Way safer in college with the Tacoma, especially if it is a bucket seat two door standard cab with no center console.
I am definitely thinking a nice running V6 would be a great swap. You can only safely get so much power down in a short wheelbase high center vehicle that is not an off road racer. For a look outside the box consider a 60 degree V6. I ran one of the early Chevrolet 2.8's that later morphed into 3.9's I think. I had it in a Baja style S10. Bored to 2.9L, it made 350hp naturally aspirated. It was unique at the time and I was lucky to have a machine shop and top machinist right there. They are all around now. You need to find one for a rear wheel drive. The 60 degree V6 allows an enormous amount of room. It would fit well and you would still be able to get to everything in the engine house. A modern 60 degree with a turbo or better yet a low profile roots or a Centrifugal Supercharger would be the ticket! Hahah, now there's a thought.
Here's TJ's nice "Orange Crush" V6 Jeep.
https://willysjeepforum.kaiserwillys...-Forum/page108
Last edited by bmorgil; 07-31-2023 at 06:24 PM.
In the 60 Degree, you are looking for the GM 3.4L 60 Degree V6. They were put in many, many F Body GM cars (Camaro / Firebird). In the F Body, they are rear wheel drive. You could also find a 60 Degree V6 in S10 pickup trucks. Look for a 2 wheel drive.
https://www.jegs.com/i/ATK-Engines/059/DCC9/10002/-1
Last edited by bmorgil; 08-19-2023 at 08:40 AM.
So next question is what is a price range you would expect pay for this restomod? How exactly does restomodding work?
Whenever you "mod" a vehicle, the value is in the eye of the purchaser. That is why most 'Mod's" are sold at auction where buyers can get a good look at the workmanship and style. If you were to put a value on it, you would start with what cost you have in it and what your labor is worth.
In just about any restoration or resto-mod, you will never, financially, recover the cost of the job if you resell it. The value is in the project itself.
There is no way we can estimate what a resto-mod would cost. It depends on your local market, the mods you are making and how much work you can do yourself or get friends to help with.
Just one rough estimate - about 30% to 50% (or more) that you thought it would cost.
The reasoning for the RWD for the selection of a 60-degree V6 is that there are two versions of the engine. A front wheel drive V6 is transverse mounted and is set up for that purpose. The rear wheel drive will be much easier to use for your purpose, because it is set up to work in your application without major modifications in how everything hooks up. It just saves you a boat load of money and time to start with a RWD variant. From there, your options open up again for what you may like to run, then also to what transfer case you would like. Advanced Adapters or Novack has a whole slew of options to what you could put together to make your driveline unite together.