5vz 3.4 V6 Swapping Guide for First Gen Tacomas

Hello. I have seen many threads on people wanting to swap their 4 cylinder for a 3.4 V6. Here is a guide based on my experience with swapping my 2.7L 4 cylinder for a 3.4L V6.

Note that the work was done on a 95.5 single cab with an entire parts truck from 1996. Please add your experience if you've dealt with this swap.

Things you'll need:
-5vzfe 3.4L V6 with all accessories, emissions equipment (optional), etc.
-R150f trans (if you want a manual) and transfer case (if you want 4x4)
-all wiring harnesses. Engine and interior harnesses.
-trans mount (4cyl crossmember works, different mount)
-fuel lines from tank forward
-power steering lines
-V6 cluster
-A/C lines

Honestly, this swap is fairly straight forward. You'll need to move the motor mounts about 3/4" backwards towards the cab. The V6 headers line up nicely with the 4cyl exhaust. The transmission sits in the same spot as the 4cyl, but used a different mount. Retains crossmember. The fuel lines are different, but the V6 has a more convienient fuel filter location.

The hardest part is wiring (it's a pain). Because Toyota was dumb, every year Tacoma until the 2000's had a different Ecu pinout. Although my '95 interior/body harness plugged into the '96 Ecu, it had a different pinout. The nice thing is that the wiring from under the seats-back (fuel pump, lighting, etc.) is generally the same as the 4 cyl trucks, unless the V6 truck had a factory e locker. Most factory options (power windows and locks, e locker, etc.) were integrated into the harness (major thumbs down).

Tips and tricks:
Avoid the motors from 94-96. They require more work to boost (supercharge, etc.) as the ecus don't like boost. Also, find a motor with no egr, so that you can later run a 7th injector or more common aftermarket headers.

It makes it MUCH easier to have a complete parts truck to work with! V6 trucks were often more loaded than the 4 cyl trucks, so getting power windows/locks/intermittent wipers/etc. is easier if the complete door panels and wiring harnesses are there.

If you have to deal with emissions, get the same year or newer motor and have the state inspect your work when you're done.

Here's a handy guide for pinouts:

https://people.well.com/user/mosk/images/Early_Tacoma_ECUs_v2.pdf

Here are a few pics of my swap:

Best of luck with your swap!

 

Awesome! I have wanted to swap a v6 in recently.. When you say move the motor mounts what is involved with that?

 

Well done man! Thanks for chronicling it too, I couldn't imagine trying to keep trakc of my thoughts and take pics when I was swapping my 4cyl and it's tranny over to another truck.

 

Cutting, grinding, welding back in.

 

For more detail and pics, here's my build thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/jacobrippeys-1995-v6-swapped-tacoma-single-cab-build.464821/

 

Nice work. confirms my suspicion about needing everything else. If the fuel lines couldn't be found would using an fittings to make your own fuel line been something you would've looked at?

 

I would have definitely considered that.

 

@Brandnewman01

 

Nice thread. Subbed for possibilities.

 

Nice. I'm getting ready to swap a 3.4 into my 5 lug Tacoma. I'm using a 97 4runner 3.4 and engine harness. I repinning the engine harness to match the tacoma dash harness. The harness should be a plug and play set up.


I'll post pictures one I get around to actually doing the swap.

 

Excellent Post Jacob

 

That's going to be neat! Can't wait to see how that turns out. Going supercharged?

 

I wanted I ask your opinion. I'm looking at buying a donor truck to do an engine swap - a 3.4l Tacoma or a 4.7l v8 Tundra. Now I don't mind the work - how involved was it to do your v8 swap?

I'm debating on whether I should go turbo my existing 4 cylinder, get a supercharged v6 and swap my old 3RZ drivetrain into the donor truck, or go balls to the wall and buy a Tundra and do a v8 swap.

I'm not scared of welding and I'm pretty comfortable with re-pinning connectors and working with wiring harnesses. I'm actually going to school for Computer Engineering so wires are second nature to me - lol!

 

Well, if I were to do it again, I would have turbo'Ed the heck out of my 3rz. Would have saved me a lot of time and money. The main reason I did the V6 swap was because I had an entire parts truck to pull off of, and I gained a lot of cool features along the way.
If you want to go v8, a LS/vortec swap would be a slightly better route, as there is more aftermarket support for those motors.

 

Turbo LS swap! DO IT!

 

Like this?

 

Thats just an LS, no turbo on it tho.

Also, if you arnt afraid of wiring, going stand alone on an LS is extremely easy. And if you have to redo mounts to go v6, might as well do new mounts and go V8

 

Thing about the LS is it's so large you have to run the radiator outside the engine bay. He had it setup so the radiator and condenser are in the bed.

 

I like keeping Toyotas, Toyota, fords, Ford, Chevy's, Chevy and so on. I would go with a vvti 4.7.

The after market support is years, if not decades behind domestic engines. The real issue with Toyota stuff is the lack of true tuning software. If you could tune a Toyota ecu the way you can an LS, it's my belief that there would be faaaar less LS swaps in this world. But that's my opinion, so keep your blouses on LS guys.

As far as how hard, wiring is the hardest, and that's not hard if you take your time and do some planning. I built an adapter harness for my Tacoma. It plugs inline between the taco dash harness, and v8 engine harness.

Supposedly a company called Orange Virus and a Russian company called Bit box have cracked the Toyota ECU and are slowly figuring out how to adjust the tuning on certain era ECUs. However, this is fairly new tech, and not all ECUs have been added to the list. I'll try and find the websites and add them here.


Bit Box this is the about them page. Look on the right side and you should see a Cars List. This will tell you what vehicle ECUs thye have been able to modify. This is a do it yourself kinda deal.


Orange Virus looks like they are updating their website. But you can see a few things they offer. They are way more expensive that the bit box.


Other stuff about the 4.7 swap. The 1st gen Tundra oil pan is a perfect fit for the 1st gen Tacoma, and 3rd gen 4runners as they use basically the same front diff.

Also, a (96-02?) Toyota Hilux Surf knx185 w/ 1kz diesel engine had the perfect radiator for this swap.

Most folks have used the OE frame mounts and built their own block side mounts. Singtoe on t4r has a pretty in-depth build of his 3rd gen 4runner. He did extend his driver side exhaust manifold to clear the steering shaft. I didn't, but did cut, and rotate the flange to the engine tonjust clear the steering shaft. He also stated that a body lift was a must, it is NOT.