Yet another LS thread (1 Viewer)

[Buhbunkle]

I know, i know... there is tons of info in the search bar and I have poured over a ton of it.

Thanks to some covid based promotions I have a glut of time and money on my hands and I am feeling ready to drop some more money into my FJ. I am tempted by an LS swap but I have some questions and concerns I wanted to bounce of the FJ60 experts. As of right now my truck is set up as follows. I bought it used so some of the mods I have been reverse engineering to figure out

8-85 FJ60:
3 Inch lift with shackle reversal
High steer kit
Rear ARB air locker
4.88 diffs
35" AT2's (on last legs)
4:1 T case
H55F swap
2F engine (233k)
- Smog system in place
- Needs valve adjustment and potentially more to pass smog again
- Ac system is non functional to some degree, not sure how bad as the AC belt is gone
- Runs, but has certainly seen better days

Other than that the truck is overall in okay shape. Some wheel well rust, the interior needs work, but the frame is solid and lots of the chassis is good to go.

I currently live in CA but will be moving home to mass this winter and I am hoping to get this truck up to the condition that I can sell my daily driver. I wheel this thing and plan to continue to offroad back home, but I also need to be able to pack up for trips in it. I am very torn on whether or not I should take the time now to drop a 5.3 in the truck. I have access to a shop while I am in CA that has a chain hoist, and a guy who knows a lot about cars. These are things that I wont really have in MA. As I try to weight the pros and cons I have a few questions I haven't been able to find clear answers for and I wanted to check with you good folks.

1. Sourcing Engines. Since I will be using the Marks/AA kit to mount to an H55f I do not need a transimssion which keeps things cheap. It seems most folks get their engines out of junkyards and I was wondering what the most miles you would accept on a donor engine, 100k? 150k?

2. Engine height/oil pan clearance. It seems most installs mount the engine higher than a 2f would be to clear the diff/oil pan. Is this always the case? Does it cause driveline issues to install the engine like this?

3. Wiring harness. It seems like Howley is the way to go with these, do I still need to make sure the engine I get has a wiring harness already? If the engine has a fully set up harness (like a prepackaged tilden crate motor) do I need a Howley harness?



Lastly, if any of you went the route of modding a 2F for more power and driveablitly (Holley Sniper, new cams, headers, ect) and also have driven or swapped into a 5.3 I would love to hear your input on the difference. I know I can save a lot of money and headache if I were to just desmog, go to efi, and hop up the 2f but I am concerned it wont feel like enough. I will need to get this car to MA somehow and I would rather not ship it, so reliability is on my mind as well




Thanks,

Wes

 

[OSS]

Here's an answer you absolutely don't want to hear: Sell the 60 and buy a more modern land cruiser (80, 100) that has the engine you want. Used 200s are still expensive.
EFI will pep up a 2F, but it'll still be a 2F

 

[tmxmotorsports]

Does mass have smog and can you make it pass smog if need be is the first question you need to figure out.
Tommy

 

[tmxmotorsports]

And what is cheap? Cheap and landcruiser in the same sentence is not cheap

 

[Buhbunkle]

Mass has a safety inspection but smog exemptions for vehicles older than a certain year which my 60 passes by a whole teenager.

As far as cheap, I can put about $9k into things right now. Nothing is very cheap with these trucks which I have learned pretty well, but I am very attached to my truck (arent we all).

I know in my head that I would be happier in an 80 but I cant quit on this vehicle. That will cost me a lot of money and probably anguish, but I just have a soft spot for 60's

 

[tmxmotorsports]

4.88 gear will be to much on highway budget in a gear change or look for someone needing gears. Lots of ways to do the harness and if the engine you get doesn't have one no big deal just money do go cheap some are barebones engine placement is dependent on transmission intake to hood clearance and a few other things oil pan needs to be swapped out can't use truck manifolds do smoe more research almost all the info is on here but don't expect someone to hold your hand the whole way.
Tommy

 

[cruisermatt]

ok so I ran the calculator on 4.88 gears, H55f, 35’s, and the 10% underdrive from the 4:1 gears, and it puts you at 52mph at 2300 rpm. Any more RPM then that on the highway and you're negating the mileage gain you'd get from the motor swap. And 52mph is super slow. So if you're going to swap (which I'd highly recoomend, it sound like it would match your needs perfectly), I'd throw a set of 3.70 diffs from a stock 60 in at the same time, which will put you at 70mpg at 2300 rpms. You'll have enough low range with the H55f and 4:1 gears anyways. The LS doesn't need the gearing like the 2F does.

As for clearance you won't have any issues with the setup you have. Especially if you do the $200 "Muscle Car" oil pan kit

When you say Howley, do you mean Howell or Holley? There's tons of companies that make aftermarket LS harnesses, Howell, PSI, LSX specialties, Speartech, you can't really go wrong with any of them. Holley makes aftermarket ECU setup called a Terminator X that you should look into, and it includes a harness.

As for mileage nothing would scare me if you can hear it run beforehand. Just pull a valve cover off and make sure its not a complete sludge monster if it has more then 250k.

To close if you have $9k to spend then you have about $6k more then you need to do a perfectly reliable, clean, nice setup. Check out my build thread I have similar uses to you and I have put a ton of miles on my conversion, I am in it about $2700-3k for the 5.3 conversion and I way overspent on my engine.
Of course if your're dropping it off at a shop to have it done then the budget discussion changes completely.

 

[Buhbunkle]

@cruisermatt thanks for the info! I am gonna look into the oil pan options.

For the record I meant Howell