What to do with the 62?

[PortFJ62]

Wow, havent been on the board for 8 months. Good to be back.
Anyway, My wife and I are wanting to get a camping trailer(pop up kind) so we can do some traveling with our 3 dogs around the west. My 62 is all stock except the TPI lift and 33"s. We have done some wheeling with local clubs but only a handfull of times, reason being- its a daily driver, no protection on the body, etc etc.... Still has a nice body I would hate to ruin. My question is 1. Thinking of a V8 Vortec swap.... Good or bad idea? Considering the 3fe is already sluggish esp in the mountains seems a trailer would kill it. I realize its an expensive job but better to invest in my own rig vs buying a newer cruiser and having a monthly payment. 2. I would eventually like to do a SO with some 35 or 37's for offroad. If I did the V8 swap and the bigger tires would I be back with a sluggish ride again?
Thanks for any input.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

It's all about gearing bro'. If you want crawling capability, then you will have a sluggish ride. If you see more highway than anything else, then you can cruise at 75 easily. It's all in the gearing.



OH! Welcome back!!

 

[Mace]

Cahnces are a good V8 swap would wake your cruiser up.

Be aware tho.. A "good" 350 swap is expensive..

 

[baldredhead]

while a stout unit, the a440 trans is known to suck a lot of power. when you only have 150ish to begin with it really hurts.... i'm going to do a manual trans swap with an h42. if you can justify the cash for a v8, the h55f has 5 speeds and costs way less than a v8.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

How about leaving it alone. You can probably still get many many thousands of miles out of the mighty 3FE. Spend a few $ on a roof top tent, toss the dogs in the back, and let the cruiser do what it was born to do. I can't see swapping a V8 into a working truck. Now if your 3FE died-that's another story.

 

[dd113]

1" body lift, 4:88 gears, rear locker and a real good tune up and you will be all set.

Lots cheaper than a V8!

 

[beaufort-fj60]

you can have TLC do a Vortec 5.3 with 4L60E automatic for about $27,500.

 

[Corbet]

put the V8 in, you'll have the power you are looking for. If you goto 35-37" add 4.56s at the same time. You will not be sluggish. But you will not win races.

A good V8 swap will cost you $$$ especially if you can not do it yourself.

You could also consider a diesel swap. More money, but better MPG and low end torque. Plus everyone here on the board will think your truck is much cooler than it would be with a V8.

 

[gnx7]

'99+ 5.3i GM V8 with NV4500. 5.61 1st gear and .73 overdrive gear.... killer crawl ratio and overdrive for the freeway.

You can find take outs on car-parts.com. Should be around $3K.

If you could do the conversion yourself I bet you could make it happen for about $5-7K being resourceful.

You could spend $27,500 also if you wanted to go mondo insane with the buildup.

Waggoneer is running a 502EFI Marine motor in his FJ60 with stock diffs and ARB's with a 4L80E (automatic) and Atlas TC. From his pics it looks like it can go anywhere... 37" MTR's. 12.5mpg average. A 5.3/6.0 motor will certainly get better mileage than this in your cruiser due to less weight and less cubes.

 

[PortFJ62]

Are you guys kidding? 27,000 for a vortec v8 swap??????????????????? I must be way out of the loop. If thats the case, I have nothing to ponder. Might as well buy another couple of cruisers for that. I thought I was looking at a 5000 job or something.

It bothers me that I have great truck but yet Im wanting more and more out of it. Whether its more power, more lift, etc etc , it gets old sometimes not learning to be content. Wish I could make it perfect and be done with it. It feels like a never ending project.

 

[tonkota]

I agree with baldy on the automatic sucking power. Find a 5 speed and when the 3F is tired, build a 2F short block and put it in there under the 3F-E head. You could get all that done for $5000.

 

[RoddQLD]

PortFJ62: I think that is ne of the nice things about having a 60 series cruiser, and that is being able to improve on it and make it your own! Just shame about the cost for changing over motors.

A popular engine conversion here in Australia is the Chevy 6.5 litre V8 diesel, but that is still over the $10000 mark (I think). It's a shame that you don't have easy access to the 12H-T turbo diesel engines (or wrecks with them in) because I know that mine is great for towing.

Rodd

PS I wonder how much the old engine could be improved on with 'head' work, improved camshaft, extractors, balancing, better ehaust system, etc, maybe even an aftermarket turbo. Plan for reliability first, then power without to much loss of fuel economy.