Cartzo's 87 4Runner Homemade Long-Travel Build

[Cartzo]

Thank you Hyde for those instructions they are awesome. KidV, what upgrades would you suggest for something that would take a beating?

 

[Hyde802]

Build it like this, then put it in 4low and go!

The Cheapest, Best way to Lift EARLY IFS trucks. - YotaTech Forums

 

[Cartzo]

Wow I'm almost leaning towards IFS now. I didn't realize it took so much modifying for a SAS. The more and more I read about lifts too the more and more I get confused.

So what I'm wanting is something that can handle 40+ mph taking trails close to this. Could IFS handle that and more without something failing?

 

[Footofgod]

I rock crawl with IFS (for now). That trail isn't even a challenge.

Just a little IFS fun

 

[KidVermicious]

So what I'm wanting is something that can handle 40+ mph taking trails close to this. Could IFS handle that and more without something failing?

Oh, absolutely. IFS was made for exactly that, and will perform much better than a solid axle on that sort of terrain. There's a reason the Baja guys nearly all run IFS, and there's more IFS appearing in KOH trucks too - IFS is much better at keeping all four wheels on the ground at high speed.

There's always a risk of breaking something when you beat your truck up on rough terrain, but your stock IFS will handle high speeds on rough trails better than my stock solid axle, for sure. And it'll hold it's own in the low speed crawling sections too.

 

[KidVermicious]

Build it like this, then put it in 4low and go!

The Cheapest, Best way to Lift EARLY IFS trucks. - YotaTech Forums

Exactly right. I'd probably want to trim for clearance instead of doing the body lift, but it does make the drivetrain lift easier.

 

[Cartzo]

Oh, absolutely. IFS was made for exactly that, and will perform much better than a solid axle on that sort of terrain. There's a reason the Baja guys nearly all run IFS, and there's more IFS appearing in KOH trucks too - IFS is much better at keeping all four wheels on the ground at high speed.

There's always a risk of breaking something when you beat your truck up on rough terrain, but your stock IFS will handle high speeds on rough trails better than my stock solid axle, for sure. And it'll hold it's own in the low speed crawling sections too.

I see. I get it now! I'll have to start looking into high performance parts for IFS now. Thank you guys so much you all are really a big help. To you too Hyde that's probably the exact route I'll for lift and tires.

 

[KidVermicious]

For CV axles, OE is pretty much the strongest. If you really want performance, look into a Total Chaos coilover conversion, but that's serious bucks.

 

[Cartzo]

Wow! Why so expensive?? Cheapest I could find was $2020... It doesn't seem like those little parts should cost that much. It almost looks like I could have a friend machine those in his shop.

 

[KidVermicious]

Wow! Why so expensive?? Cheapest I could find was $2020... It doesn't seem like those little parts should cost that much. It almost looks like I could have a friend machine those in his shop.

Total Chaos is a Name, and probably worth it if you want something you can abuse. Blazeland is less expensive, but I'm not sure that setup is optimum for going coilovers, which are superior to the stock torsion bar suspension.

Before my '86 died, I was planning on going long-travel with coilovers myself, and I had pretty much decided that I was going to talk to a couple local fabricators rather than buy commercially, but that's definitely not something I would want to trust to anybody who hadn't already had extensive suspension fabrication experience. It's not something you want to get wrong, you know?

If you decide to go that route, let me know when you're ready and I'll kick you a couple names of really good local shops that might be able to take that on. Whichever way you decide to go, it won't be cheap.

 

[Cartzo]

Total Chaos is a Name, and probably worth it if you want something you can abuse. Blazeland is less expensive, but I'm not sure that setup is optimum for going coilovers, which are superior to the stock torsion bar suspension.

Before my '86 died, I was planning on going long-travel with coilovers myself, and I had pretty much decided that I was going to talk to a couple local fabricators rather than buy commercially, but that's definitely not something I would want to trust to anybody who hadn't already had extensive suspension fabrication experience. It's not something you want to get wrong, you know?

If you decide to go that route, let me know when you're ready and I'll kick you a couple names of really good local shops that might be able to take that on. Whichever way you decide to go, it won't be cheap.

Yeah I know a friend that owns a machining company and I could probably do it for about the cost of materials but I don't know. I am not quite to that level yet though so I'll come back to it later. How much did you figure it would cost going through the shops you know of?

 

[supkar]

Looks like a pretty good score. I need to bump up my sale thread and update what parts are left from an 87 4runner part-out I have a great 5 speed , for one thing. Shoot my a PM. Sounds like your tranny is going.

 

[Cartzo]

So right as I decide to build my current runner this comes up... Toyota 4 Runner | ksl.com Now it's making me question myself again. It needs a knock sensor and windshield as far as I know. Any thoughts? I think I might go look at it just for fun. I could get it for at least $1000.

 

[Cartzo]

So I recently had my driver side headlight go out. I have never had to deal with a sealed headlight before. I don't really see the point of it but I can't get in to change the bulb. So I'm looking into these because they seem like the best option according to most people.

Rectangular Toyota® Conversion Headlamps - Toyota Headlamps by Roundeyes™ Inc.

 

[KidVermicious]

So I recently had my driver side headlight go out. I have never had to deal with a sealed headlight before. I don't really see the point of it but I can't get in to change the bulb. So I'm looking into these because they seem like the best option according to most people.

Rectangular Toyota® Conversion Headlamps - Toyota Headlamps by Roundeyes™ Inc.

You can't change the bulb, you have to change the whole lamp.

I bought the IPF buckets from Low Range (just down in Orem). They're awesome. I looked at the Roundeyes, I assume they'd work just as well.

 

[Cartzo]

You can't change the bulb, you have to change the whole lamp.

I bought the IPF buckets from Low Range (just down in Orem). They're awesome. I looked at the Roundeyes, I assume they'd work just as well.

How much $ for those? I don't want to go much of $100.

 

[KidVermicious]

$40 each I think? lowrangeoffroad.com, search IPF. Then you'll still need to buy H4 bulbs, of course.

 

[Cartzo]

So when it came to the engine I figured I would start with the exhaust leak. I just took off the manifold and replaced the gasket and that helped a lot. I didn't get new seals for the bottom part of the manifold though so there is a small leak there, but not near as bad as it was. After the exhaust got quieted down it sounded like a valve was loose. I wasn't too worried about it because it sounded like a pretty time consuming job to adjust them.

The alternator belt was loose and very noisy so I tightened that up. No more grinding and slipping made the engine much more appealing to listen to.

I put a can of seafoam in a full tank of gas. At the time I wasn't aware it's better to do it in the vacuum line and whatever. With that in the tank it ran terribly with low power and got horrible gas mileage and didn't improve on the next couple tanks. I tried putting it in the vacuum line but didn't get much improvement. The valve was getting noisier so I decided I might as well do that. I pulled off the valve cover and the back valve was way loose. I also noticed the distributer cap and rotor were toast so I replaced them also. After adjustment the noise reduction was very noticeable, but not completely gone. I got low end power back and not so jumpy. Runs better than ever

 

[Cartzo]

$40 each I think? lowrangeoffroad.com, search IPF. Then you'll still need to buy H4 bulbs, of course.

I checked them out, but I went with the roundeyes. Free shipping

 

[Cartzo]

Ok so the back end of my runner seems to be hanging a little low so I would like to replace the springs to see if that levels it out. Where can I get some good springs? I'm also wondering what blocks are? Are blocks better? Thanks for feedback I'll keep researching.