Not much Tacoma left.. 4500 koh build

Screwed with the front suspension some. I rebent the panhard with a single bend and moved the frame side mount back some. And added a small bend to the draglink to clear the ram.

 

Finished the b pillar to c pillar tie in.

 

Engine skid plate. I ended up taking the sub frame apart and sleeved all the main tubes with some 1.75. Engine skid plate was out of 1.75 so sleeved with 1.5.

 

And finally finished the subframe to frame tubes. Tube work is getting easier. When I started this the two end tubes took me all day to make. I made the 5 tubes between the original two on both driver and passenger in just a few hours today. Feel like there’s good clearance.

 

And some overall shots that were for the gram.

 

Rear housing showed up and I got a ton of brackets and stuff for it cut and welded. Rest of the bearings and races showed up for the hubs minus one seal so put them together and just waiting on the brake stuff.

Housing will use equal length shafts. Oil pan from kevko also showed up and pretty happy with it.

 

Wow,
I was thinking with ALL the time and money you are investing you might have been running a Dry Sump!

Trust me I know they are not cheap but make sure you don’t let that power plant starve itself of liquid gold.

Is that a 6 or 7 quart pan? Looks like it has baffles that’s a good thing!

Also trust me your butt cheeks will bight right through ANY MATERIAL in their way when you see 9 PSI of oil pressure and you hear lifters start to rattle like I did‼️
The Butt Head I had install mine though if bigger is better than the biggest O ring on the oil pickup tube must be better. He used an O ring that was too big causing it to pinch and suck air. We took off the oil pickup tube and the O ring shot across the shop like a Jesus / C clip. It took us a while to find the O ring but you could see the pinch marks on the O ring.
Please be careful with the oil weak spots on the LS engine. The issues start with some older factory valve covers get pluged and don’t breathe, the O ring on the pick up tube, use an Aluminum bar bell, be careful with the V / T shape cam plate at the back of the block. There’s arguments about what’s the best type of bolts and plate to use. Good GM factory LS7 lifters or better, factory plastic lifter trays, Rocker Trunions, good high quality oil pump with extra capacity, but not so much that it sucks the pan dry. Good head gaskets, Yada Yada Yada…
I’m sure you heard all the horror stories…

 

Dry sump was way out budget. This pan came highly recommended with the built in baffle system which I would have had to install in any other f Body style pan. Pan is 6 quart with remote filter fittings so I can also run an oil cooler more than likely.
Building thr motor is very overwhelming with the options and info out there. More than likely I’ll end up running thr summit crate 5.3 motor as it’s cost effective and the horsepower I was looking to make and it’s all new vs me building one for a few hundred less on a stock unknown mile bottom end and pistons and rods.

 

As always, looking sick! Did see your truck at KOH. Good times

 

Housing cut to length. I went back and forth and equal length shafts or a centered pinion but ultimately decided equal length. Shortened the short side of the truss to match. It creates a shear point in the tube but I need clearance for the brakes so once all that’s on I’ll make a small extension. Spindles need some more chamfer and a few plug welds and they’ll be ready to go in forever. I liked the upper link mount but I only cut it out of 3/16 and got it a little hot welding so cut another one with some overlay plates which I’ll get welded up this week. Not sure if I should do a top truss as well or just the backbone.

Goal was 68 7/8 for wms for the rear since the front is 69 and think I nailed it. Axle shafts ended up around 38.5.

 

Shocks came.

And on the topic of shocks, I reached out to radflo and they stepped up to help me out big time. Looking forward to working with them and getting the car to work really well. Plan is to run the front shocks angled back about 20 degrees and in some after talking to broken4_racing. I wanted to do 25 degrees but I think that’ll cause issues later on for my setup and packaging.

2.5x14 4tube remote resis bypasses and 2.0x14 remote resi coilover.

One box of braniks goodies also showed up. Using their kingpin brake setup

 

Looking good!!

Glad to hear Radflo is onboard!!


Broken4 racing is just a link to irate.

 

I tagged him on irate as I have a thread over there. It’s his username and he’s on instagram as well.

 

It’ll all get dual shear. The steering has changed a lot since that picture. The draglink is on the same bolt as the tie rod now and has a small bend to clear the ram. I’ll work on the dual shear when everything is in their final places and I know nothing is going to move. There is still a lot of cycling to be done now that I just got the shocks and locations can change.

 

Been there done that with my old truck on leaf springs. Snapped Al the studs out of a Toyota knuckle in the middle of the rubicon. Was a very long drive out with just ratchet straps holding it together

 

Start of the engine cage

 

5 long days of putting in work with my dad and we got a ton done I feel. The front is cycled and pretty much done and ready to be welded. I got the front lower shock mounts welded and tacd back on and working on the final version of the front upper shock mounts. My dad was able to knock out most the brace tubes and notch the frame for bumpstops. We cycled it a bunch and I can lift the axle up and down by hand through the travel so no binding so far. Once i finish the upper shock mounts ill pull the axle and start finish welding it and bracing everything. Last things to do on the front once i get the uppers made is bump stop pads and get the cans tacd in place. We also plotted out how to start the rear as well but I want to get the front done to a point so i can put it on its own weight and turn it around.