MrDoug, I bought my donor through Klode a couple of years ago. Mine came from their Montrose yard, and they delivered it to my house at a reasonable cost.

As Dale alluded to, you will find that even wrecked, Toyotas still fetch a pretty good price. Mine was just a little shy of $4,000 (roll over with 67k miles). The folks at Klode were easy to deal with. You will have to buy a membership ($100, last I looked) to be able to attend and bid at the auctions. That also gets you web access to their auction lists for Denver, Montrose and Casper.

I suggest that you get a membership, and attend a few auctions (Mondays, in Denver) to get a feel for how it works. It will also give you a chance to personally look over the offerings. I ran into a couple of instances where I thought a truck seemed like a good prospect for the swap (on-line), but when I saw it in person, I found reasons not to bid.

I also found that the prices seemed to be a little better at the Montrose and Casper yards - probably less competition in the bidding.

Good luck!

 

Hey, thanks for the tips. I'll have to mull it over a bit, you're right, it was more than I expected.

 

Hey Dale, that's kind of freaky, it looks almost exactly like my truck did a year ago (minus the damage).

 

Yeah, I like that color too. It was a 2001.

 

My engine, with all accessories including ECU, power steering pump, alternator, ECM, etc., came in at $2000.

 

RobD that is a really great deal. I hope that I can find one like that too. I am going to start looking more actively, it's good to know that Tacomas still came in manual trans much later than 4runners, gives much more flexibility about engine choices. When looking for a Tacoma manual trans engine, it doesn't always say if it was manual or not, what is the clue in the VIN to show it's a manual Tacoma?
Also, is it better to get an engine from a 'prerunner' or another model Tacoma?

I have another 3.4 related question, my 3vze gearing is 4.88 with 33"x10.5", would I be able to keep that gearing and tiresize with a 5vzfe/downey header combo? (hope hope).

 

I'm running stock gearing with 33x10.5 and can actually maintain speed going up hills. If I downshift to 4th, I can actually accelerate!!

 

NOT FAIR

 

So any updates.

Im starting to search around for one.

 

I think I'd stay away from the 4runners for a swap donor. Apparently the 4runner ECUs require a special chipped key for startup. Even if you had the orignal key I'm not sure how you'd use it

Here's a guy having a problem that got my attn:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/p...uation-166127/

 

I am subscribing to this thread. Mr. doug let us know if you find your engine. I hope the tranny I sold you works well- I did not have so much luck with the engine from that truck.

 

The tranny is still sitting while I take care of a ton of other things. I found the motor. A buddy of mine from KS wants to gut his 02 taco (120k on the clock) and go to a chevy setup, so I'm going to drive out, pick it up and bring it back home to pull the motor and all suspension off. Should be in the next couple of weeks.

While I was prepping for this work, I found lots of problems with the cab, so I've been doing a ton of body works (replace floor pans, replace rear body mounts, replace core support, re-weld inner fender wells to firewall, etc.

I finally found a top shifter for the doubler, and am ordering the adapter this week, so after I get that motor and the doubler, I'll be using the r150 bell housing to mate the r151 to the 5vz, then the double cases. Next after that is to place it in the engine bay, trim the tunnel for flat bottom and weld up the motor and t-case mounts.

 

How hard is it to find the wiring and the ECM for the 3.4? I have seen a couple engines/wrecks for sale around here but either no ECM or an Auto ECM.

I have a W56 Tranny. 88 Hilux/pickup 22RTE