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The '82 Shortbox: 22re swapped with a custom camper
Hello all,
Never been much of a build thread guy but I can tell I'm gonna need some advice on this one. I am new to Toyotas; this is my current rig:
I have always wanted a solid axle, fuel injected toyota but have never wanted a lifted one (aka no SAS), which is why I was on the lookout for a EFI '85. No surprise, they are impossible to find.
When this one came up for sale, I decided I should pull the trigger, even though the price was a bit steep ($7k).
It has a 22re that looks to be from a 93-95 with a W56 A/B and R140F from an '88. The guy who did the swap passed away and I bought it from his buddy who's had it on project status in his shed for a few years.
It currently has a 3" lift, 4.88s, 32s, and an arb in the rear (but missing a compressor). Chassis has 170k and motor/ tranny are unknown mileage. It shifts great but the motor is in need of a tune up, and there are quite a few little things that need to be done.
After dealing with fuel issues I was able to drive it 100miles home.
Here is the engine bay:
Here is my immediate to-do list:
Chase wiring issues(tach, oil pressure, blower motor, charging, ignition)/ fix grounds
Big 3 wire upgrade
Air filter/ battery swap
tune up
put in seat belts
delete or replace emissions stuff
lower to stock height and put on new steering components
pretty up interior
round headlight swap
My long term goal is to get the locker working and build a camping setup like this:
The truck will be a DD and for adventures, wheeling trips, firewood, and hunting.
So far, I have started to get parts to do a air filter/ battery swap and the big 3 wire upgrade. The only hurdle I'm having so far is the carb washer fluid/ coolant resevoirs don't fit with the efi intake. I'm going to try to do something like this thread:
Any advice or input on the build is appreciated! I would love to find out how to ID what year my engine is and also to get input on if I should do the timing chain on it since mileage is unknown.
Hoping to get a ton of work done Thursday and Friday so more pics to come!
Very cool truck! Your Cherokee is pretty sweet as well.
The body looks straight, the paint looks fresh, and those BFGs look brand new. The paint and tires alone could run you $2-3k or more so I don't think you overpaid. Maybe 10-15 years ago that would've been a high price but these days it's about the going rate for these trucks.
It's a little odd that the intake was set up that way instead of the usual routing but there must've been some reason.
Sorry I'm not more help on the timing chain. You have to dig in there a little to find out if it's slack or not and many other things typically get replaced when changing the chain because of this.
Looks like you need wiper arms (possibly wiper linkage?), side mirrors, and a grill. I've got an 82-83 square light grill and side mirrors (need new mirror glass) that I'd sell if you're interested. Just PM me.
Very cool truck! Your Cherokee is pretty sweet as well.
The body looks straight, the paint looks fresh, and those BFGs look brand new. The paint and tires alone could run you $2-3k or more so I don't think you overpaid. Maybe 10-15 years ago that would've been a high price but these days it's about the going rate for these trucks.
It's a little odd that the intake was set up that way instead of the usual routing but there must've been some reason.
Sorry I'm not more help on the timing chain. You have to dig in there a little to find out if it's slack or not and many other things typically get replaced when changing the chain because of this.
Looks like you need wiper arms (possibly wiper linkage?), side mirrors, and a grill. I've got an 82-83 square light grill and side mirrors (need new mirror glass) that I'd sell if you're interested. Just PM me.
Thanks man!
Unfortunately, the tires are dry rotted and bulging and need to be replaced. The intake is funky because whoever did the swap was too lazy to swap in a EFI 84-88 coolant tank/washer fluid tank, so there is no room for it in the normal place. I'm going to fix that.
I have all those exterior parts, just no time to put them on yet, but thanks! Planning on doing a round headlight swap too.
I removed the battery and cleared the wires out of the way for the intake box. I used a stock intake box from a 85-95 pickup and cut off all the mounting brackets so that it would fit nice and low on the old battery tray.
These wires weren't plugged in to anything. I think maybe they are the headlight/ blinker wires from the EFI harness that the PO never cut out...? Who knows...
You can see here how I mounted the stock airbox. A strap going to the body on one end and two bolts going into the OG battery tray on the other. It is super solid.
Here is the intake. I wanted to use this stock hose but it's trashed and doesn't quite line up right. I may mess with it some more or buy a new one from siliconeintakes.com
Next, for the battery tray. This is the area where the washer fluid/ coolant bottles sit on the 82. I removed those and cut off the brackets. I relocated the PS fluid reservoir up and out of the way.
You can also see my new starter cable sticking out there on the left. I lengthened it to about 3x the length of the original and ran it around the back of the engine. I still need to lengthen the rest of the wires and do the same but I don't have the right sized wire right now.
For the battery tray, I welded up this big beefy thing with a bunch of studs in the bottom. I made a metal plate that matches the stud bolt pattern and they sandwich together through the flat section of sheet metal that you can see above.
CAD (Cardboard aided design)
sandwich plate complete
This is where it sits at the end of today. Intake is located, battery is mostly located, I just need to paint everything and make a strap to hold it down. Hopefully it doesn't rip through the sheet metal when I'm bouncing down a road.
I also got my NGK plugs and wires in.
Thinking of using this water bottle as a coolant reservoir. My other option is to cut the stock coolant/washer fluid bottle in half and put one half on each side instead of having them both on one side. Idk if it's worth doing that or if I should just sell the stock one and buy a skinny EFI style washer fluid bottle.
Today I worked on the battery tray and a few other small things.
Here is a much better picture of the battery tray. I wasn't happy with it only mounting in one place on the sheet metal so I made this runner going up to a sturdy bolt hole. I think it's going to be super solid now. Just gotta paint and install, and figure out some kind of tie down for the battery itself.
I mounted that water bottle as my coolant overflow bottle. I am happy with it so far. It fits perfectly and is low profile. I secured it with a hose clamp and some rubber padding. For anyone interested in doing the same thing, this bottle is a wildland fire canteen. If you google "GSA Ranger Canteen" you can find them. With the lid on, the OD is the same as the ID of the stock cap, so it fits pretty well. I just drilled the top of the cap out so that coolant can drip down. I may end up epoxying it on there though, since it will still be able to thread off.
I ordered a bunch of parts-- marlin trans mount, trans/ t case boots, wires, and egr/ AS block off plates. Hoping to get those all on in the next week and a half and get her running!
the prices on older toyotas have just been going up and up. The price you paid doesn't seem half bad.
The first intake was a pretty interesting approach with the PVC fittings, you cleaned it up nicely with the stock parts.
did you get the tach figured out? or 200 rpms at 55 is impressive
Looking forward to seeing how your build progresses
the prices on older toyotas have just been going up and up. The price you paid doesn't seem half bad.
The first intake was a pretty interesting approach with the PVC fittings, you cleaned it up nicely with the stock parts.
did you get the tach figured out? or 200 rpms at 55 is impressive
Looking forward to seeing how your build progresses
Thanks for the reply!
The tach is still not working, lol. I don't actually know how a tach sending unit works; as I've never had to troubleshoot one before. My guess is it's just a wiring issue (this truck has a lot of those...)
My order from siliconeintakes.com came in! Got the intake all plumbed. Hoping to get wiring and battery tray done tomorrow night and thursday! Starting to get pretty excited about this little truck.
Those green wiring connectors are toyota gold for people who like keeping their engine bay looking stock. You can make a couple bucks if you wanted to sell them.
Those green wiring connectors are toyota gold for people who like keeping their engine bay looking stock. You can make a couple bucks if you wanted to sell them.
Really? Good to know. Do you know what they are supposed to go to?
Off the top of my head I dont know. In my 94, the fusebox is right about where those terminate but I dont think the fusebox has that type of connector. All my wires are wrapped up so I cant check wire colors.
but the headlight harness does go down the pass side across the grill to the drivers side lights.
its probably also worth checking that all your engine sensors are wired up since it looks like the PO was a creative guy. You never know what pesky little details he might have worked around.
Off the top of my head I dont know. In my 94, the fusebox is right about where those terminate but I dont think the fusebox has that type of connector. All my wires are wrapped up so I cant check wire colors.
but the headlight harness does go down the pass side across the grill to the drivers side lights.
its probably also worth checking that all your engine sensors are wired up since it looks like the PO was a creative guy. You never know what pesky little details he might have worked around.
haha good point. I'm going to try to get a light hooked up to the CEL wires so that I can run it for codes. I also have a friend with a stock 22re I'm going to try to compare it to. I think the wire to the knock sensor is broken, just by looking at it.
Definitely going to verify that the wires aren't being used before I cut them out.
Blocked off the air injection with the kit from Yota1 Performance which removed my awful exhaust leak. I also removed my AC vsv (no AC) and I think I'm going to remove the fuel pressure VSV and just route the vacum line directly to the FPR. EGR seems to be working for now so I'm going to leave it.
I want to keep the charcoal canister, but it is clogged up, so I have to try and unclog it or get a new one.
Took the interior apart to expose the wiring that I'm going to try to tidy up. Is this the stock location for the fuse box? Anybody have pics of that?
None of my gauges work right now so I need to figure out what's wrong with those.
I am also missing the ducting that goes from the heater box to the far side vents. Anyone have pictures of that?
Also, the blower motor doesn't work. SO much to do.
My dad did some black magic to my rear window (I think it involved muratic acid) and cleaned it up really well.
My next big project is to get the fuel system all sorted out. The PO had two fuel filters-- the stock 22re one and one before the electric pump. I'm going to remove the stock one and just keep the one before the pump. I also need to mount the pump to the frame rail-- it is currently held on by bailing wire, and I need to figure out what's wrong with my fuel gauge.
Any pics of the stock fusebox location or the stock HVAC system would be greatly appreciated!
As far as I know, there's two fuse blocks in the older trucks. One IN the engine compartment, with the heavier amperage rated fuses and fusible links, and the one inside the passenger compartment, under the driver's side kick panel, that has the individual circuit fuses. Things like the radio, tail lights, etc etc.
The one in the engine compartment also has the block of test points on it's outside, as can be seen in Swampedout's picture. The little rectangular block to the right of the main fuse box.
I have limited experience but my 1980 has the 20r and only a fuse box in the cab. They may have switched it up with the 22r by 82. Im not fortunate enough to know...
After a lot of digging into the wiring, it looks like the stock 22r fuse box is under the driver side inside like you guys said. It also has a 3-fuse box that attaches directly to the battery + terminal with an 80a, 30a, and a 40a fuse for the alternator and starter etc.
Tore the whole dash out to get to the bottom of the wiring issues...
I think all those mystery connectors are the leftovers from the carbed 22r smog electronics. I found this computer and I think they're connected. I will know more once I get the loom fully disassembled.
On another note-- what do you guys think of the steering wheel? Keep it or replace with a stock one?
Cut the wires off of that carbed emissions box and am slowly deleting all the unused wiring. If anyone needs 82 california carbed electronics let me know.
Got a few other small things done:
New belts
New shifter boots- Installing these seems impossible at first but you just have to lube them up and slide them over the stick.
I also almost finished mounting the electric fuel pump in a better location (PO had it on there with baling wire).
Got my marlin trans mount and the hardware to make the MarMount motor mounts so I'm excited to get that done soon!
Hoping to get all this wiring wrapped up here in the next few weeks and start putting some miles on her soon!
05-11-2021, 06:31 PM
