Engine swaps and upgrades talk

Arickvan

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May 19, 2020
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158
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Oakley CA
I'm curious about engine swap/horse power upgrade options, specifically for me it would be for an 86 4runner 22re dual cases 8" axles

What's the simplest/cheapest way to get a noticable power increase while staying within the strength limits of the rest of the drive train?

Im thinking 150-200 overall hp for $2-3k would be worth it, if the price gets higher I feel like it starts to lead towards LS and one tons

What do you guys think?
 
2rz or 3rz
If you do the work yourself, and you find the right donor vehicle, you could do it for $1000. Assuming you have a manual tranny, be sure your donor vehicle is also manual. The W59 bellhousing will bolt to the W56 transmission. Wiring harnesses will be very similar, to the point that a lot of the wires will be the same exact color.
 
Depends on your craftyness, the deals you find, and the rig its going into. I bought a truck that had a 2wd 3.4 engine and factory t100 wiring harness already swapped in for $600.

Gutted alll my factory wiring, put in the 3.4 and whole t100 harness. I think I spent another $200 on consumables. done deal, 3.4 swapped for under 1k. But this is a trail only truck, so didnt need to worry about having it streetable.
 
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oh wow i didn't think there would be such a solid consensus on the RZ :laughing:

well if the CA jay leno law passes i'll have to dig deeper into the details
 
Best thing to do is buy the wrecked 4runner or tacoma that's complete. it will have almost everything you will need for the swap. I've always ended up selling the parts I don't need and it paid for the parts truck. I've done the swap using the compete tacoma harness headlight to taillight, ORS stand alone and I really need to finish my 4runner that's using a ORS adapter harness. It's nothing fast but it feels way faster and still easy to work on/ get parts anywhere on the road. Just my .02
 
Both my 22R/RE rigs are drivers and pulling mountain passes with 22R/RE has gotten real old. After 10 years of casually looking for a 3rz w/harness, I've pretty much given up. The yards all cut the harness and if they have the other parts they want to nickel and dime everything. I dont know where guys are finding this stuff for any kind of realistic price.
 
Last 2 late 90s tacos I bought were 1k/2k and a 2000 4runner for 1200. All made my money back on them.
 
Somebody needs to sweet talk that guy in the classifieds to toss his junk on a pallet
 
The last 2 RZs i picked up were 400 and 700 respectively with full harnesses and ECUs, the second one even had an A340 included.
 
Both my 22R/RE rigs are drivers and pulling mountain passes with 22R/RE has gotten real old. After 10 years of casually looking for a 3rz w/harness, I've pretty much given up. The yards all cut the harness and if they have the other parts they want to nickel and dime everything. I dont know where guys are finding this stuff for any kind of realistic price.
The answer is above: you buy an entire beater off Craigslist, keep the engine and harness, sell the seats/glass/bed/rear axle, and haul the husk to the scrap yard.
 
I paid 600 for a whole wrecked Taco. They seem to be going for 2k now.
 
Both my 22R/RE rigs are drivers and pulling mountain passes with 22R/RE has gotten real old. After 10 years of casually looking for a 3rz w/harness, I've pretty much given up. The yards all cut the harness and if they have the other parts they want to nickel and dime everything. I dont know where guys are finding this stuff for any kind of realistic price.
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I was wondering about that.

Still. Bet you could get the thing for $800. Pull whatcha need and part out the truck for $800 :laughing:
Fuck, the last bed I sold was $600. It's hard to not make money parting them out.

Although in this case, if it didn't have the shitty wheels and the interior wasn't filthy, I'd consider daily driving it. Sounds like the valves are burnt, so $300 for machine shop work and $150 for head gasket.
 
Another truck to look out for was the t100, they had distributor style 3rz in them. When they're missing on #2 or #3 it's the exhaust valves being too tight. Sometimes you can just shim it and it's good to go. Others times it's been ran to long and the head develops small cracks between valves.
 
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If that was 4x4, the 5speed transmission would almost be worth the asking price.

2rz's are a lot more available. It sure seems like the the 3rz has a fair amount more power than the 2rz. I know everyone says turbo but I'm not trying to get into that.
 
I could be wrong but I thought there was like a 10hp difference between the two.
 
I could be wrong but I thought there was like a 10hp difference between the two.
It's the torque and where it's at. A quick googling says
22re 140 @3600rpm
2rz 160 @4200
3rz 177 @3800
So the torque gained over a 22re with the 3rz is 37. With the 2rz it is almost half that at 20 and at a higher rpm.

My only experience with 2/3rz is in 100% stock trucks and the 3rz definitely pulls harder.

For all the work and cost, it sounds like your getting half the gains with the 2rz, unless you turbo it.
 
Definitely gotta appreciate the incredibly detailed ad….
 
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