Taco Blanco Rides Again - ALH into 4x4 Toyota Tacoma

I will try not to write a novel about this swap because I know you really just want pictures.
First though, crucial thanks:
Jimbote – Without the junk man and his very detailed thread showing off his very clean swap I would not have done this. He also made my standalone wiring harness out of the donor harness, answered tons of random questions over the phone, and loaned me the jig to get my adapter plate centred. Super guy.
My buddy Joel – he came to my rescue when I was pulling the donor motor and had it on a huge hoist stuck in a mud pit. I was supposed to be helping him build a workbench frame – and had to call and tell him I was going to be late. He came and helped me push.
Franko6 – Just like Jimmy, Frank is a great guy who really knows what he’s doing when it comes to VW diesels. I had dealt with Frank before, so there was no question about who would do the head for this project. I always trust Franks work and advice. I would send him entire engine blocks for prep if the shipping wouldn’t make it way too expensive.
Digital Corpus – His build thread has so much detail, discussion, and pictures – and it’s still going on. Check it out, I promise you will learn something.
Every other swapper and intelligent contributor on TDI club who has made a thread – I think I read almost all of the non-VW swaps and learned something or took an idea from each one. I have also been schooled via threads and comments from the likes of Fix_until_broke, Mr. Chill, Diesel Deux, Oldpoopie, AndyBees, RobNitro and so many more. This place is special.
The great vendors that support TDI Club! – When you put this much time into a project you better not use crap that will have you doing it twice. BoraParts, IDParts, Darkside, and A.A. Rodriguez supplied pretty much any new VW parts that were used in this build – and they all did it while providing good customer service and great prices for quality parts.
On to the show!
The donor situation:

It was a big puddle:

After clearing all the seats, hoods, and spare tires out of the way – I still had to contend with the hoist sinking into the mud and gravel every few feet. I tried to pay people for help. No takers.

Got it home, took it apart, sent the head off for a refresh and stiffer valve springs, cleaned it up, measured the bores and crank clearances, new main bearings, seals and bolts, BRM rods w/ sputter bearings, PD130 pistons from a BLS or something or other from the UK, Matching oil sprayers for the pistons. I could post more pictures of this part but really they didn’t turn out as good as Digital Corpus’ – just read his thread and you’ll get it.
Some general engine building tips/tricks/takeaways would be: A wooden handle between the crank and block is the easiest way to counter hold the crank while removing or installing the crank sprocket bolt. A parts washer with real solvent in it is SOOOOOO much better than a bucket on the ground with water based cleaner (I picked up a used one half way through the project and pimped it out with a fuel cell to hold 10 gallons of solvent, fuel pump to move it, and an oil filter to keep it clean). Plastigauge is fun – use it and you’ll sleep better knowing everything in your motor is fitting as it should! Print out the applicable FSM pages if you only have a pdf version – it is much easier than covering your laptop in crud /dealing with its battery dying after a few hours in the garage. Finally – make sure you have a good selection of quality metric taps, I only recently invested in a comprehensive set from Irwin and I found myself using it all over the place to fix threads in cast aluminium or clean rust/gunk out of steel threads.

I then used the front half of a W56 transmission case that Jimbote lent me and a w56 bell housing I picked up off ebay and spent probably 8 hours getting it aligned with my acme adapters plate so the input shaft would be acceptably aligned with the crank centreline. I installed and un-installed the plate, flywheel, bell housing and dial indicator set-up what felt like 100 times before all was said and done. My original attempt at marking the plate through the original Toyota bell housing alignment pin holes, and then drilling of the plate didn’t work, partly probably due to the tolerances of my drill press, and probably in large part due to my limited abilities as a machinist. I ended up finding a solution that allowed me to weld a pin to the plate while the bell-housing was bolted up and perfectly centred, much like Jimbote described in his post.

Once I had the plate/bell alignment sorted I continued the engine assembly, which included researching numerous miscellaneous details on the forums and ordering one “last” o-ring or seal about 500 times. It’s hard to anticipate all the little bits and pieces that you might need during a project such as this. Also, this being my first time so deep into an engine – I felt that I had to continually double check my order of operations so as to not end up installing the crank twice (and burning a set of main bolts), or something of that nature. I chipped away at it putting in a few hours after work most evenings where I could.

The week prior to ‘merican Thanksgiving I was close to being able to test run the engine. So I spent nearly every free moment getting my ducks in a row and rounding out the engine build. Somewhere in there I also got out the wiring harness Jimbote had prepared for me, an old computer power supply, and my laptop to confirm that everything made sense there. Once I turned the immobilizer off, I had success talking to the ECU via VCDS. Other than a few fault codes the ECU seemed blissfully unaware that it was splayed out on my welding table.



I have more pictures of the final assembly, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. If there’s something specific you’re wondering about just ask.
With some luck I was able to get the engine off the stand, on the hoist, and hooked up to some temporary intake/charge piping. I also set up some temporary coolant hoses to and from a radiator with a fan blowing on it, and supplied a fuel filter with gas from a jerry can. After much cranking, fussing with wiring, bleeding of fuel, melting of one pair of jumper cables (at which point I thought my freshly built motor had caught fire), and knocking over the jerry can full of diesel, the thing came to life two days before thanksgiving!
http://vid1367.photobucket.com/albums/r798/smelly621/Mobile Uploads/MOV_0616_zps2kb7b6k4.mp4
The driveway would have been a better choice for a test run, as the 15 minute cam break-in run made the garage stink for days, and fouled the air inside the attached house enough that I had to open up the windows and turn on a fan for the rest of the afternoon. Nevertheless, I was excited that there didn’t seem to be any massive leaks from the front or rear main seals – and the swap was then ON!

Next up was pulling the 3RZ from the Tacoma – which I got done in a long afternoon.

I ended up cutting the upper core support to make life easier with the multiple times I anticipated needing to test fit and remove an engine, since it was going to be sketchy with my baby engine hoist to get it over the top. This also allowed me to keep the hood installed during the whole shebang.
The motor mounts I used were a combination of the universal mounts from EVguy here on the forums for the ALH side of things, and some universal frame side mounts and isolators from Advance Adapters. For the ALH, these motor mounts bolt to the most ideal locations on the block – and did not require any modifications to the accessory bracket and let me keep the AC compressor in place. I did have to enlarge a few of the mounting holes on the plates, as well as tweak the coolant hard pipe that passes by the oil filter housing. I just placed a piece of metal rod inside the pipe and bent it to the side enough to be able to access the upper mounting hole. On the frame side of things, I spent some quality time with a cutting wheel sitting in the engine compartment and removed the Toyota frame side mounts.

Much hemming, hawing, prying and rocking followed and I eventually had the transmission and engine mated and suspended at the angle and location I wanted them. I then was able to get all my mount pieces positioned and tacked in place. I then pulled the motor again to do the final welding and hit everything with a coat of paint. Soon after I had the clutch installed, my custom notched oil pan got its final install (that was such a pain in the ass), and the motor was dropped onto the mounts. I was thrilled to be back down to only two engines in the garage instead of three. It was getting too cozy. Not pictured is the notch I took out of the shifter hole to accommodate the simple 1/4” plate steel bracket I made to move the transmission mount forward 2.5”. I cut the notch with some tin snips to avoid getting grinder dust and sparks all over the interior.

Moving right along, there was still much to do if I was going to make my deadline of having the truck ready to take me and my special lady friend to the eastern Sierra and back for the Christmas through New Year’s holiday. Departure was set for Christmas day, and I was going to need a Christmas miracle to have Taco Blanco roadworthy for such a journey.
I started slacking on the pictures at this point, but much of it was fairly boring details that sucked up more time than they should. Wiring, more wiring, and then some more wiring, fuel tank wrestling and pump removal, spilling of gasoline all over myself, coolant hose creativity, making a downpipe, throttle pedal install etc. You get the idea. Spoiler alert: I’ve put over a thousand miles on the swap and I still have more wiring to do before I would consider it done.



I went with an inline low PSI lift pump. I removed the in-tank pump and replaced it with a piece of PTFE stiff line going to the bottom of the tank. Charge air pipes were routed to allow fitting a larger intercooler in the near future, but still work with the hilariously small one I somehow ended up with. The width is fine, but I think I could fit double the height. That’s what she said? I need to get some pictures up of how the charge piping runs and the tiny intercooler – stay tuned.
The drive shafts were re-installed after I had a local shop lengthen the rear and shorten the front. Have to give a plug for Driveline Service of Santa Rosa – they did a wonderful job, and charged less than I was expecting. If you live in the North Bay and need any driveline work I can’t recommend them enough. Lightning quick turnaround too.

Finally, a week before Christmas the fluids were filled, and the power steering reservoir was zip-tied from a battery cable with care. As the neighbours unloaded their groceries I turned the key so all could hear, the sweet roar of eight tiny reindeer. Oh, wait, I mean eight tiny valves. I also need to grab a video of it running for y’all. But I promise it’s moved.

I had some trouble at first getting the air to purge from the cooling system that limited how long I was comfortable letting it run (temps via VCDS would climb to 110C and show no sign of stopping). After having no success jacking the front end up and letting it run without a radiator cap I got wise and carefully pulled the heater core hose off while it was hot with a pair of channel locks and slowly burped out a huge steam bubble. Afterword, the system seemed to work as it should and burped any remaining steam out of the overflow tank, and toped itself off via the tank over the next few heat cycles. Still – I watch the temp on my phone via my Bluetooth ODBII dongle and the torque app any time I drive it. It seems that it may run a little warmer than it would in an A4 chassis – 75mph on the freeway it will sit at 92-95C, in 4wd slowly (<5mph for about a mile) going up a steep dirt road I saw it rocket up to 105C. The thermostat is an OEM 87C unit. I don’t know if this is normal and have wanted to ask Jimbote or someone like AndyBees - what do you see for coolant temps under heavy load when an ALH is pushing a 4000lb brick around?

Perhaps of more interest to a future swapper is that I am using a set of stock electric fans from the donor Jetta which fit on the Tacoma radiator like a dream. I am running them with a flex-a-lite fan controller, and still need to play with the fan temperature setting. At normal warm idle they will start to kick on low speed for a few seconds every couple of minutes, but they then quickly turn off. I don’t think this is the ideal set point and need to read up on how they should behave.

Anyhow, I spent a week driving the truck around town on short errands trying to get bugs worked out and get some sort of confidence built up before venturing into the middle of nowhere in the winter. I made sure to get my G12/distilled water mix as close to ideal as possible to prevent freezing, as well as boil over since I would be pulling several 7000 ft. passes, and facing overnight lows in the teens and low twenties.

I had an exhaust shop finish up the exhaust I had started for the sake of time. I was a little bummed that their welds were just as ugly as mine, but they easily went 4X as fast. The whole thing is 2.5”, one resonator from vibrant, and a large aero turbine XL muffler, and it follows the same path as the stock Tacoma system.

I fiddled with the tune a bit but I know it’s far from ideal. I had to use a “push” style actuator for clearance issues, and the mounting set-up I came up with doesn’t allow for the normal range of rod movement. The lever arm starts moving ~3 in Hg, and hits the stop by 12-15 in Hg, which I think may be sooner than most recommend. This should result in it tending to boost spike, over shoot,etc. so I made my N75 map very conservative, and also tried to adjust what I think are my P and I maps for the N75 PID control accordingly. The overall results were livable for the inaugural road trip but far from ideal. Despite my boost target map going up to ~25psi I only seem to be able to hit ~18 when launching it hard – and then it settles to 15psi even when I’ve got my foot in it going up steep grades at highway speeds. I need to do some logs – but I also need to figure out how to extend the VCDS reporting limits up to 3 bar – so I can start to understand what’s going on. Perhaps once I’ve sold off some of the extra parts I have acquired I will consider throwing down on a tune from a professional – however my past experiences with some of the big names have left me less than impressed for the money they’re charging. If TDTuning wanted to sponsor my truck I have plenty of sticker space on my camper shell available for them…. 

To wrap this long story up, we took the truck on a 1.5hr each way drive to see family in the area on Christmas Eve and other than discovering that I had completely forgotten about enlarging the fuel filler neck (and taking 30 minutes to fill the tank) and the trip was uneventful. So – the next morning I packed up a ridiculous amount of tools in a 5 gallon bucket, and grabbed all sorts of spare pieces, parts, and duct tape to make emergency “adjustments”, and we set off on a 375 mile drive over the Sierra and into some desolate stretches of highway 395. Other than popping an intercooler hose off on the first big hill (which was corrected by making the hose clamp more than hand tight) the journey was a success. We stayed with some friends who live at 6000ft. and starting in the cold mornings was effortless. Charging up grades the EGTs did run a little high (I got scared at 1400F, so I would back off), and considerable idle time was required to bring them down before shutoff. It’s possible that fuelling could be reduced (saw some smoke at higher throttle positions), boost could probably be increased (although at altitude this may not be as helpful as I have the atmospheric pressure correction map pulling boost back some), and my intercooler could be much larger (need to log IATs but I can watch them climb and climb via Torque during long pulls). A wind faring for my gigantic camper shell wouldn’t hurt things either. Due to the aforementioned filler neck issue I cannot yet report mileage accurately, however I can say on the last tank which included ~100 miles of around town driving, and the rest 70-75mph highway driving over the Sierra and home via I-80 and hwy 50, I made it 486 miles before being on empty, where as in the past 5 years the best I have gotten out of a tank with similar driving on the 3RZ has been 360 miles.
In no particular order, some remaining swap-related loose ends I would like to wrap up (though the truck has been and will always be a work in progress in other regards) are:
-The cone intake I have on there now is very loud under certain conditions which I don’t care for. I wish I would have gone straight to some closed filter box w/ resonator somewhere in there. I may see if I can somehow adapt some of the 3RZ intake components to quiet things down
-Get the tune/turbo control rock solid so I can drive with a heavy foot and worry less
-Bigger intercooler
-Clean up some under-hood wiring (need to order some larger corrugated wire loom and do some more zip-tieing of things out of the way)
-Add some sound deadening to the underside of the hood which I think is acting like a huge floppy drum (mine is completely unlined), rubberized undercoating for the front wheel well areas, and better seal/insulate the shift boot area
-Modify the fuel filler neck so I can fill at a normal speed and fit the nozzle in there
-Finish some dash wiring including: temp sensor, glow plug light, 2 position relays to make CEL and oil pressure lights work correctly, figure out why my battery light is faintly on at idle despite being plugged into alternator (and alternator is charging the battery @ 14.4V), cruise control eventually, figure out how to correctly integrate the brake and clutch switches with the Toyota switches (right now none of them are connected)
-See if a shop can make me some custom AC lines to route to the ALH compressor, then draw down and re-fill the system appropriately.
Anyways – I hope I didn’t bore you, and if there’s something specific you have a question about I’m happy to regurgitate what I have gleaned from others on here. I can take pictures of anything on the truck if you’ve got a specific request, or dig through the others on my phone that didn’t get posted from the in-process pics if you’re struggling with how something works.

Subscribing!
Got any more pictures of your mounts bolted up to the engine? I've been looking for someone to use EVguy's mounts on an ALH without re-configuring any of the accessory drive.
Very nice build.

Nice! Good to see another ALH swap...
And I see you have the Mountain that is looming over me on
your laptop...
I had the hardest time finding a pick point on the left side of engine.

Nice. What fuel nozzles are you running and that turbo looks familiar but I not positive what it is. Did you kill the immobilizer with VCDS?

nice work

Thanks Jimmy.

Zook - I love going up to Shasta. I dream of developing an off-grid cabin up there some day. Delicious water.

I will try to grab a picture today of the motor mounts in-situ, the driver side is definitely tight, but basically nests in between the oil/coolant heat exchanger and the alternator/A/C compressor. I placed the tab that goes out 90 degrees from the block in a position that will still hopefully allow access to attach the AC hoses. Changing the alternator is no problem and I know because I had to already. The one that came on the donor was 'kaput.

Nozzles are PP764, pump is a junk-yard 11mm I cleaned and re-sealed. Turbo is confusing because the numbers have been milled off, and its a GTB series CHRA so the exhaust and compressor housings can be swapped and clocked almost endlessly. It's either a GTB1749V, or a GT1749VC - but it has different compressor and exhaust housings than any of the stock applications I can find for that turbo. Either way- it originally came from Darkside and I'm sure they would recognize what the pieces and parts came from. I think of it as the modern day equivalent of the VNT-17, good to 25-26psi. It may be partially the 4.30 axle gear ratio, but it seems like it spools instantly.

I used the program VAG Commander with a generic ODBII to USB cable to turn off IMMO.

Looks awesome! Do you have a pic of your 'push' actuator installed? I have the same turbo setup as you and my pull actuator comes close to the inner fender. I can't get over how clean the older west coast cars are, your Tacoma is cleaner than my 2013 Jeep and even the junkyard cars look spotless. What's it like to be able to put a wrench on a 15 year old nut and not have it snap off?

Ok, I grabbed some more current pictures of things.
Overall engine bay:

Wiring is getting cleaner but still need to do some more tidying:

Noisy Intake:

A4 Fans fit perfect, and lots of room for charge piping:

None of them are very good, but tried to get better pics of the engine mounts:


Above you can make out the A/C compressor sitting below the tab that bolts to the frame side mount. Next time I'm getting dirty I'll really stick my hand up in there and see if I can get a better picture.
Below is the passenger side - it's WIDE open over there pretty much. Between the 3RZ starter and BHW exhaust manifold I've got lots of room to work.

Rockwell - this may not show what you're looking for, but I ordered a push actuator from Darkside, and bent the mounting bracket that came on it flat in a vise. I then found or made a hole(s) that lined up with an exhaust housing bolt. I also had to cut the rod shorter in order to allow the vanes to be fully open when no vacuum was applied. I grew up in Ohio, so I know the wrath of salt. When I turn a 15 year old nut and it doesn't break off it makes me feel better about the insane cost of living here. I was amazed breaking down the donor motor how easily everything came apart - I don't think anyone ever went very deep into this motor. DMV records showed it with 240,000k miles the year prior to it being scrapped.

Shrimpy IC

So for the push vacuum actuator:

-no vacuum the actuator is pulled in
-vacuum applied the actuator starts to push out

Hey Smelly, just a heads up for reference on temps:

I went with the 92*C tstat and it maintains 100-101*C on the highway going up hills and 98-99*C cruising at 65-70mph (2250-2500rpm). 50/50 mix g13 and distilled water. I've also noticed slightly better fuel economy per tank at the higher temps. My TJ weights 3800-4000lbs depending on if I'm carrying my spare tire and other wheeling gear. It's on 33" tires with a 4" lift so it has the aerodynamics of a barn.

Might go back down to an 87 tstat for summer but I get some awesome heat in the jeep when it's freezing cold. I too run the BT OBDII and torque app on my phone, but check out the Caroo App as a dashcam - it shows coolant etc while driving. Pretty neat app.

sriner - you got it. The exact opposite of a normal Garrett vac actuator. Some Borg Warner turbos came stock with push actuators for newer TDI applications. Darkside sells the push actuator I'm using.

lanorg - Thank you for the data point. Sounds like my temps are in-line with yours considering my cooler t-stat. Have you had any issues with it running hot when in 4-low off road? I was climbing a steep muddy road and it spiked to 105C by the time I got to the top. Have not adjusted my fans yet or had a chance to re-test.

Thanks for the mount pics. I take it these are EVguy's latest design?

I ordered the mounts directly from EVguy around the middle of November 2016, so I would guess they're the latest and greatest?

They are a simple, but very effective design. These were the "universal" kind - so they come un-welded, and allow you to fine tune the tab and gusset placement to suit your application. I supplied my own frame side mounts and rubber cushions.

When wheeling it doesn't get as hot to be honest. I don't thrash it - just find traction and let the torque do its work. Also, I wheel with other JKUs and TJs without as much clearance, so I am typically not on a too technical of a trail for it's capabilities.

Highway puts the most load on it. Just sits around 97/98 with the 87 tstat on typical 3 and 3plus trails. If the ambient temp is above 25C, I notice it will sit at 102 with the fans on. Also, For the mud pits it will climb but the elec fans keep it around 105-107 but the pits see significantly higher rpm ~2400 and I don't rev it past 3000 most of the time. The fans activate at 100/101 from what I have seen thru obd2. Anything over 110 and I will be worried. WIth the pressure of the coolant system, boiling point should be 120-125.

Are you running those 105s on the highway AND blasting the heat? If so, perhaps additional surface area is required. Not a specialist when it comes to rads, but I recall reading that it's not so much the number of passes but the actual surface area that allows heat to escape combined with volume of coolant to manage the heat transfer.

My oil pan is modified and an oil change is about 6.5L vs the 4.5 or so. Not sure if that does so much for the heat transfer but it's potentially worth noting. Diffs are running conventional with a detroit locker in the caboose.

It's odd - I only hit 105C while crawling up a muddy/snowy steep fire road at 6000ft while on my first road trip with the truck. On the way there pulling long passes over 7000ft with EGTs roasting at 1300f the coolant stayed at 95C or below. I am guessing that adjusting my fan controller to actually turn on at a reasonable temperature may do the trick for keeping low-speed high-load temps in check.

I'm probably worried for nothing since as you mention- I'm still well below the boil point of the coolant. Although I don't know off the top of my head how much the altitude would depress it.

I did not have the rear locked up, but my rpm was high. 4.30's, with 30" tires is not ideal. 33s are in my future once I sell off my leftover part collection. I wish I had a nice deep sump pan, mine is just a notched stock VW - so probably less capacity. I did go with the largest oil/coolant heat exchanger I could find - so it's possible I'm actually getting more heat into the coolant than the stock exchanger would be.

Have you considered getting the plus sized oil heat exchanger from ID parts? Another member with your same issue solved it by getting one.

I am running a very plus-sized oil/heat exchanger already. Part #038117021E.

what is your cooling hose arrangement ?

It's similar to your set-up, with the differences being my upper rad hose is a rubber hose that sorta drapes over the tb cover (check out the pic of the engine bay on the previous page). The other notable difference may be the small line from the back of the head I ran along the firewall and then into the upper radiator hose on the driver's side using the stock A4 radiator hose "t". The extra ports on the hard pipe by the dipstick and on the passenger side are plugged.

Do my temps seem high to you? I have verified that the cts is at least as accurate as my IR temp gun on the aluminum coolant flange on the head. I have also boiled my thermostat and verified it opens near 87c.

Radiator is the original yota with 225k miles on it now. Coolant is staying clean so far and the level in the overflow bottle hasn't dropped measurably, so I was starting to convince myself all was OK!

seems a little high.... i've seen older radiators cause heating issues due to hidden plugging and scaling ... not saying that's your issue but might be something to look at

Hmm. I do have a cheap new aftermarket replacement rad I picked up for the floor start. Maybe I'll throw it in the next time I'm doing something that involves draining the coolant.

Ok, almost one year update on my "ALH" powered Tacoma - I'm loving it! I've only got ~15000 miles on it since the swap, but drive it almost daily. Mixed driving has so far been returning 25mpg on average. Yet to get a full highway tank.

Looking back at this thread I am reminded I need to fix all the pictures, and take some new ones to document the details I have cleaned up. I am happy to note that I have addressed nearly all of the swap-related "to-do" items that were pending last year. All dash lights work as they should, AC works, etc.

Sadly, I am also facing my first significant problem. I just got back from a camping trip in the eastern Sierra, the TDI pulled all the big grades in spectacular fashion and did not miss a beat the whole trip, I knew it was too good to be true.

Just before I got home I started to notice a terrible whirring, sometimes grind-y noise when pushing in the clutch pedal, regardless of being in neutral or in gear. Shifting between gears wasn't difficult while moving, but getting into first or reverse became more difficult as time went on. No shudder or anything when letting the clutch out, and no bad sounds driving in any gear with the clutch out.

I made it home and parked it until the next day. When I took it out for a test drive, when cold it didn't make any bad sounds and worked like normal. After about 20 minutes of driving, the same symptoms re-appeared.

I have not yet had a chance to dig into things and see if there is any obvious damage to my clutch hydraulic line (which does run fairly close to my downpipe) or the slave cylinder itself.

I suspect the culprit is my throw-out bearing (it's a niachi bearing made in Japan) - and I am not thrilled to go in and replace it without understanding why it had such a short life. Does anyone have any thoughts on what could kill it so quickly?