This is a long project in the making. As you can tell by my handle I am CHEAP! I try and to any and all mods, and fixes the most economical way possible without sacrificing safety and reliability... if this means buying good working used parts, making parts myself, fixing broken parts, or doing without nonessentials while I figure out what to do by searching yotatech.com... so be it!

I bought the truck for $300 with a sized engine. The body was perfect, the interior was mint... not a scratch on it! It took me about 7 months to find a good working 3.0l engine for the truck for about 400 bills.... I thought I was free and clear! but I was wrong... I kid around with people sometimes when they ask how my truck is doing… I used to tell them my Toyota truck is the most unreliable vehicle I have ever owned…. And up until about 7 months ago it was true! I mean I have NEVER had a car or truck that would have a different part fail on me ONCE A WEEK for 12 MONTHS straight!... But all of a sudden 7 months ago it stopped breaking! I think the growing pains are over (and I replaced almost everything) and it will now be a reliable truck.

Just to give you an idea… I did about 60 separate fixes to make the truck run good including: engine, injectors, Radiator, Starter, Brakes pad/shoes, calipers, rotors, brake cylinders, drive shafts, axle shafts, half shafts, bearings, All steering components, suspension, sensors, Rear diff, wiring…. you name it has been fixed, fondled, or F***ed with… no joke! All parts were replaced because they were BROKE or near failed… not because “I think that is the problem”

In the end, through buying parts on craigslist, used parts, and essential parts new, I am very confident in the truck I have today. It is not going to win the IFS FLEX award... nor is it going to win the best in show... but it does provide me with a lot of confidence when driving in any road or weather condition all while on a budget.... and WAY less expensive then buying a "low mileage" 4Runner from the get-go and adding “mods” and “fixes” into the equation… My MODS were the FIXES….

I won’t bore you with the fixes (any FIX info that I needed was found under the yotatech “SEARCH” thread… check it out!) rather just the highlights over the years of the random mild upgrades I have made to the truck. I live on the east coast with no real reason for hardcore mods, I use my truck on a daily basis ON-ROAD... so the mods are to enhance its off-road capabilities with my environment in mind! You might see some IFS mods in the future.... but it won’t be extreme.

Between doing huge projects with the truck these are the little mods I have done.
LC Coils
Shocks
Low Profile Bump Stops (To replace mangled rattling stockers)
Asian hubs
Clinometer
FJ Cruiser Steels with Dunlop AT20 (On road)
Interco 33x12.5x15 TSL’s (Real nasty stuff)
Cobra 19 Ultra III CB “Ashtray” mod
Firestick “Firefly” mounted right below tail light
Blinkers in parking light mod

Some Near Future Mods:
Auxiliary backup / rear lights (glenyoshida inspired design)
Power Inverter
In fender snorkel (4crawler inspired design)
1” Body Lift
Gas tank “tuck”
Fabricated Adjustable rear links with Johnny Joints (To remedy the elliptical vibration after installing LC Coils)
Fabricated ammo can hold downs In cab


Without further ado here are the updates!

Decided to fix the really REALLY Saggy springs in the back. I sourced a set of LC Coils from a member off this site, and 4Crawler Panhard Bar Drop from... well you know where! I bought a 4" IFS kit off of craigslist but then decided not to install because of cutting tabs off the frame.... BUT I did install the rear shocks from the kit.... Only problem... the kit came from a truck! With Eye mounts on top! No problem... just bent some 3/16 from Hom-De-Pot into a U and made my own Eye-to -stud shock adapter! Now I Have enough rear axle travel to rub the back of stock tires/rims on the frame and have the drive shaft make contact with the skid plate of the gas tank! HAHA!!!



I removed the lower front bumper to fit some 33x12.5 but i did not like the space between the blinkers... so i filled it! Under $10 for 3/16 2" by 4ft piece of plate from home depot. flat blacked it with the rattle can


Found this Cobra Ultra 3 on a clearence rack in WallyWord. the package was ripped to hell but they wanted $12.50 and i could return it if it did not work... well it did and now it is where my ashtray used to be. Very simple mod!


You guys will not believe it but i found this Clinometer in a new arrival 86 4runner SR5 at the local U-pull-It. the exterior was Ok... but the interior was MINT and I almost fell over seeing an untouched 4Runner WITH CLINO! what was even better... when i walked up to the parts counter and asked how much they wanted... they had no idea what it was. i described it and they said "any guage cluster is $40" I shut up... quietly went to the truck and took it out right there!!! Heck there is an SR5 cluster sitting in that thing that will be sold for $40 too haha! anyway, that went into my truck the same day.

Drivers Door View


Drivers seat view



everytime I walk by the back of the truck the darn rusty tailpipe always catches my eye... i got tired of it and decided to flat black the pipe. It aint no chrome tip but i did not have to spend $25 on something that does nothing. Kinda reminds me of Cafe or Bobber bikes exhaust pipes... lol
(BTW this paint i use is the cheapest can in the store about $1.00 per can, it coats great, fills imperfections great and holds up very well)


Inside wheel well

 

What is a Clinometer? Sorry new to this lol. Was curious

 

Clinometer (also called inclinometer) is a set of gauges that give you Altitude, pitch, and roll readings. Frankly it is more of a "want" item for the truck for me since your inner oh-crap meter will be going off way before the Clino will read anything close to Max on the trails...

 

Really...!! So it tells you when your about to be on your melon then?? Hmmm Sounds like a nice added gadget.

 

Are those hella 500s or 700s? I cant really tell. I really like that plate you put on the front,

 

They are Hella 500 FF. Throw off way more light than the reg. 500s.

Thanks, ive seen the pics of the lower bumper removed before doing it myself and always had the idea of just filling the area when i did it.

 

Nice man .. Ill give you $50 for the inclinometer ...

 

HAHA!!! I didnt even test it out yet! Sunday will take care of that though

See... this is why i needed to remove the lower bumper. rubs like hell but i think i will be able to take care of that with a grinder and BFH.

 

Looks great! I wish mine was black

 

Well trans is on its way out. Its been going for about a month now but much worse now. I will update when i get a line on either another auto or manual swap. This is an ultra low $$$ build so a manual swap might be out of the question... but we will see...

 

UPDATE!!! Trans is actually acting much better these days with a NEW Temp Sensor AND a USED cold start sensor (somehow connected to Trans ECU according to posts here). It still seems like a real dog in the cold weather... but it is only cold here about 4 months of the year... so I can deal with it.

My Cooper A/Ts wore down and started cupping and wouldn’t hold a balance too well so I started to look around for a replacement. I was on craigslist and found a SET OF 5 FJ CRUSIER STEEL RIMS with stock tires! Fully balanced, used only in the winter (3000 miles), no bends, no rash ..... Nothing!!! For $250!!!!!!

But for some dam reason I did not take any pictures of them when I had the truck cleaned up real nice.... oh well.. Here are a couple shots of the truck having a little fun in the dirt. The Dunlop at20s do ok off-road but are a dream to drive on road.... I have the TSLs in the previous pics to do serious trails... but the Dunlop at20s hold there own on mild stuff and dirt roads...

Anyway... here is a good ol' 2nd gen IFS 4Runner with a set of FJ cruiser 17" Steel Rims and stock tires!

 

not bad i like the cheap set up i built mine for about 1600 bucks and that is with a SAS 35's and a locker and gears

 

WOW! that is an amazing build for 1600! Great job man! especially with the parts you listed!

 

Was looking through my pics and found a couple of the truck "relatively" clean. I was out for an afternoon of exploring the public land of the Pine Barrens in NJ. My girlfriend was driving I and told her to do some poser shots... LOL! Figured I would post them up.

This weekend I will be attempting a couple projects on the truck. Nothing crazy just some stuff I have been meaning to do for years:
1. 4crawler inspired in-fender snorkel (not all the way up... just away from the grille)
2. A fabricated Phone/GPS mount under the radio (tilt and swivel 180*) out of 3/16" Aluminum plate
3. New front bumper "gap" plate: In a momentary lap of judgment last winter I thought it was a good idea to de-isle my front bumper before hitting the road... well 1 misguided kick sent one of my blinkers into 30 pieces! Instead of replacing the blinker I intergraded the blinker into the side markers (Info found here and saved $$$ instead of buying a replacement blinker!) and thus left 2 holes which I will fill on Saturday... In some of the newer pics you can see the missing blinkers and holes I am describing... now the plate will go all the way across.

Anywhoo here are the poser shots... nothing big.

 

hey love the runner bro, those first pictures with those tires looked sweet, i'm looking to do the same thing soon. thanks for the inspiration

 

Actually quite sucky! lol. I finally blew the headgasket about a month ago and the truck is sitting. I had all intentions to swap a 1UZ in (actually kinda happy when i started getting the white smoke knowing that i have the opportunity to do the 1UZ! HAHA) but in reality money is tight. I am really thinking of just spending the full days work and just replace the gaskets and wait a while to do the 1UZ. I actually stopped in to do my research for the gasket replacement and where to buy gaskets, bolts etc... lol! Stay tuned it will be running in about a couple weeks! (crossed fingers!)

 

I know how it feels man. My 4Runner just blew its headgasket about 2-3 weeks ago ( but it caught it right when it started to fail ). plus I only have 157k miles. i expected it to atleast go till 200k so I could do a 3.4 swap around that time.. but oh well

 

Yeah the first pics look perfect. Makes me wanna mount my black rims on my pickup even more!
How come you got rid of the rims from the first pics?

 

Nice looking runner I really like the pics of it on the 33 swampers, nice clean look! Keep it up can't wait to see the progress...

 

I still have the Swampers but since I was driving the truck as my DD for a good year and a half I wanted something for the road (anyway the FJ Steels I had my eye on since I got the truck... the Runner looks very "official"... even had other wheelers pull over thinking there going to get a ticket or a talking to! HAHA!). Plus when I went with the 15x10" tire for the Swampers because one of my buds was selling the rims and got them on a really nice deal. Unfortunately they rubbed like crazy up front. Before this HG blew I was saving money to finally get the front suspension mildly lifted (Blazeland, or BJ Spacers or 3" IFS lift which I have most of) but the GH put the kibosh on it LOL!

Thanks for all the complements guys! It makes me want to tear the engine apart even more! I’m booked until end of June so once my schedule gets cleared up this thing is getting new gaskets and driven!