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I started writing this in 2000 and I can finish it now. I took out my 2F and
sold it earlier this year, so I could begin my V8 project. I
never had a moment's trouble with this conversion, and I will
do it again without hesitation if I ever have another Toyota F
or 2F engine. I received an e-mail from someone who did this
conversion (before he ever saw this page) and had problems with
the distributor failing. Read the last few paragraphs for more
information about that. This page is about what I did and what
worked for me. I have tried to present as much information as
I could about the swap, but keep in mind that this is not just
swapping around OEM pieces. There are many variables that cannot
be accounted for, no 2 engines or distributors are exactly identical.
If you decide to try it and it gives you problems or damages
your property, don't blame me. Mine worked just fine.
I've always read that
electronic ignition is better, but before this project I had never
actually felt the difference between an electronic ignition system
and a points system. This swap let me try out both of them on the
same engine in the same vehicle. The difference was amazing. My cruiser
has a 3-speed, and with the points ignition I topped out at 20MPH
in first gear, 40MPH in second and about 60 in third. After the HEI
conversion, it accelerates strongly to 30 in first, 50 in second,
and I've had it up to 75MPH in third (I'm too chicken to take it any
faster, the brakes and suspension are a little scary above 65MPH). |
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The Toyota 2F is a
very durable and strong engine, and it's design is based on the Chevrolet
in-line 6 cylinder. This is what allows a Chevy distributor to be
installed. Unfortunately, the engines aren't totally identical as
the Toyota engine parts are metric and the Chevy parts are SAE (standard,
whatever). Not only does this mean that all the bolts are metric,
but also apparently so is the distributor drive gear on the camshaft
and the distributor drive gear. I haven't tried it, but I've read
that if you install the HEI with the Chevy gear
into your 2F engine, it will work for a while until the mismatch wears
out the teeth on the camshaft requiring camshaft replacement.
This is not firsthand information and I don't know anybody that this
had actually happened to, but it sounds reasonable to me.
I decided to do this
swap one weekend, so I went to the parts store and bought all the
pieces I would need. Total cost was actually more than the Man-A-Fre?
electronic ignition conversion kit, but I was willing to pay more
to get it done that weekend. Finding a used distributor would make
the project substantially cheaper. The distributor I ended up with
was listed for a '78 Camaro with the 292 in-line 6 cylinder (I believe).
The spark plug wires were for the same engine as the distributor.
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Here was my plan of attack:
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1. Remove the Chevy distributor
gear by driving out the roll pin holding it on and sliding the
gear off the bottom |
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2. Remove the Toyota distributor
gear by driving out the roll pin holding it on and sliding the
gear off the bottom |
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3. Install the Toyota distributor
gear on Chevy distributor |
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4. Install Chevy HEI distributor
into the 2F engine |
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Swapping the gear
is supposedly the key to having this conversion be successful.
Mine worked great and I changed the gear out. Not only do
you need the Toyota gear on the Chevy distributor shaft, but
also it needs to be positioned properly to insure it meshes
correctly with the cam gear. The method I have seen recommended
is to measure from the end of the shaft to the gear on the
Toyota distributor before you remove the gear and to place
the gear onto the HEI shaft at the same distance. I think
it would be better to measure from the top of the gear to
the surface where the distributor sits on the engine block.
I didn't do either of these, but it didn't damage anything
in 2 years of driving.
The HEI distributor had
a u-joint on the shaft below the gear, while the Toyota shaft
did not. It really didn't affect anything; the gear slid over
it and ended up above it. I reused the Chevy roll pin since
it came out easily. The Toyota pin required some help with a
dremel to make it cooperate and thus didn't survive. The hole
in the Toyota gear was a little bigger than the hole in the
Chevy shaft. I used the smaller pin and flared the ends out
some with a punch. It might have been better to drill out the
hole in the shaft to match the hole in the Toyota gear.
The Toyota distributor
hold-down required modification to the distributor to be used
with the Chevy distributor. I went down to the local parts store
and bought a Chevy distributor hold-down bracket. Most places
have these in chrome their 'high performance' section.
I originally wanted to use
the external coil HEI, but all I could find was the internal coil.
I did not know if the large cap of the internal coil unit would clear
the engine block, but it did. I did have to unbolt and move the metal
heater pipe, though. It was a small price to pay. The internal coil
unit is supposed to be more durable, but I've had both in the past
on various cars and neither has ever failed me. You might have noticed
the lovely cable ties holding down the coil cover. This coil cover
is for a V8 distributor, and I had to make it fit as I couldn't find
the correct 6-cyl cover on the day I was doing all this. The cover
is to keep the coil protected from the elements, so as long as it's
held down securely nothing important is affected.
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The wiring for the distributor
is very simple. Find the terminal labeled "bat" on the HEI
cap, and wire 12V to it. This 12V has to be switched by the ignition
switch; otherwise the engine will never shut off. I took the switched
power from the old ballast resistor and used it to switch a 30A relay
that was wired to the battery. I recommend installing a fuse in any
new circuit you create in your vehicle. The switched power going to
the ballast resistor was supposed to be 12V, but in my case was actually
about 10V due to losses from 27 year old wiring and connectors. The
HEI requires a minimum of 10V to operate, and any less than 12V could
result in less output power. Whatever you use for power, make sure
your voltages are sufficient.
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That's the end of what I
had previously written. I don't have a lot to add, but I did take
more pictures of the distributor before I sold it. I also inspected
the wear surfaces of the cam gear and the distributor drive gear.
Both looked good, with a nice centered wear pattern.
In the interests of being
thorough, I must tell you that there are MANY people who think that
this distributor swap is a bad idea. A few people have had problems
after doing this swap, but most of the people who oppose this swap
seem to be the 'purist' types who shudder at the thought of putting
an 'inferior' American part in a Toyota.
The person I mentioned at
the beginning of this article had a problem with his HEI distributors
self-destructing. He had 2 units fail the same way; the shaft was
being pulled down towards the engine, eventually pulling the reluctor
into contact with the distributor housing itself. It has been speculated
that his cam drive gear and the distributor gear were misaligned,
creating a downward pull. This may happen to you, too. Or yours
may work fine like most of us who do the swap.
I received the following information
from Floyd Bufkin, a member of the Land Cruiser e-mail list. Here's
what Floyd has to add to my instructions:
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this distributor, I would take Jeremy's instructions a step further.
If you compare the distributors, you will see that the flange on
the HEI prevents it from fully seating down in the hole and the
drive gear and oil pump drive are only partially engaged.
Some say this can cause premature failure of the distributor because
the gear is pulling down on the distributor shaft and will cause
the bushing in the distributor to fail. What I did to prevent
this is to grind off the flange on the HEI. Now the distributor
will go all the way down and bottom out on the oil pump drive slot.
You can use the 2F distributor hold down, but it has to be shimmed
(I used a piece of PVC pipe with a slot cut in it) as it is a larger
diameter than the HEI shaft housing. There is a handy little
groove just below where the flange used to be, and I installed an
"O" ring in that groove and it does not leak oil.
My distributor came from the local "U-Pull-It" from a 79 Nova.
Cost was $19.95. I added new cap and rotor and wires.
Total cost about $60. Really improves performance, inexpensive,
repair parts readily available at any parts store. |
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Originally written: Nov. 2000
Updated: Apr. 2003
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