smurfy

Hello, 500 topics on engine swaps from the search page but I still couldn't find my answer, so i'll just ask.

I toasted the engine in my '92 truck (manual transmission, 4x4). It's the 3.0 V6. It appears I have ruined a bearing on a connector rod. My mechanic had another client with a '94 pickup, V6 who went off the road and rolled his truck. They parted it out and saved the engine for me.

I'd like to figure out if the '94 engine will swap into my '92. what questions should I be asking? I am assuming the '94s being in the same series still had the 3.0 V6.

As a side note, I was really surprised when I developed this progressivly louder knock in my engine and then found out it was a piston slapping around. I bought a Toyota in part because I figured it would run forever with few $1,000 repairs (my GMC slowly ruined my credit rating that way). The engine had plenty of oil when this happened. Any ideas what went wrong? I'd only had it for about 5,000 miles when it happened so I do not know much about how it has been treated.

Thanks,

Steve

jimbo74

got make sure you get the wiring harness for the ecu.... everything else should pretty much be a basic swap

Bumpin' Yota

can anyone explain why a bad rod bearing would neccesitate an engine swap?

Pulling the engine and reboring and honing the block I can imagine, but a whole new beast? hmmm Someone walk me through it...

dragon564

Okay, first there are no major issue taking a 94 eng and putting it in a 92. One thing to watch out for is sometime in 92 the Timing belt tension pully changed from a spring controled in the early 92s and prior years to a hydraulic type on the late 92s and after. While this is not a problem during the swap it can cause some confusion during a later timing belt swap. I am pretty sure all the harness and ecu connection points are the same. As for IDEALS on what happened...you only had it for about 5K who had before you and what did they do to it........you have no ideal........I can not think of any questions to ask...depending on the milage of the donor truck you might want to get a timing belt job and water pump done while the eng is out...Much easier that way......

BUMPIN.....
You said it right there PULL THE ENGINE.....If I have to take the broke one out to repair it and I have a good one sitting right here....why not......sometimes it is cheaper, faster and easier to just swap it out than repair.....also we have no mention of the crank here and alot of other parts that could have been damaged as well.....

smurfy

can anyone explain why a bad rod bearing would neccesitate an engine swap?

That's a good point, partial rebuild should be considered. Especially since the power is so weak for a v6, can't get much worse.

But for me, two reasons. One is that i have a good candidate, cheap donor. I did not get estimates on the rebuild labor, but I'm betting over $1300, which is what I'm hoping to get away with on the swap. I still have to pay for all the labor to pull it out and put it back in if I have it rebuilt.

Plus the donor has a new clutch, I'm at 150k. If it saves me a clutch job, that almost pays for my swap.

Also, in general rebuilding an engine entails A LOT more work than just fixing what's wrong. I'm planning a rebuild on my vespa engine, single cylinder 2-strokes I can handle. It is getting way out of hand. I don't ever want to crack these engine cases apart again so I'm throwing in everything from gaskets, seals and bearings on up to higher gearing, balanced crank etc. And that's not getting in to the top end, carburation and exhaust.

But I appreciate your insight, I was a little dismayed that both mechanics that looked at it condemed the engine in 2 minutes flat just hearing the knock.

-Steve

93ToyKid

Okay....read this, and you will not have ANY problems in the swap! We just did the exact same thing you are doing, except the 94 motor was put into an 89 truck. The 92 motor and 94 motor will look indentical, but they are not. Toyota changed alot of small things on the engines, which gave us some headaches. The first difference isn't that big of deal, and it's what dragon said about the timing belt tensioner. No prob, just make sure you always order parts for a 94 engine. Here's a list of the other differences:
1. In 94, the A/C was changed to a newer type of refrigerant. You cannot use the 94s A/C compressor. Be sure when pulling the engine that you leave all your A/C lines hooked up (Just lay the compressor to the side). You will have to take the compressor bracket off of the 92 motor and put it on the 94 due to different offsets. Simple.
2. The distributors are different. You will have to use the 92s dist. in the new motor. The plug in for the wiring harness is different. Consult a manual on how to install the distributor into the new motor and get it set right, or just post on here if you don't have a manual and someone will tell you. It's really easy.
3. The harness connection for the throttle position sensor is different for the two motors. Basically, we just used our old intake plenum and put it on the new motor. It was alot easier than trying to swap throttle bodies and possibly running into more problems. Before you swap plenums, you will first need to remove the vacuum and coolant hoses under the plenums and swap the ones from the new motor onto the old plenum and the install it. It's all one piece. This has to be done because the old motor used a heater hose running under the plenum, whereas the new one will have that hose at the back of the motor. You'll see what I'm talking about.
4. Various sensors (such as water temp., oil pressure) will have to be swapped from the old motor to the new. There are alot of sensors located at the back of the motor, above the crossover pipe. Any sensors that are different must be swapped from the old motor and put back in the same spot on the new one so that they will all plug into the harness. One thing to note is that the old motor will have an extra sensor at the back that the new one doesn't have a place for. We just plugged it into the harness and laid it ontop of the motor, and have had no problems. This sounds confusing, but you'll understand what I'm talking about when you have the engines side-by-side comparing them.
5. The knock sensor connection on the new motor is located in a different spot than on the old one, and the wire is not long enough to connect to the harness. We just lengthened it by cutting the connector off and adding new wire. It didn't matter, because we have a knock sensor engine code, so it's not working. You may or may not have the same problem.
As you can see, Toyota changed alot of annoying things between these years. I hope this will help you to fix all these problems before they arise. While this seems like alot, it's really a simple swap, especially for you, now that you know what is different between the two motors. If you have any more questions, just ask me, and I'll see if I can help ya! Good luck!

smurfy

Thanks for the input Guys.

-Steve

leiniesred

smurfy: My 3.0 motor was given 1,000 miles to live at 149,000 by a pro wrench after listening to it knock. Another 'wrench said, "skirt slap." could go 1,000 could go 10,000, could go 100,000."

I switched to heavier oil and throw in a can of STP for good measure at or between oil changes. engine now has 237,000 on it. *shrugs* the oil pressure is a little lower each year, but the knock really hasn't gotten much worse. I'm going to keep driving it until I hear that tell-tale tick tick tick. then, I'll hold her to the floor until it goes bang and keep it on the floor until I get home or the engine simply will not turn any more. 1 broken rod or 6 it really won't matter.

helped on a similar swap; Saw those same sensor and intake swap problems going from 92 to 89 engine. had to move a few things from one to the other.

Babypig

Having just installed a 95 in my 90 I can say get the harness. None of the peripherals were the same. The ecu was the only thin that was the same. The dist. ignitor and coil are different, the alt was different the injectors were the same but that was about it. Also get the ecu if possible. There were changes to the mapping in it so that will help out alot.