5VZ FE Engine Replacement

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btot588

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Hey all. First I would like to say I have learned so much from this forum so I thought I would do my part to contribute. This is my thread for replacing the stock engine with a JDM one.
Long story short my wife's 4runner (2001 SR5 2x4) wasn't properly maintained when she bought it in college and its been burning oil for a while now. It has 165,000 miles on it. I researched pros and cons of refurbished engines vs low mile replacements and decide to go with a JDM replacement. I picked one up from JDMchicago.com and had it shipped to me. My JDM engine has 56,000 miles on it.
The engines are pretty similar but there are some things that are different. I'm just going to pull them off my old engine for use on the JDM one.
Oil pan, Throttle body, PS pump, Starter, Fuel Injectors, Fuel rails, Ignition coils, Engine mounts, and Exhaust manifolds are all I can think of right now.
Things I'll be putting in new include: Radiator, External radiator cooler(B&M 70268), Spark plugs and wires (NKG), Oil and fuel filter (WIX), Rear main seal (FelPro), Drive Belts (Gates), Idler pulley (Gates), Timing belt (Gates), Fan pulley bracket and clutch (Aisin), Water pump (Aisin), Thermostat (Stant), Valve cover gaskets and PCV (FelPro). The engine cost me 1200$ and the parts have cost me 600$ so far.
I've started digging into the JDM engine and replacing what I can before taking the old motor out of the truck.
If anyone has any suggestions or something I missed please feel free to chime in.

My Process
Removal:
First I removed all fluids, hoses, radiator and disconnected all cannon plugs. I labeled everything using scotch tape and a marker to ease the re-instillation.
I then removed the air box, intake manifold and battery. Followed that up by removing the alternator and zip tying the power steering pump
and AC Compressor out of the way. I was able to just pull the fuel rails out of the way and zip tie them out of the way so no need to disconnect fuel lines.
I then went under the engine and removed the starter. I disconnected the exhaust manifold between the downpipe and catalytic converter.
I zip tied all wiring harness components out of the way. I removed the 6 pressure plate bolts and then broke/removed the bell housing bolts using all my extensions and a knuckle joint.
I then attached my engine hoist and removed the engine mount bolts.
Picking the engine out was really easy. After a couple of firm shoves it broke free.

JDM Refresh:
I changed the water pump, put a new timing belt on, new gaskets on the valve covers and new spark plugs and wires. I reused the oil cooler, exhaust manifolds, oil pan and pickup, engine mounts, flywheel, crank pulley, and coil packs. I put all new O-rings and grommets on the fuel injectors from my original engine and reused them. I put new gaskets/0-rings on replacement parts.

Installation:
I put the engine back in on day 3 of the project. I removed the catalytic converter before so I wouldn't have to fight that. The installation was basically the reverse of the removal. I found it helpful to get the bell housing bolts started while you are aligning the engine. Just don't cross thread or strip the threads. The hardest part for me was getting the starter back in where it goes. There just isn't much room right there.
Once I had it in I hooked everything back up filled up my fluids and started it up. I got a CEL misfire cylinder 6. Trouble shot a bit and then checked my fuel injectors. Sure enough I hadn't connected the cannon pug to that injector all the way. Put it back together and its been running well ever since.
 
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btot588-albums-2001+5vz+fe+engine+replacement++jdm-picture43073-didnt-clean-thing-here.jpg
 
Sounds like you've got everything covered. I just finished my swap. Make sure you take lots of pictures and label everything you remove. I bagged and labeled everything as I took it off while taking pictures at every step. The pictures were invaluable when putting everything back together.
 
xpeppyx said:
Sounds like you've got everything covered. I just finished my swap. Make sure you take lots of pictures and label everything you remove. I bagged and labeled everything as I took it off while taking pictures at every step. The pictures were invaluable when putting everything back together.
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Thanks,
Did you remove the engine and transmission together or just remove the engine?
 
I left the transmission in place. I have a 5 speed so some things I had to unbolt and disconnect will be different on an automatic. I found no reason to remove the transmission though. Used a 2 ton engine hoist and pulled the motor once it was loosened from the input shaft. The hardest part for me was removing the 2 top bell housing bolts. I got frustrated and removed the heads and crossover pipe on the old motor since I didn't care about that motor.
 
Consider switching the cam and crank sensors from your old motor. Sometimes they have different plugs, even if they have the same plugs doesn't mean they will work on your truck. I would only put an OEM rear main seal in my truck. Fel-Pro is good stuff, but not as good as OEM. Stant sucks, use OEM. I would only use OEM on that too. You probably don't need the fan pulley bracket, since it only has 56,000 miles from the new motor. Although it is rare, I have heard of Gates timing belts flopping around in the timing covers. I would use OEM for that as well, or Mitsuboshi (they make OEM).
 
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It's probably nitpicking, but maybe replace the two of us on the dipstick, get new orings for the injectors. I just swapped engines and long story short had a fuel leak due to a bad o ring.
 
Jzxrunner said:
Any cool differences between the jdm and usdm ones? Or was it just more avaliable at the time that's why you got it
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There are a few differences in accessories that's why I'm replacing some of the stuff in my first post. Im just installing the new stuff in my garage and ill put it in during my time off work here in a couple weeks.
 
Success!!!

I got the engine in and started it up.
CEL, misfire cylinder 6.... uh ohhhh. Hope I didn't do all this work to need to replace head gasket now. Went on vacation the next day, couldn't stop thinking about the CEL. Come home, Pulled spark plug and wire and look for infamous coolant. looks good. Put back together and start up engine. Clear code. No more code. Restart vehicle several times still no code. WHEW....
 
btot588 said:
I got the engine in and started it up.
CEL, misfire cylinder 6.... uh ohhhh. Hope I didn't do all this work to need to replace head gasket now. Went on vacation the next day, couldn't stop thinking about the CEL. Come home, Pulled spark plug and wire and look for infamous coolant. looks good. Put back together and start up engine. Clear code. No more code. Restart vehicle several times still no code. WHEW....
Click to expand...

im gonna be tackling a motor swap next week and have a question...is it necessary to remove the hood?
 
btot588 said:
btot588-albums-2001+5vz+fe+engine+replacement++jdm-picture43073-didnt-clean-thing-here.jpg
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Looks as clean as my JDM was! I basically did everything you listed but if your engine came from a Hiace van, you'll need the oil cooler off your old engine. I advise you replace the cooling hose from the water pump to cooler and o ring under the cooler. I did mine 2 yrs ago and I've put 30K on it and totally happy.
 
btot588 said:
I got the engine in and started it up.
CEL, misfire cylinder 6.... uh ohhhh. Hope I didn't do all this work to need to replace head gasket now. Went on vacation the next day, couldn't stop thinking about the CEL. Come home, Pulled spark plug and wire and look for infamous coolant. looks good. Put back together and start up engine. Clear code. No more code. Restart vehicle several times still no code. WHEW....
Click to expand...

I had the same scare! I missed gapping a plug and discovered the gap shorted. Thank god!

I don't know if you came across my experiences...
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/167172-my-engine-swap-progress.html
 
Thanks for the post. It would be nice to see a summary of exactly what you replaced and swapped over and any issues you had to deal with. I know you mentioned what you were going to do, but it seems we always find new issues or should have done it as we go.
 
btot588 said:
Yeah, before I started this project I read through your experiences. It helped me A LOT. Actually its still a favorite on my favorites bar :)
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Thanks! If I can help even one person make their engine replacement easier and faster, then the motivation behind my posts here, are justified and fulfilled!

My replacement, back in 2014, was actually my 4th, and hopefully not my last. My first, was back in High School: I rebuilt the engine out of my 63' Acadian (Nova). I actually systematically rebuilt the entire car with the exception of the transmission and paint job. The next one, was in my 76' VW Rabbit, and later a friends' Civic. Despite the fact, all of these vehicles were from totally different generations, I found the 4runner quite straight forward.

Considering all the vehicles I've worked on, from the utter simplicity of the 60's, thru the #@$%!? 80's American cars, to the 06' Eclipse my son drives, my 4Runner is one of the best engineered and pleasurable to work on. I loved my 82' Olds Cutlass, but holy cow, doing anything to it, required a journeyman's' ticket in plumbing! It took me months to get it running the way I wanted it--- I ended up re-building the carb and replacing almost all the vacuum pumps and switches under that hood! Every Ford/GM/Chrylser I worked on from that era, made me feel like the engineers started with the basics and threw more complexity and crap under the hood, until it was a huge mess. At least, with the 90's, things got easier to understand with electronic integration.

I have a 97' Corolla, which I've owned since 05', its been fantastic, and I've pretty much replaced everything except the engine and tranny, however, its never let me down and all my sons learned how to drive in it! It's still going strong--- it will be my youngest sons transport for College next year. Nothing like Toyota!

I apologize for rambling!
Good luck with your 4Runner, I hope your replacement is as successful as mine has been!
 
Well i appreciate your input poleclimber. Sounds like you are quite the mechanic or at least DIY'er. Besides helping my dad while growing up, I've only done 2 clutch changes on a camry and civic. That was a bit harder than this swap due to the tight space on those fwd cars.

Was wondering, you don't happen to have the live data from a ob2 scanner saved anywhere do you? You know from an engine running well lol.

I feel like mine is running well but would like to compare if someone has it handy.
 
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