[Icedragon]

That's really cool! Definitely keep us posted, especially if you can turn this into a guide ?

 

[wagonbldr]

Finally got engine out of xB. What a PITA doing it by yourself.

 

[wagonbldr]

Or I should say engine/trans/crossmember assembly.

 

[wagonbldr]

Back exhaust manifold is hitting trans tunnel. PITA but if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Got to get it off so I can try to bolt up engine mounts.

 

[wagonbldr]

Got East/West mounts bolted up. It's coming together.

 

[wagonbldr]

2007 RAV4 engine cradle bolted into xB with no problems. So it has the RAV4 lower suspension , steering rack, swaybar, brakes and axles. Got some clearance issues to work out. Rear exhaust manifold and intake manifold are issues.

 

[wagonbldr]

Unbolted East/West mounts and allowed front trans mount to drop onto crossmember. Then trimmed lip on intake manifold that was hitting drip tray. Removed studs for intake, this gave me 1/8" clearance. Reinstalled studs after sliding intake into place. Now have to make spacers to fill gap in East/West mounts. They also sit at an angle. Got to think about this.

 

[GregS]

Sounds like it might be best to do the opposite of what I'm doing and lower the sub-frame a inch or so.

Longer bolts and spacers for the sub-frame mounts would work down below.
Same for the passenger side mount. They would have to go between the mount and the bracket that bolt to the engine.
The driver's side motor mount can be slotted on the body side to drop it down. You can even weld, or bolt, an extension to the top if you need to.
Front mount you would need slot the mounting points on the engine side, or possibly make a new bracket.

This would get you the clearance up top that you need for the intake and rear exhaust manifold. You'll lose some ground clearance doing it of course but as long as you don't try to slam it you should be ok. If possible I would see is you can raise the lower control arm mounts on the sub-frame side to keep the suspension geometry as close to stock as possible, otherwise if you lower the car it it'll be getting even further out of wack.

 

[wagonbldr]

I had thought about spacing the cradle, but then realized it might cause issues with attaching the steering shaft to the steering rack. The rear exhaust manifold won't work without some serious mods. The trans tunnel on the RAV4 was taller and wider because of space needed for rear driveshaft and exhaust system. Maybe one from a Camry might work. I'm trying to procure materials for spacers to use on East/West mounts. Also still trying to find a 2 core radiator with trans cooler. Have only found them without cooler. Fun never ends.

 

[wagonbldr]

Got trans side drop mount made, now to make engine side. Starting with 1” drop.

 

[wagonbldr]

Drivers side fit good. Passenger side needs more machining. Making some progress. Still looking for Camry rear exhaust manifold

 

[wagonbldr]

Looks like this will work. Just got to get time to install.

 

[GregS]

Looks good. How thick did you end up having to make it?

 

[wagonbldr]

These are an inch thick. Took several tries to get correct shape for passenger side. I’ll make cardboard templates before I install them in case I need a little extra thickness.

 

[wagonbldr]

1” thick spacer for main engine mount works good. Offset mounting tab on fender well needed 5/8” spacer. Got to get shorter bolts for engine mount, screwed up and got too long of bolts, so used spacers to take up slack for now.

 

[wagonbldr]

1” spacer on trans mount works good. Front and rear mounts now sit flat.

 

[wagonbldr]

Intake is still tight. Think I can space the tray up some without causing too much trouble.

 

[GregS]

Looking good. I just find it funny that we're both using 1" spacers on the motor mounts but going in opposite directions.

 

[wagonbldr]

I couldn’t get the intake on without dropping motor/trans mounts. Did I miss something?

 

[GregS]

I couldn’t get the intake on without dropping motor/trans mounts. Did I miss something?

I suspect it's just because of fitting the V6 in there and the intake is not oriented anything like the stock one. Are you talking the intake manifold or the plastic intake? If the plastic portion you could just make your own intake and not deal with the stock one at all. After all it's only tubes, a filter and somewhere to mount the MAF packaged up in a way that Toyota decided would work best for the car they designed it for. All that goes out the door when you started putting the engine in a car it wasn't built for. If it's the intake manifold that's a whole other story. Can still be custom fabricated, but it's a lot more time and work. I know, I've still got all the parts to fab a new manifold waiting for me to design it sitting on a shelf in the garage.