I probably should have started this a long time ago and added pictures slowly as I got things done but I was so busy doing things I haven't had time to! I'll hopefully begin adding photos tonight.

I bought my 89 last summer from a guy just outside of town for a whopping $400. He had just replaced the clutch, put in a full tank of gas and got 5 miles into town when his timing chain snapped. He tore the engine down about half way and realized it was too much for him to handle and let it sit in a field for 5 years. Then I came along and he sold it to me on the super cheap! It had around 179K miles on it and was a bone stock DLX with the 22RE and manual tranny. I went and picked it up with a trailer and towed it home with a wheel barrow full of parts. It was in pretty rough shape but I figured that means I can make the decisions to replace stuff a lot quicker. No one really wants to swap out an interior that is so-so, but an interior that is falling apart can be tore out in a heartbeat! I'll leave it there and we shall continue!



As promised here are the rest of the pictures of my 4runner's humble beginnings:

















And there she rested in my driveway...in shambles.

To give you a sneak peak, here she is now!

 

Hello Smeddy2.. Glad to see you got a build on here. Swapping interiors isnt hard at all. Any questions come up feel free to ask.

I appreciate the parts I got off you and they are finally starting to make there way on to the runner.

 

Thanks, Terry! I actually took the whole interior from that parts truck and put it in mine. I was going to buy new carpet and but I figured that would work for the time being...it was darn near perfect! Glad to hear I was able to help you out.

 

Great project, enjoy!

 

Thanks guys! So far it has been great. Well the story continues...

Now that I had gotten the truck home it was time to jump in. I decided to take the motor out and see what kind of damage was done when the timing chain broke. The head wasn't looking too good and I found that I could replace it for not much more than what it would take to rebuild. I decided to replace the cylinder head with an ENGNBLDR RV head with oversized valves and their 261 torker cam. I got a new water pump, oil pump and timing chain kit. Right about that time my head gasket blew on my civic so I decided to finish it up quick. Here is the progress:

Spun cam bearing






Sanded lower block


All painted up


Starting to come together


Going into the truck!


So fresh and clean!


In and ready to go


And now the fun stuff begins!

 

After I got the engine in I started putting everything back together. After a few trips to the junkyard to find missing bolts and the dealership for hard to find gaskets, I got it all together. For some reason I wasn't getting fuel so i took the gas tank off to find that my tank had holes everywhere and my fuel pump looked horrendous. Got a new tank, new fuel pump and fuel sender and she started up on the first try!

fuel injector gaskets...had to go to the dealer for these little guys


Fuel pump...wonder why it wasn't working?


New drums


I also got NGK wires, cap and rotor, ignition coil, starter, red top optima battery, new radiator, new hoses, new belts, replaced all the oil in the differentials and transmission/transfer case, new u-joints, new shocks, new front wheel bearings, fan clutch, silicone vacuum lines and probably a bunch more stuff I'm forgetting. Needless to say it was coming along.

Got her all cleaned up and she became my daily driver.

 

Next on the list was to take care of that saggy rear and start in on the body work. I was walking past my pile of scraps and I noticed my old 94 civic coils sitting there and thought "Hey those look like they might just work for a Zuk mod." I measured them out and sure enough, they fit perfectly! They not only took out the sag but actually gave it a bit of lift.







I then moved on to rust removal and body work. I decided to give the POR15 stuff a try. So far I haven't seen any rust come through this winter and the stuff is holding up. I felt good about the quality when I put it on.

Sanded as much rust off as I could and sprayed it with the first step spray.







I don't have any in between pics but I used the silver stuff for my application to help fill in some of the pits. Here is one side after bondo and primer.



I sprayed rubberized undercoating all along the inside of the wheel wells as well as inside the rear quarter panels.

This is the only pic I have of the other side...sorry for the mud :-)



At this point I swapped out my differentials to 4.56 gears, got a lock right in the rear, put on a "cold" air intake.







I got the intake off of eBay from MQTautoparts. The original one he sent didn't have the right coupler that goes from the pipe to the MAF and he sent a tube to connect the intake pipe to the air injection system. He corrected it by sending me a new coupler, a cap to close off the bung on the intake tube and an air breather for the air injection tube all for free! Looks pretty sweet and helps the throttle response a lot! Sounds mean.

Oh yeah, I also got a pace setter header, flowmonster high flow cat 2.25" pipes and a Flowmaster 50 series SUV muffler. It sounds wicked awesome! Not too loud and not ricey at all which was my fear since I have the 22RE. Eventually I'll get a sound clip up.

 

Your runner is looking really good, nice progress!

 

Thanks rusted! I'm hoping to get the thing painted this spring and maybe start on a rear bumper.

Right now I'm trying to figure out this whirring sound I'm getting. If anyone has any ideas, let me know! I wiggled the rear tires and the wheels bearings are solid. Put the rear on stands and put the truck in gear and there is no noise coming from anywhere. Driveshaft is spinning smooth with no hopping or wiggling. At first I thought it was my output bearing on my transfer case because the oil got low but I didn't hear anything when I had the truck up on stands. I'm kind of stumped. It whistles higher and louder the faster I go and I can hear it most between 35 and 40 mph. It only whistles when I'm in gear.

 

nice truck, great job on the body work, I was things that my rust problem was bad.
anyway, keep up the work...........thanks for the Pics

 

RMP8080: Thanks! The amount of rust was a bit of a surprise to me. It didn't look all that bad when I bought it because everything was hidden by chrome trim and those rock guards on the rear quarters. It was a TON of work. If the rust starts coming back, I'm going to invest in some of those fiberglass panels.

 

Yea I'm wondering what surprises are waiting for me, I'll replace both front fender and will do the same as you did on the rear fender, I hate fiberglass.. But we will see.
Thanks...............Bill

 

Still haven't found that stupid thing that is whirring. I may just have to take it in somewhere to have it diagnosed. It sounds like it is worse some days than others.

I think I have another issue I need to tackle this weekend, though. My truck used to have this issue where it would start fine when the engine was cold but, if I tried to start it up with a warm engine, it would stutter and die unless I feathered the gas. As of late, I have had problems starting pretty much ALL the time regardless of engine temp. I think it may be combination of problems. This weekend I am going to remove both my coolant temp sensor and my cold start temp sensor and see if I can clean them up a bit. The reason I think it is a sensor of some kind is because I still get good gas mileage and it runs like a top. I'll let everyone know what I find.

 

That truck really needed a hug when you found it; your progress is very impressive! I love the wagon wheels, been waiting to see them on a 1st-gen for a while!

 

Haha! It needed some one on one cuddle time with genuine eye contact! I scored the wagon wheels from a guy parting one out. I like them...I may paint them.

Well I pulled all my sensors and they were pretty rough. I'll post some before and after pics. Hopefully it fixes my problems!

 

Well it seems that cleaning those sensors did a lot of good. It starts up great on both cold and warm starts and I no longer have to give it any gas to turn over. Sometimes when I start then engine shortly after a long drive somewhere, the idle will be a little low (500-600 rpm) but it still starts up without any fussing and the idle rises to the norm within the first blip of the gas pedal. All I did was remove the coolant temp sensor, cold start time switch, temperature gauge sender and then I cleaned them all up with a little steel wool and electronic cleaner (carb cleaner that is safe for electric connections). Here are the before and after pics:













I think I might have sold my engine stand finally so I may try to buy some steel and take a stab at welding up a roof rack! Should be exciting.

 

I took some map pockets off the parts truck I got in the fall and finally got around to installing them. I also installed a couple speakers I had lying around. I'm not really sure how I want to bring the wires in through the door yet. I was going to see if I could see how the SR5's do it with the power functions.



I also found one of those trunk nets out of a cavalier at pick n pull last time I went. Hooked it up to the tailgate using the same screws that hold the carpet down. It will be nice if I have small things in the back that I don't want rolling around while I'm driving.

 

I'm gonna have to try cleaning those sensors, my truck has many of the same symptoms you described; thanks! And the trunk net looks like a great idea.

BTW, I'd leave the wheels white, like a wagon wheel should be.

 

It's worth a shot!

I like the white too but this color combo looks awesome:

 

Nothing really new to add in the form of build updates but I did get an awesome picture of some nice spring time fun!



What's not to love about that face?