Wow! That thing looks great!

 

Out playing around

 

Recently got a set of eagle 0589's that I had to polish out. Might get some 32" km2's and make these my trail set.

 

Put a locker in the rear so now both diffs are locked. Of course had to test it out on the canyons last night and was impressed for having street tires. Can't wait to hit the trails. Pics and videos will follow

 

Had to test out the front and rear lockers. Was super impressed with how well the truck did for having street tires. It went everywhere easier than my SAS monster with open diffs. In fact everywhere I asked it to go it went with little effort. I had just as much fun playing around in 2wd

I walked up this climb 3 times

Waiting for my buddy to send me the video

 

Haven't updated it in a while but have since done a load to the truck and now swapping the motor out for a nice 1 owner fully documented 22R that was the strongest running one I have ever driven. I have resealed everything on the long block and put it back together using nearly everything off the shelf, gaskets all new of course.

Literally the day after I mounted the 33" KM2s it started leaking out one of the drivers side freeze plugs so I installed all 3. A few days later it started leaking out of the rear plug and while the motor still ran great I decided to take advantage of the nice original one to put back in.

Also ran 1.75" ball joint spacers up front and 6-7/8" shackles in the rear for a small boost.





The old crusty motor

 

Here's where I'm at on the motor, since no parts stores not even Toyota carries the injector pintle caps I'm hung up till they get here. Still little things to be done tho.

Wish I had time to clean the block down and repaint it along with all the accessories. Number one is being OCD with cleaning and prepping all the surfaces so that this thing will never leak for years and years. For a truck to drive daily and run on the trails often that is most important.

 

Of course when working on a truck with 372k miles you run into a few hang ups. This manifold had 2 bolts broken off, one on the thermostat and the other on the coolant pipe under the manifold. Took another manifold that was in great shape just disgusting and spent 3 hours cleaning and prepping to get it ready. Here's the old one



Running the truck on 31s again certainly makes it easier to work on, also airing them down to 8 psi

 

Truck has come along ways from where it was. I feel your frustrations on working on something and having to start over due to a broken bolt. I have seen where just one more tire pulling can make a big difference and then to have all 4 pulling has to be a great experience. Fluid leaks...Urgh!!!!

 

Yeah it is night and day from when I bought it but certainly worth all the work. Haven't driven the truck in 3 months so itl be sweet to have it driving again.

 

Almost done just need to bolt the accessories back on. Cannot wait to drive it, lost track its actually been 5 months.

 

So I got the motor in and ran much better but there was a bad leak from the crank seal after just 20 mins of run time. I was pissed to say the very least haha, so I yanked it back out in 2 hours. Sure enough, the new Apex brand seal was no good. This is why I always stress why not to use china parts or cheap seals and thought I'd give them a second chance. Same thing happened on a 3.0 using an apex rear seal so it's Toyota or nothing.

 

All done, just need to get it aligned. Truck runs night and day better. Much smoother with no low sputtering idle and has noticeably more power

 

That is frustrating when you install new parts and have leaks. I haven't heard of Apex. Where did you get that one from? Could it have been from the groove that sometimes gets worn from the previous rear seal?

 

I checked that on the first one and it was ok. Funny thing the gasket I was supplied with was already oil soaked too so it wouldn't have lasted much longer. I ended up using ultra gray gasket maker for the housing and an NOK crank seal. I did so because if there was any kind of small groove in the crank the rtv would allow the housing to sit back further and it will hold better than a paper gasket. I'm always super careful when bolting the housing on as well because even with tightening the 5 housing bolts in sequence it is possible for the seal to not sit perfectly round. I always check to make sure the gap is the same all the way around the crank seal.

The old gasket could have gone bad from sitting on a shelf at the parts store or having something stacked on it making it not truly round, who knows. Apparently NOK is one of the seals Toyota sources out.

 

I have not posted anything on this truck lately so it will take a while to update all I've done to it. Last april spent hours pulling out a 2500 dodge sunk to the axles and high centered

 

Swapped out a much cleaner set of Enkei sawblades with some KO all terrains a few months ago

 

Almost 2 years since you last posted. Truck is still looking good.

 

Rocked the trails at the lonestar Toyota Jamboree. Had to change out the left CV axle the first morning then good to go

 

Thanks Terry, I love this truck. All the others that have come and gone and just attached to this one