97 PreRunner Build 2wd!

[ridetime88]

This my first build thread here on the website and was eager to share my project with you guys! Im a 26 year old mechanic who is heavy into desert racing and fabrication. This is my 3rd toyota, and 14th car since i started driving in 2009. I have owned a few long travel ford rangers (beamed and A armed) and love to wrench on my truck. Im going with a prerunner style build on my first 3Rd Gen 4Runner! So here's the story..... Enjoy!

5 months ago I purchased a 97 4runner Limited 2wd form a guy on Craigslist. It had 285,XXX on the dash and a stamp on the title that said, "For Mexico Export OnLy"... I was nervous about both of those things but i was told that it had a new motor put in that on my had 34,XXX on it. There was no paper work proving it, just the previous owners word.

The truck ran amazing and it was flawless mechanically. It had a flat rear tire and need valve cover gaskets and some TLC. He was asking $2400 but I got it for $1800 cash after explaining I was concerned about it passing smog, if it was registerable and all the things it needed. I knew it was a good truck and I would have paid the full price once I seen the title and it had Toyota of chula vista printed as the original owner. I bought it.

I knew I had a great truck since it ran so good but was skeptical about the claims of the work that hand been done. I was going to learn how true they were once I went to smog it.

It passed with low numbers!! The technician had mentioned to me he had never seen a truck with such high milage pass with such clean numbers. I was very happy. Went to DMV and they didn't even bat a eye at the stamp mentioning mexico and promptly issued me my new 2015 sticker.

So I then set my sights on what to do with this wonderful specimen. I started by removing the stock running boards, and trimming the rear mud flaps a bit. It came with 285/75/r16's that were baldy worn down and were rubbing on the front fenders at full lock. So I hunted down some BFG 265/75/r16 tires at local junkyard area tire shops near Brown field here in San Diego. There are deals to be had just got to look. I paid $50-$60 a piece for my tires each and had them mounted and balanced for an extra $10. It took 2 weeks to get all four tires, hunting for best tread. I put new front brake pads on, checked rotor run out were still good so got them turned.

This picture shows the old 285's and my Hellas I added.

Went out to ocotillo with the crappy tires and stock suspension with the Hellas. I knew for sure I wanted to build this truck. I built my neighbors 97, and wanted to join the club. I put ICON 2.5 front shocks, TC upper a arm with 1 1/2" uniball up front. I installed OmE 890 coils in the rear with double bypass rear 2.5 ICONS. I knew I wanted a truck the ride like his but I was looking for a different feel. More compression and rebound valving.

I did my oil, air filter a coolant flush, new thermostat, hoses to start. Completely degreased the engine bay, and began to start finding leaks specifically oil.

As I continued to assess the vehicles overall condition I noticed good things. No rust. No real damage. This chassis doesn't look like a 250 thousand mile truck. Looks as if it was garaged.

I ended up replacing my headlights with ultra star $59 bulbs and adding all new corner and tail lights. While I was at it I stopped by ORW and got a light bar on sale for $90. It has (3) 10watt CREE LED's that draws only 30watts and puts out 2,700 lumens! I had to make my own wiring kit to get it running. Just copied the Hellas style. Purchased a relay, relay wiring harness, in line fuse, and lighted switch. Everything was crimped and heat shrink tube wrapped. Came out great!

 

[ridetime88]

Here's an pic of the current setup.

 

[ridetime88]

Once I knew I wanted to build this thing I started looking into suspension setups that were within my price range of $1000-1200. I checked out all kinds of stuff and learned all kinds of cool stuff people were doing. After doing some serious looking and comparing, I did it. I got onto toytech and I purchased:

(2) Toytech 3" lift coils by eibach
(2) Bilstien 5100's for 3" Lift
(2) Bushing Kits

Rear:

(2) Fox 2.0 rear shocks
(2) Old Man Emu (made by ARB) 890 coils 3" rear

I couldn't sleep until it arrived, I was so excited.

 

[ridetime88]

The parts arrived around 2 in the afternoon and they were in before sundown. It took me longer to get the old shocks off than out the new ones in! They were original shocks they were beat to shit and corroded to shit. Tired coils and all bushings were shot.

The ride quality was incomparable. The new suspension made the truck feel like a whole new ride. Had to get used to the way it drove for a little. I removed my sway bar (witch I always did on my long travel rangers I built) from the front and kept the rear. Rear needs it, and its solid axle anyways so it would hurt the ride quality if I removed rear sway bar.

 

[ridetime88]

Here are a few pics after the suspension install. I still was running the stock upper a arm at this point and had no idea what I was missing not having the TC upper! But I didn't care. We took the trucks out to corral canyon the next day to break my coils in

 

[ridetime88]

 

[ridetime88]

Had a great time enjoying my new suspension and I out it to the test. Corral canyon though is on the ruff side and its not meant for what we do. This place is for crawling and prerunning, not so much. Lots of rocks and skinny trails with plenty of off camber turns that straddle cliff edges. So we didn't go all out here.

Once back from that trip we had some cleaning to do. Lots of dust and a piece if plastic up in my roof came loose that was attached to the sliding sun roof. Pulled it out had no clue where it went. Lol.

Noticed that my air conditioning was non functional and decided to figure out why. When I bought the truck the a/c didn't work and I never heard the compressor turn on. So I bit the bullet and purchased the $40 recharge kit with the gauge. Went ahead and added it according to directions and experienced a loud hissing complete with a white cloud of coolant leaking. I eventually located the leak, and was surprised. I figured it was a hose, or cracked connection something serious. It ended up being a pin prick leak in the A/c radiator. So I purchased liquid steel. I used alcohol wipes to clean the coolant off and put multiple layers. It works still to this day.
After that I proceeded to add all new belts, and spark plugs. I noticed during all this time under the hood my valve cover gaskets were still leaking. So I ponied up and bought the gaskets and RTV for the can plugs and started doing my homework.

 

[ridetime88]

A day later I received the gaskets and decided to tackle it. I took the stock air box off, the throttle body, removed cables, all vacuum hoses and grounds, ext. Removed the upper intake plenum and lower section.

Eventually made it to the valve covers and removed them. Removed them carefully not to let any dirt or debris fall inside. The gaskets on there were probably original since they were rock hard, broken in many spots. All of the cam plugs were leaking oil, mostly the rear ones just leaking between the back of the block and the firewall were what had got my attention after power washing.

I was actually happy those gaskets went because it gave me a chance to check my cams and their condition. I was astonished of the condition of the cam shaft lobes. There was ZERO pitting, scoring, scratches, or anything even remotely wrong with the lobes. They looked amazing, clean chrome surfaces that looked like a motor that only had 40,XXX on it. It looked nothing like a 285,XXX mile motor.

I proceeded to power wash the valve covers, until perfectly clean. Dried them out for hours after, then added new spark plug tube seals. Old ones were a pain to remove. They were completely hard and brittle. Also removed all cam shaft plugs and added all new RTV sealant to all of them. Happy to see them go. Put everything back together and changed oil again just because. Switched up to 10w30w from 5w30w.

I then took a vacation to Tahoe and back to see if it would leak and nothing. Truck runs super smooth on highway. Cruise control and everything perfectly functioning. Gas milage is decent but could use improvement.

 

[ridetime88]

Went ahead and took another trip out to auga caliente, and some of the washes around the area. Truck performed flawless and was a blast to drive on the trails there. Got some great pictures.

 

[ridetime88]

This place was fun. My road dog ended up blowing two tires on this trip, and had to use my spare to get home lol. Glad we had the high lift jack and all the tools. Once I returned home I went ahead and invested in a 12,000 pound break strength nylon recovery strap, and a off road tire repair kit from ORW. I also added a full medical kit complete with staple gun and all the goodies. We had to use it a few times, damn cactus!

 

[ridetime88]

We ended up going to ocotillo wells SRVA for Halloween, and thanksgiving. Great time!

 

[ridetime88]

 

[ridetime88]

All pictures are from hallowen weekend. I was still running the stock upper a arm at this time, and it was getting pushed to the limit. It was time for a change.

A week later my neighbor (pictured in white 97) purchased a 99 SR5 4x4 with a supercharger & front and rear ARB lockers and CB. I went with him to check vehicle over before purchase and after almost 2 hours of looking and looking some more and me test driving it was a go. He purchased.

This was not only exciting for him obviously but for me as well. It turns out that the truck he bought also had a pair of Total Chaos Upper A arms with uniball. So after making a deal, it was finally happening. I was getting a set of TC uppers on my truck. So I took my stock ones off and put them on his old truck and put the TC's on mine after removing both my spindles and both his to take them to a shop to get the sleeves pressed out one set and put in mine. Then we had to get a set of new upper BJ's to press into his spindles to run the stock uppers. All done in one day, couldn't believe it!

While I was at it I went ahead and dropped the automatic transmission pan, and replaced the filter along with the pan gasket. Checked for metal shavings, didn't find any. All was great. The only reason I changed the fluid was because it looked worn, and a little dark. So I added a bottle of Lucas trans fluid and filled with brand new fluid. Made a world of difference.

 

[ridetime88]

So with that now taken care of I thought I was ready for the turkey day weekend and all the fixings. Well upon my haste removing the upper a arm bolt I slipped and hit the little nipple that holds the tube that goes to the overflow tank. ****. Couldn't believe it. My radiator looked old as the truck and I didn't have complete trust in it since I could see the plastic on the end caps was old and had tons of micro cracks. So I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought a brand new radiator. Took me 40 minutes to install, and then we were ready!

At 6AM the next morning we hit the road filled the coolers and filled the tanks. I had stayed up late the night before installing a Sony head unit with a remote and setting up the sound settings. I was so glad I did because I was able to hear Pandora and whatever I wanted. I was very glad to have the stock head unit gone, and a nice new red to look at.

 

[ridetime88]

Pictures from Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

my buddies new supercharged 99

 

[ridetime88]

Me stuck (rare) lol. As I was coming up the dune right when I needed to have power, the dog hit the shifter into neutral and I got stuck a little sideways. Ended up putting tow strap on front and got pulled down by Shane's truck. He was excited because he be had a reason to use his lockers lol

 

[ridetime88]

Breakfast steak. Went home on Sunday morning and noticed my steering was a little loose more than when I bump it out if alignment. Got home and decided to do laundry . went to the laundry matt and looked under the fender to find this surprise!

I had completely lost the retaining nut, spacer, bushing, and bushing sleeve. I couldn't believe I made it home. Unbelievably dangerous. So I got on finding the bushings that day. Purchased them at ORW in S.D. but had to custom order the bushing sleeves directly from total chaos along with the larger washers.

 

[ridetime88]

I had a delema, though. The sleeves I ordered werent due to arrive until the day I was going to have to leave to Barstow to attend the holiday 200 race. I had to get up there to help my friend Richard Woods get setup for the race in his Class 1 unlimited buggy.

I had done a great job rigging up a bushing that was just good enough for me to get on the highway and make it to the race. The sleeves arrived two hours before I left and it was dark. So I just threw the parts in the back and went to Barstow.

 

[ridetime88]

Once i arrived i was put into a custom RZR with LT kit and was whisked away on a 26 mile pre run of the course. It was a blast! Course had woop sections big enough to swallow a 4runner whole! Roughest course I have seen ever! Some sections you thought you were rock crawling but all the vehicles that were in the race (MORE Toys For Tots Holiday 200) were all 2wd!

Once we returned to camp we collaborated together and shared all our own course notes to find the fastest route. We would routinely turn around while on course to prerun all options. Lot of the course was skinny, not a lot of room to pass out there, and some parts of race course were down right wicked.

After that, I proceeded to slap in a new set of upper a arm bushings, and sleeves, with new grease. All done within 40 minutes. All I used was a 19mm wrench and a jack. That simple.

We used the DJI phantom to record some trucks on the track in action. It was my friends first time actually trying to get good video and it was fun. We shot about 30 minutes of video and were only able to make about a 2 min video out of it. Its on my Facebook page DirtLife Media, check us out and follow us!

We offer event coverage, product show case, team interviews and newsletter starting next month. We also sell top quality LED light bars at very competitive prices. All units covered by 1 year warranty and we have dozens of styles to choose from.

I recently gained access to wholesale pricing and will be making a website to cover product specs and pricing. I was able to gain some new customers and friends in Barstow.

The only casualty from the barstow race was my steering rack bushings finally had it, and my tie rods finally started leaking grease through the newly torn boots on them.

 

[ridetime88]

Once back from Barstow I could hear the whining of the tie rod ends and also noticed my steering rack was moving from side to side about a quarter of a inch when steering. So I decided to install the Total Chaos Steering Rack Polyurethane Bushing Kit. It wasn't as easy as the directions made it out to be. But the instructions also mentioned the use of a torch to get the old ones out. I just used a c clamp to push the old ones out instead. Happy. That helped tremendously.

I also took the liberty to re lube the upper a arm bushings. TC says 3 pumps of grease then drive 500 miles then add 4-5 pumps. That's exactly what I did and I can feel the difference. I also lubed up the uniball with tri-flow lubricant. Everything is a smooth running system.

Here is a few more pics of the arm