I have a 1986 Toyota 4runner with 1.9L VW ALH engine. The VW diesel swaps bring a lot of life to these old trucks. Best of luck with your build!
I suppose a vehicle of this magnitude is never truly done. To go this far into a rig it's obvious this is a bit more of a hobby, many here have loved ones that would refer to these builds as addictions.
That being said, the rig has been a daily driver over two years now. Its been down for repairs a few times. Once for a head gasket and several for transmission swaps . Never more than a week. Can unfortunately swap transmissions in about 4-5 hours now start to finish, keeping the same transfer case. With no transmission jack or lift. Cherry picker through the passenger side. I finally found a use for those quick release door hinges.
Not sure if the head gasket was due to the PO maybe running it hot, she did gave 180,000 miles on it when I did the swap. An idiot might have loosened the wrong tty bolt while installing a new cam before the engine installation. Much of this build was done on Sunday afternoons after unpacking the boat. The more beer I could drink the less that needed to be brought inside. The beer also helped when trying to wrench in the winters, didn't make me warm but made me not notice the cold
The rear disk brake conversion that was a debate for far longer than it should have been hasn't had to be adjusted since one of my calipers failed nearly immediately after install. Parking brakes are not great but they are significantly better than that of an fj40.
I had two r150 transmissions be rebuilt. One by marlin and once by a local independent shop. Both began having grinding issues in different gears within a month or so. Sent both back for repairs. One was said to have a faulty new input shaft. One was said to have faulty synchros.
The one I'm currently running has gotten to be a Pita to get into first from time to time. Not always consistent. Have been running red line mtf as recommended by both shops but find synchromesh to be currently rectifying most of my 1st gear issue. Before anyone recommends it, yes the clutch is fully disengaging. Every other gear including reverse goes in with ease and all adjustment have been then rechecked.
If I were to do this swap again I'd have purchased a new ax15 from advanced adapters mated to a dana 300 with yota flanges. This would have been a new aisin built transmission.
I'm pretty sure the common denominators in both shop rebuilds are aftermarket Chinese parts.
After both shops went through each transmission once I swapped to a TD conversion adapter to be sure my adapter from DSC wasn't off centered causing excess vibrations or strains to the transmission.
After about 5 months my most recent transmission began giving me a hard time going into first. It started doing only when warm. Then all the time. Once or twice I had difficulty down shifting into second.
That's when synchromesh was put in and took care of 90% of the issues. Even after a 30 minute 70 mph highway run. May switch to RP 10w40 come spring. I need to bump into second sometimes before going into first. Not the end of the world...like driving a 40 with a 3 speed again
I need to get a press and pullers so I can pull these down myself. OEM yota synchros are available and I might as well install a new 1st gear, hub and upgrade to a marlin fork while in there
