Build Thread: Mothra, the (blown) budget camping rig

[Renegade_Medic]

This was a really fun thread to read! Awesome work, great attention to detail, and solid execution.

My buddy had a 4th gen with that 4.7 and I salivated at the thought of a SC giving me that kind of power, but I'm not sure I want to deal with the inevitable complications of forced induction. I had a used higher mileage Mazdaspeed6 and it was not a confidence-inspiring experience, lol.

Thanks.

I'm hoping that the only "complications" I have are higher fuel cost. I feel like I have the tuning dialed in and it no longer pings, at least I can't hear it if it does. I removed a little more timing than was probably necessary, just to be safe since it's very hot here. 102 yesterday already. I am not overly worried about it being a boosted high mileage motor. An all aluminum motor is not in the same ball park as an iron block, and especially on these 5VZs, have proven to be very reliable for the long haul, if cared for.

 

[PrinceValorum]

5VZs have proven to be very reliable for the long haul, if cared for.

That's a huge difference right there between the 5VZ and Ford's DISI MZR L3-VDT. The reputation they've earned is why I'm a huge Toyota fan now.

I hope it didn't come across the wrong way, I wasn't trying to be negative. I think you've got the right idea with your tuning.

 

[Renegade_Medic]

That's a huge difference right there between the 5VZ and Ford's DISI MZR L3-VDT. The reputation they've earned is why I'm a huge Toyota fan now.

I hope it didn't come across the wrong way, I wasn't trying to be negative. I think you've got the right idea with your tuning.

No, not at all. Although, I think ford is on the right track with their truck Ecoboost engines. I put about 172k on mine, tuned to put out some pretty impressive numbers, without a single hiccup. Literally did nothing but change the oil every 6k in it, and spark plugs every 40k.

 

[owyheerat]

I have had some Whiteline LCA bushings in the freezer for a while and finally had some time to get them done. They weren't that hard to do, honestly, other than that I had to cut a cam out of the first one I tried to pull off, which made me a little nervous about the rest. I had no issues with the rest. I took the rack bolts off and it made life easy. The old bushings were completely smoked, one was just floating inside which made removing the old bushing fun. To put them in, I used a torch to heat up the LCA housing and then quickly grabbed the frozen bushing and slammed it in and hit it with a 3 pound hammer. No issues do it that way and it was FAST!

Renegade, I'm getting ready to replace my LCA bushings with Whiteline bushings. How did you remove the stock bushings from the LCA? I've read some horror stories, curious how yours went.

Also, was it a pain to remove LCA from rig? I've read that some have had trouble with steering rack being in the way of the rear bolts...

Lastly, are you enjoying your SC? All the 'bugs' worked out?

Thanks

Durwin

 

[Renegade_Medic]

Renegade, I'm getting ready to replace my LCA bushings with Whiteline bushings. How did you remove the stock bushings from the LCA? I've read some horror stories, curious how yours went.

Also, was it a pain to remove LCA from rig? I've read that some have had trouble with steering rack being in the way of the rear bolts...

Lastly, are you enjoying your SC? All the 'bugs' worked out?

Thanks

Durwin

The supercharger runs great, unfortunately I lost my job and have not had much luck finding another one yet, so I haven't really been driving it much, but I did today and it's a blast. More pull than the 2UZ for sure, especially at part throttle.

So, first assembled all the bushings and froze them. You'll also likely want to get new adjusting sleeves and bolts, I reused the eccentrics as they really dont need to be replaced.

To remove the sleeves, I just loosened the rack so it could move a little. An impact wrench is almost a necessity for this. Including popping off the tie rod ends. I then loosened the main bolt running through, it looks like a regular bolt head. Hit that bolt with a BFH to loosen the back side adjuster eccentric. Then remove the bolt entirely. Hopefully you an now punch out the adjuster through the bushing. One if mine was totally seized in place and I had to cut it out with a sawzall and about 6 blades, I think its hardened steel. The others more or less popped out without incident.

Do one side at a time, obviously you'll have to undo the lower ball joint, spindle, and shock. Once out I put it in my vise with the inward part of the arm facing upwards and used the stock bottle jack to begin to put some tension on the bushings. On the inside portion of the bushing, there is a washer which is the same diameter as the inside of the LCA sleeve, which is very helpful.
Just make sure you're centered up with the jack on both ends and start cranking, until that washer is touching the bushing face and then crank to put a little more tension on it, but not much. Use a propane torch to evenly heat up the lca bushing exterior, making sure to heat everything as evenly as possible, after about a minute, it should release and you can start putting tension on the jack again and it should slide right out. You dont want it to be under so much tension it launches out, you CAN bend the LCA.
After cleaning up the inside of the opening. You can heat the sleeve opening again, get it pretty hot, about to where the powder coat starts to bubble, then quickly retrieve the bushing from the freezer, or have someone grab it and bring it while you keep heat on the opening. Quickly insert it, smaller side first, into the opening from the outside, as far as possible. Then whack it with a hammer a couple times. Once it's inside the sleeve you have only a couple seconds to pound it until they bind together. Repeat and reinstall. It's pretty straight forward. It took me a couple hours alone to do mine, it's honestly not too bad, provided everything isnt rusted.

 

[owyheerat]

Renegade,

Glad to hear you are happy with and enjoying the SC. I would love one....someday, maybe.

Thanks for the very informative reply. That answers my questions. I hope to knock this out this weekend. I am fortunate that my 4runner is rust free, so I'm going to try and re-use all the bolts and adjusting sleeves. If they are bad when I get them out, I will order new.

Sorry to hear about your job. I hope you get a better one soon.

Durwin

 

[spartacus]

gg

The supercharger runs great, unfortunately I lost my job and have not had much luck finding another one yet, so I haven't really been driving it much, but I did today and it's a blast. More pull than the 2UZ for sure, especially at part throttle.
your truck looks awesome maybe you can post a video of it hauling ass while some one is filming you the. intial video from inside the cabin was great.
it's tough when you loose a job, I ve been there but looking back I got a better one and infact quiet often an event like this pushes us in the right direction. I been following your build and so from what I see is a talented focused individual with immense talent. even though it's a hobby it requires focus, dedication and intelligence.With your focus I am sure you will be successful in what ever it is you decide to choose. good luck

 

[Renegade_Medic]

your truck looks awesome maybe you can post a video of it hauling ass while some one is filming you the. intial video from inside the cabin was great.
it's tough when you loose a job, I ve been there but looking back I got a better one and infact quiet often an event like this pushes us in the right direction. I been following your build and so from what I see is a talented focused individual with immense talent. even though it's a hobby it requires focus, dedication and intelligence.With your focus I am sure you will be successful in what ever it is you decide to choose. good luck

Yes I know I need to make a video. I can't ever find a cameraman though! My wife enjoys riding in the truck too much, she won't ever film for me, even when we are doing some cool trail riding or something.

I'm coming to that realization after the dust settled on my exit from my previous employer. I have some part-time work right now and hopefully a couple red-hot irons in the fire.

Thanks!

 

[Renegade_Medic]

New Oil Cap

I filled up the oil on the Tundra, since it thinks it's a 2 stroke all of the sudden, and I left the oil cap on top of the battery and it vanished. I moved the oil cap from the 4Runner over to the Tundra and thought it was a good excuse to buy something I've been wanting for a while, but didn't need.

It's not much, but it's the small things in life. I got a good deal on it from eBay. It has a "slight blemish" that I couldn't find. I spent a whopping $16, shipped. Very happy with it.

I also had to touch up some spots on the edges of where I sprayed the bedliner on, near the fenders. I repainted the fenders and it looks great again.

 

[Clumsy me]

Thank you again for the pulley I got the truck up and running with the blower.

 

[CaboRunner]

What a great build thread, it was like a good book, I couldn't quit reading it. Nice 4runner Renegade

 

[Renegade_Medic]

Thank you again for the pulley I got the truck up and running with the blower.

You're welcome. Glad I could help you out.

 

[Renegade_Medic]

What a great build thread, it was like a good book, I couldn't quit reading it. Nice 4runner Renegade

Thanks! I looked through it the other day, and I kind of wish I hadn't! I'm super happy with it, but I spent a small fortune on this truck for sure. Especially since it was honestly only meant to be a fairly cheap ride, but I really enjoy working on it and it is usually relaxing to me when I'm done for the day.

 

[CaboRunner]

Thanks! I looked through it the other day, and I kind of wish I hadn't! I'm super happy with it, but I spent a small fortune on this truck for sure. Especially since it was honestly only meant to be a fairly cheap ride, but I really enjoy working on it and it is usually relaxing to me when I'm done for the day.

Yeah, my "cheap" Baja, Mexico explorer is slowly starting to turn into an addiction. This forum doesn't help either. So many great looking rigs, it gives me way too many ideas for things I didn't know I wanted to do to it.

 

[Renegade_Medic]

Fixing brakes and new grille

It's been a while since I have done much to the runner. I finally got a new job and almost couldn't be happier. I passed over, and got passed over for, several opportunities. I persevered and found the right place and it's refreshing to be with other like-minded and focused people of the same caliber.

Anyway, I have been having some pulling while braking and I know that my front lines are kind of kinked, and I know I replaced my rear wheel cylinders with some aftermarket crap, before I knew better. I went to the junkyard and acquired some Tundra rear wheel cylinders and a pair of front hard brake lines. The reason I got Tundra wheel cylinders is because they have a 1" bore. Apparently so did my stock wheel cylinders....and the aftermarket parts I put on. Which is odd, because I pulled a lot of drums at the yard looking for 15/16" WCs and found only one vehicle with 15/16" cylinders and most had 7/8" bores. So, what I was excited about as a possible brake upgrade was not an upgrade all.... bummer. For those wondering what the difference in force is on upgrading; 7/8"->1" is a 30% increase in area, and 15/16"->1" is a 14% increase in area. Theoretically, the area is proportional to force, so it could make a worthy upgrade. for someone who doesn't already have 1" WCs.

The front brake lines were an easy swap. I cleaned up the rear wheel cylinders and they look great.

They first side had no issues, but on the second side the wheel cylinder wouldn't compress, which was odd and make taking it off a pain, since I actually had to take the brakes all the way apart.

The cylinder was completely seized! These are only about 18 months old. Cheap aftermarket parts got me again. Of course I tossed one of the WCs and kept one, since one was leaking. I didn't realize it was cheap as hell to rebuild them and its literally 2 o-rings and 2 rubber caps. I had to pound on the wheel cylinder with a 2.5 lb mini sledge to get it to come unstuck.

Here are the roughly 260k mile original units on the 4runner (green) vs the crap new ones.

So after that was done, I bled all the lines and ran new DOT4 fluid in.

Then, I wrapped up my grille that I've been slowly working on over the past couple months.

'

I have a 4runner emblem and the Toyota off the grille, trying to figure out what to put on it. I am considering painting the 4Runner emblem tan to match and putting it in the bottom right corner.

I have some parts on order from Resz Fab, that have been on order for quite some time now, which seems to be the case for most people. "1-2 Week turn around" seems a little optimistic and probably needs to be taken off their website...

 

[Mark_BC]

Isn't it supposed to be DOT3?

 

[Renegade_Medic]

Isn't it supposed to be DOT3?

It's interchangeable, but 4 has a higher boiling point. Probably doesn't matter. It was the same price since it was on sale.

 

[Renegade_Medic]

New rear shocks

I have been complaining about my rear shocks since I installed them 2 years ago. They rode great, but are simply too soft for my weight. They are the "custom" ones from Wheeler's offroad. What they actually are, are First Gen Tundra rear shocks and are valved way too soft for an overweight 4Runner. After considering the correct 5100s for the 4runner vs Land Cruiser shocks, I opted to try out a set of 80 Series Land Cruiser shocks. Price was good too, at a whopping $43 each from my local dealer, they were less than half the cost of the 4R 5100s. I wanted to keep the Old shocks to sell to recoup my cost, but the nuts were completely seized up and I had to cut them out.

The part number I used is actually 48531-69417.

The ride is vastly improved. I hit a rough country road at 80 mph and it was smooth as glass. The truck feels like it's ready for the Baja 1000 now. I'm super excited how well these ride and they were basically a direct fit item. I have to extend the bumpstops for sure now to keep them from collapsing too far and damaging the seals.

 

[Renegade_Medic]

Extended rear bumpstops

Something I've been putting off for literally 2 years has been extended rear bumpstops. After carefully consideration and measuring, I determined I needed to extend my bump stops at least 2.75" to keep my LC shocks from bottoming out. So, I went to my metal guy and picked up a piece of scrap 2x3" rectangular tubing for a whopping $5. I wasn't sure how much I needed so I got some extra, in case I need more for another project. This was so simple and cheap, I can't believe I have not done this sooner. It took me about an hour to make them and about 5 minutes total removal and install time.

Pretty happy with how they look, but kind of disappointed with how far away from the axle they are, it will only allow about 2.8" of compression from normal ride height, but I guess it was going to bottom out on the shocks or tires in the wheel wells anyway so....

 

[Renegade_Medic]

Did some offroading

It's been a little while since I've been able to get off the pavement, so the wife and I decided to hit some trails today and I'm so glad we did. Had a great time and was super relaxing. Glad I made those bumpstop extensions, they came in super handy. I was initially worried that they were going to limit my travel too much since they seemed pretty low, but they were perfect, left about a half inch around my tires in the back and kept the shocks from bottoming out. My wife did 98% of the driving and I did a lot of walking and spotting. She had an absolute blast and she was able to burn off some stress and had a much needed mental health day from work.

Even got a little hang time. Came pretty close to rolling it just after taking these pictures. Didn't really get it all on video, but got part of it.

And they say IFS can't Flex at all. It's not a Solid Axle, but it flexed out pretty well.

I actually disconnected the sway bars and lowered the air pressure, it made a huge difference. The rear bar is connected to the axle so it made a crap-load of noise as there is really no way to secure it. I ziptied the end links to the bar, but they kept getting hung up on the gas tank mounts and made all manner of horrific noises. We attracted a lot of attention on the trails, but most of it was the klanking and loud banging fro the sway bar snapping out of the gas tank mount. Oh Well!

Only casualties were my GoPro, which took a good fall and now will not power on anymore, and the front "skid plate". It looks pretty rough in person, kind of hard to see in the pictures, but it took a few good hits and seems to have done it's job.

Hopefully I can get some videos up and together. Got some cool footage!