Builds Box Rocket 1985 Hilux (1 Viewer)

[Box Rocket]

Few minor updates. Cleaned up and painted the windshield trim. There's no other chrome on the truck so it made sense to do it black as well.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Some cheap adhesive tread pads added to the sliders. Much nicer on rainy days when the sliders are wet. Now I won't kill myself slipping and cracking my head.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

And lastly, proud dad moment when my boy decided it was best to paint the wheels white after we got them cleaned up. Love the old school feel of the white wheels.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

[gnob]

Definitely cleaned up nicely.
Awesome to have the next generation out in the garage.

 

[Manhattan]

LOVE the white wheels! That totally finished the look. Damn. Nice work.

 

[Box Rocket]

Bad news today. Zero compression in Cylinder #1. Looks like a rebuild is in order.

 

[toyotaboy80]

Sweet truck. What mirrors are those? Looks like something off a Ford or Dodge. Are those Toyota OEM? I want a set.

 

[Box Rocket]

Sweet truck. What mirrors are those? Looks like something off a Ford or Dodge. Are those Toyota OEM? I want a set.

OEM Toyota Mirrors

 

[toyotaboy80]

For a 1985 pick up?

 

[Manhattan]

Picture them before they were painted black.

 

[Box Rocket]

Not much of an update since its been a few months and COVID has slowed some progress. But my son is buying a rebuild kit from LCEngineering soon and we hope to get this motor rebuilt before the summer is over.

We have a few plans to update the flatbed as well. Additionally, we picked up a second transfer case and will be setup it up with dual cases. At this point both cases will use stock gears but will still be a hug improvement in gearing. If my son comes up with enough money before we get to the tcase we'll look at doing a 4.7 gear set in one of the cases.

Bottom line is we're working to get the truck running great before he starts his senior year in high school.

 

[Box Rocket]

I guess you could say thing are getting pretty serious. My son and I have been planning on rebuilding the 22RE that is in this truck, but another option popped up for sale locally and we jumped on it. We found a good running 1UZ and A340E trans. So the plan now is to do a motor swap over the next few months. We're planning to convert the trans to A340F (4wd version). With the auto trans, we're thinking we may not need to do dual tcases. Instead we'll probably look at just a single tcase with 4.7 gears. Should crawl pretty nicely with the auto and 4.7 case. Should also have plenty of power so we may leave the diffs at 4.10 for better highway driving. This will be a daily driver and also driven to trails and not trailered so driveability will be a goal of the build.

Now I'm researching and getting as much info I can on 1UZ swaps. If anyone has experience with this swap and has tips or suggestions, please let me know!
1UZ by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

[yotadude520]

I guess you could say thing are getting pretty serious. My son and I have been planning on rebuilding the 22RE that is in this truck, but another option popped up for sale locally and we jumped on it. We found a good running 1UZ and A340E trans. So the plan now is to do a motor swap over the next few months. We're planning to convert the trans to A340F (4wd version). With the auto trans, we're thinking we may not need to do dual tcases. Instead we'll probably look at just a single tcase with 4.7 gears. Should crawl pretty nicely with the auto and 4.7 case. Should also have plenty of power so we may leave the diffs at 4.10 for better highway driving. This will be a daily driver and also driven to trails and not trailered so driveability will be a goal of the build.

Now I'm researching and getting as much info I can on 1UZ swaps. If anyone has experience with this swap and has tips or suggestions, please let me know!
1UZ by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

As if this thread couldn't get any better....

 

[KLF]

As if this thread couldn't get any better....

Will, PAY ATTENTION. This is the engine that needs to go into the red truck! I gave this swap serious thought, was actually shopping for a cheap LS/GS/SC400. Imagine how AWESOME it would be to have a V8 rumble out the exhaust, and having that gorgeous Lexus badge when you open the hood. It's been done many times, lots of websites on how to do it.

 

[yotadude520]

Will, PAY ATTENTION. This is the engine that needs to go into the red truck! I gave this swap serious thought, was actually shopping for a cheap LS/GS/SC400. Imagine how AWESOME it would be to have a V8 rumble out the exhaust, and having that gorgeous Lexus badge when you open the hood. It's been done many times, lots of websites on how to do it.

I'll be taking notes for sure!

 

[pappy]

It's been done many times, lots of websites on how to do it.

Builds - Corax's 1UZ VVTi swap

After 12 years of running a 7MGE swap in my 1st gen 4runner, it's time for a change. The 7M is a great engine and has never let me down - not a single head gasket issue after putting ARP head bolts in it and has towed my trailer from coast to coast several times. But, it does lack a bit of...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Box Rocket]

It's not a swap I've ever done before so I'll be learning as I go. I've been looking for all the info I can find and it's good that there are so many resources out there of people who have done this swap. I won't claim to be an expert of any kind so feel free to follow along if it's helpful but know that I may not do things exactly the same way as others. Hopefully it will all be useful info, even if it's only examples of what NOT to do. LOL.

 

[corax]

You won't regret doing that swap. I was gonna post a link to my thread, but looks like Pappy beat me to it
If you can weld, the engine mounts are fairly simple (I used new 22RE rubber mounts and they've been fine for 2 years of hard daily use), but the 22RE trans crossmember is a bit of an issue (a V6 cross member is much easier to work with and adapt). If you don't trust your fab skills, this guy has everything you'll need: North West Toys, LLC | Your 1UZ and Toyota Diesel Specialist
Everything you need to know about wiring it is in this guide, it is the 1UZ wiring Bible: How to wire up a 1uz-fe By Nigel Wade

 

[Box Rocket]

You won't regret doing that swap. I was gonna post a link to my thread, but looks like Pappy beat me to it
If you can weld, the engine mounts are fairly simple (I used new 22RE rubber mounts and they've been fine for 2 years of hard daily use), but the 22RE trans crossmember is a bit of an issue (a V6 cross member is much easier to work with and adapt). If you don't trust your fab skills, this guy has everything you'll need: North West Toys, LLC | Your 1UZ and Toyota Diesel Specialist
Everything you need to know about wiring it is in this guide, it is the 1UZ wiring Bible: How to wire up a 1uz-fe By Nigel Wade

That’s awesome! Thanks for those links, especially the one for the wiring. That will be very helpful.

 

[Box Rocket]

Loaded up the truck and delivered it to the shop yesterday that will handle the 1UZ swap. Looking forward to getting this thing back on the road.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

[DavidVictor]

Onto a bit more news that isn't quite as exciting. It was about a 40 mile drive home yesterday after buying it. It needs an alignment to straighten out the steering wheel but otherwise it drove beautifully and purred along smoothly. Got it home and my oldest son that has the 1980 pickup was home and we went for a short drive, which was also nice and smooth. My wife was working and when she was done working she wanted to go for a ride too so we hopped in and were going to drop my youngest son off at a friends. Started it up and it was suddenly making all kinds of noise. I'm still confused because of how sudden the change was, but I've started digging into it. Obviously I didn't drive it when it started making noise. Just got it into the garage and shut it down.

Here's a vid of the sound.


Pulled the valve cover to take a look, still need to check the timing chain guide and get a set of feeler gauges to check the valve lash, but nothing obvious was visible with the valve cover off.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Dropped the oil pan and checked the oil. It was a little dirty but not bad and no metal whatsoever in it. Started checking the rods, and didn't notice any vertical play, but a small amount of fore and aft movement that seemed equal on all 4 rods. Here's another vid.


I ran out of time last night so tonight I'll remove the rod caps and try to get a look at the bearings. Also need to pull the plugs and check the plug wires. This truck has coil packs instead of a distributor as part of the LCE EFI system. But I'm gutted by the thought that this motor is shot right after I get it home.

Thank you for your video. It will help us to identify problem easily.

 

[Box Rocket]

Making progress on the 1UZ swap. Not a lot of pics though. The UZ got a new starter so hopefully we won't have to worry about that for a while. New ceramic headers. Also replaced the timing belt, water pump etc and replaced the valve cover gaskets. I bought a rear sump oil pan kit from NW Toys that has also been installed on the motor. The A340F is attached to the motor and the original gear drive T-case is attached using a Trail Gear adapter.

We're using some modified LS motor mounts to mount the motor and a front range tcase crossmember to hang the rear of the drivetrain.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Now we're chasing down a few things to get the wire harness completed. Hopefully be able to fire this thing up in the next few weeks!