FJ40 Engine Swap, Electronics & More [UPDATE 301]

What to check when using a wrecker or 'junk yard' supplied engine, an update on the BJ42/FJ40/Land Cruiser build and more in this [UPDATE]

Today at HPA we take a look at Andres classic 40 Series which is being modified to be a slightly more functional daily driver.

Wanting to modernise it a bit, but keep the look reasonably classic stock axles are being used with coilovers, disc brakes, power steering and A/C being added. While some FJ40's came with A/C and power-steering, this one didn't 😅 Tom's Offroad in Waipara did the suspension fabrication and 3UZ-FE engine mounting for us to save some time, and as we anticipated we can't fault his teams work.

Further discussed are the plans for the electronics with a MoTeC M170 and two PDM32's being used which are definitely a little overkill for this project but also something we know can be installed, setup, and forgotten about to work as intended long into the future. The CAD designed, both with cardboard and a computer via Fusion 360, petrol tank as gets an honourable mention.

From there we take a look at some quick checks you can do to make sure your wrecker supplied engine isn't a dud, along with why a compression test can be a little misleading in this instance.