Update from October 2024:

As most of you know that follow me here on my builds and social media, we are currently finishing up the McMillin #Bucketlist Hi-Jumper and hope to have it completed by the end of the year or early next year. The important thing is that as soon as that happens the Ivan Stewart truck is back in the prime time spot and won't move till it's finished. Sound familiar? I know, but I mean it this time. In the mean time I thought I would continue the history lesson on the Ivan Stewart Toyota with its race history. Last time I left you was the 1986 Frontier 500 with the next DESERT race being the Baja 1000 some 38 years ago......WHEW!

History lesson- Race #22, The 1986 Baja 1000:



Ivan Stewart would get the coveted #1 starting spot (#101) for the Baja 1000 and would try and work that to his favor in going for that 1st Baja 1000 win in the class 1 Toyota. Ivan ran hard and had a good race going with Larry Noel, Mark McMillin and the Steve Sourapas/Dave Richardson Raceco. Larry Noel would get around Ivan through Santa Ines and hold that lead till the check point just north of Guerrero Negro where Ivan retook the lead but Mark McMillin was closing the gap. Ivan was still leading through San Ignacio and Larry Noel disappeared, reportedly got lost and then stuck out in the desert for a day and a half. Mark McMillin continued to keep Ivan honest but Ivan would build up a 20 minute lead by the time he came through Constitucion 180 miles from the finish but the engine started to go south and he pulled into the pit his race was over. 20 minutes later Mark McMillin would take the class 1 lead with Bob Gordon close behind in his class 2 Chenowth DR2. AT the finish it was Mark McMillin 1st in class and 1st Overall, beating Baja Bob Gordon by a slim 2 minutes and 6 seconds!

Here is the rest of the story as told by Jean Calvin in the December 1986 issue of Dust Times magazine. Make sure to check out ORMHOF.org and look through EVERY issue of Dusty Times ever published. Here's the link:

ORMHOF - Legends Live at the Hall of Fame - Print

ORMHOF is now the caretaker of The Dusty Times archives, and it is our mission to digitize as much of the material as possible and share it online for everyone to enjoy, starting with the Dusty Times magazine.
ormhof.org


































Hope you guys enjoyed the history lesson! Hope to see some of you at the Baja 1000 here in a few weeks.

 

Update from November 19, 2024:

Originally I was to have the motor mounts fabbed up but had to hold off as I didn’t like how close the steering box was to the front crank pulley…



The steering box is actually clearanced for the pulley but I don’t thin THAT close. There is a possibility I have the wrong bell housing or the bell housing needs some massaging. Either way I had to stop and regroup…



Work needed is to mate the trans to the motor, make sure the clutch and pressure plate are good, the throw out bearing all the clearances are good along with the right sized pulleys (and of course clearances), then I can have the motor mounts fabbed up.



This has proved to be one of the biggest hurdles besides the rebuilding of the rear cantilever suspension mounts that we’ve felt with so far. I will post an update on Friday after the Toyota is delivered and clue you in on who is doing the work. It feels good to be getting back into this project, it needs to be finished by the end of next year……fingers crossed.

 

Ok, this is the latest update so you guys are now completely caught up. If you have any questions for us let me know.

Today was a big day. After feeling defeated last year when putting the engine in the Toyota for the first time and finding out I had some unforeseen issues, it really took the wind out of my sails so I decided to take a little break. Well, that break lasted waaay too long. What I should have done 18 months ago was do what I did today, I dropped the truck off at LC Engineering in Lake Havasu…



Brian Morris whom I’m known for a while (and also a Vintage off road racer himself) went over the list of issues that were needed to be rectified in order for me to proceed with the restoration…



That list includes:
*Correct alignment of motor and trans
*Front crank pulley clearance from steering box
*Complete Pulley set up
*Correct flywheel and clutch set up
*Fix stripped out trans mounts

As for the rebuild on the motor we are not at that point yet, my plan is to have everything else finished on the truck and THEN have the motor done. There is a method to my madness on this and it makes sense to me .

After we finished going over the truck Brian gave me a tour of LC Engineering as I hadn’t been there since they did the motor work on my 4 seat buggy back in 2006-ish. They had added to the shop area and it is quite impressive. Here’s some random shots from the shop like this wall of header fixtures…



Engine room with some fresh builds…



Dyno room…



Freshly powdercoated valve covers…



Super thick header flanges…



And then mounted to their very own custom headers…



Custom turbo manifolds…



And a few CNC machines…




Thinking that one of their custom flywheels will work great in the Toyota…



I was planning on using these guys a while back since they had done such good work on my 4 seat prerunner years ago, and now after seeing the leaps and bounds they have made over the years it makes my decision that much easier.

Once this work is complete, LC Engineering will make my life with this restoration much easier as I can start checking stuff off my list with greater frequency.

 

I see that all the photos are gone, did they have a website crash or was it due to me not updating the thread in over a year? What a shame, my bad though. I have some updates as I started woeking on the Toyota again but if it won't take uplaoded photos it would kinda suck.

 

I don’t think it was lack of updating if you uploaded from the site, I just scrolled through the thread and random pics were populating and then going away, odd indeed….I guess post a few and see if they show up?

 

Very weird, some older pics load fine, but the newer pic links on the last page are all dead for me.

 

I have older posts here and all my pics are gone.

 

Curious for the updates. This truck is so rad.