Frankenstein Build: Stock -> 37's on IFS -> SAS

I made a walk around video of my truck if any one wants to check it out:
https://youtu.be/9jNeIwqWhis. I'm gonna post some videos of the trips I go on and the SAS process on my truck. Check it our if you want, or not, it's up to you

 

Picked this guy up today:



It's a steering box from a 1996 Land Cruiser! It's kinda a funny story, I found the Land Cruiser rolled over and stripped pretty much clean except for the motor, Trans, and steering box. Axles, most of the interior, doors, and the body panels were all missing so I figured no one was gonna come looking for the steering box. It had clearly been there for a while and it was off this small side road in my local foothills.

I know most people use an IFS box for the steering but I don't see why an FJ80 one won't work. From what I gathered the FJ80 box sits behind the axle where the IFS one sits in front of the axle. I honestly think behind is gonna be better cause when I push the axle forward my steering box won't be at the end of my frame.

What do you guys think?

 

Won't your steering wheel turn the opposite way? Or am i missing something here? European SAS could be cool though.

 

I have a forward swing box on my truck, not fj80, but it actually will sit right over the axle. The pros are you don't have to mess with the core support and all the fun with that. The cons are it always seems to be in the way of shock mounts, and makes mounting air bumps a PITA.

@6 gearT444E it's internally geared to turn the pitman arm the proper way, steering wheel turns normal as well.

 

If you put the IFS and FJ80 boxes side by side then yes, the pitman arm turns the opposite way. However, when you move the box behind the axle it fixes the issue. Here is an IFS box:



And here is the FJ80 box:


Notice how the pitman arm switches sides. And as @slander said, the gears in the FJ80 are reverse cut so in the end everything works out.

 

I didn't even thing about bump stops. I'll have to spend some time testing the fit of everything I guess. I didn't realize you had a forward swung box on your truck! I'll need to look at your build more carefully. I couldn't find many people running a forward swing box and that's probably because the IFS boxes are so common and fairly cheap.

 

Well guys, I did it, I didn't think It was possible, but you can kill a 3.4l. I went through a puddle (slow mind you) and hit it just right to hydro lock my engine and blow a hole in my bottom end. So if anyone has the hookup on a 3.4l in so cal let me know :'(

 

Dang man - are you willing to part the engine for the heads or are you going to reuse some of it?

 

I guess it depends on what I get next and how damaged it is up top. I wouldn't mind parting it if I don't need it and it's still good.

 

Time for a V8 swap lol my vote is a uz

 

A 2UZ is not off the table...

 

LQ7 is Cali legal, makes more power, very reliable, and parts are available everywhere.

 

That would be cool....

 

Got my old motor out:



I'm hoping to source another donor heart soon.

 

What a weekend! I got the new motor in and it lives again!!

So first things first I had to find a motor. I was going to go the JDM route but man, have they gone up in price. $2500 just seemed steep for me. So I turned to offerup. I found a few promising ones and checked them out. One had bad compression on cylinder 4 so that was a no go, the other I had to pull myself and I didn't feel like pulling another motor. Then I came across this guy:



2002 V6 Prerunner that was wrecked. Guy said he had the motor so I went to check it out. It looked a little dirty but over all seemed solid. It had good compression (150-155 PSI) and appeared to all be in tact. I offered the guy $1000 and he took it. He claimed it was around 150k miles but I had no way to verify because the tachometer was digital and out of the truck.

Then came the fun part. I had to pull everything off both motors, and transfer my parts to the new one. This took basically a full day. While I was in there I replaced the timing belt and water Pump too



Some parts were different (like the headers and motor mounts) but for the most part it all went pretty smooth. My biggest issue was that I wanted to use the newer welded headers and get rid of my cast ones but the nicer headers wouldn't work with my exhaust

I also swapped oil pans because the one from the wrecked truck had a dent in it presumably from when he wrecked.

Then it was ready to go back in the truck! I worked until 3AM that night and then got up at 8 and finished at 6PM the next day. I made sure everything was torqued right, filled up properly, did an oil change and coolant flush, and cleaned everything. It was a long 2 days to say the least...

But here it is!!!



And of course the finishing touch:




Now I need to figure out a better intake system. I want to run a snorkel because I am not going to blow a hole in my motor again! I was looking at some in line intakes but I don't know about those. Has anyone run one? Do they work? Let me know!

TLDR: Long weekend, motor is in, truck runs, need new intake solution.

 

ebay dorkel for the intake imo, i made my own makeshift fender liners by cutting up the old ones and self-tapping them in. in the end ill prolly have to go the same route, @cynicalrider will have some good insight as well.

 

Yeah +1 on the ebay dorkel. Cheapest and easiest solution, though it might be a little more difficult for you sourcing the stock intake parts. This was what I made in like 2017:



Was solid for a while but the metal on the flex pipe rusted out at the joints and this happened after 2 hours of driving in torrential rain this past May:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4-BvzenlCk

Thankfully the filter kept any large amounts of water from getting sucked in and suffering the same fate as you did.

 

I'm definitely getting the ebay dorkel. My biggest issue is figuring out how I'm gonna make an air box that's water tight. I ordered a Spectre inline 4" filter from Amazon to fool around with but I'm not 100% set on that option. I just gotta make sure whatever I do is water proof.

 

-1 for the dorkel. If you have the skills to do a sas or even the frame chop you where talking then just build a simple air box or go back to the factory one.

Dorkels are lame and look dumb in my opinion. I’m running a cold air intake now cause I cut out my inner fenders and wit the water cover from kartek I’ve had no issues and have had water up over the tires several times. But the plan is to build inner fenders and an air box.

 

I'm a pvc pipe kinda guy lol.