@matzell & BBRC crew:
Initially was just going to DM this to you Rob, but thought this might be an interesting conversation for a BBRC thread.
Wanted to see if folks would share some thoughts with me on this FZJ80 -- understanding of course you all very likely haven't actually seen this truck.
Has 299k miles on the odometer, but the engine is a swapped out 1FZFE from a LX450. PO says that his dad did that about 16 years ago, but didn't know the specifics. I think pretty safe to say though, it's a very high mileage engine. There's for sure a new radiator and seems relatively well maintained for its age. Body's pretty clean and frame and underbody seem to be in decent shape. My thought it was a good starting point and with some TLC, I could breathe some new life into it for its 300k mile era.
I initially went out to Wintergreen last week and test drove with the guy - maybe 10 miles or so. He has just been using it he says to haul trash to the dump and take his canoe around. Obvious really low compression / power on our little test drive, but it sounded okay and transmission felt good. So while I didn't know exactly what I was looking at under the hood, I knew I was getting a project and for $6k that seemed fine to me.
I probably should have babied it a whole lot more driving back to RVA and taken it home real slow on 250, but I just drove it pretty normally around 60mph down 64. Coming in around Gaskins, a pretty loud rod knock started. I got off the highway and to my driveway and here we are.
As with all LC projects, the sky seems to be the limit on truly excellent engine re-builds, exotic swaps, super-charging, etc. It also seems like you can pretty economically find salvage engines as donors and drop them in.
Do you think its even worth trying to deconstruct this 1FZFE and diagnose what's going wrong? Or should I just try and source a decent donor?
Rob - would you all be able to help and do the swap @ Willow Lawn?
I guess the other important thing here is that my goal here is to have some fun / learn fixing and cleaning up the truck up into a nicer looking reasonably reliable daily driver and back-up to the eurodiesel (when the eurodiesel isn't the back-up to this guy) --- not looking to push the limits on mods or performance or offroading (which is leading me toward the salvage donor thought). In my dream world / next house, I'd have a garage and space to pull the engine out and do some real learning about rebuilds, but I'm stuck with a gravel driveway and small basement for now.
Initially was just going to DM this to you Rob, but thought this might be an interesting conversation for a BBRC thread.
Wanted to see if folks would share some thoughts with me on this FZJ80 -- understanding of course you all very likely haven't actually seen this truck.
Has 299k miles on the odometer, but the engine is a swapped out 1FZFE from a LX450. PO says that his dad did that about 16 years ago, but didn't know the specifics. I think pretty safe to say though, it's a very high mileage engine. There's for sure a new radiator and seems relatively well maintained for its age. Body's pretty clean and frame and underbody seem to be in decent shape. My thought it was a good starting point and with some TLC, I could breathe some new life into it for its 300k mile era.
I initially went out to Wintergreen last week and test drove with the guy - maybe 10 miles or so. He has just been using it he says to haul trash to the dump and take his canoe around. Obvious really low compression / power on our little test drive, but it sounded okay and transmission felt good. So while I didn't know exactly what I was looking at under the hood, I knew I was getting a project and for $6k that seemed fine to me.
I probably should have babied it a whole lot more driving back to RVA and taken it home real slow on 250, but I just drove it pretty normally around 60mph down 64. Coming in around Gaskins, a pretty loud rod knock started. I got off the highway and to my driveway and here we are.
As with all LC projects, the sky seems to be the limit on truly excellent engine re-builds, exotic swaps, super-charging, etc. It also seems like you can pretty economically find salvage engines as donors and drop them in.
Do you think its even worth trying to deconstruct this 1FZFE and diagnose what's going wrong? Or should I just try and source a decent donor?
Rob - would you all be able to help and do the swap @ Willow Lawn?
I guess the other important thing here is that my goal here is to have some fun / learn fixing and cleaning up the truck up into a nicer looking reasonably reliable daily driver and back-up to the eurodiesel (when the eurodiesel isn't the back-up to this guy) --- not looking to push the limits on mods or performance or offroading (which is leading me toward the salvage donor thought). In my dream world / next house, I'd have a garage and space to pull the engine out and do some real learning about rebuilds, but I'm stuck with a gravel driveway and small basement for now.
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I just happen to have a nice engine with a fresh head gasket and top end overhauled from a wrecked 80 I bought, but the 341k engine in my 96 seems to run really good and I decided to reseal it and drive it. Ideally I would swap in the LS 5.3/ 6L80 combo I have if it ever blew up. With that said, I may have a good engine to swap into yours. I would have to think about the swap at WLSC. It is a big multi day job. I swapped one at my house and it was a lot easier and I have more room there and a gantry crane. I pulled the whole drivetrain complete. And I would still have to pull the engine from the parts truck. I am not afraid of overall mileage on a vehicle, shoot I have one with 296k and the 96 has 341k on it.
