Sad to say after having work done to the notorious 3.slow to replace the head gasket I pretty much got taken My 1990 4Runner has been sitting for a year now and this weekend i'm going to start pulling apart the motor. But the biggest question I have is whether to do a straight 3vze swap or upgrade to a 3.4? Keep in mind I am a full time college student with a decent job. What would be more reasonable? I know for sure the 3.0 that's in there right now is shot. Last time i turned it on I drove it maybe 100 yards very slowly and it over heated and started smoking like cheech and chong!

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

 

3.4 swap is the best option IMO

:wabbit2:

 

About how much work and cost will that be? I can work with a weekend project since this isn't my daily driver. I'm going to toy it up as much as possible but the first thin i do is going to be the swap

 

It's all relative to what you can do yourself and how cheap you find a donor vehicle. I have maybe $1000 in mine but that was not really necessary either.

:wabbit2:

 

The work isn't a problem. But its possible to get it done with a grand? Its just a matter of finding the donor vehicle or motor and working with parts that I already have or I can just pick up whatever i need. I'm just looking to see what about it will cost me.

 

Research the 3.4 swap in the Engine Swap section. If you can find a suitable donor at a good price, I'd think long & hard about doing the swap. Read as much as you can beforehand so you know the positives & negatives before you decide.

 

All swaps cost different amounts. My donor was $700, but that was just the engine and ecu. I had to wire mine differently due to and auto ecu and I have a stick. I'd say that the total cost of mine was around $1100-1200, but I also added an electric fan, and had to have my crossover pipe done by somebody else. It all really depends on how much you do to the motor before it goes in, how many changes you are adding, and what you do yourself.

 

its just a matter of the amount of time u want to spend on it the 3vze it can be done in a weekend the 3.4 will probably take a solid month or 2 of just weekends depending how well everything goes!

 

If you get really adventurous do a diesel swap.. then you don't have much wiring to do lol.

 

3.4L best bet if not ur dd. Better for long term toying. Better hp too

 

check your texas emissions laws:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/vi/misc/faq/engine.html

maybe you should call them instead of asking us?

Swaps said you have to have what the original vehicle had for emissions and then they went to 'reconstructed' vehicles which could include putting in engines your vehcile didn't have much like hot rods, kit cars and things like could be considered.

 

On the emissions thing, im not from Texas, but my understanding is if its a newer engine from the same manufacture as the vehicle your ok. That's just what I've read and heard

 

This is all great info. I'm trying to get this done by March, which is a good 3 months. But being a full time student and working part time will take a toll. So what I'm looking at is probably just going to do a straight swap with a 3.0 because I don't have much time to fabricate anything considering it will be a weekend project when I'm not working.

The motor is almost out (should be out by the 18th once finals are over), just trying to decide whether to find a donor vehicle or go with a motor from motorcrate. Does anyone have the link to the hi-pro 3.0? Or experience with it. Im kind of sketchy about finding a donor vehicle because finding a good 3.0 is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. Unless I find a virgin donor.... An ideas?