Strider7

It's pretty late now, so I will be brief and post more later, but I just thought it would be nice to start my own thread to chronicle the progress of my 3.slo to 3.4L heart transplant.

My truck, as stated in the title, is a '93 ext. cab P/U with about 100,000ish miles (I can't remember exactly right now). The truck was given to me by my uncle, who let it sit up for two years after a head gasket failure. After that long, as you might imagine, the 3.0L engine was pretty much rusty toast. He never drained the coolant laden oil from the engine!!!

Today I purchased a '99 3.4L complete with ECU, Exhaust, Harness, and the full complement of its belt driven accessories. The package was sourced from a 4Runner Limited with about 72 grand on the odometer. I also got the cruise control unit and misc. A/C lines. The Runner had an automatic transmission, so I pulled the flex plate off of it and sourced a flywheel and clutch assy from a '95 or '96 Taco motor that was also there at the yard (I can't remember what year it was from - I looked at too many motors). For all of that I paid $1500+tax with exhange of my old engine and components. I thought it was a good deal.

The '99 was manufactured in August of '98, so fortunately for me this engine is one of the ones that has a plug for the relocating of the oil dipstick and tube. Also, while the engine did come from an auto tranny equiped truck, it does have a crank that is machined for the pilot bearing neccessary for the manual transmission components.

Right now, finding a manual tranny ECU is what is going to prove to be my most difficult task, and possibly my costliest problem. So far, my searches here around Houston have proven to be fruitless. My parts guy at the local Yota dealership quoted me $1500 (ball park) for said ECU - no remanufactured units are available he says, only new ones. The yards I went to sell ECUs for $200-250 ... too bad none of them have what I need.

I posted a few questions about this project in a different thread a while back and mentioned that I planned to build my own wire harness. But now, with the expense of a new 5spd harness and wiring diagrams for both the '93 and the '99, that ORS harness is looking like the way I will probably go. The expense and the fact that I am getting antsy to have the truck up and running for a daily driver.

An light inspection of the motor revealed a throttle body that was relatively free of the usual black grime and oily residue buildup. This was very encouraging - it appears that the motor was given decent care in it's former life. The outside of the motor and the accessories also appear to be relatively clean.

I plan to replace the waterpump, timing belt, cam seals, crank seal, and the rear main seal while motor is out on the stand. This way any questions as to the age and lifespan of said parts will be non-issues. The clutch friction disc, throwout bearing and pilot bearing will also be installed new.

I have the oil pressure sending unit from the '93, as well as the dipstick and tube, oil pan and baffle, and oil pickup. I retained the '93 motor mounts as well, so I should be mostly set, save for a few minor things. Ah, and I forgot about the starter, I have that from the '93 as well.

Hopefully a local exhaust shop can craft the '99 components into a lower exhaust system that will mate up to a set of the Downey headers that everyone speaks so highly of.

For the moment the project is on hold due to my brother's '76 Corona, which is in pieces in my driveway and garage awaiting a new timing chain. Once we are done with that, I can get back to my truck. So maybe by this weekend. (I have work and school too ...)

Well, I am dozing off at the keyboard, so more on this next time ... (ha, I and I said I was gonna be brief - ha,ha,ha) :pat:

htxdragon

hey, thats cool i got a 93 p/u and i want to do something like that oneday except i got a 22re. maybe you can help me whenever i get the time and money to do that (also live in houston)

cr500rider

im doing the same sort of thing except my truck is an 87, and i put in a 3.0, now going to the 3.4. what is this OSR harness you are talking about? my stock 87 harness has already been hacked for the 3.0 conversion i did

suprathepeg

I pretty much passed on a 3.4 cause of the auto ecu. You'll have to get a standard harness as well cause they are different, also different year to year. Good luck though hope it works out well.

hokiruu

keep looking on ebay. hope you find one for a good deal before long.

Strider7

Howdy! ... (hey, it's Texas - he,he,he)

Yeah, I have heard of this being done, but you will have to do a lot more than what I am doing. You'll also need to find a transmission, as the one for your 22re won't mate up to the 3.4L engine (at least I think that's what I read).

That project would make what I am doing look like a cake walk.

Strider7

Here's a link to Off Road Solutions site - Click Me!

You should be able to find info on the harness that they offer, there. The one for a 5spd appears to be $650. That would be a decent deal for me, since the two wiring diagrams and the new harness that I would have to buy from Toyota to hack would cost me about $450.

Hope that helps you.

Strider7

Suprathepeg - Yeah, I'm sure it will all work out ... in due time. Hopefully that won't take too long.

Hokiruu - Thanks, I will be sure to continue checking on Ebay ...

breknraj

I'm looking into doing this conversion this summer, if possible. The prices that I have been seeing in this area (Colorado) for the donor 3.4 parts (engine, manual ECU and engine bolt on accesories) seems a lot steeper than some of you have been talking about in other parts of the country. I just talked to a yard that was ball-parking $2800-$3500 for these, depending on milage.

I've already decided that if I choose to do this, that the Off Road Solutions big kit for the conversion will DEFINITELY be the way to go. I visited their shop yesterday, and talked to Derek, and I'm pretty impressed with the attitude I saw there, and he answered all of my admittedly introductory questions with good information (I'm still just in the research portion of my quest, since Worf ('90 SR5 manual PU) just died about a week and a half ago). You rock crawler out ther would LOVE to see Mike's (the boss) 4R crawler rig! Not my personal preference, but the work on it was beautiful!!

So, with what I've learned, so far, My leaning is to do the 3.4 conversion, use the ORS big conversion kit, add Northwest Off Road headers, and finally add A/C to my Toy, while I'm at it. The only quirky thing I forsee, as of now, will be to find someone to fab a crossover to mate the NWOR headers to my Borla exhaust.

I'm sure that once that is done, I'll probably be jonesing for new paint and wheels, but that will have to wait. Got to get the beastie running, again, first!

If anyone here can turn me on to cheaper sources for the donor parts, I'm all ears! I've had a ball looking into this subject, here. This forum is an incredible source of information on all sorts of stuff for our toys. Thanks, in advance, for any info you send my way!

htxdragon

thanks for the encouragement. this project will be on be on hold for a while anyways. still 17.

suprathepeg

Why bother with the 3.4 why don't you do a 7mge swap? That motor will bolt right up to your tranny. An equally good mill as well.

chopps

So far on my quest to install the 3.4 auto into a 94 4runner man I have spent:

Engine with 138xxx - $1,071
ECM - $161
Flywheel - $75
Clutch - $150
= $1,457 ......not including the manual trans. wiring harness

dsm59

i dont know if this would be something you would be interested in,But a Stand-alone engine management system would fix that problem and give you an
advantage over the stock ecu when it comes to tunning and adding go-fast goodies



This is the hard-core racer in me talking..i have a stand-alone Engine management system in my DSM

brandontrek

i WAS looking into the 3.4 swap but now i have been looking into the 7mge or 7mgte swap. looks like it is a lot more bang for your buck(once you replace the headgasket....)

suprathepeg

Yea those M series engines were awesome. there is sooooo much room for more power in those things too. An the torque curve... I wish Toyota would have used that engine instead of the v6 when they replaced the 22rte. Talk about a great combo.

Strider7

I haven't been able to do anything with my project in ... well in ages, lol. But finally, this week I had an opportunity to begin work on my truck again. I have a few pictures to post as well - I know we all like looking at pics.

I began the week by cleaning out and organizing (somewhat) my very neglected garage. With that done, today I began the process of installing the waterpump, timing belt, and other misc. wear items. It felt good to get something done on the motor.

The '93 pickup.



And the work begins ...











In these pictures you can see the dent in the intake runner that is closest to you in the foreground of the photos. I think that I am going to assemble the engine using the intake as is. The dent appears to be superficial, and hopefully it won't affect the performance of the engine. The donor vehicle had a crumpled hood - from a front end collision - and I am sure that's where the dent came from.








It looks like there was somewhat of a leak from the waterpump, judging by the rust that is. Whether is was the pump going out, or a faulty seal due to a poor install I guess I will never know. The sealant used for the waterpump was black. Anyone know what the sealant that Toyota used on these at the factory looks like? I couldn't really make a good call on the timing belt. While it didn't look brand new, it also didn't look to be very old. Really, I have no idea as to whether or not the previous owner had any of the maintenance work done.



Here's another question for you guys ... What type of plugs did these motors ship with in '99? When I removed the spark plugs I found that the passenger's side cylinder bank had NGK's installed while (get this! ) the driver's side bank had Denso's installed. I saw that and went - 'What the?' Oh well, no worries, she'll be getting a new set on plugs anyway. But it still made me wonder if some poor sap took it to get serviced somewhere and a raw deal.

I got further along than the pictures show, but I stopped taking photos once I started to really get into the work. Perhaps I will take some more in the morning before I start into it again. I stopped tonight, after removing the cam sprockets and water pump. Hopefully the autosupply store will have a tool that I can rent to help me remove the crank pully. I don't have access to a welder, so I can't make my own SST.

Sooner or later, I imagine I will make a seperate thead to try and sell this ECU that came with my motor, as it is for use with an Automatic transmission, and is of no use to me. I will probably end up selling the wiring harness along with it.


Ok, well that's enough for now I guess. Any and all comments, suggestions, observations, ect. are welcome ...

Vrooooom

I think the "dent" is not really a dent at all. It came like that from the factory. I have a 3.4 5vz that I bought from an auto dismantler with the "dent". If anyone else knows differently, please chime in.

Strider7

Humn, I am not sure if we are talking about the same 'dent'. I have circled two areas in this picture. It sounds like you are talking about the area with the red circle. Is that right? If so, I agree with you - that is there from the factory.

The area circled in blue is the one I was talking about though. I am fairly certain that it has been dented in, as my wifes 5VZ-FE (in our '98 T100) doesn't have that same 'dent'.

Willcipher

That 'dent' is a depression purposely cast into the upper plenum for the throttle cable to lay in.

Strider7

I am guessing that you mean the one that I circled in red. Correct? I can confirm that from personal experience with our 5VZ-FE equiped T-100.

And what of one circled in blue. Do you agree that that is indeed a real dent that isn't supposed to be there?