The engine chosen is the Toyota/Lexus quad-cam 4.0L V8.
It is commonly found in Soarers (or SC400's).
It is all alloy and puts out between 180kW - 200kW depending on what year the engine is.
The engine features a forged steel crank, six-bolt mains, plus a webbed and cross-bolted block. This is working with the quad-overhead cams with 4 valves per cylinder.
The 1UZ is said to have one of the strongest bottem ends out of any mass produced engine ever.

I decided on this engine for a couple of reasons, the main one....it was something different that as far as i knew, had never been done before. Already owning a VN Commodore i didn't really want ANOTHER 3.8L V6 (as good as they are!) and when it compares to 5.0L or 5.7L Holden V8 it really is a much better engine...being much more refined and smooth as well as having PLENTY of potential. :)

After searching for an engine for almost two months, one was finally purchased in the form of a Toyota Crown half-cut.
This is basically a car that has been chopped in half with everthing under the bonnet untouched. This means it comes with a gearbox, as well as the wiring loom, as well as a whole lotta pointless stuff you don't need!

The half-cut was picked up late February and has since been stripped of pretty much everything that is not part of the engine/gearbox/loom.

April 2003 ~
okay, it is almost the end of April, time for another update!
this is what the FJ looks like at the moment, been like this for a while... have gotten a full chassis kit from the Rod Shop and a HR-front-end that are both waiting to be put in.

so yep, that is what the FJ is looking like, not much at all been happening to it, all work has been focused on the engine/trans for now.
like a said before, i've gotten a heap of stuff from the Rod Shop, full chassis kit, engine mounts, transmission tunnel, got a HR front-end modified, and got a steering rack.

So once we get the engine/tranny ready we can get the FJ ready to hopefully pop the engine straight in!

Still got a few things to look into:
* the actual steering (LH Torana etc) that we're going to use
* what brakes we're gonna put on front AND back
* fuel system
* diff

so hopefully the engine will fit in with no probs so we can move onto these!

most of the wiring is disconnected from the engine/gearbox, so they are almost ready to pull out! :)

the next steps are to get the engine/tranny out of the half-cut, clean them up, take off anything that isn't needed (like power steering..that's just extra weight!), get the FJ ready by putting in everything i mentioned above, and hopefully looking into the loom a little more. stay tuned!

now we can start to get the FJ ready as well as cleaning up the engine itself.
no more updates for a little bit now as getting the J ready may take a while...the next update will probably be when the engine is ready to see that it fits...let's hope so!

as you can see the engine doesn't look very wide at the bottom at all now since we've taken off the power steering, A/C, and alternator.
we will be moving the alternator up to the top-left where the power-steering pump used to be as i don't think it fits down the bottom.

there is a pic of what we have gotten the loom down to at the bottom. getting there.

as you can see it is looking a LOT neater than how it was in the pic above when it was still in the half-cut!

February 2004 ~
finally an update on what's happening!
the car and engine/gearbox were taken to the RodShop and everything was put in place. chassis kit, front-end, steering, and shifter are all in place now.

as you can see from the pics a fair bit of the firewall had to be redone for the engine to sit so low and to give enough clearance for a big radiator.

the stock auto that came with the half-cut is in place with it's original shifter and ready to go once a trans cooler is hooked up.

also, for the engine to fit it needed to have a custom sump made. you can see the RodShop sump in the bottom right picture. very neat. also the steering had to be converted to rear mount in order for the steering to have clearance.

the engine was fitted in still with the original exhaust manifolds as this will save a few $$$ for now. :-)

then the next major steps will be the diff and tailshaft, brakes and brake system, and a radiator.
we've also got to pull the engine out now to paint and anti-rust the whole car.

March 2006 ~
Wow been a while since something has happened. Project was stalled due to more important commitments but is back in business again now.
Car is fully wired up and running. Fuel tank is in, 3-speed wipers are in, guages are in, and all are working.
Next on the list are bucket seats for the front, new rubber kit, brake booster to mounted and setup, and more and more painting and organising of the interior.

Check out the small video at the bottom of this table to see the engine being given a tiny tiny rev. Still running off nothing but headers so sounds very chunky, but is as smooth as still.