fuel rails were still full of really fine debris. I flushed it out and replaced both filters again, AND replaced the fuel hard lines with stainless (looking in the tank through the sending unit hole..it looked just fine inside).

But, here we are again...pre filter getting dirtier by the mile:

It's a really fine debris, feels like sand...and is non-metallic. Doesn't appear to be rust.

So, I have to find the source - Tank is coming out. I hooked up an extra fuel pump to the feed line, and pumped the remaining 5gal into a gas can. Here's how that looked:

That's a lot of sediment / debris / fine particles!!!

So, got the tank out on Saturday afternoon and washed the exterior (lots of mud and dirt collects up there!) -->

Looking in through the fill hole, expecting to find a rusty mess...and all I can see is clean metal and a pile of that black crap that's clogging everything:

...

So, now my line of thought is "let's just clean it all out", rather than "3 gal of Evaporust is gonna be like $100"...hehe.

... (to be continued, below) ...

 

[orion]

Oh, I also pulled the hard lines out of the tank, wanted to see if they were all rusty. Nope.

BUT, the filter or "strainer" on the end of the feed line was real clogged:

^^^ The clean section there was just brushed off with an old toothbrush.

You can see why maybe I was having a lean condition under heavy load!

...

Figured a mix of Dawn soap and water would help get everything out of the tank...so I took it into the driveway, filled it up, shook it around, and dumped the contents.

Over and over.

I caught some of what came out in a bucket, to see if I could figure anything out. Here's what I got:

Strangely, that black stuff from the bottom of the tank floats on water (???). Sinks in fuel, but floats on water. Weird.

Think it has to be rubber or plastic - I figure a fuel line dissolved internally a few years back, OR, more likely...I filled up with gas somewhere that had an old s***ty rubber line leading to the gas pump / handle.

At this point, I flushed until it was clean (no more sediment that I could see in the tank, no more coming out when I flushed it).

I did go ahead and grab 3gal of white vinegar to see if it would clean anything more out. Poured that into the empty tank, sloshed it around every once and awhile...let it sit for maybe 4hrs.

Didn't do much, IMO. Maybe nothing.

Then I rinsed one last time, and used to old hair dryer to start drying out the inside of the tank -->

Set it on there (blowing into the fill hole), turned it on, let it run for 20minutes. Seemed to work really well, there was a nice flow of hot air coming out the sender and fuel pickup holes.

...

That's where I am today. Tank is sitting out back in the sun, drying out completely.

I'll probably get it back in place tonight, get the lines hooked up later this week, and put some non-ethanol in it. Already inspected the rubber fuel lines (just in case), and have 2 new filters ready to go.

Anyway, that's hopefully the end of my fuel delivery saga. Time will tell!

- Brian

 

[orion]

Got the tank back in earlier this week, added 15gal of non-ethanol gas, and then put a good 40 miles on the truck yesterday...

...and the fuel pump pre-filter still looks new -->

(sorry for the sh!tty pic, had to zoom and crop)

Previously, the filter media would already be turning a darker color, and there would be visible debris in there.

I think this particular problem is solved.

- Brian

 

[cheeze]

Always nice when a dreaded repair is less time-consuming and costly to fix than originally feared. Most of the time, I figure it out after I've installed shiny new parts.

 

[bush]

Win!!!

 

[Zjohnsonua]

I know that one was driving you bonkers. Glad to see you got it sorted out. I'm headed down this same investigative path...

 

[orion]

^^^ Thanks, Zach.

Truck continues to run well...I do think the fuel delivery issue is sorted. GSMTR will be the real test, should be able to put a bunch of hours of run time on it. We'll see how the filter looks after that.

As for an update:

I had a hint of "death wobble" when driving it a few weeks ago, and recalled that I bought a set of 'Three Five' replacement ends a few years ago, but only installed the TRE. Can't recall why.

So I grabbed the other 2 ends off the shelf and swapped them on -->

That should help.

Took a pic of the truck for no other reason than I thought it looked cool here:

Posting the pic for no reason, except I think it's a great looking truck!

I did change the look a little yesterday - Had some LED headlights left over from the Red FJ60 I flopped...uninstalled and kept them for this truck, but haven't made time to install them. (Night wheeling is more fun when you can see well, so this helps in that department) -->

They are nothing special - Amazon 7" LED's (no idea the brand, they came with the red 60) along with a $18 'reverse switching harness' (also an Amazon special). I ran them on that other 60 and it worked great. The cutoff of these lights is actually pretty decent, and I'll be sure to aim them so I'm not blinding other drivers on the road.

Anyway, no real substance here...just posting pics.

Should have some decent stuff from GSMTR later this month. Looking forward to wheeling this truck again!!!

- Brian

 

[orion]

I'll post a more thorough reply when I have time (tomorrow?), but for now...

GSMTR was a success, truck ran great. I can confidently say the fuel system issue is solved, 100%.

However, the black trails at Windrock demand a toll, and it was my turn to pay. I've tried real hard to wheel this truck without sheetmetal damage, but my time was up.

Twice. The bottom, larger dent was early in the day...and the higher up hit got the tail light lens (admittedly because I wasn't being cautious - I figured "it's dented already").

Sigh.

More to come!

- Brian

 

[orion]

So, aside from the damage posted above...GSMTR was a good trip this year.

We did have a little hiccup on Thursday - The Windrock 'park patrol' was out looking for troublemakers (got a call for a group that was NOT us) when we stopped to make lunch. One of our guys had *just* cracked open a beer, so that gave the rent-a-cop a reason to search our coolers (no alcohol allowed on the trails at Windrock, if you're not aware).

The result of this was 2 of our group got booted off the trails for there being a total of 3 beers found between 6 drivers. A little heavy-handed, IMO...but we got it sorted out the next day. But that left us with needing a new plan. So we headed for Nemo's Tunnel, as I heard there was a river / swimming hole there..and it was hot.

The tunnel is 40min away from the park, so we loaded up an 80 ( @bush ) and my 60 (with 4 guys and some gear) and headed over. Driving through the tunnel was super cool - It's filled with water for most of it, but maybe only a foot or 18" deep.

I did have an issue right before we got there - We were cruising with the AC on for 35min, and my electric fan (SPAL 16") relay burned out. I noticed the temps were at 215 and climbing, so we pulled over and swapped it out for the fog light relay. Issue solved, for now. I'm gonna put in something bigger (I'm told the 80-series heater relay [or something] is 60amp, so I'll find that and cut it out of the harness I have laying around).

Had a good time at the creek, got back to camp and got sauced, then sorted out the trail pass issue for Friday morning.

The group I was running with (@bush @ufg8r @Skitz @Zjohnsonua @Bama4door @Nottajeep ) wanted to run some harder trails, so I left my 60 in camp as not to dent it up (happened anyway!) and rode shotgun and took pics on Friday.

Saturday I reluctantly agreed to go along with a bigger group, as they were headed where we were (trails 11 and 51 / Panther Rock)...with a short black trail (30) on the way.

(cont'd, below...)

 

[orion]

Grabbed one good pic on the first 1/3rd of the trail -->

...but then got a bad spot, and the 60's rear end slid into a big rock. The line was up the bank on the left, and kinda drive around the rock that was waiting to take out your pass. side doors. Not exactly sure what happened, but I was told 'drive it out!', and the rear end just slid down into the rock, hard -->

Sh!t happens, I got pissed for a short minute, then continued on. Spotter felt genuinely bad, but these things happen.

So, we got out of there after WAY too long (big group, another 60 lost 4WD, slow obstacles)...and headed over to trail 51 (3 trucks headed back to camp).

I started to hear a clunk, and noticed my shifter was moving a LOT more than it should. So I took it easy until the Panther Rock overlook area, and checked my motor mounts.

The poly bushings were *gone*, on both sides. I guess exhaust heat + a rough trail earlier in the day just turned them into dust, and I was now riding metal on metal -->

(hard to tell here, but you can see it's not "right")

^^^ Pic is sideways...but you can see there's no bushing left.

It was getting late, so we threw a ratchet strap on it to try and hold it still...and continued on.

(cont'd below...)