Frankenstein Build: Stock -> 37's on IFS -> SAS

I had water come in through the steering shaft hole in the fire wall and it shorted the controller on my door window button, but that was it.

*the wake went over the windshield but I would say sustained depth was about halfway up the door for about 20ish seconds.

The AC made the water instantly fog because it was hot af that day:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr


*edit* maybe it was 1/4 the way up the windshield

 

I finally decided to do something about my intake. I tried finding a pre made intake but nothing fit properly. So I decided to make my own.

Started by mocking it up with CardboardAD. I created a design I liked, cut it out of 18 and 22 gauge sheet metal, and welded it up:



Obviously it needed some air holes so I went to my buddies to use his dimple die set:







And a final test fit. I made some mounts off my tube to hold it solid:





So far it seems to work pretty good! It sounds like a Honda when I rev it up for some reason and I didn't think about it before but yes, it will be sucking in all the hot air from the motor. Oh well... What do you guys think? I think I want to make the top look a little less flat but I think it'll work! I painted it all black so I'll post more pics when I get it 100% installed.

 

Turned out rad! Definitely going to wip up something similar whenever I ditch the dorkel

 

Thanks! I'll go send it through some water soon and let everyone know how it performs. Hopefully no more hydro-locked motors!

 

If intake temps are increased you could consider doing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzUImpKxFDc&ab_channel=JackFarwood

 

I was thinking about something like that. Then I could plug up the side holes and move em to the top. Right now it seems ok, the real test will be when it's 100 degrees out. Right now its a nice 70-75 out so intake temps appear to be in the normal range.

 

Got my new intake painted and installed! So far it's working great. Still haven't gone through any water, I gotta work my way up to that!





I also added a seal in it which helps with the Honda noise. All I have left is getting the proper bolts for the top and finding a better intake tube seal!

 

I haven't been working on the truck much because I have been working on a passion project of mine. I have FINALLY finished my website!
https://kpoffroad.com/
Fell free to check it out if ya want. I've always wanted to use my school knowledge to make something for the off road community and I finally had to motivation to do so. I tried to add some awesome brands to start with but I'm always looking for more (if you know anyone send them my way).
I've pretty much built the site myself from the ground up so if you find a bug let me know so I can address it!

And of course, because you guys are awesome and have helped me with my build for so long, I am offering ya'll 5% off. If you decide to buy something just use the discount code "TacoWorld" (without quotes). It'll automatically take 5% off everything in your cart.

Thanks guys! I'm hoping to start getting back to the truck build soon...

 

Interested to see how this works! I have the same problem you do (no hydrolock here) but don't know what to do with the intake. Either ricer special, or I don't know what else. Definitely no dorkle as I would rip that off the truck within minutes of hitting the trails around here.

 

So far so good! I haven't done any deep water crossings but I have hit the wet snow and can see a ton of mud/water splashes on the box. It's crazy how much junk I was splashing on my filter.

 

School knowledge... web dev? designer? UX?

 

I went for Software Engineering with a focus on web design.

 

Do you prefer front end, back end, full stack? Couple other dev's on here, I think @Wulf is full stack. I am primarily front end. It's always nice seeing other nerds who are into Toyota's.

 

I prefer front end/UX. I'm a visual guy and being able to see stuff change right before your eyes is great! School was more back end stuff tho. So if need be I can code up some sweet functions, but I try to avoid that at all costs haha.

But thats awesome! I figured there had to be a few other nerds on here... do you have any examples of your work?

 

Not sure what's still alive anymore, I have bounced back and forth between financial and pharma over the years. Worked at Merrill Lynch, ADP, TransUnion, and had/have big clients I've done work for through whatever agency I was working for. Companies like Merck, Enfamil, Janssen, Tylenol, Zyrtec, etc. Currently work for a pharma agency and the majority of the work we do are Digital Sales Aids for reps to bring to Doctors on iPad's through a platform called Veeva CRM.

I did the base styles and a bunch of functionality for this site when I worked at TransUnion:

https://service.transunion.com/dss/login.page?

We completely rebuilt the dispute section to be fully responsive and provide much more information than some of their other sites used to be.

This site I built from the ground up, and is probably one of my most proud sites I have worked on to date.

https://dupuytrens-contracture.xiaflex.com/hcp/

The amount of crazy z-index psuedo element work I needed to do for all those parallelograms to have them not be cut as images and only be SVG backgrounds was nuts. Especially since this was before flexbox and css grid was as widely supported as it is now.

But I agree, I much more enjoy front end and solving complex CSS problems vs going down some crazy JS rabbit holes. I think the hardest part about dev work is knowing your stuff may not exist a couple years from now. Like I am lucky that xiaflex site is still around and hasn't been redesigned yet. It's different from like an engineer or contractor who can still see their work 20, 50 or even a hundred years later. Like when I was younger my Dad took me around NYC and showed me different buildings he worked on when he was in the Union. Those buildings are still there and hundreds of people can see them everyday. Everything on the web is temporary, so even though literally millions of people can see your work every day it doesn't guarantee it will be there tomorrow. But I have always enjoyed what I do, and I think that is the most important part.

The best part about this line of work is that you can be full remote and location doesn't force you to choose from companies from only one area. And there are so many specialty niche's that you can really find what you enjoy the most and stick to it, while getting exposed to other areas at the same time. How long have you been out of school?

 

That's pretty awesome! And the work looks great! I totally know what you mean by everything online being temporary. I've built sites for clients that replace them in less then a year. Some people just don't know what they want...

Most of the web work I do is all for smaller companies so I also find getting paid to be an issue sometimes. It's rare I get a difficult client but it's not unheard of, unfortunately. For most of my smaller clients I try to build the sites with tools like WordPress and Elementor. It just makes everything so much faster and I don't really need to worry about updating all the security parts. But for my bigger clients or ones who want something a little different I step back to building custom sites, but usually I can get away with restyling Elementor elements (which is how I did my entire KPOffroad site).

I've been out of school for about 2 years now. What sucked is when I graduated most employers were on a firing spree due to Covid, so finding a job was literally impossible. I ended up getting picked up by a big hospital to work in the IT dept. after 6 months and hundreds of dead end job applications. At 1st I was pretty bitter but after I finished training all my work went remote, it ended up being super relaxed, health benefits are AMAZING, and I have so much downtime I can work on web sites on the side haha. I was recently offered a $190k/yr job in something not really in my field but I turned it down cause I did NOT want to commute and pay for my own benefits, lmao. Maybe if a good web dev remote job comes my way I'll jump ship but I guess we'll see...

 

Finally got around to doing something about my exposed battery!





When I tubbed the front we moved the battery to the back. It has just been sitting in the elements for the last year or so. I was getting pretty tired of watching my expensive battery degrade in the elements and I have been trying to find a good box to put it in. I was browsing Home Depot the other day and this box caught my eye. It looked to be the PERFECT size for my battery! Not only that but it has a rubber seal in it and the lid can be locked!

I purchased the box and got to work. The battery box was slightly too tall so i had to mount it with straps instead of the metal plate but it still feels pretty solid.



So far so good! The only issue is that now I need an Allen key to disconnect my power, but I just threw an old one in the box. I think this should work pretty good for a while!

 

Been a while since I updated this thread, and that's cause not much has gone on with the truck. I think the biggest upgrade in the last few months has been some sound deadening.
I bought a pack of KilMat from Amazon and went to town. 1 Box was just about perfect for the extended cab. I'll get another box and do the roof when I cage it but for now the doors and floors will do.









I wouldn't say the difference is night and day, but you definitely notice it. I find the biggest difference is less rattling on dirt roads and a more solid thud when shutting doors. I got a little carried away cutting full sheets in to small pieces so towards the end I was working with scraps. I'd recommend using as much as you can per sheet before grabbing a new one.

OH and in the last pic you can see I finally hard mounted my air pumps. I cut out all the OEM tire changing tool holders which freed up a lot of space in those compartments.

 

THE TIME IS NEAR!
One of the main pre requisites before I could start my SAS was finding a new daily. I've been searching for something that got better gas mileage than Frank, was fairly spacious, preferably "4wd", and could handle some camping. One of the cars I've been looking for was a 1st gen CRV. They check just about every box. After months of searching I finally found a reasonably priced clean one! Meet then "new" '99 Honda CRV. The wife aptly named him Cornelius for some reason. I always name my cars and I'm glad to see the wife is carrying on the tradition:







It's nothing fancy, but it'll get me out and about while Frank is down. I have a few plans for it to make it a little more off-roady but it will stay pretty mild compared to Frank. If you have one let me know what I should replace/upgrade to keep it running nicely.


Now, on to more important things...
I'm hoping to get Frank parked for the SAS in the next month or so. The plan is to strip the frame and sell as much as I can to help purchase the next few big items I'll need. As you know I like my spreadsheets so here is a rough estimate of what I have/need (obviously I will probably find I need much more):


I'm going to start with the gears and rear locker. I have the rest of the axle parts so I figured I could just get the axles built and out of the way. I have a 14" coilover I can use for mock-up, but I'll need to get the actual coilovers/shocks I am going to run. Wheels and tires are the biggest expense in the project. I'll see what I can find on the used market, but 8x170mm wheels are pretty rare.

I'm pretty excited to start working on this! Wish me luck!

 

Truck is parked, and so begins the great part out! I will be posting these parts in the FS forums, Instagram, and OfferUp, so if you see something you want just send me a message!

I've kept track of all the dates & mileage parts were installed. Truck is currently at 272,101 miles.

Here's what's available:

Reinforced Lower Control Arms W/ Bushings
What: OEM LCA with Eimkeith Reinforcements, Limit Straps, and WhiteLine Bushings
Date/Mileage Installed: 11/1/2020 @ 253,500
Price: $300 OBO
Image(s):






Reinforced Frame
What: My frame with reinforced shock/LCA towers and Eimkeith coil over bucket reinforcements. Will be chopping this out. Great for a SOLID 4wd Swap
Date/Mileage Installed: 7/20/2021 @ 270,022
Price: $100 OBO
Image(s):
(See other pics for front of frame)

Brake Calipers/Rotors
What: OEM Brake Calipers and Rotors. Working great with no leaks!
Date/Mileage Installed: Pads/Rotors: 1/16/2020 @ 244,608
Price: $100 OBO for both, $60 each
Image(s):