TORSPD: NEVR

When it came time to install the factory Bilstein front shocks, I ran into a problem. Due to the fact that the top of those shocks, protrude through the mounting perch, the passneger side shock would not fit. Due to the STS intake tube being routed directly over the shock tower opening. Luckily I had a back up plan ready. I had some QA1 adjustable coilovers that I was planning on installing later on, but my hand was forced, and I had to install them then.

The springs which I ordered are Eibach 2.5" diameter x 12" tall @ 600 ppi.



I also had to use 2 of the ProComp strut tower adapters, since the QA1s have the same loop mount as the ProComp coilovers.

Finally the front was all back together, and I was able to lower it down. Still needed to adjust the height of the ride, but this is what it looked like right after completion.



Scratches are from the days of off-roading.

Having run out of time that night, the rear portion had to wait until the next night.

 

Remember the piece of the cross-member that was cut out? Well I still needed to have that piece welded in. So a trusty 2x4 placed through the opening of the cut out, lag bolted into place, and a short drive to my friends at PowerFab Auto here in town, had that piece welded back into place. Dealing with a short time frame, I had to make that drive there looking like a ghetto fabulous clown.



Still rocking the ProComp lift in the rear....I was really embarassed driving it like that, but it had to be done. And man did I get some crazy looks too. Lol.

After they finished up. I was able to finish with the rear portion of the drop. At least to the stock height. My current exhaust setup prevented me from being able to install the drop kit, so I had to wait another week until I had the time to modify the exhaust.



A few weeks later, I cut the exhaust pre-axle, as in the pic below. Installed the www.Tundraracing.com rear half of their drop kit, and headed back to PowerFab, to have them re-route the exhaust. I also installed the Rotora 6 piston BBK for some extra braking bit. Which I also purchased from Tundra Racing.





These pictures also help to illustrate how their drop kit works. They flip the shackles, and add in brackets to make the axle sit over the leaves.











Despite being larger rotors and calipers, there was a combined weight savings of 13 pounds. That is a lot! By the way, the pads that came with the the kit were the H6 series pad. A step up from the base H2. Dusting freaking pads! Stopped great, but dayum! They dusted a lot. As well, the H6 pad costs $268 to replace, while the H2 costs $168.

 

Shortly after the full rear drop, I encountered a new noise. It ended up being the one piece driveshaft. It was rubbing on the cross brace where the carrier bearing used to bolt to. Had I still had the two piece driveshaft, there woud never have been an issue.

So to correct that, I had that section of that cross-member modified. As well as upgraded it to have a driveshaft loop. Woot. Preparing for HP.





You can see where the paint was rubbed when the suspension flex toward the bump stops.

Going back to the time after the head gasket problem. It was time to finally get the parts necessary to install the upgraded intercooler. In January '12, a box of parts came in from Treadstoneperformance.com.



I found them after doing a lot of searching for Toyota MAF sensor flanges. Since I had so much trouble with turbulance on the STS setup, I was determined to fix that. Treadstoneperformance.com offers the flange already welded to the tube, as well as offer a honeycomb flow straightener. That was perfect!

The honey comb insert was on back order at the time, so it will be here a little later. What it will do is help to minimize any air turbulance over the MAF sensor, so that it won't get crazy readings.




The rectangle flange in the pic is for what would be my front mount turbo build....

 

The next week, a few more parts for the front mount build came in.





4" inlet Greddy air filter, as well as the Large diaphragm Tomei 1:1 rising fuel pressure regulator.



^ That was a Christmas gift from the GF.

 

Even though, I had the JB weld fixed deck, on my block, and spent tons and tons of money on my rear mount kit, just to get it where it was, it was I was determined to develope a capable and powerful front mount turbo kit.

There had also been a lot of debate on some other front mount turbo kits that had been made before. I wanted to dispel the myths of the inflated numbers that were floating around from their kits. Let me say this, Mathmatically, it is simply not possible to make 500 whp on 8 psi, on the 4.0 L 1GR engine, with a turbo or two, unless you try running 31 degrees total timing with a shit load of Meth. It isn't happening.

I had to do a lot of research for which material to purchase, as well as from where. What diameters as well as the types of bends. Which flanges to use and where. Who to make my merge collector. How to make my turbo header as strong and cost effective as possible...My mind was constantly running. It didn't rest, until we started that project.

First thing was first though. The intercooler had to be installed.

Since I was still running the STS kit at the time, the passenger side was a temp piece to keep things working. Even though it wouldn't be used when the front mount was installed.





The intercooler is the same used in the MKII/MKIII kits.















The one thing that I stressed, and that we did, was to make the intake tubing bends sweeping and gradual as much as possible. That helps keep the flow up, restriction down, and heat down.

That was work done on the last weekend of January '11.

 

A couple of months go by. Did some material ordering. As well as search for an answer to my one question. "How do you make a T56 transmission AWD?"

My OEM trans was old an worn, after the years and power that had been put through it. I had wanted do something to upgrade it, but there was nothing on the market for the AY6. I started doing some talking to people I know in the performance industry, as well as those who have heavily modded their XR's. Ended up that they influenced APR to make a T56 swap kit for our engines. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the first group buy. In the time being though, the question still remained, as I was not going to miss the second group buy.

Then I found this....

T56 with a transfer-case:



Now just need to do it.....

Here are the links where I found it:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=870380

http://www.rsgear.com/

Soon there after, I also learned that there was a race team that had done that as well for their Syclone race truck. AWD T56 Magnum. Bad A$$ !!!

I have been a race enthusiast for years. When I started the lowering project, there was one goal on my mind. Make my truck road coarse worthy. Long before I ever saw or knew of this picture.



^^^ That however, solidified my desire for my endeavor. Push through, Nevr give up.

Here is the Speed Hunters article on that truck. Very cool

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/11/29/random-snap-gt-gt-the-syborg.aspx

 

Then.....more bad news.... After some debate and discussion back and forth from different forums, as well as companies, I learned that I had to re-torque my head studs. I was originally told 71 ft/lbs. After talking to ARP, i was told that those needed to be torqued to at least 85 ft/lbs.

Out with the engine again....If only it was a single over head cam, it wouldn't have been necessary to go to this length....

So here are some pics of some of the work necessary for my near future build up. This took place from this last Thursday-Sunday. A lot of hours went into this, to say the least.

Major thanks to all involved. Grumpy and I did it pretty much non stop tuning.....lol. I also had an awesome bit of help from my Britt, Toon, and another friend that stopped by. It was much appreciated for sure!





Grumpy making....

BOOOOST.......



And yes, it was Friday....lol

Having the motor out gave us a great opportunity to look at the clutch/flywheel, and the input shaft sleeve. This Spec Clutch has about 10-15k on it, and looks great. Very even wear on the pressure plate/flywheel as well.






The input sleeve is in much worse shape than these pictures do justice. All sorts of uneven wear.




While that work was going on, some goodies arrived. This was during the second week of March, '11.




Here is a close-up of the resonator. Britt has a video of me acting a fool to test it out. Work well though, on those "preliminary" tests. lol




Now if you are wondering why we took the motor out in the first place, it was quite simple. To be safe. I was came across the fact that my head studs weren't torqued down to the proper spec a little while ago. Thus, it was extremely necessary for me to torque them down properly. Well I didn't want to chance losing my timing while doing the work. So to be safe, out came the motor "incase" the timing cover had to be removed.
Turns out, that we could not figure out a way to remove the intake cam actuator enough to remove the intake cam, without removing the timing cover. So we were already there, so be it. Then back together it all went.

 

i remember these last couple pics!
when u were getting ready to do ur front mount.

 

Yes sir. Things have come a looooooong way for the both of us since that time. Lol.

 

It continues to evolve.

 

Having everything running right, my friends and I decided to have a little fun. There is a perfect vacant road that is not used by the public, in a little place we like to call "Japan".

Mine with the rear mount turbo, against a TRD S/C. Then two TRD s/c trucks. It was a lot of fun. Here are the vids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAyUVPYFXfI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VOaR96lbV0&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JMbP9FQts&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c20OH-NFfQ8&feature=relmfu

 

During those runs, I was checking my tune, and noticed some things were a little off. My AFR's were a little rich. Mid 10's. Too rich. So my GF and I made plans to come back out and do some road tuning the next weekend.

The weekend of the 21st of '11, we encountered another issue. So much so, that I had to get towed home. My truck wouldn't stay started. It kept getting a MAF sensor CEL. Tried swapping with my friend's. No difference.

Then the next day after work, my girl and I found the problem. We plugged back up the factory harness, without the Map_Ecu2, and bam. The engine cranked right up. Idled perfectly.

Basically the Map-Ecu2, had failed. Then main problem with that, was that the company that made the Map2, had discontinued the Map2. They were in the process of building the Map3.

So my search for a new EMS started.

 

the good o japan!
man i remember those vids.
that was when i was turd charged and stock height and gay A/T tires and trd wheels.

 

Figured those would bring back some memories. Fun times for sure. Also the same time that your severe addition to the drug known as "boost", was becoming insatiable. Lol. Almost like sex, once you get it, you can never have enough.

 

lol man. went the wrong route with the s/c. was fun though aint gonna lie.
i went turbo kuz ur truck was way faster compared to a trd s/c.
lol should of just went turbo in the 1st place....

 

Damn those are some cool vids homey....your truck is moving!

 

I forgot to mention this. Being that I had a spare engine, two actually, just sitting in my garage, something really cool happened. Gadget called me one day in the third quarter of 2010. Was wanting to know if I had any plans to use either of those engines for anything. Besided spare parts, or the junk yard, I had nothing planned. So we worked out a plan to get one to a place called Darton Sleeves.

If you aren't sure what Darton Sleeves are, here is the link:

http://www.dartonsleeves.com/midinfo.html

So between Gadget at URD, and my engine, we were able to have the first set of sleeves brought to market, for the 1GR-FE. Since that time, there are now 7 total people who have purchased them. Gadget and I being two.

Here are some pics from the story as Gadget wrote it, and the whole link:

http://www.xr-underground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39941









^^^ My old block which was used to have the cylinders cut out, to be used to create the M.I.D sleeves from.

About 7 months later, the final product was complete. On May of 2011.



Torspd and URD have gone global!!!! Lol

 

my favorite build. bar none.
Bravo sir!

 

Thank you for the kind words

 

I think I've read your full build twice now, and every time all I can think is: Dear god I've gotta get more videos.. Which new ECU did you end up going with?? Also, once I finish the rest of the physical tweaks I'm going to need some tuning advice!!

Oh, and I'm probably going to be heading south july or august (hopefully both, if not august minimum) for a meet in montana, you should come?