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V6 3VZfe Rav4.1 - Build Thread

28K views 71 replies 12 participants last post by  mensajero 
#1 · (Edited)
As some of you know, I've been slowly chipping away at this conversion for a while now, and I thought I'd let you know what has been going on.

Firstly, a few pics of the process:

 
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#7 ·
With that last picture. Now is the time to clean, scrub, and clean some more to those hard to get places. Plastic, Tape and old newspapers will help. Sandblast (if you can), then paint the engine bay.
BTW, mark all hoses, wires, and cables. Use color tape to ID electrical, air, vacuum, etc and a short explanation on each tape/paper (wrapped in contact plastic paper). The V6 might vary from these.

Same thing goes with the engine. Good Job R00BZ. :thumbs_up:
 
#9 ·
Yeah I think I'll strip the engine bay and do it in POR15(It's super hard paint) to stop any paint chips when I squeeze the 3vz in.
I've already encountered a couple of problems:
- The 3VZ block is fouling the transfer case where the rear engine mount bolted in (a bit of grinding will fix that)
- The centre diff lock actuator will need to be relocated as it hits the rear cylinder bank
- Although the clutch bolts to the flywheel i have, (custom machined down from hilux 3vze) the bearing may need spacing to disengage pressure plate


So that is the story so far. Over the next few weeks I'll order lots of new parts and slowly rebuild the V6 as I go.
 
#12 ·
Yes, the transmission/center diff clearance and grinding was mention by Paul Wood (Woodsport). You will also encounter issues with:
-Passenger Side Engine Mount
-Exhaust Y-pipe, Rear v6 header & the rest of the "catback" exhaust
-Wiring Harness

You could source a v6 flywheel from a 1988-2001 Toyota Camry or 1999-2002 Toyota Solara (OEM Part #13405-62020).

I'm not sure if you've seen this, but there's a tons resourceful 3vzfe stuff you can use:
Toyota MR2 Wiki and FAQ - MKII: 1993 JDM 3vz-fe into 91 NA MR2
 
#13 ·
Yeah I've been using some of that info to help me, and paul has written a great guide on how to remove the 3VZ from the camry/solara.

I have the complete wiring harness from the Camry so i'll be using that to wire this up, no worries.

Turns out there is quite a lot more grinding than I had anticipated, but I'll give it another shot tomorrow to see if I can get the block and gearbox together.
 
#18 ·
The problem isn't the vac lock, it is the physical size of the center diff and fitting it against the rear bank of cylinders. I do intend to change the 5th gear cluster to the gt4 setup, but will be keeping the other ratios the same as my rav does quite a lot of off-road miles...

I've been over in Australia for a couple of weeks, and brought the flu back with me, so not much progress at the moment, just trying to get the clutch and flywheel to fit on the gearbox spline (more grinding!)
 
#20 ·
"Posi-Traction" is old school terminology/marketing material, which in today's terminology is called a limited-slip differential or LSD for short.

I doubt, especially since R00bZ's Rav is AWD, will encounter any torque-steer. This is much more common with FWD applications with 250+hp & equivalent torque.
 
#26 ·
This is a C60 transmission, its bellhousing will not bolt up to any Toyota v6 or any 3s engine without extensive modification. It's also exclusively designed for FWD use only.

I dropped an email to Monkey Wrench and ask which LSD transaxle will fit my V6 (be it 1VZ-FE - 2VZ-FE - 3VZ-FE). So they suggested this one.

Ratios:
1st 3.230
2nd 1.913
3rd 1.258
4th 0.918
5th 0.731
Final Drive 4.285
^ this is again a E153 which is what our E250(F) is variants of...they are very similar. E-Series transmissions were designed for Toyota's VZ, MZ, and S engines. They were also designed for an easy AWD conversion by simply adding the transfer case and rear drivetrain setup. This has proven to be economically efficient and has led to the great success of Toyota crossover platforms like Rav4, RX300, Highlander...these are all by product of their late 80s/early 90s Alltrac Celica platform.

And again to be clear, if you have a manual FWD transaxle, E250 then yes an SW20 E153 LSD will fit. Otherwise it will not work on an AWD E250F tranny. Any ExxxF (F being the important notation here) transmission uses a different diffferential.
 
#25 ·
Nice, and only 2600 US dollar that's a good deal (when viewing this next to the OEM one at least).
Hope that it works out well for you.
Greetz

Pim
 
#28 ·
Feeling much better over the last couple of days, so I'll be getting back to work on the rav this weekend.

With a bit of luck I should be able to grind the block to allow the gearbox spline to mate with the clutch, and get it all cleaned and painted ready for engine re-assembly.
 
#29 ·
Had a great afternoon today workin on the rav, finally got the spline all lined up and ready to bolt in!

Tomorrow I'll clean and paint, early next week a new clutch will go in, and then next weekend I'll start re-assembly of the motor and fabrication of exhaust headers...
 
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