Hey guys, here goes nothing. I have a 91 4runner, 2wd auto with a 3vze in southern California.

This is a sentimental truck so talk about selling and buying another isn't really helpful.

I had planned a 5vze or a 1uzfe swap for a long time as an auto, but haven't had the chance to start. Now, many years later, I'm finally getting closer to be able to start something. With the advances in EVs and integration, I'm eyeing a 2013ish Nissan leaf to swap in and convert this thing to an EV instead of messing with a crossover pipe on the 5vze or possible headache of the 1uz. Neither of those is a deal breaker, but still means a pretty inefficient motor in an old truck compared to an EV. Added benefit that we have solar so this could be a daily commute for free.

That said, an ev conversion makes no sense with an automatic, so there are a lot of ideas on the table, and I'm looking for advice.

I can't seem to locate a 2wd R150 to make this straightforward (any leads appreciated). The potential for future 4x4 makes doing some work to put an R150f in there possibly worthwhile. I'm researching the extent of work needed for this now. The real advantage of something that bolts to the 3vze is being able to install and test the system before swapping to EV, but that is I guess not strictly required. Transmissions from 90s 4 cylinders are cheap and available but then I can't test with the 3vze and I hear they aren't as sturdy, so probably not a good thing for EV torque.

I also don't really want to acquire a whole donor car since I have a small garage and not a ton of space to keep a whole nother vehicle around.

Looking for advice from the community on a simple path to a more usable 4runner going forward. Thoughts?

Edit: Doing some more digging, it looks like maybe I can use a 91-95 Tacoma R150 if I snag the crossmember...can anyone confirm that?

 

Where do you expect to put the 7 or 8 hundred pounds of battery???

 

Possibly in the gas tank/spare tire locations, keeping them low although I haven't looked that closely at the space. Might be forced to build a box in the rear cargo area, or eliminate the back seats.

Alternatively, instead of the leaf power stack, other alternatives leave room in the engine bay for at least a few battery modules.

 

I am not the best resource for EVs, but I think you might not need a transmission as long as the controller you use can spin the motor backwards for reverse and the RPM range works for a normal range of speed without gear reduction. If that is the case you could just bolt the motor to a transfer case (would not necessarily have to be from a 4Runner at that point), which would be needed for a 4x4 conversion later anyway. If you can fit the motor where the transmission goes that would also free up lots of space under the hood for batteries, and a transfer case can handle much more torque than a transmission. I have seen a few people do electric swaps in Toyotas on YouTube, so that might be a good resource to give you some ideas. I personally prefer gas engines, but an EV swap would be interesting and could be increasingly beneficial, especially if you stay living in California. I wonder if a swap would qualify for any tax credits similar to buying a new EV?

 

I'll definitely look into it. I've done plenty of engine and suspension work on a variety of cars but haven't done much transmission/tcase work so probably need to familiarize myself a lot more with how that might work. Sounds like a really good idea to save weight and space, thanks!

 

@the_supernerd I had originally discounted using the Lexus gs450h driveline because I had misunderstood the output of the transmission. Thanks to your suggestion, I dove deeper and this may be a perfect solution.

In short, the gs450h is a hybrid. And the EV motors are essentially in the transmission. This possibly means pulling the 3vze and emptying the engine bay, and replacing the automatic transmission with the gs450h 'transmission' connected to the driveshaft. Setting aside the electronics, that's the whole story and leaves the entire engine bay with space. This looks like a vast improvement to the idea of a manual swap. Sheesh!