Ok so i have a first gen 1980 toyota 4x4. its my baby. along with being my first truck, it has also taught me everything i know about mechanics.

His name is Monster short for Monstrocity.
heres a few pics of him with different accessories on throughout the last year and some months.







i have rebuilt the top end, replaced the heatercore, and given it a nice stereo, oh and i had it tinted. it has a 4 or 5 inch spring lift. and until about a 2 weeks ago or so it had 35 inch wild countries on it.

now he's sporting some nice 31's all terrains, because i had to trade said 35's to imediately purchase this 22re motor with full engine harness, computer, igniter/coil, header, and all of the air filter ducts and assembly.



my truck is sporting the stock 20r with a weber carb(that i put on a few months after i got it, losing mileage and power i might add..) and i recently swapped a 5 speed out of an '83 for my crappy 4 speed that how'led in 3rd. however im going to convert it to efi with that 22re. lets see, now to go and try to find some conversion diagrams, ok i vow one thing on this thread..

if i actually do manage to get this efi sucker in that bad boy, i will show all of you who arent sure quite which wires to splice how to do it right... ive seen some other 20r/22r to 22re swaps but no one that i have seen has shown the exact wires to splice...

ok so now that i have the tranny is in, my motor starts leaking oil out the rear main seal, of course i changed the clutch and all accosiated bearings but i forgot the rear main SEAL!!! so after 2 tries i finally got it.

you have to understand, this truck has broken down on me so many times i cant get even count, hence why i said i have learned alot on this road of owning my toyota.

so knowing that you wont be suprized to hear what happened last week! i went out of town about an hour to get a really cool trail gear rear bumper(which doesnt fit quite right where it bolts in i think its because mines a long bed) it was dark and on the way out to the neighboring town(mcminville, or from salem, or, i live in salem) my truck had developed a weird rattle to it, an uneveness. now ive never had the fortune of driving on uneven tires and i had been driving on these 31s for a few months now, so i couldnt quite figure out why by the time i was to the next town, my truck was shaking so far i felt like i was on a back road.

i decided to try and get home(after grabbing that tail bumper of course!)

on the way back while i was going a miserable 55 while everyone else is passing me out in the farm country, my truck let me know what was now shaking me so hard i had a headache and i was seriously worried that my windows would all shatter.

my rear driveline POPPED off the transmission output shaft ripping 2 holes in my cab floor before hitting the ground and i think unalligned my rear axles.

i landed in a field and 3 cars (the closest one was tailgating me before the crash) passed me without even stopping to see if i was ok, i didnt flip it but it was pretty close since the field was a good 5 feet lower than the road.

i got out thinking my tranny fell out(thats what it sounded like) to find out it was just the drive shaft(when i reattached the drivelines after the tranny swap i torqued on them as much as possible thinking using the same screws that they had had in them would no have a problem.

i was wrong, apparently it just wasnt enough. so my friend drives an hour to come bring me tools to take the other end of the driveline out. after that i drove the rest of the way home(most of the way) in 4wd while my friend followed.

we got it home and its safe and sound, but im done with it for awhile. so instead of letting it rott and losing interest, or selling it, i decided to give it a makeover, maybe that will make it happy. so now im going to restore it little by little not necessarily frame up, but frame essentially the same thing im just not starting with the frame.

thanks for listening to its history, i know your probably board and hell by now but if your like me you know to know the history on these trucks. it brings us all closer.
furthermore i would like to thank my wonderful girlfriend(essentially my wife) for taking most of these pictures and dealing with our rainy day funds and bonus checks quickly disapearing into this damn project, so, Alyssa, my darling, i am in your debt.)


so on to the build.

today (12-13-09) i wanted to strip the interior and rip out the carpet and the soaking under carpet stuff.
i had redone the undercarpet on my gmc yukon(1995) a few months ago so i had some left over(ok a lot) so all i need for the interior eventually will be new carpet which i have found so far for about 130 or 140 bucks. (its blue now but eventually the interior will be black.)

but first i have to chip up the old tar stuff the factory blobbed on in 1980. heres some shots of that going on, im trying to get to a really nice collection of rust(cancer) holes.


heres a shot of the passenger side

heres a shot of the damage of the rear driveline from that accident i told you about.



also last week i bought some herculiner to do my own roll in bed liner so heres some before pictures.


and heres a shot of the tailgate, lets try my first hand at bondo shall we? heres another before shot for that too(both the bondo work and the truck liner is going to have to wait for a warmer day, probably in the spring but we will see how anxious i get)

and the passenger side rear quarterpanel,


ok, more later, love you guys, let me know how im doing so far!

and

I NEED HELP WITH THE EFI SWAP LATER, SO IF YOU CAN SHOW ME WHAT WIRES TO SPLICE I WOULD FOREVER BE IN YOUR DEBT!!!

ok peace.

 

An efi swap isn't too bad if you find a donor vehicle. with the wiring harness and ecu. It's pretty straight forward if you just take it from a vehicle.
Gotta love the first gen yotas. If this was mine I'd probably build a flatbed or back half on the cheap.

 

RIGHT ON MAN!!!!! gotta love the toyota blue on blue. it's my fav!! we had one of these come in at work, same color and interior. we rebuilt the motor and the weber carb it had, sweet truck i must say.

What are you doin about the floor pans? you going to cut them out and re-weld in some new ones?

That bumper should look great when you get it on.

hope figure out the motor swap. if you dont go through with it, you could always do one of those hibryd swaps (20R head on 22R block) since you've already got the head and donor block. i've had buddies in the past that have done either swaps. i can't fully remember but the buddy who did the EFI swap said you don't need all of the vacuum hoses and wires. when i looked at his engine bay it way so clean, only a couple hoses and wiring to a minimum. i personally thought the hybrid swap was awsesome. he could wrap the piss out of that little motor. i think it has to do with the hemi type 20R head instead of the 22R/RE swirl type head.

but anyways, hope you get your drive shaft fixed and good luck with the resto.

nice rig dude

 

nice truck

 

Ok, so its been a few months since ive touched the truck too much, so i apologize to anyone who has missed me! ;P

Anyway, since ive been on here last i have taken the lift out(removed the lift springs and replaced them with stock springs from craigslist). however the front springs are shot. they are all bent out of shape (spring wrap??) so i have another set of front springs waiting for me to get the energy to go through that crazy process again.

I sold the 22re motor i was planning on putting in it and since then picked up a fully rebuilt 1984 22r pan to carb. however the guy took the cam out(it was an rv cam) and gave me the stock cam, therefore removing the rocker ass'y and head bolts. so i was left with a decision.. risk the gasket that was on it, or re do the top end. i chose the latter.

now its down to the block with pistons still in it(under 1000 miles bored .020 over) awaiting a paint job. im also cleaning the other parts. unfortunately im going to have to swap over things like the distributor and the power steering pump from my 20r thats in the truck but thats ok. Im also trying to track down a carb air filter assembly as the motor didnt come with one.

when i get the money and when the motor is put back together im going to pull the 20r AND the 5 speed tranny out together and have the tranny and t-case professionally rebuilt at a shop. anyone know of a shop that does quality work for a good price in salem or portland?

Oh yeah and my wife bought me a totally rebuilt head for 100 dollars, it looks brand new. the other head had stripped out threads on almost every hole in the head which is why i got the new one.

Oh yeah! since ive taken the lift out, my truck can get up past 80 on an incline (from about 45 or 50 on a SLIGHT incline) and how a lot more power("power").. hey. its more than im used to.. now i can beat the vw beetles from a take off!! (atleast the 1600cc ones haha)

one thing i have noticed though is when i get to about 60mph the truck rattles and shakes like its totally unbalanced, but before i hit 60 mph and after i pass about 70mph the truck smooths out considerably. can you guys think of anything that could be? my tires are filled with air, and are balanced.

So on to another question.. this newly rebuilt head i bought.. am i going to run into a problem if its from a later year truck or "later 22r"? i forgot to ask the guy what year it was off of because of how excited i was and have no way of getting in contact with him. is there an easy way to tell if its the same style head as my other head? they are the same height I THINK (i eye balled it) when they are sitting side by side. please let me know asap because i want to put it all back together very soon.

The carberator was supposedly just rebuilt too but im worried about a few things. on of the top butterfly valves(not the round ones, the weird square-ish ones) is super loose and just open with no tension to it at all. is this normal or should it be closed or almost closed when "at idle"? no matter what i do some parts of the linkage work seemingly seperate from the rest. if anyone knows of another page to look at linkage pics please let me know.

also, which line in the aisin carb is the fuel line and which one is the fuel return line?

ok enough questions.. ITS GREAT TO BE BACK!

oh yeah, and i almost forgot! I had someone come out and weld the floor pans in because i was sick of messing with it, im a terrible welder.. and i herculined the interior and the bed, i still have to do the tailgate and the second coat of the interior but that will happen later, mostly it was a way for me to rust proof my rusting bed, so now that i dont have to worry about my bed rusting through, the second coat and tailgate will have to wait..

 

welcome back, especially a semi local boy

make sure the head is compatible with your block, I think there was a change in 85 but I can't find the link...

 

do you know if it will be obvious? (its not to me) or is there something specific to look for to see if the head is compatible? thanks!