mightytacoman build thread.

like others, I wanted to share my progress and have a record of my trucks build progression. truck was flooded in a river crossing at 130,000 miles around september 2016. 8 ft deep water. fully submerged for about 4 hours. at 199000 miles now as of 5/14/21.

So here she is, 2009 Trd Offroad 4.5L V6 Supercharged, stroked, bored, sleeved, cammed- "Anya"



way way waaaaaaaayyy over due to update this


so here is Anya as of 2/10/15 at k2 in Texas


Fresno


As she sits 11/18/13
Brookfield NY


New haven Ct


Mods:
Estimated HP at the flywheel is ~450 based on other 1grfe builds and dynos comparing maf numbers to flywheel power.
This formula was created by Scott at URD.
(Maf in g/s X 1.18 = hp at flywheel)

Engine and performance
New built motor from a 2015 Tacoma installed when odo read 186k. New motor had 26k on it was purchased.
Magnusson supercharger plus mouth porting from 65mm to 71mm.
Darton mid sleeves.
Brian Crower balanced stroker kit with arp 625+ hardware.
Acl bearings throughout the lower motor.
Lower half assembled and machined by R&L engines in NH.
Arp head studs.
Carrillo rods.
Ceramic coated piston heads (95.5mm)
Moly coated piston sides.
Cometic head gaskets 96mm at 0.036" thick
Viton valve seals.
Kelford supercharged profile cams with upgraded valve springs.
Hptuned by Justdsm himself.
Fic 650cc flow matched fuel injectors.
Ruthenium spark plugs.
2.6 underpulley.
2.3 with extra belt on go faster days
Nst lightweight crank, supercharger, alternator, and water pulleys.
Rouch supercharger tensioner.
Rpm supercharger belt.
Fleetrunner main belt.
Speedhut Digital boost/vacuum gauge.
Aem afr gauge.
DT Y pipe bomb modified to 3" outlet and v band.
magnaflow 49 state legal high flo headers- 2020- upgraded to urd equal length spec u headers.
3 " merge collector back with all t304 stainless steel, vibrant resonator and borla muffler.
URD O2 sensor calibrator.. Removed when hptuned by justdsm.
Afe stage 2 intake to custom 3" aluminum intake with tundra maf sensor.
Custom plug n play wire converter for Tacoma to tundra maf sensor.
Tundra throttle body.
Custom polished aluminium 76mm to 71mm throttle body adapter.
Lower intake manifold ported and polished.
aero turbine 2525xl exhaust dumper over axle (removed now)
secondary air filter removed (obviously)
airflow snorkel.
regeared to 4.56's
ARB front air locker
on-board puma air compressor with custom beefed electrical internals.
3.5 gallon air tank under the bed.
energy suspension steering rack, bushings,radiator supports.
SLU solenoid turned in 1/2 turn inside transmission.
Ratiotek shift kit.
powerstop rotors, yellow stuff hawk brake pads.
Northstar 27f agm battery

Cooling
Csf radiator oversized.
High airflow grill.
Derale dual electric fan with pwm. 60% on with fog lights for quick user controlled cooling abilities
Run cool hood louvers.
Custom oversized supercharger coolant resi.
Wheel well splash guards removed during summer heat weather.

Front suspension
radflo 2.5" extended travel with cdc and resi's
light racing UCA's.
sway bar bye bye.
TC spindle gussets.
TC cam alignment tabs.
Stainless extended brake line.
Cab mount chop.

Rear suspension
ATO shackle flip.
Dakar leaf pack.
toytec U-bolt flip kit.
radflo cdc 2.5" with adjustable resi
toytec extended SS brake lines

tires
MTR 315/85/16
helo 791 rims

armor
brute force fab front bumper with light protection galvanized and powder coated.
brute force fab rear bumper galvanized and powder coated.
4x innovation sliders with kickout powder coated.
home made skid plates front and mid.
e-locker skid by marlin crawler.
ruff stuff weld on rear 3rd member armor.
Brute force bed cage.
3/16" beefed rear driveshaft.
Ruff stuff traction bar.
Metal tailgate cap.

lighting
retrofit fxr-3 headlights with legal red demon eyes
886 fog light reverse mod (removed- burns light housing over time)
factory fogs tinted yellow with lamin-x update pre yellowed fogs much better look and light output
Led yellow fog lights.
DTRL mod.
fog anytime mod.
2- 7" kragen hid's update- 20" slim light bar.
extra reverse lights built into rear bumper.
behind grill light bar bracket.
42" overhead lights with custom brackets.
Interior led lights.

audio
Rockford fosgate 500w amp.
skar audio 8" woofer in custom box.
(Original "flux capacitor" style woofer could be included in sale)
(Both might be removed before selling truck)
6x9 door speakers.
axxera head unit installed.
Bluetooth, microphone, steering wheel controls, dual mirror, DVD, USB, CD, mp3, am, fm.

Other things
realtree seat covers (update - kryptek camo custom marathon seat covers)
windows tinted to 25%
diff breather mod.
anti theft tailgate mod.
lund trifold cover (broken but functional)
warn winch 8000i.
tuff stuff extreme synthetic rope 100ft.
synthetic fluids.
Rear view mirror raised via bracket.
Midland cb radio.
4ft cb firestik.
Cvt mount shasta rtt.
Anti moisture matt added to tent.
Hi-lift jack mounted in bed.
Action trax boards.
Bottle opener inside bed.
R&L engines recommends 10w30 racing class oil with 3k oil changes. The higher tolerances squeezes and strains the oil motor requiring higher quality oil and more frequent changes.

Known problems 5/14/21
Burns a bit of oil but no signs of leaks.
Theory- bad valve seal(s)
2nd head gasket since built engine installed.
Theory- arp head studs needed a heat cycle.
2nd time poor rushed install job. Both of these copper coat wasn't used per cometic advice.
3rd time it was used and has held up since without issue.
Rear passenger wheel bearing seal bad causing weeping diff oil (VERY small amount)
Rear shocks need a rebuild but ride good still.
Reverse lights in rear bumper are burned out.


day one on the lot at the dealers.




my first mod came unexpectedly (well second mod. Notice the aftermarket intake). sounded louder and maybe phantom power increase and perhaps a touch better throttle response.. A big thank you to the local deer who started me on my money hungry truck build and also walked away while I was screaming profanities at it wishing I had a gun to shoot that SOB.




This made me decide that a 30 MPH crash into a deer shouldn't do this kind of damage so it got me thinking about armor.
road armor was all I could find that I liked but felt it to be overpriced.. But then by chance I found TW and my wallet has been getting lighter ever since.

A plate bumper and further research on TW made me realize that a lift was necessary so with more research I thought I found my first and last lift I would need.

Eibachs. AAL and 5100's on all corners came while I was waiting for the plate bumper to come in.


and then the lift was on, I didn't take any pics of the install. I felt it was pretty straight forward after all.
pic is taken next to my dads Tacoma that we bought at the same time.


Then the bumper finally came...Its the closest feeling I've had to xmas as a kid in a very long time. I did a simple prep, primer, and bed liner spray on the bumper which I later found DOES NOT hold up to a NY winter worth a dam. Later got in galvanized and powder coated.

Wheeled like this for a while and my dad really liked it so then we ended up building a similar bumper for him but alot more bad ass looking. The build for that is posted here.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-builds/271735-best-looking-plate-bumper-build.html

Some new shoes (km2's) 33" @ 255/85r16 and Helo 791 rims came next after tax returns. Front mud flaps had to go and had to do some very minor trimming of the inner fender wells.








Then some lighting mods caught my eye. Did the DTRL mod and swapped the reverse lights for some 886 fogs lights


886 reverse light on driver side next to stock reverse light. On that note, the 886 bulb projects light differently and you loose the very center of view at night on the back up camera


I wanted some yellow fogs so I got Lamin-x cover/stickers added. A nice little flare.


Mesh grill added next with the intent of putting some lights behind the grill very soon after.


Knowing I would need a way to mount the lights behind the grille and doing some research of the vendors on this site selling light bar brackets. I used them for inspiration in designing and building my own custom light bar bracket so I got to work at the shop again.


Here it is after some paint and welded together.


The lights finally came in. I went with the Kragen 7'' HID's




Sliders were next on the list of things to do. I liked the 4x innovation sliders because I could weld them up myself and pick the angles the I felt were right for my needs.

here are the sliders all welded up and ready to go for powder coat. I know powder coat on sliders is probably a bit of a waste but I felt it was a good base and being black on color would be easy to touch up as needed with a rattle can.



And back from powder coat. Time for a beer and some cool-aid for my little helper of the day


Here are the sliders welded on. Not a great pic but you get the idea. After a quick test I found the flex about a 1/2" up with half the weight of the truck. Thats good enough for me.


Next came a winch. By extreme luck a co-worker was selling his never used warn 8000i winch for less then half price of new. I payed him faster then a millionaire going to a strip club for the first time.

Research said that a warn 8000i (integrated solenoid) wouldn't fit in my choice of plate bumper. I took the bumper off the truck and saw the winch fit in the bumper just fine be it a pretty tight fit though. So the problem had to be else where. When mounting it back up to the truck I found that a radiator support bracket or cross member had to be cut/removed in order for the winch to fit. I didn't want to cut it but did anyways thinking that with the plate bumper, this cross member was not going to be a make or break deal in an accident.




Here it is all finished up with the winch on. Anya is starting to look pretty bad ass.


Rear armor came next give or take a mod or two. Might have done the 1/2 spacer in the front by now to help with the weight of the winch. By moving the hitch and trailer harness into the rear bumper instead of underneath it, I could take my local trails without them dragging due to bad departure angles when going over ditches.




Next I did a "performance" mod. I added an Aero turbine exhaust 2525 xl. Performance is meh..The smile factor while driving increased alot though.

If you look in the bottom left corner of the above pic.. Not at the guy that looks like he belongs on a wanted poster but the little toy to the right.. Thats a mini fork lift toy we built on the plasma table. Cant be all work and no play after all and the little helper sure does enjoy it.

Another shot of the muffler


So might be I got bored or had extra money or whatever but another suspension rebuild was in order.. again.. justified by the armor that was sagging Anya more then I liked and the Eibachs not liking the weight of a plate bumper and winch. The front was just a little to low for my liking. So I did a suspension overhaul.
Dakar leaf pack next to the stock pack with an AAL


Also did the ATO shackle flip for better flex.


Here is the leaf pack installed with extended stainless steel brake lines. U-bolt flip kit and hockey pucks used to extend the bump stops. I also upgraded the rear shocks to the bilstein b110 shocks at this time so I needed to extend the bump stops somehow or risk bottoming the shock out.




Up front I ditched the Eibachs and went with OME 886 springs, LR UCA's, and a toytec 1/2" spacer. I have the 5100 shocks set at 0. Before settling it was just over 3" of lift due to the extra weight on the truck and I had plans to add skid plates soon.

The sway bar went sometime soon after this. With the stiffer springs it doesn't feel bad on hard corners and I can still screech the tires before they come off the ground. Again, good enough for this guy.


Here are some pics playing around. More build pics coming in later posts I assure you.













Snow mobile hill climb done in the spring. The motocross shop yelled at my buddy telling him he couldn't take wheelers up the hill. His response was it wasn't a wheeler, it was a truck. His bosses resonse was simple.. "well dam, that must have been a hell of a truck"


and finally the reason I got this truck..

I literally did the first oil change the day before this.. My girlfriend at the time was DD'ing my drunk ass home from a party, swerved to miss a deer on gravel and we ate alot of wooden guard rail instead on the bright side I was getting a new truck and learned that the frontal crash test rating on these trucks is great. We walked away with some minor bruises from the seatbelt/airbag.

 

Looks good! Just curious, did you regear with those 255s?

 

didnt regear. I noticed I lost some power but didn't really lose any gas mileage. I plan to regear when funds allow it.

 

I was able to get some time this past weekend to fabricate up some skids. I needed them for a run I was planning to Rausch creek soon.

front skid half built. Measured the holes off of where the factory skid mounted up. Big hole cut out out for oil changes


On the truck all painted up. matched the angles of the bumper nicely




This shows the transmission skid a bit. Painting it black makes it hard for the camera to see.


Heres a shot from the back mounted to the factory cross member.


Not a bad weekend at the shop considering all I had was some factory skids to go by

 

Rausch Creek Run. Nov 30th 2012. On some black level trails testing out the suspension and armor.. I guess you could say it passed







Here are some pics of the suspension getting some work done. Impressive if i do say so




This one is my favorite. You just cant to this with stock suspension and with a sway bar still on the truck.

 

Found your build searching the helo 791's .. ordered them yesterday, cant wait to have them put on tomorrow!

Awesome looking truck

 

Thanks Man, you'll love them rims. Had mine on for over a year now and they still look new except where some rocks have tried to eat them haha. 2 new York winters and look good? Gets my approval

 

was up man im that guy that changed your tires in texas! your truck look badass!

 

sub

 

Hey man, thanks for getting those new tires on for me.. got a little rubbing now at full turn. Time to do a cab mount chop Haha. Having trouble finding someone with a grinder I can use for 20 minutes.something I could easily do myself but most of my tools are back in new York. Any ideas?

 

Bought a grinder. Cab mount chop done. I gotta update this build bad. I got a snorkel and spidertrax on my beasty these

 

A fellow New Yorker ? Btw nice truck man !!

 

So back to lighting.. I found myself wanting to put more light down range after doing more night time offroading and going into work before sun up and leaving after sunset. Retrofitting caught my eye. I looked around at the vendors on here and really loved the "halo" look. What caught my eye next was the "demon eye" look. I spent about two months researching several state and federal laws regarding it and if it was or wasn't legal. To my knowledge and according to several police officers i contacted in NY and in TX. It is legal because it is not an actual red light but more of a red reflection. After pricing someone else building my lights to my desired specs and knowing the cost of doing it myself, I decided to take the plunge and try to build them myself feeling most mistakes I could make are reversible. The lights turned out great.

I started by baking the lights and ripping them apart, then sanding down the chrome with steel wool for paint


next was the disassembly of the projector itself to get the demon eye.


These are the parts that I painted. I only painted the the side facing forward.


After trimming the back of the reflector bowl it was time for a test fit back into the housing.


This shot is a before and after shot of baking the paint onto the plastic shortly after they were painted. You can see that the heat glosses it up nicely and smooths the imperfections out.


Here is the outer housing painted up. I taped off the reflector parts. It worked good.


Test fitting all the parts together


Now it was time to steel stik the projector to the reflector bowl in order to have them aimed properly. So heres the front of Anya ripped apart and ready to roll for aiming purposes



Here they are fully assembled and on the truck with my super duper awesome halos


Aimed them later that night. Notice the taco lean. That was corrected later in the same week. overall though. I dont think I could have done anything differently to make it better.

 

I may be biased, but Access Cab pyrite micas are the best!

 

Nah, not biased at all. they are the best

 

While I was working on the new headlights, I also did a body lift on Anya. 1.5" total with oversized grade 8 hardware to increase strength over all by about 40% It took almost 2 full days in my shop to complete. Not something I would attempt to tackle in such a short time frame ever again. 1.5" I felt was enough to get away with stuffing a 35" tire and with minimal trimming.

Here is the front interior all ripped apart to get to the hardware


The front of the truck ripped apart. My hand is in front the body lift spacer for those who don't know where to look.



Next was the steering shaft extension. The kit I bought came with a steering shaft extension but I must have ordered the wrong one. That was problem one. Problem 2 was that I was only going to be home for a short time before going away for another 6 months or more. I had to find a way to make it work and make it work now. I cut the steering shaft in half with plans to just weld a rod in the center of it to extend it to the correct length. Now came problem 3. The shaft is greased in the center so every time I tried to weld it, The grease heated up and ruined my weld. I ended up taking a pipe and cutting it length wise then welding that to the outside of the shaft to finally get it to the length I needed it at. It wasn't as pretty as I had hoped but it was done at least.


since the truck was already in the shop and the overall goal was 35" tires (regeared already at this point) I decided to do the cab mount chop. cut with a plasma, hammered a piece of metal to shape and welded it on. what a beautiful thing.


All that was left was to add some metal to the front and rear bumper to have them match the new lift. Easy enough, I even added a gusset to one part for extra strength


Driving home that night I thought I had broke the truck. Everytime i went over 10 mph alarms were going off and it would take away power from the truck. ran all kinds of diagnostics on it with several different computer and couldn't fint the problem. I ended up disconnecting the battry for a while and viola! problem solved. well ... sorta solved. What had happened was when I did the body lift, the steering wheel must have gotten spun a full 360 degrees or more causing all sorts of problems with traction control etc. Also tore the spiral cable aka clock spring at this time. so I had to replace that.
Here is the steering wheel ripped apart to get to the spring. Then all was well.

 

lookin good man! did you trim your fenders for 35s?

 

Yes, fenders trimmed, firewall beat back, and cab mount chop. Pics coming soon

 

retrofit light build added

 

Your headlight mod looks like terminator eye.