Restore it to stock!
At least going back to stock is way cheaper than going the other way

I'm shooting for comfortable road trip machine and daily driver, don't worry, you're not the only one who cares about ride comforts
I don't remember if you've done shocks yet. Shocks made a night and day difference for me

 

which shocks did you have and which did you change to?
i have KYB gas-a-justs on there now and i know from previous experience these are excessively stiff. I switched to KYB GR-2's and was much happier. Seems like Rockauto.com has great pricing on shocks for the 4runner.

 

I went from a really old completely shot pair of cheap monroes to a new pair of cheap monroes, lol
Planning to switch to something nicer when these wear out

 

Ho Lee Cow! USPS tracking says my ball joint spacers from 4crawler.com are already in my mailbox. CA to MA that fast! I ordered them Wednesday. That is impressive!
It will probably take me longer to put them in than they did to arrive.

 

4crawler is the boss. i highly suggest swapping out to his allen head TPS screw kit. makes adjusting the TPS on the truck slightly less of a pain in the ass.

as for shocks, Old Man Emu or Bilstein. they are expensive, but they ride so nice and have an exceedingly long lifespan.

 

I got Gabriel Max Control shocks for about $35 each on eBay.
They seem great so far. The ride is great. They look sort of Bilsteiny. The Bilsteins I had on a Tacoma were too stiff for street driving IMO. At $52 each they are a good in between cheap shocks and Bilsteins. I wish I knew how to post pictures without Photobucket.

 

in the reply box, at the top next to the smiley face is a square with a mountain and a circle in it. click that to upload pics.

 

I got those 77494's, too. I based my decision on:
1) How they match the suspension travel,
2) Like Rancho RS5000's it's got a collared bushing that helps center the shock stem in the mounting hole, and
3) Price.





Am happy with them

 

Holy large picture.

 

Good progress today! Got out in the garage early, with the boy, and he pulled the plugs, and together we removed the valve cover and set the valves.
we had two really loud ones that were not as loose as the noise made me think. Kind of sounded like a diesel. Good news, all the plugs looked good and consistent and the underside of the valve cover was spotless. The po had reported the truck had a valve job not too long ago. Set the valves at .070/.011.

timing chain, gears and guides looked new also.

 

After cleaning and gapping the plugs i spent a lot of time cleaning up the valve cover and installed a new gasket. The half moon gaskets were pretty well RTV'd in place. I replaced the front one but decided to roll the dice and leave the rear as it was. Here's the "after" valve cover shot. I have a new 22RE sticker somewhere but i cant find it right now. I am sure it will surface again soon. Notice the clean spot on the firewall. I plan to get the whole engine compartment looking like that soon.

 

Then i had the boy help me pull the hood and i went to work on it with Purple Power and a brush, hand scrubbing it.
before hood

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About an hour and a half later, Here's the after shot:

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Then we took a cruise tonight after dinner and found a big industrial park not too far away where my son got to drive it for the first time!
i put it in 4low with the hubs unlocked and we basically crawled around a big parking lot for a while in first and second gear. He did actually stall it once in first which i didnt think would happen. But he had a great time and i think this may help to keep his interest in the project��

 

After much internet searching I found a detail shop that would do underhood steam cleaning for $75. Afraid I wouldn't be satisfied with the work, I decided to try to GUNK it at the car wash and see what that got me. Two cans later, not the improvement I was hoping for. I used some Purple power and hand scrubbed the firewall and inner fenders with a rag as best I could without unbolting things under the hood and got decent results. I'll come back to it again and unbolt some stuff, remove the battery, etc. to reach the tough spots.
Before:


After:




Also ordered some factory Toyota front brake pads and clips and I'll pick them up today. That will be part of the ball joint spacer/torsion bar relaxation/front brake project...soon. Also got some proper Toyota spark plugs(NGK) and a new PCV grommet to install when I have a few minutes.

 

Looking good!
I need to clean mine
Curious how the steam cleaning does, if it saves me 12 hours or more of scrubbing i could part with $75

 

Mostly been driving it lately. Put 100 miles on today in the regular commute which is a combination of 3 lane bumper to bumper stop and go and 70mph free flowing traffic. But every time i commute with it, somebody always gives me a "thumbs-up".

Over the weekend, i found some guys selling good parts on craigslist and picked up these items:
Trail Gear steering box with approx 10k miles on it - $150.
Stock torsion bars, $20 each
Lce fuel pressure gauge- $24

Also added a generic ebay pull-out cupholder that fits in the space below the stock am/fm radio.

projects still ahead:
install trail gear steering box
Install new clutch master
new front disc pads and turn rotors
install upper ball joint spacers
adjust torsion bars(replace with stock ones if that doesn't suffice)
install new grille and headlight surrounds
install fuel pressure gauge and more underhood cleaning
more rust converter and paint on the frame
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Took a few minutes to touch the 4runner today and added this TRD grille badge. (Ebay)
not sure it fits the 80's look of the truck and i have a new grille to install when we get serious about bodywork but truck was missing the TOYOTA grillle sticker so this is good for now.

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Also added this pull-out drink holder (ebay). Gets the job done holding my Coke during the morning commute and just clears the shifter.

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And while i'm on the subject of cupholders, here's one of the rears we installed using the existing top bolts/holes.
not too exciting, but you gotta have 'em.

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