My Official OM617 Toyota Pickup Repower Thread

[OM617YOTA]

Howdy folks.

My title pretty much sums it up. I've swapped an OM617 into a 1990 Toyota pickup. This thread is where I'll post what I've done to date, current updates, photos, answer questions, etc. Hopefully help someone else along the way!

I bought the truck as a basket case, with the infamous 3.0 V6 in "rebuilt" condition in the bed of the truck. After many trials and tribulations above and beyond a simple motor install, I got it done. It ran beautifully for about 30 seconds before throwing a rod. Last time I ever trust someone else's engine rebuild.

It was diesel time.

[OM617YOTA]

The conversion kit I chose is from 4x4 Labs. Pretty standard adapter plate. This kit uses the Toyota V6 flywheel that's been redrilled to bolt to the OM617 crank and balanced to match. This allows the stock Toyota clutch and starter to be reused. It also has an adapter bushing to space the flywheel out for proper engagement with the clutch, starter, etc and also hold the stock Toyota pilot bearing. Lastly, a bag of hardware.

I would buy a different kit if I had it to do over again. The above mentioned adapter bushing is made out of aluminum instead of steel. The dude at 4x4 Labs claims to have several kits running around with many many thousands of miles on them and no issues. He's probably right. I still don't like it. The flywheel bolts included in the kit are also a joke. Hex head bolts were included, instead of socket head. The hex heads were so large that they interfered with each other and could not be tightened properly. The advice given was to arrange the flats and points in such a way that they could be tightened - which would make attaining torque specs impossible. I threw them out and bought cap screws to the tune of $70.

Onward! Chopped off the old motor mounts, fabbed up new ones, welded them in place. I'll see what pics I have of these steps. If you've seen a grinder used and a welder used, you've seen what I did.

I had to make a choice. The V6 powered trucks have the engine fairly far forward, a V6 is shorter than an inline 4 cylinder. My options were to move the transmission and transfer case back and have new driveshafts fabbed up, move the radiator forward, or move the radiator somewhere else. Only other place to put the radiator was the bed. I wanted a truck for a reason, I haul crap, taking up valuable space in an already small bed wasn't an option. While hindsight is 20/20, moving the transmission and transfer case back and fabbing new driveshafts sure seemed like a LOT of work at the time. I chose to move the radiator forward, and built an extension out the front of the truck that looks a bit like a big brush guard to hold the radiator.

This turned out to be fortuitous, as the exhaust was best routed around the back of the motor and down the driver's side. Toyota ran the exhaust down the driver's side of their V6 powered trucks and the brake lights and wiring down the passenger side. The engine being fairly far forward gave me room to route the exhaust behind the engine. I wrapped it in fiberglass exhaust wrap to keep underhood temps as low as possible.

I used the stock MBZ radiator and oil cooler. The radiator hoses are stock MBZ as well, although the top radiator hose has an inline filler neck spliced into it and the bottom radiator hose was lengthened with a chunk of pipe. I replaced the rubber tubing on the oil cooler lines. Cooling fan is electric, from a junk yard, with an off the shelf variable electric fan controller. In the future I'll add in a manual override switch in the cab and an indicator light that shows when the fan is on. In my limited use so far, it's worked fine, but I think I'll need an upgraded fan in the future.

For fuel, I'm using the stock Toyota in-tank fuel pump, feeding a surge tank in the engine compartment. The stock MBZ lift pump pulls from the surge tank. My plan there is to drop the fuel tank, remove the in-tank pump and run a pickup line all the way to the bottom, and lengthen the fuel return line to the the bottom as well to avoid foaming in the diesel. I'll also bypass the stock gasoline fuel filter. This will be to eliminate an electrical load as well as extra equipment and failure points that aren't needed, and allow the engine to run 100% without electrical power after it's started. As it is, if the lift pump fails........

Gauges! I plumbed in aftermarket oil pressure, EGT, water temp, and boost gauges. Eventually I'd like to hook up to the water temperature and oil pressure gauges in the dash of the pickup, right now aftermarket stand-alone systems were a lot easier and faster. Anyone have any input on getting the tach to work with the diesel?

That's all I feel like typing right now, and probably 10x what anyone feels like reading. Questions, comments, suggestions, throw them at me. I'll get pics up when I can.

P.S. My girlfriend named it Sid, off that whacko kid on Toy Story. Always taking his toys apart and putting them back together in odd combinations.

[Walkenvol]

Didn't happen without pictures.

[t walgamuth]

Sounds fun!

[JB3]

welcome! awesome project!

Make sure to start a thread over on 4btswaps and the like if you haven't already!
I used the 4x4labs kit on my GM adaption, and I was pretty pleased, the aluminum adapter I didn't have a problem with, but my application is probably different than yours as far as end use. I had a few issues with depth, but eventually worked them out

is this a 4x4 trail rig?

also x3 on pics please

[Simpler=Better]

Sounds sweet, where did you get socket head M10x1 bolts?

[charmalu]

Swapping in a 617 in a small pick-up is a challenge for sure. there have been others on the forum from time to time that posted their projects.

Sounds like you had your challenges as well, the end result will be when it all comes together and you are driving down the road and everything works as planned.

Be looking for your pictures for sure.

This reminds me of another member, "Dealwithit" that swapped a 617 into his 92 Mazda extended cab.
He started off with a OM616, then scrapped that idea when he found a OM617 that he finally installed.

83 240D engine swap into mazda b2200


Charlie

[Dan Stokes]

Welcome to the party. I'm building an S-10/OM617 with a M-B 4 speed manual trans for land speed racing - it'll never see the road. So I'm making some different compromises than you've made. You might want to check my thread at "I'm Back - .........." (darn if I can remember the exact title!).

Anyhow, sounds like a fun project. PICS PLEASE!

Dan

[OM617YOTA]

To answer questions:

is this a 4x4 trail rig?

Only partly, mostly as a daily driver for all weather, that I can use to haul stuff and go camping/shooting with. It is stock height w/ reasonable 31x10.50 tires on it. I have no plans to lift it or increase tire size.

Sounds sweet, where did you get socket head M10x1 bolts?

Fastenal.

Pics attached of various stages of the project. Anyone want pics of a specific item, let me know. The "fog lights" on the brush guard are just Harbor Freight junk, used more to let me see where the front of the truck is than for actual illumination. They're not even wired up yet. The bulge in the hood is to clear the valve cover. In the picture where there's just a hole in the hood, I could lay a straight edge across that hole and the timing chain hump on the valve cover would touch the straight edge. The bulge gives clearance.

And lastly, please excuse the mess..........

Edit:

Truck is currently on the road and driveable. I have to pop the hood to shut it off, there's no power brakes, and it leaks water from the water pump gasket. The oil leak miraculously went away? I don't believe in miracles, and will be monitoring this one very closely. The electric cooling fan runs quite a while after the engine is shut off, it's wired to run based on temperature only and with no input from whether the ignition is on or not, and I believe this was partly to blame for my dead battery at the fuel station recently. I have most of the parts to fix these issues on hand, just the time..........

[JB3]

wow, I like your coolant bull bar.

you need to paint teeth on it, like those semi grill inserts

[OM617YOTA]

More photos!

1. Throttle linkage.
2. Glow plug system. Starter solenoid is activated by a toggle switch in the cab. An indicator light in the cab is powered by the solenoid and shows when power is going through the solenoid, not just when the switch inside the cab is flipped. No timer. I flip the switch when I open the door. By the time I've climbed in and gotten my seatbelt on and turned the key, she's fired up just fine.
3. Surge tank for fuel.
4. Starboard hood "latch".
5. Exhaust and exhaust wrap.

[OM617YOTA]

1.Air cleaner, starboard side, where the battery used to sit. Dodge Neon filter that has an inlet that seals tightly on the exhaust pipe I used as an intake. I'm pretty sure that sharp kink is hurting my power pretty bad, she struggles to get to 55mph and seems to lose steam on the top end. What aftermarket air filters are everyone else using? I prefer to stay away from K&N.
2. Another view of the air cleaner. I hose clamped some angle iron pieces in place to keep the air filter from sliding down too far, and drilled holes for a bungee cord to keep the filter from coming off.
3. View as she sits now, partially torn down for water pump replacement.

[Walkenvol]

Get some window screen, remove your air filter, tie wrap the screen over the intake to ensure nothing big gets sucked in and take it for a test drive to verify whether the intake is restricted.

I can't tell from your pictures, but what size is the exhaust as it appears undersized from the picture? Again, this can be tested also to determine if its restricting.

I'm not familiar with a fuel surge tank - what's its purpose?

[JB3]

Re the fuel surge tank. Id also want to eliminate that as a problem as well. Id run the motor off a soda pop bottle of diesel in the engine bay and see what it does, just to eliminate that as a possibility.

The surge tank sounds more complex than just dropping the stock tank and ripping out the fuel pump. Whats the stock fuel pressure spec? the pump could also be acting as a restriction, is it an on demand pump? does it shut off with back pressure? Either way, its worth it to simulate a stock vacuum only diesel fuel system and see if thats related to the power issue

[Simpler=Better]

For the shutoff:
Get some cheapo vac tubing
Go to the pharmacy, buy a 5cc or 10cc syringe (think dropper feeding kittens sized, has a blunt tip)

Connect to the shutoff vac pod on the IP, route into the cabin. BAM, in cab shutoff.

For the intake, I'm pretty sure you can get smooth transitioned silicone piece from eb*y instead of the sharp angle (although that is some nice welding)

Or break the bank and buy a "donut" to make a complex sharp transition that flows smoothly. There are several OEM filters from Fords & GM cars that can be stuck on the end of a pipe easily, I don't remember the numbers offhand but they're around the forums. You can always browse the wall-o-filters at the parts store.




images courtesy of pro-werks.com