JGrund85

I'm looking at doing a motor swap in a 91 4runner. 3.slow is about ready to go south. I would like to keep my budget at about 2,000 dollars. I know the possibility of doing a 3.4L swap kind of goes out the door with that budget. I have considered buying a remanufactured 3.0 and just swaping that in. Problem is I need to complete this whole thing within a week. That's why as much as I don't want to I am considering the 3.0 again. It would just go straight in no serious issues, no rewiring, etc. I hate the 3.0 with a passion. Are there any other swaps to consider and does anyone think I could get the 3.4 done in a week for under 2,000? I would be working every day all day long on completing whatever swap I do. I'm not familiar with any of the wiring, but have experience doing other motor swaps on honda's.

Please any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This swap needs to be done soon and got to figure out what i'm going to do.

gilby4runner

I dont think the 3.4 is going to happen for under 2000... 4.3 chevy would be a candidate.

JGrund85

yeah looking into the 4.3 chevy now. Trying to get some prices from rockbuggy as I type. Trying to find out information....not to many write ups on the 4.3. Anyone know of any good sites for the chevy 4.3 swap?

any suggestions if I do do the 3.0 swap as to where to buy a reman 3.0 in colorado?

I've looked at orient engine and they want 2700 shipped with core return. trying to find something cheap.

RobD

I managed to pick up a 3.4 for $2000 with all accessories, but spent another $1500 on exhaust, etc. If I had a welder at the time, I could have gotten it done for around $1000 less. The wiring wasn't that bad and the swap was mechanically pretty easy. All in all, though, it took me about 11 days. I could do it in less, but that's knowing what I now know.

SoCal4Running

How about a Detroit 3-53T 2-smoke diesel

yotaman

Do the 3.4. You'll love it. If you can do the work yourself a 3.4 swap can be done for $2000.00 or less. I've purchased complete 3.4's with all accessories for $1500.00 and less.

The wiring can suck but it's not that hard. I can build you a plug and go adapter wiring harness.

RobD

X2 on what he said.

Elvota

x3 on what they all said.

You've probably found my thread already, but I ended up doing all my own wiring and came in well under $2000 after the sale of my 3.0 and related accessories.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f160...4-swap-128285/

If you are ready to do all the work, don't waste time and money on a 3.0. I think 5 to 7 full days would be more than enough... keeping in mind that you can do a lot of prep before hand.

Cleaning up the 3.4, accessing and figuring out your wiring plans, getting all the parts together.... do all that before you get ready to pull the 3.0.

nix4x4

Ahhh... Another 3.0?
Oh, wait, everybody hates those.

Well, if I were going to swap out my engine,
I'd go with a 4.3 Chevy if it were a trail truck,
and a 350 sb if it were a street queen. Just my thoughts.

JGrund85

yeah i'd really like to do the 3.4, but the wiring just look like a hell of a mess. That's why i'm considering the 3.0 again. I won't have to mess with any of the ecm garbage and etc. I want to only spend a week tops on this thing, no prep work at all. I wanna pick up the motor and complete the swap in a week or less all said and done. I'll be working alone more than half of the swap, so that's why i'm just thinking of doing the 3.0...pull the old and put the new in. I know it's the worse of the options but I know I'll be under 2 grand finished. Maybe it's just me being lazy, but I'm so sick of this stupid car right now I just want it to run and be done with.

screamer76

i found my 3.4 with ALL of the accessories for $1000. it's got 160 on it, but it's a well maintained toyota engine, so i'm still expecting to be able to get at least another 90 on it. in five or six years i'll find a new 3.4( engine only) and the swap will just be an exchange, which will be a lot easier. plus when i sell all of my 3.0 parts, i should cover quite a bit of my expenses. just keep looking, i found mine on craigslist. good luck with whatever you decide

RobD

The wiring isn't really that hard, once someone shows you what the goal is. You'll have to splice about 20-26 wires (Elvota, can you confirm this?) and wire about 8 up to one of the plugs from your old ECU.

Elvota

I agree... it does look hard, but read through my thread. I really think you can handle it. You have to understand that 95% of the wires going from the 3.4 motor to the 3.4 ECM don't even have to be touched. You really only have to connect 8 to 10 wires from the 3.4 ECM to the old 3.0 harness. Most of those connections are to and from gauges.

Just so you know... I was able to do the entire swap unassisted. More people would help, but two many hands and alternate "guesses" can also cause problems. I did get a hand putting the tranny back in, but that was because I made a mistake with the clutch.

I agree with you. Each swap of course will be a little different, but a majority of the wires just go from the 3.4 motor to the 3.4 ECM... and then just the few needed connections to various gauge input/ outputs.

You are going to have almost the same amount of time and money whether swapping in a 3.4 or a 3.0... but the 3.4 is an amazing upgrade.

Jason4X4

A week is no sweat, I had it running in 3 days, and then took it apart and did it again, and still had it running again in less then a week from when we started. here

JGrund85

ok, seriously considering the 3.4 now. does anyone other than offroad solutions make a kit to make this easier? and for cheaper?

Evolta: I'm going to read through your thread now, but is there a complete list of parts somewhere on your thread so I can start gathering?

If it's only about 8 wires I have to deal with I think I'm gonna consider it. I just want to go to the parts store and get EVERYTHING i need in only one or 2 trips.

RobD

http://www.andrewzook.com/content/view/22/48/1/2/

RobD

No, no...it's more than eight wires. In my case, the 97 Taco ECU has 4 plugs on the back. Three of the 4 plugs are on the harness and you don't need to touch any of them. The 4th one carries power, ground, and a couple other things. That one needs 6-8 wires on it and I managed okay. It's the two body harness plugs that need splicing. Open your passenger side kick panel and you'll probably find your ECU and two large plugs going out through the firewall. You'll need to cut the two plugs from the old engine harness and splice them onto the new 3.4 harness. The goal is to find the matching functions on the new vs old harness, like power and tach signals. That's about 20-26 splices, give or take, and a few hours decoding wiring diagrams. Your best bet for that is https://techinfo.toyota.com/

Andy's list of things is pretty complete on his site. That said, I can almost guarantee it will be more than one or two trips!

You'll need to buy or have a crossover made. Someone on here did it for $3.00, but you need to have access to a welder. I paid for mine ($200 + plus a new high flow cat, muffler, and O2 sensors for another $800). If your exhaust is in good shape, you'll just need to cross over the exhaust from the passenger side to driver side to mate up with it.

JGrund85

cool thanks for all the info thus far everyone. I am going to seek out a motor and all the parts this week. Hopefully I'll have most of what I need by the end of this week. I am considering paying a little extra to have a plug and go harness made by yotaman. Still waiting on him to give me an estimate and an approximate time. I'll be asking lots of questions I'm sure of it. the andrewzook website makes the swap seem very reasonable. I'm just worried about the whole wiring deal still. Gonna do a ton of research this week. gonna get the motor completely prepped before pulling the 3.0. I will be out a car while doing this so I gotta figure out transportation for a week. hopefully with all prep work done I will only be out a car for 3-4 days.

yotaman

I sent you a return PM JG.

I just finished making a plug and go harness for someone else and there were 16 splices that needed to be made.

Everything needed for this swap can be purchased from AutoZone.

EDIT: there were 30 or so wires that I didn't use.

RobD

You need help, you know who to call!

Elvota!

Just kidding...I'll throw in with two cents now and then if you need help. I did most of the swap myself, with help at key times from my big brother and his neighbor. For the most part, though, I did the work unassisted. There will be a couple times when extra hands are nice to have around.