1st Gen Tacoma Resurrection

Finally got a break in the rain today. Was able to wrench for about 4 hours. I am spoiled getting the California truck ready. Everything came right off no issued.

The donor truck - oof. A few broken bolts so far - less than I thought. Not a ton of progress - cut on the front end so I can move the engine out easier when I get to that point.

Got the torque converter bolts off - those were a chore as the front diff is in the way. had to drop it down to get to the cover and bolts. Took longer than I had hoped. Should be able to drain fluids next and get transission unbolted and she'll be ready to pull. I also did start her again today and get up to temp - hadn't done that to date. So far so good, no leaks, odd smells, knocks or the like.
Original plan was to source a rebuilt engine but that would have been $5500+ with core. Tossing the used engine in will at least let me get back on the road with the 5 spd swap.

 

How much did you get the donor for if you don't mind my asking?

 

I see now where you said you got it for $2500... Oops!

 

That garage is packed with fun stuff. It looks like you might be living in a deed restricted neighborhood, and your building a Frankentruck much to the dislike of your neighbors. I only ask because I do the same thing now and then

 

Angle grinder FTW. Won't have to clear that radiator support now!
Body aches galore. Pretty sure rediscovering muscles I haven't used since 1996.

 

Yeah- fortunately not a subdivision with an HOA. I keep a car cover on the truck when I'm not working on it. I'm also the guy all the neighbors come to when they have issues from plumbing, electrical to automotive so no one gives me a hard time.

Garage has everything from a 1915 Ford Model T to a 2021 Honda CT125 and lots of various Motorcycles in between.

 

In hindsight I probably gave too much as in the end I'm only using the engine and a few plugs off the donor. On the flip side I couldn't bring myself to buy a engine I couldn't hear running and I should be able to sell off most of the truck to offset the engine. I almost went back to my original plan to order a rebuilt engine from Yota1 this past weekend but they are still showing a 7 mo wait time. If I'm dropping that kind of $$$ I want near instant gratification.

Anyway I ordered up a timing belt and water pump kit last night, as well as freeze plugs, valve cover gaskets, etc. So I can freshen her up before the swap.

 

Advantage of WFH - able to go out and beat on this old girl in between Teams meetings.

Wasn't planning on pulling the CV joints but after reading online seems the concensus is going OEM new or rebuilt vs Cardone or equivalent new/remanufactured. SO here I am pulling the OEM front CV joints off.. Going to use the Toyota rebuild/reboot kit for $35/side. So for under $100 I can rebuild and reuse these. (At least that's the plan)

 

ain, short days, cold. Not fun. But did make progress got both CV Axles off and the front differential pulled. Won't be using the one on this truck but do need to pull some mounting hardware off it that was missing from the other lower mileage front diff I picked up.

 

Made some more progress. Finally got an engine hoist - just waiting on the engine stand to be delivered.



Took a half day off work today and got the transmission and transfer case pulled from the donor truck. Don't plan on using either but I did need a few pieces off the transfer case so pulled the whole thing off. Not really a one person job but I got her down with all fingers intact.











Did also get the complete wiring harness and all the modules pulled from the truck today too. Quite a pain but it's an effort to sell off stuff later to help recoup the parts truck purchase.

 

Made significant progress today. Got the motor yanked out and on a cheap harbor freight engine stand Order a bunch of parts to complete the full swap from Megazip and Local Toyota dealer too. Weather is turning cold here so it will be nice to have it in the garage and start working on the timing belt, water pump and freeze plugs. Slow but steady progress.

 

Worked a bit more last night - got the harmonic balancer off and 6 of the 11 freeze plugs out. Also got a couple of the coolant neck studs put back in that threaded out when I removed the neck. Wife said I looked like a mess last night Just cold, tired and sore!

 

Things have slowed down a bit due to weather and the holidays. I did get out and get a chance to wrench a bit. Decided I wanted to do an on stand compression test so I got the big idea to cut the motor mount perches off the donor frame. All went well until the grinder went flying and caught my thigh. Fortunately just a flesh wound. Did get them off and something rigged up enough that I can hand the engine back on the hoist, throw the flexplate back on w/ starter and do a compression test.

 

I did also make some further progress on getting the Taco prepped to pull the blown motor. The automatic transmission has been nearly ready to pull out for months now, but I just hadn't reached the point where I was ready to pull it. Came out easy compared to the auto/transfer case. She is now just waiting to get her motor pulled so I can start swapping over the best parts.

 

Mostly now I'm just waiting on parts and tools to arrive. I've got the timing belt and water pump kit here, rear main seal, clutch kit and flywheel but waiting on things like pressure plate bolts and flywheel bolts.

I've got parts coming from local dealer and Megazip out of Japan and UAE. Decided to go full send and order all OEM hubs, seals, etc for the prerunner spindle conversion to 4wd. Also ordered up all the bits and pieces new for a clutch pedal and MT brake pedal swap.

Last but not least I ordered a used factory service tool to do the valve adjustment. I know I can buy a non oem new for about $40 less than I spent on this used FST - but I just wanted the OEM tool. . I was only going to check the clearance and not do the valves but I'll have the valve covers off to do the valve cover gaskets - so it would be a shame to be this far in and not do the valve adjustment. I will admit I've never done a bucket/shim style valve adjustment but after watching a few youtube videos and reading the Factory Service Manual it seems doable but tedious.

All for now besides cleaning nuts and bolts in the ultrasonic as I swap over the best hardware from the 82k mile Taco to the used engine. Slow but study she goes.

 

Finally got her rigged up w/ the manual bellhousing to put the starter back on for a compression test. Found out that 3 of the bolts for transmission to engine are different between manual and automatic and that one of the two starter bolts is also longer on the manual bell housing. Orders those from Toyota and bought some from the hardware store that will do the trick while it's on the ground for testing at least.

As a reminder donor truck had 182k miles.

Cylinder:
5- 215 6-190
3-85 4-210
1-210 2-205

After cylinder 3 tested low I tried it a few times w/ some oil in the cylinder and then some Marvel Mystery Oil. Brought the compression consistently up to 115 psi. I was able to get it as high as 145 testing right after putting oil in the cylinder. Rather bumbed about that cylinder. Going to get a leak down tester but I think the rings are either stuck or worn on that cylinder.

This engine sat for I would guess 2+ years after the donor truck was totaled so it's possible some rings are stuck. The other 5 cylinders seem healthy though. I'm thinking I should go ahead, do the compression test - and depending on how that turns out proceed with valve adjustment, timing belt water pump et.

And if engine starts and runs OK - do the old Italian tune up once she is running. Really wish that one cylinder wasn't so low though.

Toyota FSM says ideally 178 psi and 15psi delta between cylinders. Cold engine, throttle body wide open I'm exceeding the 178 and have a 25 psi delt with exception of one cylinder

 

If you have a bore scope, or rent one from AutoZone, take a quick look in cyl 3 to figure out how severe it may or may not be?

 

Or buy one off from Amazon that hooks up to your phone....

 

24 hours of MMO and Seafoam didn't seam to make a difference. No improvement on compression test. Bought a leak down tester and it just confirmed what the wet oil test indicated, I'm getting air out the dipstick tube - so it's a ring issue.

Got the cylinder to 80% of the way up on the compression stroke and and filled the cylinder with SeaFoam Deep Creep and PB Blaster. Spun the engine over twice to bring it back to same position and pumps the cylinder full again. Will let it sit for 24 hrs and do a compression test again. On one hand with all the 5 other cylinders reading good I'm leaning towards stuck piston rings which might work themselves free after some heat cycles and oil change. Unfortunately the engine it out of the truck and I can't really do that test - more than likely the end result will be I'll try to get the cylinder up in compression as much as i can on the stand and will just have to send it. It'll run on 5.75 cylinders.

If this was an issue with the head, and the leak down showed air coming out of intake or exhaust valve I have the good right side head on the blown motor and would have just swapped it. Leak down pointing towards rings at least keeps me from going through that exercise I suppose.

 

No real improvement from the Seafoam soak - I did run a leak down test on the 1, 3 & 5.

Using 90 PSI -
Cylinder PSI In / PSI Cylinder
1, 90, 87
3, 90, 65
5, 90, 85

Put some oil in the cylinder and let it sit for a bit, reran the test and was able to hold 84 psi on cylinder 3. So this points conclusively to the piston/rings. Got the Valve cover off and things actually look pretty good to my untrained eye.



I had the revelation that I plan on resealing the oil pan so what I plan on doing is, when I get to that point flipping the engine over and putting the cylinder at TDC and soaking the oil ring from the pan side.
Until that time I pulled the intake manifold and knocked out the freeze plugs. I'll swap over the knock sensors from my low mileage truck and also reseal the coolant tube while in there.







Crossing my fingers and hoping that when I eventually get this all back together those rings will free up. :/