Let me paint a picture for you guys.
I love toyota trucks. I've done lots of research and I have decided i want a toyota pickup between 1984 and 1994. Those are the body styles I like. I'm 90% sure i want fuel injection. But try to convince me otherwise if you prefer carb. I want pretty good gas mileage (i would prefer over 20) so huge tires are probably out of the question but I want a more than capable off-road machine. I don't want it jack way up in the air but i would like a reasonable lift. Also I cant decide if i want a single or xtra cab, there are pros and cons of both. Another place I'm undecided on is if i want the 22re or the v6, again pros and cons of both. Please tell me what you guys think so I can learn more and finally decide on my dream toyota.

 

First things first.
the 22R/RE engines won't get you good mpg. You'll get 20-23MPG out of a 22RE on stock size tires, and driving like a grandpa.
A more capable offroad rig? And good gas mileage? And a lift? Lol.
The best you can do is lift it a bit, get bigger tires, like 33's, and put different gears in the axles. Say 4.88s. Your mileage will decrease unless you put in those gears to retain stock power..

The V6 gets worse MPG than the 22RE, so don't bother with that.

 

Welcome to Yotatech.

 

welcome to yota tech!! get a 85, RUF, chevy 63's, 4.88s, 33s, locked rear, sliders
or...
86-95 bj spacers, AAL/shakles, 4.88s, locked rear, sliders., or just some 33x10.50s and no lift

jsut my two cents

 

I managed to get a consistant 18-19mpg on 33's with stock gearing in my 89 extra cab pickup with the 3vze. Its not the bad engine everyone will claim it to be, but they are not easy to work on. Mine finally blew at HG at 265k due to a clog in the cooling system. I should have flushed it, never thought that would be what would have killed it. But I was still happy to push that engine as far as I did, and I drove it hard.

 

Thanks for your input. As I said i would like at least 20mpg or as close as possible. I've heard guys claim to get high 20s out of the 22r/re but i don't know how much truth that holds. Anyone care to clear that up?

 

I've seen 21mpg out of my 22re once on the highway, though I have never driven a Toyota with stock size tires either

 

The best gas mileage I have ever gotten out of my 22re/5 spd is 18mpg.
Its really a dog when it comes to power so you have to use a lot of pedal which leads to bad gas mileage. I wouldn't trade it for a 3.0 though.

 

My 4runner gets 16-20 during mountain driving. I could get better if I didn't full throttle accelerate off every stop...

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that '84'85 rigs didnt come with a v6 considering the 3VZE wasn't introduced until '87 for the '88 model year.....


Peeps need to read over the newbie tech section more specifically the one about lifting.

 

Since he said a Runner between 84-94, I figured it wasn't something that needed to be said.

 

oops. I misread. I thought he said '84-'85

Must have been that I was reading 4 other threads at the same time

 

It's cool, I remember when I was illiterate...

 

somebody told me if I went with the xtra cab to get the v6 because the extra weight would hold back the four. any truth to this?

 

Still lighter then a 4runner.

I was happy with the v6, just wasn't willing to pull the heads on it. The 4cyl is much easier to work on.

 

i have a 350 in my yota with 33s and if i keep my foot out of it i get around 15 mpg and 8-10 when i hammer on it and i would go with a 84 or 85 for the straight axle much better than ifs but thats just my opinion

 

i used to get 21 city 26 highway outta my 4popper with 31s. that was me figuring it up myself with a calculator, so i cant swear on it

 

personally I'd go for an extra cab, theres just no room behind the seats in a single, and a jockey box takes up space in the bed. as for capability, a locker and airing down makes a huge difference. theres a video on here of a 4runner on stock street tires with arb's and tons of body armour going places no mall crawler could ever dream. keep up on maintenence and keep your foot out of her and you should see good mpg. there are a few mods you can make to the stock aisin carb to make it perform well offroad. I say extra-cab, small lift, 33's, lockers, 4.88's, armour and recovery gear.

 

Does the $5000 include the price of the truck?

Here's how my 4Runner breaks down:
$3000 truck
$2500 gears/lockers
$1000 gas tank relocation
$1000 front bumper/sliders
$1000 rear mini-exo
$2000 crawler
$750 tires
$1200 rear suspension
$1000 CV's, shocks, springs, brakes, etc

Certainly, some things could be done cheaper (for example Aussie lockers instead of ARBs) but A LOT of things could be more expensive (for example, my rear bumper was free).

Long story short, you're gonna eat $5000 pretty damn quick

 

That would probably be me or Axleike. Either way, search for "lysmachia" on youtube for the videos