What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Today (and yesterday) I installed the OME suspension kit from @Wheeler's Off-Road Inc. I'm tired as hell, but man was it fun. Glad to have had help from a couple coworkers in the yota scene.

Went with the 880 coils and CS018R Leaf Springs, Nitrochargers all around. I think the Old Man Emu setup was the best bang for my buck and should work very well for what I'd like to use it for - lots of highway miles, slower offroading, national forest trips...

So here it is:




Lotsa rake right now, the Dakars are so much beefier than my stock springs. Hoping my camper shell and revised camping platform will help them settle down. Still needs an alignment and a couple finishing touches.

The biggest hiccup in the install was finding some rust on the frame. Bashed all the soft stuff out, left me with this nicely sized rust hole in the frame. I took a hammer to the rest of the frame as well, which looks fine minus some surface rust out back. This is right in the pocket behind the passenger rear shock mount:



It was full of dirt, to about the fairly level top part of the hole.

Gonna clean it up and have a friend weld on some frame plates. Trailgear, CBI, SafeTcap? Recommendations welcome! Want to order plates on Monday.

Oh, and how do I make those pictures smaller?

 

That would be an easy place to make a plate yourself, should be c channel there too so you can box it if you wanted to regain some strength. If you rusted there I'd bash around your forward leaf mount as that part usually rots out way before the c channel section. Also your truck looks really good, like if you looked up Toyota Tacoma that should be the 1st gen sections picture.

 

Been doing it since I was 12 or so, roughly 9-10 years now. Started just pushing my mower throughout my neighborhood then fixed my friends tractor with a small trailer and put them in there. Then we got trucks and put the push mowers in a truck. Then got these two zero turns and fixed a 4x8 HF trailer and made ramps from the trailer into the truck bed and drove one mower into the bed and put the ramps down and parked the other mower on the trailer (super sketchy, wish I had pics). 2 years ago we upgraded to this 6x12.

Once I get the truck going it’s fine but damn it is slow getting up and going. I guess I’m used to towing with full size V8s.

 

Autorust.com sells weld on patches for Tacoma frames, seen them recommended before on here...

https://www.autorust.com/product/rear-forward-spring-area-toyota-tacoma-art-083-r/

 

Yeah, I figured it was time. I've put 20k on the truck since I bought it last year. Also have a PCV valve and new hose on the way. Heads up every plug was off gap. Something to be sure and check

 

Thanks man, I'm definitely happy with it. Rides so much better, but needs some weight in the back for sure

I'll check the leaf mount, it looked fine while I cut out those bolts... It's definitely C channel though, and I think boxing the frame is in my future. For now I'm gonna do frame plates and make a patch for the bottom.

I'm hoping to learn mig welding in the next few months and get after it, I'll probably relocate the shock mounts and box the frame. Would it be a good idea to cut out the stock shock mount gusset/rust accelerant?

 

You are right of course. It is a big unknown because we really don't know how much the ECU actually knows and how much it is the algorithms written into the scangauge programming. It is an old tired engine at 175K and the she is over weight and has been regeared. so

 

Says something about the engine longevity, even if the ECU isn't a genius. My engine hovered around +/- 3% before I started screwing with it for the SC

 

I'm impressed and encouraged regardless.

So for future reference, fuel trims less that 3% are good. It will be interesting to know what the threshold actually is to trigger a CEL. It is obviously higher that what @HamerMan is seeing because I don't think he is getting a CEL yet is seeing 13/19%.

 

25% triggers the CEL, but anything over 10% is where I'd start looking for issues.

 

Awesome. I plan on doin the same thing but with legs and carpet that way my dogs have a flat surface for a sleeping area while were camping. If you ever get around to doin the elaborate build make sure you post it up! I really like the anchor slide idea!

 

Been driving all over virginia and West Virginia for the last couple days but did some night wheeling with @Rockbaron1 and @ToyRyd04 tonight.

 

The other panel didn’t turn out as nice and the imperfections showed in the paint since I didn’t sand the whole panel to bare steel, so I was extra and completely went down to bare metal with the access door.

I went 120 Grit > 180 Grit > 400 Grit Wet Sand

 

My dad's does this. Doubt it's accurate as we have seen 385hp before lol

 

Apoc Industries!

 

Is thst with a scanguage or an ultragauge?

 

I'd be curious as I'd imagine they both are inaccurate and in different ways haha. But on a separate note I did meet a 2nd gen guy today that is pulling down 415HP on a decently modified supercharged 4.0 in a double cab long bed so it is possible that the UG was dead on haha

 

Sounds good as mine is clearly inaccurate....

 

Is this the cushions your talking about?

Arm Bushing Differential Mount Febest TAB-338 Oem 41653-60030

https://www.amazon.com/FEBEST-TAB-3...842&sr=1-2&keywords=tacoma+differential+mount

 

Just clear coat it now.