4Runner Purchased as Engine Donor Saved by ‘Yota Tech’ Member
Pair of buddies fall in love with old, beaten up 4Runner and transform it into one seriously fun trail toy.
Seeing an old, beaten up, ultra high-mileage Toyota fixed up by a Yota Tech member is a common occurrence here in the forums. But the 1988 4Runner you see before you wasn’t intended to exist today as you see it. You see, member rattlewagon‘s friend purchased the 4Runner for pennies on the dollar, with the intentions of ripping out its motor for another project. Thankfully, he saw the light, and decided to save it instead. They also documented that process right here in this thread.
“This is my buddy’s 4Runner. It was originally purchased as a motor donor for his 3rd gen pickup mud truck. We picked it up for $600 because the motor had great compression, and it started for a few seconds when spraying starter fluid in the intake. But he liked this body style too much, and the frame wasn’t very rusty. This will not be any sort of resto, as this truck sat in tall grass for 8ish years with the famous leaky windshield trim. Front floors are shot, rockers are shot. We winched it onto the trailer with three frozen brakes. It lives at my house because he doesn’t have a place to keep it.”
Once the poor old 4Runner was back at the OP’s house, they began the process of getting it running properly. That required a new fuel cell and pump, and a little bit of persuasion with the AFM, which was frozen shut. Next, they got the brakes freed up, gave the 4Runner a cheap lift, and threw some balding 35-inch tires on it. Next thing you know, this old Toyota was out on the trails again.
The cheap fun continued when this duo turned a set of old hand rails into a front bumper. And in a case of backwards plans, they also removed the W56 from their old Toyota mud truck to install in the 4Runner. By now, they were obviously determined to make it even better.
“Right now, it’s back on the stock cross member. But we’re either going to build a high clearance one or get an FROR rear mount. The clocked case makes it difficult to use an off-the-shelf dual case skid. We cut down the rear drive shaft and used the rear shaft from his mud truck for a front. The truck is still IFS, so it does not need a long slip. We’ll address that if he ever goes solid axle, but this is a cheap, ‘only replace it if we need to’ build. Next on the list is to weld the front and rear diffs. We have more handrail and some pipe to make a rear bumper, and possibly some sliders. But for now, just more seat time.”
Since then, this Toyota-loving duo has been having a blast wheeling their scrapyard 4Runner. Not to mention wrenching on it and making it better every weekend. So be sure and head over here to check out this cool resurrection project in its entirety!
Photos: Yota Tech Forums
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