mt_goat

Adrian, do you have any pics of how they come up through the console on yours?

hause64oz

Dale - how did you go about finding a full donor vehicle before it got picked through and about how much do the wrecked ones go for? went to a salvage yard the other day and saw the State Farm stickers on the hoods... did you have someone at an auction buy it for you? Have a 98 engine with all the parts from a guy that supplies ORS but Im iffy on spending $1800 for all of it without knowing for sure that it is what i need... read another thread on here last night from Pozi about being told one thing and finding out oafter the engine wouldnt start that his wiring harness was wrong because hte salvage yard told him differently from what it really was....

anyways... looking forward to the swap once I can get my hands on the parts...

mt_goat

64, I had the best luck on e-bay. There is a way for individuals to bid in insurance auctions through a 3rd party bidder and I spent 3 or 4 months looking at pictures of wrecks and bidding at this auction site: http://www.ridesafely.com/ But I found it very frustrating because all you have to go on with an insurance auction is the few standard pics and a very brief discription and you don't even know for sure if the engine runs or not. Many times I had the highest bid but didn't get the truck because the bid didn't meet the insurance company's minimum (who knows how they come up with that). But every now and then you will see a wreck for sale on ebay, but any of these wrecks are not cheap, so get out your check book if you want to go this route.

This link will tell you everything you need to get: http://www.offroadsolutions.com/tech...ersion_kit.htm

I just did a quick search of ridesafely's auction site and they currently have listings for 103 wrecked Tacomas. http://www.ridesafely.com/minventory...A&Model=TACOMA

I was originally looking for a 2003 or 2004 truck but I'm glad now I got a 2001 because Toyota went to a "drive by wire" throttle body on the newer models and guys that have them have had a lot of problems with it. I've even heard of a few guys that sold the truck because of the drive by wire problems.

hause64oz

checked out ridesafely.com.... how much do most of these rigs go for? are we talking $1000-$2000 or alot more?

mt_goat

A lot more, follow the bids on a few of the ones you're interested in and you'll get an idea pretty quick of the going prices. Salvage yards have to pay a lot for their Toyota trucks, probably more than any other truck. There is a high demand for Toyota parts.

mt_goat

Houston...err...Bud we have a problem. The Budbuilt crossmember that was suppost to be "bolt on" with U-bolts didn't fit. You can see the round pegs won't line up with the round holes:


And of course my luck, Bud was on vacation and I wasn't able to reach this normally very helpful and reachable guy. So I spent the last 5 days redesigning and fabricating the mounting system for it.

It was about 1/2 inch from fitting and it just so happens the Marlin adapter is 1/2 inch thick...hum...maybe Bud didn't calculate that thickness into the equation. Oh well, it would be very hard to make a custom crossmember for a truck over the phone with all the variables thrown at him, 93 truck, 2001 engine & auto tranny, adapter plate, Marlin crawler.

I never did like the idea of using U-bolts around the frame to hold on the crossmember too much anyway and now I saw a way to get rid of them.

Here's the amount I need to cut to fit the x-member into the proper position:




I wanted to use the exisiting mounting holes from the factory because they were there already. So I salvaged some 3/8" thick steel by cutting up some scrap 6x6 angle iron ($4 at the local iron scrap yard). I cut it into 2 pieces about 5" x 12" and drilled holes matching the bolt pattern of the stock x-member and bolted it to the frame. I then raised the x-member up to match it the new mounting plate. BTW this tranny jack attachment has to be the best $60 I spent on this swap.






After cutting some more to make clearance for the bolts, I tack welded it into place and unbolted the whole thing from the frame to weld it up off the truck.

I used 1/8" 7018 welding rod to do the stick welding. Welding everywhere possible front and back:




After welding it up I raised it up and it fits!


But not done yet, the whole thing needs paint to keep it from rusting, so back off the truck again. This on/off practice will be handy next time I go to change the fuel filter because the x-member will be in the way of getting wrenches on the fuel lines.

Here's the painting booth:


Here's the inside holes cut in the floor for the shifters:


Ever wanted to know how to put a x-member on a drill press?


I should mention the reason I put it on the drill press was to drill two 1/2" holes on each end through the mounting plate and x-member. I plan to use a couple of 1/2" grade 8 bolts at each end. This will be insurance just in case my non-certified welding job fails over time, the bolts will keep the tranny from falling to the ground.

My mounting plate lowered the transmission 3/8 of an inch, but because Bud had made the x-member to raise the transmission an inch over stock, I'll still be raising it overall 5/8 of an inch over stock.

BudBuilt

Cool Dale! After our conversation the other night, I was a bit confused as to what you were doing. Now I can see what you were describing. Glad you got it figured out!
It is good that we didn't try the "normal" crossmember cause your mounts look to be about an inch back from the stock location. But modifying it might have been a bit easier than what you did but the end result looks great!
In retrospect, guessing where that whole thing would end up 9 months ago got you pretty close! Keep up the good work!
Your paint booth looks about like mine too... That's why we ship most parts bare steel!
I DO need a ride in that beast once it is done!
Keep the updates coming.

PS Remind me of a few things please: Did you bolt the 3.4 to the stock motormounts on the 93 frame? Did you use the 3.0 or the 3.4 trans? Just so I know for the next guy.
Thanks!

mt_goat

Yeah stock motor mounts on the 93 frame and stock 3.0 motor mount brackets that bolt to the 3.4 block. 3.4 auto tranny. I want royalties now if you sell my design How about a penny per x-member store credit?

BudBuilt

If we gave you $100/design, I doubt you would be able to pay for another crossmember for a long, long time! Thanks for the info tho. Us nerdy engineers "just gotsta know"!

mt_goat

What? With such a great product they should be flying out the door! Maybe you need better marketing?

I'm really glad you suggested the x-member that raises the tranny an inch, that worked out perfect because my bracket lowered it 3/8" and it would have been lower than stock otherwise. Also very happy with the 3 transfer case x-member, it will protect the most exposed part of my tranny pan.

mt_goat

Final fitting of the 3.4 air box is done, it's a tight fit but it's almost like it was made to go there.

A 3.5" hole was cut in the inter-fender for the air supply:


I cut a 3.5" rubber flex coupling from the plumbing dept at Lowes to seal up the hole and keep the engine breathing the cooler air outside the engine bay:


Here's a view from inside with the turn signal removed:


Part of the old battery tray had to be cut out to make room for the air box:


Both of the bottom airbox mounting brackets are being used, but the upper bracket that normally bolts to the radiator support in the newer trucks has to be cut off, so a new bracket was made to replace it.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Love the build up thread...HATE having to click links to see the pics. Anyway to get the pics to show up in the thread?

Looking good.

mt_goat

Thanks Wabbit, I could get a server and host my own I guess. I could use the attachment loader for them all, but then it's hard to ID them and they are smaller.

91_4x4runner

I've got to agree that it is a little frustrating to have to wait for webshots to load the pics and whatnot... but it's much better that posting them on yotatech and having to look at a 100x100 pixel picture.

mt_goat

Hey thanks for the feedback. I make it worse because I upload the pics to webshots full size, but Webshots gives you the option of viewing them full screen if you click on the box, so if you need to see some detail better you can that way.

91_4x4runner

Usually websites like photobucket and webshots provide a direct link to the picture... If you can do that, you can use the IMG and /IMG tags (in brackets of course) to show the pics straight on teh forum

91_4x4runner

If you click on the picture, it shows how to post em.

F0RSAKEN

Looking good so far!

As for the photos and posting, yea, it gives you a direct link at the bottom of the page, or you can use www.imageshack.us and once you upload it gives you like 6 different links to use to post it directly in different types of forums/email/etc....

mt_goat

Ok thanks for all the pic help. Let's give it a try!

I mounted the VSV stuff for the evap can on the firewall:

mt_goat

Well that was easy, ok back to the swap.

The Taurus fan fits in front of the motor. You can measure until you're blue in the face, but until you actually put everything in you don't know. Looks to have about 1/2 inch clearance:


The Radiator goes in as one unit with the fan shroud and fan:


There isn't much clearance between the steering shaft and alternator. You can see the steering shaft cover was removed for more room. Also the alt wiring is hooked up.The main wire as I mentioned before is twice the stock wire size so the cover had to be modified a little. The 3.0 alt plug fits the 3.4 alt fine.