2003 4Runner Limited 4wd V8 FJ tcased overlanding rockcrawling do-it-all build

Driver side ass cushion came in today. Still waiting on the new leather.

 

Installed the new transmission cooler today. Went with this one - https://www.oregonperformancetransmission.com/product/LNG-4543.html

It has a 20,000 GVW rating and 15,000 BTU rating. Hopefully that is better than the stock cooler the truck came with. That one is now the power steering cooler.

Didn't get the Magnafine filters installed as I want to wait until I start building a front bumper so I can locate a well protected, yet easy to access location behind the bumper for them.





Needed to space it away from the core support a little so I used a couple of old nuts for spacers.



Removed and threw away the plastic cover for the hood latch. Used one of the holes for that as a mount point for the new trans cooler. Had to drill it out slightly to install a rivnut for the mount.



And the finished product with all the hoses ran.



Running the hoses was messy and a bit of a pain. I'll probably clean things up and rout the power steering hoses better when I get around to doing the front bumper.



Also received the new trans mount. I'll change it out when I'm doing the FJ tcase swap.





Stock one with over 288k on it looks a little collapsed.

 

Installed the CBI passenger side ditch light bracket that I got. Using it to mount the CB antenna when I get around to installing the CB.

Bit of a pain to install because you have to unbolt the fender partially. The bracket mounts over the hood hinge where it bolts to the firewall, not the hood itself. The bolts are hidden by the fender so it needs to move. Took me a minute to figure this out since CBI doesn't have or didn't provide install instructions.

Here's where it mounts. I'm pulling the fender back in the pic. you can see how far you have to pull it by the fender bolt hole and mount point gap. And then you still have to pull it further. OEM bolts are a 12mm socket. CBI provided bolts are a little longer to account for the thickness of the bracket and use a 13mm socket.



The little rubber flap between the door and the fender gets pulled back to expose the fender hidden bolt bolt you need to remove.



That's it for install pics. Here's the end result. Bracket is nice and thick, really beefy, well made and the powder coating is very nicely done. Too bad some of it needs to be ground off to provide a good ground for the CB antenna.



I found someone mention that the little plastic cover needs to be removed per CBI but he was able to retain it with some trimming. I also trimmed so it fit around the bracket.

 

Tranny cooler has been on my to do list for awhile, came out clean. My tranny mount was ripped in half when I pulled it and made my poly one.

 

I'm thinking of making the old one into a poly one like you did. Swap it with the new one at some point and have the new as a spare that I will never need

 

Honestly, I don't necessarily recommend the poly. Lots of vibes now, and you need to do the engine to poly too. Off road it’s great, but on road it is pretty annoying. Poly body mounts make this worse, so not sure how bad it would be with just the drivetrain on poly.

 

I had a 4xInnovations HD poly trans mount in my Tacoma with the stock motor mounts. Not a big deal really on the vibes. Got used to it after a bit and never noticed them again.

 

Cool, just making sure you knew the expectation. I really think that a large part of mine is the body mounts.

 

I have that mount in my Tacoma as well. Only issue I had was the mounting bolts loosening. Ended up lock-tighting them in.

 

Never noticed that with mine. But then I don't think I ever checked them either.

 

Played around with some graphics this weekend. Wanted to try something a little different. Decided on some old school style TRD racing stripes from the era of Ivan Stewart's trophy truck.



Did the driver side first. Looks OK from a distance but I kind of butchered it cutting around the filler door and fender lines. Oh well.



Finished doing all the stripes and removing the "LIMITED 4WD" from both doors.







Decided I didn't like the front stripes with the rears and removed just the fronts.





Spent a couple hours this afternoon exploring the Ironwood National Monument that's about 45 minutes from where I live.

 

Got the Toytec 1" body lift installed today. Took way longer than it probably needed to with fucking around with the steering column spacer and trying to get the radiator drop brackets installed. Drove it to get gas and didn't die from the body falling off so I guess I did it right.

I did the body lift in prep for a tcase swap. That extra inch of room it provides will help a lot.

No real pics of the install. Sorry. These are what I have.

Had to pull part of the fender liner on the passenger side to be able to drop the washer reservoir. Sucks that it was mostly full, made a huge mess.



Blurry pic of the driver side. Ended up not installing the steering spacer since I didn't want to pull the column apart. The spacer for a 1" lift is only 1/2" anyhow, plenty for the slip joint to accomodate without issues. Steering was fine when I drove it.



For being an Arizona truck it's whole life, I was kind of surprised to see the 2 bolts from each side under the rear passenger doors come out like this. They were replaced with new, longer bolts from the kit. Those body bushings aren't designed to let water and road crap escape.





Before the body lift, when I was trying out the front stripes last weekend.



After the body lift today.



Front tires still rub on the mud flaps at mid-turn but I plan on pulling those off at some point anyhow. It's only minor rubbing so not a big deal.

Once that was done, I painted/coated the base plate I made for the rear. I used Duplicolor bedliner. Not overly happy with the way it lays down with a roller. I'd be really pissed with it if I was doing the bed of a truck. But for this use, it's fine.

 

Just picked up a 05 limited V8 4x4 for $6k definitely gonna read through your build for some inspo and ideas!

here are my rigs

 

VSC confirmed to still work with those wires cut (even the errant one lol), thanks for the wiring help.

 

Glad yours is working! My VCS lights are still on (not working) since I messed with everything. They only come on once I start moving, so it's annoying trying to find a fix and test. Have to put it in Drive and roll a foot or so to see if it worked.

 

Interesting, must be tied to the wheel speed sensor pickup. When I disable the ABS and VSC by cutting the wheel speed sensor the lights are on at startup, so IDK.

 

Honestly, I don't care if VSC works or not, I just want the lights on the dash off.

 

Black electrical tape to the rescue or pull the bulbs out the dash lol

 

Got the CB install completed this weekend. Still need to tune it tho.

Already had the CB, pulled it out of the Tacoma before I sold it. But I needed a new antenna since I let the new owner have the Wilson magnetic mount that I was using in the Taco.

Already installed the CBI passenger side ditch light bracket that I am using for the antenna mount. I did have to pull it off again to clean up some of the powder coat so the new antenna would ground.

Fancy hood prop since you have to unbolt one side of the hood.



Little blurry pic. You have to unbolts the top of the fender and lift the top edge over a lip to move it out of the way to install the CBI bracket.



Don't forget the single bolt behind some weather stripping behind the door.



Remove the 2 hood hinge bolts.



The CBI bracket drops into place on top of the hood hinge.



Bolted down. If you are running the CB coax like I did, make sure to route it before you bolt the bracket down.



Trimmed the plastic piece that covers the corner of the windshield to fit around the CBI bracket.





I used a 9' Firestick Firering coax for the low mounting profile and routed it around the back of the hood hinge and down the inside of the fender/door.







I cut a small slit in the rubber grommet for the door wiring and routed the coax thru that to the interior.



Comes into the interior thru this hole.



I then snaked the remainder of the coax on the top of the panel that holds the 4wd ECU, over to the center console where I mounted the CB.

I used a Firestick quick release for the antenna which is a 4' Wilson fiberglass variant.





With the antenna removed, this is all that remains.



No pics of the CB install, sorry. You can see that my original place to mount it didn't really work out and I had to move it back some. It does get in the way of the passenger seat moving all the way forward but that isn't really an issue for me. There is still plenty of room for the rear seat to fold down and plenty of room in the front passenger foot well. All the silver parts of the center console will be painted black to match the radio dash bezel during the tcase swap.



No mount for the mic since I keep it in the center console most of the time and just put it in the drink holder or center console pocket in front of the lid when I use it. I did replace the center dash bezel with a 2wd version in anticipation of doing the FJ transfer case swap. No more 4hi/lo selector switch on the dash. I'm probably going to put the USB port that's in the cigarette lighter hole in that area. The pocket where the lighter was will be gone when I do the tcase swap as that is where the twin sticks will come up at.

 

Getting it ready for the 3rd annual AZBDR?