Topic: 3RZ 1985 Aussie 4Runner

[4CRSHNU]

Hey all after a few years lurking in the background, I have finally made an account and now a build up thread. I had a thread on pirate but I prefer this forum.

It all started August 2009, when I started the search for a solid axle 4Runner to replace my 1991 Diesel 80 Series Landcruiser which I sold before going on deployment in January. I wanted a 4Runner because they are lightweight, thinner then a Landcruiser and Marlin makes heaps of cool parts for them. Finished product will be a daily driven neat vehicle which should be very capable off road.

Heres a pic of my old cruiser before I sold it.


And heres a pic of the 4Runner when I got it.


This picture should confuse you a little.


In the same week I brought the 4Runner, I also brought this 2005 2WD Dual Cab Hilux for the 3RZ.


I then got to work on removing the engine.




Then once removed gave it a wash with the pressure sprayer.


Had to get a mate to help me push it into the garage, his rig is running 4.7s in a single case.


More to follow.

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

Gave the interior a clean, and had to rebuild the rear brakes for registration.






Took the disgusting barwork off.


Brought myself a new toy for the suspension lift install.


Heres what the original engine looked like, I don't think you guys got these in the states its a 4Y 2.4 Carbie engine mine was fitted with a Weber carbie which drank the juice. As it was a Y series engine the engine mounts line up as standard with the 3RZ and just need a 3RZ 2WD bellhousing to mate to the G52.


Heres me removing the old bellhousing.


Dropped the 3RZ in place.


I think I saw this idea off 4Rnrick or Tacorunners build.




Engine running and suspension install next.

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

Completed the main wiring, installed a fuel pump and ran new fuel lines. Here is a pic of the dash out to get the loom and computer in.


Heres a video of the morning after finishing the wiring, no exhaust fitted.


All up from old engine out and 3RZ running took me one week, I did have the week off work. It was my first conversion and didn't really strike any major problems thanks to Toyota not changing bolt patterns and wiring colours 20 years later. Accessing bell housing bolts was the most painful part.

I then dropped the 4Runner off at an exhaust shop to get custom headers and 2.25in pipe made with o2 sensor mount. Still had a few little things to complete after that, new radiator, finishing off gauge wiring and finding an airbox.

Next I ordered my suspension kit, now its not a marlin kit which I would have preferred as there is no major importer into Australia and I would have to buy direct. We have a Trail-Gear importer in Australia who imports in bulk which I was able to get a 4 inch front and rear with right hand drive high steer kit. But don't worry I am in the process of purchasing parts to create a dual ultimate case setup from Marlin.

Removing old spring mounts


New hanger installed.


Shock towers about to be removed.


Gone.


Removed torque mount preparing chassis for IFS box.


High steer arms in.


Me and my welder mate trying to work out how to fit the IFS mount brackets.


Mount on.


Welded and painted.


Suspension finished minus shocks, had to move interstate at this point.

[HogCanyonHopper]

Aussomeness!!! What a beautiful Runner. Your pics are excellent.I am going to use them to help w/my suspension set-up. Great work man. Be safe out there.

[wakkjobb]

Great build; why didn't you keep the 'cow catcher' front bumper?  What size tires are you  going to use?

>>Dan

[joeycool00]

  wicked build keep up the good work! 

[Early]

Wow, drivers side drop on a 85 runner, haha.

Looks super nice friend, what sort of wheelin are you planning for this? expedition rig?

O, and i fancy your mates white rig as well, 

Welcome 


:early:

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I plan on running 35in BFG KM2s when the beast is finished, nothing too huge as I plan on driving it to work every day.

I am guessing you guys would call it an expedition rig, bit of an all rounder, rocks, snow, mud, sand.

Will have more pictures up soon.

[SFD4x4]

I hate you for doing a complete motor swap in less then a week , mine took me 4 months.  Just joking, nice work on your rig!

[Early]

I am guessing you guys would call it an expedition rig, bit of an all rounder, rocks, snow, mud, sand.

Sorry, I often use that term loosely. What i meant with expedition was something that could drive on, or around anything and coast to coast (for us about 4,000 miles) highway or offroad.


Do you have any plans for a locker? I am curious to see what you guys do. Also curious about winches, I have seen some amazing winch setups from Aussies.

[gtoyonrocks]

Looking good. I have considered doing a 3rz swap to my yota, that or a 1.9 tdi. I can't wait to see some action shops of your runner.

[1armbandit]

This picture should confuse you a little.

Ahhh- my dream interior.  Is the ignition switch on the left or right side of the steering column?

[THK Matt]

Ohh ill watch... that's just awesome! I want a RHD Toyota!

[gtoyonrocks]

Yea, I would love to have a rhd toyota. I don't know why Japan never imported the 4 dr toyota's to the states.

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

Sorry, I often use that term loosely. What i meant with expedition was something that could drive on, or around anything and coast to coast (for us about 4,000 miles) highway or offroad.


Do you have any plans for a locker? I am curious to see what you guys do. Also curious about winches, I have seen some amazing winch setups from Aussies.

I am in the process on talking the missus into transporting the Runner to the US in about 3 years to do the con' and drive from east to west coast over 3 months. Got a quote of US$1600 each way to transport it to Long Beach.

I plan on running ARB Air Lockers (Made in Australia, but somehow cheaper in US after the conversion) front and rear with a high pinion in the front. Winch will be a low mount Warn 6hp, used to have a high mount on my old cruiser but the effort to install it didn't really pay off for the features for me.

Ahhh- my dream interior.  Is the ignition switch on the left or right side of the steering column?

The ignition switch is on the right hand side of the steering column, I would much prefer the gray interior out of a JDM Surf.

Again thanks for the kind words, the engine may have taken a week to get running but the project has been going for about a year now.

Cheers
 

[gtoyonrocks]

That would be really cool for you to bring that rig out here. It sounds little expensive but I'm sure it would be the trip of a life time for you. Good luck with that adventure.

[GrnMachine]

nice build, really clean runner. keep up the good work!

[BigMike]

Looks really great, thanks for all the pictures I enjoy seeing all the cool stuff that Toyota short-hands us on

[gtoyonrocks]

I know, I wish they would have imported more of their rigs here.

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

G'Day All,

Got a few little projects finished on the Runner in the past few weeks.

Haven't got any photos of it but had to install a 25mm (1in for you lot) body lift, this was done only to give me a little bit more bonnet/engine clearance and shock tower clearance.

Another job I finished was getting all the stock dash instruments to work, wired up the temp gauge, oil pressure light and did the 10k resistor tach mod also installed an EFI light. Only wiring left to do is for the Air Conditioning which will be done some time later (prolly when it heats up).

I pulled out the stock 2 core raditor and dropped it off at a workshop to get rebuilt with a 3 core grill. Very happy with the result.



I finally got around to removing the original steering stabiliser and traction bar brackets off the front diff.



Got a reconditioned gearbox G52 for a real cheap price.



While I was overseas recently I dropped the Runner off to get the windscreen surround repaired and the windscreen was held in with black silastic and was leaking into the cab. Result was new windscreen, new rubber and some body work.





The shop also finished the welds off on the suspension parts I had tacked in.







The big news of the week is I ordered a Marlin Crawler Dual Case adapter and 4.7s. Postage was a bit of a killer at $400US but was still cheaper then buying TG locally. Also ordered a top shift case and rebuild kit locally. Hopefully all this arrives this week in plan for next weekend.


Matt

[John Doe]

Your 4runner Looks great! Do you plan on adding any armor to that axle? You may have said it already but what lockers if any do you plan to run? A suggestion for your rear shocks, Flex it out and make sure your shocks are the right length for that set up. Mine are set up the same way and they currently limit my suspension travel during compression and drop.

Keep up the good work.

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

Your 4runner Looks great! Do you plan on adding any armor to that axle? You may have said it already but what lockers if any do you plan to run? A suggestion for your rear shocks, Flex it out and make sure your shocks are the right length for that set up. Mine are set up the same way and they currently limit my suspension travel during compression and drop.

Keep up the good work.

I do plan on adding some armour to the front axle in the future, but at the moment I am focasing on getting the Runner ready for engineering. In Australia an engineer has to certify any major mods ie suspension, high steer and engine conversion.

I plan on running Air Locker with a high pinion 80 3rd in the front and keeping the 4.88s.

I haven't had a chance to cycle the suspension yet as I have no front drive line, will be getting a new one after duals, makes it hard to flex without a ramp. I also would like to see how good the travel is.

Cheers

Matt.

[tanman85]

very nice

[BigMike]

I am very happy to see you running a 3-core radiator. You will be amazed at how well that will cool the 3RZ. On numerous occasions I've seen the temperature drop below the thermostat (thermostat was already fully closed) and run just a couple needles above the L line. The 3 core works so well that in the winter I almost feel like I need to restrict air through it lol

The big news of the week is I ordered a Marlin Crawler Dual Case adapter and 4.7s. Postage was a bit of a killer at $400US but was still cheaper then buying TG locally. Also ordered a top shift case and rebuild kit locally. Hopefully all this arrives this week in plan for next weekend.

Sorry to go off topic but I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. What people don't realize is it's not just the initial price of buying a FG product, but it's the continued price of having to constantly service and replace their parts (hence their ridiculous parts guarantee). I can't tell you how many orders we get from people who are tired from replacing their 5th or 6th FG part. All that labor gets extremely tiring really quick.

I'm glad you decided to go with the real Crawler! I know you will get many great years of service from it!

Regards,
BigMike

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

Put in some big hours today, but got there in the end. Longest part was cleaning.

Here is a preview, will post a write up soon, cause now its time for bed.



Matt.

[BigMike]

You are doing some great work. I like how it's all coming together

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

A little bit later then I planned but here's the pics from the duals and 4.7s install.

Started with a box arriving from some distant country, only took about 7 working days to get here, pretty good seeing how far it traveled. Don't mind the token cat, closest thing I got to a pit bull.


This is the top shift donor case, now I used this case to make the crawler but swapped the top shift parts out with the forward shift parts from the original case.


This cordless impact driver always comes in handy.


Donor case split in half.


The all important top shift rails.


Crawler parts stripped and cleaned, I ended up using the original 2.28 gear set from my original case as it had better bearings and a few little improvements over the pre 83 case. Really all I ended up using out of the donor case was the reduction housing, top shift rails and bolts. The early reduction housing does have a cool inspection port.


At this point I had to remove the original transfer to get the forward shift rail out before I could reassemble the crawler case.


Keystock welded in to the forward shift rail.


Crawler case nearly assembled.


Marlins 4.7 Gearset installed into original case.


Reassembly, cleaning was the longest part of this process, more then half my time was spent cleaning and no access to a sandblaster.




The end result at about 10pm on a Saturday night, my wife loves this project.


Also picked up these the other day, custom lengths, CV installed in rear shaft and upgraded wall pipe. They weren't on the cheap side, another reason for the wife to love this project. Haven't got a lengthened spline yet for the front shaft, will deal with that if the problem arises.


Haven't had a chance to test drive it yet other then a drive out the front of the house, waiting on a new rear diff flange to suit the CV joint.

Enjoy

Matt.  

[twistedtoy92]

Very nice build!!! I'll be watchin this one 

[46&2]

I am in the process on talking the missus into transporting the Runner to the US in about 3 years to do the con' and drive from east to west coast over 3 months. Got a quote of US$1600 each way to transport it to Long Beach.

Awesome build man. Glad to see more Aussies joining and posting up. Its funny you say in 3 years you want to come here and wheel... because in about 3-4 years I want to take my 4runner to Australia and do the same thing. I'll show ya around the West Coast if you want to show me around your neck of the woods in Australia! 

Can't wait to see some wheelin' pics, love the scenery and wildlife you have down under. 

You said you were gonna drive this on the street... I thought you guys had pretty strict modification laws for street use?

[4CRSHNU [OP]]

Cheers TwistedToy,

462, That would be sweet if we could do tours on either continent, I don't know where bouts I will be in Australia but would be happy to show you round.

Will definitely post up some wheeling pics when I finally get there, hoping to do some snow trips next year.

The laws here are pretty strict, the state I am in now I have to have all the modifications checked over by a mechanical engineer and test driven for stability, then once it has passed that it has to have a yearly check by a mechanic for road worthiness, lights, brakes, steering, leaks, etc.   

Matt.