94Yotadude

Hey guys I'm looking at doing this swap in my 94 v6 and ive read this whole thread at once and I really want this swap once my 3.0 with 300 thousand finally quits, yet showing no signs of slowing down yet. I just want to know how hard the wiring is and how the whole Trans situation is figured out. The reason I ask is because I read it all and yall explained it but I'd like to see it all in one post if someone doesn't mind. Thanks guys I'm new here and really enjoying this place great people!!

wagigknp

I will be referring here pretty regularly for my build. I am doing a 7mgte into my 1989 xtracab 4x4. presently at the stage of getting the R154 transmission and R150f transmission's combined. Along with oil pan and engine mount fabrication.

Quick question, Where did you find your wiring diagrams? I want to read up on wiring while i wait on other parts of the project to finish themselves (haha). Luckily i have a complete donor supra in my garage with which to pull parts from.

egesledder

What are you doing to combine the transmissions? Just to make sure, you know you can just run the R154 bellhousing on the newer Tacoma R150, right? Its a lot easier than combining transmissions and you keep the truck gearing.

I found the factory Toyota wiring diagram book on Ebay. I'd highly recommend one of those, much more detail than the TSRM has.

Donor car is definitely the way to go. This swap would be much more challenging without one.

wagigknp

EDIT:
So, It appears i can get a 1996 4runner Transmission for $425. You're saying i can bolt that sucker right up to the R154 bellhousing and will mate with the 7mgte? I might just have to do that...

Further edit: It appears that the post 1996 R150f will bolt up with the r154 bellhousing but the pre 1996 transfer case will not. Back to my original plan of the R150/R154 transmission.

I will try to find that book on Ebay or amazon. Thanks!

egesledder

Update: Its still going strong with 40k miles on the swap now. I've had a few issues here and there, but nothing major so far. I had a CPS go bad and it took a while to figure that out. I've re-done the front shocks a couple times and its riding nice now. The rear bilstein 5125's are feeling very inadequate and will be upgraded soon to a legit set of shocks.

Transmission and clutch have been excellent since the upgrade to the Tacoma R150 and the supra clutch, and have no trouble holding up to abuse and towing.

I've been getting between 17-19mpg commuting depending on the season, and 20+ on trips in the mountains loaded down with camping gear. I have a 2000' climb everyday going home, so its not the easiest commute.

This is still my daily driver, mostly because its just too much fun to drive and because I can always make it home no matter what the weather can throw our way. We'll see how long it lasts.

84 yota dude

Hell yeah! Thanks for the update

92 Toyo

This is awesome. I want one

egesledder

After selling the duramax, the toyota has taken up snow bike hauling duty. Its a champ!

84 yota dude

Sweet ride! You convert it to a dirt bike in the summer?

nothingbetter

I have some questions about the r150 swap. I'm on my 3rd w56 behind my 7m turbo and I'm getting tired of bearing noise and wondering when its going to die. I'm debating between the marlin crawler Heavy Duty W56 or swapping in an R series. I know all the info is back in the thread somewhere, but just for the simplicity of a list and to clarify, you used:

7MGTE clutch stuff - R154 bell housing - a 96 and newer R150F - adapter plate - 23 spline input - gear drive transfer case.

Is this a correct list? Or am I missing something with the clutch end of things?

egesledder

That looks pretty complete to me, yep. I used all 7mgte clutch stuff from flywheel to clutch slave cylinder. Liveoffroad on here did the same R150F swap this past summer and it sounds like its working out nicely.

The heavy duty W56 is kind of spendy, and probably won't be as stout as a stock R150F. I would think that for a similar price after some strategic shopping around, you could do an R150 swap.

As evidence of the stoutness, before I took the topper off a week ago to haul just one bike in the bed, I had probably over 2500 lbs worth of crap I was lugging all over the mountains between gear in the topper, trailer, and 2 snow bikes on the trailer. I put about 1500 miles on doing that and the drivetrain hasn't complained a bit. It turns out that hauling that much stuff makes it a slow toyota pickup again though, haha. One bike in the bed brings it back to race truck status.

Even though it did everything I asked of it, I'm shopping for a new tow rig, the toyota just isn't cut out for it long term.

egesledder

I actually just picked this one up a week before strapping my Timbersled kit to it, so I haven't ridden it on dirt yet. I ride mostly single track in the summer, and it turns out that a bike that works well as a snow bike (motocross style quick power, close ratio trans, stiff fork) isn't always the best as a single track bike. This YZ might stay a snow bike through the summer, unless I feel like converting it back.

I actually started building my own snow bike the way I think a factory needs to make them, with a sled motor and way too much power. Turns out it works pretty great. Check it out if you're interested:

http://www.snowest.com/forum/showthr...&highlight=cvt

And to relate this back to this thread, it will be getting a turbo over the summer. I can't wait for BOOOOST!!!

nothingbetter

Thanks for the knowledge. Its nice having someone who has actually done it and is not just saying "it should work". I'm also jealous of your snow bike. It always looked like so much fun in the mountains when we would see them while on snowmobiles. Someday.

84 yota dude

Agreed cool snow bike. It's basically a snowmobile trans on a bike oriented frame right? I swear sled guys are obsessed with heating up food on their exhausts haha.

Also did you ever consider a 2jz swap? I eventually want to build a sas 4runner with an upgraded engine. I'm thinking a 3.4 but what other 6cyl options from toyota are possible? Heck a diesel would be cool too or even a 1uz.

egesledder

Yep, its a sled motor and cvt in a bike-like chassis.

I did consider a 2JZ, but for some reason I thought it would be cheaper and easier to do a 7m instead. After building everything, it probably wasn't all that much cheaper than a 2JZ swap.

Diesel would be cool, but there's a big difference in performance between a diesel and a V8 or 2JZ, so you have to decide what you're really wanting out of the truck. You'd have to tune the crap out of a small diesel to get the same output as a 2JZ on modest boost, but you'd benefit from some nice low end power that you don't get with a built turbo car motor.

Honestly, if you're really looking for good performance, reliability, parts availability, and low cost, you really have to give a good hard look at an LS chevy swap. After being around a few other peoples LS swaps and seeing them in action, I don't know why you'd do anything else. The UZ motor is super cool, don't get me wrong, but it has a bigger footprint, less power, zero aftermarket in comparison, and your local parts store doesn't stock literally every part for that motor like it does for an LS.

If I did another engine swap in this truck, it would be an iron block 5.3 with a cam, intake, and headers. That's easily 100hp more and probably close to 200lb-ft more than my current setup, and it would have been cheaper to do... Oh well, I still like making turbo noises.

84 yota dude

Man that is a GREAT reply! I have been researching engine swaps for the last week and haven't seen any that could produce the performance I want without being really expensive or very hard to get all the needed parts. The only thing I have to deal with is California smog... Basically I need to find an ls engine that would have come from the factory with a manual transmission so everything works with the smog inspection. I'm still looking into it, but really appreciate your input from someone who has not only done an awesome and clean 7mgte swap but has driven it daily. And I'm with you on the turbo noises haha.
Thanks again!

egesledder

Or just run an auto trans. That way you can drink your coffee/beer while driving in traffic.

You could run an auto trans that could hold up to the V8 too. I don't know how long an R150 would hold up to an LS. It might do fine, but I don't really know. When you have that much power, its hard not to use it as often as possible. I'm guessing there were more than a few work trucks built with a 5.3 and manual trans out there too though. You can pick up a wrecked Tahoe or Silverado for around $1500 at an auction; a few of my friends have recently done that for their swaps. Then you have everything needed to get it running/driving/passing emissions.


Unless you're doing something more straight forward like a 3vz to 5vz swap, a clean engine swap takes a massive amount of time and a good chunk of change to complete. For that reason, I feel like it had better have a stupid amount of power to make it worth it, and be reliable enough to enjoy it for a while.

84 yota dude

Exactly I'm with you. Except how fun is it shifting gears haha

Also depending where you are in California, some counties don't have as strict smog laws. And my friend has a ranch in one of those counties sooo I think I am in luck. Then I can eventually go to the bar and hopefully pass.

liveoffroad

My R150 swap is holding up nicely, but my engine is growing more and more tired. are you pleased with the reliability of the 7mgte? I'm evaluating a rebuild vs a 3.4 swap right now and a rebuild would definitely be less work. a turbo swap would be tempting if i could be convinced its as reliable as what i have now.... we really need to grab beers and talk trucks.
P.S. do you know much about building motors? i think it would be really cool to have a 7mgte with a quicker spooling turbo (than the factory turbo), i don't need lots of high-rev power and if it was low boost i could run a little higher compression too. i dont really want to get into re-mapping the fuel system though, that stuff scares me

egesledder

Nice to hear that the R150 is doing nicely. Yes, we need to meet some day and stop just talking about it.

If done right and at reasonable boost levels, a turbo'd 7m should be just as reliable as an N/A 7m. If I were to build my motor again, I'd run N/A pistons for higher compression. We're at high elevation too, so you can get by with more anyway. There are pages and pages of tips and guidelines on the internet for rebuilding the 7m properly.

-Get the cylinders machined with a torque plate, get the deck machined to the proper surface finish for a metal headgasket.
-I'd do the crank bearings and crank while its at the machine shop. Its a good idea to upgrade the rod bolts to ARP studs, they need to be resized by the machine shop to do this.
-The heads are normally pretty decent, just get it decked and check valves, etc.
-Run the N/A cams, it lowers the peak power by about 500rpm.
-If you can, start with a turbo block so that you can run the stock oil squirters for the pistons.

As far as the turbo goes, I'd be really tempted to run a Garret GT3071r or something around that size. Being a ball bearing turbo with a slightly smaller exhaust turbine size, it would spool a heck of a lot quicker than the CT26 and would hit any HP levels that you'd need. If you kept it around 10psi max, you could get by with the stock ECU and fuel system. Everyone does the standard 1UZ AFM and 550cc injectors mod too, that can net you a few more PSI before hitting fuel cut.

You'd need a lot more than the bolt on TRD supercharger on the 3.4 to keep up with that set up, and a turbo 7m can get a lot better mileage. I feel like my bone stock 7mgte with a good exhaust feels pretty equivalent to the supercharged 3.4 with the 7th injector.


Or you can just pull it out and throw an LS with a cam in it for around the same money as a full 7mgte motor build and make the same power, with a lot more torque down low.

That turbo is definitely a future upgrade thought for me, I just have enough other projects to worry about that I haven't had time to do anything about it. My CT26 has around 270k miles on it and is definitely not as healthy as it once was, so it might be time for an upgrade sooner than later.