Soooooo, the first attempt at this swap back in 2010 never materialized. School, work, life, etc. got in the way and the old 4Runner was sold

Fast forward ......There's a new '89 project truck. And the parts are arriving and being installed as I type. Today was hard top removal, clean-up and soft top hardware install fabric tomorrow when the sun's out.

I'll give you a little background on this one. It's a Craigslist $1500 special, 1989 4Runner SR5, V6, R150, power everything, sunroof and overall not too bad. Lady told me it had a "bent crank, it runs but shakes like crazy" OK, I'll take it..............$64 fan clutch later and it purrs like no other 3 slow I've ever heard, honestly! it's uncanny!

Anyway, the first thing to get done was front brakes, bearings, seals, CV axles, a couple u-joints, Bilstein HD's, 2" rear spacers, T-bar crank, and alignment. Records indicated the truck had been serviced regularly, so I didn't have to even change the fluids. Timing belt, water pump, idlers, accessory belts, cooling hoses and flush had 13k on them according to records. The big test was emissions, which it passed easily, 1/5 of where the limits were. Score!

Santa delivered his boxes from Marlin Crawler as well as a few other places. Loaded front and rear diff's w/ ARB's and Yukon 5.29's, 285/75x16's MT's on new OEM 16-hole steelies x 5, ARB bull bar & stabilizer, compressor w/ stainless air lines to lockers, Painless fuse block, audio equipment, lighting and Optima yellow top.

As I am breaking in my new gears correctly, like a good boy, I’m using the time to sort out all the little bugs the truck had when I bought it. None of the windows, door locks or other power stuff was working when I got it. Before doing anything else, I pulled the door panels and ran the motors on a jump pack…check, the windows work flawlessly. On to the switches, I carefully disassembled every one of them in the truck, cleaned them up, reassembled, and…..everything works!!! Score!! Now I just need new power mirrors (both work but have trashed inner gearing) and a new antenna (works but 1/2 of extension is missing).

The big news is the parts that have begun arriving for the 1uzfe swap. To date, the custom bellhousing, clutch assembly, crossmember/skidplate, motor mounts, steering correction shaft, 3” exhaust parts and catalytic converter are done. The custom billet flywheel, headers, crossover pipe and fuel lines should be done pretty soon, and then the wiring harness should go into production in a few weeks…..I still need to find a donor car, SC400 for all the accessories and an ebay Toyota 1uz because I want the low miles and the Toyota intake logo instead of the Lexus (call me silly). Anyway, more on that as it develops.

The rear axle is also being treated to new Yukon 4340 shafts, Koyo bearings, basically new everything. One thing I have yet to do is to cut down the shafts to fit. These are custom, with elongated splines, so they have to be cut to length…..in my case, it’s 1 3/16” off each side. I’ll take care of that when I go down to my buddy’s shop to press in the bearings. I also decided to ditch the drums and swap in the front rotors and calipers from a solid axle truck. FJ80 brake master w/ internal proportion valve and stainless brake lines will finish it off.

Tomorrow, I’ll drape the soft top over the frame and let the sun soften it up a bit before I secure it. I’m going to use that ‘paint drying time’ to button up the remainder of the audio, lighting, compressor and air lines to lockers, switches and fuse block. More to come on that, for now though, check out a few pics of the day the lady showed it to me, one from post-first work done and 31's off my project '85 turbo 4Runner, and one with new drivetrain. I'll upload some more later.

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