'95 T4R Project Build

[missyroar]

Finally able to post! I bought my first T4R earlier this month. It's a '95 SR5 2WD with 180k and a blown head gasket. A lot has already been done so I'll post pics down below of what we (my boyfriend and I) have done.

Yes, we are re-building a 3.0 Litre. I don't want to hear it about how crappy or "garbage" the engine is because trust me - I know. We have about 5 4R's in my friend's backyard so we are literally just "ramboing" a 3.0 together to run it. I'll be keeping extra oil in the vehicle at all times.

It won't be a daily, it will be an in-town grocery getter and rolling tent when we go to the desert. (Days of setting up the tent are over!)


Might do a 4x4 conversion or put in a locker in the future...

 

[MisterNickG]

Can't wait to see how this turns out!

 

[missyroar]

Alright, first thing's first... taking out the engine! She's ugly. But she hasn't been "molested" much, a lot of things are factory and show little to no signs of being touched before. We took the tranny out with the engine because it is just easier that way.

She had a blown head gasket so we tore her down to the block to diagnose the cylinders.

As you can tell, the cylinders looked awful. At first we were just going to say "screw it" and run it, then we noticed a giant gash (last photo) in the cylinder. Now we would have to get it bored and re-honed and I am trying to take the absolute cheapest route.

 

[missyroar]

So, going to our friend's place (he has 3-5 4R's for parts) we trailered his newest addition to the shop and ripped her apart. It's the exact same truck ('95 2wd with 3.0)

so we tore out the engine/tranny from her - again she had a blown head gasket but it was a much more recent problem (mine had been sitting for almost 2 years with the previous owner)

Cylinders don't look AMAZING but who cares, it's a 3.0.... it'll be better than nothing, and it looks way better than mine. Only one cylinder is a little iffy but she'll run fine.

Yes I plan on doing a 3.4 swap in the future but right now I'm just trying to get it running....

Last night we put new piston rings on and put the pistons back in. Now we just need to re-build the rest!

 

[missyroar]

https://www.facebook.com/missymau5/videos/1385592178123686/



The link above is my boyfriend and his roommate tearing down the 3.0 to the block in 25 seconds

 

[hmartin99]

Your's looks nicer than my '92 right now.

 

[missyroar]

Your's looks nicer than my '92 right now.

haha! Thanks. She's definitely clean. I love her so much already and she doesn't even run... lmao!

 

[missyroar]

July 31: Big Day!

Yesterday was a big day!

We got a new Rear Main Seal

New Freeze Plugs (the one pictured actually has a hole in it.. cool.)

Copper Spray on the new head gaskets

Heads on and torqued!

Oil cooler cleaned / new hose attached

Oil pan on - boyfriend gave it "race stripes" (found blue spray paint and had fun. Thanks babe.)



so close... yet so far...

 

[TotalAutomotiveLV]

Nice work so far!

 

[missyroar]

Nice work so far!

Thanks! I feel like I'm almost there, yet I feel like I'm so far away!

 

[missyroar]

Well, It's official!

She's a runner! I have a video on my instagram
[MENTION=143666]missyroar[/MENTION]

We aren't done yet though. Found a leak in the water pump that we have to fix, need to put cat/exhaust back on, need to get it smogged, and registered (it's currently non-op)

Then everything else is mostly cosmetic. Need to replace the back window and need to get a new regulator for the passenger rear window, need a new key cylinder for the passenger door (mine looks like a screw driver went through it)

still need to buy a fan shroud, have a grille coming the in the mail, want to take off bumper and do tube bumper, get some FJ springs in the rear, and then she will be ready for the desert!


:dancin:

 

[Run4 4Runners]

Good project

I got a 94 SR5 and with the 3.slow, but its not always the engine. Think of the parts. The Mini 1275s has a tiny engine, and 60 horsepower, but with the right parts can go over 100 mph, so always remember that a solution is out there. Heads, pistons, injectors, parts sum up the engine, but people like to look at the big picture, instead of the details.

 

[missyroar]

That's It! She's Ready!

I've been away from T4R.org for a while now, for various reasons. Just thought I would bump my post and give an update!!

So as of this past Friday (9/9/2016) She is registered and Smogged! She's ready!

On Saturday I replaced the window regulator... which was an entire project on it's own and I originally was going to do it myself but quickly needed help. Didn't snag any pictures though. For those of you who wants a read, I'll explain my process, for those of you who don't, you can scroll past the dash lines.

-------
So, the rear passenger window needed a new regulator. It's fine. I watched a few videos, read a few posts, and decided to do it. My boyfriend's roommate already took out the door panel on my ride when I first bought it so I didn't have to take it off - it was already ready to take out the regulator.

But I did need to get another one - which I snagged out of one of the parts runners we have in the backyard. I was honestly in tears trying to pry that goddamn door panel off because no matter how hard i pushed pulled or tried to move the door handle forward to un-latch it from the slip-clip I couldn't get it and I had to ask my boyfriend to help.

We got the regulator out of the runner and returned back to mine. I took the old regulator out of my runner and noticed the piece that holds the regulator to the glass was not longer on the window. So now we had to remove the trim, remove the side window, remove the glass, and re-attach that piece. The old one was all gross so we dipped back into the parts runner and took that one (as well as the trim because my boyfriend ripped mine)

So after that was all said & done, we finally put the glass back in, started re-attaching the trim & other hardware, when we realized that one of the supports (I don't know what it's called, it's a grey vertical bar that the trim slips into) had cross-threaded and was basically useless. Back to the parts runner.

After a few hours of taking crap apart and re-attaching it, we finally got the window in, the regulator in, and re-attached the door panel. Thank god.

--------------

So I can officially drive her around and "smash smash smash" her in the desert! Yes.


There are a lot more modifications I want to do, and in no chronological order, but they are as follows:

• Putting FJ springs in Rear
• Replacing Grille (should arrive in October)
• Tube bumper
• Tint (or re-tint) the windows... back window is not tinted at all and it's a solarium in there and it's miserable lmao
• put a locker in (she is only 2WD right now but I'm not ready for 4x4 conversion yet)
• possibly a new hood (current hood has big dent in the front that I don't like at all)
• Light bar (I'm thinking just a small 10" will do the job, I'm not going to be going very fast....)

& possibly more in the future.


Thanks for looking!!

 

[missyroar]

& my favorite part of this whole entire project?

I've spent less than $2,000 on the entire ride so far - from the moment I bought up until I registered it. Score!

 

[HanginInUtah]

You've got "FJ springs in the rear"... is that for correct ride height, or lift, or...

 

[missyroar]

You've got "FJ springs in the rear"... is that for correct ride height, or lift, or...

A lot of people have done it, and my boyfriend has done it, it kind of lifts the vehicle and gives it more ride height, gets rid of the sag in the back. I've ridden in a runner with them and without them and they do make a difference. We've "smashed whoops" in the desert with the runner that has the FJ springs and it's not "built truck" smooth but it's not completely smashing bump stops either haha

 

[HanginInUtah]

I've been looking around a bit on the interweb... I'm doing heads on my 3.0 right now, and I've got stuff almost ready to go back on. But the grungy block is really bugging me, and with a manual tranny and the room in the engine bay without the heads, I'm thinking of yanking out the block to clean everything. I see you guys did the rear seal. I think I've seen something about the front seal. Typical points of leaks, or just preventing a problem since it's out?

 

[missyroar]

I've been looking around a bit on the interweb... I'm doing heads on my 3.0 right now, and I've got stuff almost ready to go back on. But the grungy block is really bugging me, and with a manual tranny and the room in the engine bay without the heads, I'm thinking of yanking out the block to clean everything. I see you guys did the rear seal. I think I've seen something about the front seal. Typical points of leaks, or just preventing a problem since it's out?

Preventative work, mainly. We would rather seal everything we can while it's out rather than find out down the road that it's leaking in a hard to reach spot.

 

[missyroar]

So, I've been driving her for a week and a half now. I've driven just over 350 miles and she doesn't even burn oil! I'm a proud mama. I need to get a new pinion seal but that's all I really need as of this exact moment. She needs an alignment and brakes eventually but she drives fine, I've even been able to pass people going uphill lmao

She can chug uphill (8% grade) doing 70mph at 4k RPM. So proud of her. I think I'm going to name her Margaret.

(my boyfriend and I like to say "punch it, Margaret!" when people are going slow so I feel like it's a fitting name)

 

[TotalAutomotiveLV]

Nice, congrats! It will only get better as it breaks in.