Completed 1KZ-TE swap into 2001 Tacoma (1 Viewer)

[anothernord]

Hi all, I though I'd share my build thread over here with the Mudders.

Full build thread here:
anothernord's JDM 1KZ-TE diesel swap (2001 Tacoma 3.4)

I've always thought it would be cool to have a small displacement diesel in my truck. So I decided to do it.

Diesel Toys charges $20,000 for a conversion. Screw that. I'll do it myself for a quarter the cost.

I found a 1KZ-TE from a Japanese importer from a KZN185 (Hilux Surf, or 3rd Gen 4Runner) and had it shipped to CO. If you're looking for a diesel to swap into a 1st gen taco or 3rd gen runner, this is the one to find. It already has the correct oil pan and engine mounts to go into a 3.4 powered 4wd rig. The wiring harness has to be extended about 30", so I'm in the process of that as well as doing some miscellaneous wiring for things such as the glow plugs relay, fuel heater relay, and spill valve relay.

Specs on the engine:
1KZ-TE from 1996-2000 Hilux Surf (KZN185)
145 hp, 253 ft-lb @ 2000 RPM (should be easy to crank it up to 170 hp and 300 ft-lbs
SOHC, timing belt
Indirect injection, electronically controlled plunger-style injection pump

(Ignore my Subaru in background)


I got right to work tearing into the harness and labeling everything as well as good ol' masking tape.


Motor gettin' turnt (down).


Upon disassembly of the motor, I found sadness. A glow plug tip had broken off and played around in the cylinder, scoring the walls and damaging a piston. Off to the machine shop and eBay UK to source new oversized pistons and rings!


Here's the fuel filter assembly I'll be using. It's from some Duramax and features a built-in, thermostatically controlled heater, and water-in-fuel warning switch. Just gotta find a spot in the engine bay.

At it again you crazy sum'bich? Love your work man, very cool stuff. You going to turbo the s*** out of it or what? I've always been intrigued by the idea of a small diesel running like 50 psi of boost in a Tacoma.

Thank you! The plan right now is to see if the VGT Holset from my 3.4 build will fit in the engine bay and use that if so, otherwise the stock turbo with some add-ons will be fine to start with.

Sign me up.

Can you go into detail on the specs. What size turbo, how do you crank it up? Piggyback programmer? What does the power band look like?

Most of the specs are on Wikipedia if you'd like to check those out. There's not any programming you can really do besides adjust resistance values of the correction resistors. I'm pretty sure all the "chips" for this motor that can be found globally do the same thing (but cost >$1000 read: hard pass)

I'm also guessing that, because you have the ECU,this will pass OBD2 Emissions checks?

Nope, this is an OBD-1 ECU. It won't pass emissions nor be technically legal in my county, so I'll be registering with family elsewhere.

You selling that turbod 3.4??:boink:

The motor will be for sale along with the turbo plumbing, but probably not the Holset or controller.

Bad. Ass.

Thanks for the encouraging comments, everyone. I guess I can't go back now.

The garage is getting a bit crowded. (I share it with a roommate)


The block is back from the machine shop, and everything went well.


I also finished roughing-in the harness. I ended up hacking up the 3.4 harness to use the wiring for the ADD actuator, auto trans, and center diff actuator motor. It also had to be extended 30". Next step is to test fit it in the truck before wrapping it all up.


The bad news. After the head was cleaned up, I noticed cracks in the precombustion chambers... I'm looking into options right now before going further.


The head was dropped off at the shop after my homemade puller simply sheared the precups. :/ They'll have to be turned down .006" anyway.

 

[anothernord]

The head was dropped off at the shop after my homemade puller simply sheared the precups. :/ They'll have to be turned down .006" anyway.


**Sorry about the dark pictures*** My auto-metering is broken on my camera so I shoot in manual mode. The shots look much brighter on the camera screen, lol.

Fuel tank stuff - done
Wiring - 95% done
Engine - just need to put on the head and manifolds
Transmission - 1KZ box in (crossmember needs relocating)
Engine bay - Need to tow the whole truck to a car wash to blast out the engine bay. I can't stand it being nasty. Then everything can be final-installed.

First, welcome to "Cooking with Anothernord". Today, we'll be making piston/rod assemblies.

Preheat 8 cups of water to 176F, insert 1 piston. Heat until golden brown.


Baste the wrist pin with 1 tbsp assembly oil and install with the connecting rod. Repeat for each pistion/rod. Install the piston rings as directed on the box. Install in block and enjoy


King bearings (sourced from Latvia)


Crank installed along with balance shafts (small gears)


Gear case:


Gears - all cleaned and ready to go. Notice the idler gear with the silver bolt in there. Anyone who has worked on a 5VZ knows about the spring-loaded double gears. This one is basically the same except way bigger and way harder to turn.


And installed, double and triple checking that all the marks are aligned.


And the gear housing cover before install:


Oil cooler housing:


And installed along with the injection pump:


I ended up buying 2 gasket sets. One from a dude on eBay here in the states, and another with my order from Roughtrax in the UK. It was super cheap, actually. Extra gaskets are always good to have.


Oil pickup:


I also threw on the water pump, oil pan, alternator, end everything else besides the head and rear main, which will go on later...

Next, I moved onto the fuel system.

First up, draining the tank:

I just hotwired the fuel pump from the relay and pumped the gas out.


Tank out:


Fuel pump sender before:


Fuel pump sender after: The injection pump is the fuel pump, so it's just removed and replaced with a hose (I cut a 45° on the end to prevent it from sucking to the bottom of the tank.


I also pulled the filler neck and got that ready for use with the diesel pump nozzles, which are larger than your usual gas nozzle. I used a die grinder to get rid of the 2 spot welds holding the restrictor in the opening, and pulled it out. I think I forgot to get pictures of that step.


I also pulled the old auto out. I'll be using the 1KZ auto since it has way lower miles, probably has the correct torque converter, and possibly ratio or spring differences internally.

It's way easier to pull an auto if you remove the bell-housing, as a side note:


Here's the 1KZ and 5VZ bell housing side by side. The 1KZ housing is about 1.5" longer than the 5VZ's. I think this may be the reason for needing to move the transmission crossmember.

 

[anothernord]

I towed the truck to the nearest car wash and got the engine bay (specifically the front diff) spotless last night. Then I threw on the head with some new AMC head bolts and the head gasket. I opted to use the Eristic head gasket since it's thicker than the OEM (there are 5 standard thickness of 1KZ head gaskets) and I would rather lower compression a tad for more boost.

 

[anothernord]

Progress was slow this week due to negative temperatures and snow, but here's what I got done last weekend before the snow hit.

I towed the truck to a car wash and blasted out the engine bay first:



Here's some random engine shots before it got dropped in:




And the big moment:


Much later at night, it was all bolted in securely:


I also got around to swapping the on the stock 5VZ A/C compressor to work with the 1KZ v-belt pulley. I later found out that the 1KZ A/C pulley got bent in shipping from the engine falling over, so I'll probably have to source a replacement for that.




Then I finally got the garage rearranged to put the truck inside so I can in 30° temps instead of -5°.

 

[anothernord]

Last night, I plugged in everything and made sure none of the electrical smoke got out. So far, everything electric works perfectly. 4WD, starter relays, reverse lights, glow plug relay, fuel heater relay, dash lights, all work as they should.

I found a relay box from a 95 camry for $12 on eBay and used the two relays inside as the glow plug and fuel heater relay. It's mounted next to the main fuse box.




Here's a better look at the duramax fuel filter bracket I made. There's room to run the CAT filter and adapter that someone suggested. I'll run it as-is for now. It uses one of the old charcoal canister mounts and one of the brake booster nuts to mount.


I also sketched up a CAD file for the dump-pipe flange, and sent the file to a local water jet shop. I'll be making a full 3" exhaust to go along with it.

Transmission crossmember being relocated. Lots and lots of grinding.


Sorry for the cell-phone pictures. I'll post more from my DSLR.

 

[anothernord]

You guys are a riot.

It's not quite on the road yet, there's still the front end to put on and the interior to put back together. I was gone all weekend too.

This was taken right after it started up. I let it run till it warmed up fully, at which point it was idling happily.

(sorry it's not very long video)


I had a little Cheech and Chong action going on while it warmed up for the first time and burned off all the oil from assembly:



Other things:

I had a local driveshaft shop extend the front and shorten the rear by 6.5". It turned out that the rear shaft should have been more like 6.75", but everything still works fine. For anyone looking at doing this, I'd just measure first since each truck could be a little different.


I shortened the gigantic starter cable to reach nicely to the stock battery location (I will do a dual setup sometime)


For the radiator hoses, I used 2 Gates part numbers: 22495 for the upper and 21706 for the lower. I basically just went to O'reilly's and grabbed a few I thought would work and picked these 2. I also used part of the stock upper hose for the 1KZ's upper hose.

The lower just required 2 cuts and a splice using a 1.5" to 1.5" barb fitting, and for the upper, I cut and rolled beads in a 1.5" piece of aluminum tube.

Lower hose before cutting and installing:


Rolling beads:


Upper hose installed:
+

Better view of fuel filter bracket when installed:



**The reason I'm using the stock intercooler is just to get it running. I'll add the FMIC later**

 

[anothernord]

Ok, here's some updates:

I installed my front mount after finding that the stock top mount had a leak somewhere in it.

I've got a stock air filter box on order to replace the stupid cone filter.

*first picture stolen from my previous 5VZ turbo build*



IAT sensor (intake air temperature)


I also cut/welded the shifter to shorten and change it's angle so the weird positions the JDM shifter sit in don't rip the leather boot out:

 

[anothernord]

Yesterday I built the battery tray for the secondary battery. It's just a bunch of 1.25" angle iron that attaches in 4 different spots. I'll get it wired up and installed later and upload some pictures of that.




I also installed and plumbed in a factory airbox. I like the factory look as well as the idea of better filtration and resistance to getting water in.




Here's my torque converter lock circuit. One relay switches 12v power to the lockup solenoid, thus locking the torque converter, and the other relay overrides the feature if the brake pedal is pressed.


I also installed a manual boost controller. It's a piece made by a local Colorado company, Circuit Seven. It seems like good quality.

 

[anothernord]

There you have my progress up to this point!

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Awesome project and very nice work, thanks for sharing here!

Little late now, but I think most of the OEM diesels have a filter in the tank as well, just to keep anything large from getting sucked into the fuel system. Basically something like what was attached to the inlet of your old gasoline fuel pump. If you are ever in your tank again, might be worth putting one in there?

 

[Tapage]

you don't need to lower the compression to add more boost .. ( unless it's an stupid amount of boost ) ...

 

[anothernord]

Awesome project and very nice work, thanks for sharing here!

Little late now, but I think most of the OEM diesels have a filter in the tank as well, just to keep anything large from getting sucked into the fuel system. Basically something like what was attached to the inlet of your old gasoline fuel pump. If you are ever in your tank again, might be worth putting one in there?

Thanks! Yes, I did consider that, I do think I'd do that if I had to drop the tank. I couldn't find a filter that had a simple barbed hose connection for the piece of fuel line I used. I did leave the stock gas fuel filter in-line, which I'm think I will probably remove, since it's bound to get clogged eventually due to the increased particulate matter in diesel fuel.

 

[Mcreight911]

Nice build man ! Hope your planning a turbo upgrade too

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Nice build man ! Hope your planning a turbo upgrade too

CT12B in the 1KZ is a pretty good turbo! Supports a lot of power from what I've seen. Check out what this fellow did by re-tuning the 1KZ ECU: Partially ROM tuned 1kz-te He's running 20psi (intercooled). 152RWHP and 277RWftlb torque on a Dynojet dyno. Very impressive power.

 

[anothernord]

Yeah, no turbo upgrade in the near future for me. It feels great on about 14 psi and a higher timing correction resistor value.

 

[anothernord]

Ok mudders, I need help here bad:

I've been trying to figure out why turning the A/C on causes the truck to kick down into 2nd gear (automatic). Yea, it's a crazy problem.

What I know:
- There's 2 connections to the ECU for the AC. "AC1" and "ACT" I have disconnected these entirely from the ECU and the problem still happens.
- Doesn't make a difference if the compressor is even connected or not. Still goes down to 2nd gear
- "SL2" is the wire in question here. Whenever the A/C is actually active (i.e. compressor supposed to running, regardless of whether the compressor is spinning (see above), this wire is hot and therefore you get 2nd gear.
- I can measure 100 ohms between SL2 and AC1 on the a/c control module during the problem.
- According to the manual, I don't have a separate "A/C amplifier". AC1 and ACT just go straight to the A/C Control Assembly, which I assume is the control panel box with the actual knobs on it.
- I tried feeding ACT the signal from my Dakota digital that feeds the stock tach. No difference
- I tried feeding "A/C" on the 1kz ecu the signal from AC1, as well as tieing directly to the wire powering the a/c clutch. No difference.
- Also tried feeding ACT on the 1kz ecu the ACt signal fro mthe a/c control thing. Still no difference


Anyone had something totally strange happen like this?

 

[DanS HJ-45]

I can't help with your shifting for the A/C problem, but I just wanted to chime in and say good job!

Looks like a very nice clean install! I'd be curious to find out what kinds of EGTs you see going up I-70, when you get to that.

Dan

 

[anothernord]

I can't help with your shifting for the A/C problem, but I just wanted to chime in and say good job!

Looks like a very nice clean install! I'd be curious to find out what kinds of EGTs you see going up I-70, when you get to that.

Dan

Thanks, Dan. I'm really happy with how it turned out (other than the stupid a/c issue)

I have the highest-value resistor in for timing correction, and I've never had the 1,200°F alarm go off under any full-throttle pull. I haven't taken it up 70 yet though, so we'll see.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Thanks, Dan. I'm really happy with how it turned out (other than the stupid a/c issue)

I have the highest-value resistor in for timing correction, and I've never had the 1,200°F alarm go off under any full-throttle pull. I haven't taken it up 70 yet though, so we'll see.

Careful with advancing the timing. Especially when it gets hotter out. It can really stress the ring lands and bottom end also. A couple of highly boosted 3B's on the forum here that were under heavy load broke crankshafts. It has been theorized that thermally advanced timing caused this (the hotter the air under compression, the faster the diesel ignites). I did play with the advance resistor on my motor and did notice more audible knock even just a couple resistor values above stock.

My 2LTE has the same EFI system as the 1KZTE. I've successfully doubled my wheel hp while running lower than stock EGT's. I've played with both the fuel and advance resistors, but found the stock settings to be best for efficiency and reliability. The most effective way I've made the extra power was by way of the spill control valve (solenoid on the top of the pump head). Of course this is coupled with a good intercooler, much higher boost, and high flow exhaust etc. I'm running 18psi (post intercooler) on the stock turbo, and I've turned the spill control valve adjust screw up 3/4. Completely transformed the motor. A high efficiency intercooler is very important though. Just some ideas for ya!

 

[Mcreight911]

CT12B in the 1KZ is a pretty good turbo! Supports a lot of power from what I've seen. Check out what this fellow did by re-tuning the 1KZ ECU: Partially ROM tuned 1kz-te He's running 20psi (intercooled). 152RWHP and 277RWftlb torque on a Dynojet dyno. Very impressive power.

nice the 1kz will do that with the standard turbo, well kind of. Needs an external wastegate to help flow the extra gas . Poor little turbo at 24psi with the external gate was still seeing 2:1 drive pressure kept making power though