Offroad-Express

try this place as well for your conversion stuff as well. this is where i am getting my stuff for my 2wd hilux,
http://www.v6conversions.com.au/

J_Dub wrote:im in the process of fitting a 3.8 in my lux..
few thinngs ive found.
A body lift will help in alot of ways, for exhaust clearance and clearance from the air intake and heater hoses at the firewall..
Ive found that if you have a diesel hilux your options are beter as alot of other toyota donks drop straight on the factory mounts, where as if its factory 3y, mods to mounts are generally needed to fit other Toyo motors.

You would be best in my opinion to find a wrecked/damaged diesel hilux or surf with a late model diesel ie: 5l or 1kz, as you have said you need to replace the box aswell, so if you have a wreck with good running gear just swap all the good stuff over

AGREE TO THIS!

Has any one (other than jafa) put a 3rz-fe 2.7 into a 3y hilux before? Have been considering this conversion, From what i can gather need a 3rz-fe 2wd bellhousing to bolt to g52 gearbox and shift engine mounts and possibly a body lift to make fit. Has anyone else done this here before? Is this correct?

dont go toyo. as thirsty as a 3.8 and gutless as
NJV6 posted my conversion. easy as. awesome torque in the right place. i was running 4.88 with new bfg 35s and by shit it went well. sure u get crap fuel economy but ur not doin the conversion for economy.

Cheers engineer - it's looking like it might be the way to go. Any advice on what else I need to think about? Brake master ok with the different vacuum of the v6 or do I need to swap that? Any reason you went for the th700? I'm hoping to go manual, but if there was a huge benefit in auto for this conversion I'd consider it. Looking forward to hearing back from marks for a shipped price on the bellhousing etc

Personal prefferance, but if you go with the auto there is less shock loading on all the other bits when driving. It is very easy to shock load with a manual (revs up and dump the clutch). If you are changing a dodgy g-box anyway and still want to stay with the manual, you might as well source the stronger r151 gearbox, (early 90,s trucks).
Others may have diffrent opinions on this but that is mine anyway.

Already planning on the r151. Was just making sure it wasn't to avoid some complication really. I'm not planning on dropping the clutch too often, so manual is the go. My only question is whether the r151 box is a bolt in or if I'll need to shift or swap the crossmember with it hooked onto the back of the commy v6.

Looks like ps pump off commy will work. Still not sure about brake master, but I'm now just thinking I may need a brake upgrade too. Is there anything I can just Bolt in to replace stock? I'm not sure if I'd need to go discs on the rear, but was thinking there must be some alternative rotors/calipers for the front

crossmember should be a bolt in job, you will need to find a v6 manual 8 bolt flywheel, which are fairly hard to find and when you do they are upwards of +$400 and a manual starter.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 755785.htm

pretty rare to find them listed and lasting more than a few days

i went with t700 as it was easy, autos r smooth as rokhound said no shock loading, dont have to worry about clutch or what gear ur in most of the time and the t700 has a good low gear.with the t700 and adapting tcase on the back of it the factory xmember bolted str8 in. the t700 is a basic transmission and cheap for bits.

you wanna make things as easy as possible for yourself again imho

I am assuming that the t700 trans can be modified to make it a manual also (and a switch for the lock up thingee)?

Will have to investigate further on whether the r151 would be harder. I like the idea of not losing power to an auto box since I prefer manuals anyway. If it's a whole lot easier though...

88lux wrote:Will have to investigate further on whether the r151 would be harder. I like the idea of not losing power to an auto box since I prefer manuals anyway. If it's a whole lot easier though...

You are going to have that much power anyway so don't be concerned about using the auto and in 99.9% of the time the auto will be WAY better esp if you are using this for serious off-roading or beach driving etc, even on the road the auto will be nicer.

i like the auto idea for waterproofing of drive componentry.. lazy wheelin..

also, as mentioned above, exactly how much power are you goin to lose compared to a manual box? so i should've used a manual behind my 302? mate, you have enough to spare a couple of horses....

Yeah - I realize I have enough power. Not worried it'd be gutless, just rather use the power myself than pay BP to heat up my trans fluid. But then again, maybe I should just accept that this is not for the purposes of fuel economy and remember that I'll be saving a ton on the rego each year, no ruc, and less oil changes.

Having not driven an auto much, what are they like offroad? Can you hold in gear properly for downhills etc or am I looking at needing a major brake upgrade?

88lux wrote:Having not driven an auto much, what are they like offroad? Can you hold in gear properly for downhills etc or am I looking at needing a major brake upgrade?

theyre good man.. just select the lower gear with a combo of brake and you'll be right.. brakes should be sweet if ya dont go silly.. i find my auto holds well with the low geared rover transfers on the back of the c4..

crawlin through muck is easy, never in 'wrong gear'.. took a couple of outings to learn how to pedal an auto but fun as man..

do it.. you'll love it..

comilux killed a few auto's with his before going manual which was in my opinion the much superior set up.

He killed a few? Isn't the TH700 pretty much the same box that sits behind a 350 on a Corvette? That said, I suppose a Corvette doesn't have 33 inch tyres and thump around the bush.

To be honest, it's starting to look like it might be my best option. Just trying to work out what I need from marks4wd. Looks like the t/case adapter is about $900, engine mounting kit is $210, adapters for oil pressure and water temp about $100, a black box to trick the ecu into working is $365 if I go the ecotec.

What I'm not sure of is fuel pump, surge tank, shifter mounting and fans for the radiator. Any of you guys who have done this conversion care to shed some light on what you did here? I'm wondering how much I could save doing something about the fans myself - surely there's something already on a similar radiator that can be hammered into shape to fit? I'm no fabricator, but as far as non structural stuff goes, I can find my way around a mig, so I assume I can save some of the $485 that they want for 2 fans and a shroud.

The fuel pump kit from marks is $495. Can I just scalp the commodore pump and surge tank?

Shifter mounting and display kit is $325, which I'm guessing might be worth the money to save a ton of hassle - more for the shifter mounting and the TPS, as I think I could wire something up for the display quite easily.

Other than that, there is the wiring loom for $520, which I think I might skip as I'll probably rerun a lot of the old loom anyway - new more adequate wiring might get my headlight voltage up a bit from the 9v they are currently getting - so I'll probably spend $100 or so for wire, crimps and insulation tape.

Yea i stuffed two.

First one was from a vr and water got into the electrics and fryed them so bought one from a vn with manual kickdown etc and had it fully rebuilt and a year later blew it on the coast and had to drive back in 2nd with a bit of 3rd every now and then .
Striped the box and the whole thing was cooked, wasnt much at all selvageable and in my opinion this had something to do with a poor rebuild but couldnt prove it.

In the end i went manual with an adaptor kit from dellow in auz, mainly because i wanted it reliable and with a manual you generly get warning before they let go and never looked back once doing it.

88lux wrote:He killed a few? Isn't the TH700 pretty much the same box that sits behind a 350 on a Corvette? That said, I suppose a Corvette doesn't have 33 inch tyres and thump around the bush.

To be honest, it's starting to look like it might be my best option. Just trying to work out what I need from marks4wd. Looks like the t/case adapter is about $900, engine mounting kit is $210, adapters for oil pressure and water temp about $100, a black box to trick the ecu into working is $365 if I go the ecotec.

What I'm not sure of is fuel pump, surge tank, shifter mounting and fans for the radiator. Any of you guys who have done this conversion care to shed some light on what you did here? I'm wondering how much I could save doing something about the fans myself - surely there's something already on a similar radiator that can be hammered into shape to fit? I'm no fabricator, but as far as non structural stuff goes, I can find my way around a mig, so I assume I can save some of the $485 that they want for 2 fans and a shroud.

The fuel pump kit from marks is $495. Can I just scalp the commodore pump and surge tank?

Shifter mounting and display kit is $325, which I'm guessing might be worth the money to save a ton of hassle - more for the shifter mounting and the TPS, as I think I could wire something up for the display quite easily.

Other than that, there is the wiring loom for $520, which I think I might skip as I'll probably rerun a lot of the old loom anyway - new more adequate wiring might get my headlight voltage up a bit from the 9v they are currently getting - so I'll probably spend $100 or so for wire, crimps and insulation tape.

fuel pump buy an 80psi inline pump andinline filter. easy
u dont need a shift display because for cert ull need an indicator coming off the shifter onto a plate parked Park reverse neutral d 2 1 on your center console/floor-easy.i used a bolt a screwed a plate and used vivid. doesnt need to be flash just gotta be practical.

buy and aftermarket slimline fan that moves over 600cfm, i never had any issues over heating.

make u own engine mounts that bolt to engine and to your factory rubbers.just borrow a mig and someone that can weld.

wiring was easy i got a auto sparky mate but he found it easy as, even wired in to factory fuse box etc, neatest wiring job ive seen u had no idea it wasnt meant to be there.

run a decent aftermarket transcooler

fitting the marks adaptor to trans wasnt to hard. buy a Haynes GM th700 manual and u cant go wrong.youll need decent circlip pliers though.and note where the detents go!

Use the fan from the commodore, you'll need to shave a bit off the shroud to get it to fit but a lot cheaper than the marks one. For the oil adapter, i would suggest going into an engineering supplies place like grossman twigg or blackwoods and tell them what you want, it'll be cheaper, and I can't see what you need the water one for, there is a perfect correct thread little screw on the top of the motor for one.
For the fuel pump i'm using a fuel tank out of a v6 surf with just the intank pump and it moves heaps of fuel, was told it is easily enough by a performance shop. Or if you do get a whole car, possibly use that tank with the intank fuel pump and it's sorted? I used to have a surge tank in mine but when i swapped bodies i took it out and haven't noticed any difference, I think they are more for carbed engines?
Also if you got the whole car, why not just use that shifter?, sure you could knock something up easily enough to make it pretty. Wouldn't bother with their wiring loom, the commy's are pretty simple to wire up, from the ones i've done.

Great advice guys! Looks like I can save a bit more than I thought. Years since I last had an auto and had kinda forgotten that the shifter is on a cable - I'm an idiot, was thinking about the shifter not lining up right.

Now I've just gotta start getting parts together (including a commodore) and figure out if I can do this in my garage or if I need to buy a mate some beers.

Just a couple more questions - what's the deal with welding for the cert. Just has to be done well or do I need an approved welder or someone with a particular ticket? Also, what model commodore is best. I swill have to check out turners I guess, but are there any to stay away from or newer is better? Like is a vy compatible? Don't know my holdens sorry, but looks like the engine got better fuel economy and more power as time went on, so considering the money already going into this, if I only need to spend a little more to get the better engine the I will do so.

If I was to do it again I'd look for an early VY if you wanna go ecotech, still the 3.8 before they went 3.6 and lost a little bit of power but got slightly better economy. Have driven both in the VY and VZ and the power difference is quite noticeable.
Most guys seem to stick with the earlier motors though if your gonna go auto because they didn't have any electronics in the tranny until the VR.
All my welding was done by a ticketed welder but the cert guy never asked anything about it. Pretty sure they just check for the quality of the welds, although different cert guys operate in different ways, best to ask the certifier your gonna use about that one.

700's are not a cable, rather a 10mm shaft for the gear linkage but you should be able to mcgyver a cable in if needed but the factory shifter works fine and sits between the seats, just need to cut a hole in the floor to sit it in.

Most people use the earlier motors as they are cheeeeep!!!

NJV6 wrote:700's are not a cable, rather a 10mm shaft for the gear linkage but you should be able to mcgyver a cable in if needed but the factory shifter works fine and sits between the seats, just need to cut a hole in the floor to sit it in.

Most people use the earlier motors as they are cheeeeep!!!

correct!
i used commy shifter but had to lengthen it to get 1th gear, no biggy.
go vp or vn, cheap and easy to get bits for and very little electrical crap

Trouble with the older ones is the majority seem to have done upwards of 300k and I don't want to have it straight back out cos it's done it's dash. Also kinda interested in the extra power and better economy of the ecotecs. As far as electronic voodoo, so long as someone has tried it before I think I can work my way through that (I'm an electronic and software engineer, so I should be able to). Just making sure that mechanically it's ok to use the later models as a donor.

As for the older models being cheaper - I have to consider that there is a lot of time and money involved installing whatever, so for a few hundred extra, I might as well do it right first time and be stoked with it

I guess though I can factor in the $300 or so though for the marks4wd shifter kit if I go newer, as I'm probably not going to come in a whole heap cheaper by the time I've jimmied up a throttle position sensor and some tronics to keep the auto happy.

Hopefully checking out a couple of commodores that are on life support in the hopes of harvesting a VS ecotec V6 and 4L60e gearbox from what I can tell. Seems like this is about as good as the V6 got - older and it's lower power and more thirsty, younger and there's not really anything to be gained. Still haven't worked out what the deal is with the security encoding thing of the ecu. I figure either I can detach whatever it talks to from the donor car with a bit of a hack, or I'll end up getting the BCM sim from marks4wd.

Any chance of a real brief rundown of what's involved in replacing the output shaft of the 4L60? A mate who is going to use this trans behind a 350 gave me a pdf of the manual for it (120 pages worth!), so I'll have a look through that, but thought it would be good to have a bit of an overview so I knew where to start. Any bearings or anything worth replacing while I've got it out?

With pictures no less! Thanks. Just realized I have a spare transfer case on the gearbox I swapped out. Might take a look tomorrow and see if I can find a bearing kit for it and see if I can give it a bit of an overhaul ready to bolt it on once I have the engine etc

I've slowed in progress here - have got a mates old daimler as a daily driver, to keep it regular while he gets the 350 ready for it haha. It has a few quirks but will keep me running for a few weeks while I get things sorted on the ute.

Not suggesting anyone impact tests their winch bar, but if you know of a written off vs commodore hanging around (preferably akl area, but willing to look at a transporter if its worth it), I'm looking for a donor for engine and gearbox. I figure wrecks are going fairly cheap, so at least this way I start out with an engine that I have at least seen running with my own eyes. That way if it doesn't run in the ute, I at least won't be looking for an unknown missing part.

So meanwhile I'll be finishing off some work on the house to clear more space in the garage. That and I'm thinking I'll try and find some surf rotors and calipers in the hopes of a bit smoother braking. I'm thinking I can try with the current engine and gauge the best master cylinder bore for the new engine. I guess I might have to swap the master cylinder anyway if the vacuum is different on the v6?