Vortec Mania Continues On.... (1 Viewer)

[daytonadogie]

I am finally getting around to posting a build thread on my '90 FJ62. I purchased the truck about 5 years ago, and have been in the process of restoring it since.

It was running when i bought it but was smoking badly, and would not pass Colorado emissions. There was some rust, especially along the lower areas on the doors, and the odometer showed 200K on the clock.

I rebuilt the motor, front knuckles, new brakes, rear axle seals, had to replace the left rear axle and bearing, removed and cleaned or replaced all the carpet, laid Dynamat on the floorpan, re covered the seats, did the shifter repair from the sticky page
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/the-no-slop-fj62-shifter-mods.279837/ (thanks spook50)
repaired the rust and repainted the beast under my carport

It already came with a Ironman lift, 3" i'm guessing, and I refinished and painted the wheels that it came with. New rubber is 33X10.50X15 Goodyears.

I really loved everything about my cruiser except that it was so painfully slow and underpowered, so i started planing a vortec swap about a year ago.

i am actually pretty far along on this build, and will post more as I find the time. Hopefully Ill be able to give back a little to the Mud community, since I have combed these threads for tips and advice on how to get her done. i want to thank everyone that posted a Vortec build thread, Especially the professionals that are willing to share their knowledge and tricks. Thanks in advance for any comments, questions and suggestions.

 

[daytonadogie]

Doner vehicle is a 2003 Chevy Tahoe Z71. It is the 5.3 L59 flex fuel motor. i searched Craiglist and found it from a private seller that had bought it for the frame and suspension. The vehicle had been rolled and had 170K on it.

It had some miles on it, but I was able to inspect the chassis and it looked real clean. Good rubber, no damage to the skid plates at all, never looked like it had any serious off road mileage. I drained the fluids before I bought it, and it all looked and smelled good. I was able to get the engine, harness, ECU, tranny, and exhaust for $1,200. I helped the seller pull it out, and he was very knowledgeable about Vortec engines. He was a total Chevy truck guy! Hey, it must have been running ok for someone to roll it.

This is how it looked when I got i home. The seller recommended that we remove the intake manifold before we pulled the engine/tranny, so as not to accidentally break it with the hoist. I think that he was speaking from experience

After a cleanup!

 

[Fj moneypit]

Flex fuel. Interesting. Subscribed.

 

[daytonadogie]

I needed to replace the output shaft on the 4L60E transmission. Also, I've read a couple of threads where the transmission has been a problem after the swap so I decided to rebuild it. I've never rebuilt an automatic tranny before, so I did a bunch of research on it before deciding to give it a try. By far, the best resource I found, was a series of YouTube videos by Hiram Gutierrez.
I'm not going to get into a lot of detail with the tranny rebuild, but I thought it it was fun and challenging to try!

The internals looked really good inside. Nice and clean, and all of the frictions were in good shape for a high mileage unit. Makes me think (hope) that this was a soccer mom/grocery getter vehicle. I went ahead and replaced the frictions and steels, installed a new hardened sun shell and Corvette servo unit. The valve body separator plate was replaced with a new one from Transgo.

Bottom is the 2WD shaft needed for the AA transfer case adapter.

 

[Oaks]

Sweet! Subscribed!

 

[MarkN]

Looking forward to see more.

 

[daytonadogie]

Mark, your build thread was really helpful! Thanks for all the info. esp all the pictures!

 

[daytonadogie]

I waited till I had the engine sold before I started the tear down. That way he could hear and drive it before buying it. It was a fresh 3FE that went to a local Rising Sun Toyota club member that was going to do a 2FE build, and I got $800 for it. I'm sure he was happy and i am too.

This is a familiar sight for a lot of Mudders out there.

The gentleman that bought the engine helped me pull it out. That was great cause I usually work alone. Hey Jackson, if you read this, i hope your build is going well!

sorry for the crappy phone pics

 

[MarkN]

Mark, your build thread was really helpful! Thanks for all the info. esp all the pictures!

thanks.. Let me know if I can help....

 

[cruiser enthuiser]

Handsome truck!

Good luck with the conversion. As you know I'm in the middle of a similar swap. The amount of stuff to learn and do can be overwhelming at times. I frequently remind myself to slow down and enjoy the ride. Fortunately, Mud is an incredible resource and lots of people here are willing to to share their knowledge.

Keep it coming!

Ed

 

[daytonadogie]

Thanks Ed. Good luck on your build

 

[FJ60Cam]

I have a feeling you will be the one schooling us, tackling your own automatic transmission rebuild and all!

Carry on!

 

[daytonadogie]

Cam, I'm usually too cheap to pay someone to do it right, and dumb enough to try anything. we shall see how it works later on. Congrats on your swap. Looks to be pretty much done!

 

[daytonadogie]

With the old engine/transmission out it was time to put the transfer case onto the 4L60E. Advanced adapter, of course. Idler shaft and output shaft bearings had a lot of wear so i got a rebuild kit from Georg at Valley Hybrid.

Someone had cracked this Tcase open before, and had put too much preload on the output shaft bearings.

dead parts.

You can see the end of the output shaft that I cut off with a death wheel so the adaptor would fit.

 

[daytonadogie]

After I had the adaptor and front Tcase half bolted on to the tranny i stood it upright. made it real easy to finish the assembly

Didn't take any pics of the adaptor being put on, but it went without a hitch. Cam60 has posted that they have changed the design a little and it assembles differently, so heads up on that! mine was the old design.

I posted this on another thread, but if you heat the rear output bearing carrier with a heat gun, or stick it in an oven at 300 deg, the race will
literally fall out, making it simple to change out the shims for bearing preload. The oven trick only works when isn't home!

I stuck the front carrier in the freezer before dropping it in the front case half

Output shaft bearing preload seems to be a hot topic in these threads. Whenever I set preload on a rear end pinion shaft, I usually do it by feel, just like my papa taught me. (My father was a professional mechanic). i did the same on the this. It's easy enough to check in the truck anyway.

Ready to go in.

 

[daytonadogie]

I was able to rebuild the Tcase with a professional grade puller and a BFH and steel pipe. You can see the puller that I used in the middle of the mess pictured here.

My bearing press.

Georg hooked me up with a speedometer gear set out of a FJ60. i think that it is 16t, in place of the 18t in the 62. This should correct the speedometer while running 33" tires.

The nylon gear and the brass gear on the output shaft are a matched set so you need to replace them both.

 

[daytonadogie]

On to the motor mounts. There seemed to be some dissatisfaction amongst the the mudder crowd about the AA motor mounts, so I checked out some alternatives. This is what I came up with:

http://www.randyellisdesign.com/DIY...r-GM-LS-Series-Race-Motor-Mount-Kit_p_85.html

Looked like a good start to fabbing up some mounts, and the price was right. Did a mock up, and tacked everything in.

I dug into my wife's christmas wrapping paper to make a cardboard pattern:

Frame brackets trimmed and burned into place. i made sure that they extended from top to bottom of the frame, and used gussets to tie into the upper and lower parts of the rail. No scab plates necessary IMHO.

 

[daytonadogie]

Paint and motor in place.

 

[FJ60Cam]

Lookin' good!

 

[OGBeno]

Great work....



Let's see how that tranny comes out.