The beginning, 4Runner SAS

Trying, I know it will be a lot of hurry up and wait though. I already slightly blew my budget too, but by putting the Runner in storage status with the insurance company, I lowered that bill by 80 bucks a month. So, that makes up for the slight overture.

 

I got the old motor and trans out. I need to pull part of the dash harness to send off with some of the other wiring to get the conversion harness made. We'll call the swap 1/4 to maybe 1/3 done. Still a ton of shit to do.

 

Motor mounts from ORS showed up today. I have the week of Christmas off, so hopefully I can get the motor in for a test fit. I won't have the wiring harness back for a while, so I have some time.

 

Truck parts

 

Got the 22re motor mounts and some other unused brackets cut off and ground smooth today. There were a couple that I left in there when I did the axle swap that having the motor out made possible to finally remove.

Need to tack the new mounts and test fit the motor next.

 

Just got notice that my harness is done. Guess I need to get motivated.

 

The harness showed up today from Toy only swaps. It looks great, hopefully it works as good as it looks.

I have a ton to do to the old runner. I took next week of for spring break with the kids. I need to fit in a boating/fishing day, Mountain biking at Santos in Ocala, working on my runner and hopefully getting a new daily driver. I have everything from the bank set, just need to find the right deal on a gently used 3rd gen Tacoma Off-road 4x4. If anyone sees a 2017 or newer in silver, grey, cement or white under 45000 miles for around 33k let me know.

 

So I actually worked on this old pile today. Mocked up the motor and put the cross member in (mainly to get it out of the way, one car garage).

I'll need to move the passenger side mount forward and outboard an 1/8 inch to get the motor square and all the bolt holes to line up.

The hood will have to be modified to clear the motor, guess it will be getting a scoop.

The radiator from Todd's truck most likely won't work without moving a bunch of AC lines. I think I'm going to get a nice aluminum replacement. Need to get that and modify the crossover pipe for the exhaust.

Looks like it sits a little higher than the 22re, but there's no transmission, transfer case or drive shafts in there right now. I think ride height will be about the same, with the V6 being heavier, but the transmission being much lighter.

 

I totally forgot about the family of Wasp's. I got under the hood to grind the paint away from frame to weld the mounts earlier today when they starting poring out. I got the hell out of there, re-grouped and tracked them to the passenger side frame rail. After an exhaustive search for wasp spray (couldn't find it) the nice little wasp family met a fiery death from a Map gas torch.

Thankfully I didn't get stung, I'm pretty allergic.

 

YIKES! Dunno if I'm alergic or not but I have an irrational fear of those damn things. I'll literally, and have, run out into traffic to get away from them. They used to like to build nests behind the fuel doors of my F250 (dual tanks). That makes for a rude surprise when you go to fuel up.

BTW, I have a brand new in the box Denso radiator for a 3.4L. Dunno if it will fit but I'll cut you a heck of a deal on it. The one in the pics looks like it's seen better days, lol.

 

Thanks Lee, but I don't think it will fit. Assuming it's the same deminsions as the one Todd included with my motor.

 

It's actually taller. Todd had a 4 cyl radiator in his. Same width, but shorter.

 

The width is the problem. Height wise the one he gave me is the same as my RE radiator. I think I'm going to get the on from toy only swaps and pair that with a Spal fan.

 

Just don't get into a situation like Thorny Mike put the OGT into with pudding mud deep enough an engine driven fan to get into. He broke three fan blades off and the imbalance shattered the whole front timing cover apart. On the plus side the radiator armor I installed after our Richloam Trip saved the radiator, lol. Luckily for him I also gave him an engine with a good front timing cover on it so he didn't have to source a new one. Good times.

I'm torn now. I'd like to go on a trail ride out to Citrus, but I'll feel lame because I'm not putting the T4R in mud, and I be one of those pansies taking the bypasses, lol. Meh, my time and $ is better spent on the gun range anyway.

I forgot, did you hate reloading? I'm trying to think of folks to leave my 6.5 CM to if something happens to me, but since it won't chamber factory ammo due to a short free bore, it needs to go to someone that doesn't mind hand loading for it.

 

I wouldn't say I hated it. It just wasn't for me at this time in my life. I couldn't invest the time alone in quiet to do it properly.


I really appreciate you thinking of me. It would be an honor to have such a fine rifle. But, God forbid something happened to you, it would be better for it to go to someone that shares your passion for reloading and precision. Hopefully you're a very old man when that day comes.

 

Slow and unmotivated is how this swap is going.

I did get the motor mounts final welded and painted today. I cleaned and painted part of the engine bay with POR15 too.

Might do some more on Sunday or in 2 months, who knows at this point.

 

I have an '83 Heep carcass scattered all over my yard. Probably not going to get better anytime soon. Getting my uncle to even get absolutely necessary parts appears to be the toughest battle in this project. He didn't even want to replace the old mickey mouse tie rod which looked mostly like a cork screw it was so bent up. I won that battle though. I lost the one for the Holley carb. Instead he bought a cheap Chinese reproduction of the factory carb. I'm waiting on the cone washers to get here around the 1st of OCT to put the intake and header on. And I'm still fighting the wiring harness battle. The $1k+ price tag has him digging his heels in. I haven't even started the battle to update the nasty old gauges and he won't tell me what color he wants it coated. I'm trying to get him to let me Raptor Liner it dark green with a tan top, but he wants to hear it run I guess before commits to buying paint. I think I might have convinced him to go with a Flowmaster Super 50 after he rode in the T4R the other day. Otherwise, it's like

 

So tell me...if you were doing a frame off rebuild, would it even cross your mind to try to salvage this pretzel?



And then here's the rest of the fun in my yard...

The hood is leaning against the tent we made with the roll bar for a pile of random parts, lol.

 

But wait, that's not all. The damn Heep is creeping inside my house too...


Haha, sorry for with a bunch of crusty old Heep junk.

Edit: Maybe I should start an Uncle Baka's Heep Build thread, haha.