2000 Turbo Taco - Race Truck Edition, to include wannabe fabricator and machinist stuff(PIC HEAVY!!)

Welp...hurricane idalia came and went and we're still without power.

The new chicken coop I was almost finished painting took a hit from a pecan tree. Along with my fence and my trailer.


I tried to upload pics but my cell service has been crap and no internet in the house.

Currently running a generator just to keep the fridge, deep freeze, and mini fridge on so as to not lose all of our groceries.

 

Thanks for the offer, but I don't think the bumper weighs all that much. Plus I need the room behind the bumper for the intercooler

 

Glad to hear you still have a roof though.

 

Finally got power back about 15-20 mins ago! After some yard work tomorrow, I'll be out in the shop working on the truck again!

 

Disassembled the front suspension again to clean up the upper control arms and get them painted.







While those were curing I decided on getting the mounting location set up for the fuel cell. Planning out the routing for the fuel lines is proven to be a little tricky with not all that much room under the bed...

 

Your build take me back about 12 years into my life. I had a Datsun 720 that I slammed and wanted to race but as young as I was then I was horrible with money and I ran out before it could ever see the track. You have inspired me to start something like this for my kids. Keep up the good work brother

 

I didn't do much work on the truck today, but I did put the front sway bar back on with some new poly bushings and end links then rolled it out of the way to work on some other stuff.




A while back I tore my dirt bike down to replace a broken radiator mount. While it was down I decided to put a new piston in it because I've had (this engine) for about 9 years and never needed to take it apart. It's a good thing I did because the piston was cracked on the intake side. No clue how long it was like that and it never ran poorly. Anyway, fast forward a bit, I put a wiseco piston in it and put it back together (after getting a machine shop to properly measure the cylinder to make sure it was within spec, all was good). When I reassembled it I thought I lined up the power valve vertical shaft after checking it several times, but def missed the pin. When I took it for a test ride after heat cycling, it didn't want to get into the powerband and just fell on its face at the same RPM every time. After readjusting the power valve and playing with the carb jetting (just in case), I decided to leave it alone for a bit to work on something else. Which I tend to do quite often...

Well today I decided to lift the cylinder back up and sure as shit...the vertical shaft crows foot wasn't sitting in the pivoting pin properly. Aligned it and put it back together, then took it for a spin. SHE RIPS AGAIN! I didn't take any pics of the process, but here's one after I got it back together before the test ride.

 

Way to go! Multiple bits of progress made in one day is surely a garage miracle.

 

Been sporadically working on the truck here and there. I've got the fuel system like 75% plumbed under the truck. I managed to fit the stock fuel sending unit and fuel vent\rollover valve into the aftermarket tank. I'm not super happy with how I scratched up the finish around the hole I was cutting, but it is what it is. After all, it is just a cheap eBay fuel cell. Lol. The true test will be if anything leaks when it's all assembled. I've been debating on doing a leak test with some water before hand. I probably should do that before I fill it with foam and fuel. It would suck to get it all mounted up and fill it with fuel for it to leak around the first corner, haha.





I did some work on the bed as well, I just forgot to take a pic before the sun went down today.

 

Did some "finishing touch" work today. Routing the fuel level sensor wiring that had to be extended, taping\wrapping the stock harness that goes back to the tail lights and what not. A long with putting some chafe wrap in areas that made sense to hopefully alleviate any gremlins later. Mounted some stand-offs with clamps for the fuel lines and their odd routing, lol. I'm hoping the way I've got the fuel routed will work out. I'm not using the factory style "in-tank" pump, but rather one mounted on the underside of the cab. The black cylinder you see on the cross member is a 100-micron fuel filter. The pump plenty low enough to be gravity fed from the tank, so hopefully I don't run into any issues with that either. If I do then it's back to the drawing board and figure out how to get an in-tank pump setup in an aftermarket tank. (That doesn't cost me more than I have in my entire fuel system, lol)

I may try and put the bed back on for the final time tomorrow as long as I don't find anything else that I need to do that would be easier with the bed off.

 

I held off on putting the bed back on since I ended up finding what I believe to be a decent solution for my rear sway bar, I'm just waiting on the parts to show up.

 

I made some hubcentric spacers for the truck today. Ever since I did the rear disc conversion it's annoyed me that the rotors didn't sit on the hubs like they should. This caused the rotors to droop during install and once you put the wheel on you can't center the rotor, so then it would give the rear end a wobble. But I fixed that today!

I bought a 7 inch long piece of 4inch diameter aluminum bar stock and turned some spacers. They also hold the 10mm wheel spacers on the hubs as well AND make the wheels hubcentric too. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.
The wheel spacers are only needed because in the front my wheels hit the huge Cadillac calipers, then of course the rear just to even them with the front.

Finished product first:



Some in progress:




And installed:





What's left of the stock. Lol





My rear sway bar should be here today whenever the UPS guy shows up. I'm also waiting on more parts for the front tie rods. I've been working on that the most but haven't made any real progress except ordering more parts. Although I did pickup a tapered reamer and made some tapered sleeves to lock the bolts into the knuckle.

There are plenty of ready made kits to do this (except the proper sleeves for the taco rack) but I really wanted the satisfaction of making my own.

 

Got the sway bar mocked up to some extent. I really like the simplicity of this design. I got lucky with the length because this is the longest they offer and it was almost perfect. I wish it was maybe an inch or 2 longer, but it'll work the way it is.

I was also able to make it so the lower pushrod mounts double as the sway bar connection. I don't have to grind the fresh paint and weld anything else into the axle. Lol

 

Dude, you're absolutely killing it! Gorgeous work, and great machining! The lathes I used to use were a little... old? So turning tapers was out of the question. Way to go!

 

Thanks, man! My lathe is from 30s\40s but it was retrofitted with a modern quick change tool post. Compound is still the same though. It def needs some adjusting so I can do them cleaner. I can't keep from leaving tool marks at times because of it.

 

Super nice work, keep it up!

That should be one ultra stiff rear bar, are you trying to further tune your handling here too (decreasing understeer)?

Sure are a lot of changes going on here, it will be a whole new truck once your done for sure!

 

Well, let's just say I ended up going with a bigger bar than I originally wanted. I wanted to stick with 7\8" but got tired of searching and coming up empty handed. If this bar ends up being too stiff and causing understeer then I'll have to really try and find an S-Runner front sway bar to replace my factory front bar. I really would like to have found a matching set of S-Runner front and rear bars. Over on customtacos.com all the 5-lug guys claimed that it made it the most balanced out of any other sway bar combo, including hellwig and addco. But of course Toyota has discontinued those parts which means when you do find them, they fetch a pretty penny.

 

@Sperrunner did you take your swaybar off when you lifted? This gentleman might want it if so