Well after my V6 4runner started to suffer chronic oil pressure issues, not to mention it sounding like a diesel with a constantly hunting idle the descision was made to give it a heart transplant.



After seeing what both Ozrunner and D.J. have done I thought I might as well bight the bullet.
So Matt just happened to be parting out an EL XR8 which just happened to come from my town.



Well it came back to its home town in the back of a box trailer towed by the little engine that could.



Lets just say it made for an interesting drive home.

Once home I left it for a while to try and get the finances back up a workable level cause I had a few things to buy.

First things first was a Dellow conversion kit. this consisted of a Bellhousing, spigot bush, carrier, carrier bearing and clutch fork.



A few guys that have dealt with dellow in the past reckon its a pretty decent quality bit of kit compared to previous efforts.

Then came a mix and match clutch kit supplied by my local clutch and brake shop.



Basically a Ford 10.5" pressure plate and an e quivalent Toyota metric sized clutch plate. The toyota unit is less than 2mm smaller in diameter than the pressure plate so its as good a match as it gets.

Last edited by xcabbi on Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:59 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Now the fun part.

Since I didn't want to go cutting the support panel to get the engine out and the carport round the back wasn't high enough for what I had in mind all work from here on in has been done in the front yard. Some neighbors are supportive, others are snot noses but you get that these days.

We needed some form of lifting device which was high enough to lift the engine clean out and simply push the car back, then wheel the old engine away.

Behold the trojan hoist.



The first test fit of the engine went a bit "meh" as I couldn't quite bolt the box up to the engine. But regardless I had a baseline for the ammount of space I had in the bay and how far everything had to move back.





Bear in mind this was with the chassis/engine mounts still in plates which were fouling on my E series engine mounts.

Next step was to cut out the offending mounts to give myself more room.

On my days away from it I pondered such things as sump design.

Hows this for the standard Toyota unit? No wonder they were ticking time bombs.



Not much oil to be held in there and the drain plug is not the lowest point of the sump. Besides, that massive hump in the middle means the sump is basically split in 2 and you have about 2-3L of oil that will remain in there forver contaminating your fresh oil.

More on sumps later.

With the mounts out of the way and the gearbox crossmember unbolted I was finally able to bolt the motor to the box and move it around a little.



Under advice from D.J. and reading Ozrunners page I went out and bought a Land Rover Disco1 viscous fan hub and matching 17" 11 blade fan.



After bolting it to the Standard falcon water pump pulley I say exactly how much more the engine has to go back to fit a radiator.



That there is the aircon condensor that the fan is a bees pube away from.

But in terms of moving the engine back I seem to have run into two problems.

Problem 1: The rear lifting mount seems to be fouling on a bracket bolted to the firewall.



Problem 2: The oil pump seems to be fouling on the steering dampener.



I tried to see where else it was fouling but it got too dark too quick outside.

So that's where I'm up to at the moment. Any tips/pointers/suggestions?

Last edited by xcabbi on Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:40 pm, edited 7 times in total.

sweet job

but why go a viscous hub fan?

thermos dude so much easier and im sure u can get them to "push" air over the rad rather than "pull"

There is a 8" thermo infront of the radiator but its only for when the aircon is on. Its a damn tight fit too.

Thermos just don't make the grade in soft sand, well not with a radiator that small trying to keep a windsor cool. Fine for road cars that never push the cooling system to hard.

As a fellow 4Runner owner, may I say this is an awesome idea, nice work!
I've got a 2.4 diesel, so I understand where you're coming from with regards to wanting a bigger better engine. I think I'll be in that boat fairly soon. Keep the updates coming!

The bracket on the firewall is for the handbrake.
It is a common thing to get in the way doing conversions apparantly. None of mine have ever hit but , more good luck then anything else I reckon.
Marks adaptors is meant to have a kit to move the handbrake stuff to the inside of the firewall.

Im running AU thermos on the stock TB42 radiator and havent had any issues with heating whatsoever. Its been up to Stockton beach and palyed in lots of sand.
The only dramas I had with keeping my Windsor cool was when the first one run out of compression towing a camp trailer on a 38 degree day and coming back from son of trials when I had a cooked set of fans from being chock full of mud and the radiator was 3/4 blocked with mud too. Still didnt get overly hot but.

I figured that if I can relocate the rear lifting mount to bolt onto the exhaust studs for the drivers side rear cylinder then I can move back hopefully another 50mm. that should easilly get me room for a decent 2 core radiator up front and some shrouding as well.

As for the steering dampener. I am inclined to think I can get away with rotating it 180 degrees and welding a drop bracket on the drivers side rail to get it sitting an inch or 2 lower.

But that is all wishful thinking till I actually take a good hard look at it some time this week.

TB42 rad is big though and a patrol bay is bigger then a surfs which helps will cooling.

I've got EF fans in my diesel patrol. The stock engine fan worked better on long soft beach runs.
But through tight twisty bush/forrest tracks, temp switched elec fans are better.

Hi Nik

I will answer your PM questions on your page so others can view.

First off, yes I was the first one in the world to fit a V8 to this series 4Runner and I did mine in 1993 when my 4Runner was still under Toyota warranty. There was no info available at all on the net on this but I decided to do it anyway. Needless to say Toyota were not happy when next they saw it now with a Ford V8 . However, big cudos to them as they advised they would continue to honour full warranty except for the engine. Considering the drivetrain now had a V8 in front this was amazing as later I did have a transfer bearing go south yet they fixed it under warranty.

As with any V8 transplant you have to shift, modify or use anything that will allow the engine to sit as far back as possible in order to gain sufficient space up front to allow for a good cooling system and IMHO there is no use doing something if it is only just good enough, as sure as eggs somewhere down the line when you don't want it to happen, s**t will happen. In this regard I therefore totally agree with tickford_6 that thermo's don't cut the mustard.

That fan setup that I advised DJ to also use, if used with the custom PWR rad they made to my specs and a good shroud means you will never have any overheating issues. I do a lot of 37C and over days beach work in summer with the aircon on freezing and even then the fan doesn't get to needing to fully lock on. If it does in seconds you can watch the temp gauge immediately dropping back to normal as that fan design pulls huge amounts of air and this special core PWR rad is the shiz.

My V8 always runs around 83C and NEVER gets higher than 95C in slow tough conditions. Actually the Ford efi really should be running at 95C normally. I also used a different a/c condensor and positioned it away from the rad etc with two pusher fans.

So basically it means making the effort to do whatever is necessary to get the engine so the left head is about 10-15mm from the firewall. Considering you have a 2" bodylift versus my nil I would suspect this should be easy to achieve.

To really gain every mill possible you also need to use an AU water pump as its pulley etc sits back further meaning you will also have to adjust the other pulleys accordingly. If possible, using the full accessories and brackets from an AU will make it easier. But again your body lift may allow some variation. However, I made custom mounts for better clearance and ease of access.

Once you have achieved that then you can look at the sump position and if your body lift allows you to position the engine higher than mine etc you maybe able to use a modified standard sump. If not, given the IFS diff (DJ has a solid axle conversion) I found the Bronco twin pan sump clears the front crossmember etc and it then only requires a mod to the rear to clear the diff. It still holds 5 litres but also means you have to extend and modify the pickup etc.

The steering damper requires relocation but easy to do by making drop brackets etc.

JD


Here's some corresponding pics.

It can be done as my new engine, fan and 3 core rad all in 4Runner engine bay space.









Modified Bronco Sump



Steering rod passing behind front pan section and you can see the rear sump mod



Steering damper just below front pan

Looking good, IMO listen to JD's advise since he saved me many $$'s and grey hair (I don't have any ..yet)

For the handbrake, mine was also in the way.
The 4Runner & Hilux V6 (3VZ) has the cable on the inside of the firewall so it also clears the V6 heads.
V6 cable exits the cab under the foot rest.
To do it you will need the whole handbrake assy from under the dash (new cable pivot wheel is on the back of this assy) & cable which then connects up perfectly to your existing factory setup.
You have to look very closely to find the 2 caps over the screws as the grooves line up with the others making them almost invisible.
I ripped mine off as I couldn't find how it was held on !!

I'm impressed. Not much to add however I would like as much room as possible between the fan and radiator. I've seen radiators get eaten by fans before on water crossings, even with clutch fans. Also have to allow for more than just normal radial engine torque twist in fourbies.

Regards to the handbrake you could run a hydraulic tailshaft brake with floor mount but doubt their legality. Can you convert the stock handbrake?

Kudos to your progress though, i'm still w.i.p on turboing the 3L diesel. When I blow that up hopefully you will be finished and have don'e all the hard work already... lol

low_ryda, if you need any tips check out the Surf Forum for turbo setups on the 3L, it's a common conversion for the Surf 2LT-E.

On the fan setup, I can see where mine has just touched the rad (bottom passengers side cnr), probably on the last run through creek water up to bottom of headlights while it was flexed up going over decent size rocks.
That would be the worst case cenario, even so if you can get yours back a touch further it would be best.
Pic to show the rock size we were playing on.


Could mod the existing setup if you really want to, tho would be a fair bit of time & effort.
IMO while doing a number of custom mods for engine conversion, buying a part (handbrake setup) that just bolts in, works & is factory is a simpler route than adding to the existing list of custom stuff.
Drive shaft handbrake is not legal/engineerable UNLESS it is supplied/built that way from factory (e.g. GQ/GU Patrol, 40 series Cruiser, etc.)

HTH