4Runner is getting the TDi treatment

First post here, already been reading up as much as I can on doing a TDi swap for my 4Runner.
For starters:
My truck is a 1985 Toyota 4Runner. Originally equipped with the 22-RE 2.4l inline 4. W56 transmission and gear driven top shift t-case. Original ratio was 4.10 in the 3rds. As it sits now I have installed a 2" OME suspension lift, 10" Billstein 5100 shocks, 5.29's in the 3rds and a rear ARB locker with a Warn m8000 winch on the front. I'm running 255-85 r16 Interco Trxxus MT tires, which I absolutely love, especially in the snow! I've added a roof rack and some lights. I've built both F & R bumpers as well as sliders. The truck is pretty well setup to go where ever I want to... well mostly. Which is what brings me here. I have always liked the 22-RE. Super reliable and the only time it left me "stranded" was when the timing chain broke in front of my barn. And that was mostly my fault. However, as much as I love the little motor that could the limitations of it were always apparent. My house sits at 7,000ft here in CO. Which means just walking out my door and starting the truck up I'm already down 21% on power. The rebuild I did helped that and adding the 5.29's helped out a bunch as well but it still mean always slow and always 3rd gear revving it up the mtn passes. And since my truck isn't my DD usually when it would get driven we were headed to the mtns. I've always loved diesels, and for years I've toyed with the idea of putting a mercedes 617 into my truck. However the relatively low power output and weight of the engine kept me from pulling the trigger. Then recently I was speaking with a friend who also owns an 85 pickup and he was telling me about the VW swap. And well some more talking and further reading and well now the 22-RE is sold and I'll be picking up an '02 ALH here in a week or so.

Ok so now that I've rambled on for a bit let's start talking shop. As I mentioned I will be picking up an ALH from an '02 Jetta within a week or two. Killer part about this is the guy is parting out a wrecked car and is willing to give me everything I need for one very reasonable price. So In order to take him up on this offer I need to have everything listed out of what I need. So what I know I need:

Motor, ECU, OBD port, Cluster, Ignition. Some reading also suggests there are some relays I need, as well as clutch and brake switches.

Breaking it down motor with ECU obviously along with associated wiring harness. Any special concerns here?

OBD port shouldn't be any prob to have and will enjoy having the diagnostic capability.

Cluster, how important is this considering I am planning on integrating all functionality into my stock toyota dash?

Ignition, as I understand this is important due to the immobilizer. Eventually I plan on deleting the immobilizer is there any need for the ign past this? Any recommendations on where to send the ECU to have the immobilizer disabled?

I've seen mention of some relays but haven't found any specifics yet. Which ones will be most important to grab?

Clutch and brake safety switches, how difficult will these be to bypass? I don't have either now and really don't want either.

Last thing I know I need is the accelerator pedal. Any further input would be greatly appreciated.

Some other quick questions, I know this post is getting pretty long,
Who has used ACME adapters to mate their TDi to another transmission? How was the fit and finish?

What are some of the common failures on these motors? Anything to address when the motor is outside of the truck?

I've heard that tuning these motors can yield some good power numbers how realistic is it to get 200hp/350ft/lb?

Thanks in advance!

Jimbotes explanation of aligning the bellhousing to the adapter plate: Link

Always nice to see another Toyota swap. You won't need the cluster or ignition, just tune that out from the start. I'd just grab all the relays you can, especially the glow plug relay (with base), 109 relay and coolant glow plug relays (under the hood) as those are the essential ones. I am using a total of 6 relays, but it can as little as 2 if you are going for bare bones. You don't need the 2 coolant glow plug relays and I added a fuel pump relay and a relay to toggle the 2 brake signals. If your 4Runner has cruise you can just tap into the stock brake light switch (4 wire), some people don't even wire in the brake/clutch switches, you need them if you want cruise control and they are supposed to help with slow-down shudder but the guys that don't hook them up says they make no difference.
If you have a junkyard close by, I'd grab some relay bases and fuse holders from an older generation VW. They click together and make a nice clean install.
Don't forget the MAP sensor, MAF and N75. Basically everything connected to the under hood ECU wiring harness. The accelerator pedal is easy, I thought is was going to be tougher than it was because its a tight fit up in there with the parking brake. You will have to reconfigure the pedal itself to get it in the right spot once you mount it, there are a few ways to accomplish this, all pretty strait forward

The ALH is a pretty simple motor to get running. You'll need these parts (besides the engine) to have a basic but bullet proof setup.

- Engine Control Unit (ECU).
- Large connector ECU Harness, has multicolored plugs to rain tray plenum.
- Small connector ECU Harness has the majority of the connections to the engine.
- Accelerator Pedal connector with at least 10 cm of wire.
- MAP Sensor
- OBD Port
- N75 Valve aka turbo control valve (white top and black body)

I re-manufacture wire harness for use in conversions like you are doing. There are quite a few things you can eliminate from the system to make a simple and bullet proof installation.

Relays
I use all new relays with built in fuses. If you go without cruise control there are two relays used, one as the power supply and one for the glow plugs. We do a slight change in the software for the ALH ECU so that can use a common "30-85-86-87" relay. Volkswagen's power supply relay AKA "109" relay is prone to failure too. So replacing these with new relays that are available just about anywhere is quite an advantage. If you choose to use cruise control there is a third relay used to facilitate both brake circuits changing state at the same time as well you will need a working Vehicle Speed Sensor.

EGR / MAF / Coolant Glow Plug Delete / Anti-Shudder Valve
The EGR system is generally seen as a good way to plug your intake manifold, so a lot of people remove this. If you live in a cold climate this sometimes isn't a good idea to do as the engine will not warm as quickly. If you choose to keep EGR you need to retain the N18 valve (black top and body).

The MAF can be removed opening up your options for what air filer box you want to use. MAF is used to limit smoke, however on my Ranger with Stage 4 chip tuning the only smoke I have is a brief puff when I floor it - which is perfectly acceptable in my books as I am not a fan of "rolling coal".

The coolant glow plugs can also be removed. In a lot of cases it is necessary to replace the output flange of the cylinder head with one from an Automatic which does have coolant glow plugs as the fire will will pose an interference issue. Again if you are in a cold climate you may wish to reconsider this and this will add two relays to the system.

The Anti-Shudder valve in the intake manifold can also be removed.

All of these deletes, with the exception of the MAF, will require a small change in the ECU software to make it so there is no error code thrown. MAF Delete requires a full remap of the ECU which can optionally give you a performance gain too.

Thanks for the responses!
Regarding deletes and mods. My plan to begin with is to bolt the engine into the truck, hook up the transmission and get it running as factory as possible. This gives me a baseline and ensures I have a good running motor. I was already thinking along these lines and then I read another swap log and the guy (sorry don't remember who at this point) talks about doing it this way before doing any modding, and this approach made the most sense to me. At this point I can use the software as well as my own electrical diagnostic equipment to check everything out and fix anything that might need attention. Then going forward it will be much easier to troubleshoot if (when) something goes wrong. It won't be clean at this point probably wires everywhere but that's ok as this is just for proof that everything is working.
After that then I can look at what can and should go.

In the end I plan on doing a fairly bare bones setup but things that would affect it's cold weather performance will most likely need to be kept. I live in CO at 7k feet and the past few winters have seen some long and cold stretches.

Hasenwerk I really like the idea of using standard off the shelf relays. The MAF delete also sounds appealing as well. I'd like to retain the stock airbox if possible.
Thanks for the advice so far. Now it's back to reading!

As for the cold weather performance.

Dynamic EGR
This is a tuning feature that you should look into. It is "full on" EGR when the engine is cold and as it warms up to operating temperature it turns off, so best of both worlds.

Coolant Glow Plugs
If you can retain the coolant glow plus is dependent on fire wall interference. On my Volkswagen TriStar the fuel tank is in the way so I had to install the automatic ALH flange. On 2WD Vanagon conversions I did, I noticed that no matter what you did in the back, the water got cold by the time it made it to the front of a Vanagon, so I took a chunk of pipe and installed it right before the cabin heater and put the three glow plugs in that. So technically speaking you would be able to do that approach on you conversion as well if there isn't enough space for the OE setup.

Dynamic Idle
This where the idle is raised when the coolant is cold and lowered to normal when it is warm. I do not recommend this at all unless you are going to idle it every time until it's warm or have the "normal" idle temperature set to something like -10C. The issue is that it will ALWAYS idle at that speed, even when you start driving, which then cancels out delicate parking lot driving. Unless you have a really good reason to get this feature added, don't!

Oh yeah, picked up the motor yesterday!



Unfortunately I threw out my back over the weekend replacing a wheel bearing in my sisters subaru. So for now I'll just have to be patient... and stare.

Hasenwerk thanks again for the suggestions! On the EGR topic I was thinking, how quickly does the ALH warm up on it's own with and without the EGR attached? When you first mentioned it will take longer I was thinking of my truck with the 6BT and how long that takes to warm up. But thinking about it a bit further the ALH and 6BT are nearly apples and oranges. So if you have any idea that would be great. If it is only the matter of a minute or two I don't think I'd worry about it and just delete it from the get go.

KBCB said:

how quickly does the ALH warm up on it's own with and without the EGR attached?

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It would depend on how you drive I guess. Normally dynamic EGR is set to be fully off at 60C coolant temperature. It doesn't take long for my Ranger to hit 60C and I don't have the EGR system installed on mine. I think my "more rapid" heat up is because of the heavy vehicle and the fact that I am 80+ km/h for the first 5km of my commute to work in the morning. If you are slower than that, I would suspect the heat up process will be slower. I remember reading somewhere that the Toyota Prius uses exhaust gases to heat the coolant up faster.

Personally, if it was me I would still skip the EGR valve and make sure that you use actual coolant glow plugs instead. EGR soot plus oil vapors equals intake manifold nutella!

I have no EGR on my ALH wagon, and I notice no issues with warm up. Good riddance to all the EGR crap as far as I'm concerned.

Hasenwerk said:

EGR soot plus oil vapors equals intake manifold nutella!

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LOL

I think this is the route I will go. I usually let my cars idle until warm in the winter anyways, so I don't foresee any problems.

KBCB said:

LOL

I think this is the route I will go. I usually let my cars idle until warm in the winter anyways, so I don't foresee any problems.

Click to expand...

You'll wear it out before it warms up. These motors make very little heat and you will need to drive it nicely to get it up to temperature.

After cleaning an intake manifold on a car with the egr in place I would say that you should ditch that thing. While I could clean the manifold I couldn't figure out a good way to clean the ports in the head and they were clogging up as well. The egr system on the alh is a bad design.

Jaysin

Well if I wasn't convinced to delete the EGR before...



Well now looks like I'll be pulling the intake and trying to clean out as much of this crud as I can get.

I'll be inspecting my intake this spring when I replace my weeping EGR valve. I cleaned it 80k miles ago when I first got it, and I disabled the EGR shortly after. I don't buy the claim the new ULSD won't clog intakes, it seems like every ALH made has done this.

Quick question for those in the know...

I started looking online for the VAGCOM software with the OBDII to USB dongle, are there any brands that are better than others? Or are they all pretty much the same and just grab the cheapest option?

Also started looking around for the factory service manual, any recommendations here? The donor engine came from a 2002 Jetta.

Thanks!

Well it's been a while since I've logged in. Unfortunately this project has been shelved. I wound up moving to take a job and I no longer have a shop to tackle this project. I'd like to say thanks to everyone who helped. Maybe in the future I'll be able to revisit this project. If anyone is interested I am going to sell the motor with everything I pulled from the donor car included.

Sell the vw stuff and put a cummins 4bt in it. That can be done in a weekend in a parking lot.

I love the 6BT in my Dodge, but not for the 4R. I would have way to many things to change out. I'm just going to throw a stock motor back in and continue to enjoy the reliable little mule.

Holy thread revival!
Well quite a bit has changed in the year since my last post.
I never wound up selling the TDi I only had a few bites, and nothing that convinced me to sell. So fast forward a year and 2 moves and now I've got a place with a shop! So the build is going to happen!
I ordered an ACME adapter couple weeks ago.
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I bolted it up to the back of the block. The instructions said that a couple holes would need to be expanded to 7/16" However the only thing I had to do was pull out the two lower bolt collars with some heat and a pair of vice grips and it bolted up, tight but went together.
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Next thing was to clearance the cover.
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I then pulled off the front case of the transmission, so that I could start looking at the alignment between the transmission input and the pilot bushing. Got everything bolted up. Unfortunately since photobucket decided to pull it's hotlinking any of the threads out there that show how this is done no longer have the images to help out. If anyone can provide a guide or a thread post I'd appreciate it!
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Last thing for the evening was to bolt the starter up and see how bad the clearances were...

No bueno. I don't think two pieces of paper would slide between the stud and the starter housing, never mind any down pipe. So time to do some reading and see what I can find out there for good replacement candidates.

I'm doing a similar swap using a W58 Toyota trans. I just cut a little off the stud to get better clearance. To fix the down pipe issue I'm putting a mandrel 45 with a V band clamp right off the turbo flange. That way I can remove the down pipe with out unbolting the turbo flange. I'll post a pic in my built log when My piping comes in and I get it all welded up.

On the starter - I would consider using a 3kw cold weather option Tacoma starter and adding a tab to the bellhousing to accommodate it (one hole already will fit). Being in CO I would think you would want at least equal cranking power to the original ALH starter and this will provide that. It also clocks the starter away from the block and turbo. Even with this you may still be cooking the starter if staying with the stock integrated turbo and exhaust manifold.

As for dial indicating bellhousing to the crank run-out, I don't have any good pictures of my set-up, but I found the section "Bellhousing alignment" at the following link very helpful: https://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/clutches-etc/ it's a ways down the article.

smelly621 said:

On the starter - I would consider using a 3kw cold weather option Tacoma starter and adding a tab to the bellhousing to accommodate it (one hole already will fit). Being in CO I would think you would want at least equal cranking power to the original ALH starter and this will provide that. It also clocks the starter away from the block and turbo. Even with this you may still be cooking the starter if staying with the stock integrated turbo and exhaust manifold.

As for dial indicating bellhousing to the crank run-out, I don't have any good pictures of my set-up, but I found the section "Bellhousing alignment" at the following link very helpful: https://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/clutches-etc/ it's a ways down the article.

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I was thinking about going that route. Did you mean 2kW? I haven't seen anything for a 3kW.

Thanks for that link! That should point me where I need to go.

Manic- I'd be interested in seeing your setup once you get it done. Since everyone has the same problem, it's always helpful to see how each person solves it.

Sorry - was thinking about the starter coming on the 3rz, but you are correct it's 2 kW.

Just in case you have them both in front of you - I tried to see if I could combine the different parts of the 3rz 2kW starter and a 22RE 1.4 kW to avoid modifying either the bellhousing or the end of the stater body. It was close but did not pan out.

I ended up cutting off the mounting ear on the 3RZ starter that didn't match up with the W56 bell and re-welding it in the correct location. Swapping my customized piece over to a new starter does add a little more work to a starter swap, but I didn't have suitable aluminum stock on hand to add a tab to the bellhousing instead.

smelly621 said:

Sorry - was thinking about the starter coming on the 3rz, but you are correct it's 2 kW.

I ended up cutting off the mounting ear on the 3RZ starter that didn't match up with the W56 bell and re-welding it in the correct location. Swapping my customized piece over to a new starter does add a little more work to a starter swap, but I didn't have suitable aluminum stock on hand to add a tab to the bellhousing instead.

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Thanks for the clarification! Adding a tab to the starter shouldn’t be any big deal. Out of curiosity is the 3RZ starter any smaller than the 22RE?
I also had another question for you I read through your swap thread, (good writeup) and you made mention of using a different exhaust manifold, which one did you use and did you wind up using a different turbo?

The 3rz starter motor itself was almost exactly the same size, which is why I tried to make a hybrid of the two starters starters - but it turns out it's a few mm different in some crucial places. What makes the 3rz starter a better fit is the was it's rotated away and down from the block vs. the 22r starter.

I used an exhaust manifold from a BHW (05ish passat TDI I think?). I used a GTB1749vc turbo originally, and now am running a GTB2056vk. Both required using an adapter plate between the turbo and exhaust manifold that darkside developments sells - or you could also make your own, but the price vs. my time was too good to pass up. The budget option would be the stock BHW manifold and turbo, since it's a slight upgrade over the vnt15 already.

Thanks! I will be keeping an eye out for a used BEW manifold. I'm thinking for now I'll just be going the budget option with the stock turbo.

I used the smaller starters that they sell at car quest, i dont remember the part number. I had to cut a part of the stud off. I have about 7mm of clearance from the downpipe lower stud/nut to the starter