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I've been using this forum as a source for knowledge, as well as inspiration and now I hope to document what I've done to my truck, as well as what I do in the future.
I bought this truck may 1st of this year and have been doing my best to turn it into my ideal work toy.
There was quite a bit wrong with it when I bought it. It still drove home, but the exhaust header was loose, radiator leaked, shifter tower needed to be entirely rebuilt, valve cover needed to be resealed, front brakes needed to be rebuilt, etc, etc,.
I took care of all of the problems I could find (not all of them though), found a bobbed flatbed that actually used to be my buddies 3 owners ago and about 100 miles away.
I got a different buddy who was looking for a clean 3rd gen bed, so we worked out a deal. He extended the flatbed for me, and I gave him the original. We also put some TG rock sliders on.
Got distracted by a 2 owner 1989 corolla GT-S that I found for $700!!! That thing became my daily.
Found a Third with stock 4:10's bought it before I saw the lockrite was cracked,
so I bought a set of 4:88's for the front and rear, a Grizzly for the rear and a Spartan for the front.
Got those thrown in.
Don’t have a picture of the Grizzly in the rear.
Finally wired up the spotlights underneath and put reverse lights in, found a sun roof, (it was a piece of plexi and a bunch of duct tape when I bought it), that made me feel better looking at the truck. The duct tape really killed me.
And bam. It wheels.
Those were the ridiculously built rigs I was between for my inaugural crawl, turns out I didn’t need a lick of help.
Meanwhile out wheeling we met a couple guys from B.C., down for a summer wheeling trip, with the rarest Toyota I’ve seen in person.
For those who don’t know, this one is a RHD turbo diesel. They’re other rig broke a driveline, so we took them down to one of our shops and got to drink beer while we all gaped at that yellow beauty.
I've still got a lot to do on it, but I'm very happy with the progress I've made as well as how it performed on the trails, even on 31" A/T's
I plan on finishing the flatbed off with a drop in tool box, more strap mounts, a headache rack, and post holes in the back for a custom rack / camping shelter.
She still needs a lift, and a set of 33’s.
I’m also waiting on a tube bender to make my own front bumper. I want it to be incorporated into the stock one to keep it looking good up front.
I also need to fix the angle of the exhaust. On hot days when I’m at high speeds, it melts the mud flap.
Last edited by Ergodyne; Nov 19, 2019 at 05:22 AM.
Reason: Errors and picture location
Okay, so still working out some of the kinks in this truck. The majority of the time I’ve had it, it’s had acceleration issues:
stumbling when accelerating, sometimes short <2-3 seconds as well and long >10 second periods of major bogging down.
major bogging down when attempting to leave a stop.
Sometimes it’s intermittent, sometimes it’ll drive 20 miles without a hiccup.
There have been several things I’ve replaced in an attempt to solve this and while they’ve all helped, none have definitively solved the issue(s).
Here’s what I’ve done:
New TPS
Valve adjustment
O2 sensor
radiator and thermostat
temperature switch gasket (it was leaking)
and I tested my MAF with a volt meter, all circuits tested inside parameters.
What I’m thinking of trying next:
Tearing apart my fuel pump to see if the strainer is clogged.
replacing the fuel filter( I’m pretty positive I already did that, but can’t remember for sure)
Checking if the CAT is clogged.
Drinking another beer about it.
So, I haven’t had much free time over the past few weeks, which means the truck was being neglected.
I replaced the mass air flow a few weeks ago, which didn’t seem to help.
Fast forward to today, I went and got a new (new?, New new?) fuel filter and put it in. Put in a bottle of Lucas FI cleaner and then got the motor running enough to trace down vacuum leaks with starter fluid. I torqued down a few things while I look for new gaskets, found a few unplugged lines, then the dog and I took it for a drive. Seems to be doing better.
Tomorrow, I’m going to run my errands in it, try to burn up the gas, then do another treatment with seafoam and an oil change with some stabilizer.
When I go to do gaskets I’ll be replacing the one on the plenum, so I figure that’s a great time to test the injectors.
Cheers.
Last edited by Ergodyne; Nov 9, 2018 at 03:14 PM.
Reason: Grammatical errors.
I finally diagnosed all of my issues.
Mainly, I had a bad fuel pump and a warped head. The warped head had me scratching my mine for a bit before I finally figured it out.
I’m not a terribly experienced mechanic, just a research junkie and not afraid to tear things apart if I’m confident I have the appropriate tools.
So I bought a new head, all new pumps, timing kit, different cam, bigger valves, stems, a header and a cold air intake, all from LCE.
I put in some of the smaller stuff (Fuel pump, cold air intake, and the header) then dropped the truck off at my mechanics for the head and timing, water and oil pump. I was supposed to be going out of town that week and didn’t want to attempt the work right before Christmas, but more so, I wanted to have it for any snow. (In the end, very happy I let my mechanic do it. It made things easier for me when they went wrong.)
I got the truck back, it was torquey and squirted all over the place, it didn’t like first gear, and was accelerating nicely up the steepest hills I drive on. It was a blast.
I even put some new LED headlights In.
I’ll take some picture of them tomorrow in the light and post ‘em up.
Unfortunately I only got about 190 miles before the new chain stretched and snapped.
So between 12/21 and 1/30:
I waited for my overworked mechanic to do a full disassembly of the head to catalog the damage and send it to LCE which took until about the first or second week of January.
When the mechanic was finally going to put the truck back together, he opens the boxes and they forgot to ship the head gasket. Another week, then it’s a dual row instead of single row timing chain.
1/30 I finally get my truck back!
I’m happy with how it’s turned out.
I’ve got some other odds and ends to address with the truck, but nothing too serious yet. I just want to enjoy driving it again after not having it for over a month. I missed the damn stupid thing.
We’re supposed to get a fair bit of snow over the weekend so I’m going to take it out and see what else needs replacing or warrantying.
But honestly, despite all the issues I had with getting the parts from LCE, the way they handled each consecutive issue was great. When they first got the list of damaged parts, they didn’t dick around with my mechanic, just sent him what he told them to. When they missed something, they sent it out ASAP, and when it came to the timing chain they worked with my mechanic which is 3 states away to make sure I’d have one the next day so it could be put back together and gotten back to me since it had been over a month.
At the end of the day, we’re all human and we’re all going to make mistakes, but I think the measure of a business is not necessarily about a perfect track record and much more about how they handle the things that fall through the cracks.
Not that I want issues with ordered parts, but if I was going to have them again, I hope it’s with someone as dedicated to their customer service as LCE.
Got some pictures of it today.
Here are the headlights. I’m rather happy with them. The relay system was very easy to install and there are no cut wires.
Here’s a picture of the engine bay. When all of the work was being done I went and got another valve cover and upper plenum from a buddy, I had the plenum powder coated blue, but I guess I wasn’t paying attention when I picked it up, because it was the older style and the angle was wrong.
Also as it happens they didn’t use high temp powder coat on it anyways, so the air injection plates are already tarnished.
Guess we’ll have to try a second time one of these days.
Well, it’s been a while, but I’m still rocking this thing.
Life has been busy, I built a new saltwater tank, got engaged, started my own business and my dog got injured a couple weekends ago, so I’ve been on vacation baby sitting him and trying to stay busy the meantime.
The truck has been running awesome, but I need to address the tranny. I HAD a new clutch and another w56, but they ran off. Pretty pissed about that still.
But my tranny is still going for now.
My truck is being a prick. I took her out about 2 weeks ago just for a short drive, she did great until we were coming up my driveway. It ate another timing chain. Lets see if the 3rd time rebuilding the head is the charm.
I've started keeping an eye out for a newer Tacoma or 4runner that's been wrecked, but has a good motor. I'm considering the 2.7, 2.9 and just for giggles the 4.0
The 2 that it has snapped were OEM chains with tensioners.
As I mentioned above; I had my mechanic do the head rebuild, I prefer working on my own vehicles, but I have have space limitations here, especially when it comes to keeping something dry.
I wish I had some sort of explanation as to why it has taken out the 2 chains already, 1 fluke I can understand, 2 is much rarer. The mechanic is footing the bill at this point for the 2nd head rebuild, so I doubt they're failing to install it correctly. He's really not the sort of guy to let something like that slip up.
At the end of the day a 22re timing chain is a very simple system. I imagine it would be much harder to do it incorrectly, so long as you have your eyes open, but I do agree that I shouldn't be needing another chain by now, let alone 2. I am suspicious that there is something wrong with the actual block. Or perhaps not even wrong, but just not original. From my research, this could be a sign that its a celica block (different deck heights) in which case it would manifest its issues by snapping chains.
Rad little truck dude. Enjoyed reading what you've got so far.
FWIW, you can fit 33x10.50s on stock wheels and suspension.
Much appreciated! It's certainly been a project. I might just squish the 33's in sooner rather than later then. Thanks for the heads up, most info I find on 33 compatibility is in reference to 12.5s which seem to rub quite a bit.
I was just looking at our local weather and it looks like were going to get snow next week, so I'm going down to see the mechanic today to try and light a fire under his ass. He's had her about 4 weeks now, haha.
Well, I messed up. It was wet, I'd been drinking. I fishtailed around that corner, over corrected, caught the ditch with the driver corner of my truck and flipped straight over and landed in a flooded ditch. I couldn't get the doors open because I was pinched in the ditch and the cab was flooding fast, so I broke the driver door window and crawled out through the bushes. On the plus side we got to watch lots of fireworks while flipping the truck back over. but we wrecked the passenger side doing it. That glass is broken now too.
I spent a couple weeks looking for a good donor truck and I found this guy which had been sitting for 8 years in the mud and rain. It fired right up though, and it has a good w-56 in it so it looked like a great option to me.
At first I was going to just swap the whole cab and take the opportunity to rewire everything, but I changed my mind. We're gonna cut the sliders and extra bed mounts off and weld them to the new truck, pull the motor and diffs and swap them into the grey one, then I'm gonna take my T-case off and dual case it since were gonna be in their already.
I ordered the dual case adapter today and I'm gonna take a trip down south and start collecting a new clutch kit and hydraulics. probably some other stuff as well.
What I know is broken:
Driver CV axle
Both door windows
Relay for the led headlights is fried
Most fuses are blown
Something is draining the battery, I'm expecting the harness is pinched on the passenger side where it goes into the truck
I'm sure much more
Last edited by Ergodyne; Jan 28, 2020 at 10:49 AM.
Reason: Add pictures
Come on man! I thought Toyota drivers were better than this!
At least you are alright!
Lesson learned.
Yeah, I'm not proud. Definitely still kicking myself about it, it was a very dumb way to wreck my truck.
Especially since its probably the only vehicle I could have wrecked like that, all the others would have hooked up around that corner. (not that I should have been out driving on new years eve, anyway!)
But on the bright side, I have a fresh Tranny now, I get to dual case it and can eliminate the sunroof which always made me nervous.
Also I get to fill out this thread with a ton more pictures!
Last edited by Ergodyne; Jan 28, 2020 at 03:09 PM.
I’ve been selling stuff off of the grey truck as I get it all out of my way. We got both motors and trannies pulled, I still need to get my diffs out and moved over.
There are still a bunch of things I need to do and get, but I’ve been trying to start with the transmission, just trying to divide and conquer as I go, but also strip down the blue truck to get it out of my hair.
I ran into something I didn’t think about, I totally overlooked that I need to get a conversion kit to make the rear case top shift, so I’ll be waiting on that. I’m gonna try to push and get the bed moved over this weekend, since next week I’m getting married and the week after I’ll be in Oregon for our honeymoon.
likely that last update until mid-late March.
Well we’re down in on the coast for our honeymoon, and I feel bad about it, but I’m hunting for a FSA for a swap. She’s totally looking with me and onboard for a swap.
Sep 12, 2018 | 12:12 PM
