What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Yep mine are 21, all depends on the ball joint

 

Yeahhhh, mine are SPC and I didn't even click that that was a bigger nut. Good thing I'm not a mechanic

 

No worries, anytime.

It is

 

Changed out my shocks/struts today. Rears were a little bit of a PIA. Had to cut off the top nuts on each side. Fronts weren't too bad. Truck has 79k miles on it, I'm assuming they're the original shocks. They definitely needed changed out. All but 1 of them are still like this 12+ hours later. And it turns out I have a leveling kit I wasn't aware of.

 

Don't feel dumb, it happens, no mod goes unpunished. LoL.

Like my brake lines from Crown performance, stock uses 17mm ovoid with flats but Crown uses a hex size I still don't know because it ain't 17mm and it ain't 19mm it's got to be like 11/16 but I ain't got one of them.

Fortunately brake lines only need to be German tight 'gëuwdënsnūg'.

Speaking of brake lines. Since this is the "What did you do 2nd gen" thread...

This last weekend I:


Crown Performance custom length extended stainless steel braided red sleeved brake lines and stainless steel speed bleeders installed.

Having the electric TRD O/R booster and speed bleeders makes brake bleeding almost clean and painless.

I had Crown SSBB lines on before but they were "street and track" without the sheathing, I bought them used from another member on here and never had any issue with them but the last time I went out with other TW'ers someone made a comment about how the sheathing isn't just for color but prevents dirt from working through the braided fibers and wearing down the nylon core line and I had been thinking about that myself so took it as a sign to change them, that's probably why the guy I got them from was selling them in retrospect. I do like to play in the dirt and I also like to not eat the ass of a semi from brake failure so I decided to go ahead and get sheathed ones, pretty long in the rear as eventually I want to 63" swap.







Superbrightleds.com H4 headlights have a nice cut off, if you get LED's for your reflector housing verify cut off and light bleed, don't be a dick! These are even better with less leakage than the DOT approved Pathfinder ones I had before, roughly the same brightness but a little closer to pure white and less "ice blue" plus the light that is there better goes where it needs to be.



Still @crashnburn80 's IR incandescent bulbs are much better color temperature and much more useable light while still having perfect factory cut offs but I like LED's reducing draw and their reliability I was changing a bulb every three months with incandescent, jumping trucks isn't conducive to filament health. My Rigid SAE Fog pods with amber covers are bright enough to use as headlights and they restore lost depth perception from the flattening white color of the LED's and if I still need more light I have a big light bar which is pretty much uselessly bright.

Also get the fanless LEDs, especially if you wheel, last thing you want is a fan stopping from dirt or water ingress the LED driver overheating and then burning your truck down.


Silicone funnel mod for my filler neck, I have a 1/2" body lift, removed my splash guards and cut my bedsides and flares for big tires so my bed sides are flimsy, thus I made some brackets to push the sides out and stiffen them up for some extra tire coverage and "wide body stance!"™ but my filler couldn't quite reach the stock gasket. Because of all that and I was getting tired of trying to keep sand out of the opening when fueling so this is what I came up with and it does help significantly to keep mud and sand flung off the tires from covering the gas cap and filling the pocket.







Next I Cleaned my intake runners, plenum and throttle body (not pictured) taped off the intake tubes and replaced my original fuel injectors that have 250k on them with ones I got from another member with only 50k. I sent out the lower milage ones to Witchhunter Performance to get them cleaned rebuilt and flow matched, very happy with their service, repeat customer now. The butt dyno is VERY happy with their service, had excellent results with my 1st gen and once again with my 2nd gen as expected.



Once the computer finishes relearning I hope to see some nice increase in economy too. I can only imagine how bad my stock 250k mile ones are, considering sending them out for the same service so I have spares partly but mainly because I wanna know how much worse they are than what I have now.






I only use "Top Teir" ethanol free gas whenever possible and regularly use Techron fuel system cleaner as Toyota recommends yet still, just look at how little "clean" area is left on this basket filter from my high mileage injectors.





Olds.


This is even with the URD fuel pump and filter upgrade. Truck really starts right up with no hesitation, feels more linear and responsive with power delivery and the butt dyno says a couple pony pounds added.

Next I replaced the clip keepers on my FJ air box with stainless screws and nylocks.



Got it all back together no leaks!



And started on the next thing:

I finally got around to ripping out the stock carpet that has been soaked from "4wheel snorkeling" which was a few years ago and even though I lifted the carpet right after, shop vac'ed 5 gallons of silty water out of it and the floor, put blower fans under it for two days, drove with the AC on and the windows down for a month, and kept three buckets of damp rid in my truck there was still condensation in the vapor barriers on the back of the old carpet. Fortunately no floor rust and no mold.

I replaced the carpet deadening with Dynamat and Dynapad directly to the floor (unfortunately not pictured) and removed the 'jute' backing and shaping foam blocks from the new OEM "utility convenience carpet" all weather vinyl flooring.
It looks much better being blacked out and should be much easier to clean sand out of than actual carpet.

Truck isn't Cadillac quiet but it is a night and day difference to what it was before now that everything is 100% Dyna'ed. I can finally think and enjoy some quiet in my cab, hold a conversation without having to raise my voice, I even listen to the radio enjoyably at a volume an order of magnitude lower, so much work to do but definitely worth doing. Can't believe I suffered for so long, road trips are significantly less fatiguing and I get less agitated from hours of driving.

It also gets colder and stays cooler in the cab, and of course stereo sounds much much cleaner.

Since I had all the console and stuff removed I took the opportunity to pull my lower dash piece and swap the outlet with a cover to the drivers side and the open one I use my phone charger in to the passenger side, looks cleaner, I also hardwired my rear cam into the outlet and pre wired for another accessory down the road. Added a toggle switch to turn the camera off when not needed and all that to get rid of the large plug I had and the wires for the rear cam.

I was short on time at this point and focus on task so I didn't get many in process pictures.









Lastly I covered my cup holders in Dynamat and then wrapped them in reflectix, along with the dynamat and dynapad over the trans tunnel drinks stay nice and frosty for a long time now.



Also while I had half my dash out I pulled my stereo put in a better mic for the BT and repositioned it from my rearview as some people would have a hard time hearing me and put it on the cluster perfectly postioned to block the eternally distracting and unnecessarily bright low tire pressure light.


From my driving view:



Slightly higher up angle:




Lastly I did have one little "dangit" the lock tab for my TB snapped off when disconnecting it, anyone know a part number or source for just the connector so I can repin mine and the Zip tie doesn't have to be a permanent "mod"?

 

Busy weekend eh?

Lots of good work there! I’d like to do my fuel injectors too, might have to hit up WitchHunter for that.

 

Lill bit.



I highly recommend them, (him?), the guy who does it or now at least runs it is pretty old school, doesn't take shit or like stupid questions, you can kind of tell that from reading the web page, but I also think it's been toned down some since they updated it.

All the info you need and the form you have to fill out for service is on his website. A few years ago when I sent out my 5VZ-FE set it was just the one dude but I think he has a few employees now. Website has been updated but it's still "from 2002."

Pretty simple though, get some injectors, leave them out in the open for a few days so the gas evaporates off, measure the ohms to make sure you don't have a bad one, individually wrap each one in a paper towel, put each one in it's own small ziplock bag, then fill out the form and put that form and the bagged injectors all in a larger ziplock bag, put that in a box and mail it to him he services them and returns them in like fashion cleaned rebuilt flowed matched new O-rings and all etc.

No muss no fuss no communication or further complication necessary beyond that one form.

Turn around is a couple weeks though so get you a spare set or be prepared to go without your truck for a month.

But it's totally worth it if you're high mileage or have some weird slow start, miss, rough idle, or other issue you're sure isn't the MAF TB Fuel pump or filter or what have you.

It's not like adding a supercharger as far as power goes and you won't be doubling your milage by any means but it is a noticeable improvement in both areas and a nice refresh for a tired old high mileage engine.

Webpage:

https://www.witchhunter.com/

Cost was $150 less than half of what a single OEM new injector costs and I'd almost argue this is better as he tests and adjusts the spray pattern as far as I know.

You can try calling if you feel you need to but he can be kinda cranky, and basically just says read the webpage which realistically is all you need to do.

 

I have had their page open for a while now. Wanting to order these, but the cost has me hesitating. Pls let me know the quality, etc.

 

Took the pup for a walk in the same spot I saw a couple Bald eagles. Didn’t see any eagles but we saw some herons, loons and turtles.

 

Installed a catch can on the sons 2015

 

Put gas in it (I always fill the tank). Drove it to get my haircut, picked up my throttle body gasket (at the dealer) so I can clean it and the MAF, then deposited my first check. The new job doesn't have direct deposit.

 

Have a look here:
https://www.corsa-technic.com/category.php?category_id=120

 

I was in the same boat and I finally pulled the trigger. I didn't want some crap from China. I used them yesterday. Quality seems great, as you can see in the pic you get plenty of lift height and the top of the stand is wide enough to cradle the whole width of the frame. They are pricey but I'd say they're worth it. I'll be buying another set.

 

Your dog looks like he eats as well as my dog does.

 

hahaha, he has gotten pretty chunky since he turned 7.

but he has always been more of a couch and air conditioning dog rather than a camp and hiking kind of dog. Haha

 

The more I see single cabs the more I want to get one. Seriously.. I don't know if it's the classic look or what!

 

When my wife asks me why I spent money on a slope meter I'll just ask her to talk to you.

 

Let's get you out on some trails to test it out sir!!

 

Got some spring compressors to adjust preload, back to level, now just waiting on the rears to arrive.

 

If the word "hobby" doesn't work. Send her down and I'll have my girlfriend talk to her about it. She's the one who came across it lol.