anondrao

I'm gonna be moving across the country beginning of april... and i don't think my tranny will live through it.

my tranny ahs been runnin kinda rough... it vibrates at about 45mph and doesn't like 1st gear without double clutching.

aside from that, my tired 3.slow has gotta go. it still runs fine, and has a new timing belt, water pump. so i figure i can sell it without a problem to help fund the swap.
----------------------------
my only hangup is which motor and tranny to use.. on a 2 - 3K budget

I've read just about every comment in every forum about motor swaps etc, but they haven't helped me decide. only expanded my choices.

oh, and i can't bear to own a slugomatic. 5spd or nothin.
-----------------------------
So let's nitty gritty --

7MGTE :
i hear more good things about this motor every day. how much for the swap with tranny? can i keep the guage cluster, xfer case. I have a prolly won't have room for an intercooler, and i'm not looking to race. i just want more power. for hauling up hill with a trailor. i'm not trying to have so much that i'm breaking ˟˟˟˟. i'm a fairly conservative driver on the road...

4.3 VORTEC:
contrasting to the 7M, it's lighter than the I6, but i can't find any comparisons on the torque / horsepower. so i don't know how to compare them except that it will be difficult to keep a manual tranny. (keep in mind i need a new one anyway) it seems to be preferred to the 7MGTE from the accounts of my friends here in the PNW. saying that "everyone that has the supra motor just wants to go fast" - which is cool - but i get in trouble when i can go fast. also, i will need to fab a custom instrument cluster [i'm ok with this, but i'd rather not]

DIESEL:
HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE! i guess? i've always thought a diesel would be ideal... i love the sound, love the smell, love the torque. but i haven't found any solid, or practical information on this being done. please advise, this would be pretty sick!

3.4 :
I keep hearing "this practically bolts right up"... so let's put it in perspective. to what tranny? cause i need a new one.

------------------------------
*sigh* i'm sure i'm leaving out a lot of what i wanted to say when i started this post. but i'm sure it will come to light.

many thanks,
~Andon

rimpainter.com

When all is said and done, you are going to be hard-pressed to score a complete drivetrain in any of those configurations, installed, on a budget of 2 - 3K. All are going to require some fab work and an electrician to run correctly. Will you be doing the work? That is probably the best question to ask. Also, don't forget about oils, belts, and miscellaneous parts during the swap.

Babypig

The toyota 3.4 will bolt right up to whatever trans you have. You should be able to find a donor with trans in your price range. The only problem with selling your engine is that you will need the oil pan and oil pick up tube off the bottom of the engine, or find another from another engine or off e-bay. Also you will need to get the wiring harness and the computer for the new engine. I would say go diesel but they are hard to find especially in the states. If you can track down a Hino dealer you could ask if they have a used one laying around that you could buy. Hino builds the diesels for toyota and they also use the same engine in some of their trucks. At least up here in canada they do. good luck and try searching here for the 3.4 swap. There should be some good info on it.

anondrao

all good things... but this doesn't help me decide.

i will have Aggressive Offroad do it for me. I haven't got the time.

so... i emailed Hino to see if they had a motor i could purchase. That would be nice.

more help please,
~Andon

motrhedx81

If it counts for anything, I'm going to do the 4.3 swap sometime in the next year or so. With that motor you can get bellhousing adapters and engine mounts from v8conversions.com or advance adapters, and I'm sure there are other sources out there. This should let you keep that stock R-tranny and tcase. If you go mild engine power that tranny should have no prob. Painless sells wiring harnesses and there's another wiring company that starts with an H. You'd might need a new fuel pump to keep up the the larger efi demand. I'm gonna go with an NV4500 tranny because I wanna make my motor with a good grunt. I've heard you can get adapters to use the 4 cyl tcase but this tranny is pretty expensive but very good. I don't know too much about the other swaps cause I'm a chevy guy myself, but love my yota and wouldn't hardly trade it for anything. I'm just gonna make it the way I want it. You can get on yahoo or any search engine and come up with a lot of stuff about this swap, thats how I found out so much about it. This is a very reliable engine and I've heard nothing but good things about it. Its pretty much just 350 minus 2 cylinders, so this makes it fairly easy to find performance parts for. If you want to know anything else about this one let me know, I'll tell ya all I know.

muskie

being a 90 4 runner I would think the supra swap is out due to emissons. the 3.4 is the way I am currently setting up to go. they sell kits and adaptors for just about everything in this swap. the chevy is an easy swap also but again you need to find the same year or newer to pass emissions in most states and provinces.

MTL_4runner

I think the 3.4 would be the wisest choice among those.
It is also very well documented so that will help the install quite a bit.
Finally you just can't beat the reliability on a Toyota motor.

anondrao

thanks all... i'm kinda ruling out the supra.
i hear diesel just doesn't have it where you need it... as fond of them as i am.

i'd be puttin in a 95 or later 4.3 Vortec if i did it.
love to keep a 5 speed and adapt it to a toy xfer case.

how about the hp/torque differences between the 4.3 and the 3.4?

anondrao

c'mon guys! i've got a very finite deadline and it's making it nearly impossible for me to decide....

OK SO,

i can turn my R150F into Marlin for a rebuild... or he might exchange it for an R151F with the core discound... maybe.... i haven't asked him yet, but i have a couple friends up here that know him fairly well.

or i can go with the afore mentioned NV4500... pretty sick little tranny!

what about that new inline 5 vortec? seems like that would be choice if it's affordable.

i've increased my budget to 4K BTW.

adapters are damn expensive, but i might be able to get a deal on one...

don't let this thread die just yet...

more input please

~Andon

motrhedx81

I don't know about how much power you can get out of the 3.4. But I've the "Desktop Dyno" thing that lets you simulate a real engine dyno on the computer just by putting in the specs from whatever engine you have. Stock 4.3 vortecs should have around 175 to 200 hp (don't quote me on it, but they are stout) and about 225 ft.lbs. I ran numbers on the dyno thing and a 4.3 with non vortec heads (the way I plan on building mine: bigger cam, carb'ed, intake, higher compression, ect...) can easily squeeze out 250hp and 330 ft.lbs. with a little juicin'. Summit and other mail orders have a lot of parts for vortecs and non-vortecs as well as using 350 V8 parts on it too. I haven't read or heard much about the l-5 vortec but I would say it would be a pretty tight fit and there aren't going to be as many parts for them out there.

If you're going to beef the motor up some, you might as well go all out and get a tranny that can definitely handle the power (the NV4500). Then all you have to buy is the t-case adapter and motor mounts to fit it. Also slave cyl and shifter stuff but that comes with the territory. I've read nothing but good things about it. 93-95 has a 6.13:1 first gear and a noisy third gear (but the noise doesn't hurt it), all synchronized except for rev. 95-present have ~5.4:1 or so 1st gear, fixed the noise in third, and all synchro except rev. But you don't really need synch'd rev.

w/ $4K, this swap shouldn't be a prob at all. here are some price guesstimates:
NV4500- $1600
adapters- $500
radiator- $250
4.3 vortec out of wrecked with harness and computer- $1500
and of course there are the little nickel and dimers and a few other things. these prices are just what I've seen and guesses.

anondrao

do you know if the bellhousing for the 4.3 to the R150 is the same as the one for the R151???

Los Gatos?

7MGTE:
Definitely out if you can't have an intercooler, they came factory intercooled, they REQUIRE one.

4.3L Vortec -- A good choice, I personally like the new 5.3L Vortec, much more power (more than the old 5.7L vortec) and more economy, the 99(don't quote me on this, might be 01) and up vortecs are basically an LS1 with an iron block, definitely a good motor, the I6 is supposedly a great block as well, if you could find one. (It's a 4.2L I believe?)

3.4L Toyota -- A good choice, probably the most "bolt on" of the three, although you might need the 3.4L transfer case if you went with the donor trans, this might make it a little more $$ and time consuming, if you'd need new mounts & driveshafts, etc....

Personallly, I'd go with the 4.3L vortec, get the newest engine you can find, the newer ones are much better than the '95s. If you can find the Chevy I6, get it, lots of torque, very smooth (it's an I6!!) and decent displacement. There's lots of hop up stuff out there, too!

Mad Chemist

I'd stick with a Toyota 3.4, throw a supercharger on there if you some more HP. If you're looking to move in April, you don't have a ton of time to be screwing around with tweaks before you begin the long drive. If you're more of a conservative driver as you stated earlier, why go through all the extra hassle of putting in a chevy motor that won't likely last 200k+ miles like the toyota drivetrain? Just playing devils advocate....

motrhedx81

I'm not too sure about the bell housings between the 150 and 151f.

Flygtenstein

I would not associated the super charger with a cheap engine swap.

All I can comment on is the 3.4 swap. So here it goes.

If you want a 5 spd, that means the engine has to come from a 5spd equipped rig. This limits choices somewhat as compared to those with an auto who can take the engine out of a rig with either tranny. The older Toy 5spds will bolt to the 3.4 and allow a passenger drop t-case. I would avoid using the t-case that comes with the 3.4, it will make having 4wd really tough.

You are going to have to look hard to find an engine and tranny plus the wiring harness for less than 3k. That is just parts and does not even get the engine in the truck. I have a hard time thinking of engine swaps as being fast or cheap.