I guess its time I started a thread and started sharing instead of just picking up all the good ideas. I have an 88' 4Runner 22re 5spd that i bought about 2 years ago with 99k on the clock for $600. I have done quite a few mods since i have owned it and i have pictures of what i have done so far that i will post later today. The long term plans are SAS, Diesel motor, Rear disk, dual battery, aux lights, bumpers, and alot more that i cant think of at the moment. I also open to ideas of any form.

 

Pics THEN thread.

Nobody cares without pics.

 

Sounds like a good start....

Oh, and

 

Ok.... i get it haha... i will take bunch of pics and have them up tonight around 7 then i will dig up the old ones

 

tasteful is one word btw

welcome to the forums man!

can't wait to see the pics!

 

well for one i love my toyota diesel engine...

and for 2.. i like pics!

 

alright here are some pictures a few months after i got it. Still looking for others i will also put it up on the lift friday night and take some more.

 

Yeah i saw that and couldent figure out how to fix it

 

some more pics

 

One more then i need to work on resizing some older ones.

 

some old ones

 

one more

 

Yeah I wish it was easy to get toyota diesels and parts for them here in the states but its not. So thats why i am going with a Mercedes 300D turbo mated to the stock 4cyl tranny. Not an easy task as i am finding out

 

the VW diesel swap seems to not be as hard as a mercedes swap..

if you want power to spare..then go with a Cummins 4BT..can be tuned for TONS OF POWER AND TORQUE..(numbers somewhere around 200hp and 400 FT LBS OF TORQUE!!!) and alot of the cummins 6BT (the 5.9L in the Dodge's) will fit the smaller 4BT as it is just a 6BT with 2 less cylinders..

 

I had thought about the cummins, vw and MB motors and i went with the MB motor because i have a few of them hanging around and i like german motors, im a big fan of BMW. I was going to use there 6 cly motor but its 5" too long to fit into the 4runner. My biggest motivation is that I dont want to do 35 in the slow lane being passed by 18 wheelers. From concord to lebanon its up hill for about 45 minutes. Im going to swap the rear drum brakes with disk brakes over the next week then hopefuly just after the first i will start the SAS then rear life a few weeks later. I might work on the lights and dual battery set up during the down time. I have three weeks off starting friday so we will se what i get done.

 

Not a whole lot of updates today but i did get all the misc. parts i need for the rear disk conversion and ordered the brackets and rotors from low range off road and should be here a week from monday and the new proportioning valve will be in this monday.

 

Well alot has happened since December. I finished the rear disk brake conversion, I was very happy with it. I thought i had a lot of problems with it but it ended up being a defective brake master(i messed around with the bolt that you are suposed to leave alone). After that i took the kit off and traded it with some cash for an 85 runner with a home brew 3" lift kit rebuilt from axle and a marlink. The body on the 85 was beyond repair, good body for the woods but nothing more. So i swapped my 88' body motor, tranny, and gas tank over to the 85 frame. oh yeah and i did all this in 72 hours. I had a lot of people tell me i was out of my mind, but it was deffnitly worth it. I could have done a $200 hanger kit but i like the look of the stock hangers. I definitly learned alot this past weekend, i had a lot of coolant issues but everything is sorted out now. The last thing i need to deal with is the steering. It makes a lot of noise all the time and when i make a trun eather way it makes even more noise. Also when im driving down the road the steering wheel will be off center by 90* and if i make a turn the other way it will put the wheel back to normal also when i hit a bump the truck will wander wherever it wants to go and when im on the highway its n ot so bad because im taking wider turns. The 85 runner frame has the stock steeringwith the lift drop link. Everything seems to be tight on the steering and it has the marlink so the problem is between the drivers steering arm on the axle and the power steering pump(its an 88' pump hooked up to an 85 steering box). Any ideas??? I was going to include a few pics but my computer wont reconize my SD card but i will get a few that are already on my computer at home. Thanks for the help.

 

Got it. I guess there is a little on off switch on my SD card. Anyway here are a few pics and a shot of my new to me front bumper.

 

Ok its time to bring this old thread back to life. I was just reading through it and i kind of miss the way my 4runner was when i first got it. Deffnitly want another stock one. The last post here was the solid axle frame swap. A friend of mine started the build thread before i know how to post pics and paid my dues. To im going to try to copy the posts over to here.

 

i figured i would start a build thread for my budys truck we have been building for the last few its a 85 4runner with a 5inch trail gear lift he is planning on swapping in a land cruiser front and rear end and a 5 cly Mercedes diesel

the truck


the axle rear



the tare down


after cutting all the brackets off


after hours of grinding


the motor




the diesel motor adapter plates are on the way from 4x4 labs and the rear and front axle are going to be shortened this week i will try to keep you guys posted