heyall. i been a lurker here for a long time. all but done with my 3.4 swap and figure i should give back a bit since most of the info i needed came from here. for anyone thinking about doing a 3.0 to 3.4 swap, here's summore dope. there's a few bits of into that i haven’t found elsewhere.

background: i’ve had my beloved 1988 xcab 3.0 v6 manual for nigh on 15 years, and i’ve been thinking about this swap for a long time. my clutch was going out for a while - this time last year i could do a perfect launch just dropping the clutch. i fortuitously came across a nice 3.4 late last year on craigslist. a complete motor/transmission (except for a few things) for 800 bucks. very clean. mind you, i've never done an engine swap before, though i’m moderately mechanically inclined. knew i had the skills. i then started accumulating all the other parts i *thought* i needed (more on that later). finally pulled my old 3.0 about may 1st and got the 3.4 on the street a couple weeks ago, for a total of about 90 days offline. it’s not cheap. i figured i’d spend $2000. i’m now at $4000 and not quite done. figured if i was gonna do it, i’d do it right. if i didn’t already have all the tools i needed i’d prolly be at $5000.

here’s the parts i bought/things i’ve changed...

3.4L 5vze from a 2002 toyota tacoma pre runner (2wd) automatic, supposedly with 57,000 miles
off road solutions (ors) conversion harness
(ors) oil pan/pickup conversion
(ors) crossover exhaust
(ors) hp fuel line
(ors) hp power steering line
(ors) motor mount isolators
(oem) motor mounts (more on this later)
ceramic exhaust manifold and crossover
(columbia river mandrel bending) 304 stainless 2.5” tubing to fabricate full exhaust
(magnaflow) catalytic converter x2 (2002 model requires two cats)
(oem) weld-in 2 bolt mounts, o2 and afr sensor. i never understood why one is an o2 sensor and the other an afr sensor.
(magnaflow) 22” oval muffler
(marlin) new flywheel
(marlin) new heavy duty clutch kit
(oem) timing belt service (tensioner, idler, water pump, thermostat)
(nkg) new plugs, wires, plastic bits to route wires
(oem) flow matched injectors
(oem) intake manifold (original was cracked)
(oem) new air box (didn’t get one with the motor)
(oem) ignitor (didn’t get one with the motor)
(ebay special) new 3-row aluminum radiator
(parts store) all cooling hoses
(custom) 304 stainless frame bracket to route power steering hoses from pump to steering gear
(custom) 304 stainless battery tray
(sears) diehard 700cca battery
(oem) replaced heater core and lines
(oem) replaced environmental controls and cables
removed air conditioning system
disassembled and cleaned all environmental air ducts, replaced all gaskets
(oem) environmental dash face and lever knobs
tach mod to correctly indicate 3.4rpm
(obdlink) bluetooth obd-ii adapter
(oem) shifter and transfer lever bushings and boots
when hardware needed replacing, stainless hardware was used throughout (except when mating to aluminum parts - do not put stainless hardware into aluminum parts)

and or course i'm far from done, but it's my daily driver again. pics follow...

 

old reliable. thing i gotta say about the 3.0 - there's not really anything wrong with it. yeah it's anemic and it sucks for milage, but i've never seen a motor that starts so reliably. first turn, every time, 26 years later.



coming out.



spaghetti monster. ok, this is the only thing that's really wrong with this motor. you never could figure out where anything goes.

 

empty.



a tow strap, a forklift, and a hill, and i might have put a mile on this thing.



lots of simply green, rags, a little rain, and some rattle can.

 

a very pretty motor. clean as hell. i do believe what i'm told that it has 57,000. cut out from the frame - frame chunks still attached to the mounts motor when i bought it. intake manifold was cracked i think when they pulled it. i don't think you're supposed to pull this motor with the manifold attached to the driver's side brace/hook.



going down, down, down...



...and bolted in. an eight hour day.

 

and now to figure out what i've done.



meanwhile, in the cab...



the first of a number of butchered connectors. when searching for a motor, bear in mind that people sometime cannibalize a harness. i had to order four different connectors from the dealer, plus pigtail pins came to prolly a hundred bucks right there.

 

my motor came from an auto 2wd, and my computer came a manual 4wd. doesn't really matter. i just ended up with a connector from the engine harness that didn't go anywhere, and a socket on the ecu that didn't have a mate either. in retrospect i kinda wish i had just done the wiring myself, but mike from ors knows his stuff. he's got a fine product and it prolly saved me 20 or 40 hours.



then i went to montreal. the f1 race was that weekend, so there were ridiculous cars everywhere.



then some guy came by and gave me $300 for the old 3.0 which i thought was fitting.

 

my battery tray. 304 stainless. some sheet, some angle, some hardware, and some tig.



installed. i like to use nylock hardware anywhere that doesn't get over a few hundred degrees.



and the strap. make sure you put foam on stuff like this.

 

Awesome. Love seeing 3.4 motors going into the older bodies. Just finished one myself into an 86 runner for my nephew who's 16. Lol. Gonna be the envy of the local hangouts.

Anyway, keep the pics and new ideas. Embed those picture though so they aren't so small. Some of us are getting older!!

 

so apparently i've exceeded my quota. whatever my quota is. can't find any info on this subject. mod?

 

perhaps i should submit an arbitrary number of posts so that my quota goes up?

 

@dntsdad - just dumped a bunch of 3.0 parts and wheels and stuff on a coworker. his kid just picked up a '90 or so xcab for next to nothin. i always thought the 3.0 truck was good to learn on. the 3.4, however, is what this truck shoulda been. i'm learning not to spin the tires. 31" mud tires on pavement. it just likes to go fast. not that it's a monster. it's just right. careful with a 16 year old and a good truck.

 

Sign up for a free Photobucket account (or really any of the various free image hosting sites out there) then upload your photos there and copy past the IMG tags into your posts.

Overall really nice swap, and yes, I completely agree that the 3.4s should have been in these from the factory.

 

Good luck! Photo bucket is your best bet on this site. That extra power should be an amazing upgrade