What've You Done With Your GX470 Lately?

Ordered a hitch mounted cargo carrier for an upcoming trip, but it got delayed and won't get here in time. Ended up spending most of my day making a platform for totes out of a motorcycle carrier. Came out pretty solid, looking forward a week on the road through some beautiful country...

 

Has anyone successfully swapped out the GX center console with a Prado center console? I'm tired of my GX center console "storage"...it was built for people with tiny hands who hate storage...And I'm convinced the cup holders they placed in the console was a sick joke.

 

I've seen a few people on IH8MUD that have done the prado console swap. As far as the cupholders go, I bought some online that work pretty good...



Can be found here...

https://crafted-by-matt.com/collections/frontpage/products/gx470-drink-holder-insert

 

Well, just got back from a week long road trip. Won't go into the details too much, but here's a photo dump...

 

Have brakes ready for all 4 corners. Doing the 460 swap in the front thanks to a deal from @SearArtist. Got her up off the ground and getting ready for install...

 

nice

 

One corner done...

 

Other side done along with extended rear lines. Gonna keep an eye on them and may move them around a bit if they hang up on the tank.

 

Pads/rotors/calipers/lines on all 4 corners complete...

 

Installed new winter shoes, wipers, rain-x, washer fluid and a good cleaning. Made the first mountain pass traverse of the season, with plenty more to follow. Did well...

 

Spent a day exploring in the snow. Got stuck a couple of times and turned around. Found a campground for a fire and let the doggos loose...

 

Thanks to super icy roads we went from this





To this

 

Had a slight leak somewhere with the radiator. Not sure if it was due to a faulty radiator or just a bad hose/radiator connection. Decided to just replace the whole thing instead of messing around with troubleshooting. Upon disassembly, I noticed that the shroud was broken too. Might as well replace that too.

Leak...


Parts inspected, tools/coolant/manual/beer gathered...


As with most things Lexus, some parts were way harder than they need to be. My bumper made the lower radiator bolts an absolute bitch to reach. Ended up using the 3' socket extension and a couple wobbly's mixed in to get it...


Radiator/shroud removed...


Replaced/burping...


This new organizer tray came in pretty handy...


Also, not today, but recently had my leaking exhaust manifolds replaced with Doug Thorley headers. Still need to put in my O2 simulator to cancel the CEL's, but that's for another day...

 

Installed the O2 simulator that came with the headers/y-pipe from URD. Install was straightforward, tap into 3 wires, splice 2 others. Used an OBD2 reader to see that the banks seem to be balanced.

While I was there, I followed a write-up on IH8MUD to disable the TPMS light in the dash. Was also easy, just cut the blue wire on the harness to the TPMS module and ground out the harness side.

Boom. First time in months without CEL (due to cat delete and header install) and first time since I've owned the rig that the TPMS light is off. Feels so damn good to have a cluster that doesn't look like a Christmas tree.

 

No CEL or TPMS lights feels good...


Forgot to mention, since I bought the GX, the clips that hold the engine covers on were all mismatched or broken. When I did the radiator, I figured I'd get new clips that all match. Found these on Amazon...

$7 Rexka 20pcs Radiator Cover Clips Compatible with Toyota Lexus 90467-08217 4Runner FJ Cruiser Tacoma GX470

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BHCNK6G?ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Had to go to eBay to get the firewall clips.

So nice having all the same hardware for once...

 

Took a short trip to the mountains to cool down a bit from the 105+ degree temps lately. Felt good to stretch the legs a bit, even though it was pretty tame. Pictures don't do the scenery justice...

 

i changed spark plugs, valve cover gaskets, Front diff oil, rear diff oil, T-Case oil, Engine Oil, Serpentine belt, and idler pulley.

 

Damn. Putting in some work. How hard were the valve cover gaskets?

 

Sucked. If your engine is dirty, clean it before u even think about working on it. On the pass side, you need to disconnect all the wiring to get it out the way. TB, coil plugs, injector plugs. Some brackets that hold all that mess in place. Move it all. Will make it easier to get to

driver side, disconnect the coil packs and that’s really about it. If you are big with a torque wrench when torquing things, u might have to get a little creative with extensions to get things torqued.

Most of my bolts where “loose” I would say when removing everything.

The idler pulley gets a pretty decent torque to so loosing that up took a bit.

 

Love your beautiful Newfs…they are incredible dogs.