Introduction and thank you and build thread

Hello, All

A special thanks to all who have unknowingly helped me over the years. I’ve long forgotten where I found every little piece of information on here, or who to thank for it, but I’ll try to contribute in my own small way, in the future, for other folks who started out like me.

My truck is a 2007 Tacoma, Regular Cab, 4x4, 5-speed manual, with over a quarter million miles on the clock. Still feels as tight as a drum. My mods have been relatively simple ones, like — ARB Front Bumper, Wet Okole seat covers, aftermarket head unit, Firestone rear airbags, Bilstien 5100’s. Then, the “Leveled Years” with my Pro Comp 3”-1” spacer lift. (I know)

But I’m moving up slightly in the suspension ranks with a new OME set-up with Dakar Leaf Pack.

All of the details and pictures will follow, of course. For now I just wanted to say “Hello”, and thank everyone for their advice, and the information on this site. So, hello and thank you, haha.

 

Nice to meet you, and your welcome, and looking forward to it!

 

Haha, I appreciate it. I’m still figuring out the replies and how to post pictures, but will follow up with some of my truck, as well as some “exploits”.

 

Truck as she sits this morning.

 

Ah. The single cab... there are many members who love the single cab. And will be jealous!

 

And then everything that goes on today.

My catalytic converter has been throwing an CEL, so the replacement I sourced from Magnaflow. And since we’ll be right there it seemed like a good time to upgrade to a LCE Header.

 

Wow... if you have spent all that before Tacomaworld... I can't imagine what kinda goodies your gonna be ordering from the vendors up in here!

 

I traded in a 2003 Toyota Tundra 4x4 Access Cab, slightly modified, for my 2007. Never looked back, haha. Even though, the Tundra was a fine truck. Ride was much superior to my Taco. Perhaps the OME set-up will help get it closer.

 

Already happened, haha. Marie @ Headstrong Off-road is a star. Very knowledgeable, thorough in her responses, and suuuuuper patient. Haha.

 

Most of the Vendors around here have great customer service!

 

They really do. Their service is invaluable for someone who second, third, and quadruple guesses their mods, like me.

And a pic of my little guy moving my tractor. Probably wouldn’t have been as easy with the automatic transmission, but the manual handled everything with ease.

 

M/T for the win!

 

Only mechanical “glitches” have been a passenger side wheel bearing at 240,000 miles (easy to replace), a transmission at 220,000 miles (moderately easy to replace), the head gasket at 248,000 miles (I did not do the work on this), and now the exhaust at 257,000 miles (which is being replaced as I write, haha).

 

What kind of problems were you having with the trans? Been having a couple with mine at 245k

 

Well, I was detecting what first appeared to be a muffled “howling” noise in every gear except 4th gear, from around 2,000 rpm on up. Then, as time went on, this “howl” became louder and began taking on a metallic sound.

All of this happened over the course of 15,000 miles. By the time I swapped the transmission, I was about to loose 5th gear — in the sense that it was getting remarkably hard to shift into it.

And, when the oil was drained from the old transmission it was obvious from the metal flakes and the grayish color of separated oil that it was, in fact, bad. Haha.

As a side note, the noisiest gear was reverse. It had that howling/metal sound from the start (at any mph), but, I only realized that after I knew what all the transmission noise meant.

 

Should have added — that muffled howling noise was only present when my truck was in gear, under load.

 

For future mods, I’m thinking:

(1) Redline Tuning hood struts,
(2) Double din headunit (replacing my single din),
(3) Possibly a cap, if I can decide on one that looks right on my truck,
(4) Might upgrade to 285/75R16’s (if I can find a suitable one in a Load Range C),
(5) A URD Supercharger, haha,
(6) Cruise Control,
&
(7) Intermittent Wipers.

 

If you go this route, make sure you budget in an upgraded clutch pressure plate. The stock one is not up to holding the added power

 

Thanks for the advice. Probably never would’ve have known till something grenaded in there, haha.

 

No problem. The clutch in my 6spd started slipping 8k miles after adding a s/c to my v6, and ive read the 5spds are the same way. URD doesnt advertise that youll need to upgrade anything either so its easy to overlook.

Would definitely be sweet to have 300hp in a regular cab! That thing will scoot