Builds Yeti my 80 series 2fe build (2 Viewers)

[landcruiser80]

Oh, and for the ARP bolts the Supra bolts (PN 203-6004) have been used. But yes, the heads have to be ground down a little. I am just not sure I need that insurance. I know the stock bolts are sometimes considered weak, but I am not going to be pushing this to a point where that will be a concern. I think the stock bolts will be OK for my DD and light wheeling purposes.

 

[RockDoc]

Did you bolt the pan up with no gasket, and then rotate the crank to scratch where to grind?

That's exactly how I did it. You should hear it tap as you rotate to identity which rod or rods hit, then hopefully there's a bit of a mark to show exactly where to clearance.

 

[landcruiser80]

Plan to do a bunch of work this weekend so more updates will be coming soon.

I just thought I would post up some mid project financial info. I budgeted $3000 CAD for this swap, with and additional $1500 reserve... As of right now, after buying Toyota gaskets/cam gear/water pump, machine work, cam grinding, bearings/piston rings, and random odds and ends I have spent $2,200.

I haven't done too badly but I still need to buy the parts to make my own body lift, paint, oil/coolant/blinkerfluid etc, front axle rebuild, battery, and maybe an OBA setup. So it looks like I may actually stick to my original budget. Which is pretty awesome considering I am doing this swap as part of my base-lining.

 

[Godwin]

Well, when I picked them up I asked if they were good. He kinda chuckled and showed me the rods. He had to take material off of four of them, but he added weight to two by including washers for the rod bolts. I am glad that I was right, but I question the whole washer thing? He explained that he would have had to remove too much material from the other rods. Here is a picture, I know @RockDoc that you did your own balancing. With your experience would you say this is acceptable? View attachment 1214483

I also am thinking about upgrading to ARP rod bolts.

My non-expert opinion on the washers added to the rod bolts is that I don't think it's a good method for adding weight for balancing. My concern would be that this is using a non-OEM part, the washer, in a critical area and if that nut loosens due to the addition of the washer you'll potentially be facing some serious engine damage.

 

[landcruiser80]

I agree with you. I don't think I will be using the washers. I am going to weigh them though and just to see how much of an imbalance I will have. If it is too much for my taste I will have the rods balanced again.

 

[landcruiser80]

Ok, I showed the rods to a friend who knows a lot about this kind of thing and he said the washers were totally unacceptable. He explained that being soft washers they would compress and thus, as Godwin said, the rod bolts would loosen. I also noticed upon further inspection of the rods that he ground perpendicular to the beams, leaving scratches much like the pictures of RockDoc's rods before Trollhole told him to fix them.
I am going to see if I can't get my $$$ back and have the whole thing dynamically balanced properly, by someone else.

Unfortunately this hampers the progress I was hoping to make this weekend. I did get the 3fe block completely stripped apart though. It would be pretty awesome to make a coffee table out of it. I am thinking have the crank, pistons, rods, camshaft, lifters, and pushrods installed into block with a small motor hooked up to demonstrate the inner workings of an engine. Would be a neat conversation piece anyway.

 

[landcruiser80]

I just picked up an FJ62 flexplate and hardware courtesy of @RockDoc, Thanks Curtis!

 

[tlin]

Keep it up - progress progress progress!

What's your target completion date? Sounds like you're coming in on-budget (never easy), curious when you'll get to the fun part and butt-dyno this beauty.

 

[landcruiser80]

I am hoping to have it driving around by the end of April. Getting excited!

 

[landcruiser80]

Hey, @RockDoc. What oil pan gasket did you use with your 3fe oil pan. 2f or 3fe?

I have a 3fe oil pan gasket and it sits on the block well, but it does not seem to fit nicely on the 3fe oil pan??? I have only tried fitting it on the pan loosely though, might get better once I tighten the bolts.

 

[RockDoc]

I'm not 100% sure what's on it now, but I found out afterwards that the other option was better. (from beno IIRC) I have a 12151-61011 oil pan gasket on the shelf that I'm pretty sure I picked up after that so I would have the "proper" one if I felt like changing it out.

 

[landcruiser80]

That is the gasket (12151-61011) that I have.

 

[landcruiser80]

Lots happening lately I will post an update after the weekend is over. Here is a teaser video though,

 

[RockDoc]

Any tap tap tap on the oil pan?

 

[landcruiser80]

I actually had to grind the pan in three spots, was a bit worried that I would go through but it seems fine with the gasket on. I also had to modify one side of the oil pump bracket. More on that later.

 

[landcruiser80]

Alright. As promised here is my update. I had been away in Mexico for a bit but after I got back I was able to get some time in. I took the pistons, rods, and crankshaft to a performance shop near me to check the balance. They spun the crank up and it was in good balance, the pistons were also good. They did have to do a bit of work on the rods though, they were about 16 grams out. Hindsight is 20/20, if I were to do it again I would buy myself a good quality scale, check the pistons, and balance the rods myself like RockDoc did. I don't think it would be too hard. Also, I know I said I wasn't going to but I ended up using the ARP rod bolts. The main reason is because I have this crazy idea in the back of my mind about maybe wanting to mildly turbo this thing in the future. So I did it as insurance, and hey, it can't hurt. I modified the head of the bolts myself. Here is the high tech jig I made for grinding the bolts with a belt sander,

I figured out what geometry I needed and ground down to that. I also made sure I took the exact same amount of material off of each bolt by checking the weight after grinding. After I had them all ground I tested them in the block and they all clear the camshaft nicely.

My first step was to clean the block and head really well. I cleaned the oil galleys and coolant passages, thread chased all the holes, chamfered the head bolt holes in the block, and installed the core plugs.

I then got the crank bolted in, the pistons and rods assembled, rings on, and bolted the rods to the crank. The ring and bearing clearances were all in spec. Bolted on the timing plate with the torx screws, pressed the brand new oem cam gear on the reground camshaft and installed it. Those clearances were all good as well. I then installed the oil pump but discovered that the crankshaft was hitting part of the bracket that supports the 3fe oil pickup tube. Also after bolting the oil pump in I double checked that the distributor slid in and out nicely.

I ground off the tab on each side and now the crank turns with plenty of room.

I then messed around with the oil pan for a bit. The rod bolts were hitting in three spots with the pan bolted up with no gasket. The rods were still touching a bit even after grinding the pan as much as I was comfortable. After inspecting the situation I noticed that each nut that was hitting had the tip of the hex pointing at the pan. So I turned those a bit so the flats of the nut were facing the pan and voila! No more tapping. Double checked after the pan was bolted up with the gasket and it seems good. Tapped and plugged the oil galley in the head, bolted it on and torqued to spec, lifters, push-rods, and rocker assembly installed, pushrod cover, timing cover, and crank pulley installed. Started working on mounting the accessories. I also bought some uhmw rod to make a body lift out of.

My next step is to get some hardware to bolt the new oem water pump on with (my 2f didn't come with one) and then secure the ac and alternator brackets on properly. I am still figuring it out but since I have the earlier block without the two convenient holes I will do something very similar to what RockDoc has going on. I will also give the whole thing a couple coats of paint, I decided on all silver. I bought new coolant hoses and battery cables so I will get those done while the engine bay is still clear. The body lift will also go on soon.

It's amazing what I have learned in the past months. A year ago I didn't know what a crankshaft was. Here is how it sits right now,

 

[landcruiser80]

I got some bolts for the water pump and figured out the accessory mounting stuff today. It is going to be stupid easy.

I was reading the 2fe write-up Tonkota wrote for Toyota trails and he had to move the AC bracket about 2" out from the engine to clear the snout on the water pump where the rad hose comes in. I was fully prepared to do this but guess what? The fj80 3fe AC bracket must be slightly different or something because with the AC bracket bolted to the motor mount there are no problems with the water pump clearance.

The only thing I will have to do is to make two almost flat brackets (basic shape outlined in yellow in the photo) to extend the top of the AC mount to the PS mount. No welding. Just cut out two rectangles, drill two holes in them, and put a slight bend in them.

Clearances for the rad hose are tight but it fits well. I basically used the stock 3fe lower rad hose setup but I had to get a longer hose that comes from the water pump to the pipe. In RockDoc's thread he ran the line from the 3fe thermostat (the one that used to go to the 3fe water pump, but the 2f water pump doesn't have a port for it) and tee'd it into the lower rad hose so there would still be coolant flowing through the block and head with the thermostat closed. Instead of closing off that port I am going to run the line and T it into the heater return line.

I also discovered that if you use a coolant hose with a 90* bend in it for the oil cooler it can come out of the port on the 2f water pump and go right to the oil cooler. On the 3fe water pump the port is on the right side (when facing the engine) and the hose comes out of the port, to a hard line that goes underneath the crank pulley, and then to the oil cooler.

I also ground a bit of the webbing off of the idler pulley bracket so it can bolt to the water pump now.

If a person were to use a later 2f block with the holes for the alternator bracket and no AC then they wouldn't have to make any brackets, just bolt the PS to the head, alternator to the block, grind a bit off of the idler pulley bracket and be done. Even with the AC it is really easy.

View attachment 1236711

 

[RockDoc]

Awesome progress!!

 

[landcruiser80]

Body lift is in!

If you don't count all of the time I spent wrestling with rusty hardware then it was easy peasy. It was nice working in an empty engine bay for the front bolts and I don't have to worry about radiator positioning yet. I also have all of the accessory brackets made up. Checking things off of my list.

 

[landcruiser80]

Last weekend was family weekend but I managed to get some stuff done this past week. I got all the accessories cleaned, the engine painted with por 15 then top coated with silver paint, new heavy duty battery cables made, new 10k fluid in the fan clutch, new transmission input seal (90311-42010) installed, engine mounts/oil cooler/trans adapter/flywheel etc etc bolted on to the engine, valve lash set, and more. Sorry for the bad photo's,

I was hoping to be able to drop the engine in place tomorrow but I managed to do this, grrrrr

I don't know if this is something that can be fixed (I would think so?) or if I have to find a new torque converter. It is annoying because I was making good progress. Oh well.