1st Gen Taco/3rd Gen 4runner build

1999 Toyota 4Runner Build Thread

Honestly don't know if this should go in the Taco or Runner section, you'll see why. There is also about 6 years worth of photos and projects so multi post thread.
As she sits now (for future updates, other vehicle builds and off-roading follow “rust_sweat_and_tears” on Instagram)

Vehicle: 1999 V-6 Limited 4Runner, Auto Trans, J-shift/multifunction Transfer Case

Front:
· Camburg Long Travel
· 8in Custom King Coilovers with Adjustable Compression Dampening (Thank you Filthy Motorsports)
· Total Chaos Spindle Gussets
· Manual Locking Hubs
· Custom Manual Tundra CV Axles
· Total Chaos Steering Rack Bushings

Rear:
· Toytech Superflex Coils
· Bilstein 5125 Shocks
· Extended Steel Braided Brake line

Engine/Drivetrain:
· Airaid Intake Tube
· Stock Air Box with K&N Air Filter
· ARB Snorkel
· Jet Performance MAF Sensor
· JBA Short Headers
· Magnaflow stock replacement rear CAT
· Magnaflow Muffler
· Custom Routed Exhaust
· 4.88 Gears
· Rear E-Locker with Low Range switch/harness
· Champion Cooling All Aluminum Radiator

Armor
· Custom Plate Bumper

Electrical
· Daytime Running Lights
· Black Oak LED FOG/Trail Lights
· Optima D34 Battery
· Quality Power High Output Alternator
· Big 3 Upgrade and all new wiring to major components
· Flex-a-lite Electric Cooling fan, controller and 3 way switch
· New starter

Body/Tires
· McNiel 01-04 Tacoma Fiberglass hood and fenders
· 01-04 Tacoma Grill and Headlights
· 16in Method MR701 Bead Grip Wheels
· 315/75R16 BFG KO2s
· Front fenders and body trimmed to fit 35s

Where She Started

Now you may be asking why this 4runner started out as a Tacoma. No, it isn’t a body swap but its critical to the build, so you get two builds for the price of one. Originally, I had an 01 V6 TRD Prerunner with an E-Locker.


First thing I did was get rid of the road tires and replace them with 31 in BFG KO1s. Next was the K&N CAI and guess what I started getting lean codes like many of you probably have had. I’ll save you the reading and let you know the solution is a Jet Performance MAF Sensor. That said I originally replaced the MAF with a Chinese POS sensor, thought it was all good, then it came back. I then proceeded over two years to change the CATs, fuel pump, fuel filter, injectors, O2 Sensors, and anything that might be related to a lean fuel air ratio only to plug a code reader in and find out the MAF wasn’t reading correctly at idle and was the problem the whole time. That’s when I got the Jet MAF, no more problems and have used the same one from the Taco on my Runner today. At least everything else was new by the time I found it though.


Next was the ultimate goal, converting from 2WD to 4WD. Hit the forums and found “step one, sell your Prerunner. Step two, buy a 4WD Taco” and “shoulda bought a 4wd in the first place” and “not worth the price or effort.” Finally, I found some info on a good thread and it can be done. Long story short if you got a pre-runner, everything just bolts right up and you already have the 4wd ECU so good to go, I disabled the A.D.D. and had the J-Shifter Transfer Case, eventually got manual hubs so it was all manual and no wiring or rigging of a vacuum system was needed.

First step was to hit the junk yard.
Here are the parts you need:
· Front diff that matches your rear gear ratio
· Diff mounts and hardware
· Front CVs
· Front Spindles (easier and cheaper to just one for one swap than do the press work)
· Rear output shaft from the transmission
· Shorter drive shaft that matches your body
· J-Shifter Transfercase (the easiest to do this with) and T-Case Adapter (easiest thing is to buy a transmission and canabilize the needed parts for both the output shaft and t-case adapter)
· Transmission mount/crossmember
· 4wd center console
· Outer Shifter Boot
· Front Drive Shaft

Next was to clean all the parts, paint them and then fill them with good old Royal Purple Diff Oil and get the front diff in.
Next, I took off the dust guards from the spindles, cleaned them up.
Mounted the spindles and re-greased the CVs and threw them on. Almost halfway there. Before:

After:


Next I cut the hole in the floor for the shifter knob, got the boot installed and the new center console.


Then came the fun part, strip the transmission for the output shaft and T-Case adapter. I wish I could say I did this originally but first I went to the transmission shop to try and order these parts because my transmission was in great shape, so I just wanted to change out two parts instead of replacing it with a junkyard transmission. Transmission shop tried to order the parts but after 4 tries of getting the wrong output shaft (there are about 40 vehicles/varients that use an A340 Transmission and its near impossible to tell which output shaft/adapter is which) I went and bought a junkyard transmission and stripped it for my parts.

All that for this little guy



Took the parts to the shop and 1 week later I got my baby back. Thanks to Superior Transmission in El Paso for doing the work. Even extended the speed sensor wiring and gave a slight drive shaft spacer (drive shaft was about 1in short) for no additional cost.

All done and ready to wheel.

Price for the conversion
· Hubs and CVs: $300
· Donor Transmission: $300
· Transfer Case: $150
· Front Diff: $150
· Front Drive shaft: $50
· Rear Drive Shaft: $50
· Inner/Outer Shift Boots $30
· Center Console: $20
· Labor: $600
· Sale of scrap metal and leftovers:-$200
· Net Total Cost: $1450

Took it out that weekend with a friend who was passing through town. Got stuck. Time for new tires cause they were basically racing slicks. But the 4wd worked. It can be done.


So, with the need for new tires I got some 285/75R16 KO2s. Had lots of rub because I was still on stock suspension but that was about to change. Had a friend that had just converted to long travel and he passed along his Icon shocks for $200. Got them rebuilt and thrown on with some fiberglass fenders. Fixed most of the rub but still had a lot of lock to lock rub and on the A Arms.


First off road trip with the new shocks, 4WD and tires was up to Strawberry Lake in CA. 4wd and tires worked flawlessly, just wish the rear lift from All Pro had arrived on time for the trip.



Don’t have a lot of the photos of the install except for the final result but day I got back from the trip my new expo springs and rear lift kit arrived from All Pro. Also solved the rest of the rubbing with a set of front and rear spacers from All Pro.


Was trying to plan a summer trip to Moab so I ordered the All Pro Apex Bumper, got it installed along with some Aisan manual hubs I had found at the junkyard. On a side note if you’re worried about spacers don’t. I had 1.5in lug centric on the front cause of the manual hubs and 1.5in hub centric on the rear. Properly torque them with a torque wrench, use a good cross patter to tighten them, and use locktite and you’ll be fine. I know cause I have jumped the truck with them and wheeled hard through the desert and they were just fine. Still use the rears to this day.

Made a gear rack for the rear and was about to order rock sliders, rear bumper and a winch and then disaster.


Some dickhead ran a red light while an ex was driving the truck totaled the car. Couldn't find any pics of the wreck which may be a good thing (bad memories). So naturally since I had so much love and work into the car I thought I could fix it plus I wanted my parts back so bought it back from the insurance company and got myself a tundra with the leftovers to tow it back home. Took it to the frame shop and they thought it was good to go. Plan was to cut the entire front body off and make a tube engine cage. I ordered all the parts I would need: Fiberglass fenders, aluminum radiator, grille, headlights/signal lights, fiberglass fenders and hood.

Unfortunately once I got the bumper back on you could see it was bent visibly. So that ended that dream and had to let her go after I took everything off that was worth a damn from the ECU, tires, CAI, MAF sensor, and all suspension. Took the bumper too cause it still was good to go.

At this point I decided I wanted a 4runner, better for the dogs and what I wanted out of a rig. Started looking but found jack shit in EP so started looking back home in California near where my parents lived. Found a good one, hit the seller up and turns out he was a friend from high school. He hooked me up with a great deal and I knew I was getting a good car and he knew it was in good hands.

So I had my parents workout the transaction and drove out to California with the Tundra and all my parts and spent a week putting stuff on.

 

Ran out of photo room so will continue this here.

Once I got back, I put the stock parts on the old Taco so it could roll and sold the thing for $300, sad but oh well. Its 4runner time now. Next project was to install the CAI, fiberglass, grille and lights I had bought for the Taco. Mostly pretty easy but had to custom fab some light mounts.



CAI mount and heat-shield were damaged in the wreck so I made myself a custom mount and good to go. Next was stripping off all the body panels and getting the car repainted to freshen everything up.

Sent if off to get painted and came back lookin fresh.



After that I ordered some JBA Headers and got the Magnaflow CAT and old Magnaflow muffler installed.



Next was to upgrade the drivetrain. The original axle didn’t have the rear E-locker, so that needed to be upgraded and I figured while I was gonna be playin around in the axle I would upgrade to 4.88s since I eventually wanted to do long travel and 35s. So I got an E-Locker rear axle (they are slightly different than the non-locking axle, cleaned it up and repainted it. Finally found a rear locker wishing I had kept the one off the taco and got myself a wiring harness from low range off road. Got most of that installed then started on the regear while the diffs were out.

After all the work I had done between engine, 4wd conversions, parts replacements and fabrication I decided to try and do the regear myself to save money over buying a prebuilt 3rd Member. Big mistake but I tried. Bought all the necessary parts and tools and got to work.
After about 20 times of taking it apart and putting it back together I could not get the pattern to look right so had to admit defeat. Took it in to the local off-road shop and they got it all together and I took the diffs back and installed them. All said and done cost $50 and a whole lot more effort than just buying 3rd members from East Coast Gear. A mistake my buddy didn’t make with his ’85 runner.

After about 20 times of taking it apart and putting it back together I could not get the pattern to look right so had to admit defeat. Took it in to the local off-road shop and they got it all together and I took the diffs back and installed them. All said and done cost $50 and a whole lot more effort than just buying 3rd members from East Coast Gear. A mistake my buddy didn’t make with his ’85 runner.

With the drivetrain upgraded and the bodywork done it was finally time to add some armor.

 

Went to go throw the old Apex Bumper on it and turns out it was bent in the wreck too. So time to put that half an engineering degree to work. Basically I copied the general design of the Apex but added in some holes for the 4runner fog lights, some square holes instead of round for some LED pods, and some structural reinforcements. Took measurements and redesigned it in Solidworks, ran some simulations on metal thickness. I made cardboard cutouts then got to cutting and welding Overall the new design was 20 pounds lighter at 85 pounds, and stronger than the original Apex.

After getting it all test fitted and mounted, it got pulled off for paint.



Next was the Holy Grail of upgrades (well at least for me cause all my friends and I had wanted this since we were 16 and were finally getting to it over a decade later)… LONG TRAVEL! Ordered the Camburg Kit for the boxed lower arms and the lower uniballs where it mounts to the car. Overall gonna say the kit is awesome but Camburg sent some incorrect parts and then shit the bed on the customer service when trying to fix the issue. So for anyone trying to decide between the two big brands, I would recommend Total Chaos. Still great and will perform just as well. But anyways back to the Install.

Next up was welding on the Total Chaos spindle gussets.

 

great looking 4runner. makes me miss mine (looked kinda similar):

 

Alright. After everything was on it was time to get the manual CVs put together. What I did was take two OEM tacoma manual hub CVs, two OEM tundra CVs, take them all apart, clean them and put them back together. Basically I just swapped the outers of the two. I did modify the inner CV by cutting the rim off and putting on a high angle boot from Off-Road Solutions. It was a bitch of a process but in all lots of work but worth it.

 

Damn that looks good. I know the feeling of loss bro. Definitely sucks.

 

Haha thanks man... the rust took her too early. The midwest blows, but I am used to it i guess. that long travel looks beastly! keep up the good work

 

Got everything in and was still waiting on shocks. These got ordered separately because I still didn’t know if I wanted Kings or Fox, and wanted the best shock for the Runner. Research led me to Filthy Motorsports and I got a pair of custom valved and colored King coilovers. One-off shocks built specifically for a one-off vehicle. Worth every penny and will definitely be ordering a matching pair for the rear when I get around to upgrading that.

With long travel installed, had to take it off road to go test it.



33s and long travel was the titties but I wanted more. Found a set of six, almost brand new 315/75R16 KO2s for $600 and got them mounted to the new MR701 Beadgrip Rims from Method. Front spacers weren’t needed anymore so handed them off for my buddy’s ’85.



These definitely rubbed. But that problem was solved by cutting out the fender wells and trimming the fenders on the front. First step was to get the wires out of the way then get to cutting.

On the drivers side I had to remove the wiper fluid tank. I swapped the pump from mine to a spare my buddy had for his '85 and relocated the tank to the engine compartment.

 

Damn that's like the Toyota's kryptonite is that rust. I think long run I want to take the body off and rust proof the frame. Hopefully I have the time/tools to do that sooner rather than later.

 

Yup. I would recommend you do that while you can and stay ahead of it. Particularly the rear section of the frame, starting around the rear lower control arm mounts and back - that's where they seem to go

 

Dam, that's a shit ton of work. Sorry to hear about the 1st gen Tacoma after all that work converting it to 4x4. then having to pull all the parts to transfer over to the 4 runner. I think I'd call in FrankinYota, since it's a hybrid between the two vehicles. but pat yourself on the back twice, that's a hell of a job you've done, awesome.

 

Will definitely keep that area in mind. Thanks for the tip.

 

Half 4runner, half tacoma that had 4runner 4wd parts. All FrankinYota. And thanks man. I'd lose my shit if something happened to this one haha

 

COVID also provided some much-needed time and some extra money to do some extra projects and basic maintenance. Overnight parts from Japan (that weren't overnight or from Japan) arrived. Airaid intake tube, Safari Snorkel, new fan (old electric fan wasn’t pushing enough CFM so got the Flex-a-lite fan), transmission and power steering flush, diff and transfer case fluid, some dynamat that I will install one day.


Even got some help from the Garage Supervisor and he gave his stamp of approval after inspecting the layout.



Airaid Tube was the easiest to get in so started there. After ditching the CAI, I threw back in the stock air box with a K&N filter and the intake tube.

After that was done it was time for the snorkel. For those unaware, the Safari snorkels do work on 4runners but the template was designed to line up with a Tacoma and stock fenders. So having a 4runner with fiberglass fenders from a Tacoma was going to be interesting. I had been planning this awhile though and had snagged a Taco fender and requisite outer intake tube from the junk yard about 2 years prior to this. For those that have fiberglass fenders on either a Taco or a Runner this is what I did:

Step 1 Bolt stock fender on and used it to align the template.
Step 2 Install the snorkel according to instructions
Step 3 Remove snorkel and stock fender
Step 4 Install Fiberglass fender
Step 5 Bolt snorkel to the A-Pillar mount loosely
Step 6 Mark holes in fender and drill.
Step 7 Bolt everything back together. You may need to extend the tube that goes from the snorkel to the stock intake, I did this with a silicon coupling from autozone and about a 4in section of tube from the old CAI.

There may also be some rub with the snorkel on the door as it opens. I plan on eventually making a custom bracket but for now I used some 3m Ventureshield from invisiblemask.com and that is protecting the door/paint pretty well.





Finally, after the state started to open back up, I got to take it out to test it all since COVID started right when I started cutting for the 35s. And damn, it all works great. Overheating from the old cooling fan was nonexistent. Still rubs in the rear at full bump so those will need to be trimmed as well but for the most part there is no rub especially in the front. Lots of off-road porn for you here.



And because I have the greatest Fiancé ever (not the one who wrecked the Taco) she got me a cool tent and air mattress for the rear. Worked great and will do till I get the rear bumper on and the ARB awning/enclosed room.



After/during that camping trip the starter and alternator went to shit. 220K miles and she finally went the day we were trying to leave. Somehow with the help of some friends and MacGyver-ing I got her started and we headed home (Toyota always makes it home). When I got back I took the alt and starter out to test them and they were both shot. Ordered a new OEM starter (first one made it 20 years so gotta stick with that OEM quality) and a Quality Power high output alternator. While I was at that I replaced all the associated wiring since it was corroded as fuck and did the big 3 upgrade. Got it al back together and started up easy.

And that’s where she’s at today. Black Betty the Taco Runner. Part 4runner, part Tacoma that had 4runner 4wd parts, all Beast. Remember to follow “rust_sweat_and_tears” on Instagram for future projects and adventures.


Future upgrades:
· Full float rear axle/disk brakes
· Front Tundra brake upgrade
· Total Chaos rear link kit
· Rear Bumper
· Rock Sliders
· Roof Rack
· Large light bars
· Dual batter
· Winch
· ARB Awning/enclosed room
· Rear King shocks
· Toyota 1KD Diesel Swap (they said 4wd conversion couldn’t be done either, but we did that and gonna do this)

· That’s all I can think of now but let’s be honest it never ends

 

and there in lies my problem. I worry what my reaction would be if some asshole T-bones me or rear ends me and totals my Tacoma. My first reaction would be to shoot whomever the culprit is, wether it be male or female. My blood pressure would boil way above normal, as would be my anger meter.

 

Awesome Build!

How is the fitment of the tacoma fiberglass on the 4runner? Do all the body lines and such match up well?

 

For the most part everything lined up. The issue was on the grill/headlights. I had to weld in some small mount tabs on the headlights and the grill mostly lined up but not in all places so cut the plastic tabs and zip tied it in. Probably could have worked something better but I think my patience and good ideas were expired.