Gray223's "The Resurrection" 98 rebuild build

You can't buy it from them. There warranty parts that they replace under warranty. And I don't even know what one to get. The one on my driver's side has 2 different tags. One says XB halos the other says XC halos. guy from TRS said they have alot of different drivers that all pretty much do the same thing. And some have mismatched tags, etc....

 

Lol remind me not to buy from them...Customer service sounds terrible

 

Well everybody likes them pretty well and the guy on here help people out alot. But it my case no, they have done a okay job getting with me and trying to figure it out..... But they have also screwed up.... Alot. Making assumptions on what parts I have instead of just asking me, sending things to the wrong address like 3 times. It's been going on 4 month ordeal now. I would just say I have some bad luck lol.

 

Finally some good news! TRS is sending me new halos! I guess I have some very weird situation and they have tried everything and was not going to keep giving me more drivers. My halos were never designed to work with the xchange drivers and now they won't work with even regular drivers. They are even baffled by my situation. So TRS just said they will upgrade me with the newest halos. Thank God this is all over! Lol

Thanks TRS!

 

Got in on the weathertech groupbuy on here. Weather tech says there not recommended for vinyl floors but they seem to work fine. They dont move around because the the side pieces. If i run into to problems i was going to velcro them to the vinyl floor.


Christmas break is in three weeks. Hopefully I can get sliders built and redo my rear shock mounts then!

 

Where did you order the vinyl floors? Looks great.

 

Auto custom carpets

 

Had my filler tube on my gas tank leaking for a while now and finally decided to take it out and try to fix it.


It was right at the base of the filler neck, it had a pretty good sized hole, the other was from me when I poked a screw driver through it (took nothing).


Had my dad weld it and it was tough cause there wasnt much material there so it kept melting through. We would check if it was leaking with a water hose, and no matter how much weld was on it it always leaked, and there was a lot....

So I just decided to put 5 coats of rustoelum rubber coating hope it worked. Dont have pic of it all finished. But as of today its held up, no leaks.

Also here is the gas tank skid, gives you an idea of how well the chassis saver is holding up after almost 2 years. Considering It was probably the most rusty thing on the truck, so rusty a huge chunk fell off when I was reinstalling the tank, I think its holding up fairly well. The frame is still really clean , besides where the crappy welds are with small pin holes.

 

Well the filler tube just started leaking again. I guess the gas eventually just eats away at that flex seal. A new one one is expensive. Going to have to find a used one on a part out I guess.

 

Fuel cell?

 

Lol. Guess one could got right under the tool box...

 

Replaced a few things the pass couple days. Installed new fuel tube, new ball joints, new steering rack bushings, and a new tie rod because the old one was destroyed by the time we got it out.

Also fix the annoying squeak I had, It was the front body mount, sprayed some white grease and the squeaks are gone! For now!

 

Truck wasn't firing on all cylinders when first warming up so I knew it was time to change the plugs. They all looked pretty identical, definitely needed change.


When I took the intake tube off it was full of oil. The intake for the pcv is always oily. I went ahead and bought a new pcv valve thinking maybe the one that in it isn't working and causing the oil to back up and flow into the intake. When I took the old pcv valve off I could hear the ball still rolling around, supposedly indicating it is still operational. So I am not sure why the intake is always getting oil in it from the pcv.


And since I got a dslr I though I would take a picture of the truck, nothing special. And of my dog, whiskey.

 

Have looked at every single page in this thread. That's how much fun this build was to follow. Really awesome work so far and just a kick ass thing to be able to do with your dad. Very cool man. Learned a lot actually! Thanks for taking the time to document all of this. Very impressive.

 

Thank you very much! It was a great learning experience, in many aspects, and has led the way for other projects as well as helped me in my education and now even my career as an engineer. It's something I will never forget.

 

Update:

Truck is still running good and no major problems have occurred. 210k miles. The tires have 80k on them and although there are getting worn...they are in good shape for a tire with that many miles. I usually rotated them every oil change.

Also a year ago I got a job as a Toyoda Production System Engineer for Toyoda Gosei Missouri. A plastic injection company for many auto makers but our biggest customer is Toyota. We inject and assemble grilles, bumpers, center consoles, registers, etc. Its pretty cool to get to see parts/know launch dates of new vehicles a year or more before the public knows! The just in time manufacturing is kind of intense but keeps you very busy and focused. My trucks fuse cover inside the car has a TG logo on it! It was injected in the plant I know walk everyday. Talk about a full circle.

I have plans to soon sell the truck and get a Tundra that's newer/lower miles. Multiple times I have ran into times I really would have liked a bigger truck, something I can hold more stuff and more tools in. I orginally wanted to get a 2nd gen DCLB but its hard to pass a tundra when price and fuel milage isnt a huge difference but you have twice the truck.

On another note, I decided to buy a 2002 jetta Volkswagen TDI. The engine is a 1.9L turbo diesel, engine code ALH. They seems to be very well know for there durability and I have always been interested in them with there high mpg capabilities (seen reports of 50+). At one point I had contemplated putting one of the engines in a Tacoma and started getting a parts list together but plans changed, there is a 1st gen out there though with one swapped. They only make 90hp from the factory, bigger turbo and injectors it seems you can get 150hp+ reliably. Anyway the auto trans in it was slipping, they are know to fail pretty commonly because people dont service them like they should, so a popular thing to do is a manual swap. I bought a whole kit form a guy that specializes in them. Also changed the timing belt(pretty big task in itself..200$ for just tools to keep everything in time...), and cleaned the turbo(stuck vnt vanes) and cleaned the intake manifold(egr clogs in up). Also had to rip up the entire carpet and take the sound deadening out to dry...NEVER and I mean NEVER buy a car with a sunroof...the sunroof drain tube had came off of the outlet where it exits the vehicle and soaked the floor. It took days for it to dry out.

Oil in the bottom of intercooler...what happens when there not driven hard.

Turbo vanes stuck

Auto trans center, manual left

Trans out, new rear main oil seal




Third pedal! The brake pedal was actually cut down after this pic.

 

My wife had a VW Jetta VR6 years back. After that I told her we were never going to own a European car again. I was fixing that thing all the time and having to buy new tools every time something needed to be replaced. You're a brave man.

 

They do like to use every type of bolt head imaginable.... but besides that it seems these ALH cars reach 300k+ all the time.

 

Well this seems to be the official end of this build thread as I just purchased a 2014 Tunda with 51k on it yesterday and will soon sell the tacoma.

I will still gladly answer any question anyone has about rebuilding this truck. I can tell you this project was the spark that lit the fire as it came to building, rebuilding, and overall tinkering. I've since rebuilt a jon boat, built a surface drive mud motor from scratch, did all the stuff on the VW, and plan to do alot more once I get my own shop. I have alot of interest in doing some unique diesel swaps in tacoma if the time and money allows.

 

Brought the tundra home last night. I love it. Still smells new!