1GRFE Engine Swap

Swapping my crippled 2007 1GRFE for a 2009 1GRFE from totaled truck with 1200 miles. See this thread for history on why I'm installing new engine:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/73107-sounds-like-bad-pulley-wish.html

It took me and a buddy 12 hours to pull the original and completely stick and bolt up the new one. Of course there where around 18, 12oz cold adult beverages involved in this procedure.

The removal and reinstall of the engine wasnt that difficult. Doing it in my sloped driveway was. It would have been much easier with a full size lift, level ground and extra room to move around.

SOme of the challenges along the way -

Transmission has single frame mount at output shaft, the front of the tranny and all the weight is supported by its connection to the engine block. That made alignment for the reinstall a little tricky. Also, the single tranny connection to the crossmember is a soft mount that can move in any direction around 1/2 inch. There is one allignment dowl on bell housing, and one on the block. When the tranny and engine can twist and move independantly in any direction, it makes it tough to get the allinment when each are supported on seperate jacks.

Engine block lift points required some creativity. Although there may be a Toyota lift hook kit, there is for the 3.4 V-6, I couldnt locate such a kit for the 1GRFE. I'll post pics of my solution later. It worked nicely.

I took around 60 pics. I'll sort through and post the best ones. Heres a few for now, I need to get busy reconnecting the harness and all belt driven components, intake, etc...today. I should have it running by the end of the day. Must also restock adult beverage inventory before proceeding.

 

Woo. I want to see more

 

Subscribed

 

Subbed. Every one of those 60+ pics better end up in here

 

Maybe I missed a previous thread, but what happened to your original engine?

 

Did you consider pulling the trans with the engine and mating the trans to the replacement engine outside the car? That's often done to avoid the difficulty you encountered, but I don't know how much additional stuff you have to remove to make that happen. I wonder what the factory manual says.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/73107-sounds-like-bad-pulley-wish.html

 

Yep, new engine on the pallet. Intake ports were adequately protected and entire pallet was shrink-wrapped during shipping.

 

That method did cross my mind as I was planning this out, then I crawled under and saw everything that had to be disconnected. I opted out. What I learned while pulling the engine was clearance from the radiator was limited, but rather than remove radiator, I put a sheet of plywood in front of it in case the engine tried to swing towards it. That saved me the cost of replacing the radiator, b/c the engine was radiator bound with every lift of the jack.

The original engine was stripped down pretty far - all pulleys, timing cover; the new engine was more complete, so there was even less clearance going back in. Anyone attempting this in the future, I would recommend removing the radiator if you dont have some plywood you can cut to place in front of it for protection.

I did consider dropping the trans due to the difficulty I was having alligning the new engine, but luckily we were able to get it alligned.

This is how I did it... The starter bolts are a little longer than the bell housing bolts, but the same thread/pitch. I used one temporarily to pull the bell hsg and block closer together, the actual bolts wont reach if the dowels are not set. With one starter bolt partially started in a block/bell hsg hole, it allowed me to finally get the allignment right and get the other bolts started - its easy to get one hole alligned with a longer bolt - then pivoting the engine and trans on that one point. Once everything was pulling up close, I replaced the starter bolt with the actual bell hsg bolt.

 

Thanks. $2950 shipped. Had to pay an additional $50 to have lift-gate delivery to my house. Dont have a loading dock at home...

I have to say that although the company I got it through did provide a carfax from the donor truck to validate mileage, something everyone needs to pay close attention to when buying an engine from a salvage truck sight/unseen, is the amount of time since the truck was reported totaled. That info is on the carfax, it was on mine.

The donor truck was bought new in Feb 2009, it was totaled in Mar 2009. Miles reported at registration, 256/ Miles reported at time of total, 1200. The truck/engine had been sitting for almost a year. The external surfaces of the engine have aged considerably. On the outside it does not look like a 1200 mile, 1 month used engine. I'm going to have a talk with the vendor on Monday. I'm a little disappointed considering the pics on their website show nice shiney engines - thats what I was expecting mine to be - It aint.

 

Close up of the poor cosmetic condition of the valve cover. I wish I hadnt sold mine to Coupe...

 

Man that whole ordeal sucks. I sure hope this doesn't become more wide spread. Toyotas reputation for bulletproof vehicles is the only reason I spent the extra money over a Nissan. Although, if mine ever pukes out of warranty, it's getting a LSX!!

 

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the pics.

 

Looks fun sorta lol... I bet it was a pita to try and align the torque converter with it out like that... make sure to hit the splines right or you'll be pulling it all right back out... Not sure on the toyota's, but the old 700r4's (for sbc and such) have 2 sets of splines... it'd be easy to miss-align it and think it's all the way in.. crank it and strip it.

 

Yeah, no doubt. I took some special pics for the Fram, stand by....

 

The POS Fram




My new filter until I get a Mann or Amsoil dual..

 

Great job . Why is it that engine swaps always go better with

 

At 430 pm Central time, Feb 21, 2010, the new 1GRFE came to life. First turn of the key and it fired up. Its running great. It ran around 1000 rpm for a few minutes, warming up as usual, then dropped to around 700 and idled a smooth as butter. The swap was successful.