To comply with Australian emission laws the new engine must have been manufactured the same year or later than the vehicle. The engine must also have all of the emission components connected, including the catalytic converter. The engine must also be run on unleaded fuel or LPG.

In Australia an engineer's report is required after the conversion has been completed. Contact your local RTA office for a list of engineers.

This vehicle originally equipped with the 22R petrol engine utilises a G52 5-speed gearbox, which is marginal in strength and should be taken into consideration if you intend using the vehicle for heavy towing or if you plan to use a high output engine.

The LJ70 Bundera fitted with the Turbo charged 4-cylinder diesel engine is fitted with a stronger gearbox. This gearbox an R150 is based on a Toyota Dyna truck 5-speed and is strong enough to handle the power of a V8 engine.

Based on the success of the Commodore V6 engine conversion into the Hilux/4-Runner vehicles, Marks 4WD Adaptors have developed a similar kit for use in the Bundera where the standard transmission can be retained in its original position.

The Commodore V6 transplant offers more torque, power and as the engine runs an efficiently managed fuel injection system delivers excellent fuel economy.

The bellhousing has been designed to space the engine away from the firewall in order to clear the throttle body at the rear of the V6 engine. The original 5-speed is not moved, therefore no firewall modifications, repositioning of gearbox, or tail shaft modifications are required.

The 3.8Ltr V6 engine bolt pattern is illustrated below.

The clutch is coupled to the gearbox by a special gearbox input extension shaft. It has the GM spigot diameter with external spline on the engine end and Toyota spigot diameter with internal spline on the gearbox end.

The new input shaft allows the standard V6 GM clutch pressure plate with a V8 clutch disc to be used on the V6 flywheel. The V8 clutch disc provides less clutch shudder due to the clutch plate having stronger centre springs.

The thrust bearing and extension carrier supplied in the kit slides over the gearbox nose cone and will allow the Bundera petrol or diesel 4-cylinder clutch fork to be used with the new pivot supplied in the kit. The extension carrier is also supported by the new bellhousing.

When replacing the Toyota petrol engine a diesel model slave cylinder will need to be purchased.

As the slave cylinder for the diesel models is located on the left-hand side of the vehicle and the new bellhousing has the slave cylinder on the right side the hydraulic pipes will need to be shifted and modified to suit. Alternately Marks 4WD Adaptors can now supply a crossover pipe comprising of braided stainless hose, hose fittings, and other mounting hardware to do the job with a minimum of fuss. This photo shows the crossover pipe fitted to a bellhousing

The left-hand mounting utilises the standard GM engine bracket, a new wedge bracket with the Bundera mounting rubber and a new chassis bracket. This design allows the use of the standard GM air conditioning compressor if required. The new chassis bracket is welded to the chassis. Left chassis bracket, left adaptor bracket

The right-hand engine-mounting bracket bolts to the Commodore V6 engine block and fits directly to the original Bundera mounting rubber and chassis post. right engine bracket

The 3-core diesel radiator is large enough to keep the Commodore engine cool. The 2-row petrol radiator is too small and must be replaced. Marks 4WD Adaptors now stock a new 4-core radiator with special side mounting brackets that allow the radiator to bolt up to the same mounting points as the original one. The radiator is also fitted with a high-pressure 135kpa cap the top and bottom spouts have also been re-sized and positioned to suit the Commodore engine.

A new modified engine sump/oil pan is required for the conversion. Marks 4WD Adaptors manufacture a new sump/oil pan designed to give legal differential and steering arm clearance. The oil pan fits behind the differential housing and is supplied with a new oil pickup.

The Commodore engine does not have an engine driven cooling fan; the engine ECM/PCM controls an electric fan to maintain the engine temperature. Marks 4WD Adaptors now stock a cooling kit, which includes 2 electric fans, fan mounting bracket, top, and bottom radiator, hoses, hose clamps and fixing bolts.

The Commodore V6 engine is not normally fitted with an engine driven cooling fan; the engine ECM/PCM controls an electric fan to maintain the engine temperature. This system is normally satisfactory in most conditions however if the vehicle is to be used in sand or heavy off road conditions during the summer months requiring the air conditioning to be used then the electric fans will most likely not do the job and will cause the engine to over heat. For this reason Marks 4WD Adaptors have now manufactured an engine driven fan.

The engine driven fan kit utilises the original Toyota 22R viscous coupling and is supplied with a new aluminium water pump pulley, aluminium fan adaptor, reverse rotation fan (400mm diameter), bolts washers and instructions.

Note: The engine driven fan has been tested on our company Toyota Bundera with great success. The vehicle was used in the sand dunes near Robe, South Australia during the summer of 2001 in temperatures reaching the high 30’s with the air conditioning running flat out. At the time no fan shroud was used however, we have since found that for the air conditioning to work properly in heavy traffic where the engine is idling for long periods of time a fan shroud is required.

As mentioned above a fan shroud is required for maximum cooling efficiency. For this reason Marks 4WD Adaptors now manufacture a universal fan shroud kit that can be used with Hilux/4Runner and Bundera V6 and V8 conversions. The fan shroud kit consists of a blank fan shroud (no hole cut out for the fan) and a rolled ring to fit around the fan (maximum fan diameter 400mm). Note: Two ring lengths are available 35mm and 75mm the short one is used in Commodore V6 and V8 to Hilux applications and the long one is used in Chevy V6 to Hilux and Commodore V6 and V8 to Bundera.

This photo shows a completed fan shroud.

The standard petrol and diesel tachometer will not operate directly from the V6 ignition system. Marks 4WD Adaptors manufacture two interfaces for both petrol and diesel that will make operative the original 4-cylinder tachometer by converting the pulses received from the V6 DFI module.

The wiring of an EFI engine can be a daunting task especially if you have no prior experience with electronics. well fear not because Marks 4WD Adaptors have an interface wiring loom which is fitted with the EFI, fan, A/C, fuel pump relays, and fusses along with the original GM plugs that correspond with the engine loom. The few remaining trailing wires are labelled to show you where to connect them.

For the Commodore ECM/PCM to function properly and allow the engines emissions to comply with EPA regulations it must acquire a speed signal from the VSS. Marks 4WD Adaptors manufacture a number of VSS units and VSS interfaces to suit most EFI engine and vehicle combinations.

For more information see the Speed sensor interface module page.

You will need to obtain the following components.

The Commodore V6 engine complete with, the main engine wiring harness, the ECM computer and mem-cal. Other accessories such as the map sensor, purge canister, air cleaner and ducting, air conditioning compressor and power steering pump, engine pipes and catalytic converter, external fuel pump and damper.

If you intend fitting the Commodore V6 to a Hilux/4-Runner 5-speed gearbox you must make sure that the engine you obtain was fitted with a manual transmission.

The series one engines have two crankshaft bolt patterns and starter motor types, the manual transmission type and the automatic transmission type. For this reason they are not interchangeable.

However series two and later engines have the same crankshaft so they can be converted from automatic to manual by fitting a flywheel and changing the mem-cal.

This only applies to VN and VP engines, VR and later engines have different computers and wiring looms for automatic and manual.

The engine should also have the driver side engine mount rubber and bracket.

Conversion Kits