Howdy all,

I've been working seasonally for two years and living out of my '90 the whole time. Play in the summers, ski in the winters and this fall I had the time to do a major upgrade to the living situation.

Over the years, this low mileage beast has had the standard problems fixed, and now I've got a small budget to do a couple upgrades to make it more liveable. I use it as a snowmobile in the winter, and have a full complement of heavy chains. My first project is to reroute the intake to make room for an army surplus ammo box to be mounted behind the FL headlight. I removed the AC system since it has been dry in the 5 years I've owned it and don't need it in my climate. This freed up some space behind the grill. My plan at the moment is to cut a circle into the frame behind the grill to accommodate a cone filter, remove the radiator overflow, or plumb it to the space next to the battery and windshield wiper fluid, then re configure the stock MAF placement and hosings to fit the box in the engine compartment and free up cab space.

I also found a 12v small diesel boat heater from Planar to heat the area in the winter. Its not planned to be a full time heaters, just mornings and evenings to make it comfortable to sleep and defrost the glass. It will be mounted either in the grill along with the fuel tank where air intake and exhaust will be routed into the AC/heater blower motor box, or infront of the spare tire under the body and will vent up into the drain holes in the floor of the bed. Still waiting for it to arrive and then will fabricate the ducting systems for air and fuel intake and exhaust.

Does anyone have experience doing something similar to the intake mod I have detailed? I've found guides for removing the silencers which is a no brainer, but what is the best way to fabricate or outsource the fabrication of the new intake ducting? Rubber hosing would be awesome because I could do the routing myself.

Here's a picture of the interior at the moment.

Attached Images

 

That is an awesome interior. Did you take the backseats out? what is the length of the "bed"?

I've read the modified intake reduces mileage and doesn't improve much H.P. wise. I had a cone filter on my truck installed by the previous owner. Some $40 ebay special (crap). I've recently reinstalled the original and pretty happy I did. It's quieter and I'm less nervous about what particulates might be making their way up in to my engine.

turbo hoses would work well for what you want to do, but they can get pretty expensive, especially if you're needing larger than 3" diameter hoses. Run aluminum piping for straight runs, then use silicone elbows for turns and angles.

I say run aluminum piping because its lightweight and won't rust, but galvanized would work too.

The bed is 6 ft long. The rear seats are both taken out, all hardware as well. The bed is 4 panels. The rear two open to the sides and the front two open lengthwise with the truck. Lots of storage space with the bed 6 inches off the rear floor. Should be plenty cozy for the winter travels of a ski bum.

Does anyone have other ideas for chain storage outside the interior of the truck. I do have a swing out spare tire arm, but I'd prefer to not fab something that attaches to it

What about underneath where the spare would normally be? You could use a motorcycle pannier mounted flat on the bottom.

lay the chains across the top of the spare, they don't get twisted and fouled, and you can lock them around tire to each other.

winter road muck makes getting stuff from under there a mess.
I lived in Alaska and Upstate NY. Getting a spare from under the truck was a nightmare during the winter

I like the idea of putting them on the spare. Did the 2nd Gen'so ever come with a factory tire cover for the swing out spares? I don't know if I've eerror seen one,

Along the course of things, I've decided to preemptively repower the 4runner with a MB OM617.952 engine before I need to do the headgasket again on this crappy 3vze. This is on a '90 4runner with the r150 transmission

Right now, the mission is to get the om617 running in tip top shape outside of the 4runner using a junkyard ignition, starter, and wiring, then extract the 3vze, remove the oil/coolant temp senders and attach them to the block, then drop the mbz in, fab the engine mounts, figure out a radiator solution, wire in a relay for the glow plugs. I'll deal with the tach some time hopefully

Right now, I've got an adapter plate made and installed, oil pan made to deal with steering linkage clearance, oil filter re-locator plate for remote filter to deal with firewall clearance, started on some engine mounts using toyota celica 8359 anchor mounts from a junk yard, started to prep an alternator mount that'll reuse the stock alternator bracket, MB power steering pump should mate to the steering gear box without many headaches and in the stock location on the om617 should allow me to remove the crossover lines that are stock in the 4runner. EGR block off plates are made up. Working on wiring a 12v vacuum actuated solenoid to deal with shutoff. No a/c planned yet.

I've also replaced the plugs, injectors, timing chain, head gasket, adjusted valve clearances, new thermostat, waterpump, replaced some vacuum lines and fuel lines, removed the fuel limiter, cleaned the oily ****er up, installed a pre-turbo pyrometer and intake boost gauge for adjusting boost when its in and running, and have put new gaskets everywhere I can find one to replace.

Down the line, I'll add an a/w intercooler if there is space, might add a hood scoop to deal with clearance (and make it look badass), and once I'm happy with it all, it'll earn the MBZ TURBODIESEL badge

Planning to do the swap in the fall after my USFS field season ends. Until then, I can go ahead with the remote oil filter mount, install the gauges and get them lit, expand the fuel filler neck to accept the standard diesel size.

Here are some crappy cell phone photos of the progress so far.




For the swap, there is a major clearance issue in the engine bay since the om617 is longer than the 3vze by a good deal. People have swapped out the 22re for this engine which has a shorter(w56?) transmission attached and the clearance issue seems to be less in those swaps. To deal with this, I was thinking of finding some drivelines from a similar model year with the W56 transmission and mating them to the transmission and transfer case. Does anyone know if the front or rear driveline from the w56 will mate to the t/case or r150f and pumpkin? I figure that if it does, it would be a great way to not have to pay out the nose in a driveline shop, and that they could simply fab up one driveline instead of both.

I also have the swing out spare tire arm, and was thinking of mounting a radiator remotely under the car to avoid the headaches of trying to jam a radiator and fans into the engine bay. The om617 has a purge tank, so I could use that and don't think that having the radiator mounted flat would be an issue. I would also make a screen using some anti-slip metal walkway tread to protect the radiator from rocks, etc.

some pics from a while back, more to come soon