Out with old, in with the new
So the old motor was finally starting to show some signs of death. I started getting an incomplete combustion code, even with new O2 sensors.
So the only logical thing to do was start the 3 day process of changing the motor out. I initially wanted to make a guide, but I pretty much just read through this post (
5vz-fe Removal) and went from there. I wanted to make a guide, but as I was doing it I realized that if you can't get the motor out after reading through that, you might not be up to the task of performing this swap.
Day 1: getting ready to pull the old motor out:
I could not for the life of me get the starter out, so I removed the steering rack. It was coming out anyway, I also bought the pump, lines, and rack from the engine donor vehicle for less than any one component anywhere else.
Then I made sure all the little brackets and things moved over to the new motor:
Day 2: Remove the old motor and drop in the new motor
Both @%1;and my dad came over to help with this. This was a little more difficult than originally thought. The top 2 bolts on the Bellhousing did not want to come out. Probably about one minute of impact wrenching on each bolt finally broke them loose. Tip: use about 3 feet of wobble extensions and a wobble socket to get them out, not sure how else you'd do it.
Here's where we figure out the motor isn't going to fit in the truck with the headers on. The collector is too long, so it come off and then putting it back on in the truck consumed over an hour. My plan to do headers is starting to look bad at this point and continued from there.
We had a lot of issues getting the motor mounts to line up properly, probably because they were new mounts. Then we couldn't get the trans pins to set into the back of the motor, but finally with some ratchet straps it came together. We then spent the next several hours putting all the pulleys and hoses back on, until the sun finally set.
I really wanted to hear it start that night, but when we hooked up the power wire to the starter, it arced and the starter seems like it was engaging. So we left it to sit over night, battery out. Seeming like something electrical was wrong with the starter itself, I opted to order a rebuilt starter from Toyota. Since this thing goes to some remote places, I didn't want to just put contacts in the starter and leave all the old stuff still in there. A new starter wasn't unreasonably expensive, so I just went for it. What's another 150 bucks at this point?
Day 3: Wrapping up
I pulled the starter and assessed the contacts. Apparently one contact spun while removing the power wire and it was contacting the plunger all the time. I removed it and pounded it flat to reinstall. It worked!!!
Now I just needed to get the exhaust fixed and get an alignment. Badly.
