which truck to put 13BT into

[rutbeer]

steer

The steering resevoir I mounted to a blank spot on the fender and the corner of where the washer bottle was. I didn't have a washer bottle and I think I'll use that space for the a/c drier anyway. The lines to the steering box were TIGHT. I had to put 180 degree bends in those puppies.

 

[rutbeer]

Forgot to mention that I drove it for the first time on Saturday. It's sweet!
Much quicker than my old 2F, though that motor may have been too smog laden to be much fun anyway. The torque is truly amazing. I can almost leave it in third all the time....slow down for a right turn, ease on the pedal, no problem. I'm itching to get the tach, egt, and boost installed, but that will have to wait until after GSMTR.

 

[MoCoNative]

Looking awesome rutbeer, glad you have it running and working. That is always a thrill to do something like this and finally get it going and drive it the first time.

I thought 2F's in a 40 were pretty peppy actually, I have an 84 60, that appears to have gobs more power than my 40, although it is still a slow turd, the lighter chassis of a 40 probably moves better than a 60 with a 2F. I only drove a 75 FJ-40 one time, and it ran great with the 4 speed and 2f compared to my stock 73. Sounds like this swap really makes some nice improvements.

Some long term tests and mileage would be helpful. I've looked at diesel conversion for several years now, but unless the swap can be done cheaply, and the gas savings are amazing I can't see doing it now. Diesel is 3.60 a gallon in my town now, don't know if the few extra MPG is worth it.

As far as guages go, I was looking at some of those little pods that mount on a dash or whatever with a pedestal mount, or ones that go on a rollbar with a clamp and pedestal. I want to mount a tach on the steering column, right below where the plastic trim stops. Clamp it to the metal tube. But with three guages that changes things. I also thought about the dash pad left of the wheel. Perhaps a person could build or get a three guage pod and shape it so that it looks like the stock pad. It would stick out, but you could run the wires out the back and through the old turn signal hole on the side of the steering shaft. Saves cutting up the dash. I don't want to do it either. If you have a full cage???? could mount to it up the A-pillar area too.

Subaru performance websites sell a three guage pod that mounts in the area on the dash where the optional altimeter went on the Forester and Impreza, it is a stylish piece also, may blend in on top of a 40 dash. I also saw a similar pod that simply velcroed to your dash like that.

 

[rutbeer]

Yeah, I have thought of a POD like the FJ cruiser has or the like and mounting that with velcro. I'm not fond of drilling holes that aren't easily replaced if you change your mind.

On the swap thoughts, diesel is $2.89 here and unleaded is $2.99.....so, it costs me less to fill than gas AND I get the better mileage. Add that to the fact that you are basically installing fuel injection, which means better starting and no flooding carbs offroad....and it can begin to make sense. But not for fuel economy alone. It makes sense if you were going to rebuild a 2F, add fool injection, add 5spd, etc.
Don't get me wrong, this swap is expensive to do, especially if you pay someone else to do it. The misc. parts really add up, (like over $1,500) but there's no reason you have to do it all the way I did. You could build your own motor mounts and save 100's.. You could find a used starter and alt instead of buying new. You could buy a cheap split case and go that route instead of converting to manual my way. You don't need pyro and boost, or emblems....and you could have midas do your muffler cheap. I just thought since everything was apart, why not do it right and replace anything that does wear even if it hasn't.
All that said, I haven't actually added up the receipts....I'm scared to. I bet I have more in the swap than I do when I bought the truck the first time.

 

[MoCoNative]

I completely agree with getting good parts, fixing all that you can, keeping it Toyota and such. I like the job you have done, really pretty clean and stock like.

I just can't swing it here. The swap cost is not a huge deal, it's trying something new, making what you want. But the fuel is more costly for me. Like I said diesel 3.50-3.60 right now, Regular unleaded, 3.20-3.30. I'm already having a hard time filling the tank on my F and 2F, I'm getting a good solid 15 MPG out of each of them, rain or shine, so the conversion wouldn't really ever pay out.

Now a few years ago, prices were completely reversed and diesel was far cheaper. And of course if you are setting up to run bio, then go for it. I wish I could find a little diesel VW or something and do that to drive to work, but in a town of 10,000 people, and only a couple hamburger joints, I don't think there is a reliable source for the cooking oil.

Carry on though, looking great, should be a good perfomer off road with the 70 series axles and lockers.

I've hit a real hurdle for me right now, about a month ago I laid my 40 on its side, insurance totalled it out. It is plenty drivable, but the hardtop got trashed, windshield, all that. I'm too busy to repair it at the moment, so it is sitting. Now I'm thinking of taking the insurance money and swapping my drivetrain and front end onto a 45 frame, and make a pickup. But then again, it was pretty well restored before and was a good looking 40, been in the family since 1977, can't decide if I want to destroy its stock lineage with such a drastic swap out or not. Kind of the spot you were in with your two rigs.

 

[rutbeer]

I threw some sliders together on Tuesday night, right before GSMTR. Good thing I did too....pinged the drivers side hard on 8 and that would have left a mark. Overall, the truck performed amazingly well. Once I learned to use the hand throttle a bit, it was literally like pointing a tractor in the direction you want to go.

Oh, I'm stoked....took home the award for most desirable truck from GSMTR.
There were some very nice rides there, so I didn't expect that at all. Sweet!

 

[Tapage]

Your specs are awesome .. with those cable locks and turbo diesel engine .. you can go everywhere.

Why you place you pyro probe post turbo.? ( just to know )

Congrats ! ( I love your clean interior )

 

[rutbeer]

Yeah, once I learned to drive it differently, the only thing that really stops it are the front shackles. You kind of have to approach steep rocks at an angle to miss, then you can adjust and crawl right up. The best part is there are NO MORE FLOODING CARBS!!!! I will say that I am no longer trail leader though. Everyone gladly accepts me moving to the back of the line.

I dunno, I put the pyro there because it was easy to do that way. I wasn't real thrilled about pulling the exhaust all apart to get a good angle to drill, and I worry a little about cracking the manifold. As far as which is best, it's anyone's opinion. I was originally planning on modifying this motor, but I really am quite pleased just the way it is, so I don't think pre-turbo is really required. It's fast enough now that I get nervous about stopping and swerving in traffic. The most amazing thing was driving in Trail 1 at Tellico. You could literally look in the mirror and see when the turbo spooled up in 3rd. The swampers would just cut a rut from the torque. It was scary enough that the guy behind me backed off because I kept getting sideways. For the first time ever, I had to drive trail 1 in 4wd just to keep from scaring myself s***less. (For those that don't know, Trail 1 at Tellico is basically a 30 min ride down a winding washboard gravel road.)

 

[Japan4X4]

So would you say your overall level of happiness with this drivetrain is say.... 100%?

 

[Tapage]

If someone have videos of Tellico woul be very apreciated .. I love this kind of terrain for off road . .

 

[rutbeer]

Time to get back to things after taking some time off. I found out I didn't have any brake lights and my side lights in the rear are "dead". The only running light that works is the left front and that's because PO ran a seperate ground.
If I directly ground the right side, it will light. Checking the two wires, they both have + current on them.
Well, that's not right.
I don't think I ever checked the brake lights before, so it's hard to say if I screwed something up while splicing the harness or if it was the dreaded PO chain.
The PO had run a jumper off the front harness and ran it all the way back to the tail lights......and there was a nasty trailer harness with vampire taps all over the place.
Something tells me it's time to take the rear harness out and start over.

 

[rutbeer]

Wiring toast

Yup, took the rear harness out and tested it. More than half the leads were dead. I started pealing the wrap back and found this.

Every factory crimp where split one wire off was completely corroded and broken. All three crimps were this way. In fact, when I stripped the insulation back, the wire was so far gone that the solder won't even flow into the wire.

I'm thinking I may just make an entirely new rear harness, because I have seen this problem far too many times, and I don't want to mess with this again.

 

[vsh150]

wuauuu I read the entire topic and is awsome dude¡¡¡ congrats , really a nice and clean job

 

[rutbeer]

a/c

Got the rear harness just about wrapped up. I was waiting on some wire, so jumped on the a/c install. I got the blower/evap mounted up pretty good. I should work on the heater duct re-route in a week or so. Lots of house crap to do again.

 

[rutbeer]

Back on it.....Travertine is in the sunroom.
I've also been busy engineering some parts for production, but found a few minutes to work on the a/c and the gauges.
Fabbed up a metal duct between the heater blower and the heater...big PITA.
But, it does work and it clears the A/c unit.

Question? How do you hook up the boost gauge? I put a Tee in the crossover pipe where the vaccum line comes off and I get nothing. I tested the gauge and it works, but no boost from the turbo. I'm sure the turbo works, I hear and feel it working....

 

[bsevans]

Back on it.....Travertine is in the sunroom.
I've also been busy engineering some parts for production, but found a few minutes to work on the a/c and the gauges.
Fabbed up a metal duct between the heater blower and the heater...big PITA.
But, it does work and it clears the A/c unit.

Question? How do you hook up the boost gauge? I put a Tee in the crossover pipe where the vaccum line comes off and I get nothing. I tested the gauge and it works, but no boost from the turbo. I'm sure the turbo works, I hear and feel it working....

I don't think your turbo is any different in function than my turbo diesel Tahoe. I tapped into the crossover inlet casting as the boost gauge input needs to be directly exposed to the turbo outlet pressure to get accurate boost readings (Teeing it off another line is like putting a resistor in the boost circuit). Install an NPT (1/8") to AN adapter (3/16" straight or 90). I would reccommend you use SS braided hose with a teflon liner to not only get accurate readings but the line is less prone to damage and will not melt like rubber hose and nylon tubing can. I did this on my turbo diesel and it works well. I ran the braided hose to a bulkhead fitting (I used a Swagelok AN to tube) on the firewall and ran nylon tubing inside the cab.

 

[rutbeer]

Doh! I just remembered why the way I hooked it up won't work when you mentioned resistor. I had to tap the vacuum switch into the system to close the loop and that's where I did it. So....that hose is actually getting vacuum instead of boost. D@mn....that's what I get for doing that at 10:30 at night after a couple brewskies. At that rate, glad I didn't burn the whole garage down....

 

[rutbeer]

interior

Here's the first iteration of the air pipe. I was going to fiberglass it.....but didn't clear the a/c unit.

Also, here's a pic of the gauges. I found that by putting the gauges in the vice and gently squeezing a flat spot in them, that they would fit right in the radio hole without any cutting. Now I just need to make a custom plate to trim it all out.

 

[rutbeer]

Blower connection

Not much happening lately....too darn busy. I did whip up this custom blower tube though. I have to change the clutch out on the a/c to a 12v and I just got stuck there for now.

 

[rutbeer]

A/C is in and working. Works VERY well. I'm amazed at how well these units push air volume....and much quieter than the factory blower for the heat.

I'm on to hooking up the heater finally and finishing this thing up.

I dropped the 40 off at the frame shop for some straightening of the front horns before dropping the PTO in. Darn previous owners rammed something and bent the front end. I didn't notice until I started working with the winch placement. Hopefully not too much that can't be fixed. Believe it or not, there is only one shop in Winston that has a decent frame machine and someone who actually knows how to work it. If I'm lucky I'll get a picture of the old school machine in action. It's basically a bunch of I-beams cast into a concrete floor with moveable hydraulic rams. Cool. Pics tomorrow?