Old but gold 4x4 swap

Hell yeah. Mine came in last week. unfortunately.. I already changed my mind and ordered a BAMF rear today. Lol No hate on Coastal at all.. I still think they are fantastic bumpers.. And can't beat the price. I just couldn't stop thinking about the new BAMF modular rear.

I'm excited to see it done man! You did just the bumper right? No Swingouts?

 

Bamf has some nice products, can’t wait to see it on your truck. I went with coastal cause the price and I’ve been rolling w/o a bumper since my accident… I just went with a front bumper for now. I’m not sure what I want to do with the rear yet. Still need to fix my misfire or just swap a new engine.

 

Oh damn I didn't realize it's a front. Nice! My coworker has a Tundra with a Coastal front.

New lower mileage engine sounds nice.

 

Ended up getting it all tack welded together. This is unfinished, going to try and get more done tomorrow.

Im going to post a time lapse on my IG if any of you are interested… username is @ azgrphx

Also going to put a black front fender on tomorrow. In the future… maybe a month from now I’m going to have the fender repainted and have the dents taken out of the rear and side that was made from the P.O.

Im adding more pics I took during the process that I never had time to do.

 

Yeah lower mileage engine sounds nice… especially since I’m trying to get a S/C

 

Passenger side frame rail is bent… gonna have to wait on finishing bumper

 

So I actually got to weld some of the bumper. Here’s some of my first welds ever, I’m not the best but I kinda like how they came out except the first one

 

Those ain't too shabby really, better than my first welds.

I'm an NDT inspector, not a full CWI yet but looks like you're a fast learner.

What machine are you using? (Looks like GMAW process.)

Settings? Wire? Gas?

Only advice I can lend is your welds look maybe a touch cold, try pre-heating to 200-250°F, maybe up the amps a touch, slow down your travel speed, back track a little more and widen your puddle a little bit, try and get your ripples to overlap a little tighter and touch each piece a little more. Also don't start/stop in corners and try to keep your stringers as long as possible.

Only glaring thing I see is you need to

CLEAN!

Get that millscale down to bright steel where you're welding, don't weld over that nasty black stuff.

Otherwise great work! Like I said mich better than my first welds! Maybe better than my welds now!

 

Yeah it’s MIG, I cleaned the part I actually needed to weld the best I could. We had a lot of rain recently and just gave it some surface rust. Gonna have to do a deep clean when I take it to get powder coated. Settings were sort of pre done, my friend had it set up for me when I got to his place. I will be using TIG method to fill in the ends where there’s a gap in the metal and then grind it down for smoothness. Hopefully it all goes well. Thanks for the tips, I will definitely keep them in mind.

 

Should be getting my truck back from the shop today! Ended up getting a low mileage import engine. Shop said it was in really great shape when they were swapping oil pans and what not, only took 3 days! After driving a tundra the past couple days I think that’ll be my next purchase

 

Update on what was wrong with old engine. So I had low compression in 2 cylinders. I was wondering what it could’ve been… luckily for me the guy from the shop cracked them open out of curiosity. He found one of the exhaust valves was completely melted down the middle. I was trying to figure out how that could’ve happened and I remember one day on my way home I was losing power and I hurried since I was less than a mile away. So when I got to the house I opened the hood and found one of the belts was gone and when it was replaced I had a code. Thinking the snap of the belt caused a jump in the TB which caused a valve to be bent and me being a dummy driving it for another year trying to pay it off before fixing it might’ve caused this to happen. Either way crazy it still went that long. I’m hoping to see a big improvement on gas mileage

So far the new engine has been smooth and quiet. After I pay off the repairs I think it’s time for a S/C while it’s still brand new

 

I’m having some buddies of mine who are gonna help me with my 4x4 swap soon. Gonna be a long process but I’ll keep you guys updated.
Here’s how the truck sits now.

 

Ah man, don't sweat the 4x4 swap - it's really not that hard. The hardest part is finding all the parts to do the swap!

Break it out into two days or two weekends depending on how fast you're moving. Make sure all your parts are together ready to roll so if you're rocking manual hubs (which you should) either get the manual hub diff tube or put the hose clamp in your actuator before it's installed. Do the front end on your first weekend. It all goes in pretty easily.

Then do your transmission & TC the next weekend. My advice is to install them together as one piece. While you have everything out I would replace your differential seals & re-seal the tail housing on the transmission.

If you've got any questions on the swap feel free to hit me up, and here's my thread on my swap below:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/another-prerunner-4x4-conversion-thread-my-2004-build.722859/

Here's a parts list if you want to make sure you've got everything as well:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/complete-prerunner-to-4x4-conversion-parts-list.751045/

 

New Ultragauge and mount finally setup! Thanks @SpikerEng for the mount!

 

You're welcome, looking good!