Hey everyone. Excited to be back in a Toyota 4Runner again. This will be my build/journal for my recently acquired 1999 SR5.
I am not new to Toyotas, I have owned several. But haven't driven them much for the last decade or so. Got really into Ford Panther platform (Crown Victoria) for a while. I still have my 1985 4Runner rock crawler (DOA Racing 22RE, Marlin Crawler Duals, 35s, etc) however that truck has been sitting for 7 years because of life.
After an unfortunate accident that totaled my last Crown Victoria, I needed a new vehicle. Where I live dictated I should get back into a 4x4.
Trying to find a quality Toyota in the middle of the pandemic wasn't easy. On top of the hiked Toyota tax, availability was limited. It took a while, and some frustration watching ads appear and disappear in the same day before I could even go look. A number of lemons. My persistence paid off however, and I found this 1999 3.4, 5 speed 4x4 4runner listed for a very good price. It was two hours away. But I was the first caller minutes after he posted it. I told him I'd give him a deposit to hold it so I could see it first, and drove up that day to look at it.
It needed a clutch master and slave cylinder, but drove pretty good otherwise. It was one of the cleanest I had been able to see and drive. He was the second owner. I drove it two hours home the next day for $5k smogged. Felt like a steal. Timing belt/water pump was done at 182,000. No E locker sadly. Truck had 218,000 miles on it when purchased. I am almost to 228k now. Aside from a custom roof rack, the dealer bug guard, and some KYB shocks, it was stock. I was stoked on the sunroof.
First couple months I had it, I did the following:
OEM master cylinder (I originally swapped it with a Duralast master because it was saturday night when I got the thing home and needed to be done with the slave ASAP - less than a month later it failed)
Duralast slave cylinder (this has held up but i don't have much faith)
Napa premium rotors/pads
Napa air filter
OEM Throttle position sensor
OEM coils
OEM wires
OEM spark plugs
OEM clock spring
Cleaned the idle air control valve & throttle body
Street max muffler (sounds like a magnaflow to me
)
Napa 5w30 Oil change and K&N oil filter (running Napa 1516 as of last change)
Changed the trans and tcase to Redline MT90
My main goals with this truck are a reliable but capable daily driver. Strong offroad capability without sacrificing too much comfort or drive-ability. Mild lift, rear locker, bumpers, sliders to begin.
The day I bought it. Last pic is after its first offroad trip: