rapidpoison
Junior Member
Hey all, I have owned this 1998 4runner for ~6-7 years and have done a handful of modifications along the way but have never fully documented the process I went through before.
There are 3 main projects I am working on right now:
M/T swap from a 97 4Runner
Installing sound deadening material
Supercharging
LiFePO4 Battery System Build
M/T Swap:
A few months ago I acquired a M/T 97 4Runner for a good deal. It was running rough due to a bad injector. I replaced the injector and it ran great before I tore it apart. The eventual goal is to put my automatic into this chassis to avoid sending a perfectly good 4runner to the dump. With this goal comes a bit of difficulty around wiring the vehicle. With a M/T swap it is usually easy to convert the harness from auto to manual, but going the other way would be quite difficult and pretty time intensive. With that I have decided to completely swap all wiring harnesses between the two cars including the interior body harnesses.
A few weeks ago I started tearing apart both vehicle interiors down to the core support so that I could remove the wiring harnesses. This is a PITA, but it is not necessarily difficult. The hardest part is probably getting the fan enclosure on the passenger side out to access the body harness on that side. Once this was all removed I started putting down killmat in my vehicle trying to cover as much metal as reasonably possible. I got a good bit covered in this time and due to the cold weather had to use a heat gun to roll the material down for good adhesion.
I then switched gears and pulled out the engine and transmission harness from both vehicles and then slowly but surely removed the automatic transmission. The worst part of this for me was getting the driveshaft bolts off on the double cardin joint side. They were on there pretty good. I eventually had to use an air gun to get them off.
Then I removed the manual transmission from the donor, this was not super difficult as I had just removed the automatic a few days before and had the workflow down.
This thing is caked in dirt and grease. I wonder if the donor had a rear main leak or even worse.. a leak from the transmission.
Over the next week I spent my time after work cleaning up the transmission... What a PITA.. If you ever go down this route my recommendation is to buy chlorinated brake cleaner as this is the only chemical I found that would completely dissolve away the dirt and grime with ease.
I am currently waiting for parts so I spent some time cleaning the shifters as well as the shifter housings in preparation for new bushings and gaskets. As well as repaired the donor engine harness.
I will probably finish the sound deadening this weekend as the closed cell foam and mass loaded vinyl I ordered has come in. Stay tuned for more.... :beer:
There are 3 main projects I am working on right now:
M/T swap from a 97 4Runner
Installing sound deadening material
Supercharging
LiFePO4 Battery System Build
M/T Swap:
A few months ago I acquired a M/T 97 4Runner for a good deal. It was running rough due to a bad injector. I replaced the injector and it ran great before I tore it apart. The eventual goal is to put my automatic into this chassis to avoid sending a perfectly good 4runner to the dump. With this goal comes a bit of difficulty around wiring the vehicle. With a M/T swap it is usually easy to convert the harness from auto to manual, but going the other way would be quite difficult and pretty time intensive. With that I have decided to completely swap all wiring harnesses between the two cars including the interior body harnesses.
A few weeks ago I started tearing apart both vehicle interiors down to the core support so that I could remove the wiring harnesses. This is a PITA, but it is not necessarily difficult. The hardest part is probably getting the fan enclosure on the passenger side out to access the body harness on that side. Once this was all removed I started putting down killmat in my vehicle trying to cover as much metal as reasonably possible. I got a good bit covered in this time and due to the cold weather had to use a heat gun to roll the material down for good adhesion.
I then switched gears and pulled out the engine and transmission harness from both vehicles and then slowly but surely removed the automatic transmission. The worst part of this for me was getting the driveshaft bolts off on the double cardin joint side. They were on there pretty good. I eventually had to use an air gun to get them off.
Then I removed the manual transmission from the donor, this was not super difficult as I had just removed the automatic a few days before and had the workflow down.
This thing is caked in dirt and grease. I wonder if the donor had a rear main leak or even worse.. a leak from the transmission.
Over the next week I spent my time after work cleaning up the transmission... What a PITA.. If you ever go down this route my recommendation is to buy chlorinated brake cleaner as this is the only chemical I found that would completely dissolve away the dirt and grime with ease.
I am currently waiting for parts so I spent some time cleaning the shifters as well as the shifter housings in preparation for new bushings and gaskets. As well as repaired the donor engine harness.
I will probably finish the sound deadening this weekend as the closed cell foam and mass loaded vinyl I ordered has come in. Stay tuned for more.... :beer:
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