Crunchy Taco? - 1st gen on 35s BS

OEM rack from Camelback is like $550.00 or something. You can do the work yourself, it's pretty straight forward. Prolly find the HP line too on there too.
DO NOT use any after market rack, you'll be doing it again very shortly.
your part # should be
44250-35042 but please verify before ordering.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gunny-is-back.476544/

You can use this thread to order from camelback and get TW discount. Just tell him what you are looking for and he will help you out

 

I appreciate the info. I checked my calendar and I'm out of town for the next 5 weekends so I ended up pulling the trigger yesterday to have it replaced with a NAPA rack by another shop. I don't have a garage or a second vehicle right now so doing it myself in the evenings is pretty much out of the question, especially when it takes me 1.5 hours to get home by bike and train. Such is life

Edit: for the price + 3 year 36k warranty I think I'll be ok with the aftermarket rack the dealership would only do 1 year 12k miles.

 

Before I knew how expensive the rack was going to be I ordered a new pair of socks for the rear. I got the truck back from the shop late last afternoon but I wanted to swap them out before heading out of town. It ended up taking about 3 hours to get both on because the upper mounts were both rusted enough that the shock bushing didn't fit.

Between the new rack, inner tie rod ends, and the new shocks I'm pleased with how the truck handles and rides (but I'm scared to check my credit card statement )

 

Last weekend I installed a set of DNAMotoring T304 stainless headers. They definitely added some rumble and also made the truck a little raspy at high RPM.

Install was a huge PITA and ended up taking about 20 hours with a couple setbacks so hopefully the tips I provide here can save someone time. DNA Motoring does not provide instructions so the Doug Thorley and JBA instructions are a good place to start.

Required parts:

• O2 sensor gasket -- this is the only gasket not included by DNAMotoring

Recommended tools:

• 14,16,17 mm wrenches in all flavors: 6pt, 12pt (standard size), stubby combo wrench, and ratcheting wrench -- several of the connections are nearly impossible to tighten without these
• 14,16,17 mm sockets both 6/12 pt.
• knuckle joint for your ratchet
• a slew of extensions for your ractchet
• Sawzall or plasma torch (recommended) -- if you're cutting out the crossover there isn't enough room to use an angle grinder
• Torx socket set -- if you're pulling the exhaust studs rather than lifting the engine

Tips:

• Spray all visible connections with penetrating oil in advance. The last time you drive the trucks spray all of them again while it's still hot
• Remove the hood. It's only 4 bolts and makes it a lot easier to work on the engine.
• Unbolting the motor mounts and lifting the engine 3" or so is basically required. The fitment on the driver side is too tight to drop the header in without removing the studs. I wasn't sure that I would have been able to reinstall the studs with the header in place so it was easier to lift the engine
• The fitment wasn't perfect so when bolting everything together I did it in this order after installing the headers.

1. Start all bolts/nuts on the passenger side crossover/y pipe connection -- just thread the nuts on the end enough that they won't fall off
2. Start all bolts/nuts on the pass header/y pipe connection
3. connect the y pipe to the cat -- bolt this one one fully
4. Start all bolts/nuts on the driver side header to the crossover
5. Tighten the bolts on the pass side y pipe crossover connection
6. Tighten the bolts on the drivers header crossover connection
7. Tighten the bolts on the passenger header y pipe connection
8. Double check everything

That's about all I can remember OTOH but I'm sure I'll come back and add more as it comes to me.

Here's a clip of what it sounds like at idle with a stock cat and muffler. It's not the best but you can hear a bit of the rumble and the rasp at higher revs.



I have some more driving clips I'll need to edit and upload later

 

Super bummed and incredibly frustrated.

Put about 50 miles on the truck and then it started getting loud. One of the nuts on the crossover connection wasn't tight enough so I guess it worked it's way loose and fell off. Due to the way it's designed the crossover connections on the head side are nearly impossible to tighten. I bought some stubby wrenches and they don't fit on either side. Short of pulling the head or unbolting all the connections and redoing I'm not I'm not sure what to do.



The driver's side is equally shitty:

 

Can you custom bend a wrench to fit? My TRD headers were a chore as well I can't imagine having to think about pulling them off

 

That's not a bad idea. I'll have to mess with it later this weekend when I have a chance. I can get a socket on the back so I don't think all hope is lost yet

 

I bought a T bar and some extensions from HF to hold the nut on the back. Searched high and low in town and couldn't find a a stubby 17mm wrench so I ordered one from Amazon.


In the mean time I've been thinking about adding a long glass pack as a resonator and a cheap turbo muffler (maybe Thrush welded idk) since my muffler is rusted out down the seam on the side. Want to give it some rumble but not make it too annoying.

 

Had mixed results with the stubby wrenches. I was able to get that passenger side connection nice and tight but the driver side one is still too loose. Even with stubby wrenches I was only able to get maybe 1/16 of a turn. The way the tubes are designed the wrench heads hit the tubes and prevent them from turning. If you look closely in the photo you can get a socket on the back but not a ratchet due to the tube again. I guess the last thing I can try is a crow foot wrench but I'm pessimistic about that. I may be able to get it with a socket and a 90° joint.

 

Didn't make any progress on the truck but today I test drove a Millermatic 190.

I haven't welded in over a year but picked it up pretty quickly. I tested 22ga and 1/4" and it's a mighy fine machine. Hopefully it will be mine in a few months.

Unfortunately this is the only pic I took, I had it set a bit too low because I mis-measured the thickness. After cranking it up a bit I got better penetration.

 

well, after getting header bolt fiasco wrapped up I had to have a new flange welded to the cat so the downpipe would line up.

I also have this muffler to throw on but I think I will wait and save the cost of having it welded in to put towards my own welder. Sucks listening to the rusted muffler rattle but oh well.

Must be new old stock from 1980s lol





I also replaced a lot of the vacuum hoses that were cracked and leaking with silicon.

 

Yesterday I ran Spring Crazy trail. IIRC trail damage rated it as 8-9 on the upper end, feel free to tell me I'm wrong if you have a subscription

Don't have a ton of pics, it was a pretty nice day but started raining before we got to the rock garden. I slid off a rock and kissed a tree with my bed, oh well. I reached up under and popped the worst of it out

 

Trucks looking good, look into 2004 mirrors OEM, An inexpensive upgrade

 

thanks! it's definitely WIP haha

are those the ones that are an inch or two taller?

 

Something like that, A much better foot print, they also are break away so they snap back to a flush
position or the fixed position, and the mirrors you can hand adjust on the inside of the caseing,
So your mirrors don't come out of adjustment if you hit your mirror or wash your truck, you don't need
to add the electric connections unless you want to, I found my set used that were electric from a 2004
Tacoma even though I didn't add the electric wiring, repainted them and they are really fantastic,
Only get OEM mirrors, the aftermarket ones are cheap and rattle at speed
Super easy swap in 30 minutes or less, if you ever decide to swap notes on my truck let me know, I know we are neighbors

 

The glass is about 6" by 7.5" so a lot bigger.

 

Oh, yeah those sound like a must have. To be honest between the small mirror size and constantly getting knocked out of adjustment I find myself relying on those blind spot mirrors more than I should.

 

snip snip

the passenger side was rubbing on the tire when turning left because I kissed a rock with the chrome part on the trail last weekend. both sides were broken from wheeling / highway debris sooooooo


I also installed a new washer bottle to relocate it to the engine bay and keep it out of harm's way.

 

Ha! I did that washer mod a few weeks ago. Best low buck mod going!