Hey guys, I bought a 3rd gen several months ago, 2WD, and I want to get it converted to 4WD.

I don't want to tackle this alone. I travel for work 100% and I'm in the Littleton/Denver/Aurora Colorado area at the moment. I just found the OEM intake at a local car scrapper place, and they have an entire 4Runner, 2001, with 4WD. Mine is a 2000 and I noted there seems to be some differences, for 1 I don't see a transmission throttle valve cable on the Throttlebody nor does it have cruise control.

Is a 2001 to 2000 4WD going to be a headache? I don't know the differences. I have a 2000 3.4L SR5.

ANd more importantly, (as I can always scrounge up another 4WD that matches), is there anyone here that would be willing to help me convert mine at their location for say $700? (I can take time off and make a reasonable drive depending on where I am and where you are).

I am sure it would probably take at a minimum several full days if we had everything we needed on hand.

Or if any body is familiar with a self service auto shop (Like Stew's Garage up in Washington) that would be very helpful. I remember searching several months ago for something like Stew's Garage and couldn't find anything, I only came across his shop because I started listening to a car podcast. Google is dropping the balls hard.

Thanks!

You will need a 4wd transmission from a 1996-2000. 01/02 transmission won't work.

This is one of those projects where if you have to ask then you don't have the tools/fabrication skills necessary to do this for less than paying someone especially if you need to rent the space to do this. You would be money and time ahead just buying a 4wd.

'99-'00 parts truck is ideal, '96-'00 will work. Avoid '01/'02 unless you have an '01/'02.

That said, if you don't have the space/tools (or a close friend who does), the right way to do do this is to buy a 4WD and sell your 2WD... And I say this as someone who has done the swap - you can see the story and lots of pictures in my build thread linked in my signature.

-Charlie

$700 would be extremely light for the work at hand. Removing trans, installing new trans and t-case, installing front diff, replacing hubs, welding the crossmember, getting the shifter swapped and fitted, etc. - and using some random set of tools in a rented space sounds like a nightmare tbh
If you need a little more help offroad, I'd suggest looking into a locker as it would be miles easier and cheaper for you to install. But over that I would suggest buying a 4x4... then getting a locker

I see the consensus is unanimous. I will keep off the trails until I am ready to buy another setup then.

I've done a 4WD swap before, just not on a 4Runner. I turned my old 2WD Cherokee into 4x4. The 2WD was so clean, and usually the 4WD's in the realm of Cherokee aren't well maintained.

Well, the swap is likely slightly harder than the Cherokee that had a non-active solid front axle, right?

You can see what's involved in my thread then make your own decision. ChildrenOfBodom also did a swap, though on a 4-cylinder. The details slightly vary with transmission and engine.

-Charlie

Some cars are certainly easier than others, it all depends on the manufacturer. Toyota likes to take a longer and harder route than most for some reason, at least in my opinion. But it certainly could be a lot worse
Jeep used to be really good about commonality, so much so that I believe 4.0 heads can work with the old 232 or 258 block

My Alltrac Camry has a *completely* different floorpan and rear suspension, rear bumper, gas tank and other stuff compared to a FWD Camry - even though externally the two vehicles look exactly the same other than a badge. Toyota also likes to make completely different firewalls for LHD and RHD too, compared to other makes that just punch different holes in the same stamping...

But overall, a different hole in the body (shifter) and moving a mount is pretty simple in the grand scheme of things for a 4WD swap. The front diff bolts in, the wiring (for J-shift) is minimal, etc. But it does take a welder, the right parts and a fair amount of space/time.

-Charlie

I didn't know that about Toyota, making intricate different parts for the same model of vehicle, but thinking about how they make precision engineered things that last it doesn't surprise me.

Jeep kept things so similar. You could swap the old 1960's-1970's era 4.2L crank into the 4.0 engine block and turn it into a 4.5 stroker engine.

Funny you say that, a stroker TJ is what I'm gonna replace this 4Runner with but more than likely a 4.7. Eventually that is, need to get a new place first. Always loved large displacement I6's

Well, the interior door handles are the same between my '89 Camry and my '99 4Runner, same interior light rheostat too. The they re-use certain things like crazy, but then go crazy with incompatibilities in other areas. There are 3 sub-generations within the 3rd gen 4Runner that have highly incompatible wiring harnesses, for instance...

-Charlie

You can make an 01/02 trans work in 2000. You just have to swap the kickdown cable, valve body, and a few other parts.

My buddy Nick did the opposite and put a 1999 4wd trans in his 2001 when he did the 4wd Conversion.

As an FYI, there are other internal differences too (clutches or something?) - but glad to hear it is working for him.

-Charlie

I'm gong to be honest with you, the 3.4L on this Toyota seems to have plenty of power, more than the stock I6 which on paper says it has a little more than this V6. Having had 2 strokers, I would take this toyota engine over them. The juice isn't worth the squeeze for power, and the Toyota will outlast that I6.

Unless you absolutely build that I6 yourself, you aren't going to get an engine that lasts Take my word for it. My first stroke built by Titan wiped out within a few miles. After that they rebuilt it for $900, and it lasted about 5 months then wiped out (cam lobes). After that I rebuilt it myself, no prior experience, and had it for several years before I sold it still running (a year later the cam lobes wiped out, I don't think they guy I sold it to heeded my advice on adding zinc with every oil change). EPA cut zinc levels in oils drastically in 2005, and inline 6 flat tappet cam shafts started developing lifter tap and dying off left and right soon after. I came back from Afghanistan after a few years, bought a new (old) Cherokee, and had a stroker built by Golen engines. 4 years later, due to my own fault, it needed a rebuild. I took it to a machinist I knew and he took me inside to show me some things on the heads. Each valve had a different seatment creating uneven chamber volumes, and on top of that the valve springs they put in there were 140lbs seat pressure, racing springs. That engine was going to need rebuilt again at 40K miles, the OEM seat pressure on the original inline 6 was 95lbs. I told Golen to use OEM specs on everything, and they just did whatever they wanted. You will never know if you got what you asked for unless you tear it apart after you get it and evaluate every part.

Avoid rebuilt/stroker inline 6 engines. And if you do get one, you better be using high zinc oils like diesel trade T4/T5/T6, and even then I still put a zinc additive with each oil change. Aftermarket cam lobes are skinnier than the originals. When I did my last rebuilt I had comp cams nitride my cam shaft for extra rigidity. 3 wiped out stroker engines is enough to make me want to to never buy another.

Stick with the 3.4L and just throw a TorqAmp on there with a SplitSec FTC unit to modify timing (and of course you'll need to buy a vacuum pump to keep all vacuum accessories working properly), and if you really want to get fancy you can put in an AIC-2 from SplitSec and plug in a 7th injector into the intake to spray on boost (and you can tap into the gas to use gas, or switch it up and install a 2 gallon reservoir and use -20 wiper fluid which is 35% methanol), and you can control it very precisely by referencing MAP readings. That's probably what I am going to do in the future. I already have received the AIC-2 for a side project as of today, I'm going to splice into the MAF and TPS since I am not going to be using this one for boost.