Yes, the 4th Gen 4runners have a transmission cooler, so hopefully heat won't be an issue.
The cams coming from Kelford will be ordered with a set of matching springs. We had a short conversation about that between the builder and Kelford. No extra machining necessary, they'll fit into the stock seats.
I've been in discussions with a tuner in New Zealand who has done a bunch of parallel ECU wirings, and is providing some info to my tuner in California. (He has a YouTube channel here:
YouTube. Endlessly informative and entertaining.) The stock ECU will stay in place and run the transmission and emissions sensors, while the second ECU will be wired up behind the dash.
We're currently focused on a Link Xtreme ECU. Not cheap at about $1350, but according to the NZ tuner, it's the way to go to avoid lots of headaches and troubleshooting problems down the road. I'm hoping to be able to wire it up to a 2-din PC, or perhaps an android/bluetooth app so I can have in-dash monitoring and possibly map selection.
Definitely wondering about the injectors, but the verdict is out for the moment. Will take that as it comes. Saw an interesting thread recently about Rx8 injectors being swappable with much higher flow, but haven't seriously looked into that yet.
Hoping to see the cams/springs ship in the next two weeks. From there it will be 1-2 weeks to finish the build. Then I need to haul it back from Modesto, assemble everything and put it back in the truck. Then put the truck on a flatbed to Sac for the wiring and tuning. I'm hoping 4 weeks, but expecting more like 8, just being realistic. If I can have it back by the time the snow starts melting up in the Sierra Buttes, I'll be pretty happy.
Got a mountain of small issues to finish up. One dilemma I'm trying to figure out is the exhaust. I'm going with the Thorly short headers and URD MK3 exhaust. The headers don't come with cats, and I don't want to sacrifice my existing cats, as I'm half expecting I may need to throw the stock exhaust back on to pass smog--plus I don't think putting 14 year old cats on a new exhaust system is a great idea.
So I'm trying to figure out what cats to put on the headers, and whether I should put the new system on the motor when I reinstall it and hope for the best, or put the stock on to tune and smog and then put the headers on. I'd hate to put the headers on, not pass, then have to put the stock back on, pass smog, and do it all over again. But given everything I'm doing now, I guess it's not that big of a deal. Plus, it looks like if I keep all the heat shielding off the stock exhaust, it'll be a lot easier to get it on and off.
