Topic: My 1983 SR5 Long Bed Build.

[Cheesemaker]

What I'd do, is drill a small hole threw the stud, and put a spring loaded cotter pin in there.  My luck would be the nut would work loose, and things would fall off, or bang around.  And I hate having to keep checking things. 

[loctupdave [OP]]

I used cinch nuts, they will not come loose and if they do they will not move too far off of the bolts.

The transmission rebuild went well. No issues at this time. I installed the trans, last weekend and have been driving the truck around the neighborhood and fixing what needs to be fixed. Examples a brake line leak or carb adjustment. I do need to adjust the choke dle, it is a bit high, about 2200 rpm. The way the carb is mounted it is a bit difficult, most of the propane stuff is in the way also. I also need to remove the bed again. The bolts that hold the propane bottle clamps are hitting the back of the bed. I will drill through the tubing large enough so the heads of the bolts are inside the tubing.
When all of the issues are resolved I then need to build a car port on the side of the house. The truck is too tall to fit in the garage when the light bar and spare tire are on the bed.

[loctupdave [OP]]

I have been driving and then adjusting, then drive and adjust... The engine just will not give me enough power to be a pleasant drive. What I would like is to be able to shift through all gears and not have to keep my foot planted to hold speed. So the fix is more cubic inches, really nothing can fix power issues other than bigger engine.

Enters the 1996 GMC 4.3L



I am going to tear it down and give it a good cleaning and refresh it, add new where needed. This includes rings, bearings, oil pump, timing chain, valve guide seals and gaskets. It is getting a v-belt kit, 4bbl manifold, and a eldelbrock 500cfm carb. My propane system will be added to this engine. Things already acquired, flywheel, flywheel bolts, clutch and pressure plate, throwout bearing, starter, advance adapters bell housing, slave cylinder carb, and manifold. Need to buy v-belt pulleys and water pump, waiting to fit the engine to see what room I will have, long or short nose water pump. I also need to buy the gaskets, seals and distributor.

Some of the stuff has arrived.



There is a high torque, no nose starter in one of the boxes. The manifold and carb are in the others.

Tomorrow I will be pulling the engine apart.

[hilux-1983]

 

[loctupdave [OP]]

This is the motor now, with all the goodies installed.

[Cheesemaker]

Nice!  It took me a minute of reading to remember you had propane, and why not a 3rz, but then with the 4.3, it gets down to simplicity.  And most of the electronics will adapt.   

Yeah the foot to the firewall is a common thing with the 22R/E.  If I had more power, I'd be in trouble alot.  And I would be having to walk or bike to work.  I love going fast and getting sideways!! 

[loctupdave [OP]]

Yep keeping the pane. and I am a carb sort of guy. As for the power, I want enough power to move around on the freeway, ripping rubber off my tires is not need in my little toy.

The engine is pretty much done. It requieres a few hose clamps and fittings, then it is reddy to install. I may have some time to remove the 22r but fitting the 4.3 may be delayed. I have to have work done on my right knee. This will keep me layed up for a while.

[loctupdave [OP]]

I finished building the brackets. I decided to buy a bracket for the alternator, I simply did not want to mess with it when it can be bought pretty cheaply. All belts are fitted also. Now I need to take it all apart and paint the brackets. The alternator bracket will be sandblasted and painted black like the rest of the brackets I made.

[HogCanyonHopper]

looking good. cant wait to hear how this thing performs once you get it all buttoned up

[loctupdave [OP]]

Yesterday I installed all of the goodies on the flywheel side of the engine and stuffed it in the truck. I did this to make sure I was not going to have to shave any of the input shaft, and where the motor mounts would be located. Nothing had to come off of the input shaft but the motor mount stands had to be relocated.

This morning I removed the engine and all of the stuff on the back side of the engine. I then cut off the old motor mount stands. Then cleaned the Herculiner from the area.





I then installed and attached the engine to the bell housing. I used a bottle jack on the axle to hold up the engine and make adjustments to the height.
I installed the bracket for the AC and air compressor because the ac compressor is the highest thing on the front of the motor. Then I set the hood on the fenders and raised the engine until I had about 1 inch between the hood and the top of the compressor. The following pics will show the rest of the clearance issues.

The engine in a messy engine compartment. Still that little V6 looks pretty comfortable in there.



After doing all of the research on the 4.3 swap, I was a bit concerned on the firewall and distributor location. Well on my setup there is about 1 inch between the distributor cap and the firewall, no sheet metal work needed here.



As for the front of the engine and the radiator, again no issue there. There must be 9 inches between the lower pulley and the front frame. When the radiator and fan are installed I should have, at minimum, 4 inches from the pulleys to the electric fan. 



Now I am stuck, I thought I had enough material to build the mount stands but dont. The top of the motor mounts will sit about level with the frame when all is said and done.

[loctupdave [OP]]

I have been working on the frame motor mount locations. I built the motor mount stands from 3/16 steel plate. Cut, bend, fit then weld was about the jest of it.

Before drilling a hole for the motor mount to connect. I welded the out side first then ground the welds flat.



I then fitted them on the frame and located the hole. I drilled and fitted a tube on the inside to keep from crushing the sides. Then welded the insides.



The finished product.




The left one installed and partially welded. I will finish the welding when the engine is removed.

[loctupdave [OP]]

The engine is in. Runs great. Makes 5th gear usable. One thing I will say it is definitely not as smooth as the 22r, but that was expected. What was a surprise was the radiator. I have a 4 core radiator that was used with the 22r and it was just enough to keep that little guy cool. I took the radiator to a radiator shop to have the ports moved and was informed the 4 core was a high efficient unit, the fins are closer than in a standard unit. That I did not ask for when I had the radiator redone years ago. The dude at the shop told me that the radiator should cool better than a 2 row 1 inch core aluminum radiator. I don't know if he was right but can say that little radiator cools the 4.3l better than it did the 22r.  The gauge rest at 180 deg and does not move even with the ac on.

I still need to fix the tach, a couple of water leaks and the fan controller.





As seen in the above pic, the upper coolant hose is missing. The story behind that is I bought a DCC fan controller after it failed the second time I decided to go with the relay approach. I have a couple of 80 amp relays to drive the fan and three 50 amp relays to duplicate a Volvo controller. The third relay is just for a air conditioner signal. I welded a piece of tubing with a 14X1.5 mm nut to accept a BMW coolant switch. Then cut the upper radiator hose to accept the switch/tube assembly. Now what is left is to build the relay box.

[loctupdave [OP]]

... and the DIY Volvo fan control. The green and brown wires will energize the 80 amp relays for high and low speed. The ac relay will switch on the high speed fan. The white and yellow wires are from the coolant temp switch and the red is supply voltage from the dash switch, black is the ground.

[loctupdave [OP]]

Yesterday I installed the fan stuff and it all worked as expected. Looks different than the Volvo controller but does the same thing. I also replaced the park brake cable. The old one has 31 years on it and finally gave up. The water leak was at the Toyota sensor. I installed a sealing washer and leak fixed. I got the thing warmed up and did a little tuning on the carb and propane system. She was running a little rich on both systems.

Today I gave it a bath and took it for a small trip, dang she scoots along pretty easily. I chirped the tires pulling from a stop, not use to this much surplus power. I like it. I decided to relocate the breathers and moved them both above the frame rail. I tapped the housings to accept a 1/8 pipe fitting and used stuff from HD and Oreillies. I used a small engine fuel filter for the breather.

I have to say she is done now time for fun.