ZL1 Swap 94' Triple Locked FJ80 Full Restoration (1 Viewer)

[landera]

Welcome to the start of what will hopefully be a 2 year project (always have to have hope with this type of project). I have been chugging around in my GX470 for a while now but wanted a vehicle I could use to go on long trips with ultimate durability, comfort, and of course it has to be cool. I was stuck between the FJ80, 04-07 Sequoia, the Land Rover Discovery II, and the 80s suburban. Having owned several Toyotas I was already leaning towards the FJ80 - but what made me decide ultimately was the perfect size (unlike the suburban and sequoia boats), and I love the FJ80 aesthetic. I am hoping to keep this entire build under $60,000. We will see how it goes.

My plan is to drive this truck to Alaska from Virginia Beach, then back down the California coast and back across the U.S. once it is complete to initiate the start to its new life as my family adventure truck. This isn't going to be a rock crawler, not a mud truck, but a reliable and capable vehicle to travel around North America. I love winter trips and will be doing a lot of traveling through Canada.

I have chosen to update the 1FZ-FE to an LSA Motor (Coming out of a ZL1 or CTS-V). I don't feel like dealing with building an LS/LQ motor and finding a shop to build it, this is already going to be a pretty elaborate project and to make it a little easier I am going to purchase a totaled ZL1 or CTS-V Car and pull everything I need out of it.

I am using 2 trucks for this build. The first one is a 91 peasant edition with no motor that I am using potentially for parts - I got it for really cheap and was going to build this one first, until I came across the second truck which is a 94 with front and rear factory lockers, ABS, and Rear Disc - not to mention it doesn't have holes in the floorboard the size of a basketball like the 91.

I Will be documenting the entire build on the Landera YouTube - and explaining how I do everything as well so hopefully it can be a guide for others trying to do similar. I have already had to do hundreds of hours of research and still some answers I'm not sure of. Hopefully I will be able to answer for those trying to do in the future. Here we go!

Subscribe and Follow the Build on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUA-4Mw1t9DcPntAtp_IX8g

Here is the 94 I am Building (Factory 3X Locked, Blown Head Gasket, F*%^$$& Interior, Clean Body, Almost no Rust, 200K Miles)​

 

[landera]

Made a video showing us purchasing the 2 trucks. Learned it's best to just wait for the right spec to come along - but at least we got a parts truck out of it. We paid $2,000 for the first one, and $5,000 for the second one.

 

[landera]

After 2 months of hunting I found the donor car I'm going to use. Won it at an IAA auction and it will be here this week. I used U Ship for the shipping, they let shippers bid on your trip. Wait for one with good reviews to bid on your job. Here is a breakdown of the cost:

Car+ Auction Fees: $17,994.19
Dealer Cost (Dealer that bid on it for me): $1,000
Shipping + Insurance (9.5hr trip): $1180.50
Total: $20,174.69

 

[White Stripe]

Hope it goes well.

 

[landera]

We received the car, everything went super smooth with the delivery. I have to say Uship is a good place to find shippers, just have to sift through the crappy ones with bad reviews. The car is smoking like a M$*%&*$& but I am pretty sure it is just the oil and gas that sat in the cylinders from going in a ditch and people trying to start it at the auction yard.

 

[landera]

I wanted to make sure it at least ran before we pulled the motor and trans so we had some YouTube Mastertechs and myself patch some things up. She runs good! Will be rebuilding the transmission because we are using the 6l90e and you have to take the output shaft out to re-spline it.

 

[gummycarbs]

Will be rebuilding the transmission because we are using the 6l90e

Are you going to disable the PWM-controlled lockup in lower gears? My friend just lost the 6L80 in his Silverado thanks to that feature. I'm assuming the -90 uses the same technology.

 

[tampacruiser95]

Interesting project!

 

[landera]

Are you going to disable the PWM-controlled lockup in lower gears? My friend just lost the 6L80 in his Silverado thanks to that feature. I'm assuming the -90 uses the same technology.

I don't think so I don't know if there is a way to disable it.

 

[gummycarbs]

I don't think so I don't know if there is a way to disable it.

Here's the video that I sent to my friend when his transmission went out. I *think* that he explains the process fully:



I haven't come across a concise, written explanation. A lot of these mechanical experts aren't big on writing, but they'll sure talk your ear off in a video.

 

[landera]

Here is what we have learned so far that I wish we had known before. We will continue to update this thread with the things we learn along the way. Here is also an updated picture of the Land Cruiser at the Shop - front end is taken apart radiators are now out, after my family trip to Italy we will be putting in the LSA/6l90 to mock it up and get the mounts made. (we will need to make/relocate the trans mount because it is a longer transmission. Once we have it mocked up we will pull it back out then send the truck off for paint.

1. You will need to order a transfer case adapter to make the 6l80/6l90 bolt up to the toyota HF2A transfer case. We orderd ours through Marks. Transfer Case Adaptor - 6L80E to LandCruiser 80 / 100 Series Auto (HF2A Case) | Marks 4WD - https://www.marks4wd.com/mfp1945a.html (it also comes with motor mounts) Important to note! If you are using a 6l90e instead of the 6l80- you will need to have your transmission disassembled and send your output shaft off to be Re-splined. We are using Moser Engineering to respline our 6l90 transmission output shaft. The reason for this is Marks 4wd kit only works with a 6l80 output shaft. The 6l80 output shaft has 32 splines, the 6l90 output shaft has 29 or 36 splines. So, we are taking our 6l90 output shaft and having it resplined to be 32 splines to work with marks kit.

2. Depending on your donor LSA - it may be advantageous to get a reprogrammed/new computer. We used a 2014 cts-V as our donor engine/transmission, however we want to be able to make the factory cruise control switch work on the FZJ80 Column. We also wanted to be able to tune the transmission shift points easier (harder to do with a factory tune/computer from a 6l90). We are having our 14 CTS-V Transmission control module reflashed to be a 2008-2012 Corvette with a supercharger. With this we also got a new computer that will also be programmed as an LSA Corvette. This will eliminate any Body Control Module dependent things, and essentially the engine/trans will think its a 2010 corvette with a supercharger on it. I called Speartech to figure all of this out they are extremely knowledgeable. We ordered the wiring harness and ECU through them and they also do a base tune and reflash the TCM. Total cost I belive was around $2,300 for everything With this tune, we should be able to make the factory cruise control switch work, as well as have a transmission switch box to allow for easier tuning. You will want to have the TCM and ECM tuned after you install your LSA so the correct shift points can be set (the engine/trans thinks it is in a car still).

3. Before you put your transmission back together, put it in - if it is a 6l90e - Upgrade it to a billet converter. We have a very knowledable transmission builder we are using and this is the most common fail point on the 6l90. Not sure if there are any things that should be upgraded on the 6l80. The advantage of running the 6l80 is you won't need to disassemble the transmission to modify the output shaft, the downside is the 6l90 is a much stronger transmission.

 

[NeverFinis]

@landera
Did you get your 6l90e output shaft re-splined and shortened by Moser? I am in communication with them at the moment about re-splining my 36 spline 6l90e output shaft.

The one thing I am not sure about is having them shorten the output shaft as well. According to Marks, it needs to be 95-97mm from the face of the transmission but Moser won't have the entire transmission. I did measure how much should be removed (2.75"/~70mm), but I am not sure I trust myself. If you had yours shortened, if so, by how much?

 

[landera]

@kbellve I had them re spline it, when I got it back it wasn't very tight, so I had to have them re-spline another. Got that one back and it was perfect. I did not have them cut the end, as Marks instructions has it measured from the transmission housing I felt more comfortable doing it myself. We used an angle grinder and just cut through it then rounded the edges. I will say, it was a M$*T&% $&$&$ to side the adapter piece over the output shaft, and to then put the transfer case together with the transmission. (Big hammer used)

 

[NeverFinis]

@kbellve I had them re spline it, when I got it back it wasn't very tight, so I had to have them re-spline another. Got that one back and it was perfect. I did not have them cut the end, as Marks instructions has it measured from the transmission housing I felt more comfortable doing it myself. We used an angle grinder and just cut through it then rounded the edges. I will say, it was a M$*T&% $&$&$ to side the adapter piece over the output shaft, and to then put the transfer case together with the transmission. (Big hammer used)

Thanks for the reply. I sent mine off and I should be getting it this week.
Hopefully it will be a tight fit. I am having them trim it, but I really wasn't sure about that...probably wasn't wise. When I talked the guy at moser, he said he has done a few. He has the spud shaft.

 

[landera]

I parted out the CTS-V I used as the donor vehicle for the LSA swap - in total made back about 2-3k which is a lot lower than I expected. The car had so many damaged body panels I was hoping to sell. In total the swap cost me 19k after selling the parts from the V. I would still pick to do it this way because I was able to verify the engine/trans were good before swap.

Pulling the inline 6 was pretty cake considering we aren't using it, up next we will be making new motor mounts. I'm not sure on regular LS, but on this LSA due to clearance issues with alternator being on the bottom of the motor and hitting the brake lines/frame, I'm not sure how mounts made for LS would fit. definitely don't see it being very possible to make the existing mount points on the frame work, so we are cutting them off and welding in a custom set we are making.

 

[cruisermatt]

I am working a LSA into a FJ40. I swapped the to the C5 alternator/PS bracket. It moves everything up nice and high and has the same main drive belt offset as the CTSV, and it keeps the supercharger on it's original separate belt/pulleys. All that is available new pretty inexpensively.

Then you could use my motor mount kit.

 

[landera]

I am working a LSA into a FJ40. I swapped the to the C5 alternator/PS bracket. It moves everything up nice and high and has the same main drive belt offset as the CTSV, and it keeps the supercharger on it's original separate belt/pulleys. All that is available new pretty inexpensively.

Then you could use my motor mount kit.

Are you using a factory LSA motor or is it a LS/LQ motor you added a supercharger to? Simply - is it a factory supercharged motor from a CTS-V motor or ZL1? Apparantly the aftermarket brackets and C5 brackets only fit non-factory LSA applications, according to parts companies I called.

 

[cruisermatt]

Are you using a factory LSA motor or is it a LS/LQ motor you added a supercharger to? Simply - is it a factory supercharged motor from a CTS-V motor or ZL1? Apparantly the aftermarket brackets and C5 brackets only fit non-factory LSA applications, according to parts companies I called.

It is an actual LSA out of a ZL1 Camaro. I can post pics of it later, I have it all mocked up

 

[landera]

It is an actual LSA out of a ZL1 Camaro. I can post pics of it later, I have it all mocked up

That's awesome, I'm going to order one and see if it fixes the issue. Thanks for the info.

 

[landera]

Got the motor pulled from the Land Cruiser - now onto prepping the engine bay. Pulling the motor was really easy - especially compared to the CTS-V