1978 Toyota Land Cruiser

V8-350

Manual 4 speed Toyota

FJ40 275517

I don't know much about these vehicles, but I have seen on here that they sell pretty high. I worked at a steel mill that closed a few months ago, and bought this FJ off of the local hot rodder, mudder mechanic that I worked with at the mill. He was moving out of state to another job, and needed to sell some of his toys. The 350 that is in it came from a 1978 Chevy van, it is a 4 bolt main, another guy at work drove the van to work everyday, and it was bought to put in the FJ, beacuse of its type and it ran well, and was rebuilt about 20,000 miles ago. The motor is in it, but not wired up yet, the starter, altinator is wired, and neatly coiled up, and doesn't look like it would be too hard to hook up. He said I would need 12 volts to the distributer, and wire up the battery from the starter and altinator. He installed a downey bellhousing adapter to the toyota 4 speed and adapted it to the 350. It has the 1978 heavier rear ends, and transmission and transfer case. He said he got this thing out of a junk yard, and that it was kept inside a garage and used by the workers to drive around in the junk yard, it had the origonal 6 cylinder, and the tub mounts were not rusted away and the body was really solid, except for a little cancer above the rear bumper and a small hole under the gas tank, which I patched with fiber glass and sanded the body and painted with 2 gallons of the durabak light blue bed liner paint. The leaf springs were put on top of the rear ends. It has power steering adapted to it from a Jeep Cheroke. The tires are in really good shape they are gumbo monster mudders 17-40-15's, I don't know what brand of wheels they are, big wide aluminum. There is no title, It was going to be a weekend off road machine for me and the kids, you might be able to order a title through one of those collector title people. I bought this thing because I trusted the man and knew the motor that was installed. The things that he told me that it needed are: wired up and battery, brakes, ball joints, that the radiator leaks, needs a peice of sheet metal cut to cover the transmission shifter, and that the oil pan leaks. I tried fixing the brakes, found a broken front line and replaced it, bled the brakes, got them to pump up but will not stay hard, looks like it needs a master cylinder. I put some water in the radiator and it does leak out of a small hole in the back center section, so probably needs taken to the shop to be boiled out and repaired. I installed a new oil pan gasket and changed the oil and filter. Didn't attept the wiring beacuse not to sure on how to do it. The thing has set in my garage since fall, I'm just tired of spending money on this and other projects, I just have to many irons in the fire, and too many toys. The wife and kids want to go on vacation, so I'm going to have to sell a few things. It looks really mean and solid, I paid $3,000, and want to get my money back out of it, if you are looking for a off road truck project this would be worth your time, I think the tires cost nearly $600 each new. If you are mechanically inclined and wanted a cool woods ride this is for you.