Well I've had this 4Runner almost a year now, thought I'd start sharing my build progress over here. It's my first 4Runner but I had a 1st gen pickup for a long time that I had to sell for practicality purposes and a growing family.

Here's the 1st gen, what got me started in Toyotas. Had it since high school, was hard to let go.


And a video of it at its best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeSamjm9uc4

Here's the 4Runner, 1992 SR5, 22RE 5 speed. Wish I had interior pictures from a year ago, because it was GROSS. Had to do lots of work on it since then, including and especially rebuild the engine. It was my first engine rebuild. I took my time and cleaned up lots of the previous owner's mess, and painted everything, etc. Wasn't that hard but took longer than I anticipated. Also found it tough sometimes to keep motivated on the project, staring at it in my garage for months. Anyways its finally on the road and I've got 2000 miles or so now on the rebuild. Still a work in progress!



Before:


After:







Current Mods (as of August 2016) :

Engine

• Rebuilt 22RE
• .040 over pistons
• Engnbldr 261C Cam
• Witchunter rebuilt injectors
• Pacesetter header
• 2.5" exhaust with 40 series Flowmaster
• "Big 3" wiring upgrade with 2/0 wire and Blue Sea 80 amp alternator fuse
• Exide AGM dry cell battery

Suspension and Steering

• Procomp ES9000 shocks, stock length
• OME Steering Stablizer
• Proforged idler arm with 4Crawler bronze bushing upgrade
• V6 Rotors and front calipers
• ADD delete
• Aisin manual hubs

Interior

• New carpet
• Huskyliner front floormats
• Alpine 147BT bluetooth enabled stereo
• Kenwood 6.5" speakers in the front doors
• Fire extinguisher mount

Plus lots of new parts....

I hope to have a number of upgrades coming soon, including:

• 33" tires (width and brand still TBD)
• Front bumper and sliders
• Budbuilt skidplates
• 4.88 gears and ARB rear (already have the gears)
• Some sort of headlight upgrade (projector retrofit maybe)
• Satoshi mod style front grill
• Paint job - needs paint BAD - this color:

I really like the look and color of the 2016 TRD Pro 4Runner in the Inferno paint job. My plan is to replicate the look of this rig as similar as I can pull off... hence the "TRD Faux" moniker.

Hoping to head out wheeling Friday, so I'll be sure to get lots of pictures!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

This evening's mod was installing some new 6.5" speakers in the doors. I'll be building new door panels some time in the future but for now I needed some better speakers for my EDM and audio books, so I picked up these speaker pods from Crutchfield and some 6.5" Kenwoods.... nice upgrade for sure!!



Both speakers ready to go - lost a tiny bit of knee room but definitely worth it! When I build new door panels I'll move the map pocket back on the door and put the speakers at the bottom, but for now it works and sounds great!

Well, went ahead and finally got the heck outside with this thing.

Went to La Dee Flats, a newer trail outside of Estacada - lucky for me about 30 min from where I work! Never been there and wanted to check it out. Turns out it's pretty cool, some decent trails. I think the gatekeepers were the hardest parts for me but that's what's great about even a stock Toyota, they just work. I did drag butt a LOT though, could have used a locker more than once, definitely need to get some armor going. Other than a few new koofs on my skid plate, and some rock rash on my trailer hitch, no real damage done. Must say, it's awesome wheeling with A/C!

Went with my buddy who's got a similar 4Runner, similar as in 2nd gen.... he's SAS, leafs all around, OM617, dual cases..... etc etc... but no AC and some cooling issues - but it was pretty hot out today!

Didn't get much for pics as we got out there late in the day and were just out to check the place out. Only ran 1 real trail, which was pretty cool, but I'm sure there's more. Getting too old to go night exploring these days when I don't know the area, wife expected me home sooner than dawn, so we called it off at dark and headed home.

Only pic of the trip:



Gatekeeper shot



I took a video too but it ended being of nothing. There's a short trail that's really just a mud pit play area we went down. Neither of us had much heart to attempt the mud holes....

Might need to consider a lift sooner than later after tonight's journey.

Pics are not working for me on this one. I'm interested in doing this. Any chance you could post more pics? Thanks and nice rig!


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X2- most of the pics are a no go

wish mine had the 22RE

Should be working now - let me know!

I promise, I know how to internet!

Let me know if the pics are working now - and if you would like any other specific shots:

I did shop specifically for it.... so much easier to work on! Can't really complain about power... someday would like to build a turbo motor for it.

Thanks! I see what you mean about the knee room now. Doesn't look too cramped. The factory stereo in these trucks is pretty weak. I would have like to put door speakers in like the FJ80's but wasn't sure how to pull it off and make it look clean. Looks like you found a nice solution. How does it sound now? Did you disable the speakers in the lower dash?


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Yeah I ditched the dash speakers.... mostly out of laziness actually - I didn't want to pull everything apart to make this work, so I just fished the dash speaker wire out and cut it, then spliced these in. They sound great, a huge improvement over stock. The PO had at one point "upgraded" to some 4" Pioneer's in the stock location, and this is a massive difference. You do get a reasonable amount of bass resonance too, nothing earth shaking, but you can definitely hear it, if not feel it. Not sure a cell-phone youtube video will do it justice but maybe I'll attempt it and see if you can get a feel for the sound.

Overall, for $80, and about an hour total of work, definitely a great upgrade and worth it. I'm actually considering doing the same on the rear doors and ditching the back area speakers as well...

Think I'm going to pull the trigger.....

hard to believe tire balancing qualifies for Free Shipping

Right?


Backed out on the tires... holding out for better rims, need to keep saving. Be patient and I can get what I really want...

In other news, went camping for one night and slept in the back, it was great except my air mattress deflated itself.... le sigh.

Did officially realize I do NOT want a raised platform in the back there, would give up too much head room and make it cramped for sleeping. Developing other plans for some sort of rear storage, stay tuned....

So if anyone is interested, I've been keeping record of my milage since I bought this truck.

One thing of note that has come up over (and over and over) is regarding EGR delete and fuel milage before/after.

This is hardly conclusive data, but I've seen posts with people stating milage will drop, etc. Now I don't know what a fresh rebuilt motor would get WITH an EGR still in place, but here are my numbers. EGR has never worked on this truck since I've had it FYI.

Odometer Trip Gallons MPG Notes

196,634 purchase milage
196,821 187.0 9.2 20.4 partial tank, milage is estimate
197,036 215.0 13.2 16.2 partial tank, milage is estimate
197,317 280.8 14.2 19.8 first full tank
197,606 289.0 14.6 19.9
197,895 287.0 15.6 18.4
198,176 281.0 14.9 18.9
198,437 ENGINE REBUILT
198,723 285.0 15.0 18.9
198,985 262.0 13.4 19.6
199,274 289.0 15.0 19.3
199,437 1ST OIL CHANGE - 10w30 el cheapo
199,548 274.0 13.8 19.8
199,813 265.0 13.3 20.0
200,248 derp
200,338 287.7 13.1 21.9 added 1/4 qt oil, cleaned O2 sensor
200,611 273.7 13.5 20.3 added 1qt Lucas oil stabilizer (est milage)
200,906 213.6 10.9 19.6 NEW FUEL PUMP, partial gas loss
201,120 294.7 14.2 20.8 added 1 qt oil
201,393 272.4 12.4 21.9

It's still using more oil than I would like, which is starting to concern me, but otherwise it runs pretty good and seems to be getting pretty decent milage. I'll keep posting updates by tank.

PS, sorry not the best data formatting, excel doesn't like posting into the message boards... I can put it up on a google doc and share it if people really want the data, just let me know.

Great work so far, man. The red looks great on the 22RE.

Unfortunately most of the photos don't show for me.