Who has built the snot out of a 3FE

[Mark W]

Yup, definitely stuck my foot in my mouth on that one

This makes me sad, as I took a pass on a few 2F 60s because I was partial to the 3F.

No worries. I would have to erase a LOT of things I have said and done before I could pick at you over that. I mean after all, you did have someone telling you it was so after all.


Mark...

 

[Ocho77]

@YooperCruiser recently installed a turbo on his 3FE. There is a build thread on Mud.

 

[White Stripe]

I would drop modifying a f series engine on anything bigger than a 40 series. Your starting off with too big of a vehicle with a engine that is limited to begin with. I did bring up recently the gm 4.2 i6 motor recently as a swap possibility. They bolt up to a r150 Toyota transmission or ax15. Dual ohc and dual vvt-so very modern. They are cheap to buy, easy to turbo with the gm ecu, and handle a lot of power. A tune, porting the head and a free flowing exhaust would probably get you to 300ish hp naturally aspirated. They also make peak torque at 1800rpm and rev quite high. You would need a aftermarket oil pan though. Being a i6 it would retain a fair amount of cruiser personality.

 

[thatcabledude]

I would drop modifying a f series engine on anything bigger than a 40 series. Your starting off with too big of a vehicle with an engine that is limited to begin with. I did bring up recently the gm 4.2 i6 motor recently as a swap possibility. They bolt up to a r150 Toyota transmission or ax15. Dual ohc and dual vvt-so very modern. They are cheap to buy, easy to turbo with the gm ecu, and handle a lot of power. A tune, porting the head and a free flowing exhaust would probably get you to 300ish hp naturally aspirated. They also make peak torque at 1800rpm and rev quite high. You would need a aftermarket oil pan though. Being a i6 it would retain a fair amount of cruiser personality.

I was very close to putting an Atlas engine in my 80 when I was figuring out my swap. At the time there were no oil pan options and that was turn off for me. They’re pretty rad engines.

 

[YooperCruiser]

@YooperCruiser recently installed a turbo on his 3FE. There is a build thread on Mud.

3 years ago and it's doing great, but sorry I never made a build thread. I run 6 lbs of boost, intercooled, a boost reference FPR, and a Split Second 02 sensor enricher. I've had plans to go to Megasquirt but never followed through, it's just running so good I never felt the need. Performance is great, night and day difference. I'll never have it on a dyno because of where I live, but it feels like a V8 and I maybe gained 75 hp. It doesn't take much boost to give the 3FE a good kick in the rear end. Typically it shows 1 - 2 lbs of boost just cruising down the highway at 65, and will increase as I climb a grade without any more or very little throttle input. I'm super happy with the results, but hand fabbing the manifold, downpipe etc was a lot of work, plenty of room though.

 

[Spook50]

3 years ago and it's doing great, but sorry I never made a build thread. I run 6 lbs of boost, intercooled, a boost reference FPR, and a Split Second 02 sensor enricher. I've had plans to go to Megasquirt but never followed through, it's just running so good I never felt the need. Performance is great, night and day difference. I'll never have it on a dyno because of where I live, but it feels like a V8 and I maybe gained 75 hp. It doesn't take much boost to give the 3FE a good kick in the rear end. Typically it shows 1 - 2 lbs of boost just cruising down the highway at 65, and will increase as I climb a grade without any more or very little throttle input. I'm super happy with the results, but hand fabbing the manifold, downpipe etc was a lot of work, plenty of room though.


View attachment 3599232
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I wish I could heart and "wow" this at the same time, because, to quote a great man.....

 

[toy_tek]

3 years ago and it's doing great, but sorry I never made a build thread. I run 6 lbs of boost, intercooled, a boost reference FPR, and a Split Second 02 sensor enricher. I've had plans to go to Megasquirt but never followed through, it's just running so good I never felt the need. Performance is great, night and day difference. I'll never have it on a dyno because of where I live, but it feels like a V8 and I maybe gained 75 hp. It doesn't take much boost to give the 3FE a good kick in the rear end. Typically it shows 1 - 2 lbs of boost just cruising down the highway at 65, and will increase as I climb a grade without any more or very little throttle input. I'm super happy with the results, but hand fabbing the manifold, downpipe etc was a lot of work, plenty of room though.


View attachment 3599232

Would love to see details on this.

Are you running a stock radiator? What sort of water temps do you have? My stock 3FE runs pretty hot (evidently others experience this as well) so it’s hard to imagine a turbo tacked on without overheating issues. Especially here in the desert summers.

 

[AirFuelRatioMan]

3 years ago and it's doing great, but sorry I never made a build thread. I run 6 lbs of boost, intercooled, a boost reference FPR, and a Split Second 02 sensor enricher. I've had plans to go to Megasquirt but never followed through, it's just running so good I never felt the need. Performance is great, night and day difference. I'll never have it on a dyno because of where I live, but it feels like a V8 and I maybe gained 75 hp. It doesn't take much boost to give the 3FE a good kick in the rear end. Typically it shows 1 - 2 lbs of boost just cruising down the highway at 65, and will increase as I climb a grade without any more or very little throttle input. I'm super happy with the results, but hand fabbing the manifold, downpipe etc was a lot of work, plenty of room though.

At what boost level would you be compelled to gap the rings? I've looked for this type of info but come up short. Basically .007 for every inch of piston width for boost, but that covers LARGE amounts of boost, and nobody really says if it's necessary to gap when running 3, 4, 6 psi.

 

[White Stripe]

At what boost level would you be compelled to gap the rings? I've looked for this type of info but come up short. Basically .007 for every inch of piston width for boost, but that covers LARGE amounts of boost, and nobody really says if it's necessary to gap when running 3, 4, 6 psi.

I would say beyond 7 to 10 ish psi it's time to gap them.

 

[YooperCruiser]

Would love to see details on this.

Are you running a stock radiator? What sort of water temps do you have? My stock 3FE runs pretty hot (evidently others experience this as well) so it’s hard to imagine a turbo tacked on without overheating issues. Especially here in the desert summers.

Stock radiator and running normal temps, never saw any increase in engine temp. I do live in a cool climate though. My first iteration was without an intercooler and under hood temps and IAT's got pretty high so I added the intercooler and that really brought it back down.
I'd say if you're already running on the high side a turbo is not going to help.

 

[buoytech]

I built a 2FE that is close to what has been suggested. I got all of the parts (3FE head, ECU, misc bits) from https://forum.ih8mud.com/members/trail-tailor.66052/ . I also got 0.30" pistons and had the head skimmed and ported/polished. I had a local Landcruiser mechanic do the conversion. It has been an amazing transformation. I can now got up hills without having to downshift. The best part is I get a steady 16-18 MPG. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I really need to get it dyno'd at some point to to see the horsepower increase.

 

[cruisermatt]

2F I took apart this morning and made me think of this thread.

 

[cruiserinsanity]

I built a 2FE that is close to what has been suggested. I got all of the parts (3FE head, ECU, misc bits) from https://forum.ih8mud.com/members/trail-tailor.66052/ . I also got 0.30" pistons and had the head skimmed and ported/polished. I had a local Landcruiser mechanic do the conversion. It has been an amazing transformation. I can now got up hills without having to downshift. The best part is I get a steady 16-18 MPG. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I really need to get it dyno'd at some point to to see the horsepower increase.

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Do you have to run 93 to prevent pinging?

 

[Spook50]

2F I took apart this morning and made me think of this thread.

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I'm not totally sure, but I think that might not be exactly serviceable....

So what was the story with the engine? Normal operation and lack of maintenance, performance build gone wrong, etc?

 

[buoytech]

Do you have to run 93 to prevent pinging?

I do just because it gives me better fuel mileage but the times when I don't, I don't get any knocking.