clarion69374

Hey yote fans ive been floating around yt for a bit now and figured its been long due that i post my build.

I also have a build thread on dezertrangers.com ( 90 4runner Build)
Link: http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/fab-shop/149892.htm

The starting platform:

1990 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4X4
3.0 V6 5 speed manual
31x10.50 Yokohama Geolanders
Aisin manual hub conversion 4wd vacuum delete
Spintech catback exhaust
Slapped on a bumper so i could have Aux. lights will be rebuilding very soon. Also built some tube "nerf" bars; for lack of a better name lol, should be able to tie my roll cage into these down the road.

Grrrrr started this thread and now i cant get my pics loaded!!!!!!!!!

Gonna post this for now with hopes of having the picture thing figured out by tonight sorry for the tease guys. My sig should give you an idea of whats goin on :wabbit2:

clarion69374

Sorry it's taking so long guys I'm about to go crazy trying load pics. I've loaded my pics to photobucket but can't ge them on here. Hopefully will get it figured out soon. No wonder I've put off making my own build thread!!!!

clarion69374

Alright so I think I finally got it fingered out. So this is a test post with a pic of the beginning of the front bumper. If this works then I'll get all my pics on photobucket and give it another try.

clarion69374

Sweet!!!

clarion69374

Front bumper finished with lights and tabs for potential skid plate but like I said before I just threw this bumper together so I do plan on rebuilding it.



Painted



Will get pics up of the LT build tonight

clarion69374

I couldn't find my pictures of when I very first started building my control arms but I did everything starting from the first lower arm that I finished. Now my original intention for this truck has always been for it to be a prerunner but did not want to spend thousands of dollars on bolt on stuff. I've worked at enough fab shops in the last few years to make me confident that I could build a nice LT setup but for a fraction of the cost. Don't get me wrong still very expensive but I wanted the pride and satisfaction of knowing I did everything myself.

When I find my other pic I'll put them up but this was the first lower arm I completed

3/16" plate all the way around
2"x.250 DOM for my mounting points
Super BEEF









Both lower arms done with gussets

clarion69374

Originally I was gonna run a balljoint on the lower arm and then eventually buy the total chaos lower uniball kit but I then would lose the "all on my own theme" so after a little work I made my own lower uniball conversion which you will see in later pics. With lower arms done it was time to tackle the uppers.

Upper control arms
1.5"x.188 DOM tubing
2"x.250 DOM for mounting points
1" uniball



Nice clean welds





All 4 arms. When I took this pic I didn't have the gussets done yet for the upper arms will try to find the ones that show the gussets



In the meantime the runner needed a new steering box badly so while I was at the scrap yard I scored my 95 tailgate and made the swap

Much cleaner

clarion69374

With the control arms finished it was time to get down to the dirty stuff but first a before shot



My boy Justin and I tearing the front end down



Man it was nasty under there!!!! Not good!!



Bye bye Toyota ifs





Hello Torched Racing & Fab Long Travel

B-yodaful

That looks awesome. what are you doing to do with the rear?

clarion69374

After a couple adjustments I was able to start fitting the shiny stuff.





When I did the bump stops I was running a little short on funds so I opted to go with daystar stingers and mounted them in the location shown in the pictures. I know this wasn't the best choice but it would work for the time being. Now that I'm doing the motor swap I scored a set of fox hydro bumps and will be setting those up when I build the engine cage.

Everything bolted up and welded. Ready for tires and to sit on all fours.

clarion69374

Thanks man. For the rear I'm gonna redesign the 4 link and run coil overs. There's a red 4runner that solo motorsports did and I'm gonna use a similar setup.

clarion69374

Now with tires on I'm ready to start my tie rods. Unfortunately when I took this picture I was waiting on my 3/4x16 lefty tap so was at a stand still. When I finally got the tap I blasted out the tie rods and snapped a couple pics but never loaded them so once I find em I'll post em.



Rollin under her own power!!! I found out the hard way about proper spring rate lol. This is the after pic but with waaaayyy soft springs.



Very obvious that I was in need of some fiberglass!!! I really considered goin with a one piece but ended up with Hanneman 4" flat tops. Was actually quite pleased too.



More goodies, took off stock bumper and did the 95 grill swap. Corner light to corner light.



My FREE Beards and the Gas tank out of my step brothers XJ for the tank swap and relocation

clarion69374

She sits much better with the new springs under her now. Handling wa greatly improved as well

clarion69374

So after I replaced the uber soft springs with the proper rate springs I was able to test the kit a little harder. I've been a little on the safe side until I can get my cage seats and harnesses in before I really use this truck to its potential but it does run 60-70 across the desert pretty smooth i did notice the adverse effects of my placement for the bump stops. At their given location it seemed to make the truck rock side to side over the smaller bumps. Bigger bumps were ok but I realized hydro bumps mounted over the spindle needed to be addressed soon. I also realized I was missing something else.... Power!!!! The 3.0 v6 that toy used is gutless!!! It took a decent stretch of desert to even touch 55 so 60-70 just seemed to take too much effort to get there......

Sooooo....





Motor swap time!!!!! After tossing many many engine possibilities around after a year of having this truck I finally chose to go with a Chevy 4.3 vortec v6. I had mentioned to a buddy that I was gonna put the 3.0 on CL he immediately offered me $600 for just the motor!!! He needed it for a truck he bought for his son that had a blown 3.0 After a day at the local pick n pull I scored a 95 CPI vortec v6, motor tranny wiring brain and all for $500!!!! Was pretty stoked and new I had my work cut out for me.

The original intention was to just drop the motor in on some custom mounts and fire off but my better judgement kicked in and went for the tear down & rebuild approach.. The wife wasn't so happy but I knew in the long run this was a more wise decision.

Tear down begins...



Quick note; when i picked out this motor the vehicle still had ALL of its recent tune up stickers on it from the local GM stealership!!! Also could tell the owner made a valid attempt the maintain the vehicle. With the being said I was pretty confident that when I opened her up I would see minimal wear

clarion69374

After opening up the motor I was pleased to see that there wasn't much carbon build up and the cross hatching was still visible on the cylinder walls. Intake manifold was pretty nasty so its makin a trip to the sandblaster block and head went to the machine shop for working and cleaning then time for paint.

clarion69374

Now that everything is clean she needed some new colors



Reman 4l60e that's goin behind the 4.3

clarion69374

Even though the motor is ready for rebuild I'm going to hold off until after my wedding next week then I'll order my rebuild kit and custom cam. In the meantime there was still a lot of work to be done. First off old 3.0 and tranny needed to come out.



Tranny out



My boy Justin makin friends with the ole 3.0 before she goes



Bye bye 3.slow

clarion69374

Hello Chevy 4.3



Since I didn't hav any of the guts in the block yet it made it very easy to mock up the new motor mounts but first the stock mounts needed to be cut off. Here's where I call on my Justin again. He's always up to the task when it comes to cutting off factory BS

clarion69374

Motor mounts cleaned off now it was time to fit the block one more time and start tacking in the new mounts





All finished up

clarion69374

Once I had the motor mounts finished I was on a roll so Justin and I threw the block in AGAIN and got our hands on a bare 4l60e case to mock up the tranny mount. Originally I was gonna build a custom cmember but once we had the case bolted up it came so super close to the stock mount that I decided to modify the stock cmember since I'm gettin close to crunch time. Sooo I took off the stock mount and used some 1/4" plate to mock up the new mount



Beefy