Hey everyone. Been lurking for a while, kudos to all the fantastic information provided by the users of this forum. Its been very helpful so far.
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 due to the constraints of life.
Hoping to revive it in the near future.
I've always wanted a third gen manual 4runner with a 3.4. I got in a car accident earlier this year and totaled my Crown Vic and needed to find a new vehicle. It was nearly impossible in the middle of the pandemic to find any reasonable deals on Toyotas in general. Let alone a 3.4 5 speed 4runner. I also really needed a 4WD.
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 test drove and he was the second owner. Ran good. I took it home the next day for $5k smogged. Felt like a steal. His phone was blowing up the whole time I was there the first time I saw it. Timing belt was done at 182,000. No E locker sadly. Truck had 218,000 miles on it when purchased. I am almost to 230k now.
I've done a lot to it so far:
OEM master cylinder (I originally swapped it with a Duralast master because it was saturday night when I got the thing home, less than a month later it failed)
Duralast slave cylinder (this has held up but i dont have much faith)
Napa premium rotors/pads
OEM Throttle position sensor
OEM coils (x3)
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)
Changed the trans and tcase to Redline MT90
Slapped on some 17x9 Pacer black steel wheels
Bought some new 265/70/R17 Toyo Open Country AT3s.
Then I broke a lower ball joint. Luckily it was an ideal BJ break (slow speed, offroad) and no one was hurt. But I am currently in the process of redoing the steering and front and rear suspension. Bilstein 5100s, OME coils, SPC upper control arms, new bushings, etc
I will probably post a build thread soon. Happy to be in a 4runner again!! One of the best 4x4s ever made IMO. Love this rig. My dad actually has the same color 4runner, but its a 2000. He has had it since I was in high school so its kinda awesome we both have the same one. His is bone stock though.
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