1994 pickup slow build and 2lt swap (1 Viewer)

[arcticexpress]

So, I figured I’d finally start a thread on my 94 pickup. So let’s start from the beginning...
When I was 15ish I moved to the northernmost incorporated city in North America, Barrow, Alaska. My mother purchased a 95 22re extra cab pickup. I proceeded to break a ball joint on the beach, among other things, and later get t-boned by a school bus and end the life of the 63k mile electrical problem plagued truck. However, of course, it still ran. Which led me to this one. Complete with a bullet hole in the roof and a harpoon hole in the bed floor, I purchased the truck for the mighty sum of $600 from the son of the original owner whom had long passed. He was a very well known whaling captain, so all the elders in town knew me due to the truck. It had 91k on it at purchase and had been there since brand new, which is extremely high miles for being on the slope and driving around in a 3 square mile town for its whole life. I’ll be trying to add as much info and pics as possible over the next few days to get the timeline of the tread up to current.

 

[Woodini]

Welcome to mud ! That truck has a cool back story (bullet/harpoon holes)!

 

[arcticexpress]

Welcome to mud ! That truck has a cool back story (bullet/harpoon holes)!

Thank you! I’m a long time watcher and figured I’d finally contribute.

 

[arcticexpress]

So, after purchase I had a new whole can of works. The truck had sat for about 15 years so obviously it needed a thing or two. I pulled the motor out of the wrecked truck (which had 63k original miles and had already been rebuilt) and swapped it in. Despite burning truly incredible amounts of oil, it ran like a top. And just wouldn’t fricken die. This engine continued to limp along until a few months after driving to Washington, when the timing chain tentioner decided to go kamikaze and delete the timing chain and therefore my valve train. I bought another 22re for $600 and put about 25,000 miles on that one until recently I pulled it, still running. A first for this truck!

 

[arcticexpress]

Here’s pictures of leaving barrow over the community winter acres trail (cwat for short), down the haul road, and the alcan to Washington state. After getting stolen, it sat at my grandparents house for about a year and a half. Last spring a flew down, fixed what I could, and drove it back to Wasilla Alaska.

 

[arcticexpress]

Last summer I installed an aftermarket sunroof since I have a severe addiction to sunroofs, slapped a beacon on it since I worked for a construction company at the time, did new headlights, a lockrite in the rear, mainly little things like that. Also found some sr5 door panels with manual windows which I had been looking for forever. Oh, and I installed a vhf radio. And a bonus picture of my 81 sport truck on big lake in January.

 

[arcticexpress]

Last summer I installed an aftermarket sunroof since I have a severe addiction to sunroofs, slapped a beacon on it since I worked for a construction company at the time, did new headlights, a lockrite in the rear, mainly little things like that. Also found some sr5 door panels with manual windows which I had been looking for forever. Oh, and I installed a vhf radio. And a bonus picture of my 81 sport truck on big lake in January.

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Forgot to add these. Also did the trusty zuk mod. Works very well apart from the increased wheel hop. Which is incredibly annoying since I drive on a lot of ice. If the rear end locks up or spins it gets pretty violent.

 

[Woodini]

Dude the vintage colors on that old girl!!

 

[arcticexpress]

Fast forward a few months to recently. I had decided that on its 3rd 22re, I figured I’d try something a little different. Preferably better on fuel, and it had to stay Toyota, and have a little more go for Highway hills and deep snow. My first thought was a turbo 2rz or 3rz being as they’re very common, good on gas, super reliable, and easy to find parts for. But I like the idea of not having an ecu to decide when the truck can and can’t run. And, a custom wiring harness and motor mounts that I can’t fix on the side of the road if need be. The next thought was 1kz. Downside is, very hard to find parts for, still has an ecu, would need frame side motor mounts moved or something custom, and not super good on fuel. And expensive. However the cool factor was through the roof. Which led me to the 2lt. I am well aware of the head issues on these engines. I figured I would try to find a 2lt-2. Factory mechanical pump, fairly simple, pretty good in fuel, and from what I have read they do well in the cold for being a diesel. Although I’d have to order parts from the lower 48 and other countries if needed, there isn’t much to suddenly fail that would keep the truck from running. An issue I kept running into was I couldn’t find one without an egr and an electronic transfercase. I wanted to have my factory gear driven case or a v6 chain driven case. After many months of mental debate and research, I found this ugly duckling: a late 2lte with a 3l mechanical pump. I could tell that the head had already been replaced, egr was already gone, had a single mass flywheel, and it came with a g54 transmission. This meant that I could yank the bell housing off of it and bolt it to my existing w56. So, down the rabbit hole I went.

 

[arcticexpress]

Fortunately, the 22re came out without a hitch. And upon removal, I figured out what was making the awful noise inside the bell housing. When I put the engine in I used an
Lce pro street clutch and the collar that goes around the input shaft was separating from the clutch disk. I had assumed this was the input shaft bearing in the trans so I was very happy to find this. The diesel bell housing bolted right up like it was meant to be.

 

[arcticexpress]

And the diesel bolted right in. I replaced most of the hoses while it was out, I mad sure to use blue for some extra power. Also hammered the dent out of the oil pan. I had previously bought solid motor mounts for the 22re and figured I’d try them out. Horrible, horrible idea. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the vibration and noise was truly unbearable. So I swapped them out for oem ones and it’s much much better.

 

[arcticexpress]

Next was wiring work. I labeled the wires for oil pressure, tach, temp, and the +12v to the coil. I then removed pretty much everything that want to the ecu. Injector plugs, diagnostic port, o2 sensor, etc. i used the 22re temp sensor since it Threads into the ports on the new engine. I managed to lose my oil pressure sensor which is different than the diesel one so I still don’t have an oil pressure gauge. I’ll probably end up just doing an aftermarket one. I wired the coil 12v to the fuel cut solenoid in the injector pump, and used the factory starter signal wire to trigger an 80amp solenoid since the diesels will burn up the 22re starter relay. Wiring for the reverse light and speedo were untouched. And I simply extended the factory alternator harness since they use the same plugs.