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89 Trooper LS v6 3.4L SWAP

20K views 74 replies 18 participants last post by  onemanarmy 
#1 ·
I finally after all these years of wanting a trooper, pulled the trigger and got one.

i just got it today, these are the pics from craigslist:









it's an '89 v6 LS with the 5-spd manual. it is literally almost exactly what i wanted. i was kinda looking for a 2.6 4-cyl, but the v6 is just fine too.

anyways, the immediate things i need to do is replace the tires, one of the belts seperated and it's got a huge wobbly bulge in it, and the others are old and dry rotted. i am kinda looking for rims with tires off craigslist, but i am having a hard time figuring out the offsets of the rims that are on my trooper as it is, i am searching this site as it is, but still haven't really found a clear cut answer. i've been looking at any 6 lug rims hoping to find some that have more offset, even if it's from toyota, nissan, gm, etc etc. also, it has an exhaust leak that needs fixing, looks like it's a simple case of just needing a gasket hopefully. and the speedo doesn't work, i don't know if it's a common thing, i guess i'll find out the issue over the weekend.

but overall i am pretty stoked about it, i got it for $900, so i can't complain about the deal. power windows, power locks, everything works, 4wd system seems fine. relatively dry engine with only minor seeps, good oil pressure. it's definitely gonna take some work to get it to a respectable state, but all of it is mostly cosmetic, so no worries. even then, the body and interior isn't all that bad.

i have been in the isuzu scene ever since i've been driving though, my first car was a Stylus, and i am very very involved with the isuzu cars. i am currently helping a friend build his impulse rs turbo awd. i have had alot of friends with troopers, so i am vaguely familiar with them, but never really got into it. looking forward to really delving into some mods and whatnot though.

till then, if maybe someone could point me in the direction of listed offsets for the troopers, or knows right off hand that would be tremendous. i don't want to be the noob asking the question that's been asked a million times, but whatever. i'll be sure to keep this thread updated with progress though!
 
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#2 ·
looks good man.. welcome to the planet btw
 
#3 ·
Looks good...congrats. There is a wheel and tire section in general discussions. You may find something in there. I know on my wheels the offset is stamped on the inside of the well. Of course you have to remove the wheel to see it but you might check there.
 
#4 ·
Nice! I like the color combo.
 
#5 ·
thanks. the color is ok, i will be changing it a bit though. at least the paint is in relatively good condition. :)

i did some work to it today, the radiator had a small leak, so i got a new one. the fan was also super cracked, and just waiting to fly apart, so i replaced it with an electric one.



i also replaced the belt, as the old one was dry-rotted. i had to offset the fan because it wouldn't fit in front of the water pump :( , but it still works just fine.

however, the alternator seems to be struggling to power the fan, so i will be upgrading it in the near future. one weird thing i noticed though, as i wired the fan to run when the ignition is turned on, and i think that it is causing a backfeed of power when i turn the car off (it's acting as a generator), as now the car will run for a few seconds after i turn the ignition off, basically until the fan slows down. i can also see the lgnition lights dim slowly until the fan stops spinning. this is kind of strange, and i wouldn't have expected it to be that much of a difference, but i may have to wire it differently using a relay or something.

another thing i noticed, is the water pump is noisy. so i will be replacing that along with the t-stat next week. i might even replace the tensioner and idler pulley while i'm at it depending on their prices.
 
#7 ·
Looks good Aamir! Welcome to the Isuzu truck scene :) I don't know what your backspacing is on those rims but most people opt for 7" or 8" wheels with 3.75" backspace. The 7" wide rim will look flush with the side of the Trooper and the 8" wide rim will stick out a little. Cheers

Jeremy
 
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#10 ·
There was something about if you used a Camero waterpump it would give more space, check betterthanyou's website, he may of done something like that on his. He has the electric fan also.
 
#11 ·
hessmess said:
There was something about if you used a Camero waterpump it would give more space, check betterthanyou's website, he may of done something like that on his. He has the electric fan also.
hey man thanks for the heads up, i was actually wondering if this was an option, as i was starting to look around on rockauto to see if i could find one with a shorter snout. you and betterthanyou just saved me a ton of time.

so i already got the camaro water pump, i just need to go to the junkyard to get a pulley as it seems i can't find any new ones for sale. i also got a higher amp alternator (105amp) to keep up with the electric fan better. went ahead and got a new idler and tensioner pulley, so after i replace all that the pulleys and water pump and all that jazz should be much quieter and smoother. hopefully my trip to the junkyard will be a good one this weekend, there are quite a few things i'm looking for, so we'll see what pops up. i am shooting to have this up and running and registered and driving within a couple weeks. then i'll be putting it to work. really looking forward to having it driving. i also found out that the a/c works perfectly, so i am very stoked about that, i've never really had a car with working a/c before.
 
#12 ·
Always glad to pass on good information, I have styled my Trooper in line with betterthanyou, we have basically the same engine and I used a ton of his information on his website. So I am usually up on what he is doing.
 
#13 ·
well i went to the junkyard the other day, and it was a perfect beautiful day and luckily they had a 94 v6 camaro with the pulley i needed. so i got that among many other things i got for my other cars. unfortunately they had gotten rid of their entire import truck selection, so no troopers were out there :( :



worked on the trooper and decided to go ahead and replace everything i had bought for it. pulled the radiator out to get to everything:



everything off:



old parts vs new, got a high output 105 amp alternator to put in:



new thermostat:



water pump, alternator, tensioner, idler pulley, and belt all put back on:



put the electric fan back in the center of the radiator:



pic showing clearance between fan and water pump now:



got it all running and everything, sounds soooo smooth and quiet now, no more clunking and pulley noise anymore. the old water pump was definitely bad and was making all kinds of racket and the pulley shaft had play in it. i don't know how it wasn't puking coolant out. I also wired in a relay for the cooling fan, so it doesn't backfeed power back into the system when i turn the car off. the temps stay perfect even on these 100*+ days with a/c on max. although i think my compressor may now be on it's way out.........

next is to get the tires and rims all situated. i have some 15" steelies from a rodeo to put on, they have a bit more offset then the stockers on it now. it felt nice just driving it around today though, i'm really happy with it.
 
#14 ·
well, Total engine failure. :D

It has had rod knock for the longest time, but me being me, i continued to drive it. it has had rod knock since august, so that alone is pretty crazy that it lasted this long. but anyways, today i drove to my friend's house, and on the way there it got pretty bad, like clacking and ticking very, very loudly, with loss of power. i was going to leave it at my friends house and maybe tow it later, but decided in the end, "screw it, i ain't gonna pay for a tow on this, i'm gonna go for it". so needless to say, i started to drive it back home. it is about 20 miles one way, and i got about 13 miles in and it was smacking around quite loudly and it was sounding BAD.

then all of a sudden, it clanked around and made a loud cracking noise, and a rod blew a hole out the driver side of the block, and oil started dumping onto the manifold, creating a super thick smoke screen behind my trooper. i thought that was the end of that, and started to pull over, but then noticed THAT IT WAS STILL RUNNING AND DRIVING!! so i said "ima go for the gold!!" and gunned it, with it billowing out smoke and oil behind me, and a hole in the side of the block, running on 4-5 cylinders (it's a v6). after about a mile, my oil light came on, and my oil pressure was zero, BUT IT WAS STILL RUNNING. so i now have about 7 miles to drive, most of it being city driving that i am coming up to. so miraculously, it drives (albeit with very little power, but still drives), and i am able to get off the highway, and take my exit.

now i have to do the whole dance of keeping my foot on the gas, while holding the clutch in with my left foot, and using the handbrake to slow the car down so i don't stall out everytime i come to a light. by this point, i am just hysterically laughing, and watching all the people giving me stares like i'm completely insane (to which they may have a point). So i am able to overcome most the lights, and somehow make it up this big huge hill on one road, with the trooper running on no oil, a hole in the engine, topping out at around 3500 rpm, with the oil screen thinning out only due to the fact that there is no more oil to burn, and now making the craziest racket from the engine again. i make it all the way with about 1/2mi left to my house, and i stall out at the end of the road where i have to turn. i thought that was the end, as the starter wouldn't turn the engine anymore. but i finally realized i was on a hill, put it in reverse, rolled it back and popped the clutch, and sure enough IT STARTED AGAIN AND WAS STILL RUNNING!!!. so i was able to get it into my neighborhood, up and down all the hills before my house, waving at all my neighbors and laughing walking outside as they stared at me like "what the heck is this guy's problem O_O", got all the way to my house, and pulled up into my yard (to where i wanted it knowing it would be it's final stop for a while), and by that point it was making the loudest clinking noises ever, so i did a finale of flooring it in neutral and it shot all kinds of smoke out, and then just locked up, right there at home in my yard.

So to sum it up, i drove 8 miles with 1-2 dropped cylinders, a hole in my block, smoke billowing out, the craziest knock ever, 7 of those miles with no engine oil at all, on the highway and through city streets, and it got me all the way home.

it was the greatest thing to ever happen to me in my driving career.

anyways, now the question is, what engine should i swap into my trooper? is there any v-6 Isuzu engine i can swap in with relative ease? i really don't want to put a gm engine in my trooper (as i know it can be upgraded to the 3.4 GM), simply because i just want it to be all isuzu, nothing against gm. i would love to have a isuzu v6 from a later gen trooper or rodeo put in.

thoughts?
 
#16 ·
That is quite a story! Amazing you made it that far. As far as the engine goes, I have heard of no one dropping in the 3.2 or 3.5 into a first gen. It would be quite an accomplishment if you did. Nothing will mate up between these two engines. I would go with a 3.4 if you can find one. It is a bolt in for the most part.
 
#17 ·
So, more than 2 years later, I've finally got around to doing something. I've decided to swap in the 3.4 from a 93 camaro and move forward with that.

I was able to pick up a 3.4 from a 93 camaro off craigslist for $110, which was awesome. This past weekend i finally started the teardown of the engine to see it's condition:



I was ok, it definitely seemd like someone had done prior work to it, like possibly a headgasket or something along those lines. Either way I've decided to just do a simple rebuild and have it all fresh and ready for the swap. I got all the info from from Ed MC for the swap and gone through the many posts on this forum, so it should be pretty smooth going for this swap. I am pretty familiar with work like this, so I look forward to the process.

I have to say, out of all my project cars, I miss my trooper the most. I can't wait to get it back on the road again and start getting it where i want!
 
#18 ·
Good to see you back, I am also in the middle of a 3.4 replacement out of a 95 Camero. I decided to replace my old rusty Trooper with a cleaner version and in the middle of everything I lost my oil pressure in my 3.1 I had built. So I found a 3.4 for $600 and I am now cleaning/freshening it up and hope to have it back on the road in about a month.
 
#19 ·
Some progress has been made on the trooper, I have been working on it off an on for the past few months.

Finished stripping the 3.4 down:



and honed it out:



had to extract a head bolt that was broken in the block, i'm sure that was part of the reason why the engine was sold for so cheap:



after cleaning up the surfaces:



got the block cleaned, the heads resurfaced and cleaned, grind the valves, replaced and added exhaust stem seals:



installed the crank and pistons in all with new bearings and rings, and torqued the heads down, ready for all the 2.8 accessories to be put on:



Finally pulled the old engine out of the trooper:



You can see all the damage from running several miles with a hole in the block and on no oil:



All the metal at the bottom of the oil pan:



Let's play a guessing game of which rod broke, and which one got cherry red hot



A video of the damage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXIub1n ... load_owner

For reference, the bearings on the left are normal, the one on the right are the melted bearings that i had to chisel off the crank and rod from the rod that got red hot:



Trooper as it sits now:



Plan is to now clean all the parts from the old engine, and swap em all over, and then re-install the new engine back into the trooper. I'm excited for when it will finally be finished!
 
#20 ·
Glad to see you are back at it. I finished mine up 2 months ago and man am I happy with it. Are you getting a bored out intake to go with it? The 3.4 will need this improvement. The 2.8 would really respond to it and the 3.4 will need it. Mine runs really smooth and has good power. I still have to change the injectors but I will get to that in the future.
 
#21 ·
hessmess said:
Glad to see you are back at it. I finished mine up 2 months ago and man am I happy with it. Are you getting a bored out intake to go with it? The 3.4 will need this improvement. The 2.8 would really respond to it and the 3.4 will need it. Mine runs really smooth and has good power. I still have to change the injectors but I will get to that in the future.
Thanks, yeah i'm going to put the 4.3 TBI on the intake and bore it out. I'm also going to delete all emissions related devices, as I like the engine bay to be as simplified and uncluttered as possible. There are also some TBI modifications that i'll be doing for better airflow as well. I want this engine to be able to breath as well as cheap modifications will allow me haha :lol: From reading on the forums, it seems there is a small difference felt between the 2.8 and 3.4, what has your experience been so far? I'm Curious to feel how this engine will be in the trooper.
 
#22 ·
What are your plans for the exhaust side? The 3.4 needs a much larger exhaust to be able to breathe well. I recently installed a dual-2"-inlet/single-2-1/2"-outlet cat plus a Dynomax turbo muffler, the difference in performance is just incredible. My 3.4 was terribly strangled with the old rotten stock exhaust, it's like having a new engine with the larger pipes and better-flowing cat.

Here's the cat I used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/231671835058 http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wlk-15022

Using the dual-inlet cat eliminates the restrictive stock "wye" and this cat has an integral O2 sensor bung. We installed a 90-deg pipe coming out of the pssgr's side downpipe, and plumbed that into one side of the cat. Then cut/spliced the driver's side pipe to get the correct angle going into the other inlet of the cat.

I installed a 4-wire heated O2 sensor and extended the wiring since the cat was placed rearwards of the stock position. I haven't hooked up the power line to the sensor's heater yet (bad weather out here, rain every day), but it's idling much better and going into Closed Loop sooner.

I attribute a lot of that to the location of the sensor bung; being right there in the cat makes the sensor run a lot hotter than sitting in the old "wye", even without the sensor heater working.

At any rate, all the changes you're making in the engine's ability to breathe will necessitate the larger exhaust to realize the full benefit of the mods.

Enjoy the swap and Merry Christmas to your and yours..........ed
 

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#23 ·
Ed Mc. said:
What are your plans for the exhaust side? The 3.4 needs a much larger exhaust to be able to breathe well. I recently installed a dual-2"-inlet/single-2-1/2"-outlet cat plus a Dynomax turbo muffler, the difference in performance is just incredible. My 3.4 was terribly strangled with the old rotten stock exhaust, it's like having a new engine with the larger pipes and better-flowing cat.

Here's the cat I used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/231671835058 http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wlk-15022

Using the dual-inlet cat eliminates the restrictive stock "wye" and this cat has an integral O2 sensor bung. We installed a 90-deg pipe coming out of the pssgr's side downpipe, and plumbed that into one side of the cat. Then cut/spliced the driver's side pipe to get the correct angle going into the other inlet of the cat.

I installed a 4-wire heated O2 sensor and extended the wiring since the cat was placed rearwards of the stock position. I haven't hooked up the power line to the sensor's heater yet (bad weather out here, rain every day), but it's idling much better and going into Closed Loop sooner.

I attribute a lot of that to the location of the sensor bung; being right there in the cat makes the sensor run a lot hotter than sitting in the old "wye", even without the sensor heater working.

At any rate, all the changes you're making in the engine's ability to breathe will necessitate the larger exhaust to realize the full benefit of the mods.

Enjoy the swap and Merry Christmas to your and yours..........ed
Thanks, I hope you enjoy this time of year! I definitely plan to upgrade the exhaust, i have a few ideas that have worked very well for me on previous setups, but i will see how it turns out and then post back. I really want it to sound nice but not loud, and not annoying. but for now it will be stock exhaust just to get it back on the road. :)
 
#24 ·
Read back over the comment that some felt a small power increase over the 2.8.... I will say a significant increase in power for me. My engine is a stock 3.4 from a 95 Camero. The only real mod is the bored intake and larger throttle body. I still have the stock exhaust but plan on changing that before spring. The only exhaust shop in this small town closed down, so now I will have to go to Twin Falls or Boise Idaho for the upgrade. My previous engine was a bored out 3.1 with some inside goodies but that engine lost oil pressure, it ran very well and I did have the upgraded exhaust on it and it truly made a difference on that Trooper.
 
#25 ·
hessmess said:
Read back over the comment that some felt a small power increase over the 2.8.... I will say a significant increase in power for me. My engine is a stock 3.4 from a 95 Camero. The only real mod is the bored intake and larger throttle body. I still have the stock exhaust but plan on changing that before spring. The only exhaust shop in this small town closed down, so now I will have to go to Twin Falls or Boise Idaho for the upgrade. My previous engine was a bored out 3.1 with some inside goodies but that engine lost oil pressure, it ran very well and I did have the upgraded exhaust on it and it truly made a difference on that Trooper.
Thanks for the feedback.

I was working more on the trooper, and finished drilling the holes for the starter. I did it by hand, and it came out pretty good. I drilled them ever so slightly too close to the flywheel, so i will have to use a pretty thick shim to get it to the right distance, but other than that it came out great:

Original 2.8L block and the starter holes:



The 3.4L block after i marked the first hole and started drilling a pilot hole:



the first hole drilled and tapped:



the second hole after i drilled it and and was finishing tapping the threads. To drill the second hole, I did what Ed did in the packet he sent, which was start the hole perpendicular to the bevel, then slowly move the drill perpendicular to the bottom of the block as i started to drill, essentially allowing the drill bit to drill out the top part of the bevel so then it's straight drilling down from there. then i did the same with a larger drill bit to create a countersink down to a level surface to start the tap:



end result:



then i mocked up the flywheel and starter to check correct fitment, you can activate the plunger of the starter without it spinning by hooking up the negative to the starter body, and the positive to the smaller positive terminal only. it will plunge the gear out to see if it meshes with the flywheel gear correctly. after seeing how high i needed to shim it with washers, i will make a thick shim out of some metal stock i have laying around. I also addressed the starter tab hanging over the beveled portion, leading to it cracking off if not tightened carefully, but i will post about that later:



I bought the Melling oil pickup part # 245s as described in the swap notes, and when going to install it and set the height, it did not look right and i wanted to know if anyone else had this issue or if this looks ok. Basically the oil pickup tube is definitely not setup the same as the stock trooper one, as the tube doesn't have as long a curve, and the pickup screen is not angled the same to be sitting parallel to the bottom of the oil pan. it would be sitting at a pretty hefty angle, and i do not feel comfortable running an engine with the screen angled that much, as it seems like it's just asking for trouble and increasing the possibility to run dry in certain situations:



That just doesn't look right, and here you can see how drastic the different angle is on the screen head between the stock trooper on one on the left, and the new melling on the right:



what are you all doing to solve this? I wasn't really able to find much info about this.
 
#26 ·
Wow, I'll be lurking and watching this thread.

cheers
-Ian :blackeye:
 
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