Well, here's the story. The 4Runner on the left is mine. It's the one I rebuilt the motor in this summer and yes it finally runs. The one on the right is my friend Aztlan's newest purchase. We ran out on Thanksgiving and picked it up for $500. Didn't make it but 4 miles before we were chaining it up to my Dodge and yanking it down 94 through Minneapolis and St. Paul. I knew when he bought it the HG was hosed because the oil looked like Yoo-Hoo but thought we could get it home under its own power anyway. Fortunately for him he had acquired a '90 2wd Toy pick-up for free thus the engine swap was on.

We knew we had really bad weather coming on Saturday so we pulled the 4Runner motor out Friday night despite the 10* weather. At that point we were still dealing with asphalt and grass. We got up the next morning and had the free truck's engine laying out by 10am. That's when it started snowing but we pressed on. Well it got to the point Saturday that the snow was filling up my tool trays about every 5 minutes and we looked like a couple of greasy polar bears so we finally gave up about 3pm and let the weather pass.

We got up Sunday, shoveled for an hour and proceeded to fight pretty much everything getting the good motor ready to install. The highlight was when I pulled the oil pan on the bad motor to swap it to the good one and found it was obvious the previous owner had over heated at some point and just added water because the concoction in the pan looked like wet sand mixed with dirty 15W-40 with chunks of ice. It took me about an hour to get the pan thawed and clean. It was one thing after another but by 8pm we got a running, driving truck that doesn't skip a beat. Through all of this only one tool was claimed by the snow and I think that was pretty good considering...

I figured I'd share the story and some pictures. These were taken Sunday right after we got both oil pans off.

Maybe one day I should build a garage. What do you guys think?









For those wondering what it took to swap a 1990 carbed, manual tranny, 2wd motor into an '87 4wd, EFI, auto SR5 4Runner it was fairly decent to do. The EFI stuff is a strait swap. Just chase the holes in the head that weren't used with the carb manifold. You also have to swap the lower braces on the rear of the motor, oil pans, distributors, transfer the fuel pump block off, all the accessory brackets, crank pulley assy and we also swapped the motor mounts just because. And of course the flex plate.

 

SHHWWEETTNESS

 

Damn dude.......thats determination.......good on ya guys


You really need a garage .................I just happen to know some good tricks there so let me know eh


here is a good deal for a Cummins 4BT in yer area http://www.truckpaper.com/listings/d...B2A6183C435822


that would make a good 40 MPG vehicle for ya..............then put an old gasse in the van and get most of yer money back

 

I'd love to have a diesel under the hood of mine. I've heard the 4BT is too heavy for one of these but I have no idea if it would be or not. I've seen them in Jeeps and they seemed to be OK. Toyota offered a factory turbodiesel in these things but it was only overseas. I wish I could get my hands on one of those cheap.

My buddy is pretty fired up too. With the purchase price and some necessary parts to do the swap he has a total of about $700 bucks into this thing so far. That ain't bad in my book for a running, driving 4x4 that seems to be pretty dependable now.

I'll tell ya one thing. There were times where we were just completely miserable out there and were having doubts about even continuing. Hitting that key and hearing that thing fire on the first attempt erased all of that stuff. Just ain't any words to describe that feeling.

 

it is a good feeling when they work in the end huh

I go thru enough of this kinna crap at work ...out in the elements and all.

I love my shop and the heater in there is great workin in a t-shirt while its crappy outside

 

Nice Job Johnny.....wheres the empty beer cans?

 

I did this whole thing sober.


I know... I can't believe it either....

 

And to think, folks around here laugh at some the stuff I do. I'm smater then you, I tape the tarp up to the side of the house and drape it over the whole truck like a lean to. A few lights and salamander heater and it's as good as a garage till the wind blows it off and you gotta chase the tarp down the street.

 

Damn Johnny you make me feel like a wuss. It was 40* here the other day and I wouldn't go put a transmission in, yeah thats it just slap it back in, and we have a shop. If it snowed here everything would shut down, couldn't take it. Hell I wouldn't change a porch light if it was below forty.

 

hey johnny if it makes you feel any better it was 75*, sunny, and a nice cool breeze today.......almost had to wear a t-shirt this morning it was so cold.....HAHAHAHAHA, i know how ya feel man, it sucks.....