Crunchy Taco? - 1st gen on 35s BS

Definitely one of my favorites!

I'll be picking up my welder in the next week or two, then the real fun begins

 

How did you end up fixing the problem? im really interested in getting a set, WAAAAY better price point than 700 for some DTs. do you think you could have avoided the bolt falling out with some locktite or even jb weld? i know that sounds silly but its a header, once its on i dont really plan on taking it off again.

 

Nah, I have been stuck inside for over a month with an injury

I've been chasing the leaks around and may just have to give loctite a try. It sounds like I still have at least one small leak At this point I think that spending $700 on DT or TRDs would be worth saving the huge headache that the knockoffs have been. I'm probably $600+ in when you factor in the headers/downpipe flange/tools/extra hardware required.

 

youre chasing leaks at the connections or at the welds??

 

The connections.


At this point I am thinking that it's a fitment issue with flanges not mating correctly because they didn't line up without some tough love.

 

well then looks like ill just be getting a set of JBAs. hopefully i can find some used ones. best of luck to you man. Best of luck in healing

 

Thanks man, I'm about a week away from finding out if I'm gonna need physical therapy

Yeah, I wish I had gone with the JBA route. They were around $500 so I thought I was saving a nice amount of money but it would have been worth it IMO.

oh well, hindsight is 20/20. I can say that the truck does run better even if I'm annoyed by the little exhaust leaks.

 

Poser shots are always welcome, right?

 

Hate to say it but I'm kind of worn out with the Taco. I've been banging my head with problems on it and it's not very rewarding to work on anymore. Toying with the idea of getting rid of my car and the Taco and getting a 3/4 tow pig daily and building a jeep instead

 

Well hopefully you don’t trade it for another car with problems. Any used truck or car has it’s own set
of problems.
My first vehicle was a Jeep. Dam thing broke down ALL the time. So I got rid of it.
Sometimes the grass looks greener and isn’t and sometimes it is.
Tacoma has been my best vehicle for reliability but at about 480,000 miles a whole bunch of things had to be replaced and fixed, now that I got over that hump she’s been good the last 100,000 miles with no issues and I’m sure many more.
My Tahoe is the second best vehicle just put gas in it and it goes practically no repairs except for where main seal and knock sensors.
My worst vehicle was an Audi turbo. 10,000 worth of repairs in one year at 75,000 miles. Never again

Try not to get discouraged
poster shot, running out of snow to find

 

I had a head gasket leak at 489,000, that’s all, no burning oil, no issues with the engine except head gaskets leaking. Head gasket issues can be just a gasket or a cracked head, can’t tell till you
pull it apart. I found a 2004 truck that was rolled with 100,000 motor that was in the truck and could hear
it running. Was 1500 for the engine and all connected parts. Dealer wanted 2500 or so to do head gaskets but if the heads were cracked would be a lot more.
A low mileage motor being able to verify and hear the engine was my ticket

 

The "original engine" blew a headgasket at 208k miles. I say original sarcastically because I have no idea how many miles were on the engine; my truck was a factory manual but the one I pulled out had all the brackets for an automatic transmission kickdown cable so someone had already swapped it along the line.

 

Ah I agree that no vehicle is perfect. The truck is my 2nd vehicle and was my ongoing project but battling issues with the exhaust leaks and clutch/transmission has been wearing me out. It's whack-a-mole.

Factory manifolds cracked and leak? Replace with headers.
Headers leak? replace hardware at that connection with better grade + lock nuts. Now headers leak somewhere else. Fix that connection? now they're leaking somewhere else....oh yeah you need to rebuild your hubs and reboot your CVs

Getting rid of the truck is an idea I've been kicking around for a while. I still enjoy driving it but no longer enjoy working on it. It's also not worth enough to justify paying someone else to fix it. It would be nice to have a full backseat, too.

Part of this discontent is that I picked up another project truck along the way and have been enjoying working on it much more and I suspect part of that is just the novelty of having something different.

 

fawking savage lmao

 

I get your frustration. If it time to let her go and you need something different then it’s time.
You have to be happy with these tacomas because they all keep adding miles and need repairs

 

That's how I ended up with this lil raisin. Couldn't pass up a running and driving Toyota for $350

 

Definitely. My other thought is to just fucking send it and commit to a V8 swap or SAS so I can stay challenged and have some shot at making progress instead of just staying challenged

It's funny because I've kept this truck mild enough because I also have an 83 Jeep CJ7 on built axles and yet I'm tired of that project too.

 

After digging around I think I just need to stop being lazy and pull the headers and weld in some of these to prevent them from flexing enough to leak under load

https://m.ebay.com/itm/22506DN-2-1-...595556?hash=item25a165d5a4:g:7ioAAOSwvUlWr-mD



Which means I need to stop being lazy and invest some time in running 220v to the garage lol

 

Nope, none of the aftermarket headers utilize one that I know of.