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Hello all! My dad acquired a project truck two weeks ago, a 1993 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4, for which I'll be documenting its restoration with this thread.
The 4Runner belonged to a longtime friend of my dad's who's a mechanic. Due to the many other project cars he has, he'd been unable to work on the 'Runner so he offered to sell it to my dad for $800. It's a rare 5-speed manual model that hadn't run in five years due to a fuel system issue, but according to the guy the engine is in good shape. The 'Runner also has 313k miles on it. My dad agreed to buy the 'Runner, and made a deal that'd he'd only pay the $800 if he could get it running; if he couldn't, he'd return it.
After agreeing to take the 'Runner off his friend's hands, my dad hauled it over to the family warehouse on a trailer. I didn't get word of the 'Runner until after it was brought to the warehouse, so I drove out there to check it out. The exterior's a little rough with the paint needing some new clearcoat. The interior is mostly stripped and has no carpeting, and the top half of the steering wheel is warped after having been parked in the Texas heat for so long. Another issue is, like many 2nd-gen 'Runners, this one has that saggy rear suspension. Mechanically though, the 'Runner seems to be in good shape; the transmission and transfer case shift pretty flawlessly, and the clutch pedal isn't loose (unlike my truck's lol). The 'Runner also had a brand-new fuel tank installed.
Since parking the 'Runner at the warehouse, my dad had done two things to it so far. The first thing he did was test the windows; all but two of them were functional. The two that didn't work were the driver's window and the rear window. The second thing my dad did was test the starter; it was dead and only the solenoid was working. My dad then bought a new starter which was installed with the help of another friend. I sat inside to turn the key to see if the engine would crank with the new starter; it did, and to our surprise it even fired up and tried to idle! That was just for a split second though and we tried to add more fuel to the tank to see if we could get the engine to idle longer, but we couldn't, so the fuel system really isn't functioning. At least we know the engine cranks without a problem though.
Unfortunately my dad had been very busy recently so he hasn't had anymore time to work on the 'Runner, but we'll get back to work on it soon. My dad's intention is not only to fix it up, but also to add some off-road modifications; perhaps a stinger bumper, a small body lift for slightly bigger tires (it currently has 31's), a rear locker, and maybe even a locking hub conversion to replace the ADD. My dad also initially planned to resell the 'Runner once it's restored, but if all goes well he may end up keeping it.
For now, I have only one photo of the 'Runner, taken on the day it was brought to the warehouse. My dad jacked the rear up to temporarily eliminate the sag:
This past Sunday my dad managed to get the 4Runner to run/idle by rewiring the fuel pump, but in a way that it now requires a separate switch to operate, which won't be a problem. He also discovered that the 'Runner has a kill switch, which may have been part of the reason why it wouldn't idle the first time we tried to start it. We haven't test-driven it yet because we don't trust the old, dry-rotted tires, so a test drive will be in order after we replace not just the tires, but also various hoses and other general-maintenance engine parts.
Additionally, I referred to the plaque on the door jamb to determine the gear ratio of the diffs. The 'Runner has 4.56 gears (as indicated by the G254 code), which is correct given that it's a V6 5-speed with 31" tires. My dad wants to replace the 31's with 33's, but we don't think it's necessary to gear down to 4.88 for those.
We're also planning to add a skid plate to the surprisingly low-mounted fuel tank, which it's missing for some reason. Why is the fuel tank mounted so low on 2nd-gen 'Runners? Is it to allow for more interior space?
Here are some additional pics, including one to show how warped the steering wheel is:
Progress on the 4Runner had come to a halt recently because my dad had been busy again, especially since our family had spent the last month moving houses. The new house isn't too far from our previous one, but it's in a rural neighborhood where there isn't an HOA. That being said, my dad decided to bring the 'Runner home from the warehouse, since we no longer have an HOA to complain about project vehicles in the driveway lol. So my dad and I spent this past Sunday moving the 'Runner to our new house.
We got the 4Runner to move under its own power for the first time in the five years it had sat before my dad bought it, but only to drive it on and off the trailer. It smoked a little bit but otherwise ran pretty well.
It's been cold and rainy lately (it even rained once we got the 'Runner home), but we'll get right back to work on the 'Runner when the weather gets better. The next step is to remove the bumpers and running boards, which I'll be in charge of.
07-23-2018, 12:38 AM
