hawaiibake

I had to replace the aging 3.0 I had in my pickup this weekend. I has survived 555k km's and an engine compartment fire. The top end finally decided to go, and I decided it was time for a new motor. I found a good deal on a fully rebuilt 3.0 and talked to my mechanic about putting it in and he wanted $1000 to pull the old one and swap in the new one.
I decided i have some time off right now so I will give this a go on my own. I have never undertaken anything even close to as involved as this, but i figured it is just plug and play right?
It took about 18hours total, and i did it all in my landlords driveway (very cool of them to let me do that!) So i am posting this thread for anyone out there thinking about doing this swap on their own who isn't sure if they can do it.

I had to reuse my old wiring harness bc the new motor was from an automatic. I decided to pull my old motor wiring harness intact and swap them out on the ground to make it easier. I removed the hood, radiator, fan, battery, alt, and detached the PS pump and put it off to the side where the battery was.
Then i pulled every wire and hose that attached the engine to anything else in the engine bay. On the passengers side fender well there is a little junction box of vacum lines and wires, i unbolted that from the body and pullded that out with the motor in one piece.
I undid all the bellhousing bolts. They were kind of a bitch but I was really glad i have a 3" body lift to get those top ones out. I thought I had them all but the starter has a bolt at the top from the otherside that holds it ot the bellhousing.
I had a hell of a time pulling the engine and tranny apart so i wrapped a chain around the front of the motor and hooked the winch up to it. Worked like a charm. I accidentally disloged the clutch release lever. I don't recomend removing or touching that unit at all. For some reason i thought i had to remove it, you don't.
So i hooked the chains up and hauled her out of there. It was a sad state. Oil leaking from several locations, charred from the fire and very dirty. I removed the throttle position sensor so I didn't crush it with the chain. I just took it slow and was carefull not to crush anything.

hawaiibake

Once I had them both on the ground I stripped the old harness off and swapped it over to the new one. I had one plug under the phlenum that didn't match anything. I still don't know what it is for, but now that the swap is over I have a check engine light. Not sure yet if that is the culprit.
At this point I noticed fuel leaking form my detached gas line. I figured the air in my gas tank was heating p in the sun and forcing fuel out so I unscrewed the gas cap. My rebuilt motor just had the timing belt and waterpump done, so I didn't have to do that.
I removed the old clutch assembly and inspected it. I thought it was pretty worn, but when I compared it to a new one it still had a lot of life in it.
IF YOU ARE NOT REPLACING THE CLUTCH ASSEMBLY, MAKE SURE YOU GET A NEW PILOT SHAFT BEARING! I didn't get a new bearing, bc I din't realize my new motor didn't have one. Fortunatly When I went to drop the motor in we couldn't get them to mate up and we pulled it out. A neighbor came by and pointed out the absence of the bearing and saved me from having the whole thing destroy itself as soon as i started driving.
Make sure the clutch disk is BANG ON CENTRE!
Getting the clutch and the shaft comming out of the tranny to go back together was by far the hardest part. I had a lot of help here from my landlord Jaimie, and the two of us jacked the tranny up and down, wiggled the motor around and tried in vain for about an hour. I finally sprayed some PB blaster penetrant on the shaft to lube it up, and shortly there after we got the two to mate up. WHEW!
We used the bellhousing bolts to pull the two back together, and bolted the motor mounts back to the frame.

Then starts the long process of reattaching everything. We must have checked everything five times over before we were done. Almost every time we caught something we had missed.

We put it all together and I hooked up the battery, held my breath and turned the key. She fired right up!

The truck was idling really high, around 2500rpm so we shut it off. Turned out the throttle cable needed adjusting to loosen it. had some smoke for a short while, but it dissapeared, probably grease we had transfered onto the exhaust manifold.

She runs like a champ. I couldn't believe my oil pressure gauge stays around half. Before it only crept above a quarter tank when it was warming up.

This swap is very doable for an average mechanically handy person with a little bit of help and lot of organizing/labeling of wires and hoses and bolts.

Hope this helps someone!

OutlawMike

Take a picture of that connector, I can probably tell you what it is.

Good job,

Mike

hawaiibake

that connector is next to the middle fuel injector on the drivers side. It is buried under the intake now.

Marc

Way to go - congrats.

a4runnerfreak

Big under-taking. Congrats on a job well done

Richjrosa

I was just thinking wouldn't it have been easier to take out the trans too then unbolt them and put it back in as one piece? Just curious as to what others think as I may have to do that one day. I know when i used to do V8's I would pull both the engine and tranny as a unit cause it's so much easier to get them lined up.

Rich

OutlawMike

The Knock Sensor Connector?

Hope not.

Mike

hawaiibake

In retrospect it may have been easier to pull both out at the same time. If I had to do it again i might go that route. If i didn't have a bodylift I would definitly pull em both.

Mike- is that what that plug is for? I wonder where that is supposed to connect to on my old wiring harness that I reused. there certainly isn't a free plug for it...

OutlawMike

I'm not sure, but the only things I recall being in that area under the throttle body are the injector itself, and the knock sensor connection. There is a pigtail that comes out from under the intake manifold, a jumper if you will from the knock sensor to the harness. In the pic below you can see two parts of the harness diving under the fuel rail. One is for the injector. The other is for the knock sensor:

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In this photo, from the side, the harness is removed and you can see the injectors and the pigtail for the knock sensor:

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In this photo the harness and the fuel rails are removed and you can see the pigtail sticking out from under the intake manifold:

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And in this photo with the intake removed you can see the knock sensor and it's pigtail:

[IMG][/IMG]

You said you where throwing a code? What code did it throw? The FSM has the procedure for getting the codes, very easy to do.

Good luck,

Mike

hawaiibake

that is definitly the sensor that i didn't have a plug for. I will have to check the code. I drove the truck around today and it pulses when it idles. I have a feeling the two are connected. Thanks for those very detailed pics. you rebuilding your engine right now?

OutlawMike

Damn. Hopefully the pigtail is there to connect to, as that sensor is a pain in the arse to get to. Under the intake, go figure. The pigtail gets very brittle with age, as it cooks in there under the intake. Do not pull or monkey with it too much, as the wire inside might crack and then throw the same code. If that happens you have to pull the plenum (the big aluminum thing that the throttle body is bolted too) , the timing belt (idler pulley at the top), the fuel rails, and the intake manifold. PITA!

Nope, did it two years ago. I just posted about that, dropped valve seat on the #6 intake valve. I have almost 200 pictures of the tear down. If you need them, PM me an e-mail address, I will send you a URL for my Photobucket account.

Good luck,

Mike

hawaiibake

i remember seeing the pigtail, i just don't know where to plug it in on my old wiring harness. I don't have any unused plugs when i swapped them over????

OutlawMike

That is strange. Something odd going on there, the ECU definitely needs a knock sensor input. It is not very hard to take the Throttle body off of the plenum. Just drain the radiator down a bit so that you can pull the two fluid lines off of it. With the throttle body out of the way, you should be able to get pretty good access to that area of the harness to look around and see if the plug is tied off somewhere, or, if someone cut it off.

Good luck,

Mike

hawaiibake

I found the old wire for the knock sensor. The plug must have melted in the fire. I spliced on a new one and fished the pigtail out from under the phlenem, took all of ten minutes. Runs like a charm now, the motor feels smoother. thanks for all the help

OutlawMike

That's right, you had that engine fire. Forgot about that.

Good deal, glad I could help. And good job with the swap. The first time you do something like that it is more of a mental hurdle than anything else. Next thing you know, you will be putting a 3.4 in there!!

Mike

hawaiibake

LOL! wish i had now. Guess you have to do it once to get the confidence up. Motor pulls a lot harder than my last one, but it is still a 3.slow. Put a Genuine Gear locker in her today. First time pulling the axles out of the rear. I now have a lot of extra play in my driveshaft and I am thtinking I may not have adjusted my ring gear correctly... Such a PITA though draining all the oil out and pulling the third I may just drive it a while and see if it explodes.