WOW, you do good work man, looks great! That's gonna be awesome when it's done, you'll have the fastest Toyota pickup in the world LOL. X2 on vids, can't wait to see this thing crawling over stuff and not breaking a sweat.

 

Thanks, everyone! Even with the engine set back as far as possible and the axle moved fwd 1.5in., it is very close. I won't know for sure until I get out there and test it.

 

Continuing with the hookups, I'm not liking the upper water hose setup. There's not too many options here, but this one won't work because it runs the hose above the radiator cap. I'm also not crazy about a harness with all the colors of the rainbow.




Back to rip and tear mode. There is just enough of a dip behind the throttle body to allow the new cross over tube routing which is slightly lower than the cap, which I think will work just fine. I now know why I didn't choose plumbing for a career. Leak checks forthcoming.



At this point, I'm trying to figure out where to mount the coolant recovery and washer fluid tanks. I've shopped around looking for something to mount on the firewall, but am going to use the original ones mounted side by side.
I whipped up these brackets out of a little 1/4in Al plate. The tanks fit the space and won't hit when the hood is swung.



I'm working on coming up with a better air cleaner setup, open for suggestions. The harness wrapped in black lets me sleep better at night, too.

 

That thing looks killer. Its going to be a beast. You could always get a dual duct for the intake kit.

 

Might be hard to do a dual duct for the intake due to the MAF sensor. But are you running one? I don't really see it in your pictures, I know you can reprogram the ECU to run Speed Density to eliminate it.

I know you probably though of this but I would just make that radiator a dual pass and put the inlet and outlet on the same side. Its more efficient and will look better too. I'm sure any radiator shop or yourself could do it.

 

No MAF sensor with this ECM. I have to agree on the dual pass radiator. If this radiator isn't enough, I'll definitely go that route. I am trying to keep the cost down by using what I already have. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Since no one is stepping up to the plate to tackle this electrical, I guess I'll...

It's really no big deal. A decade and a half of mods and add-ons by a novice (at best) electrician have made shambles out of the factory harness under the dash. Splices, cut and crimps, added lights and switches, wire color changes all add up to a required correction. I guarantee someone out there is shaking their head saying,"yup". So the first thing was to gain access by removing the entire dash and loosing all the no longer needed wiring after a lot of studying. The pile was amazing. I always buy a factory repair manual with wiring diagrams when I buy a vehicle which, on a job like this, is essential.



I relocated the relay/fuse block to the cabin behind the driver seat to coincide with the new battery location. I plan on redoing it later with an updated design.



Master cut out switch added for good measure


New chassis harness routed. The color coating made it a lot easier




The Painless harness wasn't long enough to mount the ECM anywhere feasible, and I wanted it under the passenger seat anyway, so I had to splice in extensions to 43 wires. Keeping all that straight was fun.



Next is the smoke test by turning everything on.

 

wow! I havent seen build this nice in quite awhile rock on dude

 

Wow. I would not have the patience for that, me and wiring don't get along well. And yeah, it drives me nuts seeing the hack job crap people do with electrical. I've always done my own stereo installs and I do it right, good connectors, no wires showing, etc. When I bought my truck the stereo had the classic tweaker "electrical tape every connection" job. It was a mess.

At any rate, looks like you're doing a fantastic job on everything, hope the smoke test goes well . Keep it coming, can't wait to see some vids this thing tearing it up.

 

Thanks for the kind words!

Smoke Test results: Ops Normal. No burning smell, no popped breakers. Now to finish the fuel and transmission lines then to find out if this engine even runs. This is kinda fun!

 

Nice! You're almost at the most exciting part when you get to turn the key with no idea what will happen .

 

With all the variables in order and despite the ridiculousness of the whole project, the engine fired right up. I had issues with the oil pressure gauge which were easy to fix (electrical), and a vacuum leak (the hose for the brake diaphragm never got connected).

The next step was to chop a hole in the floor of the bed for battery access. I had to cut through a crossmember which require a steel framework to regain rigidity. This shows part of it




A lexan shield over the top of the batteries, then the box cover


then the floor section, screwed down to the framework


Not the most convenient design, but adequate given the circumstances.

 

After more than 2 years of sitting idle, the truck finally got to see daylight today moving under it's own power!






A million more small details to finish up on, but its getting there.

 

Sweet! That's gotta feel good. Were you able to drive it around at all or is it not quite road worthy yet?

 

Can you post some pics of how you fastened down the front clip? Sweet setup!

 

Thanks! I'll post up as soon as I figure out how I'm going to do it. Its been a back burner kind of thing, wanting to finish up other things. I have the latches I want to use to lock the bumper down, but I haven't come up with a plan that I like. It has to work good as well as look good and unlike my typical way of trial and error, I want to get it right the first time.

 

im doing a 5.3 swap in my 88 yota which is similar to yours, but im kinda having a hard time because my truck has ifs susp. :wabbit2:

 

very nice

 

Yeah, that IFS is a bit of a problem and ya kinda hate to fool with a really nice driving truck, but looking into my crystal ball, I see a solid axle under there...

Incidentally, I have the original Corvette 'butterfly' pan and pickup tube (low profile) off my LS1 that may fit yours. I've never heard of anyone going that route, but hey, it might be your answer and right now, it's just taking up space.

 

Thanks!

Finally got back out to the barn for some work on the hold down latches. Pics soon if my hot wrench doesn't come out first.