wardharris
SILVER Star
Teaser photo:
Here’s a callout to the guys that keep old Toyotas on the road. One in particular…..
Sometime in the ‘90s, my truck was the recipient of a transplanted GM Gen II 5.7 motor and transmission. The motor was out of a 1995 Cad Fleetwood and the conversion was reasonably well done.
In the two years I have had the wagon, it has run well, with a few frustrating issues that impacted reliability, access to parts and cost of ownership. On a trip from California to home in Western Washington, the rig evidenced end of life behaviors. We barely made it.
Rather than try (again) to deal with an old car motor, I sourced a new(er) truck motor from Bryan at BD Turnkey and had it shipped to Tor Slinning at Torfab in Mukilteo, Washington (north of Seattle).
Tor and his crew do awesome work and in no time at all, the wagon had a new motor, transmission and accessories.
It went from this:
To this:
Tor used my truck to finalize design of a new line of Vortec motor mounts as seen above - very robust.
I have complete confidence in Tor’s work and after a quick once-over, I proceeded to put 1,000 miles on it, in three states. It didn’t miss a beat.
As a daily driver, my “old” truck and V8 delivered 10-14 mpg (corrected odo for gears, tires, etc.) and cruised well at 60 to 75. The new truck has more oomph, doesn’t work as hard and gives me 16 mpg in mixed city/highway and 17.5 mpg highway.
The 5.3 is an all aluminum “high output” version from a 2007 4wd crew cab. It has Z06 ‘vette heads, a higher duration cam and heads with bigger valves. BD gave it a performance tune and Tor installed Hooker block-hugger headers. It is probably producing somewhere between 330 and 350 hp, with plenty of torque. The integrated cruise control management works well for my style of driving.
The motor had 79,000 miles and the 2007 4l60e had 12,000 miles. Because of the aluminum block and lighter accessories, we took well over 100 lbs off the front axle. Every little bit helps when you add crazy stuff to the front of these rigs.
This is my daily driver, including hot, cold, wet, dry, highway, city and fire roads.
Tor did a fine job at a fair price. I could not be more pleased.
Here’s a callout to the guys that keep old Toyotas on the road. One in particular…..
Sometime in the ‘90s, my truck was the recipient of a transplanted GM Gen II 5.7 motor and transmission. The motor was out of a 1995 Cad Fleetwood and the conversion was reasonably well done.
In the two years I have had the wagon, it has run well, with a few frustrating issues that impacted reliability, access to parts and cost of ownership. On a trip from California to home in Western Washington, the rig evidenced end of life behaviors. We barely made it.
Rather than try (again) to deal with an old car motor, I sourced a new(er) truck motor from Bryan at BD Turnkey and had it shipped to Tor Slinning at Torfab in Mukilteo, Washington (north of Seattle).
Tor and his crew do awesome work and in no time at all, the wagon had a new motor, transmission and accessories.
It went from this:
To this:
Tor used my truck to finalize design of a new line of Vortec motor mounts as seen above - very robust.
I have complete confidence in Tor’s work and after a quick once-over, I proceeded to put 1,000 miles on it, in three states. It didn’t miss a beat.
As a daily driver, my “old” truck and V8 delivered 10-14 mpg (corrected odo for gears, tires, etc.) and cruised well at 60 to 75. The new truck has more oomph, doesn’t work as hard and gives me 16 mpg in mixed city/highway and 17.5 mpg highway.
The 5.3 is an all aluminum “high output” version from a 2007 4wd crew cab. It has Z06 ‘vette heads, a higher duration cam and heads with bigger valves. BD gave it a performance tune and Tor installed Hooker block-hugger headers. It is probably producing somewhere between 330 and 350 hp, with plenty of torque. The integrated cruise control management works well for my style of driving.
The motor had 79,000 miles and the 2007 4l60e had 12,000 miles. Because of the aluminum block and lighter accessories, we took well over 100 lbs off the front axle. Every little bit helps when you add crazy stuff to the front of these rigs.
This is my daily driver, including hot, cold, wet, dry, highway, city and fire roads.
Tor did a fine job at a fair price. I could not be more pleased.
Last edited:
