maniacmotorsports

After extensive research on this project, I decided to jump right in and start putting together a complete plan and start buying the goodies. At the end of this past summer I decided to get rid of the Mustang money hole and try to be more responsible with my need for speed addiction by getting a decent practical machine for the kind of work and driving I do. I REALLY wanted an '85 like my first but there was just no finding one here in the salt slinging capital of the world that was not ate slam up! Hech, I was having the same problem when I decided on a 2nd gen.
My bud is a car dealer so I scanned three of the countries largest online dealer auction houses as well as a slew of other rescources for 2 mos. You guys in the south west are hooked up snug on the rust free yappa's because that is the only area that had any worth a squirrel fart on the hundred or more auctions I watched. I just couldn't see spending the $1100 it was gonna cost to ship it here and even more to drive it. So I gave up. 4 days go by and I thought I might get on C list one more time and just search nearby for parts to build what I want. The first guys ad for a 94runna parts truck I responded to explained he had bought it for a few parts for his '95 but never did anything with either..I go to see them and the guy ends up being 2 miles from me. I was handing over cash 5mins after looking it over.

maniacmotorsports

So this is the donor, she barely has any rust but the steering parts and suspension sure showed the 210k on the ol' ticker. The guy I bought it from swore the head gasket was squeezed and wasn't even gonna sell it. I told him it didnt bother me and he asked me if $1650 for both trucks was ok??? uuhh SOLD!! I drove it to the shop and it never over heated but does use about a pint of coolant every 100 miles or so. I did have to put tires, shocks, rear air bags, rotors, calipers and one CV. Still worth it to me. post more later

toyminator2000

Rear air bags???????

maniacmotorsports

yup..was the most cost effective fix for the "saggy butt". Had just tapped myself out buying momma a new car.
Things are not looking good on the motor, I got the valve covers and oil pan off as well as the plugs so I can rotate the motor and durring the rotation it hangs up like it has a piston stop in it. @#%&*!!!!!!!! this is the second motor in a row from a place I'll wait to name til I see how they handle it..again!! The first one was supposed to be a 75k one but when I popped the drain plug bout a liter of baby poop foam came out, after further inspection I found about 2in of silt and dibris in the intake valley and all the plug boots were full of water. Clearly to any tard they sold me a flood victim. They dropped me this one that supposedly has 116k, this thing is crazy corroded!!! This is 3 strikes for them in the same order because the putz that carried the transfer case carried it by the shift rods and the three tiny shift tabs and all the springs and balls popped loose inside it...guess they thought I needed some schooling on the VF1A. I know it inside out now.

maniacmotorsports

they do pretty good, I had 13 bundles of shingles in the back of it.

maniacmotorsports

this is a few of the plug boots that was full of black sewer snot. They still havent come back to get this one so I'll prob end up trying to make a good one out of parts from both. Unless someone has any ideas as to what may cause the rotation to hang up like that in two spots, the same places in the rotation, then I will first remove the valve train and then the heads. Only thing I can think of is a misaligned timing belt causing valves to come in contact with piston tops. If you rotate hard and fast then it will jump past the snags.

birdduck

i would maybe pull the cams, you could have a valve sticking. it looked pretty clean to me,
it might be a good idea to inspect the timing belt and pulleys.. t-belts should be replaced every 100k or 7 years.. or you could have a bunch of crap in the water pump?

maniacmotorsports

much thanks for the reply Birdduck, I read your thread along with twisty, RMA and several others I cant recall. They have all been very very informative, almost too much info to retain.
The first motor looks pretty clean on the outside but the water and oil foam that came out the drain plug was too concerning to even dig into it. From my experience the only way to foam up oil that thick and nasty is to run the motor with water in the oil. The second motor has a very thick white corrosion crust all over it and some of the small tabs, bungs and edges are corroded away. Lots of bolts broke off in it. I haven't yet tore it down far enough to put my eyes on it yet but if the water pump is driven by the timing belt then it makes sense that it might make it hang up.(all pulleys and Alt are locked up) Durring several rotations I inspected all the valve stems through the exhaust ports and all valves were raising and lowering..still doesn't mean something isnt blocking a valve or two from a complete seat so I will dig a little deeper tonite. If the first motor turns out to be ok some how then I will at worst have a xtra set of heads to port/clean up from this crusty one.
This wkend I am also gonna try to work out the mating the trans and t/c issues. According to my measurments, the 341 output will not be able to be cut and used because the 4 tab counter and face of the t/c coupler meet about 2 cm too soon. I would need to make a spacer plate between the extension housing and t/c. Soo, I too am at the same crossroads as many b4 me, use a 340F or swap the output into the 341..or piss on the auto and go 5spd which at this point would be a sizable increase in cost having already paid for the 341 and VF1A. hmmm...I do have the 5spd from the 94 parts truck and could modify the 1uz bell. DAMN!!! deciding the route is just as hard as any other aspect of this swap!!!!

birdduck

so your saying that the a341 output shaft is too long? well i know it can be done without addapters.. so you have the vf1a witch is the auto tc that is not the hydro one
right? i know there is like 20 differant ways to mate the auto to the 1uz, i when 5spd for a few reasons: 1 i already had a r150 trans, and 2 my auto trans whas cooked.

5spd is prety cheap to due, if your truck/runner is auto go the wheckers and find a pedal
asy. and make sure they give you all the hardwere from it(bolts/pin for clutch) i picked mine up for 70 bucks( it was cracked like most of them are around the clutch master mounting points so i welded it up before i installed it) buy a new master/slave there cheap.

you can snag the plans for the adapter plate off ebay from ed at v-eight.com(good guy) take it to a machine shop and have them cut it out could be anywere from $200 up?.

next is the flywheel/clutch kit, all you need is a 3vze clutch/flywheel this way there is no need to modify the ring gear, you have a nice heavy flywheel and there is very little to do to make it fit: get the holes sloted to match the 1uz patern, machine 1/4-5/16 off
the back of the flywheel DO NOT go more than this or it will contact the block. then your set.. kind of... you will have to do quite a bit of work to the bell to make it mate up,
and you will have to mount the clutch for and such, i think i took some close ups on mine
of what i did to make it work.

all and all i think 5spd is cheaper but its also alot of work on small details, but if your like me, it was worth it to save the 300-500 bucks it would have cost to just buy a conversion bell.

RMA

good luck subscribed ..

if you want to use the vf1a (manual shift)you will need the vf1am (electric shift)
input shaft its 23 spline but i think 30 mm in diameter versus the vf1a 23 spline 28 mm shaft .. then you could just bolt it up .. the speed sensor should just swap right over cable for electric .

good luck man ..

maniacmotorsports

Thanks man..I need to refer back to the many build threads I have saved in my favorites over and over to try and keep all the small details straight...what combo of parts fit what and what it came from. I have another idea for the wiring harness..I thought I might try to run the modified harness through a conduit made from 3/8 aluminum fuel line.

birdduck

its thicker than 3/8 you would need around an 1" and thats stripped down..
but i may be thinking differently from you??

maniacmotorsports

yeh..I was thinking running the main through something a little larger til it splits off into individual wire pairs. I have some stainless braided hose and aluminum A-N fittings along with a few holley fuel press regs with the guts out to act as junction boxes. Once done it should look like a nitrous set up on a pro mod. The injector wires would look much like a fogger set up with the hard lines run nice and tidy like the vacuum hard lines on the front of the 1uz intake. All this was intended for aesthetic purposes but I guess it sure would keep ur harness safe and dry.

maniacmotorsports

I just measured the input on this t/c and output from the lex 341 and they are both 30mm..Mating the drive train components and the mating the 3vz and 1uz wiring harnesses together to get all the sensors and systems to work is the parts I am still trying to get laid out so I can tear this 3. chit out. I want to get it as close to plug and play as possible to save down time as it is my daily driver. then Once I get the new parts to fresh up the motor like time belt, water pump, oil pump and alt, p/s pump then this project will get rock'n.

maniacmotorsports

[Birdduck..I have the manual shift VF1A pass drop chain drive T/C from a '96 T 100..if I measure how far the input coupler sticks out from the mounting face of the t/c and then measure how far the 4 prong deal sticks out from the trans mounting face, the math doesnt add up and only bout 1/4 inch of splines goes into the coupler.---------
I can get all the 5spd stuff off the 94 4runner parts truck I had, not sure what trans was in those.

birdduck

if its a v6, its an r150.. 22r could be g/w trans
on there wiring, you can almost eliminate all the stuff to do with emissions.
i only have the main sensors hooked up: knock, crank, tps, maf, primary H02 sensors.
what i do not have hooked up(removed from harness): secondary 02's, egr, coolant lines to and from TB/EGR, all auto trans wires including VSS, engine oil level.

you will have a check engine light no matter what you do if you go manual.
unless you leave all the auto stuff hooked up.

maniacmotorsports

I would love to have a 5spd but I wanted to make sure that if anything happened to the car I just bought then the wife would have a reliable second car she could drive. I have always had a std shift up until I changed my stang over to a C4 and hated every second of it after that. The last thing I want is to feel that way after this is done. I did the same thing back in '96 when I changed my 1st gen 350 chev/r150 swap over to a th350..hated it!! Although a check eng lite drives an OCD mo fo crazy too!!
If I use the 150 I can use the t/c that came behind it right?...The confusion I have on this swap is the combo of parts that fit if you do not want to mate the geared case or doubling them. Seems as if all the many build threads I read was that way. I need to go check out the trans and t/c to see if they are not busted and think about abondoning this auto and sensor nightmare and do it the way a truck should be..WITH A MAN PEDAL!!!!

RMA

ok so then i must have read the thread wrong or something .. never done it or seen it in person just what i read .

can you do me a favor and take some pics of the transfer case maybe 2 or 3 and then how you think you could mate it to the lexus tranny .

we may just end up doing it this way on my friends truck , but dont have that transfer case .

if you dont think you will be happy with the auto then go 5 speed, you will lose some power with the auto.

Im happy with it, really enjoy not having to shift around and just be able to drive .

there is a way you can have the 5 speed with out the check engine lights coming on , it has to do something with putting resistors in place of where the trans solenoids were .

ill see if i can find the thread and post it here .


you should really get a photobucket account (free) and use that to post some good pics of the swap.
thanks

birdduck

or just take the bulb out of the cluster.... i had to do that with a few of my factory lights.. mine has been off for a wile now? hmm it turns on when i turn the key on, have to ground the cel and see if it flashes still who knows trucks been running perfect..

yotasavg

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