350 engine swap into 4Runner?, Advice from Chunk or anyone...Please Options

[FamousMat]

Well I have a 86 4Runner and something bottom end in my engine gave out so I am looking to get a new engine. I was thinking about another rebuilt 22RE, but after some consideration have been thinking towards possibly dropping a 350 into it. An engine would cost be about the same so I might as well find out cost wise what other things I might have to factor in that would be great.

Also I know that you have SAS in your 4Runner, and unfortunately I have IFS in mine. Would room be a big factor with that kind of engine swap having the suspension I do? And also would gears be a big factor as well, would I have to get something stronger?

And good advice would help me out a ton! Thanks A lot!

[Wailer]

I put a 350 into an 85.
You'll need a minimun 3" body lift, but I'm not sure if the IFS could handle the weight.....a 4.3 would be lighter and almost as good.

Naturally you'll need custom motor mounts, adaptor for the t-case etc....

Derek at Total driveline did all the work on mine......and at a very reasonable cost.....give him a call 520 3265

[littlejer]

I would recomend an electric fan on the rad too, well depending on how hard you hit holes with the skinny peddle down. Mine seemed to cool well with a solid fan, stock rad and no shroud. But i didnt get much wheeling in with that combo. Anti wrap bar would be good out back as well but might not be nessisary for everyone. I tell ya though, youll be damn happy with a small block in a yota, power to weight ratio is awsome. Derrick does good work, im running the truck wailer built

[Giraffe]

Hey Mat. What exactly went on the truck? Did your mechanic tell you exactly what went wrong? Doing a 4.3L swap, and even a 350 is alot of work, you need to build custom motor mounts, new rad, transmission and t-case adapters. Ill help you with anything that you do, since i could use the practice for when I do mine? Keep in mind there are places in the states that do seel conversion kits, saves you alot of time, on both the solid axle swap, and the motor swap. If you are looking for good tech articles check this out...

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=12 Thats Pirate4x4, they are down in the states. They have the best tech artiles around.

I cant wait to see what you deciede to do, just sucks that the motor went so soon.

[mikekix]

KEEP IT TOYOTA!!!
good luck

[snowking]

HEY, I have a 4-runner with a v6 in it allready for sale and i believe the price that i am asking is less than what conversion would be !! however a v8 is cool ............ PM if you are interested...................

[chunk]

hey if your famous how come i never heard of ya???? lol just kidding ha ha
i'm flattered you asked for my imput, but seriously... it will cost you way more than the cost of a 22re to do the swap! a running chev{good one!} is about a $1000 or less if you know somebody. then the motormounts and tranny adapter $1500.00 , radiator$500-700 , shifter $150.00 dual exhuast $400- up then the misc $800 add that up and your around $4350.00 vs $1600.00 for a 22re. i wouldn't do a engine swap unless you have a really healthy motor and v8 swaps always have flow problems with exhaust manifolds ( nobody makes a good header for these swaps). then you'll have to swap for a carb instead of the nice efi you have know! gas mileage will be out the window. efi is way nicer than a carb on a 8 or a 4 banger. v8 efi way more $$$. i spent $8500.00 doing my cobra motor and thats not including the aluminum heads and blower and NOS, add another $7500.00 to that. with the chev your stuck using the turbo 350 or 700 r4 no manual
try making a manual clutch linkage for a sm465 "hope your a good fabricator? the 700r4 has a week 1st gear i know i blew 2 in my corevette and not running 40 inch tires! if i was going to do the chev i would do the 90ish=95 LT-1 it's roller camed efi and a shorter motor with the way the front is setup. i wouldn't go old school chev or oldschool ford. it must be efi and roller cammed to be a good daily driver and off-roader. i have always been a chev guy, but i like my mustang cobra motor for my ride it rev's to 8500 if needed, runs smooth and when a guy see's a 302 just spanked his big block in a mud pit i can't stop grinnin! and if a guy can't appreciate what it takes to put a v-8 efi motor in any vehicle especially a import wether it has a blue oval or orange bow tie then they aren't true gear heads! just complainers! or one sided. look into v-6 's as well but there pretty much the same as the v-8 but with more rad - fan room. also my truck is a factory solid axle truck , not a sas conversion! ita a real 85 runner!!! pick up a toyota conversion book from advanced adapters from modern motors, doing a ifs truck will need a 3 inch body lift and oil pan mods and such . i have the catalog if you need it!PM ME we'll hook-up.. oh yah i sold the chev runner for $4600.00 freaking gave it away!! got to advanceadapters web site they should have the cataloge!

[chunk]

what tire size are you gonna run? i would run 5.29's and the 4 banger with a header and a k&n filter with max 35 inch tires, v-8 are cool but you have to have done a few swap's in order to really know what combo works well and retain that toyota feeling. not a small truck with a nose heavy smb v-8, my runner still feels light with the 5.0, but the 350's i have done in the past feel nose heavy. i know that
the chev's have more cubes, but i feel a 302 work's better in a toyota!, i'd buy the toy from supergus with the 302, over putting a 350 in your toyota. one thing you can do with the chev is bypass the toyota adapter and run a 203-205 case and use the chev cross member with some spacers and save yourself money. but then you have to change the drive shafts'. i've built lots of smb chev powered 4x4's and truck's and cars and i feel in my case that my runner feels better with a efi 5.0 in it over the chev's i have done. These are just a couple smb chev powered imports i have done, all over 400hp from stock to rock, these where all built over ten years ago on a shoe string budget. the red long box was my show truck. the datsun had 850hp and did a 8 sec 1/4 mile i built it for less than $4000. just hit alot of swap meets! and hit your buddies up for the favor's they owe ya,.
i'm thinking of building another street killer but this time a 90 extra cab short box
with the 4x4 box, fenders and front bumpers ,2wd with a twin turbo 347 stroked 5.0
with a narrowed 9 inch 31 x 16 x15 slicks and 15x3 front wheels and 3 inches off the ground, I hate sport compact cars!! i'll throw in some nos for hitting the 6's.lol
so if you know of anyone who has a 1990 x-cab2wd toyota cheap i'm looking! might go hit that pink's show!!

[mudking]

I'm in the middle of doing a 350 swap in my 81 toyota right know and it's not all to bad .........
price list$$$$$
good 350 $200
400 turbo 208 combo $400
motor mounts from trans adapters $170
4core rad $100
shifter from a z28 $25 ( pick & pull )
drive shafts $200
exhaust -- did my self
MISC $200 SO FAR

If there is anything i can help you with please let me know.............MIKE

[supergus79]

I put the 400 sb in mine when it still had the full front clip. I didnt have to do a body lift or anything special to it. I moved the rad to the back only for more space in the engine bay.

Believe it or not we made the stock tranny crossmember work as well. Fabbing the motor mounts yourself isnt a hard task. If you can weld and grind then you can do it.

The price list for mine has been bugger all.

Engine 400 small block.(was supposed to be a 350) cost me 6 beat up off road lights
Tranny turbo 350... we had 4 in running order laying around so free

208 case.... we had 3 laying around so free again.

driveshafts we built ourselves.

aluminum 3 core rad i stole from my bros wrote off mustang

so the only thing that really cost me any money was to buy the pipeing for the rear mounted rad and what ever small upgrades done to the engine, guages etc.

The one that I have posted in the for sale section is actually my bros truck. I agree with chunk on the 302's. That truck has pretty much the perfect ratios into it. Hes running 4.38s out of my toyota with 38.5 boggers. With that 5.0L in there he has aample power and tons to spare. thats the only ford v8 swap we've done and I gotta say it was a pain in the ass compared to the chev we put in mine.

These builds can be as expensive or as cheap as you want them to be. If you want to have everything brand new then its gonna cost you. But what I have done is take parts that may not be in perfect reliable running order and put them in. Then once the shitty motor, tranny, case etc is in you build good motor, tranny, case etc and put them in once there done. that way you can spread the cost out a bit and at least your up and running even if its not to the standards youd like. You can put in a lot of junkyard motors for the price of building a really nice one. to me its alright to have to change the motor out every now and again and put another shitty one back in. Because eventually I'm gonna have all my good stuff in there and then not have to worry about it. At least I've still been able to wheel, just a little more maintance and work when you have less reliable parts.

Good luck with what you do.

[chunk]

i don't know about you famous Matt but everything in my truck is new or rebuilt
as a veteran wheeler,i wouldn't go the cheap v-8 swap route,as i like wheelin not sitting underneath it on the trail while my buddy's have fun.you can go the cheap route, but its better to have piece of mind that your toy is gonna make it there and back with no problems.i've done the bargain priced swap and kicked my self for it. the big red 84 long box was a somewhat cheap v-8 swap, but i got tired of the towtruck charges and other gremlins.get your self at least a rebuilt motor and tranny,and a good RADIATOR,one that won't overheat when its 35C in the summer
MY BUDDIES can atest to doing cheap motor swap even cheap 4 banger swap, i'm still on my 302 and they combined have gone through 7 motors, "2 guy's " in 8 months. if you can save money great but at least get good drivetrain parts,ie:motor tranny t-case,or you'll be in the same boat your in now only with a v-8 problem not a 4 banger problem, i've seen alot of hokey swap's, don't be one of em.yah your not in tough truck but everytime you go wheeling you should have a strong drivetrain, the trail is not a good place to realize you cheaped out! if you have a money issue, stay 4 banger the v-8 will kill you building it and fixing it if you cheap out, i'm sick of fixing other peoples, crap!!! i think this is probably your daily driver as well? so is mine! i don't have the luxury of having a tow rig and trailer, so reliability is my stongest point to this whole post! weather you go cheap at first you be throwing money at it later,or you build it well the first time,it all work's out the same money wise in the long run, i just don't like doing things twice!

[supergus79]

I agree with what your saying Chunk.

What I was trying to say in my post was if go with a cheaper part is alright for short term as long as you upgrade as soon as you can. Its nice to set everything in place with 250.00 parts rather than the engine you just spent $6000.00 on. But with a DD the cheaper parts definatly arent gonna last you as long as a truck thats only driven offroad.

Mine isnt a daily driver, it get trailered to and from. If street reliablity is your issue then your better off to wait till you have absolutley everything you need to do the swap and do it all at once with the good parts. And if funds are your issue then I think it would be better to put another 22 in and then get all your parts and do the swap in the future.

Its pretty much a given that you want a reliable vehicle no matter what its purpose is. But for some people thats easier said then done.

[chunk]

i totally agree with yah GUS, I have a lot respect for yah, i think you have a cool rig and are one of the more gifted guy's on this site. everybody here think's i make a shit load of cash, i only make $12.00 per hour, so i don't just throw dollars to the wind either. set yourself a goal MATT and work toward it!

[Giraffe]

Chunk sure likes to post pics with EVERY post he ever makes.. I am starting to notice that..lol

[FLETCHER]

hey
I have the toy gus and chunk are talking about. to build the truck i have here is the break down I got the 5.0 from a tbird with 120000 on it for 500 bucks ( the owner is a friend) motor mounts home fabed
tranny w56 5speed from another build rebuilt costs around 800 bucks (this is the one with the removable bell housing) The bell housing came from Northwest Offroad in Bellingham washington. It was 1000 bucks this included the clutch disk and bell only so becareful. the fly wheel is from aearly 90s 5.0 there are two sizes, i will check to see which is required i cant remember how many teeth it has 100 bucks, also I had to drill it to fit a flex plate from a ford pick up this was tricky 100 bucks, i recomend not doing it yourself (it has to stay centered) from there the case is 86 toy rebuild around 500bucks, the gears are 438s out of a 79 toy (superguses old gears) the rebuild on these were about 700 bucks. the exhaust are headers from a 95 5.0 that had to be reworked. The fuel tank went in the box as well as the 4 core copper rad. all prices are parts only if uncapable the cost of labour will kill you.

I have also done the CPI 4.3 as far as this went we used chev throughout it was on the cheap and now it dosent work anymore. ( it was because it was cheap)
the oil pan you would need for this swap is sitting under an astro van. A body lift is also required.

Hope this helps

FLETCHER