LS Swapping a Tacoma - Chasing 100mph

Advanced adapters makes a bellhousing to marry the R150 to the LS. Not cheap but will allow me to keep the stock driveline to start.

I know @Speedytech7 showed interest in the engine but not the supercharger. If you are serious, we can talk numbers in private. Has the urd 2.1" pulley on it, 2.2" as a spare. New tensioner and the 7th injector kit. Had 30k miles on it when I bought it from @BossFoss and I put about 10k on it so should have plenty of life before it needs a rebuild.

 

If he wants the package it's his. I counted on you not getting around to any of this for years

 

Fine you're now #2 lol

The 5vz can be had as a whole or I will split them and sell separate. Will be easy once the 3.4 is on the stand.

 

One other thing I recommend, after multiple engine pulls in my truck is to cut the core support out to make pulling the V8 in & out way easier. Especially for working in there and adjusting things. If done right it can be modified to be bolt-in/ quick release

 

better yet, just drill out the spot welds of the core support and use bolts to bolt it back in. Makes removing it again easy.

 

That's 100% the plan I have , cut it, weld some tabs and make it removable. The engine will be in and out a lot during mock up so something to make that easier will go a long way. Especially if down the road the motor has to come back out for mods. I know that you could drill out the spot welds but the. That would complicate things in the future from what I see.

 

That's what I did. There's a lotta spot welds though so prepare yourself for a lotta drilling

 

Continued the tear down today. Borrowed a puller from Autozone. I had to improvise and used a headbolt to press against but it was a smooth process to get the damper off.

Now the final piece to remove, the cam. It was a bit awkward being the first time if done it.

One of the important things for me on this is to clean everything that I will reuse. I at least want it to look as good as it performs. Today was a lot of elbow grease.

First up were the piston tops. I used a combination of Acetone, Super Clean, Seafoam and brake clean and some brushes. It took a lot of scrubbing!
Mid process:

Almost done.


Next the timing chain cover was gross, inside and out.


The seafoam worked best here, really breaking free the oil deposits.


Another piece i planned to reuse was the valley cover which was caked in oil.


Since there was water standing in this thing for what i suspect its entire life, there was some corrosion so i hit it with the wire brush. Not perfect but not it can be used again without worry.


I then did more cleaning of all gasket surfaces on the block with razor blades. I haven't pulled the rear seal cover yet. In fact, I think its been replaced at some point. There's some silver sealant around the cover and gasket. I am on the fence on if I will replace the rear main seal at this time.

 

Hopefully y'all aren't too bored yet. This won't exactly be done in a week.... Still doing the boring stuff, cleaning. I do fine it quite therapeutic however. Today was a lot of work to get the valve covers cleaned up. Lots of paint stripper and lots of scrubbing. The guy I bought the motor from recently painted the valve covers black but did a mediocre job. Not taped well, not prepped at all (paint came off while washing the thing), and big runny paint globs down the sides. He also didn't even clean the insides of the covers so it clearly was a rushed job.

Here is the before:


And here is the result, ready for new paint once I make up my mind what I am going to do


I don't see a reason to get a new timing chain so I scrubbed the gear and soaked the chain in acetone which turned it into gold!

 

Still working to finalize the parts list. I think i still need to trim it down a bit or find some parts that are a bit better for the budget. Current total is $3667.20 and doesnt include the exhaust work or machine shop work that needs done. This list will certainly be a Work in Progress.

 

Sub'd for future reference when I blow up my motor again

 

I remember your truck being down for a while, didn't know it was motor issues. How'd you manage that?

 

Yeah. Head gasket let go in February last year. The more and more we dived into the old motor, the more and more problems we found. Just decided it was worth the time and money to completely revamp the motor with new parts. Kept it mostly OEM where I could just to know I'm going to have a super reliable motor for the foreseeable future.

 

Out of curiosity, as I'm sure someone will be at this crossroads at some point, how much did it cost to rebuild the 5vz?

 

Parts, labor, shipping, tax, etc, all said and done I'm about 18k, but I replaced basically every nut and bolt, heads, block, heat core, etc on the motor along with every single hose and fittings related to it as well. The only remaining pieces of the old engine are the oil pan, upper and lower intake, throttle body, crank pulley, fan and fan clutch, and radiator. Everything else is either new OEM, Denso or Aisin parts.

 

fuckin hell. Noooope.

 

Yep. Knowing what I know now, an LQ4 motor, 4L80e, and 4 speed Atlas transfer case are roughly the same price, and I'd still be able to retain street legal status in California.

 

That's some serious money for a stock 5vz! I am hoping to stay south of $8k on this project, not including the money I hope to get back from the blower, motor, and other items of value. Heard the cats might be worth something too.

 

Yep. It's a lot more than I wanted to spend on the motor, but it was a learning moment more than anything for me. Cats are worth something if you plan to replace them with high flow cats or just delete them entirely.

I was able to recoup some money from this whole ordeal, maybe near 4/5k once everything has finally sold, but that was only because of the old suspension, axles, etc from when I put the LT in during that down time.

 

I am hoping to get some back in other places as well but that's a bit tangent to the question of "if I blow a 3.4, dopes it make sense to rebuild or swap?" I alluded to.

I am hoping that the 35s pay for the new smaller set almost entirely, the Icon/Fox suspension is worth more than the monroe set I have sitting in the garage. rear bumper has some value. Still on the fence about keeping the front bumper. Lights and winch have to go, but I do lover the look of the bumper. In the end I'm still going to spend a few thousand to get a measly 300hp to the wheels At least thats my estimate!