atlastrekker

I've been lurking for long enough, it's time to start a thread of my own!

I bought this 4runner a couple of years back and have been slowly working down the list. It was fairly beat when I bought it, but it's getting pretty good now.

So, here's what it looked like when I got it. It's a 22re with a 5 speed, and that's why I picked it up. No 3.0 for me!





When I bought it there was 275k on the odometer and the motor was blowing blue smoke pretty good. I think it was burning around one quart of oil per tank of gas!

I went through and fixed up all the little things that were wrong, like the rear window motor, the center console, and a million other nitnoys. Saving for a motor took a couple months.

Next up the motor.

atlastrekker

After saving up for a bit I bought a motor from 22reperformance in Chico, CA. It took a while, but I finally got the old one out. Orignal clutch was still in there.

atlastrekker

After a whole of cleaning it looked like this:



Picked this up:


Started putting it back together

atlastrekker

After getting the motor together I struggled a little bit with an issue that ended up being the TPS. The timing couldn't be set, but it wasn't throwing a code.



After breaking it in properly I'm impressed with the motor and I think the rebuilders did a great job. They did take forever to do it, though.

atlastrekker

I had typical rear spring sag so I bought some OME 2900 medium duty coils and bilstein shocks





It lifted the back quite a bit, about 4", which is probably 2" over stock. I still need to order a panhard drop bracket, my wheels are a little off. It sure does look better.

atlastrekker

I also needed some bumpers, so I called trail-gear up and spent some money.

The rear is ok, but I'd like to make a spare tire carrier to add on to it.



The front bumper is pretty nice. It's a low profile version and holds my old Warn XD9000i winch pretty good.

atlastrekker

At this point the truck had a pretty good rake, so it was time for a set of balljoint spacers from 4crawler and a set of Bilstein shocks for the front.

atlastrekker

I've got a bit more work into it at this point, but I'll have to get the pictures of that stuff up later. I'm building this 4runner up mostly for camping and exploring but it will also serve as my daily driver in the winter time. I expect to see conditions of about every type with it, and that means it'll have to be a jack of all trades.

My list of things I've done and plan to do:

22re Performance Long Block motor
New heavy duty clutch
Aisin Manual locking hubs
Replaced the old beat up front and rear bumpers with Trail-Gear tube units
Warn xd9000 winch
Dual battery set up
Old Man Emu 2900 coil springs in the rear
Bilstien 4600 shocks
Quickfist mount for the Maxaxe
4.88 axle gears and a rear Detroit Locker
I went through the rig fixing every little thing that I could find wrong.


Future modifications planned:

Roof Rack
Scepter Gas Can mounts
Spare Tire carrier for the rear bumper
33″ tires of undecided width or rim size
Aluminum rims
Auxiliary fuel tank
Headlight wiring upgrade
LED head lights
LED driving lights
Rubber floor mats
Rear cargo area storage
W56 5 speed tranny, rebuilt
4.7 geared transfer case
Bud Built t-case crossmember
2 meter ham radio with antenna
’82 Supra AFM mod part #22250-43110
Relocate rear window switch to the dash
Swap in wiper controls from tilt steering wheel model
’97 Tacoma brake master cylinder and booster
V6 calipers and cross drilled rotors
Relocate rear window switch to dash and delete window lock switch

Roark

Something about a two tone runner makes it sleeker. Really good work, man!

Curious, what size tires are on it in the first pictures?

atlastrekker

Thanks! I like the spray on bedliner around the bottom a lot. Its good for corrosion prevention.

The tires are 31x10.5r15 General Grabber A/T's in the pictures. I also have a set of Goodyear MT/r 33x12.5's that I use for the trail.

atlastrekker

After installing the trail gear front bumper I needed to relocate my front turn signals, so I decided to move them up into the side markers.

First I used a 7/8" paddle bit to drill the holes, which worked surprisingly well.


Then I used a file to make the whole the right size and make the notches for the bulb housing to fit.


Here's what it looks like installed.


I love free mods!

atlastrekker

I don't drive this 4runner all the time, so I decided that I wanted to be able to switch the battery off while it was parked. I got a pretty good deal on a switch, and it was good for two batteries.

Wiring it up was pretty easy, I just took the positive cables that were wired to the battery and moved them to the common post on the switch. Then ran 4 gauge to each battery. It's not an automated system, but I have had them in the past and honestly don't think that they are worth it.





At that point I had pretty much killed the Optima Battery, so I found two of these Sears batteries that are made by Odyssey on sale.



Finding a place to install the second battery isn't so easy on these things, so for now I mounted it up in cargo area. I will probably move this at some point, but I'm not sure where.


I'm thinking about making a "secret compartment" under the cargo area after I move the spare tire, and the batteries might go into there. It would be nice to have the room under the hood. Does anyone have other suggestions for where to mount batteries?

atlastrekker

At this point I wired up the fridge from my 4x4 van (HUGE! 64 quart edgestar model) and took a trip down to Joshua Tree for some camping and light wheeling.



This was my camping setup at the time.


I would like to get a smaller 12 volt fridge, but it sure is nice to not deal with ice! The edgestar has been a great fridge over the years, so I'll probably get another one of those instead of an ARB or Engel.

atlastrekker

I decided that I have spilled enough coffee on my rear window switch and it was time to move it up to the dash.



Now I have to figure out what to do with the center console.


I don't really want to lose the rear heater, it's pretty nice to have, but I need to clean this up a bit.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

That two tone does look great. Looks like you are making some great progress on your runner. Welcome to Yotatech.

Roark

Do you have any pictures of your relocated blinkers in action? Curious as to how effectively they function.

These are great updates, man. Taking notes on your refrigerator set up!

atlastrekker

Uhm, well I was going to take pictures of the turn signals in action, but it ended up not really doing much justice. They are brighter, since half the corner marker is clear. I am sure that everyone who cares to see them can.

Thanks for the welcomes.

The fridge is great. It's the 63 quart, which is big enough for four people for a week, but I'll probably be getting one of these for this rig at some point.

I've done a bunch more to the rig, I just have to find some more time to get the pics up here.

This thread on tires carriers has me thinking... I need to do something similar.

JasonYota

iTrader: (1)

Nice build keep it going!

atlastrekker

Trying to get some better gas mileage and also to save some wear and tear on the CV shafts, I decided to ditch these:


To replace them with a set of these:


This resulted in going from 16 mpg to 18 mpg running 31's with 4.10 gears, so over all it's an awesome bang for your buck easy swap.

atlastrekker

Driving around in the mountains around my house up in the Sierras with 4.10's got to be a little ridiculous. It was time to do a gear swap.

Shopping around I found a used front axle that looked really nice internally, so I bought, tore it down, replaced all the seals and gaskets put it back together and installed it in the 4runner.


At the same time I also replaced the CV shafts and went through the rest of the front end as well. My steering box was leaking like crazy, so I bought a rebuilt one from Sky Offroad, while I was there also replaced the tie rod ends and idler arm with the "good" one from autozone.



I had thought about upgrading the steering in some way or the other, but the future of this suspension and axle is still a bit in the air. I decided to replace it with stock stuff for now and see what happens from there.

That left me with the rear third left to do. Shopping around, I found a 3rd with a full detroit locker and a set of 4.88's that were bad for $300. The guy I bought it off of had knocked the the drain plug off on a rock and run it dry until he realized it on the drive home from the trail. I had the locker inspected and ok'd, so new 4.88's went into the third. At that time I replaced the wheel bearings and seals on the rear axles, since they were out anyways.

The old open 4.10 third on the left and the new 4.88 locked third on the right.