Leadgolem's Build

I like the interior mods. were the rear seats difficult? and are they lasting?

 

I don't know how they will last. It's just some random fabric I found. My mom did the sewing for the upholstery. Apparently it was a bitch. If I had to do it over again I'd probably buy the rear seat covers from wet okole instead. Neoprene lasts.

I don't think mine will be a problem though. I have never actually used those seats...

 

good point i dont use mine either, they are just an eyesore.

 

I checked tonight, and it looks like the connectors that came with my WO's are long enough to route the switches in where I want them.

 

Just bought a set of piaa 5250's. Should be here Monday. The lights on there now look so dinky...

PIAA 5250 525 Series Dual Beam Lamp - Set of 2

http://www.amazon.com/PIAA-5250-Dua..._1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1288345173&sr=8-1


I also picked this up for cheap off craigslist last week.

I'm going to try to build some mounting brackets for it. It is the right width, but some dork cut the mounting tabs it originally had off. I think it was originally for an f150, but has been cut down horizontally too. Might have been for a smaller vehicle though. It's a go industries knock down grill guard. Before you ask, yes I'm going to be painting it with bed liner.
http://www.autoanything.com/grille-guards/61A2353A0A0A2587399.aspx

 

I decided, more on a whim then anything else, to put premium gas in the tank tonight. I was rotating the gas in my gas can and had 1/4 tank left. So, it was a mix of premium with a good amount of regular. Probably came out more like mid grade gas with the mixing. That would be 89 octane around here.

For a minute or two it drove weird. Sorta, thug thug thug, I don't want to move. After it settled down, my but dyno said I had more power. Not just a tiny amount either, more like 10-15% more power.

This makes no sense to me. This isn't a particularly high compression engine. With it's age and mileage it should have lost some of it's compression too. I'm going to post this elsewhere on here and see if I can figure this out. That should not have made much, if any difference.

I also reaimed my headlights. With the rear sitting so high they were way to low.

 

Pulled my bumper off today and bent the brackets for it back into place.



I also took some measurements for the brackets I need to make for the brush guard. I'm planning on using some box steel with a 2x3 internal dimension, if I can find some, for the brackets. That should fit over the frame nicely. Then I can pie cut and bend it up to meet the bottom section of the of the brush guard. A couple of bolts through the frame and a couple more through the guard. Looks like it will be easier then I thought at first. I'll be notching the plastic of the bumper to accommodate the brackets. I may need some of those metal tubes for the bolt holes so I don't dimple the frame/bracket.

 

hey man
I saw that you have the same kind of leaf helpers as me. I did mine kind of different but, its a really stiff ride. Is yours really stiff?? Also what kind of shocks do you have on the rear too. sweet truck man.

 

Bilstein 5100's all around for the shocks.

My ride isn't to stiff. A little stiffer then stock, but no big deal. Very very high, but not stiff.

It was very stiff when I had the extra u-bolts tightened down. I loosened those and it's fine. They are just finger tight now, with loctite red on the threads to keep them from coming off.

 

Thanks for the response you helped me out alot thank you agian.

 

I had the heat shield off in the engine bay today. When I did the seafoam I noticed some exhaust leakage. After a lot of looking I can't find any cracks or holes in the manifold, or in the down pipe. I think it's just the seal between the down pipe and the manifold.

The exhaust leakage would explain the rough running at high throttle positions. Since it's before the sensor that sends feedback to the computer, I am getting a somewhat messed up fuel/air mix. Not really noticeable at low throttle positions, but when you get more out gassing with more throttle it gets worse.

I also cut some off the end of my exhaust. The side dump was getting pushed on by the leaf pack. I noticed it was close after I installed my shackle lift. A closer inspection showed it was rubbing with normal street driving. Since I'm wanting to take my truck off-road, and didn't really want to tear my exhaust off when the rear wheels drop, I cut it off.

Here's the section I cut off. As you can see, the cut is pretty ragged.

Here is a better shot of the spot the leaf was rubbing on the exhaust.

I cleaned up the cut on the truck side somewhat. Since this is all the way under the truck I'm not going to take a huge amount of time making it look pretty.

You can see the exhaust is not anywhere near the spring travel path now.

I'll want to drive it some first to make sure, but I think I'm going to need to figure something out for a new exhaust hanger. Since I cut one off doing the trimming. It may not be a big deal, since there is a good sturdy hanger on the muffler.

I also sprayed DEI boomat on the underside of my hood. I don't like a lot of engine noise. I'd seen posts a couple other places about people doing this, and thought it was worth a shot. Frankly, I expect the boom mat to react badly to the heat in the engine bay. It's almost a spray on tar.

Taped off the stickers under the hood, so I can read them if I need to.

Tape removed.

 

Ok, I did my usual test drive, that a 40 minute drive with varying grades and road conditions. The boom mat does not appear to have softened much with the engine heat. No bubbling etc, yet. It is a chilly night though. I still expect this stuff to lose adhesion with the heat cycling over time. We shall see what happens.

It does not look like I'll need to do anything with the exhaust. No vibes from it, or anything else unusual.

 

Here's the thread on the difference in the power with the higher octane gas.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/120907-better-gas-more-power-wtf.html

My tentative conclusion at this point is that I was getting non-knocking abnormal combustion. That was robbing me of power. I haven't gone through the whole tank yet though, so I haven't made another observation with regular gas yet.

The "solution" was to seafoam my engine through the vacuum assist line again. This time correctly. After doing so, my engine smoked for 43 minutes with me holding it at 2k rpm.

I also fixed an exhaust leak. The leak was between the manifold and the down pipe going to the cat. At higher rpm and throttle positions it was messing up my air/fuel mixture enough to be noticeable.

As long as I'm still getting the same amount of power after switching back to regular fuel, I'm done chasing performance via mods. About the only things left were a totally new exhaust and or boost. Either turbo or supercharger. That is, short of rebuilding the engine and having it bored, or an engine swap.

 

dude could you do a write up on reupholstering the door panels and the headliner for the 1st gen's, especially a 98. lol. im trying to do an all camo thing in my truck but i wanna make it look tight.

Reupholstered passenger panel.


well turns out that im an idiot and just didnt look but thanks im def about to redo my door panels for sure.

 

Have fun! It actually isn't that hard. I haven't touched the headliner.

 

In case anybody is interested, before I cut my exhaust I thought I was bottoming out my rear shock on one side. Made me think I installed them backward after installing the helper spring. In truth I was doing no such thing. I was shoving on the exhaust. It didn't feel quite harsh enough to be bottoming out, but I wasn't sure what it was until after I cut the exhaust off.

 

Just installed and tested my piaa 525's. I have the covers on in all these shots. I have already cut the PIAA off the covers.
For reference, headlights low beams.

Headlights high beams.

Fogs only.

Fogs with low beam headlights.

Fogs with high beam headlights.

Piaa high beams only.

Piaa high beams, headlight low beams.

Piaa high beams, headlight high beams.


What it looks like from the front.


After taking these pictures I cleaned up the wiring a bit. I guess I didn't have one of the lines for the relays spliced in very well. Now when I turn on the highs the lights go off completely. I'll pull the the connections out at some point and fix that. It isn't that big of a deal to me though, I bought these primarily for fog/snow.

 

Nice man. looks good with everything you've done with it. I'm here in Littleton as well with a black 98 4x4 v6 .. so if i see you around i'll show you some 'taco respect'

 

Thanks. I work at dish, and I know there are at least 3 other 1st gens that park in the same lot I do.

Oh, and welcome to TW.

 

Haha. No way. Its funny cuz my brother and I both work there as well and we both have first gens