[pat_wimb]

I am new to the forum...after blowing the engine on my '96 Tacoma this week I thought I should seek some advice from the experts as to how I should proceed with the work I am planning. My truck had the 2.7 (3rz-fe) in it and I have access to the same engine from a '99 Tacoma. My only concern was the fact that the '96 Taco has the distributor and the '99 does not.

How hard will it be to make the conversion for my truck? Also, should I add the distributor to the new engine or convert my truck to run distributor-less?

Thanks for the help!

 

[knuckleduster271]

Check the 99 engine and see if theres a rubber plug where the distributer is on your 96. If so then i would ASSUME it will work, just take the plug out and your ditsributer will slide right in. Most auto manufacturers wont spend time and money making a new cast for a block or a head just over one hole, I know this to be true with fords and chevys. If it doesnt, just take the harness and ecm that goes with the 99 and put the coil packs in it, their alot easier to set the timing after the distributer is removed because you can just slap it in and it always reverts back to cylinder # 1. I took my engine out wiring and all when i done my timing chain and the harness was simple to do. It all unhooks behind the glove box aside from a couple plugs at the transmission and transfercase. It makes the job much easier because you dont have to plug all that stuff back into the engine piece by piece. you just have to make sure that the doner truck is basically the same as yours[both auto's or both manuals] because the ecm's are different.

 

[98taco4x]

I don't think you can put a distributor on a 98 and up block. You will probably have to do some wiring or change out the wiring harness to take the coil packs.

 

[Interex]

Swap the harness and ECU. You are going to have to do some wiring.

 

[ShowStop]

The head is different. The newer models that don't have the distributor never had the port milled for the distributor, so you cant even install it. You will need to find an engine that was also equipped with a distributor or an engine that is distributorless, but comes complete with all the wiring harnesses, coil packs, ECU, etc.

 

[pat_wimb]

Thanks guys...
I got a pic of the actual 99 engine and it has the bolt holes for the distributor, but it doesn't look like the hole for the distributor has been milled. I don't think I'm up for the wiring job, so I will just keep looking for a good engine.

 

[Ladykiller]

Ironic that this post came up today. I just finished swaping in a 1998 (w/o distributor) 2.7 into my 1995.5 that had the distributor. What I found to work was buying an extra connector (the same that went to the distributor of my previous motor and splicing it in to go to each of the two coil paccks on the new motor. The computer will need swapped out, though, for a truch without the distributor. I found this to work by borrowing my friends ECM to see if it would work before divving too far into tearing out my wiring. Now I just need to get my owm ECM. With THE CCONNECTOR BEING $10 at toyota and a ECM for $50 off ebay it is probably worth it to do this rather than try to find and older engine with low miles for a decent price.
Good Luck.

 

[ShowStop]

The other sensor that gets added on the distributorless engine is a cam position sensor. The distributor acts as the cam position sensor, but when you do distributorless, the sensor is added.

 

[pat_wimb]

Awesome! I wanted to hear from someone who had actually done the same swap. Did you just leave the old distributor connect to the engine to cover the hole?

 

[ShowStop]

Awesome! I wanted to hear from someone who had actually done the same swap. Did you just leave the old distributor connect to the engine to cover the hole?

I never swapped from distributor to distributorless. It was too much of a hassle. I just got another engine that was set-up for distributor and swapped that in. It was a JDM engine that was most likely in a generator.

 

[knuckleduster271]

just reuse your old cylinder head on the new moter

 

[ShowStop]

just reuse your old cylinder head on the new moter

Now there's a novel idea! :bitchslap

Most of the problems these engines have is related to the head. In my case, my head was cracked in 5 different places. Swapping heads wouldn't work, since I needed a new head, not the block and the bottom end.

 

[K.mad__]

Ironic that this post came up today. I just finished swaping in a 1998 (w/o distributor) 2.7 into my 1995.5 that had the distributor. What I found to work was buying an extra connector (the same that went to the distributor of my previous motor and splicing it in to go to each of the two coil paccks on the new motor. The computer will need swapped out, though, for a truch without the distributor. I found this to work by borrowing my friends ECM to see if it would work before divving too far into tearing out my wiring. Now I just need to get my owm ECM. With THE CCONNECTOR BEING $10 at toyota and a ECM for $50 off ebay it is probably worth it to do this rather than try to find and older engine with low miles for a decent price.
Good Luck.

 

[K.mad__]

Ironic that this post came up today. I just finished swaping in a 1998 (w/o distributor) 2.7 into my 1995.5 that had the distributor. What I found to work was buying an extra connector (the same that went to the distributor of my previous motor and splicing it in to go to each of the two coil paccks on the new motor. The computer will need swapped out, though, for a truch without the distributor. I found this to work by borrowing my friends ECM to see if it would work before divving too far into tearing out my wiring. Now I just need to get my owm ECM. With THE CCONNECTOR BEING $10 at toyota and a ECM for $50 off ebay it is probably worth it to do this rather than try to find and older engine with low miles for a decent price.
Good Luck.

Can you show how exactly? Much help needs. Thanks!!