electroCrunch - 2000 SR5 Build Thread

[electroCrunch]

Social media killed the forums, IMO. It's easier to scroll FB/IG than it is a forum. Plus there's a whole new generation of enthusiasts that have never experienced forums, all they know is the social media shit.

It's sad.

Hey, wait a second. I know you from the Miata forums... what's up dude?!

I agree with your assessment. I finally found one good 4Runner group on FB, but it's still nothing compared to the golden age of T4R.org.

Nothing lasts.

 

[I'mStock]

Hey, wait a second. I know you from the Miata forums... what's up dude?!

Oh shit! :cheers:

I'm for sure more active over there, the T4R is just my daily.

I agree with your assessment. I finally found one good 4Runner group on FB, but it's still nothing compared to the golden age of T4R.org.

Nothing lasts.

Which group did you find? I'm a fan of the FB groups but the organization and search-ability of forums will never be beaten.

 

[alexperrucci]

Awesome photos, looked like a super fun trip.

I love Colorado I want to move there too haha.

 

[cblock406]

Is it just me, or are the forums a lot slower than they used to be? After not being on here for a couple of years, I've been more active on here the last few months and noticed it doesn't feel the same. Less activity overall... maybe that's because everyone sold their aging 3rd gens and are now in the 5th gen section?

I dunno, just wanted to type that thought out loud.

Compared to some other car forums I'm on, this one is still quite active. But yeah, miss the forum hey-day's of 10-15 years ago.

Rig looks great!

 

[electroCrunch]

Oh shit! :cheers:

I'm for sure more active over there, the T4R is just my daily.



Which group did you find? I'm a fan of the FB groups but the organization and search-ability of forums will never be beaten.

I'm dumb enough to have two project cars, the Miata and the 4Runner. I do daily the 4Runner technically, but I rarely drive it anymore after working from home most of the time.

The group is AZ 4Runner Outsiders. I ran into their group when they were out wheeling in the same area as me, and joined up. It's not as great as this site, but it's the only decent 4Runner FB group I've come across with people that actually know what they're talking about and use their rigs.

Anyways, just wanted to say hello there. We're car twinsies.

 

[electroCrunch]

Compared to some other car forums I'm on, this one is still quite active. But yeah, miss the forum hey-day's of 10-15 years ago.

Rig looks great!

Very true. And thanks for the compliment!

Awesome photos, looked like a super fun trip.

I love Colorado I want to move there too haha.

I appreciate that, it was a great trip. I'm already starting to think about a 2024 summer return to CO, but try to go off grid as much as possible and explore the back roads a bit more.

 

[electroCrunch]

It's hot. Might hit 118 here this week. Wishing I was in CO about now...

 

[electroCrunch]

Interesting data point:

I calculated my gas mileage over the entire Arizona-Colorado roadtrip I did. At ~1,820 miles, I averaged ~17.751 mpg. That's not bad, considering that includes some off road miles and a ton of mountain driving/climbs.


Winch Fitment vs. the Addicted Offroad plate bumper:

Apparently modern winches have gotten huge with the plastic "armor" bits they're adding. I was looking hard at the Warn Zeon series, as well as their Evo VR series, but learned that those do not fit without slotting the mounting holes on the bumper. I didn't want to mess with the integrity of the mounts, so that was not an option. I reached out to AOR and they were super helpful and responsive. However, they confirmed the Warns would not fit and the only other options were smitybilt, older or much more expensive Warns, and a couple others.

After asking and looking around, I found the Ironman Monster 4x4 Winch series. Offered in synthetic vs. steel, and 9.5k vs 12k pulling power. The footprint and form factor are the exact same between the 9.5k & 12k. The only differences I could find are the 12k gets a more powerful motor and slightly thicker rope. I compared their measurements diagram to my bumper measurements and took a leap of faith and ordered the 12k.

I still need to install it, but I'm pleased to say that it (barely) fits without any bumper modification. The only thing I had to do was clock the winch's gear-side to make clearance for the clutch lever. As a bonus, due to the remote mounted controller, I will only barely have to trim the bottom of the grill.

Few pics of it mocked up for fitment.

I will of course follow up with pics once it's fully installed.

As a side note, I'm chasing down some braking issues and a front-end noise. Guessing an inner-tie rod is shot (the cheap one that came with the steering rack). I need to get out to the garage to diagnose, but we're averaging 116 F here in the Phoenix Valley. Yuck.

 

[electroCrunch]

Winch installation & a pic from a morning trail run

Ironman Monster 4x4 12k Winch:

I'm done installing the winch. Overall it turned out great. I'd like to still pick up a giant switch to put near the battery so I can disable the power to the winch when not in use. I'm also having a tricky time finding a winch cover that will work. I might just have to make or mod something.

I can't believe I forgot to get pics of the bracket I made to mount the control box. I took the bracket it came with, cut it up and welded it to suit my needs, and mounted it on the back of one of the protruding bolt ends from the Addicted Offroad bumper. So trust me, I made a bracket lol.

Minimal trimming was done to the grill. I did end up trimming away all of the mounting brace for the bottom-middle mount, to make room for the winch. But that was really it. Overall it's a sleek install.

I'm also not a fan of the hook it came with. In doing a lot of research, I'm going to ditch the hook and all metal and go with the Yankum Grooved Fairlead. This seems to be the best solution overall. I also plan to get their offset snatch loop thingey and a few soft shackles to complete the setup for now.

Early morning trail run:

I woke up about 3:30am to beat the heat to take a visiting family member through my favorite local trail, Bulldog Canyon. We were at the gate before sunrise and got to watch the sun come up as we headed through the trail. I got to test out my new Diode Dynamics lighting setup in the dark and was completely satisfied with my forward lighting. (I think the next iteration will be adding rock lights).


Sneak peek of what I'm working on right now:

(yes, those SPC uppers have been sitting on my shelf for soooo long they're the old tubular kind :embarassed: (but with the updated balljoint ))

 

[electroCrunch]

Things are in progress.

CSF Radiator:

Finally there's an awesome aftermarket radiator. I've been running a CSF for about 7 years now in the (time attack) Miata and it's been holding up perfectly to track abuse here in the hot desert. The new 4Runner/Tacoma CSF radiators are basically the same thing I've been running in the Miata, now fitting these form factors.

The unit installed without issue. I haven't had a chance to go for a drive with it yet but I have bled the cooling system and have had it run in the garage for a while without leaks.

I justified the price of this radiator because I was entertaining the idea of upgrading the B&M transmission cooler (for a 3rd time) to a more legitimate heat exchanger like Setrab or Mocal. I'm going to see if the CSF built-in transmission cooler can extract some more heat from the transmission, and avoid upgrading the additional B&M cooler to something more exotic and expensive.

It's art.

My take on the Elbow Mod/Removal:

I grabbed some trim (see below) and decided to remove the intake elbow, and use the trim to seal where the airbox meets the inner fender. I did some reading on the elbow removal and a common issue with just removing the elbow is that you're still sucking in engine bay air (just like with the Deck Plate Mod I imagine). So this "seal" should help to prevent most engine bay air from entering the intake. I can't really scientifically A/B test to see if this makes a measurable difference, but I'll roll with it for a while and report back.

(gorilla tape used to seal the joint where the trim meets)

Not a perfect seal, but good enough I'm guessing

------

I have some front end work almost wrapped up, then I'll share those updates too. Lots of good stuff to come!

 

[electroCrunch]

Welp, that was a lot of work and downtime over the last couple of weeks. I think I'm ready to find a different daily so I can focus more on the 4Runner build and take bigger downtime to do bigger mods.

Front-end rebuilding:

Remember I shared this image below, earlier? I got the SPC uppers installed along with the strut tower top plate reinforcements you see pictured. Plus some other work.

You'll see I drilled and tapped the SPC arms for grease fittings. I prefer to not have to take my suspension apart to lubricate it, so these should help me maintain my laziness.

In case it helps anyone in the future, I had to cut the OEM ball joint stud in order to get my ball joint press setup to have enough clearance.

My solution for pressing in the SPC knuckle adapter

It was very difficult to work and weld in the small fender well, but I got the job done and the welds didn't turn out too bad.

Going back to the original issue of why I took the front end apart, my driver-side inner tie rod had play. Do recall, this is the inner that came with this steering rack from a previous post. This means the inners the rack came with are junk. They only lasted me approximately 19k miles!! So, take note, if you have the AAE 3273N steering rack, just do yourself a service and replace the crappy inners it comes with before installing the rack into your rig, with something better.

I replaced with OEM.

After some diagnosis, I determined my driver-side caliper from Napa was seized, causing consistent pull to passenger-side when braking. Instead of getting more Napa calipers using their lifetime warranty, I'm trying out the PowerStop instead. I'll report back on how these hold up. Overall, in my opinion, they feel "higher quality" than the Napas. We'll see.

I can report that this fixed the issue I was having and the 4Runner no longer pull passenger-side when braking, it brakes in a straight line now.

Here it is all put back together and torqued, ready for alignment.

Couple of shots getting aligned. The tech who aligned it is a FB group member, and is the go-to in that group for 4Runner alignments (and all Toyotas), and has specific experience setting SPCs. It turned out excellent!

That's the full report for now. I'm going wheeling tomorrow morning since it's raining here and the weather's cooled off for the weekend. Cheers!


WORK PERFORMED AT: ~237k miles

 

[electroCrunch]

Happy to report back that all of my mods worked great during a run in the morning. No issues whatsoever. I was really pleased with how the CSF was keeping coolant temps down. It got to about mid 90s that morning and pulling uphill in 4L all morning, and temps stayed very reasonable, about 186 - 190 F give or take.

My friend and I bought brought our Axial RC crawlers and ended up playing with these for about an hour. They are so much fun!

---

I ordered something that was on sale for Labor Day last weekend. I can't wait to show y'all once I get it delivered then installed. I've been wanting this upgrade for years now. Stay tuned!

 

[electroCrunch]

I took the 4Runner and family camping last weekend up to Mogollon rim. Weather was decent, and the leaves are turning. Only snagged the one pic

On a side note, I feel like the 4Runner has lost some power, most noticeable when climbing mountains with the trailer. I might be wrong and am just fooling myself, but my wife also noted that "your 4Runner used to have more power I think". It starts fine, idles fine, accelerates through RPM range fine, sounds fine, does not smoke, so I'm not really sure where to start troubleshooting.

I dunno, I'm at 238k miles, maybe it's time for a major tune-up. I'm also suspicious that my catalytic converter might be clogging up, the transmission tunnel area does get warm (but maybe it was always like that and I never really notice). I'm not really sure where to start though as mentioned above, I don't want to just throw parts at it in hopes I'll find missing power (or power that was never really there lol because it's always been gutless). Open to advice from anyone who might happen to read this. I'll be doing some research in the meantime.

 

[electroCrunch]

Wanted to share some photos. I headed up to Sedona for a couple days to celebrate my birthday with my brother in law. He had never done any trails up there and I had only ever done Schnebly Hill rd before.

On day one we came into town off Schnebly Hill, ate lunch, then finished the day with Broken Arrow. On day two, we started off with Soldiers Pass, grabbed brunch, then ended the trip with Outlaw Trail to Diamond Back Gulch Trail.

Of course no action shots were taken due to the amount of fun being had while wheeling and not wanting to stop for pictures, but I did grab a few shots.

Enjoy!

Me

Also, I ordered this back during Labor Day weekend due to an amazing deal, and it arrived today! It's their new "Sport" version of their rack.