BlackAck's 5th Gen 4Runner thread

[97BlackAckCL]

Nothing too exciting, broke 14K on my way to lunch on Friday.

To celebrate I installed a new mod. I've been looking for over a year trying to decide what was the best way to black out the chrome in the tail lights that didn't flow with the tinted mirror signals and the blacked out theme. The tail lights are plastic welded so I would have literally had to cut the whole housing apart which I wasn't trying to do. Here's the before, the chrome has always bothered me since I started blacking things out.

The ugly chrome

I finally found a company that makes blacked out tail lights, they were a bit pricey but to me it adds a nice and subtle touch that was missing. Here's the driver's side installed

Flows SO Much better, it was overcast so the lighting isn't great, but what a difference!

Here's a side by side of the old and new, hard to see with the lighting though

And here's both installed. I tested the turn sigs, blinkers and reverse lights and everything works great. I just swapped my LED bulbs into the housings as I installed them.

Here's the passenger side

And a shot with the smoked third brake light on the wing, everything matches much better now.

And a bit farther back shot.

Not a big change, but a nice subtle mod that makes all the difference to me.

 

[gshadow325]

You did all this and I never heard from you about a full alarm remote starter?

You asked me about something else last time for your 4th gen.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

You did all this and I never heard from you about a full alarm remote starter?

You asked me about something else last time for your 4th gen.

I looked at your kit as well Steve, honestly I just wanted a fully plug and play option. I had to swap out my remote starter in single digits and negative windchills, so not having to tap wires or do extra steps was very important to me. I literally had the new starter swapped within 5 minutes tops. I do recommend your kits to others, but seeing that there was wire taps involved was a deal break for me.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Gave the truck a nice spring detail wash, this sucker was dirty and had salt residue all over it, and the stock wheels were also a mess. Didn't take many pictures, but here's a couple.

And I washed my summer wheels to get them ready to be coated and installed.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Got the wheels put on yesterday, and the alignment fixed after a lovely winter of potholes... I coated the wheels with some Dr. Beasley's Matte Wheel Sealant and I love how they look, the matte finish looks awesome

Truck is back to looking the way it should, and it's still April Colts... :bored: I washed the truck on Monday and today it had a quarter inch of plant sperm on it.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

So I started the modding off right by removing my factory exhaust, a friend of mine works Mondays at a shop 5 minutes from my work and had a pit. I had planned to do this in my garage

Before:

For a year and a half old vehicle the rust was pretty crazy, we had a hell of a time getting to the upper bolts on the exit pipe, even bending the exhaust down we couldn't get to them.

We ended up cutting the stock pipe, I didn't want to but finally I suggested it and we got this sucker right out

Installing the new muffler was a piece of cake after that, everything mounted right up as it should. I replaced the stock cat-back with a Borla Touring cat-back system.

We had to drop the spare in order to get the old piping out and route the new piping and remove a heat shield, but it was a simple task and made tons of difference

Here's the piping all routed and mounted up

And the Borla tip right in the stock location. It lined up perfectly and no modification to the stock mounts was needed.

They also sent me some Borla swag which was a nice bonus

Still breaking the exhaust in, but so far I'm very happy with the sound. It has a nice rumble but does not drone obnoxiously and sounds throaty. Also it has given the truck an instant shot of pep and get up and go, so I'm happy with the first major upgrade of the spring so far.

 

[Sothras]

Did you reuse the gasket from the stock exhaust? I just did mine and didn't see a place for it?

Thanks
Chris

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Did you reuse the gasket from the stock exhaust? I just did mine and didn't see a place for it?

Thanks
Chris

No, I just bolted the new pipe up to the stock pipe, didn't remove or reuse the gasket from the stock pipe

How you liking yours so far?

 

[Sothras]

Love it. Nice sound when the higher RPM's kick in! Funny part is wife likes it now too and she is trying to use my truck more!

You?

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Love it. Nice sound when the higher RPM's kick in! Funny part is wife likes it now too and she is trying to use my truck more!

You?

I love it as well, nice sound but no drone and not too loud. Fiancee was in the truck last night and didn't even notice the difference in sound with the exhaust and the intake lol

I installed them both while she was out of town

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Got another big mod done last week, I got the AFE Momentum Intake and TB Spacer installed.

Here's a before of the engine bay.

And here's the stock intake with the drop in K&N filter (I'm selling if anyone is interested)

I removed the stock intake, didn't get any more before pics, but here's a before pic of the throttle body

And here's this goodie, I bought this back on Black Friday with the other upgrade that's going in with it.

Look at that sexy piece of aluminum

So I removed the throttle body bolts, and here you go

Installed the gasket, and started bolting this bad boy back in

Another big question mark with these mods was would I be able to reuse the TRD "air accelerator intake piece which I had on my stock intake with the K&N filter. Here's the other part of the mod upgrade that I bought on Black Friday... 29 HP, yeah right

So I pulled the TRD air accelerator out and cleaned it up after some test fitting

The big knock on this intake was that it left a finger wide gap between the cold air intake gasket and the fenderwell intake hole. My solution was to try and see if I could reuse the TRD intake piece. Low and behold the TRD air accelerator that is made for that intake hole fits right inside the intake gasket of the cold air intake.

So to eliminate the gap between the fenderwell and the intake gasket, I reused the TRD air accelerator intake piece I had on my stock intake

And here it is installed inside the intake gasket pulling air from the fenderwell.

And here is the giant new airbox installed, this thing is ridiculously huge compared to the stock box it's about twice the width of the stock box

Here's a side by side of the stock size K&N drop in box filter with the new massive cone filter that comes with the intake

And here's the new oiled cone filter installed into the giant airbox

Since I'm swapping out intake tubes I had to remove the MAF sensor from the stock intake to put on the new AFE intake tube

New intake tube all ready to go in

I didn't get any pics of the throttle body side install, but I lined everything up and bolted it on

And here she is in all her glory

And you know I had to go with the blue oiled filter to match the blue truck

The intake sounds great and really compliments the Borla cat-back exhaust that I installed last Monday. The truck really breathes and gets up and goes, the throttle response with both of these mods is great. I'm very happy with the added power and pep from the new mods. More to come

 

[DannyLlama]

Before Christmas I installed my new Morimoto Elite HID headlight kit, wasn't a big fan of having to drill the dust caps, but thankfully the silicone grommets work pretty well

This is awesome.... link?

 

[97BlackAckCL]

This is awesome.... link?

I actually sold mine and installed the console safe, but here's the link. Definitely miss the storage there

https://www.amazon.com/Console-Orga...-------&vehicleName=2017+Toyota+4Runner&psc=1

 

[jasxn]

[MENTION=51033]97BlackAckCL[/MENTION] what was the decision for the throttle body spacer? I had one on my tacoma but never really saw any type of improvement but thats just me.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

[MENTION=51033]97BlackAckCL[/MENTION] what was the decision for the throttle body spacer? I had one on my tacoma but never really saw any type of improvement but thats just me.

Hadn't seen anyone on here that did the Momentum GT with the TB spacer, figured it couldn't hurt since I was installing their intake. Got both on Black Friday for a nice discount so figured I'd pair the 2 together.

 

[Akkording]

Do you like it so far, what's your seat of the pant butt dyno think of it? any difference in mpg? My buddy keeps telling me to be on the look out for a used one on the forum FS, I always told him it's rare to see a CAI go on sale at all unless the owner sold their T4R.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Do you like it so far, what's your seat of the pant butt dyno think of it? any difference in mpg? My buddy keeps telling me to be on the look out for a used one on the forum FS, I always told him it's rare to see a CAI go on sale at all unless the owner sold their T4R.

I freaking LOVE it! The truck just gets up and goes now, throttle response is much more responsive. It was noticeably quicker after just the cat-back install, but adding the intake you can tell that the engine is breathing much better and has a lot more butt dyno response. This engine definitely likes to breathe, it's a significant increase over the K&N drop in that I had in my stock intake that's for sure

 

[BKRunner]

I freaking LOVE it! The truck just gets up and goes now, throttle response is much more responsive. It was noticeably quicker after just the cat-back install, but adding the intake you can tell that the engine is breathing much better and has a lot more butt dyno response. This engine definitely likes to breathe, it's a significant increase over the K&N drop in that I had in my stock intake that's for sure

Do you have a tune to go with the cat-back and the new intake etc.?

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Do you have a tune to go with the cat-back and the new intake etc.?

No tune yet, I'm looking at getting the URD MAF recalibrator next, and possibly a tune or ECU flash down the road.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

As for the MPG, it's too early for me to tell, having only had the exhaust installed for a week and the intake installed for a few days. I know most people say they get .5-1 mpg increase with an intake and another 1-2 MPG increase with the exhaust, so I'm hoping for 1-2 MPG increase at least. I have a short 15 minute commute to work, part highway part sitting at red lights so it's hard for me to gauge real work MPG, but I will try and monitor it and get some numbers. It's also hard because I keep stomping the gas to hear that rumble of the intake and the exhaust lol