Swapping a VW into a 1st gen IFS 4 runner (1 Viewer)

[dohcdelsol93]

Donor is a 2004 or 2005 passat with 2.0 BHW turbo diesel. I have 3 of these. My daily driver is a 2005 that I converted to 5 speed. The other 2 have bad automatic transmissions which is why my DD is now 5 speed. I originally got these cars to use the motors in a diesel conversion boat project but I ended up just buying a diesel boat. The little lady insists I do something with them so I bought home this 4 runner.

The balance shaft delete is a must. I can go into detail if needed. My passat wagon is @ 3000 lbs and has the stage 2 tune so makes approx 170 up and 300 ft lbs of torque. I really like the passat but having owned a 60 and 40 as diesel swapped daily driver rigs in the past I miss having a fuel sipping 4x4. My passat nets 43mpgs highway and 35 mpgs around town. I expect about 30 mpgs in 4 runner.

The 4 runner was a v6 automatic I believe. Has 33x12.5s on it, plan on sticking with it. Still need to verify my gearing.

I plan on some 2.5 rear leaf springs in the back and ball joint spacer list in front with diff drop. I will be adding a 2 inch body lift to help with clearance of the swap.

Custom bumpers and sliders are a must. Hard top will go. Much of the passat creature comforts will go into the 4 runner. Heated seats, cruise control, air conditioning. The ecu can be set up for stand alone and the immobilizer will be deactivated. That being said I will be using as much of the passat as possible in the 4 runnner. I hope to swap in the monsoon stereo system and if possibly trim the dash to fit. I feel like a soft top is a must have along with a custom roof rack.


We will see how the w56 holds up. This project will take some time so i will update as I go.

Might be post Christmas before I start ordering parts. First up is rebuilding the brake system so I can have a driver stop this thing as i need to push it around. Right now I have a BHW to pull and a blown up 22re to start removing.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Nothing pic worthy yet. Got the entire suspension taken out from under the front end.

Got the control arms to the shop and burnt out the bushings. All the new moog components, shocks, bj lift kit and diff/sway drop should arrive this week. I'm putting on 94 calipers and rotors as well as master/booster. Both CV axles were torn so have new ones ready to go in.

Once she safely brakes the engine removal starts.

Looking for some new wheels right now that don't hit the parking brake levers on the drums.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Got ball joint spacers, new control arm bushings, ball joints and steering dampener installed. Got in one new shock. The other has some damaged threads so i have to get a tap from work to clean them up before install. Got the new CV axles installed. Diff drop also installed.

Immediately after posting taking this pic I noticed the spacers are upside down so I had to turn them around this morning.

Waiting on all my new moog tres, pitman arm, sway bar bushings/end link bushings and brake rotors. The new koyo bearing kits are coming pony express apparantly.

Picking up some 2017 17 inch 4 runner take offs today. 285 70 17 tires will be going on here once shes ready to roll.

Found half of the clutch slave mount is broken so now i have an excuse to hunt for the r150f. Waiting on a local guy to send me pics of one, if it looks right im heading across town to pick it up.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

All that dirt under the truck is from mud dobbers nest in lower control arms. They probably were not happy with me burning out those bushings.

I used the prothane style bushings. Very easy removal and install. No press needed. Will ride a little rough but with all the lift im running i won't need to crank the bars to run 33s, should cancel each other out.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Question for you mini truck 4runner guys?????? (Maybe I'm a 4 runner guy now?)


The dash is out of the 4 runner. Looks like ill be shopping for all 4 of the dash vents!

Like most yotas of this vintage the vinyl on the dash pad is cracked. I have 3 options

Relay vinyl for it to crack again in the south Carolina scorcthing summer heat

Fill in cracks and lay fiberglass over the mat, then paint.

Try the 90 dollar plastic eBay glue on plastic dash cover. This seems the least labor, while I have plenty of fiberglass i don't have enough epoxy resin on hand to complete this lay up so it may be the 2nd cheapest.

The last seems like the least amount of work, any of you guys try this?

My truck came factory with the automatic. I mounted a clutch/bake pedal assembly over the weekend along with the new holes in the firewall.

I verified 4.30 gears in the front and rear end.

I found i have no front parking brake cable(front half) nor the pulley/mount that bolt to the fire wall on the back side of the parking brake handle.


Now on to fabbing up the mounting bracket for the throttle by wire VW pedal assembly. This is much easier without the dash in. The pedal bucket swap was also made possible by removing the dash.

I really need to take some pics but so far none of this work is pretty stuff.

I'm going to possibly be pulling the passat dash this week weather pending so I can fab the vw dash cluster into the yota dash. I hope to use the VW passat steering wheel as well but im not sure how well I can adapt the columns. My only real issue other than fitment is getting the mechanical r150f Speedo converted to VW signal but with Dakota digital i think I can jump that hurdle. The vw steering wheel also has radio controls id like to retain, an option my current DD passst doesnt have but the VW install kit from crutchfield has this option. I want this mall crawler to be a little EXTRA.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Picked up wheels for the ride once shes ready to come off of blocks. 285 70 r 17s are the planned size. Est @2800 rpms 80 mph. The goal was 80mph @3000 so I don't get run over on i85

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Made the mounting bracket for the throttle pedal assembly. It's just tacked together right now. I fabbed this up on my lunch break at the shop with some scrap flat bar. The bracket will bolt to where the stock pedal holes mounted hopefully, if not another nut or two will be welded to the inside of the mount.

I will test fit her tonight and if it fits properly ill finish the welding it up and paint her. If not I'll make adjustments and try again. I really need to bring my welder home from the shop.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

The pedal maxes out where it bottoms out WOT against the mount bracket to prevent any plastic from being broken if someoene gets crazy with the skinny pedal. The engine has approx 300 ft lbs of torque at 2000 rpms so it doesn't take a lot of throttle to wake these motors up.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

2nd question. Got in my new sway bar bushing kit. I installed it along with the drop brackets. I've installed a 2 inch ball joint lift kit. She's sitting on blocks under the frame.

The front drive shaft hits the sway bar at the double universal joint.

Can I just flip the front stone shaft around where the little end meets the front diff flange?

 

[pappy]

The front drive shaft hits the sway bar at the double universal joint.

Can I just flip the front stone shaft around where the little end meets the front diff flange?

Technically, no. The DC end needs to be at the transfer case, and the slip joint at the differential.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Thank you for the response. Looks like when I get the w56 out and the r150f properly mounted I may need to drop the sway bar with ticker blocks. Looks like 3/4 of an inch to an inch would do it.


Maybe use some spanner sleeve from a lawn mower and extend my end links a little.

Im still a little ways from getting to the power train swap. Taking a while to rebuild/mod the front suspension and upgrade/rebuid the brakes. She's rough and missing a ton of parts.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Im an idiot....spaacing the sway bar more would increase my issue with pushing the bar into the drive shaft.

I need to extend the end links. The current sleeve is approx 2.9 inches long with 6.5 inch bolts. I'll increase to a 4 inch sleeve and see how it works. I'll use a spanner bearing sleeve out of piece of lawn equipment. Will be a little thicker wall. Ill use all thread to check fitment then buy grade 8s once I know exact legnth.

 

[KLF]

Donor is a 2004 or 2005 passat with 2.0 BHW turbo diesel.

Meh... been done. Drop an air cooled boxer from a '74 Beetle in there and I'll be impressed.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

You used a BHW? Did you reuse the SMIC or a FMIC and did you retain the A/C?

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Shipping delays are really holding up this project. My new moog tre's arrived 2 days ago. The install last night went smoothly but without a pitman arm I'm still at a stand still.

My new koyo wheel bearing kits are also still in transit. Hubs are sitting in the shop, disassembled waiting for the new bearings and seals.

A nice shifter plate with boot came across eBay so I snatched it up, maybe it will arrive before spring?

I will be ordering the new brake calipers (upgrade to 94s) this Friday. The new rotors and pads are sitting at the shop but without hubs to install they can't be unboxed.

I'd have liked to have had the front end sitting on tires with functioning brakes by Christmas.

As for the front mount intercooler I'm looking at some 2.5 inch thick coolers. I think I can fit it between the bottom of the grill and hang down flush with the bottom of the frame behind where the bumper went. I don't think it will interfere with the mounting of a winch bumper. It will be too thick to mount behind the grill even with the old transmisson cooler removed. I considered a water to air intercooler but im not pushing big horse power so I dont see an advantage to a more complicated system.


With the 2.5 inch bj spacer lift and diff drop I had my front drive shaft hitting my sway bar.

The energy suspension end link kit has 4 inch spacers. Extending the end links pushed it even further into the DC assembly. I had some 2 inch thick blocks left overs from my dad's plant. The use these polymer blocks to mount industual/manufacturing equipment to concrete floors so it's stout stuff. I cut them the shape of the away bar drop blocks but 1.5 inches thicker. Seems to have a good .25 inch to .5 inch clearance at full droop now. I will know 100% when my r150f and bhw are all mounted up. So for now that part is done.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

The r150f sitting next to the w56. The engine is out, local guy made me an offer on the whole motor i couldnt say no to so she went off this morning.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Another hurdle conquered. The fire wall is nearly done. I had to drill the new holes for the clutch master cylinder. I then had to modify the fork or yolk for the 94 4runner brake booster upgrade, it wasn't long enough and didn't give me enough throw. The spring in the pic for the clutch pedal us only temporary to keep the pedal off the fire wall.

My wheel bearings and pitman arm are still somewhere in transit. I have the new front portion parking brake cable on order. I'm putting a new heater core on order tomorrow, I don't want to get this dash back together to find it leaks when she is running.

Before installing my VW throttle pedal assembly im putting down vinyl molded flooring. Seems every step I near completion gives me two more steps to start.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

No clearance issues with the larger dual diaphram brake booster. I ordered that last Thursday from Texas....my wheel bearings are lost in transit from Cali and pitman arm from Florida going on 3 weeks or so. I still need to order my upgraded idler arm assembly. I feel like I'm behind a good month on this project already.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Wheel bearings and seals came in, finally. The shop closes at 5 and the UPS drivers that are holiday temps that don't know this so my new brake calipers won't be in my hands until next week.

Discovered the rotors i purchased didn't fit so they will be returned next week and I'll play the waiting game on the proper ones.

Not much pic worthy but here is the front end somewhat assembled. Rain coming in sideways today so it looks like i might as well be working uncovered.

 

[dohcdelsol93]

Got my 4crawler upgraded idler arm in today and installed. Got the new moog pitman arm on last night. The original one had a ton of wobble in it. The front suspension rebuild is done! On to brakes and rear suspension.