voiddweller

Hopefully I won't regret this. Last weekend I drove down to south florida and picked up this runner from someone on the cheap that was a project he'd started and lost the space to work on it in, leaving him to sell it un-finished and in a not running state. It's almost fully stock with the exception of the mods listed below

I brought my compression tester with me, all cylinders checked out good. Recent cam bearing and head job on the engine. All he said was there was some sort of electrical problem with the rig causing fuel pump problems and it wouldn't start.

It came with (used and not installed):
Procomp stage 3 4" front suspension lift kit used
Skyjacker soft ride 5" lifted rear leaf springs used
Procomp shocks used w/red boots and new set of green boots.
Custom bikini top
extra front bumper, grill, and valance

Mods:
Aluminum quad-core radiator with 16" elect fan (fan not connected yet)
Turbo positive water feed mod.
New gas tank, as fuel pump assembly not installed missing pump

Pics to follow:

voiddweller

Here's my 3.0 hauling way too much weight and other pics of the rig













Electric fan mod, alum radiator




She's got some rust on the roof, it doens't go all the way through on the middle spot, above the doors the rust is just one layer, shouldn't be too hard to remove and clean up
























So I haven't had a chance to dig in and really give her another going over and start doing some work on it. Son was sick all weekend and I've had to stay home with him yesterday. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll be doing some testing, get a fuel pump and see if it'll even start up.

Is there a good way of starting these things up without a fuel pump to see if the engine will even run proper? I haven't even checked for spark yet. Frankly for the great price I got on this rig, I didn't care if it sparked or not when I bough it. I probably should have checked. Turning the engine over and compression was my only concern..

More updates to come.. hopefully sooner than later! I'll be asking tons of questions to all you experts. I'm still just getting my 4runner feet wet and I'm ultra excited to get this thing going!

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Nice looking runner you got and a hard one to find. To see if it will even try starting, I would put a few teaspoons of gas into the Plenum and crank it over and see it if will fire up for a few seconds.

voiddweller

Thanks Terry!

Yesterday I got a little time to root around under the hood. Turns out the guy left a few wires disconnected, namely the ground to the cab, a few sensors had broken wires and I patched them back together. Going to try to start her up later this morning after I drop the little one off at daycare.

Picked up a fuel pump assembly at the pick n pull from an 89 pickup, tested good so I'll be dropping that in and mounting the tank back up.

The PO claimed there was an electrical problem keeping it from firing up, so he had pulled all the relays out and left them in the glovebox I guess. Time to break out the fsm and figure out where they all go. I've never tested relays but I guess it cant be too hard. Lots of work ahead of me.. Hopefully it'll cool off here in Orlando soon

voiddweller

So is anyone familiar with the turbo positive water feed mod? Apparently in stead of drawing hot coolant from the engine return outlet, it draws it off the coolant engine inlet. Is it recommended?

I got the engine started up with some gasoline in the plenum, ran it for a few seconds. Lots of smoke, it sat for years. Lots more work to come, updates soon with pics!

voiddweller

So I managed to get it started. After 1-2 seconds it would just stall out without fail. Asked for suggestions over in the tech section and got a lot of good advice.

Tested air meter, good
Replaced Igniter
Replaced PCV grommet
Tested EGR
Re-routed improperly routed vacuum lines
Replaced some wiring from the igniter / coil that was frayed and/or corroded
Cap/Rotor, Set timing, was off 45deg
Replaced fuel filter (old was OEM and appeared to be VERY aged)
New Battery

2 days of testing and scrounging around, still wasn't working. I replaced the ECU with a spare I found in a box in the parts box the PO gave me, still no go. I decided to just focus on cleaning up the back of the truck and found another ECU under the floormats rolled up. Put that in, and she fired right up and stayed running!

It's great that I got the other things tested out and replaced so I don't have to deal with it later.

Found some sort of massive exhaust leak down below the exhaust manifold. Looks like one of the 3 studs down there doesn't have a bolt on it. Probably no gasket either. It sounds really throaty and loud, I'll address that later.

Going to focus on installing the Pro Comp Stage 3, 4" front lift and skyjack 5" rear over the next few days. It's just a big box of parts so identifying everything should prove to be an interesting learning experience. It's going to be difficult since I've never done a lift before and none of the parts are labled with part numbers or anything. Downloaded the install instructions so I just have to inventory everything and spread it out

voiddweller

Started pulling the shocks, sway bar and eccentric bolts off the front end. Soaking the lower control arm bolts overnight with pb-blaster. Got 1 of 3 off with the impact wrench, they really don't seem rusty at all, but I cant for the life of me get the other 3 off.. Hoping the soak helps.

Will be taking the rotors off and cleaning up the brake system after I get the front lift installed..

voiddweller

Spent some time this morning separating ball joints, tie rod ends, removing cv axle and lower control arm.. hopefully the other side will go quicker than the first - now that i've figured out how to do it..

After that, dropping the diff out, installing drop brackets, then everything else.. when I first thought about tackling this I had no idea it'd be this much work LOL.. Frankly I had an easier time pulling my manual trans out of my 2nd gen than the front end of this 87.. I'm still really enjoying the learning experience though for sure..

Hopefully I'll make it through this experience with all fingers intact and a taller ride!

voiddweller

Been sick today so I didn't get my planned time to finish tearing the front end down. After having not really planned out this project very well I realized that while I have the front diff dropped for the IFS lift and the rear end down for the leaf installs I should probably:

Fix oil pan leak
Exhaust manifold gasket

voiddweller

Finally got the front Pro Comp 4" installed. It was very time consuming to say the least. Lots of stuck bolts, grease, mess and a broken finger. I got it done though. Just have to cut the tie rod ends & refit.. tighten/install a few more bolts then i'll be jacking up the rear to do the 5" skyjacker lift tomorrow..





Before





After

Good thing is, if/when I decided to drop the oil pan, at a later date I now have the clearance to do it without dropping the diff again since it's already got drop brackets on it..

voiddweller

Wow. Getting the rear end hardware off was SO much easier than the front!

My jack stands would only go so high. I had to roll the diff down off the jack just to get clearance and room to install the 5" skyjacker leaf springs. So I'm going to have to have my neighbor come over this afternoon and help me manhandle the diff back under the new leafs and complete the install. It'll give me time to paint the rear shocks, they were horrid nasty.

voiddweller

Lifes been super busy this past week. Being a stay at home dad with a 20 month old boy while working at home and trying to find the extra time to spend a couple hours a day finishing this lift install has been a bear.

Today I finished the full installation and got the compression struts installed. The transmission cross member bolts had to soak overnight to break loose but I got them off for the install. Looks pretty good. Once I get the engine sorted at a later date I'll drive it out and snap some good photos of the installed lift.

Still have to deal with the tie rods and cut them 1/2" short on both sides because they are too long after the ifs install.





Compression struts

jefro

Great job so far can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm in the middle of swapping my automatic for a 5 speed in my 86 turbo SR5 best of luck with everything. After the transmission is done I have a complete Energy Suspension poly kit to install I hope it goes smooth

voiddweller

Thanks!

Looks like we might be moving out of this rental house and buying our own. I'll probably have to get rid of this thing, which is a shame since I got the bulk of the work done on it already. I had hoped to get the build/resto fully finished and kept it up on my Mom's property in Hot Springs, VA for a mountain trail riding rig but I think I'm running out of time and money, especially with a house purchase on the horizon.

Gizler00

iTrader: (1)

Nice Runner you have there. I am jealous of your Turbo Setup. It looks like a very clean platform.

Sorry to hear that you might have to get rid of it. Hopefully you can figure something out and keep it.

voiddweller

Fixed the exhaust leak. PO decided to leave one of the 3 nuts on the studs off because it was stripped in the middle. I cut the stud in half through the stripped section, replaced the gasket and it's all good to go now. As Wyoming9 said I should make a sacrifice to the Toyota gods, because I got really lucky not having a harder time with that stud repair. I assumed I'd end up having to pull the turbo off to fix it.





The PO I purchased this rig off did a 'slow' head gasket job on it. Apparently he figured he'd just bend the power steering lines over to the right while still attached to the pump - instead of removing the pressure and reservoir lines, and leave them for a month that way. They were all crimped and cracked/leaking when I got it. I went and bought new ones and installed them over the weekend. Very messy job. Looks great now though.

After having a mostly empty brake line setup for a while since I had the front end off during the IFS lift installation I had to do the 1 man bleed on everything so I went and rented a bleeder tool down the street at Advance. Needless to say it didn't go as planned. After doing the rear I moved up to the front passenger side I found the vacuum pump wouldn't draw anything through the line. Seems that the hardline behind the rotor was totally clogged with something. I had an exact match spare so I replaced it, and man it was a mess since the whole system had fluid in it again. I tried plugging it at the braided line with a cork which KIND of worked, but I managed to get it all sorted out, and bled the system again.

I picked up some really good condition BFG AT Baja 35x12.5x15's today and plan to mount them tomorrow. 2 more inches than before and it had a really good stance with the old nasty 33's on it. Can't wait to see it with the BFGs.

List of things to do after tires are done:

Sort out Power windows problem (none work from switches, all work with direct power) probably a broken wire, relay or ground issue.

Full Interior Fabric Cleaning

Pound out the dent in the front chrome stock bumper

Driveway Alignment

The way things go, I'll probably encounter other things down the road while knocking things off the list, but that's how it goes

More pics to come

voiddweller

Thanks, I remain hopeful. I've got about 3-4 months to maybe figure something out.. until then I'm going to keep grinding away

voiddweller

I admit, My garage is so small I can't even get a picture of the whole truck with the lift and 35's installed. The battery is on the charge so later this afternoon hopefully I can pull her out into the yard and snap some photos after a test ride.

Here is what I was able to get picture-wise .. with the sun to my back, it makes the garage terribly dark if I take pics from outside during this time of day.. so I had to snap from inside - note after the bfg 35's 4" front and 5" back I have about 1 inch clearance to roll out of the garage now.. I thought i'd have to let air out of the tires but I managed to just barely get it .. lol

voiddweller

voiddweller

So I started working on the power windows issue and decided I'd put that off and start working on other things.

The PO had said he did the head gasket and replaced the cam bearings. I initially believed him, the cylinder head was shiny and clean like it had been to the machine shop and I just assumed he was being truthful, why not, right? After getting it running and started up, doing all the other various repairs on PS stuff and whatnot, I noticed that I had an oil leak. From the head gasket. I drained the coolant and it didn't appear to have any oil in it, the oil didn't appear milky, but then again the motor hasn't been run for more than 15-20 minutes since I got it because I've been doing all the other stuff.

I found under the seat, a brand new head gasket, and a pile of other gaskets from a kit that hadn't been used.

Now what I am thinking, is his story was he lost his place to work on this truck at, ie: his job with a warehouse. I am now wondering if this was timed at the same time he was going to reassemble the head and put everything back together. Now I think he just chucked it all back together, didn't torque anything and it's just a giant mess of leaks. I wouldn 't be surprised if he put the same old gaskets back. Which would also explain the lack of exhaust gaskets and the new ones I found under the seat. Glad I cleaned up the interior and made this discovery.

I also found that the ECU was from a non-EFI 1985 year 5 speed far from what it needed to be for. Wrong model #, etc. It would start the truck but that's it. So I ordered a turbo ECU with the proper model # from MaineToy and it's on its way. I'm also ordering a full 22ret gasket kit and head bolts.

I'm going to do this on my own. Last year I paid a mechanic 1700.00 to do the head gasket job on my 95 3.0 and I'll be damned if I'm going to fall into that trap again.

I've never done a head rebuild before, but I'm going to now. I'll also do the front main seal while I am at it, oil pan gasket as well. With the differential drop and the lift clearance the oil pan access will be gravy. I'll be posting pics along the way. I still have a few months before I decide what I plan on doing with the runner but I need to get this straightened out nonetheless.

Hopefully with the support of this great Yotatech community and the wealth of knowledge in the forums - I'll be able to tackle this task without major problems. I'm confident I'll be triumphant! I'm looking forward to it. I'm picking up a nice long folding table or two for the parts, got my liquid whiteout for marking hoses and whatnot and the printed FSM sections I'll need for studying. I hope to start pulling it apart this weekend.

If anyone has input or suggestions that has experience in this job it's welcome!