I respectfully disagree with this, mine was fixed under warranty and the service manager candidly admitted to me at the time that Toyota had a big problem with this and that the service dept. had seen many others with the same problem. It was not an isolated incident and I have met many other FJ40 and FJ60 owners over the years that have confirmed this.
As far as power goes the original motor had plenty of good old inline six torque for rock crawling even over 12,000 ft passes and it moved along OK on the highway that is until it lost compression and started burning oil. Any amount of highway or freeway use accelerated the onset of the problem. I think the V8 swap satisfied the hot rod crowd back then plus gave a lot more reliability but the nice low end grunt of a straight six was lost in the process. If I owned one today I'd be looking to swap in a 292!
By the early 80's the FJ was gone in this country replaced by the the toyota 4x4 pick up with its more reliable little 4 banger engine.
sleeve - My understanding of the popular FJ V8 swap was due more to the engines somewhat anemic power compared to the other offerings and off-roading trends of the '80s and 90's rather than it's reliability.
By '78 your FJ40/55 woulda had a 2F of similar design but a different oiling system. Perhaps you got a bad one, the F series engines started production in '51 and were commercially available around 1954-1993, a ~40yr run hardly suggests they 'got it wrong'.
...not to mention the original F got an LC to the top of Mt. Fuji in '51 and the entire series established Toyota's early reputation for rock solid reliability around the world. [/quote]
Last edited by sleeve; 08/16/2012 9:22 PM.
