HI all,
I have been mostly sucking up info from this site for years, but not contributing much. Lazy I guess. Anyway, I have a bit of a weird truck that I thought I would share. It has been a headache from the very start, but it is fun and gets me where I want to go. I had always wanted a diesel Toyota, but as you know our options are limited. I had a 1965 FJ40 for a bit and loved it, but wanted a bit more space and really wanted a truck. I considered a BJ74, as they are such an awesome vehicle as well as semi-available to import, but again, space. I settled on doing a 1kz-te swap into a 1st gen Tacoma, and got to looking for a donor Taco. One day, I discovered a Cragslist ad up the road from me with a truck already swapped with this engine, but due to issues the owner couldn't figure out, he was selling it for a sweet price. I had done so much reading about the swap and the engine in general, I figured that for the price, I could figure anything out. Fast forward 3 years or so, and I never knew one truck could have had so much wrong with it. I have replaced or rebuilt nearly every component on this truck and still have a few more kinks to work out.
I do however always try to improve something while fixing what was broken, and due to having to fix everything, there are a few fun goodies now.
Brakes:
First things first, I fixed the non-functioning brakes and put in Tundra 199mm calipers.
Driveline:
I swapped to an R150f manual transmission, but decided to retain the "multi-mode" transfer case, so I have a manual truck with 2WD, AWD, 4-Hi, and 4-Lo. It is very nice to have the AWD on the snow and washboard roads. This involved some customized shift rods inside the transfer case but wasn't to hard. I had to fabricate a better transmission mount as the original swapper had made some horible trash that was about to fall apart, no bueno! I swapped in a dual ball bearing turbo, a GT2560R, and a custom stainless 3" exhaust (no muffler yet, which actually sounds pretty good
, which now gives me very early spool up. I installed a water to air intercooler, which in my opinion has many, many benefits over an air to air for an offroad vehicle, especially since an air to air would have had to be front mount. I had some headaches with the factory fuel primer letting in air, and then a new Toyota replacement primer leaking in air again, so I recently swapped the whole setup for a Racor 230R2 assembly, and that is a truly awesome unit and setup. I am sure the question will come up, so to beat that, I get about 25-27 mpg and hope to get more once I adjust the timing and fuel a bit to take advantage of the turbo and intercooler. Mpgs while crawling on trails is excellent, and the torque of the diesel is nice.
Cooling:
One semi-common thing with this engine is that it will crack heads if it gets too hot. The factory setup has the automatic tranny cooler as part of the radiator, and this gets very hot. I swapped to the manual tranny, and the original swapper had put in a large aluminum radiator that wasn't too bad, but hadn't put in any kind of shroud. I recently swapped to a volvo electric fan (same as the popular Taurus fan, but MUCH better mounting) and a dccontol fan controller. I like this setup now, as it will help the engine warm up faster for the half of the year that is cold, and maybe free up a pony or two from the engine. Also, I can turn it off for water crossings. I will likely always carry the mechanical fan on long trips as a backup, and the swap on the trail would be very easy. I swapped the head for one made by the Spanish company AMC, and it has been redesigned to strengthen the areas that crack on the factory head. I should hopefully never have a head issue now, and have an engine that lasts forever!
Accessories:
I got rid of the AC, since I never use it, in favor of a York OBA setup I made. I have never seen an easier install to mount the York that to this motor. I merely used a single plate of aluminum that bolted to the factory AC mount. The person who had originally done the engine swap had put in the JDM wiring harness and his hack and slash has been a continual bit of fun to repair. I was however able to hijack the existing rear defrost circuit to have a factory relay and switch control the York, so the wiring is so clean I could eat off it. I installed an Odyssey 34R-PC1500T, and so far it has done the trick. I have tried very hard, through all of the mods, to leave a space for a second battery, so that will be added in the future.
Suspension:
For the front, I bought a tired pair of SAW coilovers and rebuilt them. For the rear, I got a set of OME Dakars, and put in Bilstein 7100 with the remote reservoirs
Tires:
I bought a set of Cooper ATP's in 265/75/16 that I hope to install soon (after the impending steering rack swap), and I hope they will be as awesome as I have read. Would love to try the Cooper ST Maxx, but I think that is more tire than I need for the penalty of a lot more weight. We will see.
Anyway, that is the very abridged version, but I can add more info if anyone is interested. I have lots of build pictures, but haven't been very good at taking pictures on my trips.
Future mods:
Bed platform
Sliders
Hopefully a home made front bumper well down the road
Better lighting
Second battery
I have been mostly sucking up info from this site for years, but not contributing much. Lazy I guess. Anyway, I have a bit of a weird truck that I thought I would share. It has been a headache from the very start, but it is fun and gets me where I want to go. I had always wanted a diesel Toyota, but as you know our options are limited. I had a 1965 FJ40 for a bit and loved it, but wanted a bit more space and really wanted a truck. I considered a BJ74, as they are such an awesome vehicle as well as semi-available to import, but again, space. I settled on doing a 1kz-te swap into a 1st gen Tacoma, and got to looking for a donor Taco. One day, I discovered a Cragslist ad up the road from me with a truck already swapped with this engine, but due to issues the owner couldn't figure out, he was selling it for a sweet price. I had done so much reading about the swap and the engine in general, I figured that for the price, I could figure anything out. Fast forward 3 years or so, and I never knew one truck could have had so much wrong with it. I have replaced or rebuilt nearly every component on this truck and still have a few more kinks to work out.
I do however always try to improve something while fixing what was broken, and due to having to fix everything, there are a few fun goodies now.
Brakes:
First things first, I fixed the non-functioning brakes and put in Tundra 199mm calipers.
Driveline:
I swapped to an R150f manual transmission, but decided to retain the "multi-mode" transfer case, so I have a manual truck with 2WD, AWD, 4-Hi, and 4-Lo. It is very nice to have the AWD on the snow and washboard roads. This involved some customized shift rods inside the transfer case but wasn't to hard. I had to fabricate a better transmission mount as the original swapper had made some horible trash that was about to fall apart, no bueno! I swapped in a dual ball bearing turbo, a GT2560R, and a custom stainless 3" exhaust (no muffler yet, which actually sounds pretty good
, which now gives me very early spool up. I installed a water to air intercooler, which in my opinion has many, many benefits over an air to air for an offroad vehicle, especially since an air to air would have had to be front mount. I had some headaches with the factory fuel primer letting in air, and then a new Toyota replacement primer leaking in air again, so I recently swapped the whole setup for a Racor 230R2 assembly, and that is a truly awesome unit and setup. I am sure the question will come up, so to beat that, I get about 25-27 mpg and hope to get more once I adjust the timing and fuel a bit to take advantage of the turbo and intercooler. Mpgs while crawling on trails is excellent, and the torque of the diesel is nice.Cooling:
One semi-common thing with this engine is that it will crack heads if it gets too hot. The factory setup has the automatic tranny cooler as part of the radiator, and this gets very hot. I swapped to the manual tranny, and the original swapper had put in a large aluminum radiator that wasn't too bad, but hadn't put in any kind of shroud. I recently swapped to a volvo electric fan (same as the popular Taurus fan, but MUCH better mounting) and a dccontol fan controller. I like this setup now, as it will help the engine warm up faster for the half of the year that is cold, and maybe free up a pony or two from the engine. Also, I can turn it off for water crossings. I will likely always carry the mechanical fan on long trips as a backup, and the swap on the trail would be very easy. I swapped the head for one made by the Spanish company AMC, and it has been redesigned to strengthen the areas that crack on the factory head. I should hopefully never have a head issue now, and have an engine that lasts forever!
Accessories:
I got rid of the AC, since I never use it, in favor of a York OBA setup I made. I have never seen an easier install to mount the York that to this motor. I merely used a single plate of aluminum that bolted to the factory AC mount. The person who had originally done the engine swap had put in the JDM wiring harness and his hack and slash has been a continual bit of fun to repair. I was however able to hijack the existing rear defrost circuit to have a factory relay and switch control the York, so the wiring is so clean I could eat off it. I installed an Odyssey 34R-PC1500T, and so far it has done the trick. I have tried very hard, through all of the mods, to leave a space for a second battery, so that will be added in the future.
Suspension:
For the front, I bought a tired pair of SAW coilovers and rebuilt them. For the rear, I got a set of OME Dakars, and put in Bilstein 7100 with the remote reservoirs
Tires:
I bought a set of Cooper ATP's in 265/75/16 that I hope to install soon (after the impending steering rack swap), and I hope they will be as awesome as I have read. Would love to try the Cooper ST Maxx, but I think that is more tire than I need for the penalty of a lot more weight. We will see.
Anyway, that is the very abridged version, but I can add more info if anyone is interested. I have lots of build pictures, but haven't been very good at taking pictures on my trips.
Future mods:
Bed platform
Sliders
Hopefully a home made front bumper well down the road
Better lighting
Second battery
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