There is a Defender-wide infatuation with horsepower in the US, it seems. Not sure where this comes from, but the entire builder-landscape - at least from those with US operations - keep insisting on those. No doubt, it’s by necessity as there just are almost no old Defenders with gasoline V8s left to source. So what’s left are smaller Diesel engines which are not a huge draw amongst the US clientele. So the only thing for US based Land Rover builders to do is to drop a different engine in. Hence the LS3 craze. But hey, we do it too and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!
But there are more choices in life, especially for our non-Defender builds. The LS3s are great and really solid engines, but it’s frankly not the right engine for every application. In some situation it’s just too much of a good thing! brute force is not always the answer.
For our Land Cruiser builds we typically go with the venerable 6-cylinder 4.2L 2F gasoline engine. It’s rocked on for over 40 years and is no speed demon, but come on, are we building FJ40s to drag race? That said, just a bit more power can be welcome to keep up with on-road driving of today — and very much so if you start off with a B-type diesel-powered BJ40, which only had about 80 hp.
For those applications we recommend going with a GM 350-ci small block V8 which in it’s basic form gets close to 200 hp and fits nicely in the FJ40 compartment. Alternatively, to stay with the Toyota make, go with a more modern Toyota turbo diesel, like a 1HD-T sourced from a 80-series Land Cruiser from the mid-90s. Gives you about 165hp and plenty of torque. This is probably the sweet-spot for a 40-series Land Cruiser, just enough grunt to get you to highway cruising and off-road power to get through virtually any terrain. Just leave the LS3 off for the Land Cruisers.