TuckerUT
New Member
- Location
- Davis County, UT
So I'd been looking for a 1st gen 4runner for a couple of months and had a set budget I was shopping ksl and found a couple of vehicles that I could buy that were within my price range. I found 1 that had hit a deer, but had a good engine, and one that had a good body, but the engine was bad. My initial intention was to just take the fenders, grill and other parts I needed and put them on the wrecked vehicle. After getting both vehicles home I decided to just swap the engines since the sheet metal on the non wrecked vehicle was all original and in fair condition still (aka very little rust :thumbs
The guy I bought the vehicles from assured me that the engine in the 1986 (wrecked vehicle) was in working condition and that he'd driven it home 100 miles from Wyoming after hitting the deer. My Dad offered to help so I rented an engine hoist and we started bright and early Friday morning.
We first pulled the engine out of the Silver (1987) vehicle and set it aside without too much hassle. Then we pulled the engine out of the blue (1986) donor and got it bolted into the 87. Everything went fairly smooth, it took us all day to get them swapped. We didn't get everything hooked up in the 87 just got the engine bolted in and secure.
Engine hooked up and ready to pull
Engine out
here's a pic of both vehicles after pulling the motor out of the silver one and sprayed out the engine compartment with a pressure washer.
I have more pics on my camera that I still need to pull off.
Over the next week we got everything hooked back in and I had to swap the rear drivelines because a U joint on the 87 was toast. I was able to get the 87 started Saturday night only to discover that the head gasket was bad on the engine we had just installed
So now a new project begins this weekend to do the head gasket. The engine out of the 87 has a brand new head on it (previous own installed, but couldn't get it to run for a reason we will hopefully discover when we tear into it)
Looking back now that I know the head gasket is bad I would have probably just pulled the engine apart on the 87 first to try and figure out what was going on with it rather than pulling both motors and installing the one with the bad head gasket, but no going back now just gotta press on. I'll post more as we go along.
The 87 has a 2" lift (according to PO) and has 33s under it that are brand new. Other than that it is stock. On top of the engine swap I am also changing out the interiors as the int on the 87 is trashed. Also have plans to make 1/2 doors this summer out of the doors off the 86. This will be a DD and weekend wheeler. I'm parting out the stuff on the 86 that I don't need so hit me up if you're looking for any parts.
The guy I bought the vehicles from assured me that the engine in the 1986 (wrecked vehicle) was in working condition and that he'd driven it home 100 miles from Wyoming after hitting the deer. My Dad offered to help so I rented an engine hoist and we started bright and early Friday morning. We first pulled the engine out of the Silver (1987) vehicle and set it aside without too much hassle. Then we pulled the engine out of the blue (1986) donor and got it bolted into the 87. Everything went fairly smooth, it took us all day to get them swapped. We didn't get everything hooked up in the 87 just got the engine bolted in and secure.
Engine hooked up and ready to pull
Engine out
here's a pic of both vehicles after pulling the motor out of the silver one and sprayed out the engine compartment with a pressure washer.
I have more pics on my camera that I still need to pull off.
Over the next week we got everything hooked back in and I had to swap the rear drivelines because a U joint on the 87 was toast. I was able to get the 87 started Saturday night only to discover that the head gasket was bad on the engine we had just installed
So now a new project begins this weekend to do the head gasket. The engine out of the 87 has a brand new head on it (previous own installed, but couldn't get it to run for a reason we will hopefully discover when we tear into it)
Looking back now that I know the head gasket is bad I would have probably just pulled the engine apart on the 87 first to try and figure out what was going on with it rather than pulling both motors and installing the one with the bad head gasket, but no going back now just gotta press on. I'll post more as we go along.
The 87 has a 2" lift (according to PO) and has 33s under it that are brand new. Other than that it is stock. On top of the engine swap I am also changing out the interiors as the int on the 87 is trashed. Also have plans to make 1/2 doors this summer out of the doors off the 86. This will be a DD and weekend wheeler. I'm parting out the stuff on the 86 that I don't need so hit me up if you're looking for any parts.
