Builds We will name him Brutus. (12 Viewers)

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I would use more than a pink BB gun, no more people attacks. I practice the three SSSs.
Shoot
Shovel
Shutup
thats what the sheriff told me when he came out for some issues I was having with the same neighbor because that was going to be what I did to him, but I try to be nice and neighborly.
 
ta-dah - one A340F with UZ bellhousing. I have never disassembled a transmission before, and id honestly rather get kicked out of a gun show for rating them on mouth feel than ever do that again. My Youtube ASE cert never covered this class, so I was in there like helen keller at a pinata party.

You have to remove the pump off the a340e, and the overdrive housing with input shaft. and then swap it to the other. Theres a tone ring as part of the a340e one thats on the OD drum thing which is different. But lining up the little 2 clutch disks at the very center was flippin B - S man. I had to take it apart and line those back up, put together, take it apart and line them up again, take it apart, like so many times that I was worried I was doing something wrong. then the last time it goes THUNK and I ran from the work bench (read: rear tailgate of the pig) over and slid it into the case like I was solving an ancient egyptian artifact puzzle. and bam. Bellhousing is of course same bolt pattern so slapped right on. even had the little 10mm bolt hole for the breather.


next hurdle is. add fluid. make sure it spins freely. Its been sitting for quite some time so its going to take a little love to spin but I also have no idea what gear its in at any given time, and if the tcase is locked or not. Ill cross that bridge when im ready to jump off it.

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keen eye will see I removed the radiator support. but the 4 JIS screws for that grille are a permanent fixture until the end of time so that thing aint coming off without a lot more anger and effort than im willing to provide. It got too hot this morning for me to continue, ill have it sitting in the engine bay tonight and figure out all the wiring and whatnot. flush the trans. figure out my mounting position and go from there.

I have 2 things to sort out now. 1 is the flanges for the driveshaft. Its EXTREMELY close to the same, but id have to either redrill the rear round flange for the new pattern - which means the front one is still a mystery since its the same flange shape and not a round disk I can redrill and not super keen on hogging it out 1/4" on two of the holes. OR I can use flange spacers/adaptors, OR conversion ujoints which I hate.

SECOND. Im not sure this is the Tcase I thought it was. The tcase shifter has 3 positions, not a J shift. I know its from an 85 4runner because I bought it off the guy after he removed it from his for a manual (because the automatic was too slow). but it should be an RF1A which should have a J shift. with 3 positions (has to be H-N-L) so odds are we are going to be AWD which i wouldnt be upset about at all.

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if it fits, it ships. Welder comes on sunday. wiring I am going to run through that airbox intake thing on the passenger side and hide all my gauges in the glove box. I am going to have to move the toyota battery to the driver front corner, and then put a lithium or something on the passenger side where the battery is currently to fit my intake and achieve my dual battery setup. manifold hits the steering box but I can build around that. theres a small panel above the frame on the passenger side im going to remove to run my true duals as side pipes. This is going to be really fun

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just need to ground the grounds, power the powers, and plug in the ECU and it will run. BUT. I need to get it mounted in there first. I like the position its in (minus the trans being so low because the jack cant go high enough) gives me room for the radiator and electric fan, with room to still service it if I needed. the dead blow hammer peeking in the picture is to make sure my spacing is an equal 3" on each side dont judge me.

dropped the broken oil pressure gauge to put the functional coolant temp on there, hid the wideband in the glovebox, and converted the cigarette lighter to the launch control button. only thing I smoke is tires out here so dont need that anyway. the universal coolant bottle basket I will remove and then the intake filter can be installed.

The hole next to the cigarette lighter I cant figure out how to fanagle or I would but the push button for the starter on it. but I may also wire the key to the starter like a normal person. Who knows what I will do, not even me. I just wing everything as it happens.

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I only have 110V access and I got this welder for 100$ off amazon. But man. Even with the cheap wire it came with, its pretty decent. Breaking the cardinal rule of the internet and posting pictures of welds. Little quick coat of paint and once I weld them to the frame (didnt paint that area) i will wire them up good and paint em again.

I dropped the driver side exhaust manifold off with Stellar Fabrications over in town (great guy, incredible welder, but also our high schools auto shop teacher) and hes going to make me a nice block hugger


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completely irrelevant note. I tried to use the awning for something before I pulled the motor and two of the poles broke off. They sent me a full set so I would have spares. I emailed them yesterday about the unresponsive light strip, and new one is being delivered on monday. Their customer service is crazy good
 
I have been doing some reading. and I cant find much on spring over lifting this. I would like to do that, but when I search "fj55 spring over" it just gives me 354724378 pages of threads with just FJ55. The ones I find that are actually about SPOA, its incomplete projects which is really common on older vehicles like this. Anyone happen to have any links to complete, successful SPOA?
Just search SOA, the 40 method will work.
Make sure you read up on the cut and turn as well.
You will get tall, and tippy...
 
I also have an issue with the hood release. The hole the plunger goes into is too far forward, so the pin gets stuck and the hood release panel with the cable on it cant be bolted in and locked into or the hood gets stuck and you have to unbolt the latch and pry it back open. not sure how to adjust this more because the hood is adjusted out all the way
 
Well, doesn’t that just fit like a glove?!
Nice job 👍🏼
It does fit really nice. I am pretty stoked on it. Last time I went through all this work for an engine swap car it ended up being slow and was like a knife to the gut but I am really hoping this is different lol

I have super minor things left. Getting the throttle cable adapted. transmission mount. exhaust. upper radiator hose. mount the trans cooler and get the two e-fans mounted. then do the SPOA because the oil pan is about 2.5 inches from the front diff. one trip down my road and im punching a hole clean through it lol
 
Found a new upper radiator hose. Had to trim off a little, and wham bam. 10 bucks later its got coolant. Mounted the transmission cooler, and one of the e-fans. second fan will be a push on the grille side. LKQ had two of the driveshafts I needed for 50 bucks, or I could pay those dingles on ebay smokin crack 150 each so I went for the LKQ ones. Then I can build the transfer case mount, hook up the linkages, cycle and drain the transmission fluid, get the oil filter relocated, exhaust, and then figure out how to get the dipsticks to work in the new configuration. Baby steps or whatever.

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So the ECU that I have wired to this engine (and several others...) is currently not being produced because they are shopping for a new vendor to make the enclosures. my polish brethren over at EFI Source sends me this email.

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He clearly does not know that I run a s***box farm over here. My hurdle now is I like to reuse firewall holes, not really into chopping and cutting too much. But I cant find any that I can put the ampseal connectors through. Off to ohreally so I can cobble some stuff together. maybe they have a body plug assortment so if I do have to put my christmas tree bit through the firewall I can at least make it look okay.
 
My 85 4runner transmission mount. Totally the correct one. No issues at all. Can fab this right up.... i hate getting the wrong stuff in the mail....

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87 and 89 4runner front driveshafts. Swapped the slip yoke right over and wham bam ready to go. Need the second driveshaft to show up but LKQ is slackin. Ill be able to bolt up the rear driveshaft tonight, tomorrow the CORRECT transmissions mount comes (i hope) and then everything will be ready for the ECU to arrive. Need to flush the trans out, the tcase, get the exhaust back, modify both dipsticks, and i should be test driving before August 1st.

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The longer slip yoke and driveshaft is the 4runner one. Looking at this the LC one has very little spline actuation. Might have the spline socket swapped to the LC driveshaft when I have this thing shortened so I have more travel distance on it. theres a good difference in the depth and splines on the two

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I tripped and fell on my keyboard. and it accidentally ordered the ruffstuff 10 degree caster SOA kit for front and rear. be careful out there guys
 

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