novice cruiser and mechanic (that's me), purchased a cheap 1970 FJ40 that is pretty stock, f engine, no lift, shotty brakes, non working lights, etc. well i hv fixed most of the probs and i took it to the shop to get the carb adjusted. hoping that when that was complete, i was golden. well the mech said the distributor needed rebuilding and so he did both the carb and distributor. adjusted same, but was unable to test drive it as the brakes sprung a leak and no replacement parts were available. towed it back home and re-did the brakes. he did mention that the back to cylinders were being fouled with oil and he put some stop leak in there. i test drove it after completing the brakes and drives ok, but lack of power and seems to be running a lil rich. lil bit of black smoke out the tail pipe & sputters at times. well i took it back to the shop and he said 'its not going to drive perfect, only has 80 compression in the rear 2 cylinders.' he said he was going to test drive it and see if he could adjust it to run better.

my question is....what are my options now ? (be nice)
not looking to put very much money in this rig. is the engine in need of replacement immediately ? will the lil F run any better than it is now ? any cheap lasting solutions ? kinda depressed about the whole deal as i spent alot of man hours on this rig. any advice insight would be most appreciated. thanks as always.

haha....ive been runnin mine with less than 40 compression in 1-3 pistons, and less than 110 in the rear 3. i just recently drove it back from the rubicon in 1st gear on the freeway....and decided thats enough! but if it still does ok on the freeway...id be fine! thats what kills ME is the driving it on the freeway. stoplight to stoplight - IM OVER IT!. on the trail - it gets it fine! even in snow! but...im not over the 1st gear driving on the freeway at 1am! very not over that!:flipoff2: :rasta:

I guess some of that depends on wehre you are. On the west coast, getting drivetrains can be a little expensive. On the east coast, it is not uncommon to find a junk plow rig with 30 or 40K original on it for $500.
I paid $300 for the last engine I put in my 40, and it had 38K on it.
Putting an engine (a stock engine that is) is not that hard, lots of room. The pre-smog ones are really easy.
You may be able to find someone who is swapping out to a V8, just keep looking on the for sale boards.

If you are keeping the f- engine, rebuilding it is pricey but used motors are usually cheap.

By the way, run 20-50 in it and some oil additive to get the pressure up....then beat the crap out of it. It will hold up longer than you think.:D