arroyobass

Hello! I'm new to the forums, so let me introduce myself! I'm Anthony and I'm living just outside of Sacramento in California. I own a 1995 4Runner. I purchased the car on a Friday, and took it out for a road trip that weekend. I made it almost all of the way to the top of Donner Pass when the engine (3.0 V6) lost all of it's power and developed a VERY loud knocking sound which made me get the car towed back home. After a few months of diagnostics and a lot of disappointment I decided it's time do the the famous 3.4 5VZ-FE swap!


I'll be documenting my progress on this thread so stay tuned for more!

I have a google sheet setup to track the total costs and time invested into the project, and you can view that here! First page is money spent, and second page is time spent with notes on what was accomplished that day.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Today I started to remove my 3VZ-E in preparation for the new engine. I have still yet to buy the replacement but I wanted to get the old engine out. Currently I am looking at a JDM engine, Toyonlyswaps harness and exhaust, and junk yards for all of the random bits and pieces. I'll be keeping my old automatic from the '95 4runner, so that is going to be interesting to figure out. If you're around the Sacramento area and you're selling anything that goes into a 3.4 swap, or you'd be willing to come turn some wrenches with me, please let me know!

As for today! I started by removing the battery, radiator, intake, and fluids from the whole truck. I've got to do some research on getting the vacuum lines, fuel, and electrical out of the engine bay without removing anything I still need. Many more posts to come!

Last run of the 3VZ-E!


Before:


Battery out:


Intake Out:


Radiator Out:

arroyobass

Started today by removing the hood so that it's easier to access all of the wiring harness. Since I got most of the vacuum system out last night I'm focusing on the wiring harness today.

Got the ECM out and fished the harness through the firewall.

.

Almost every wire is disconnected from the right side of the engine. There are three wires still connected behind the intake, but I think I'll leave those on until I pull the engine since they are under all of the heater lines.

There's one leg of the wiring harness that runs down the passenger side of the engine and connects up to the transmission, O2, and transfer case. I have no idea how I'm going to be getting that part off, but I'll be doing some research on that tonight.

arroyobass

I almost have the entire harness out but I have one small issue! The connector for the downstream O2 sensor is too fat to fit between the body and frame, so I can't pull it out. :/ This is the last thing keeping me from getting the entire 3.0 harness out! Any tips? I don't want to just cut it but I might have to.

Disconnected from the downstream:


Unable to pull through:

arroyobass

Got the entire harness out finally! There were a couple more connections that I needed to take out before I could get the whole harness out. I ended up having to cut the rear O2 sensor since it couldn't fit through the body gap. If I end up needing that for the new build I will just re-connect it. There was a wire from the main engine harness that goes to the starter. That was very hard to get out with the engine still in the car! I took off the entire intake manifold today to get the rest of the injector connections from the wiring harness too. The radiator fan, alternator, and power steering pump also came out today. The power steering pump proved to be quite a bit harder than I was expecting. The pump drain plug was blocking the adjustment bolt so I couldn't take the unit out without draining it all over my engine bay... So I got the whole pump out and finished draining it and then mopped up the spilled fluid from the frame and engine bay. I am getting pretty close to getting the engine ready to pull. Next things to take out will be the fuel lines, exhaust cross pipe, and transmission. I am leaving the automatic transmission in the truck for the swap so that will be a fun challenge!

My wife helping me take out the harness!


Today's' progress. With the intake manifold out it really looks ready to pull!

00Tyler10

Since you are using your A340 transmission from the 95 did you go with the t100 ECU? I noticed you did not have that in your list of things to buy. Also you are using toyonly to do you harness instead of doing it yourself?

arroyobass

Yep I am getting a T100 ECU. The junk yard I'm getting the engine from is including everything I'm going to need including California legal intake and exhaust, ECU (T100), harnesses, and all of the accessories like power steering, alternator, AC etc.

I'm using the toyonlyswaps harness because I just don't want to deal with the hassle of building the harness. I know they will build exactly what I need and save me a TON of time. I'll be using them to do the exhaust modification too, so I'll send them all of my plugs and cross over at the same time, and hopefully be able to get it all back at the same time!

00Tyler10

Well atleast you are smart enough not to make the mistake i did. I got a donor engine from a 99 4runner and an ECU from a 97 T100. I also want to use my A340 transmission however I just learned that I have to get a T100 engine harness. Go freaking figure.

arroyobass

Made a little bit of progress today.

Exhaust is disconnected, got the charcoal canister out, fuel is disconnected (probably should have done that earlier), and the AC compressor is almost all of the way off. Really the only thing left is disconnecting the transmission at this point, which brings me to my next point...

How the hell do you disconnect the transmission from the engine while it's still in the truck?? I've seen a ton of people do it, but there are a lot of hard to reach bolts on there!

I'll keep updating as I make progress!



Ratchet used for the exhaust

mbomberz1

You are going to have to make some interesting extension combinations much like you did with your exhaust!

• Use some extension universal joints to help with the weird angles
• dont forget to remove the starter before pulling the transmission out

atlastrekker

Last one I did was like 5 or 6 extensions and a u-joint or two over the top of the tranny. Also, it works ok to use a ratchet strap across the frame rails under the tranny to hold it up.

Good luck on the swap and thanks for documenting it so well.

arroyobass

Much thanks for the tips mbombers1 and atlastrekker!

I spent about 6 hours working on the swap today. I was able to get the starter out after a bit of work turning it around and taking off the exhaust heat shield. There were only two bolts holding it in addition to the positive and negitive wires. One bolt that was accessible from the front of the car, and one from behind the passenger side tire. The positive was bolted to the starter and the negative was a normal clip with a press down and pull out clip.

After getting the starter out I started the daunting task of getting those transmission bolts out. Oh man... That is a pain! I ran off to Harbor Freight and bought a set of extra long extensions and wobble extensions to try to get the weird angles for these bolts. Out of the six 17mm bolts I got three of them out pretty quickly. The other three bolts are definitely taking a while! I am able to get the ratchet with extensions onto the bolts at 9 O'clock and 1 O'clock but I just can't seem to get enough torque on them. The extensions and the swivels are just eating up the torque I'm able to put in. Several of the bolts I was able to get my breaker bar in there attached to the extensions, but for these last three bolts I am not able to get it in there. The bolt at 11 O'clock is going to be a nightmare. I can hardly even touch it with my finger and I can't see it at all, so getting the ratchet on there is going to be fun!


Starter is out!

SacRunner

Just an FYI, the large diameter wire that's bolted to the starter is +12V direct from the battery to actually power the starter (just as I'm sure you thought), but that other wire is NOT negative (or GND), that is the starter trigger wire (+12V) that comes from the ignition cylinder in the steering column ("STA" in the various EWDs) and provides a low current signal to tell the starter solenoid (think of a high current, 200A, relay) to turn on. The starter's GND path is via the metal on metal contact between the starter body, the mounting bolts, engine block, bell housing through the engine body, through the frame, then back to the negative battery terminal.

Now for those transmission bolts, they are a huge pain. Do you have a body lift installed? Are you planning to install one? With my swap, I installed my 1.5" BL before the swap and I could get to all of the bolts from under the truck with relative ease. I'm not sure if you've tried this or not, but remove the shifter and bezel from in the cab, then snake a few extensions along the top of the transmission and have a helper reach up and place the socket onto the bolt end, then turn the wrench/breaker bar carefully from inside the cab; use as few extensions as you can, you may need to buy a really long extension, since as you found out, they eat some of the torque and have a little wiggle within each one.

arroyobass

Good to know! One of the reasons I am doing this project is to learn trial by fire style. So that helps!

And I hadn't planned on doing a body lift as part of this project but I am considering it more and more. All of the kits that I have looked at are less than $200 bucks for a 1"-1.5" lift which is pretty reasonable. Just a quick bit of research led me to this link http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...html#ATbracket. For a 1-1.5 inch lift it looks like I would only need minimal adapters so that's good to hear. Since I don't have a high lift jack (yet) I'll have to ask around to see if any of my friends want to help with the lift!

I had never even considered going through the top to get to those bolts! I'll give that a shot this weekend!

arroyobass

I finally got the transmission bolts out!!! After about a month of trying different ways I finally got them out! It took me a 24" extension, two wobbles, and the socket. I used the breaker bar to get the bolt loose and the ratchet to get it the rest of the way out. Holy crap was that hard!

AC compressor is out now too (4 easy bolts), so I'm ready to pull the engine! If I'm not mistaken there's 3 bolts on each side for the engine mounts, so I'll hook up a lift, pull those bolts, and see what happens! I gotta borrow an engine lift from a buddy so I should have this bad boy out in about 2 weeks!

Ratchet and extensions required for the bell housing bolts.


The final bolt.

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Just a tip if you ever do this again, you could use an air impact as long as you can get a pretty good shot to the bolts with the extension/swivel combo. Electric impacts are getting more popular, so might be able to find someone with one to borrow.

Did you drop the trans already or is it still sitting in the truck? If the trans is dropped out careful pulling the engine mounts since nothing really holds the engine still they are are out. Another "fun" fight will be the front drive shaft, atleast based on pulling a W56 trans from a 86 4runner. Pulling the drive shaft off the front diff might be a lot easier if you don't mind the extra weight to bring down or maybe slip the drive shaft apart (never done that, but should be possible, just don't get dirt in it). The trans I dropped was being sold, so I didn't want to loose the front drive shaft parts.

Good luck with the swap, and if you need any wire diagrams for the T100, I have all years downloaded from the TIS site.

arroyobass

Yea I really wish I had used an impact wrench on those bolts. I am building up my tool selection but that would be something worth adding for sure!

So I am leaving the transmission in the truck while I do the swap. I wasn't planning on removing the front drive shaft though. Do I need to do that to get the engine out? That actually brings me to my next point! How do you get the engine separated from the transmission input shaft? I've got all of the motor mounts off, and I've managed to move the whole engine forward about an inch, but I think it's binding on the input shaft. I'm hesitant to just keep jacking up the hoist with the input shaft still connected. I've tried just pulling the hoist back to free it, but it's not budging. Any ideas? Should I jack up the transmission to help it not bind? The engine is separated by about an inch and a half from the bell housing now so I know I got all of the bolts out.

Is there something else I'm missing?

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

Careful not to mess up the seal on your torque converter which should say on the transmission when separated. You'll have to gain access to the flywheel bolts and unbolt it. I think on a Toyota it's 6 bolts, most older GM's are 3 lol. Typically there is some sort of inspection cover to remove on the bottom of the engine/trans area to get to the bolts. I haven't separated an auto from a Toyota engine yet, but I do have a 2.7L that's not far from it that I've been selling parts off of.

arroyobass

Ok! So I found the torque converter bolts, and I managed to access them from the gap in the engine and transmission near the starter hole.

I'm having a really hard time accessing these bolts. They are toured down really tight and there's only a few inches worth of working room. I managed to get one of the bolts out, but the others were pissing me off so I'm calling it a night. We'll see if I can get them this week. I'll probably pick up some ratcheting wrenches to get these out since it's such a tight space.

View of the bolt from where the starter was.


If there's a better way to get to these please let me know!

atcfixer

iTrader: (1)

The bolts are basically glued in with loctite so they won't back out, and you should do the same when reinstalling. Pretty sure it is red loctite that is used -> http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...f-c8021659df94

Did you check for access from directly under the engine/trans area? A wrench + hammer works well from my experience with domestics.

arroyobass

It's finally out!!!!

So I ended up getting the torque converter bolts off from under the truck. They were super tight in there just like atcfixer was saying. I ended up turning the flywheel from the front of the engine with my breaker bar so that I could see a bolt on the bottom of the transmission. I then would put my wrench on the bolt, and then turn the crank with the breaker bar so that the wrench would push against the front diff and loosen the bolt. Took about 10 minutes to get all six bolts out! SO much easier than going through the starter hole!

After getting the torque converter loose I was able to get the engine totally loose in the engine bay! The driver side engine mount was blocking me from lifting the engine more, so I went ahead and took that off.

I got the engine lifted up as high as my lift would go only to realize the oil pan wouldn't clear the front of the engine bay. So with the engine hanging 4 feet in the air I took off the ten thousand bolts for the oil pan, and the oil pickup. Once those were off the engine came right out!

To those of you who get these engines out in a matter of hours I applaud you. This has taken me about 4 months.

Now, next steps are ordering the 3.4 and cleaning out the engine bay.

I'll be getting my engine from Rancho Toyota Recycling in the Sacramento area. Anybody have any experience with them?

Getting the torque converter bolts from under the truck.


It's out!!!




My wife helping me pull the engine.


"Engine Stand"