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

Is that 4Runner painted Yas Marina Blue, it looks excellent!

 

It is very close to that color! He's one of our repeat customers and I always love having his truck in the shop. It definitely stands out against all the gray/silver/black vehicles that come through.

 

Got the front axle painted finally! Looks much better than the rusty mess it was stating to become:


The leg is feeling much better too! I can hobble around so I'm trying to get some of these smaller things done when I can. I'm not allowed to bend it or put much weight on it at the moment but I'm improving daily!

Since I've been mostly stuck on the couch I've been working on some custom parts I'm gonna need. For starters I need a rear sump oil pan. There is a someone selling one on eBay I mentioned before but I'm not a huge fan of the design or price. I took a stab at making my own. I sent the flange to our laser cutter yesterday for a test fit. Once I confirm fitment I'll have the whole thing cut and bent:


My buddy working on another 1UZ swap was at the junkyard so I paid him to get some missing bolts and plastics I needed. My wife grabbed them on her way home from work the other day so I can get the front of the 1UZ put together finally.

I need to reroute some coolant tubes to make room for the supercharger. I think I'm going to go with AN16 or AN20 lines for everything. All I needed was some adapter plates for an AN bung. I'm gonna have these cut out of stainless steel as we can weld it without too many issues. Left is for the water pump outlet, right is for the crossover pipes.


Because of that I'll need to re-locate my thermostat and luckily I found some universal inline AN16 thermostat housings which should be exactly what I need.


Now neither of the 3 super chargers we bought came with the intake plenum. I've been looking for the Cobra super charger plenum and Ford throttle body but sellers are asking almost what I paid for the supercharger, nearly $600! There are some aftermarket options but the little 4.0L 1UZ won't benefit much form high flow throttle bodies and aftermarket plenums.

My buddy was working on a 3D printed plenum to adapt the ford supercharger to the stock 1UZ throttle body but overall we concluded the 1UZ TB was just too big and bulky.

Amazingly, because I am stuck on the couch and constantly checking for parts, I happened upon the Cobra supercharger intake plenum and Ford throttle body on eBay for only $145! I ordered them immediately! I should have them both in a few days.

The final part to the 1UZ swap puzzle is an ECU. I'm have no plans on running the factory LS400 ECU for a few reasons. That pretty much only leaves aftermarket options. I'm really leaning towards the MegaSquirt ECU's but I don't have any experience with them. There is an MS3 listed for $500 I am really tempted to pick up. Anyone have any experience with these?

 

https://support.haltech.com/portal/en/kb/articles/1uz-fe-engine?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20930836765&gclid=CjwKCAjwwNbEBhBpEiwAFYLtGNct2L1t3_TD_7h95JJ9TlhwwiDFtCcQo7CisDw1ZK1D0xI8KiqTNRoCuAoQAvD_BwE

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1st-gen-haltech-ecu-discussion.772300/page-138#post-30620343

 

I read through that haltech support article. Definitely some great info in there! I ordered all the sensors they recommended swapping out. I'm sure no matter which ECU I go with those would need to be changed anyway.

I'll have to go through the TW thread. Thanks!

 

You need any parts, wiring, or tuning help, let me know. I'll get ya sorted!

 

With my leg getting better every day I've been much more motivated to get out and work on this thing!

Oil Pan Updates
Got the 1/8" test flange back from our laser cutter and I'm happy to report it fits PERFECTLY! The only changes needed were moving the edge of the flange out to the humps around the bolt holes and relocating the 2 holes that are kissing the inner edge. After seeing it I just need to re-drill and tap those holes in a better place. I already sent the updated file in for a final cut out of 3/8":



He didn't have the pan done when I picked up the flange but I got some pictures and I'd say he did a killer job bending it! He does not want to make another one (because this one was such a pain) so I'm hoping everything works and clears! All I need to do to the pan is add a dip stick tube but I want to get the motor put together a bit before I add it:



Engine Updates
My supercharger intake flange and throttle body showed up last week! They look pretty good! I took the throttle body apart to clean it and I can't see anything concerning about it. It's a lot more simple than the Lexus throttle body which should make it much easier to adapt to my throttle linkages:


I also decided it was a good time to start figuring out my steering pump situation. Since I have hydro assist I need to run the upgraded Trailgear pump. Luckily it looks like I'll only need to design a couple mounts and find a 1" spacer with a longer bolt. It's essentially sitting in the factory steering pump location which is exactly what I wanted. I'm waiting for the 7 rib pulley to show up so I can get the final location it needs to sit:





Frame Updates
This is the big one. I called around and got some quotes from our local powder coaters/sand blasters and they are all around $700-$800 if I bring the frame. Due to my leg I don't have the strength to get it on a trailer. I talked to a mobile dry ice blaster but their rate was $300/hr with a 4 hour minimum. Because I am poor I decided to resurrect my grandpas Harbor Freight sand blaster and just do it myself.

1st things 1st I had to find the sand blaster. If anyone has read through my build thread you'll know I used it once before to strip my old bumper. I didn't see it around my grandpas house and I was just about to give up looking when my dad called for an unrelated matter. I asked if he had seen it and of course he had it in his garage! I'm not sure what he used it for but he left it outside and didn't clean it out. So I took the whole thing apart, cleaned out the clumpy old sand, bought new ball valves, and made some new hoses. Now it's working better than it ever has:



Next was getting new PPE and sand. Whatever hood thing my grandpa had was nasty and disintegrating. No issue! Harbor Freight had a hood, paint suit, gloves, and some tarps I purchased while I was grabbing new ball valves. I decided to go with Silica Sand as I know it works pretty good and it's relatively cheap compared to actual blasting material:


With all the gear ready to go I decided to do a test spray where the frame is sitting in the driveway. Oh boy, did I regret that. I wasn't really paying attention to where the sand was going but when I stopped I realized I coated my ENTIRE garage in sand, yay... I decided to stop for the day until I could get some help moving the frame to the dirt lot and get it up on some jack stands. I only sprayed for about 5 mins but the test area I did looks perfect and I think I can get the whole thing sprayed in less than a day!

Before:


After:



Obviously there is still lots of work to do but that took a fraction of the time doing it by hand would have! Hoping to get it finished in the next couple weeks and move on to painting.

And speaking of painting, I was originally going to use Steel It in a gallon jug but the cost is outrageous! I'm going to go with something else, any good suggestions?

 

Paint it with some seymour. Way cheaper

 

We started using Seymour paint at our shop. I like it but I think they only sell their auto paints in spray cans, not gallons buckets.

 

IMO any 1k rattle can paint is a waste of money over regular rustoleum / Krylon etc. especially the stainless paints. A race truck maybe, but other than that, you know you’re already going to remove the paint for a good repair and just going to stick weld through anything on a trail fix just getting you home where you can prep and do a proper repair.

2k epoxy primer and single stage will be far more resistant to abrasions, solvents, and fluids (especially brake fluid) and costs about the same as steelit. I like the coverage of steelit and have left over cans of Seymour I got for $6 a can from Walmart a long time ago, but when they’re gone I won’t be buying more - and especially wouldn’t if I had a sprayer and a compressor.

 

I'm leaning this way as well. I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TABWPHutk-A and Rustoleum did surprisingly well when compared to the other much more expensive brands, it just had really bad chemical resistance. Maybe a Rustoleum rust reforming primer with a nicer top coat of some sort would be the best options.

 

Yep, that's why I'm doing all the metal that has a pivoting part rubbing against it and around and under the master cylinder the 2k and the rest of the frame / tubing just Rusto in a rattle can.

 

Rusto primer and rusto top coat brush on has been doing excellent for me. Don't bathe your truck in brake fluid and it'll hold off just about everything else just fine.

Recoated some spray bombed pieces but you can see how well the roll on held up and how easy it was to top coat again...

 

I think I'm sold, Rustoleum it is.

 

Got the frame moved to my dirt lot for sand blasting! Took a buddy and I about 40 mins to drag it over there. My driveway and street are steeper than they look and with the bad knee I can't lift it fully so it was a bit of a struggle but it's done! Now all that's left is pulling out the sand blaster when there isn't rain in the forecast:




In other exciting news I was able to pick up my oil pan. It looks like it's gonna work perfectly:

 

I don't know whats more impressive, you driveway or that oil pan. Both Awesome.

 

Thanks! That road isn't my driveway but I am the only house up here so it's basically my driveway haha.

 

I only have experience with POR15 and Rustoleum, and my climate is probably a lot more wet than yours, but I did my frame with POR15 and a few random parts with rustoleum. The POR15 has definitely held up better. However, for the cost of the POR15, I'd do a primer/base/top coat system way sooner than I'd do POR15 again.

I'd also like to add - I did install the POR15 as per their instructions, and I slapped the Rustoleum down with little to no prep... So that probably played a part

 

After some research I think these are what I'm going to go with
Primer: ROCEpoxy High Solids Epoxy Primer HS9300
Top Coat: ROCThane Direct-to-Metal Urethane Mastic 9800 Flat or Satin Black

Still fairly pricey but they seem to be available in quite a few places.