2000 Tacoma Prerunner to 4x4 conversion

I guess I should update, at 298xxx she blew up... something with cylinder 6 as that’s what my cel went on for and nothing seemed to remedy it this time around. Plugs, plug wires, new coil, new injectors... no fix. Kept on driving her and she lost a cyl on the freeway, I limped it from where it shut down originally about 12 miles into towing range haha. So goddamn boys I’m very unhappy to say “ Taco down!!!”. With that being said I already went out and snagged a $200 t100 motor I had to pull. I also sourced a $650 motor from the salvage yard I used for my 4x4 swap, and they will garunteed that one for me haha. $200 I’m alittle iffy but f*** Ima clean it and send it! It actually feels fairly solid so far. I’ll share some pics for anyone still following!

 

Helped pull this tow truck and a Nissan Titan out of the sand, dude gave me his number and free tows anytime I need... first time I had to hit him up and he held to his word quick as hell! I was lucky I always pull people out of the sand near my house... they don’t know I actually enjoy it haha!


First casualty... heater switch I think? I’ll be getting one of these now I guess XD

Intake off, wires all labeled (they are simple and obvious but this makes for even more ease of smooth reinstall.

Yea I unbolted the trans, cause it’s easy... and I’ve obviously done it before when I did the swap so it took all of 30 extra minutes to separate the trans.

My same homie diego that has been helping me since day one with my 92 Pickup maybe 7 years ago now haha. Sick having a friend that’s down with the automotive life. He drives a civic but enjoys wheeling too

Cams put, motor completely torn down however I realize the only socket I don’t have is the 12mm deepwell 12 point socket to get the heads off and see what happened...

One of the trucks at the crappy yard of busted Toyota that seems to have been shot at haha! Just messing around in it but look at that headshot haha!

Me pulling the t100 motor out that I traded back a transmission for to this crazy guy... ended up being okay in my favor as I’d rather be stuck with another motor as I’ve got multiple toyotas in need of 3.4 action right now.

 

Got that super dirty motor out of the 97 t100. It was a 2wd auto....

Motor in my trailer that thankfully a fellow Arizona 4runner Facebook member brought all the way out for me with the trans and engine hoist. Shoutout to local Facebook groups haha!!!

T109motor home and hooked to my truck now haha

You see cylinder 6 on the head seems to be showing headgasket seepage? Idk but my motor was seeping oil like a monster from the rear main. But any knowledgeable 3.4 guys that can chime in and tell me that was bout for disatster?


My yotas... that pesky 2nd gen runner I love might end up winning the coin toss for the $200 3.4 motor XD
Two 3.4s. Going to clean the $200 motor up with some purple power, and a pressure washer. Then I’ll be considering how I’ll dress this bad boy up to really figure out if it’s a paperweight or if I can actually send it hahahaha

My light setup as I end up only able to work on it at the end of the day when I finish work haha

 

Got the motor on the engine hoist now, this is after one light scrub with some parts cleaner. And rinsed off with the hose, dried with an air compressor.

Took the intake off after realizing I had a burnt wire that leads to the crankshaft sensors... I figured I’d swap over the sensor wire from my motor, clips on both immediately cracked and now I may go grab a newer one haha

Burnt wire here mid cleanup

Lower intake manifold removed


Even though the motor cleaned up well especially the valve covers, I’m putting mine on from the blown motor because I did a complete valve cover gasket job...

I like blue so while they are out and cleaned as you see, I’ll be throwing some paint on em

The final pic before I went inside for the day today

 

My buddy Diego brought a 12mm 12pt socket and we got the heads off. Odd side cylinders case off easy where as the even side with the mangled cyl were a pain!

Got a few coats on the valve covers

Got the heads off nicely and geez, valve trouble on cyl 6 and possibly a chewed ring

Nice gouging on the walls there where you see streak

The $200 replacement motor getting the valve cover job as part of cleaning it up

Blue!!! Alittle obnoxious but I dig it!

Back on the hoist setup and exhaust back on. I put the red headers from my tacoma on the $200 replacement. Very satisfied with how much it cleaned up!

 

I have now been waiting on an oil sump gasket to put my tacoma oil pan on and drop my motor in... stated productive and got some wrenching on on my younger brothers 97 4runner...

Got started on cutting the crossmember out. My best thought was to just relocate the factory crossmember and down the road possibly upgrade him to a budbuilt.

Free from the frame just ground the welds

Old shifter and new shifter getting mocked up. Basically just line the new shift setup with the plastic cover and line the console up. From there I marked the holes and simply drilled through.

You will have to cut a bit of the floor plate off of the trans tunnel.

Driver side crossmember mount moved. I bolt the mounts up to the crossmember and then using a jack I raise it into position firmly ready to weld up.

Passenger side!

 

Hopefully someone can answer my question. I have a 02 tacoma converting it now. I got everything from an 03 4x4. Everything from the 03 harness hooked up fine till I got to my throttle body. The new harness dosent hook up cause my throttle isnt electronic.Do I just need to buy an 03 electronic throttle body?

 

I think you must have swapped in the 03 ecu, so yeah, new tb. There won't be a throttle cable for the 03 so you'll need an electric gas pedal to control it afaik.

 

That's what I was afraid of, the gas pedal. Another item onto the list thanks @Dalandser

 

You did well to at least get all the other stuff out of the same vehicle. Keeps stuff like this to a minimum!

 

D

Deffenitly, thanks for the support

 

Ouch, do you have an '03 transmission? That's when Toyota started using the ETCS-I electronic throttle system.

 

I think he got the ecu & trans along with all the other 4x4 stuff out of the same truck.

 

Oh that's good. It's just a pain the hook that all up. Don't you have to rewire the engine and dash Harness to allow for it? I would assume so since he has a 2000

 

He has an 02, but yeah you need to use the 03 wiring harnesses.

 

Oh I got confused the title said 2000.

 

Yeah OP already converted his truck - I think the other guy came to ask since it had been done on this thread. How's your truck shifting now?

 

Bravo Robert ! This is a great detailed write up w/progress , how did you like that one bolt on bell housing that takes almost 5ft of extensions to get to, what a mother fucker huh (I did a short vid on this particular bolt extraction or no one would believe it haha)

 

Still in the shop. The flexplate broke again and they had to order a new one.

 

What!? That sucks - looks like it might not have been drawing the bellhousing to the block with the bolts then. Dang.