When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Well now that I've actually got this pickup in my possession I figured I should start a build thread. I've actually owned it for a few years now, got it from a good buddy of mine who initially started a 22RE swap, but life got in the way as it usually does. Its a little rough, mostly due to sitting outside in the Oregon rain for years. This will pretty much just be a hunting/weekend chores rig (at least for now)
To do(in no particular order):
-Swap in 3RZ (after rebuild)
-W56 5 SPD swap to go with the 3rz
-Paint as you can see is a mix of different rattle can jobs
-Lower the suspension, probably a combo of 2nd gen RUFs and the Rancho springs that are in there now, pull the blocks from the rear
-Swap out the 35s for 33s
I'm open to suggestions, thoughts, ideas, links to good references. I didn't get any of the dash/engine harness for the '83, but I have the complete harness from the donor tacoma so I'm going to try and just use it.
And a build thread without pics is no thread at all!
*edit* Oops missed the build thread section, can an ADMIN move this?
High Steer makes a huge difference on these trucks
sounds like you are on the right track
Thanks Robb! I'm assuming I will get to that at some point, trying to keep the costs down so only doing what it really needs to get it finished and back on the road(motor, tranny, wiring)
Originally Posted by coryc85
Really want to see your 3rz swap, something I'd love to do, but not sure I'm up to the task.
I'm not sure I am either! I've rebuilt a few 22REs and a 4g63 before, but this whole swap seems a little daunting. I suppose just taking it a day at a time will keep my from going crazy(er)
Pulled the 35s off and put it on some rollers, and pulled out the half installed 22re wiring. Then brought it out of the garage to power wash the engine bay. Unfortunately the power washer blew an o-ring, so I just ended up pulling off the old bumper, side markers(which desintegrated,) and the tail lights. Also cleaned up the interior a bit but didn't take any pictures. There is one small section of rust under the drivers feet that will need to be taken care of.
Got a little more accomplished over the weekend. Bed pulled off for better access to swap the tank.
Engine block painted, ready for some internals. If anyone has pics or a link to a 3rz timing chain/cover job I'd love to see it. I got this motor in pieces so its going to be quite a chore getting it all back together correctly.
With the bed off I was able to get a pretty good idea of the condition of the frame. I still need to powerwash it (just picked up new orings for the wand), but I'm extremely happy with the lack of rust. I think some light scrubbing, marine jelly, and maybe some POR15 and it'll be good to go.
It'll just be a stock build, nothing crazy. The PO bought a gasket set with rings, so that's what I'll be putting in. Had the block tanked and decked, the crank was turned and I got a single relacement rod to replace #1, everything else checks out ok.
Still not sure on what I'll do for a fuel tank. I'm currently looking for a 2nd/3rd gen tank, but also found some people were replacing EFI tanks with F150 tanks that go between the frame rails where the spare tire holder was.
Got the cab pulled last night. Found out it wasn't an Oring in the power washer but one of the plastic tubes has a break in it. Going to have to get a replacement so that I can get everything cleaned prior to paint and reassembly.
I didn't get a whole lot of garage time this weekend, I was able to roll the frame out and get it cleaned up a little more. I used 3 cans of Dollar Tree oven cleaner and let it soak for about 15 minutes, then power washed off the frame. It did a phenomenal job getting the years if grease and caked on mud off of it. This frame is in great shape considering the age. My plan is to flap disk the worst of it, and then spread a rust encapsulater before applying another coat of paint to it.
Sunday I met up with a guy parting out a '94 2wd and bought the fuel tank off of him. I got it for a steal considering I got the tank, filler neck, sending unit, pump, and was able to cut all of the wiring with at least 12" of pigtails, all I had to do was pull it (bed was already sold off.) I can now confirm that this year tank is a direct bolt in for a 1 gen short bed. Paid $50,
Oh and the tank had about 8 gallons of good fuel in it, so it didn't cost me anything to drive out and get it.
Frame coated with rust encapsulator
Then painted the frame satin black. This was after 1 coat, it has now had 3 coats.
Finally starting to feel like I'm gettin something accomplished. I will probably bolt in the gas tank tonight. The weather is supposed to be a little warmer (high of 60) so I should be able to get the cab power washed. I keep going back and forth on spraying the underside of the cab with something like this, anybody use it before?
Looks like good progress is being made. What does rust encapsulator do and why would you want to encapsulate rust? seems it would still be there waiting for air and moisture to come back. I would think you would want to eliminate it.
I like that undercoating. I've used it on a lot of different projects.
How well does it hold up? I'm thinking about putting on the under side of the fenders and under the bed as well.
Originally Posted by YOUNGIAM
Looks like good progress is being made. What does rust encapsulator do and why would you want to encapsulate rust? seems it would still be there waiting for air and moisture to come back. I would think you would want to eliminate it.
I guess encapsulator isn't the correct term. Basically you get rid of all the large flakes of rust and then brush the stuff on, it transforms (better word) the rust. My frame only had surface rust (thank you Oregon) so i only had to lightly sand a few spots. Then I laid this stuff down:
Not much has happened with this. Found out my wife has breast cancer, so I thought about selling this project. I don't think I could get much for it in the state that it is in, so I'll probably keep it and just work on it as money allows.I have most of the parts to finish the engine build already on hand. I started tapping the one hole to plug for the balance shaft delete but my tap wrench isn't very comfortable to use and I started getting stressed out so I put it on hold for day, will probably finish that tonight.
Sorry to hear about the news you received!
as far as that rust reformer it works awesome but it needs rust! To work. So if u just had barely any rust and sanded it down the reformer won't work that well. You would be better off with a rust remover like navel jelly
Sorry to hear of your wife’s cancer, wishing you all a best case scenario, of course.
on the oil galley plug - either use a quality USA tap and go SUPER slow, or just weld it shut from the start. That block is HARRRD. The tap that LCE sends is junk and it broke off in my block... speaking of stress. I ended up welding it but certainly would rather not have half a tap stuck inside there. If I did it again I would just skip the tap altogether. Good luck.
Sorry to hear about the news you received!
as far as that rust reformer it works awesome but it needs rust! To work. So if u just had barely any rust and sanded it down the reformer won't work that well. You would be better off with a rust remover like navel jelly
Better off probably, but its already coated and painted at this point, and really appears to have stuck. I'm really happy with the way the frame turned out.
Toy-tek - I'm about half way through with the tap, so far its cutting well enough, its the tap handle that's just killing my hands, the handle of it is only about as thick as a pencil and it digs into my hand while turning so I'm limited with how long I can spend working on it. Slow and steady and I should have this race won.
No real update to speak of, I ended up doing exactly what Toy-tek warned me about, snapped the darn tap off. The worst thing about it was I wasn't even cuting the threads I was just spinning it to clean them out. I think what actually happens is the drill bit is slightly undersized and it jams the tap when you get more than half way in. Called LCE and spoke with someone there, we decided to take it into my machine shop to see what they would say. They didn't want to touch it, so I took it to an amateur fabricator friend of mine, after messing with trying to get the tap out we just decided to weld the hole shut. LCE paid my what I paid the fabricator so I was only out the time and hassle of dealing with it, which I am ok with.
I did get a w56/t-case combo for the swap, so if anyone wants a good L52 hit me up.
01-08-2018, 02:53 PM
I've rebuilt a few 22REs and a 4g63 before, but this whole swap seems a little daunting. I suppose just taking it a day at a time will keep my from going crazy(er)
