MonsterMaxx

Been shifting for so long I'm tired of it. I want an auto. When I do the 'conversion' it'll be w/ an auto trans.

suprathepeg

Sorry man I just can't think of why you would want a Toyota auto behind any engine you put in for its power. Not that the Toy auto is bad, its just designed for soccer moms and such. Actually I would just buy a taco or late model runner with the 3.4 in it rather then do the swap. Once you factor in all the costs and work, it'll be the same and you can have the factory locker, coil front end and a newer truck all around.

Unless you wanna be hard core and start with a cheep heep with no engine and you're gonna SAS, engine and on and on. Then it might make sense. Only time I would consider a 3.4 swap would be if I had an 85 runner with a blown 22re that I wanted to make into something, cause those bodies are so damn sweet.

Bumpin' Yota

honestly the A340H is no different than any other auto....except its easier to make it shift faster and harder and that is with a VB upgrade.

The A340H + 3.slow gets a bad rap since the people driving it dont like winding up the to above 2800rpm (the TC's stall speed) AND why the manual APPEARS to have more power at lower rpms when in realitiy they are virtually withing 5% of each other in power put to the rear tires...

suprathepeg

Oh yea. What you lose with the auto is control of your powerband. Its a combo of that and the weight of the runner that makes for a lot of suck. If I was stuck with a gen2 runner I'd prolly drop a small block or more likely sell it and buy a truck, lol. Thats just me though, its kinda hard to put a bear/moose in the back of a runner without making a mess.

MonsterMaxx

Supra, you need to go drive one of the new trucks/runners w/ auto trans.
Very nice. Doesn't try to out think you, just does what you want.
I'm not interested in the 90s era autos, talking about the new trans w/ the 4.0 or 4.7, though depending on the direction I take with the conversion it may be a 4L60E

As to lower cost to buy new vs update, I don't think so.
Truthfully, I think I can net zero on the project. But even if it costs ten grand, I'm still way ahead.

Bumpin' Yota

HAHAHAHA, very true!! Although I've gotten deer in the back of my 2nd gen without much issue prior to the system. But yeah a 600lb bear or 2000lb moose would be a different story! lol

And yes I am sooooo trying to find a nice cheap 3.slow equipped pickup! My parents dont understand why I want another old truck! lol

CoedNaked

I thought the Manual with the 3.0 got something like 122-125 HP and 150-ish ft-lbs to the rear wheels and the auto got something like 105 HP and 130-140-ish to the rear wheels. And that was why the auto uses much more gas - to the tune of 1-3 MPG or so from what I've heard/read- as it isn't as efficient as the manual & the engine has to work harder, etc.

Also keep in mind the auto DOES have 4.88 gears, the Manual has 4.56's. Mind you the manual does have one more gear, but it doesn't have as tall of a highway gear which if your theory is correct the auto should get outstanding highway mileage but even then I think I'm getting the same mileage driving around town as those auto guys driving on the highway.

Weasy2k

The gearing PLUS the losses of the auto vs 5spd (5-7% more back then) = a gas guzzler on the highway...

the auto has less power to the wheel and has to turn a longer gear ratio...which just doesnt work...Semis are passing me up steep grades (well they used to!) one hill i travel the truck would hit a MAX of 40mph....since my cam swap and some tweaking i can hit a whooping 50mph!

Then there is my s/c tacoma....i dunno what it will hit because i hit the speed governor all the time so at least 170km/hr

suprathepeg

So I've been chasing a cooling problem with this engine that I have fixed, however I'm not happy with the fix and want to eventually do something better. The short if it is that there is some sort of flow or excessive heat at idle problem. I replaced the stock fan clutch and that helped a little, then I drilled 2x1/4" holes in the toyota t-stat and that cures the problem. Smaller holes don't work for some reason, it could be that the engine is still tight and generating more heat then it will once broken in? The only problem with my little fix is that I live in central Canada and the winters here are shall we say cool. Because there is always cooland moving through the system it takes a long time to warm up and make some heat for the driver another side effect is that the truck stays in cold start longer burning more gas. Also cause its in cold start its running ritch making it run cooler so having a properly running thermastat is important.

This led me to look into other toyota tstat and cooling options here is what I've found:
- the 3vze as we know share pretty much the same bottom end as the 3vzfe
(3.0 DOHC in 91 & 92 camrys) and the latter 5vzfe (3.4 DOHC in Tacos and late model runners) I'll refer to thes both as the *FEs*. However the DOHC engines use a slightly different water pump. The only real difference is that the later pump has a port for another cooland line (IDK what for) and the t-stat housing is machines a little larger to take a larger tstat. You can see the pumps are the same in the pic below except for the differences I mentioned. I visually inspected them both and they look like they could be swapped without problem. Had I known this at the begining of the project I would have used the 3.4 one, but more on that later.

3.0 pump manual tranny


3.4 pump manual tranny


-Some have said that the 3.0 has a problem with low oil pressure (~5#) at idle. I did some looking and the 3.4 is the same so that leaves me with one question: do all the 3.4s come with an oil cooler? If so then maybe that would account for some of the vary few complaints. Either way I'm betting all those parts from the 3.4 oil system could easily be swapped over NP.

-Now both the FEs also use a larger t-stat. When I went to the dealership to look at the thermostat options the dealer only stocked 3 one smaller then the one in the 3vze for I imagine 4cyls, the one that is in the 3vze and a larger one that is used in the FEs. the larger t-stat not only has a larger opening but is also longer possibly meaning that the plunger opens more flowing more coolant at temp.

Stock 3.0 tstat.


FEs t-stat, I can't find an internet pic for but its bigger, just believe me, if someone has one please throw it my way and I'll add it to this post.

TRD also makes a high flow t-stat that fits the FEs flowing even more coolant which can be seen here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TRD-S...ayphotohosting

So here is where I am with all of this. Toyota put a serious high density 3 core rad in our 3.0 trucks (I looked and the best larger rad solution I could find was a custom make aluminium one that is right now out of the question) but not their largest best flowing t-stat? This could mean that one of the cooling problems with the 3.0 aside from the crossover is the t-stat? Surely there is no hurt in using a larger t-stat? I'm thinking of getting one of the larger ones from the FEs and machining the outer diameter down so it fits in the smaller housing, before I do that I would like to know how much more the larger t-stat flows. Anyone know the figures for t-stat flow or where I can get those?

Also I'm using my old rad which I had tested a little while ago so maybe that could be an issue also I'm still running the stock exhaust when I do the exhaust the temps will likely go down. Finally an oil cooler might be a good idea as well as it will bring temps down as well.

I want this engine to last a long time and still make good power so I'm gonna try to find and address weaknesses as I find them so dealing with the t-stat might be a good place to start. If I had known there was a larger one on the later engines I would have used the Fes water pump when I builte engine to make running a larger t-stat easier. If your building a 3.0 yourself now this might not be a bad idea as the cost difference is nil and the larger t-stats from the dealer are cheeper then the stock one anyways.

suprathepeg

I did some more comparisons regarding the later t-stat. The outer housing is 4mm (about 3/16) larger in diameter and a good 10mm+ longer. The housing on the later FE water pumps is taller by 9mm, obviously to hold the larger t-stat. I came up with an idea to make the larger t-stat work, basicly machine a ring to fit in the stock housing and hold the larger t-stat. I'm gonna contact toyota canada and see if they can give me stats on how much the two t-stats flow.

mr toytech

the water port on the side of the 3.4 waterpump is for the oil cooler. just so you know. could be useful in your heat problem.

suprathepeg

So here is the question do the 3.0s with optional oil cooler use the same t-stat as the ones without?

MonsterMaxx

I think your head gaskets are on backwards.

suprathepeg

We were really careful not to get it wrong when we put the engine together, we tripple checked cause we knew it could happen. We could have made a mistake but I dont think so.

How could flowing more coolant through the engine fix this problem? With the drilled t-stat it runs steady at 185, once it warms up that is.

I think the engine is getting more air and burning more efficiently and the stock exhaust is holding that extra heat in. And my older rad likely insn't working as hard as it could. What I do know is that the FEs use both a larger t-stat and an oil cooler. They also make about the same power as I'm expecting mine to by among other things flowing more air and burning fuel more effeciently.

MonsterMaxx

If memory serves correctly when this happened to mine, the extra port on the left side head feeds directly into the thermostat. Without this feed the t-stat won't ever get hot coolent and open.

Now, this is a 5 year old memory so take it with a grain of salt.

As I recall, the final way we were able to determine it was FUBAR was to stick a wire up that port hole, when it hit the headgasket we knew it was screwed.
{I had another block sitting here to compare to}

aviator

Winters in mid Can. a little cool?! Hmmmm yeah i'd buy that LOL
Hey sup! There's a thread somewhere here about the oil cooler that was mounted on some 3.0's that came with a towing package. It is a hockey puck thing that sits on the side of the engine behind the motor mount with coolant plumbed through it. there is some interesting info on it there.
If you still have a problem this winter yuo could try the old "nanook of the north" fix ... use a few pieces of wire and tie up a small piece of cardboard over the front of the grill to reduce the air flow a bit. Don't cover the whole thing [or even more then half for that matter]. on my old 87 I covered just half one bitter winter day and I had to pull over about 6 blocks later and rremove the card board, I was over heating! [fresh coolant, t-stat and everything had been put in not 2 mos. previous]
later bro

suprathepeg

Nanook, rofl.

suprathepeg

What port am I going to be probing? the pink one or blue one in this pic?

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c5...g/DSCN1072.jpg

MonsterMaxx

I think it's the pink one, it runs right down to the thermostat.

suprathepeg

Here's something odd. Not all the time but sometimes when I hit the brake the idle drops to about 300rpm for a quick second and comes back up to normal. Could this be related to my cooling problem??