BigFishAllDay's Truck Thread

At $150 for the set, they are at the very edge of the cost threshold for an experiment (in my book), but I figured worst case scenario is I hate them and just peel them off.

Luckily, I like them very much.

 

Thought about doing this with plasti-dip just to see what I thought. But I think I'll leave my truck alone for a while. They do look awesome though!

 

I've always had a thing for the gold Tacomas. Growing up my buddy's dad had one (extended cab as well) and he would take us out on the beach to cruise around. I thought that thing was pretty freaking sweet. He ended up giving it to my buddy when he turned 16 and I was jealous as hell, but my friend was "embarassed" because we all had fast little cars. It got traded in on a freaking early 2000's Camaro...

Anyway- I really like what those retro stripes did for the exterior! Very good looking truck.

 

Looks great! (Except for the green shell)

 

I like the stripes too. The first picture of the shell all dusty and dirty is very unlike you.

 

I got some more work done on the Tacoma over the last few weeks. The first project was taking off the Elite bumper to get the mounts sorted, and take care of a few issues at the front of the truck.

After considering different methods for fixing/re-aligning the bumper, I chose to take the path of least resistance and modify/correct the existing mounts rather than starting from scratch with a new mounting setup. The whole bumper needed to rotate forward about 5 degrees in order to get the wings sitting level and alleviate the contact between the grille and the top of the bumper.

The first step was to cut out the existing gussets and prepare to snap the mounting straps off the mounting face.



Next, remove powdercoat...



I started by laying down weld beads to create a "ramp" along the mounting face of the bumper where it meets the end of each frame rail...



After smoothing the "ramps" with the grinder...





I mounted the bumper to check that the amount of forward rotation achieved with the "ramps" was correct. It looked good so I snapped off the mounting straps, which were held on only by small remainders of the original weld beads, straightened them, and secured them in place with the frame mounting bolts. To achieve level, the DS mount had to move up the mounting face 1/4" and the the PS up by about 1/8".

After dialing in the position of the mounting straps, I tacked in some new gussets, adding a second larger gusset that runs the length of the mounting straps to fully support them.

Adjusted mounts, fully welded:









After a test fit, it was clear that nearly all of the interference with the grille had been eliminated, but the bumper was still touching the bottom center grille mount, and would likely have broken it (again) with the slightest impact. To take care of the interference, I notched the top, rear edge of the bumper.

Interference with the grille was clearly evidenced:



Fixed:



When the impact that bent the original bumper mounts took place, it pushed the bumper back into the hood latch support and bent it, as well as broke the bottom center mounting leg off the grille. Tom had purchased a new hood latch support (and in regular Tom fashion, all new OEM mounting hardware), so I went ahead and installed it while I was there.



After getting the latch support fixed, it was time for the new grille. It's an aftermarket grille that I picked up on C-List for $25. Black plastic with a gloss finish and a few light scratches. I used some polishing compound to polish it out and reduce the scratches, then threw it on. I used black plasti-derp with a final coat of glossifier on the chrome portion of the corner lights to match them to the new grille.



On 4Runners of the same model year range, there is a hole in the radiator support on the DS just below and inboard of the battery that is perfect for routing winch cables. Tacoma radiator supports don't have this hole, so I went ahead and made one with a 2" hole saw. This allowed for more efficient routing of the winch cables, with less risk of damage to the cables.

I also painted the radiator support and all the sheet metal behind the front bumper flat black to make it blend in and make the bumper pop a little more.



Edges were smoothed, and then lined with a section of fuel line cut lengthwise.



Last, I decided that I'd rather have the Warn M8000s on my 4Runner, since I get into more trouble with that rig than I will with the Tacoma and would rather have the better winch on that vehicle. I had a Smitty XRC-8 with synthetic line on the 4Runner, so I moved it over to the Tacoma.



Solenoid mounting... I'll be extending the control wires off the solenoid and running them into the cab, where I'll place the controller plug (and likely in cab controls) in the future. This is the same setup I have on my 4Runner.



Solenoid sealed with Permatex Black RTV... I cleaned up the solenoid and spread the RTV across all the joints and openings for a little extra insurance against water penetration.



On a side note, I also cut/shortened one of the mounting brackets for the fog lights due to it being too long and not allowing for proper centering of the DS foglight in the cutout. Little stuff like that bugs me, but it's good to go now.

Some pictures of the front end all put back together... Check out the alignment of the bumper, it's perfect!

 

The next project will be turning my attention to the instrumentation on the truck. With the performance upgrades that this truck has, I believe the driver needs the capability to monitor key engine parameters. Specifically, I want to see:

-AFR's (wideband)
-Boost Level (boost gauge)
-Fuel Trims, long term and short (SG2 & BR-3)
-Timing advance (SG2 & BR-3)
-Precise engine operating temp (SG2)
-Closed/Open Loop operation indication (SG2)

To that end, I've purchased the necessary gauges, and an additional SG2 cable so I can use the SG2 unit from my 4Runner to keep an eye on the Tacoma as well.

For a mounting solution, I considered an A-pillar pod, but I think I'm going to give this a try:



I have spent some time working on the tune for the URD AIC/FTC, and the engine is much happier.

The truck had some pretty serious timing issues, and the stock ECU was having a hard time pulling enough timing to keep up with the supercharger. In a 3rd gear, mid RPM roll on I could entice some heavy pinging from the engine and there was major hesitation through gears 1-3 under full boost between 2K and 4K RPM. I suspect that the knock sensors were reporting light pinging to the ECU (inaudible to driver) and the ECU was pulling timing to protect the engine.

I've run two revised tunes, both with significantly increased timing retard in the problematic boost/RPM range, additional fuel from the 7th above 2500 RPM and 2psi, and with the over pressure setting stepped down from 2.9 to 0.7, and then again to 0.5.

To say the difference is night and day would be an understatement. The truck pulls much harder and the pinging has been eliminated. I have uploaded what I would say is a very conservative tune and probably have some excess timing retard and fuel that could be pulled out, but I'll have to wait until I get the wideband installed before I can really dig into it. For now, at least I know the engine can be run hard safely.





To wrap this up, I did an easy mod... Disabled the DRL's.

In researching this process, there seemed to be a lot of confusion and at least 4 different methods that various people took to disable their DRL's. Tom gave me the full set of FSM's and EWD's with the truck, so I dug into the wiring diagrams and came to the conclusion that the best method is to remove and/or cut the W-G (white w/green stripe) wire on PIN 1 of the plug at the DRL main relay box.

Once you read through the FSM, it's clearly the better option over cutting the ground wire at PIN 2. When you cut PIN 2, you are removing the ground for other functions in the system.

There's a thread on YT that explains a little more: http://www.yotatech.com/f2/tacoma-drl-mod-difinitive-solution-please-sticky-move-tech-133454/

Below is the wiring diagram for the DRL system, and the second image is the same diagram but with the path of power for the DRL system traced in RED.



You can see that by cutting pin 1 you are simply interrupting the DRL ground path (only) at an earlier point in the circuit, versus interrupting the entire ground path for the DRL main relay and all it's associated functions. The blue trace in the picture is the flow of power from Pin 9 to Pin 11 that is initiated when the parking brake is released and the parking brake switch closes. This power flow energizes the coil on the DRL main relay and allows the flow of power through the circuit traced in red.



Just for the hell of it, here are some pictures of the actual parts... DRL main relay, just behind and above the e-brake handle...



Associated connector showing G-W wire at Pin 1 removed from connector...



Taped off, and ready to be re-inserted into the connector should I ever want to re-activate the DRL system. I found it cleaner to de-pin the connector than cut the wire.

 

Awesome attention to detail on the bumper! Looks good!

 

Hey Nick, thanks for letting me drive it again. Felt good in a comfortable shoe kind of way. Definitely like what you did with the bumper and the engine. Hope you get the odd spots sorted out when you get the wideband in.

I sent you the TSB for the DRLs. Wasn't sure I had included it on the data CD I gave you. Solves it the same way you did it. Tells you you know Toyotas.

 

Hey Alex, glad you were able to follow the bread crumbs over to this thread. You must be younger than me, because my Dad always had 1/2 ton Chevys when I was growing up (in fact, Tacomas didn't yet exist) and got a Tacoma after I started college. I miss the good old days of riding in the bed with the camper shell, fighting and f-ing around with my Brother for hundreds of miles on the drive out to camping trips, my Dad popping the sliding window open every now and then to threaten us with death by spanking alongside the interstate if we didn't chill out.

The stripes are cool, but the dual lockers are cooler. And finally playing with the URD setup has far and away been the most fun.

Thanks for checking in.

Yeah, I'm with you. I'm addressing the issue.

The bed was full of dog shit too. No trash bag... just up in there all wet and sticky.

Thanks. I almost took it off and replaced it with an ARB that was listed on c-list cheap. It's kind of growing on me, but I think I'll probably cut it again someday.

I was glad to get your POV. I'll figure out the tuning sooner or later.

Got the email on the TSB... Toyota says to pull Pin 2... stupid Toyota.

 

Haha, yeah... I am just a boy. I'll be 27 in June. I believe my buddy's father's truck was a 99, so I must have been just 10 when they got it. My father was always more of a perpetual mid-life crisis car type of guy, until he decided he wanted a trailer. Now he's still a perpetual mid-life crisis car type of guy, but with an addition of an F350 that can spin 37s like it's nothing and smoke my 4Runner from a stop light while towing his toy hauler... It's an impressive truck, and is properly tuned, so none of that stupid "rolling coal" shit.

When you get the URD stuff dialed in how you like it you should shoot me an e-mail. I'd be curious to see if it's any better than the map I am running.

 

Listen here, boy!

At 26 I bought my '97 4Runner and didn't have even remotely close to the level of resources or motivation you do to mod it or improve upon the baseline. By comparison you are Chuck Norris while I am (was) Jean Claude VanDamme. By the time you are as old and wrinkly and feeble as I am at 35 y.o., I expect you will have a supercharged 200 series LC on 37's with dual lockers and long travel. Do not let me down.

No problem on the email, but you might have to remind me.

 

Did you end up buying that bumper that was for sale down by Socorro?

 

No, that was a screaming deal. I called the guy on it, but it had already sold... I planned to just flip it for a quick profit.

The one I was eyeballing recently was brand new, listed OBO and was up for a few weeks before it sold.

...............

Also... I've been playing with the thread title trying to find something that fits... the last one was too long and contrived under the influence of rum, so I shortened it up for now.

 

Yeah that was a pretty ridiculous deal. I saw it about 30 after it was posted. I'm kind of kicking myself now for just jumping on it right away. Oh well I guess. Something else will come along. I saw that other one as well, figured that guy wanted a decent amount still since it was brand new so I never inquired about it. I wonder what he ended up letting it go for...

Nice work on the Elite bumper mounting. I like the idea of build up weld and grinding it down at an angle.

 

Looking good, wasting no time getting down to business with this truck, dig the stripes too.

 

i might need to add those front bump stop spacers on my 3rd gen. Just upgraded to 255s..

 

Thanks for this info! Looking to order these soon. I extended the bump stops in the rear of my 4runner as to not rub my 255s into the wheel well.

I know that something needed to be done in the front - I am not rubbing at all, but I also have not articulated the front suspension on the trail yet - this option may be best to avoid installing a body lift.

---the younger crowd is obviously against not stuffing your tire lol

 

I'll bet he let it go around $650. When someone has something listed at the right price on c-list, it'll go fast. RE the Elite bumper, if I'd had more time I would have done it differently, but I'm trying to get this thing ready to go for summer asap.

Thanks for checking out the thread, James. Luckily my Wife has been very generous with "garage time" and is doing extra kid duty so I can get out there and wrench. I'd like to have it wrapped up by tax day and then just drive it.

The bumpstop spacers aren't a perfect solution, but they are a viable solution.

I've wheeled my 4Runner quite a bit, and I haven't ever felt like the level of front up travel was insufficient. When you lift these things, you're using all your down travel to provide lift, and leaving yourself nothing but up travel. Losing a small amount of up travel will engage the rear suspension more/sooner when articulating over rocks/obstacles, which doesn't bother me considering the disparity in front/rear travel on the Tacoma and especially the 4Runner. That being said, I do everything I can to maximize front droop to the point that I can without compromising the CV's. The droop keeps the wheels on the ground where they ought to be.

I'm all for tubbing out the firewall if you have the time, but I've only got limited quantities, and I want this thing ready to roll asap.

 

When I bought this truck the speedometer was off by 8-9%, reading higher than the actual vehicle speed.

I thought about changing out the gear on the VSS, but it seemed like an imprecise and inflexible solution. Enter the Dakota Digital SGI-5E. The latest version of DD's product has been greatly refined and has a much more user friendly interface than the older versions with an array of switches. Wiring it in requires only 4 soldered connections and programming takes 5-10 minutes.

I followed the following write up almost to the tee, the only difference being that I spliced into the female plug at the IK2 connector and the OP in the write up spliced into the male plug... My wiring looks like so:

-Red wire (12V+) is tapped into Pin 15 B-R wire
-Black wire (ground) is tapped into Pin 20 L (blue) wire
-G-R wire at Pin 6 is cut...
-White wire (signal IN) is soldered to VSS side of the G-R wire at Pin 6
-Green wire (signal OUT) is soldered to the ECM/Combination Meter side of the G-R wire at Pin 6



Relevant pins (6, 15, 20) pulled from the female plug at the IK2 connector, power and ground taps in place:





VSS signal intercept:



Taped up and back together...



Small hole drilled for wire pass through...



Connections at the SGI-5E



I used "Application 2" (L-L), and used the "OUT2" output channel...



Calibrator mounted in it's final position, excess wire pushed back into pass through hole... Glove box opens/closes with plenty of clearance, and calibrator is easily accessible for future adjustments.





Results...



Notes to self:

Toyota Part # 33403-19255 - (32 tooth speedo gear, ALT Elec Speedo# 33403-39425)

Toyota Part # 33403-29115 - (33 tooth speedo gear, ALT Elec Speedo# 33403-39415)