Dirk37
Mr. Resourceful
Everyone's heard the rumors of the Russians (@mavericksav) using 1994 Toyota 3.0 4runner bearings in a sho. No one else had ever tried it, until now. While rebuilding turbo sho's engine, I decided I would give the Toyota bearings a shot. So far I have about 300 miles on the engine (lots of that under boost) and no signs of any issues. Have 30-35 psi of oil pressure at 2k rpm.
The Toyota bearing dimensions are almost identical to the sho bearings. Here's are the catalog specs comparing the two.
Center bearings (2&3) are basically identical and drop in directly.
End bearings (1&4) require dremeling new tang slots so the oil holes lines up.
The end bearings in the sho engines are wider than the middle bearings. The Toyota sets only come with 1 wider bearing though, so two sets of Toyota bearings are needed.
When dremeling new tang slots, you want the new tang slots to be on the opposite side of the bearing than the original tang slot. To figure out where to dremel, I put the bearing in as far as it would go with the oil hole lined up. Then I used a sharpie to mark where to dremel. Then I slowly removed material until the bearing fit.
Here's what the plastigauge results were.
I'll update this thread if any issues occur, but all seems to be well!
The Toyota bearing dimensions are almost identical to the sho bearings. Here's are the catalog specs comparing the two.
Center bearings (2&3) are basically identical and drop in directly.
End bearings (1&4) require dremeling new tang slots so the oil holes lines up.
The end bearings in the sho engines are wider than the middle bearings. The Toyota sets only come with 1 wider bearing though, so two sets of Toyota bearings are needed.
When dremeling new tang slots, you want the new tang slots to be on the opposite side of the bearing than the original tang slot. To figure out where to dremel, I put the bearing in as far as it would go with the oil hole lined up. Then I used a sharpie to mark where to dremel. Then I slowly removed material until the bearing fit.
Here's what the plastigauge results were.
I'll update this thread if any issues occur, but all seems to be well!
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I got a police grill for that
......Dirk37 appreciate all your input on this, I will be using this method on my 3.3L build later this year. Thanks again.
.... I reached back out to my contact at Mahle to get all the options available for these new sets...I am trying to see if they will make some in the "H" designation for all the boosted guys and the high powered applications. The "H" designation is for High Performance and can withstand higher load. If we cant, no biggie but it doesn't hurt to try.
