pfmedic

Yesterday after a super super long wait, I finally got my truck back from the shop (2 months!!!) where they swapped my 410s to 488s.

Unfortunately, there WAS trumendous vibration heading into 4th gear. I was afraid to take it faster than this... BUT as it turns out, the hubs were still locked in the front. After much confusion and worry, it ended up being a simple fix. Many thanks to the shop for helping my dumba$$ figure out what the problem was.

The truck has much better takeoff and shifts in ranges that are similar to my bone stock Jeep Wrangler. I am very very pleased. The shop told me to avoid highway speeds for the first 100 miles so I will have more info later on how it does in 5th gear. I have had problems in the past maintaining highway speeds above 70 mph and sometimes had to ride the freeway in 4th gear! Im hoping this is a thing of the past.



I will also have some city mpg with the new gears and the MSD igniter box once I drain this tank I just filled... so stay tuned.
On a side note, does anybody know if I am going to experience electrical problems with my 6a igniter box getting wet in this position? I have read about issues regarding this. Thanks!

pfmedic

Today I went into the garage and the smell of gas in the air was pretty pungent. I remembered reading on this forum how buying a new gas cap with a fresh rubber o-ring would improve gas mileage by minimizing evaporation through a worn gas cap.

Thus, I went down the road to the parts store and to my surprise they had my gas cap in stock. I hope this helps plunge me forward and upward in my search for lofty gas mileage.

By the way... The gear swap is proving to be a good buy... Very smooth. If it bumps up my gas milage it will definately be the cheese on top of my apple pie.

JustDSM

My gas mileage improved to slightly over 20mpg when I went from 4.10's to 4.88's on my 33x12.50's.

pfmedic

What mpg were you getting before?

1986yota4x4

why did are you making the truck smaller?

JustDSM

With stock gears and tires, it was probably close to 22-23 although I admit I never actually did the math.

When I lifted it, and put the tires on I was down around 13-14 maybe slightly less. It was impossible to go up any grade in 5th gear. Most of the freeway driving was in 4th.

Once I got the 4.88's in the mileage returned largely to that before the lift/tires but down a MPG or two..

I'm expecting the 3RZ engine swap will get me back to 23-24mpg.

pfmedic

I want to have a daily driver that is reliable and has 4wd. Therefore, I also want it to get decent gas mileage. That's why I downsized tires.

pfmedic

Looks like I should expect those numbers (20-23mpg) for myself. If I dont get them I need to investigate further as to why.

pfmedic

JustDSM

Looking good!

pfmedic

I think I could bump it up even higher if I actually had a tachometer to look at.

JustDSM

SR5 cluster swap?

pfmedic

Alot has happened over the last few days. I had a leak at the rear drivers side wheel which ended up being gear oil. I was able to determine the problem using this forum and comparing the fluids color, consistency and smell with the brake fluid in the reservoir to narrow it down. Once I had that repaired I took off the bushwhacker fender flares. When they came off, I found enough Colorado dirt to fill a one gallon bucket. I filled some holes and did a little sanding but no matter what, I'm gonna need new front fenders and ultimately a new bed. I am currently on the search for these items.

pfmedic

I know I haven't posted in a while. It turns out that the offset on my rims was not appropriate for those tires and the control arm carved a nice hole in them. Discount tire replaced the two front tires because it was their fault. I did, however, have to buy 4 new rims, but I will hopefully sell those stock rims for some decent cash.

pfmedic

My SR5 gauge cluster was purchased yesterday and installed. I found it hiding out in Santa Teresa. It came off of an 86 22re. I met a guy named Luis who has a really clean 86 4runner. The tach doesn't work yet because the MSD 6a requires the MSD 8910eis tach adapter and although I already have bought it, its somewhat of an obscure install that involves splicing wires... scary for me with no electrician experience. My buddy Josh is going to help me do this part of the install sometime next week. Everything else works and yes I installed the proper oil pressure sensor.

pfmedic

pfmedic

I bought a cream-colored bed and 2 fenders from my buddy Daniel. Putting the fenders on was a challenge because of the adhesive in the engine bay... so that shadetree project was abandoned in favor of delegating that part to a bodyshop. The bed was an easy project. Here are a few pics.

bed comes off... and 20+ years of dirt is discovered...


...and washed away.


Here she is.

Z's Confederate Toy

Damn that looks good, very clean

pfmedic

Thanks a bunch. Ya know, you drive down the street, people drive by in their shiny new Buicks and they may say, "Look at that poor bastard." Most people don't understand why I do what I do, why I drive what I drive instead of sucking on a $500/mo truck payment, but they don't know what we know. My GF doesn't understand why I love this truck, why I created a Toyota enthusiast club, or why I spend hours in my garage. Even after 50 guys come up and tell me they like my truck, she still doesn't get it. That is why the yotatech community is so important. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, thanks for your comments and your support.

pfmedic

OK.The latest update is that the NWOR header was successfully installed and a 2.25 exhaust was run.



The aeroturbine 2525 I was advised to buy by a guy on Yotatech was SO LOUD and sounded like a fricken rice rocket so it was abandoned in favor of a generic flowmaster which I was advised lasts longer than a true flowmaster AND resists degredation much longer. Long story short, it sounds sweet.







The next project was figuring out how to get the SR5 tach to work with the MSD 6a. This is really a headache. Yes, you need the proprietary MSD Tach Adapter, which I purchased back in the day. However, as it turns out, the MSD Digital 6a has a programing setting and the ignition key has to turn 6 times before you can mess with the settings. Without MSDs tech support, I don't think it would have ever worked... but it does now. Thanks to Privette Custom for all your hard work up to this point to get this truck from bucket-o-bolts to badass in short order!!



Oh, I forgot to mention, the photo above, shows my new master cylinder, which, other than one of the axle seals, is the only thing that died on this truck since I have owned it... although before I started this leg of the project the original exhaust was makin the truck putter toot by the time it was removed.

Below is a picture of the functioning tach showing me rockin 70mph at a surprisingly low rotation rate in 5th gear!



Once all this was squared away, I had the Aisin carb adjusted and a general tuneup. Thanks to Kieth and Darrel at Automax for all your hard work!!

When it was all said and done, I drove it for a bit and discovered that even though I was stomping on the pedal (due to the enjoyment of the increased performance and sexy sound) and despite the increased weight of the Smittybilt front bumper, I was up 1mpg more than I was before.



Im going to baby the next tank and see where I am. I will post the results here.



So thats it. Be safe and have a good weekend.