Hello from Northern Illinois. Recently bought this 1984 Toyota camper that a previous owner swapped a 350 Chevy, TH350 trans and a 10 bolt, 8.5” posi rear end into. No body lift. It used to have a 4 cylinder with a manual trans.

Engine was completely rebuilt with an RV cam and RV torque converter, it runs and drives pretty well.

I’m a former gear head, worked part time selling auto parts and high performance parts in the ‘80s, and had my share of 8 cylinder toys that I got my hands dirty on when I was younger. I find myself remembering stuff that I had long forgotten about working on these engines.

What I’d like to do:
Clean up wiring (eliminate what’s not needed on the wiring harness)

Improve cooling (I had it idling for awhile in the driveway and it overheated, overflowed the coolant bottle)

Eliminate engine fan and go electric

Reroute/replace upper radiator hose

Put a a different intake manifold on it (probably keep the quadrajet, so I’d need a spreadbore manifold)

Remove clutch reservoir

Relocate “house battery” (it’s an RV)

Relocate alternator to passenger side?

Would love to have a working speedometer, but realize that’s more than just a custom cable. So I’ll probably just find a GPS-enabled one to permanently install.






Just looking for “what would you do” and “what have you done” from a community of people who have swapped engines in their Toyotas. It’s already a conversation piece, but under the hood it looks like hell.

Michelle