88 4Runner project

[Ringwraith]

So if you saw my post last week, I did buy the 4runner. I got him down to 3650 for it, which is decent. We had to take it out on a flatbed because it isn't running. So now it's on the driveway with no tires (just sold the swampers for 1200, and ordered a set of 35x12.5x15 dick cepek mud country tires).

I figured I'd make a thread to document the progress over the next few months as I get this thing running and getting the interior looking sexy. I'll probably need a lot of input as I go along, so feel free to add your opinions.

Stuff that has to be done in order to get it running:
Oilpan/oil pump installed
Rad/fans
Fuel lines
Exhaust

I'm sure there will be other stuff that comes up, but that's what I'm aware of as of now.
The interior is gonna take some work, but should be more fun than pain (knock on wood :P ) I'm planning on putting dynamat on the floor and then putting bedliner over top of it, and getting rid of the carpet. Gonna put my sub from my pickup in the back for now, might go a different route if it doesn't sound good.

The truck came loaded with so many parts, most of which I won't even need. I'll probably be making an inventory of everything before I start so I don't lose stuff. Oilpan will probably be the first thing I do.

I'll just copy and paste everything that was done to the truck from the craigslist ad:
1985 Toyota 5M-GE EFI inline-6 engine (Supra/Cressida)
New Toyota engine mounts (modified)
5-speed manual transmission (W56, the good one)
Solid front axle conversion (housing from 1985 Toyota 4x4 - 84/85 are stronger than 79-83 housings)
Aisin manual hubs (strongest)
Trail Gear high-steer cross-over steering
Front axle housing rebuilt (0 miles)
Trail Gear front axle housing upper truss (lower truss is factory '85)
Trail Gear 4.70 super-low-range crawler gears in transfer case
Marlin dual-stick transfer-case conversion
Transfer-case rebuilt (0 miles)
Lockright front locker
ARB rear air-locker (0 miles)
ARB air compressor
Trail Gear large front diff guard
Trail Gear small rear diff guard plate
Wagoneer front springs
Trail Gear front shock hoops
Chevy rear springs
Relocated forward spring hangers (Chevy springs are longer than stock)
Bilstein remote-reservoir rear shocks
Square-tube front driveshaft
Custom front winch bumper
Superwinch LP8500 front winch (new)
Custom swing-away rear bumper with hitch receiver
Brand new 36" Super Swamper Irok tires (0 miles)
12x10" steel rims
Rock sliders
35" spare tire (good tread) on 12x10" steel rim
Bushwacker fender flares
Removeable rear mud flaps
New battery
Black exterior, grey interior, rock-guarded lower body


He didn't know about the gearing, and there wasn't a receipt, but there was a booklet thing from yukon for a ring and pinion install, so I assume it has been regeared, hopefully 5.29. I'll probably figure that out soon. I'll be posting here regularly as I make progress.

[orange crusher]

Get the back up on jackstands and spin the tires and count how many times the dshaft turns to 1 tire rotation. That will tell you what gears you have. 5.29= 5.3 turns of the dshaft. As least thats how I think it works. Someone chime in if im wrong. Nice looking rig you got there.

[Ringwraith]

Yeah, that's kinda what I figured. Thanks! It's gonna be sick when I'm finished with it

I got the interior stripped today, the metal inside is actually in pretty good shape. However, he cut the floor from side to side to allow room for the shock mounting bar he made. He only put a wood box over it, but we are going to make a more secure and waterproof metal box thing to put over it instead. I'll put up pics tomorrow or the next day when we start working on it.

I also ordered a box of the bulk dynamat, 36 sq ft. Should be enough to do the whole vehicle. I'm planning on putting Herculiner over top of the dynamat.

I might go look at for some new seats at the local wrecker, but if I can't find anything decent I'll just put seat covers over them. Also, the new tires should be here this week.

For the interior panels in the back, I'm gonna do what I've seen a few others do and make panels out of aluminum diamond plate.

[Ringwraith]

Ok, so I ordered some bedliner today. I went with U-Pol Raptor liner after tons of research. I originally was set on Herculiner, but after reading up on this Raptor stuff, I was sold. Decent price on amazon too. Now I need to prep the inside, which is gonna take some time, and get the diamond plate for the panels.

The next thing I need to figure out is the sound system. I think I'm going to put the 4" speakers in the stock dash locations, and if those don't sound that great, I'll get some bigger ones in the doors. There were 2 Pioneer 4" speakers in a box in the truck that looked newer, but who knows if they work. Some 6x9's in the back panels that I might reuse depending how they sound. The only thing I'm trying to decide now is how to setup my subs. I'm either going to just take my truck sub box out of my pickup and put it in there, or figure out a way to put the subs in the back panels. Not sure how good that would sound unless I made some sort of box for them. If anyone has any suggestions on sub placement, I'm all ears!

[orange crusher]

I remember putting the bedliner stuff in my truck. The prep sucked. Good luck with that and keep the pics rolling.

[BigMike]

Nice looking truck and I'm interested to hear your impression once you get the 5M running

Subscribed!

BigMike

[Richmondo]

I'm curious as to how the bedliner is going to adhere to the dynamat. Maybe there's something I don't know, which is quite often the case, but it just doesn't make sense in the ole noggin

[John Doe]

Any chance to get a better pic of the front bumper?

I am also very curious how the bed liner over dyno mat is going to turn out.

[Ringwraith]

Well, I was thinking the similar about how bedliner would go over dynamat, and when I searched it didn't look like many people had done it, or that people weren't posting online about it. However, the dynamat has aluminum foil backing on it, which I figure if I scuff up or put a self etching primer on, the bedliner should stick. I wanted this thing to be quiet inside and for the sound system to be really nice, and dynamat should do the job.

I'll get some more pics up in the next few days, the sun is finally starting to come out so I can finally fiberglass the rest of the holes in the rear fenders I forgot to take a pic of the interior before I started though, it looked so bad in there... It's gonna be so nice in there after. I figured out my sound system though, going with pioneer components and tweeters front and back, and a nice pioneer deck up front. Shouldn't even need my sub with this setup. And cheap as hell on amazon lol.

[bigarms23]

glad you got it should be awesome when its finished

[ocdropzone]

i would take 45 minutes and pull the rear third and count the ring gear/divide by the pinion teeth. elminates some ambiguity in your driveshaft rotation. also gives you a chance to inspect the set up.

[Ringwraith]

Yeah, I was planning on pulling it anyway just to check how it's all setup and make sure everything is ok, will probably do that at some point. Right now we've mostly been working on fixing the rust holes in the rear fender, it's taking a while with the limited time me and my dad have to work on it.

Also, I've been looking on supracharged.com with no luck, but the water pump pulley seems to be too short. The outer belt rests on the outside of the water pump pulley as if there should be a third track for it to be in. Does anyone know what other vehicle/engine I can get a pulley of off that will fit on the 5mge that has 3 tracks? Here's a pic, you can see how where the belt going off the power steering pump lines up with the far pulley, but there is no track on the middle one:


Also, here's some other pics:


There was a decent amount of rust on the drivers side floorboard, so after about an hour of scraping off this top layer stuff someone put on that was all soft, and getting rid of all the insulation remnants, some rust-mort fixed the rust, and some primer over top and it's fine


This is the rear shock mount thing that the guy made who did all the suspension work. We have an idea of how to seal this up but still be able to remove it just by making a box type thing like the guy had made out of wood, but with metal, and just seal it properly.


Here's a couple shots of the fiberglass work. It hasn't been sanded yet, the weather has been a little cool the last few days and my dad wants to put a few more layers on.



We had to cut a decent amount off the passenger side, it was pretty rusty, and the previous guy just tried to fix it with some filler :/

[Ringwraith]

Well, the inside is almost ready for the bedliner, just have to get that box thing made to cover the rear shock mount bar. I decided against putting dynamat on the floor, and instead am going to put it behind the doors, roof, and rear quarter panels. I ordered 5 gallons of the Spectrum Sludge after doing some research, and will put that on the undercarriage and wheel wells. It "should" be pretty quiet in there if everything works like it's supposed to.

Also, we found out the engine is seized, most likely due to not having any oil in the engine for a few months/years. We forgot to check for that when we picked it up. We put a breaker bar on the front nut of the harmonic balancer and tried to see if it would turn, but it wouldn't budge. Hopefully it's just some mild rust or dry seals that are holding it, and that some penetrating oil will do the job. If not, this project just got a whole lot bigger :/

[Ringwraith]

Well the engine is no longer seized A day of having Move-it sitting in the cylinders did the job :3

Also, finally got the tires and on the truck, they look pretty nice. This is the first time I've ever had new tires, so im pretty excited lol.

[RickerRicker19]

Lookin like a beast!

[Ringwraith]

Got a box made at a steel shop to cover the rear shock bar. The two holes are so we can access the bolts if need be. It was welded where it could, mostly along the fender and the high points along the floor (the top of every groove). The rest was sealed with QuickSteel and seam sealer. For anyone that hasn't used seam sealer, that stuff is incredible! We discovered it a few years back and only wish we had found it sooner lol. You can seal any hole or crack with it, and it will be watertight and very tough. We put it along the entire edge of the box.

[Ringwraith]

Alright, so I got the bedliner in on monday when we finally got some sun, and it turned out really good.


Also got the door speakers installed, although I didn't realize that I put the driver side tweeter exactly where the 2nd door handle is on the passnger side lol, so the passenger side is about 2 inches more towards the front. We also got the oil pump on today, had to make a custom bracket to mount the 7mge pump up the the 5mge, and it took forever to get it to fit right


Hopefully getting one of the power steering lines cut and fitted tomorrow, and maybe the clutch line and oil pan as well.

[camogonewild]

did u have any hard time mounting the 6.5s in the doors any problem with the window track

[Greg_Canada]

Are you in toronto/ontario?

[Ringwraith]

Originally Posted by camogonewild

did u have any hard time mounting the 6.5s in the doors any problem with the window track

Yeah, they were a little too deep so I had to make spacers for them. They are behind the panel right now so the bottom corner where the speaker sits sticks out a bit, but if/when I feel like making/buying some good looking spacers (one's I made are pretty rough, but do the job), I'll put them on the outside between the panel and speaker. Still sounds awesome though. Low profile speakers would be another option

Originally Posted by Greg_Canada

Are you in toronto/ontario?

Nope, in Abbotsford, just outside Vancouver :P



Haven't posted in here for a while, but I have got quite a bit done! The truck now runs! Wooo! Haha. I'm just waiting for the electric fans I ordered to get here, then I can take it to the exhaust shop and get the pipe made (first time I'll have ever taken a vehicle to a shop). Going 2.25" exhaust with a magnaflow glasspack, no cat.

Also, I got the diamond plate rear panels made yesterday. They turned out pretty good!


I also ordered Corbeau Baja XRS suspension seats (hurt the wallet quite a bit lol), but they are gonna be soooooo nice to sit in. Not going to install them till after the exhaust shop though, don't want any grease marks on them!


I got an SR5 gauge as well and got that all wired in. All the gauges seem to work, but it took a while to get the tach working. Still have to adjust it to be on par with engine. Way better than the ugly stock gauges with the massive speedo, and then having extra aftermarket gauges on top!

The truck should be on the road next week, just depends when the fans get here. I don't want to drive the truck in this heat without them, not gonna risk overheating after all this work!

[Ringwraith]

Woot! I got her on the road today, swapped the insurance from my pickup over to the runner. She has so much more acceleration it's ridiculous lol. It drives pretty good, really loud without carpet. I changed my mind after taking it for a test drive last week to the exhaust shop. Highway speeds it's just way to loud in there. So I ordered a molded vinyl floor, just like carpet except vinyl, so it won't get damp and is easier to clean. I also applied about half of what I had left of the spectrum sludge over the floorpan inside (so about a gallon's worth). I also ordered some luxury liner pro, the best sound and heat barrier out there, so that should quiet it down quite a bit, along with getting rid of the heat around the tranny hump.

The exhaust itself sounds amazing. I went with 2.25" pipe, no cat, with a magnaflow glasspack. The exhaust shop did a really good job on it. I'll post up some pics later, and maybe a vid of it running. I still have a little bit of work to do to get it "finished" for now, but I'm just waiting on parts to get here.

So nice to finally be driving this thing after having it sitting on the driveway for 3 months!

[CJCrunner]

Hey the side panels look good! With the sound system, it looks like you just installed your 6x9's in that little cuby by the back seats? I had mine there and ran into clearance issues with folding down the back seats. The side would catch on the speaker grill and I eventually trashed the speaker guards (which is why i just relocated mine over the rear wheel wells today ). I also used to have 2 ten inch subs mounted in the side panels towards the rear of the bed and ran into a lot or rattling and with the subs pointing directly at each other the sound was pretty bad. I just ended up putting them in 2 separate boxes with quick disconnects so i can take them out when they are in the way. Just thought i would give you a little warning so that you don't run into any problems in the future. Keep it up looks good!

[KillerToyTops]

Nice Yota ...Now all you need is a Killer Toy Top...

[jdblatt]

Originally Posted by KillerToyTops

Nice Yota ...Now all you need is a Killer Toy Top...

Who's Killer Toy Tops???

[Ringwraith]

Originally Posted by CJCrunner

Hey the side panels look good! With the sound system, it looks like you just installed your 6x9's in that little cuby by the back seats? I had mine there and ran into clearance issues with folding down the back seats. The side would catch on the speaker grill and I eventually trashed the speaker guards (which is why i just relocated mine over the rear wheel wells today ). I also used to have 2 ten inch subs mounted in the side panels towards the rear of the bed and ran into a lot or rattling and with the subs pointing directly at each other the sound was pretty bad. I just ended up putting them in 2 separate boxes with quick disconnects so i can take them out when they are in the way. Just thought i would give you a little warning so that you don't run into any problems in the future. Keep it up looks good!

Those aren't 6x9's, they are 6.5's. I put them in the same spot the previous owner had the 6x9's, and just made my own adapter out of plywood. I never thought about clearance issues though. We'll see how much they rub, but I don't think I'll have to move the seats that often. Thanks for the heads up!
I thought about putting subs in the back like you did, but like you said, with them facing eachother, they would sounds really bad. Plus, I only listen to country music, so one 10" is good enough. In fact, those speakers actually put out a serious amount of bass! They were crazy cheap too on Amazon! 52 bucks a set, so I got 2. They sell for 172 at bestbuy, PER SET!! Crazy, lol...
And thanks! She's so much fun to drive, it's nuts haha. So much more acceleration than the 22re, it's awesome! I'm gonna get a ticket with this thing some day :P

Originally Posted by KillerToyTops

Nice Yota ...Now all you need is a Killer Toy Top...

Haha, nah, I'm done spending money on the truck this year. Moving out in a few weeks so my truck no longer has unlimited access to my bank account :P I like the hard tops, and it rains a lot here on the west coast, so it's a better option for me. For the couple weeks or months that we actually get nice weather, I'll just roll the windows down, or take the top off ;D


Ok, so I've done a lot since I last posted. I had some serious overheating problems, which was mostly due to the belt slipping on the water pump/alternator, so I replaced the belt and put a second one one (there was an empty spot on the alt/waterpump/harmonic balancer, so I used it), so I shouldn't have any issues with that anymore. I also replaced the water pump. The old one was fine, but I already bought a new one and it was only 50 bucks, so figured I might as well change it since I had it off to inspect.

I also got some hood louvers (vents) to help, and boy do they ever work! My hood was barely warm after driving about 15 min home from work through town, and the louvers were nice and hot, so they are venting the heat! Before, the hood would be so hot you couldn't even touch it!

I also put in a second battery, figured I had the space and having a second battery for accessories is super handy! And then you can jump start yourself if need be. I took the projector headlights off my pickup and put them in my 4runner, there's no way I could have not :P

I'm working on getting the back window operational. I put on and hooked up the other tailgate that came with the truck (which was the original one, with the power window), and it wouldn't start when I hooked up the rear tailgate! So, now I know why he put a different tailgate on haha. Also, the relay was missing that controls the back window, so instead of trying to figure out the wiring problem, I just wired a new switch directly to the motor (the motor actually worked, surprisingly!). I also cleaned up the track that the glass goes in, because it's like 200+ from toyota, and $100 from toyotafiberglass. I sliced my finger open pretty good getting the track out That'll teach me for not wearing gloves when pulling out a rusty track with broken glass in it :P So now I'm just waiting for the new rubber pieces to get here, and then I can put the glass back in!

Ok, long post, but the last thing I have to do is get the flooring installed. The sound barrier stuff (Luxury Liner Pro) should be here on Tuesday, so I'll be installing that next week, along with the molded vinyl flooring I ordered. The vinyl is molded to fit the truck, so I just need to trim and cut out the bolt holes and stuff. The truck will be so much quieter after those things are put in, and a lot less heat from the engine/tranny will get in! And once everything is in, I'll put the back seats in! Also on the to do list is paint the bumpers and hook up the winch. Pics in the following post.

[Ringwraith]

Electric fans:


Engine/Louvers:






Interior:

[orange crusher]

Nice seats! Love the vents in the hood. Im going to do that to mine. Keep the cool pics coming.

[Boomtacoma01]

The hood louvres made a ton of difference on mine as well. Good looking build.

sent from my Galaxy 2 Skyrocket

[Ringwraith]

Originally Posted by Boomtacoma01

The hood louvres made a ton of difference on mine as well. Good looking build.

sent from my Galaxy 2 Skyrocket

Thanks! And yeah, they really do!


Well, today the truck is back on jack stands The ring and pinion broke in the rear end... I think I cracked it or something the first time I tested it offroad, because it started making a slight noise out of the back end, then when I was on my way home from work today, it just exploded, and I had to get towed home... So now I gotta buy a new set, sigh :/

[jdblatt]

did you use the factory seats rails? I'm looking to get some new seats and I need the pass. seat to slide for rear passengers.. (kids). and I was wondering how you may have installed them..