The Product of a Whole Lot of Thought

As you can imagine, there has been a ton of research that has gone into the parts that are going into this Land Cruiser.  I've slipped up a couple times along the way and ordered incorrect stuff but, for the most part, everything is going in just fine.  One place I may have erred (though this is debatable) is with my selection of cam and lifters.  Apparently, the Comp Magnum Cam I got requires a bit of modification to the heads of the 400 small block engine.  Larry sent the heads off to a machine shop up in Brunswick and they came back with a bill for $380.

Crud.

$380 might not seem like a ton of money for engine work but, after tallying up the total cost of the project, every little bit of unanticipated expense is a kick in the hooha.  Anyway, as with any project, a few extra costs are part of the process.

I've also done a lot of research into the tire/wheel setup for the FJ.  Previously I had 37" IROK bias ply tires on the '76.  They were great but they did pull a lot and the super soft compound caused them to wear out early.  On my 2007 FJ Cruiser, I had 35x12.50x18 ProComp mud terrains.  They lasted forever and had really impressive traction off road.  Unfortunately, they don't make them in sizes larger than 35" for a 15" rim.  I ordered a set of 37" Toyo mud terrains but, as fate would have it, Mother Nature didn't want me to have that tall of a tire so she put major delays in Toyo's distribution system with an earthquake and a tsunami.  I thought that was pretty excessive but the message was not lost on me.

I went with the original suspension shackles from the '72 instead of the 2.5" extended shackles on the '76 I had rolled.  In doing so, I lowered the stance a bit which allows a smaller tire to fill the wheel well.  I made a trip to 4 Wheel Parts in Jacksonville and opted to get the ProComp mud terrains again.  I had them mounted and balanced on a ProComp series 152 steel wheel.  The result is a tire/wheel combo that weighs in somewhere around a gajillion pounds.  As a reference, they're much lighter than the old 37" tire combo I ran.

Finding the right wheel was a trick in and of itself in that the stock Land Cruiser rim was a 15x8 wheel with 6x5.5 bolt pattern.  They had a large center bore and a 3.5" offset.  The ProComps I went with are 15x10 inch wheels with a 3.75" offset.  They barely clear the tie rod on the '72 but had a little more clearance on the '76 with the disc brake set up.  I've learned that I definitely would not go with more than a 3.75" offset with the stock steering components.  Anyway, here's a picture of the wheels and tires along with a bunch of the other junk in my garage.

If you see anything in the background you might want, chances are pretty good it's for sale!

That's it for the build for now.  As a side note, I read an article in the latest issue of Off-Road Adventures yesterday about an event to help Gulches Off Road park in Laurens, SC.  The recession has hit the off road industry pretty hard and the folks at Gulches are no different.  Skip Wilkenson and his wife own the park and they are really great people.  Whether you've got an extreme rock-crawler, bogger, or a stock pickup or jeep, the park is top notch and has every level of difficulty available.  If you have the opportunity to visit Gulches, please make the trip.  I've even got a video on youtube from my trip there in my 2007 FJ Cruiser.  That's Skip you see spotting me.