My 400 dolla pre-runner

yes i'm having an issue with the steering shaft/coupler hitting the upper a arm mount, pic would be great.

 

I put off cleaning the front until my current project is done. here you can see that it is relocated closer to my zerk fitting. Just articulate the suspension to what you feel wont make it hit anymore. I welded it to the gusset. Just a simple cut, it will come off, but all I need to do is remove the shock from the LCA for removal. 3 hard desert trips and still going great.

 

damn i was hoping it wouldn't come to relocating the upper arm mounts. it looks like you have some legit coilovers with a hoop. I currently still have the stock coil bucket so i don't thinks that'll work for me. I'll have to re-evaluate. Did you try moving the steering? Mine seems like its at a very awkward angle anyway so i'm going to try to straighten it out.

 

Yeah JD fab has a pretty sick LT kit. My steering is straight so I didn't mess with it, but the driver side has a half inch spacer so something had to move. Yeah just try to take off the "cross spacer" and slide it forward along the gusset til it hits nothing. Mine moved forward a little under an inch.

 

your friend is a dumbass for putting a body lift on a truck that he wanted to be a prerunner


but still a hell of a deal on that truck

 

he actually baught it with a body lift and zero suspension then later put the downy kit on it. he knew very little about trucks when he baught it.

 

Well i hairlined my collar bone and bruised two ribs in the worst crash of my 16 year snowboarding career so i've been out for two weeks. Been basically just soaking all the bolts in anti seize for two weeks after and engine bay cleaning...

Finally felt strong enough to wrench tonight after work. Got most the upper end apart. Should have the head off tomo after work if i can find help pulling as shoulder isn't strong enough to lift it yet.

looks clean so far, no upper end sludge. Hopefully the bottom looks the same. Love working on motors that run lower viscosity oils.


stopped here

 

well i finally had enough strength after the injury to get the cam bolt off tonight, had to use two open ends and a foot on that bolt and two hands on the damn wrench at the middle of the cam...

anyways the 3rd cyl valve was just starting to burn up, just as i expected.


not sure why but it looks like one of the intake valves on each of the last 3 cylinders gave each other kisses
.



taking it to a head shop tomo

 

I'm liking the project. While you got the head off, maybe do some port and polish work. How's the rings doing?

 

I haven't taken the oil pan off yet but the cylinder walls look good and un-scored. I'll probably re-ring the pistons as engines tend to decay as a unit, so if i'm re'sealing up the top end it's alway's best to counter that with doing the bottom as well.
Haven't decided if i want to port yet, i just ordered the standard abrasives porting kit for my jeep cyl head so i might as well.

 

Picked up my head from the shop today.
I had him:
re-surface
hot tank
check for cracks
re seal valves
grind valve stems or lifter buckets to get proper valve tolerance
and he put in two new valves as two shrank from the crack in the manifold
Guy charged me 216 our the door for everything... He said he does these head frequently as they don't seem to be too reliable:-(










I'm really happy with his work for how cheap he was

Now i need to decide if i wanna get this engine put back together tonight or go out on a pub crawl get drunk and chase this hot lil yoga instructer i'm after... hmmm. What is a boy to do

 

That is a deal for how nicely cleaned up that turned out. Yoga instructors are hot!

 

I got it all put back together last week and as i was topping off the coolant right before the innaugural start i hear dripping, it was coming out of the muffler... So now i have to take the entire motor apart again and figure why the hell that's happening. Can't think of anything else but a crack in the head, which either my head guy did or i did during install, i tourqed everything to specs so i'm not sure how i could have. I'm soo angry right now... 15 hours of work and 210 bucks down the drain.
I also broke this lil power steering breather thingy. Dismanteler wanted almost 100 bucks for a used one so i just jammed a nylon spacer in it and spread adheasive all over. Hopefully it'll hold.



no project ever goes smoothly right...?
Tig welded up the ex...



I was fed up so i haven't been in the garage for a week, i'll get in their tonight and see what the damage is.

 

great find for 400!

 

Haven't updated for a while as I got side tracked with the jeep and getting it ready for a couple rubicon missions i've done lately. So I decided to go into turbo mode last week and get this running.
Pulled off the cyl head 8 days ago sunday cleaned out all the water from everything. Had some lines crossed up and was pouring water into my tb through the wrong hole... One passage gets water and one gets air, anyways live n learn. I'm just stoked my freshly re-built head wasn't cracked. So I disassembled throttle body thoroughly cleaned it and intake with tb cleaner. Reassembled everything and no start, I had the timing off. So after taking the ex. cam off three times after full assembaly each time to get the timing proper it finally started 3 days ago Sunday. I got real quick towards the end there, I can get the ex. cam off now in 24 minutes after a completely assembled motor.
Also changed fuel filter and tranny fluid, PO only had 1/2 quart of gear oil in the tranny...amazingly it shifts flawlessly. And what a bitch getting to that fuel filter was.
This thing runs flawlessly now, has a proper idle, is a tourqey little shit for a 4-banger and the CEL light hasn’t come on.
I did a round trip of 300 miles yesterday in it to pick up the fiberglass fenders in the pic below, a spare upper a-arm/bj assembly identical to my current arms and a toolbox.
I love driving this thing.

No money to match factory paint so I’m going to rattle can them gloss black

The guy sold them to me for 100 bucks, didn’t know what brand they were. But they seem legit after mock fit pre-paint.
Nothings bolted yet



Anybody know what brand these are?
I hope they’ll tuck at full stuff, don’t really want to spend money on new wheels.

Need tube bumper stat.

Thanks for looking


P.S. my side track that took me away from yota...



Look closely as i blend in with rocks in backround but you can spy me mid air attempting to swan dive but more of a superman into the water at spider lake on the Rubicon

 

Adjusted camber, pAinted fenders and took it on a fast and twisty road today. This truck is a blast for what it is.
So far I have a little over 750 into it including cost of truck, head rebuild, gaskets, fluids, fuel filter and fenders.
Blasted I phone won't select IMg code...

 

took it out for some airtime...



it actually land quite smooth.

 

Niiiiice. Where is that?

 

its on the vorra track at prairie city ohv park.




This week i need to put in new wheel bearings, 2 gauge battery cables, starter (most likely just put new brass contacts in the solenoid for 2bucks, i have no desire to rely on vatozone parts anymore, oem=mo-betta), and new brake pads from a member on here.

 

Heck ya you got her rolling! That track looks bad ass. I think road trip one day, lol