Builds Corax's 1UZ VVTi swap (1 Viewer)

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Been a busy last few days . . .
Installed the trans adapter plate. started by removing the front trans plate
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side by side view of the adapter plate and the stock front trans plate, note all the oil passages machined into the adapter
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all cleaned and ready for the adapter
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adapter plate installed and locations marked for hoses
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5/8" holes drilled
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. . . which had to be elongated slightly because my marks were a hair off, here's the distance to the center of the hose
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hoses installed
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short piece of rubber hose over the clutch slave hose and the holes sealed with Toyota FIPG
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Spec Stage 2 Clutch set I'll be using
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ready for the real work to begin, last day the 7MGE will be powering my 4runner
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couple hours later. trans removed, engine disconnected and ready to get pulled
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end of day 1
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the stock oil filter adapter interferes with the frame rail, so this adapter was installed. I'll be running JIC (-8AN) connectors/hoses to a remote mount filter
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steering linkage ground down . . . you'll see why in a little bit
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this is the original brake line routing, the 2 lines in the middle had to be moved, the fuel line I added years ago on the right was removed - again, you'll see in a few pics how/why
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end of day 2 - trans was installed (rear was set on cross member, front was held up with a ratchet strap between the frame rails), engine is test fitted with the oil pan resting on a 5/8" piece of wood on top of the steering linkage (for clearance while I fabbed up the engine brackets, should have gone with a 3/4" piece), and the engine brackets were finalized and painted
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the next day, I pulled the engine again to clearance some items. you can see the brake lines which were getting pinched by the valve cover were just moved over to a new bolt hole and the firewall was clearanced a bit with a body hammer. I would have liked to move everything back another inch, but this was the best I could get it.
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clearance after the engine was reinstalled
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steering shaft clearance on the driver side (there's actually a tiny bit more than it looks like) - remember that under acceleration, the engine is going to roll away from it
this is also another reason why I couldn't move it back any further - another 1/2" back and the valve cover would be hitting the steering shaft coupler
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third reason why I couldn't go back any further, the engine is right up on the parking brake cable bracket and speedo cable
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all of this left me with the trans mount about 1" too far forward to drop into the pocket on the trans cross member (more on that later)
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with the weight of the engine on brand new 22RE rubber mounts, the oil pan dropped about 1/2" and was a bit too close (I used 5/8" spacers when I made the brackets). On the plus side, the linkage drops away from the pan when the wheels are turned to either side
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the poly engine mounts I was using on the 7M had 1/4" spacers underneath them, I reused one of the spacers and that gave me enough space to feel comfortable about oil pan clearance. I'll probably add a spacer to the other side as well later
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I didn't get a chance yet to compare how much the stock throttle cable moves vs. how much it takes to open the throttle on the engine, but the 1UZ throttle bracket will obviously not work
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i tried moving it forward one set of holes, but it won't work + the mount itself is too thick for the stock cable to allow any adjustment
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back to the trans mount . . . slotting out holes in the cross member and trans mount didn't give me enough shift to get it to bolt up. you know the saying, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"? well, if you have a welder, anything metal is whatever the hell you want it to be (trans mount cut/rewelded). yes, the welds look crappy, but they passed the hammer test. I don't think anyone changed the tip on the shop welder since I did it about 5 years ago. could have done better with my welder at home, probably going to make a tube crossmember and use a completely stock mount when I have some time
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I believe I won't have to get the rear driveshaft cut or lengthened. From fully collapsed to extended to the point where the slip yoke is right at the edge of the seal is about 3.125". At full droop, I still have 5/8" of an inch before the slip yoke pulls out of the seal and a bit more before the slip yoke comes apart. Once it's on the ground I can remeasure, and if I think it's necessary, I have an old GX470 driveshaft which is slightly longer. The stock one is still only 1/2" more extended than it was originally
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end of day 3. engine, trans, rear driveshaft installed. time for wiring and a few other ancillaries. After 30 years of the slip yoke not moving, the front driveshaft slip yoke is stuck/seized - I'm hoping soaking it and some heat will free it up. Check it out, the hood closes and it looks drivable again :)
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Very awesome swap and thanks for taking the time to post more in-depth info on what all is going on. I just picked up an ‘88 with 204k on the 22RE and just keep imagining how perfect a 1UZ would be in it.
 
Maybe this was covered. Are you running a body lift? Any room to raise the motor more?
 
Maybe this was covered. Are you running a body lift? Any room to raise the motor more?

I have a 1" body lift and wouldn't go much higher on my own vehicle. From what I read, a 1" BL is required, it seems the issue is the trans tunnel. I think a 2" lift could get the engine even further back, I remember thinking that all I needed was an extra 1/2" and I could've put the trans mount in the stock location. There's not much room on top of the engine, I wasn't sure that the hood would close without touching, but it does without issue.
 
Monday, a coworker borrowed a trailer and towed my 4runner home for me where I can finish the rest of the swap
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One of the first orders of business is to get it so I can move it around in gear with the starter, so I had to finish the oil filter relocation. Tuesday, I figured out that the -8AN oil filter adapter I ordered for the engine was actually -10AN, and none of the hoses and fittings I ordered last year would work. So I ordered new -10AN pieces, and while I was waiting for them to show up, made a bracket to bolt the filter mount onto the front diff.
Nice, short hoses, about 14" long each, and full flow fittings (bent tube, not a drilled block of metal) should reduce restriction to flow. Note, the 45 degree -10 fittings barely fit next to each other on the engine adapter.
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Partial view of my bracket on the front diff. I used to use cardboard a lot when making pieces like this. Now I like to measure the bolt holes, distance between the holes, then I go inside to make a model of it in Sketchup (CAD), and when I'm done, I can print the exact pattern. My brackets are so exact now, I can drill holes to the same size as the bolts (so they barely slide through) and everything lines up without having to elongate or file anything bigger.
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easy access to the filter for changes, and it's well protected (I have a skid plate that's going under it / between the control arms again when I'm done)
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plenty of room between the oil pan and the filter, I can even run one of the oversized filters if I decide to. I only use Toyota (Denso) oil filters, they're not expensive and they're fairly high quality.
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Awesome thread.

If you are running the original ECU, you will run into issues with the VVTi not working without the original automatic transmission. It will be down on power. There is a guy in Russia (Yury Baranov Toyota ECU security off, conversion adapters, parts) that makes automatic transmission emulators for VVTi manual swaps.

You may also want to check the ACIS VSV under the intake manifold - a very common fault, usually non-functioning by this age.

Keep up the great work.
 
Good to know, I hadn't heard that in my research, and thanks for the link.
I did a bit of digging in old forum posts, and it seems like some people have a problem and some don't - or maybe they just didn't know they had a problem. I thought I read something last night which said it might be dependent upon which auto trans was originally paired with the ECU. Also curious if that will apply to me since I'm using the original JDM ECU . . . either way, if I run into that problem, now I know where to go without having to contemplate a stand-alone system.
 
I think I remember reading that there were certain tears that were effected by this. I think it was some of the early ones. I never read about a vvti ecu having this problem. But then most people are intimidated by the key coding and stay away from them.
 
the instructions for the ATEMU from All4swaps isn't posted up anywhere that I can find, but I did manage to discover this diagram
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really clever. NE+ is the crank sensor (E1 is ground, +B is 12v). I think what he's doing is taking the crank sensor signal and copying that into the ECU as the O/D Direct Clutch Speed Sensor Signal (NCO+, trans input speed sensor should be the same speed as the crank if the torque converter is locked). The P and 2 inputs from the ATEMU trick the ECU into thinking the AT lever has been shifted to "2" (ECU thinks it's in second gear). S1, S2, S3, S4 simulate the resistances of the AT shift solenoids. This is just conjecture, but he figured out a simple way to get the correct pulsed signal into the ECU that it wants to see.
 
the 1UZ uses a single coolant temp sensor wired to the ECU, the ECU then sends the temperature to the instrument cluster via multiplex ( called MPX, similar to CAN bus). My 1988 4runner cluster can't do anything with that computer-speak, so I needed a coolant temp sensor for my cluster. There is a blank sensor port next to the OEM temp sensor. the hole is 1/8" British pipe thread (not NPT). The sensor I found came from a '94 Tercel, but seems to be fairly common in newer Toyotas and is fairly close (enough) to the resistance values of the original sensor for the truck
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fabbed up and painted my cross-over pipe. I still need to brace the tubes so vibration doesn't lead to cracked welds
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the stock 22RE PS line was a bit too close to the steering column shaft. If I knew ahead of time, I could have rotated my PS relocation bracket just a bit and it would've been fine. I don't feel like making a new bracket, so I repurposed some Aeroquip high pressure hose and hose ends I has left over from my rallyx car to connect the pump to the gearbox
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I wasn't able to figure out a good spot in the engine bay to mount the ECU in an enclosure, so I decided to mount it inside the 4runner after all. This meant that I needed a US spec harness since the JDM harness goes through the firewall on the left side of the vehicle (and there's no room on the driver side for the ECU). I found a cheap harness on eBay and stripped it completely down to the bare essentials. Every piece of factory corrugated tube and electrical tape was pulled as well as removing all the auto trans wires. It was then cable laced and re-covered. It's just long enough to be routed through the factory hole in the firewall (using the original firewall grommet) and reach the ECU behind the glovebox.
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There's not enough room between the glove box and evaporator box to mount the ECU, but there are 2 options to fix that. The simplest way is to cut the curved back off of the glove box and put a new flat piece in its place. Since I haven't had A/C for at least a decade and a half, I went my own way and modded the evap box to fit the ECU.
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It sticks out the bottom a little bit, but it's not lower than the evap box itself. I could have moved it up a bit higher, but I wouldn't have been able to get to all the bolts to fasten the evap box back into place.
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Ooff... Could have saved a bunch of work there if you aren't intending to reinstall AC by getting that section of ducting from a non-AC truck, it's much smaller. Tons of room above it.
 
Ooff... Could have saved a bunch of work there if you aren't intending to reinstall AC by getting that section of ducting from a non-AC truck, it's much smaller. Tons of room above it.

Good to know. I was wondering about that as I was trying to make nice bends in the 16 ga. aluminum without a sheet metal brake. I even went to the local Pick-N-Pull, but all the 'Yotas there had AC.
 
Mainly been tidying up a few odds and ends - fuel delivery, wiring, etc. It's the small details which usually take the longest but add a lot in reliability and easier servicing.
Moved the fuel supply line back a few inches to space it further from the header and added some heat shielding (from a used PS line at work)
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Finished my Bussmann fuse/relay box
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and made a mounting bracket to mount it back out of the way (also decided I'm gonna clean the stock 4runner harness of some unnecessary wiring, the original 22RE AFM wires, for example).
stock fuse box, fuel pressure regulator, stock starter relay (wired to B+ to avoid no-start issues), Bussmann fuse relay box w/ fuel pump resistor
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Frankenstein's heart is beating! I had some issues with the immobilizer - turns out the FLAT CARD KEYS WILL NOT WORK with the immobilizer. Maybe it's my JDM ECU, but I don't think so. I ended up programming a spare key from an is300 to the truck and it fired off on the first crank.
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now I'm working to tidy things up a bit, reinstall the radiator along with the rest of the cooling system, run a few ancillary wire circuits, etc. I still don't know where I want to mount the immobilizer antenna - the immobilizer chip (spare key) needs to be within 1 inch of the antenna in order to unlock the immobilizer and start the engine. I had more options if the key cards had worked
 
Every time I see an engine light for the first time I get a woody. Always an exciting moment.
 
Nice work man!! What a sweet runner you got there!
 
Every time I see an engine light for the first time I get a woody. Always an exciting moment.

The anxiety was real. JDM import engines usually only carry a 30 day warranty and this one is several weeks past that.

@corax I can't wait for your impression of your clutch.

Me too! Radiator is ordered and should be here early next week. Hopefully it won't be too cold and wet to get it all pieced together and driving when it arrives.

Nice work man!! What a sweet runner you got there!

Thanks much :)
This is the longest I've owned a single vehicle, and way overdue for this kind of love and a complete electrical make-over (15 years of adding/subtracting accessories has left toggles and wires which I can only guess at the original purpose of)
 

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