The Expo Dawg Build

Here she is, current state (29 Mar 2015)



(29 May 2014)



(16 May 2014):




SO... I've had this 2nd Gen '95 4Runner SR5 since Sept of last year and just haven't put together a build page. Now that I've done a few things worth reporting on a build page, I figured I'd put one together. Here is her story:

I picked it up off of CraigsList locally for $1200, it had some engine issues (explained below) but ran, no rust underneath, body is really straight and interior only has a few minor wear problems. Had 158K miles on the truck at purchase. The main purpose of this truck is a project vehicle. It is an expedition build with good road manners, drivability and moderate off road capability. I want to be able to go out hit some trails and see stuff - off the highway - off the beaten path. Most mods will be focused towards that goal.

Here she is the day I brought her home:



She had a slight smoking habit:


#6 Spark plug looked like this:


And it's matching cylinder:


I believe the PO had a blown head gasket that they drove on for a while then had it repaired but by that time it had damaged the cylinder; it was burning oil bad in the #6 cylinder. This was more than they wanted to repair so they just drove it some more and sold it. It would smoke really bad for about 10 minutes after start up but finally get hot enough to burn it all out. Honestly, it ran pretty rough... LOL!
Since it had this problem and the rest of engine was an unknown condition to me, I went ahead and rebuilt the whole thing, heads included.

Some minor drama involved here... the original block had been rebuilt by Toyota on a subcontract with Jasper engines (most were in the days of the head gasket recalls). Apparently, in the subcontract they just repaired the damaged portion of the engines, this block's #6 cylinder was MAX bored .060 over, all others were still stock sized... the original block was worthless. I found engine another in a salvage yard and bought the entire engine, intake to oil pan, for $300. I tore it down and took the second block to my machinist; it was rebuildable. hat engine was junked due to a spun rod bearing. He tried to re-use the second crank but it exploded in the turning lathe So we used the original crank. Also found one of my original heads and been reworked poorly, so I used one of the second engines heads to replace that as well. That junk yard engine was well worth it in the long run.



IN this pic you can see the new injector wire pigtails. I installed the FlameThrower 4 Hole injectors for increased atomization of fuel. Are they better? Frankly the engine ran so bad before, any thing is an improvement! I'm certain they perform better but I don't have much previous reference to judge against.


Ran into a few problems during the final stages of reassembly... this one head had two holes that the threads stripped right out of (YES, I was using a torque wrench):


Prepped for surgery: I got some HeliCoil inserts to replace the stripped threads; drilled out the hole, tapped new threads and screwed in the inserts. Easy stuff!


Ready to drop; in this photo



This engine rebuild brought to you by:


Back on the road (Nov 2013):

 

After I got it back on the road, I drove the crap out of it for a couple months.
This helped to make sure the rest of the drive train was good to go and wring out any more bugs.

First big mod to complete was the lift. I used 1.5" ball joint spacers for the front (side to side leveled with the torsion bars) and the rear coils springs from a '93 FJ80 Land Cruiser. (gained +1.75" on each side in the front and +4.5" of lift in the rear).
The ball joint spacers are really straight forward to install. The FJ80 springs aren't difficult but the are considerably longer coils so you nearly have to completely remove the rear end to get them installed. I also built a pan hard top bracket; completely jacked the design from 4Crawler. I didn't take any pics of the lift install but here's the results...
Before:

After:


Next major mod was a custom front bumper build. I didn't like any of the available bumpers for the 2nd gen T4Rs, so I borrowed several aspects of bumpers I liked and built my own.

First built it out in foam board:






Spent a disgusting amount of time cutting all these pieces out of 3/16 plate steel with my angle grinder with a cutting wheel:


Time for some of this


I bought this frame beef up plate to save some fab time





All this mil scale on the plate steel is a bitch to remove... until I figured out the acid bath trick



Time to tack it all together; this center box winch plate is 1/4" for the winch mount and down to the frame mounts







I had a professional weld up the center winch box due to it all being 1/4" steel and my little welder would barely do 3/16" with prep work
After getting it back I was able to finish it up:


Primed up with etching primer:

Decided to paint it with this:





Installed:



I chose to put these very small turn signals in the bumper corners to replace the stock location ones; they are actually really bright.
I did have to also install an LED resistor to stop the hyper flashing:

 

Next was a couple of maintenance mods:
LED cabin lights:



New brakes and front hub spindle bearings


Went with an upgrade of slotted and cross drilled rotors with ceramic brake pads


Also found these manual hubs locally. Changed out the drive spindles on my ADD front to save some wear and tear on the front drive train.
These just needed some clean up and fresh paint... good as new:



Time for some of this:


Got some new shoes:


Using the Tacoma Sport rims on the new shoes; backspacing is VERY different.
This is the stock rim/tire side view:

This is the new shoe/rim WITH a 1.5" wheels spacer; only sticks out about 1/2" further than stock:

 

A few other minor mods:
Some red LEDs in the map lights:


Radio Auto Antenna Kill Switch:
Just tapped into the antenna command wire and put in this simple kill switch. If I'm going thru tight trees or brush I can lower the antenna... keeping me from ripping it off.




CB Radio and Antenna mount:
So I went with the Cobra 75WX/ST radio and a Wilson 1000 antenna w/ magnet mount. I plan to build a roof rack later and will incorporate a hard mount into that, so the mag mount is just temporary.
I drilled a hole in the front side of my third brake light housing and ran the antenna cable thru a grommet, then sealed that up with some black rtv:


My radio is mounted under the seat with an external speaker under there as well. Future plans are to mount the speaker between the head rest posts.

 

Forgot to add in my "bedside" decals"...
I had these custom made by SteelCityAirman7 here on TW.
The aircraft silhouette atop the compass rose is represents my 21+ years in the Air Force as a Crew Chief on B-1B bombers.

Pics inbound.....

 

reserved 5

 

Looking Good Brent. Great Build Page Too.

 

Looks like poop

 

Thx Ryan!

Best compliment EVER! Thx bro!!

 

Oh hell it's on like Donkey Kong!

 

Weak sauce. SAS that jank.

 

No.

 

Un-sub'ed

 

Awesome build so far, and nice work on saving the engine. Digging the home fab bumper as well, I feel you on the cutting with the grinder, did both of my bumpers the same way.

 

DAMN! Great work!

 

Really digging it. Makes me hope to snag one of these one day....... or buy my future wife one. If she ain't into yotas I'm calling the wedding off