I have a 94 4Runner, SR5, auto, 4wd, AC, electronic cruise control.

I’m ready to tackle the 3.4 swap, but it’s time to hunt for a donor. I want to keep everything as it is, as much as possible. I’m not converting to manual, for instance.

I’ve read just about every thread I can find, but what I can’t find is what to buy when it comes to a donor. It sounds like a T100 4x4 auto would be the best bet, but they’re sparse.

I guess, does it matter? What if I bought a 96-99 ish or Tacoma 4Runner auto 4wd? I understand there’s some difference with newer models than that and throttle bodies. Would I have most of what I need, and then just get the t100 ECU?

Ultimately, I want to keep my 4Runner as stock looking as possible, inside and out.

 

I'm in the middle of my swap and I'm no expert yet. But I've done a lot of research and what I am seeing is that to keep your truck as stock as possible you will need to stick with your existing transmission which makes it necessary for you to get a T-100 ECU to make it shift correctly and not give you any diagnostic codes. If you go down the route that I did you will not have a stock looking interior, shifters had to go in favor of a B&M cable shift and the T-case shift knob sticks up in the middle of the hole where both trans and T-case originally lived.
I think many people will agree with me, that if you want it to look as good as possible you either need to do exceptional wiring work yourself or pay to have a harness built.
good luck donor hunting, I scored an ugly but running T-100 with a knocking engine and a questionable spare engine in the bed for $900. Just got lucky I guess

 

thanks. I’m shopping copart and finding rolled runnners and tacos in the sub $1k range. I just want to make sure I get the right thing for as little hacking as possible. Should the donor be an auto no matter what? What year t100 ECU to buy? Does the year of the donor matter to mate to the ECU? That’s the kind of stuff I’m not sure of

edit to add. I’m not worried about the mechanical side of things. I R&Rd 6 or 7 engines, rebuilt engines, transmissions, etc. I’m mechanically handy.

I’m also sort of an aircraft avionics tech. I can rebuild an old analog radar unit, wire radios, GPS, engine monitors etc, so I’m equally not concerned about doing wiring.

I just want the final product to be as little kludged as possible

 

mine is a 96 automatic and I'm told the oil pan is the same as the 3.0
if you stick with an automatic donor you'll get the flex plate with it and not have to pull the pilot bearing out.
I'm not sure what other differences there may be.
It's looking to me like the airbox is going to be too big and inlet tubes too long, so I may be going with a cold air intake.

 

T100s are typically the best donors because 90% of them were used as work truck and typically they're beat to hell. I plan to use a T100 as my donor.

You can use 96-02 4Runners and 95.5-04 Tacomas as donors, as well. I'd definitely stay true to the donor and not mismatch parts, if you can avoid it. I've heard the plugs and such range from 4Runner to Tacoma to T100 and even more variations between the automatics and manual transmissions of each model.

 

T100 has a lot of the stuff like the oil pan you willl have to swap if you go 4runner