techno

I put a 350 into an old nissan a few years back. V8's are awesome!!! If your rig is just for the trails then you'll love every minute that thing is running unless you have the same issues I had.
1. Cooling. Get the absolute best cooling system you can afford, try for a 5 core radiator at least, make sure your radiator fan shroud is properly set up.
2. Fuel delivery. Quadrajets SUCK off road. They are designed for the street. Get one of those Holley carbs that are designed for offraoding, Dominators I think.... OR, get fuel injection. I vote for fuel injection. If LPG is available then do that instead. Also make sure you have electronic ignition, not points.
3. Make sure your other driveline bits can handle the abuse you are about to throw at them. I destroyed my stock gearbox after 6 months.
4. Pay good attention to the engine mounts, design in a fail safe if the break, like a chain or something.
5. Prepare to spend loads of cash feeding the thing, cause once you get it all running properly you will be flooring it every chance you get just to hear it rumble!!

leonardator

[/QUOTE] You also won't be able to borrow fuel from your trail buddies.[/QUOTE]

you won't need to borrow fuel, increase economy, and you can probably run at a idle all of the time, not like your gas powered buddies.

animalbmx

Excuse my ignorance unless I missed something but what is the reasoning for the 350 swap???
I'm against it and for a few reasons
Thats a lot more WEIGHT being added to your rig. I give a little credit to my wheeling success due to the fact that I am significantly lighter then the other trucks in my group(1-ton chevs). Also think of the parts you would be breaking. Toy axles are not going to hold up to a sbc. I guess you could get 30-spline longfields for the front and chromo rears. Then your starting to break R&Ps you could get those cryo'd though should help fix that but next inline I think would be your hubs blowin out. I'm not sure of the order in things breaking but you get the point..I would swap out the Toy axles and run full width chevy.. and thats gonna bring your cost up even more. I have a trail built rig myself with a 3.0 v6 and what I lack in HP/tq I will being making up in low gearing and will do just fine. Unless your playing in mud bogs where you need lots of hp/tq to keep up the wheel speed then I see really no need for a sbc. just run dual cases with 4.7s in them and 5.29s in the axles and call it a day!!! just my 2cents I'll shut-up now

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

I have saw 3-4 Toyotas with V-8 conversions sitting on craigslist in the Portland, OR area for a long time...Not saying you shouldn't do it, but it seems a lot of people have 'lost interest' or have 'too many projects'....A tundra or 4Runner v-8 would be cool...

Photog

Maybe you could pick up one of the previously converted (and functional) V8 Toyotas, cheaper than hacking your own. See if you like it, determine what you would do different, then change or not, your own truck. Then sell the the other one. If you didn't like it, you still have yours, and the other one is gone.

dlbrunner

You can definitely pick up a v-8 converted yota much cheaper than to "buy then build" The only problem here is knowing what is a good conversion and what is a hack job. Photog has a good idea with just buying one already done, but if the budget does not allow, that may not be an option

Consult someone who has done the conversion and drives it, see what bugs they encountered and what they would have done differently. Arm yourself with as much knowlege as you can. Seriously look at what the best drivetrain placement is. Body lift issues, exhaust, etc...

The best thing you can do is physically look at one, get under the truck, poke around a little, take it for a little ride

It appears the running consensus is fuel injection.

After giving this some more thought, I think the 4.3 chev may be a reasonable alternative to other toyota engines, and may not have as many issues with fitment/cooling that the v-8 will.

Yota Tony

I'm saying nuts to doing the 350.

When I swap the motor, it's simply a question of when, I'm going to do the Land Cruiser 3B diesel. After driving my buddy's 85 4Runner with the swap all I can say is hot damn is it fun and REALLY easy to pull off too.

Photog

Very cool!!

You say it is easy to pull off. How easy?

Other than the engine, what needs to be done with the fuel system, transmission, etc?

Yota Tony

There's no wiring for the engine really, fuel system is dead easy especially because I'm carb'd to start with. I've got transmission options also.

I'll go into it in a little more detail tomorrow.

Yota Tony

Alright. I've got a little more time so here's some details on the 3B swap.
Fuel system: pump is on the motor, no return line like a carb'd motor (inline pump).
Transmission, I'm going to use the Landcruiser trans with an adapter for the mini truck case.
No real wire because it's a mechanical diesel. Just starter and alt. Wire up the glow plugs, with a push button and big relay. Need to use the Diesel starter relay.
Now, shutting the truck down is kinda funky. Run a choke cable to the arm on the EDIC (Electric Diesel Injection control) motor and that will cut the fuel to the truck. Plus you can rig it up so the choke is out when your parked, thus the truck cannot be started.
Motor mounts will have to be moved along with the rad. The rad will sit inside of the rad support and the hood will have to be modified to clear it.

That's about it really.

Robrt32

Why not buy a chevy short wheel base truck and put your toy body on the chevy frame... same thing without some of the hassle... Ive seen this done over a weekend before

Yota Tony

Because I'm not doing the 350 swap any more.

Robrt32

ohh i didn't read all of the thread.........

4x4spaz

iTrader: (2)

Yota Tony, go for it. Be sure to keep us updated... you got me thinkin' about it...

Yota Tony

Which the 3B swap?

4x4spaz

iTrader: (2)

Not necessarily the 3B, but some sort of diesel.

Yota Tony

I will go for the 3B just have other things to do first.