JustinB's '06 Build Thread

[JustinB]

Thanks [MENTION=132588]tannerk15[/MENTION]! I like the plans you have going for yours. Can't wait to see how your led interior light swap turns out.

In related news: I should have an update coming here soon with some pics/details of my winch control box setup in addition to an updated exterior photo with a few minor changes in the near future so for those of you watching, keep an eye out.

 

[sambishop]

I cant freakin believe you broke studs on that low of a torque setting, its rated for 87 and they broke at 94?

 

[JustinB]

I cant freakin believe you broke studs on that low of a torque setting, its rated for 87 and they broke at 94?

I'm right there with ya! It didn't feel right, kept thinking to myself it should have reached the torque point by now, but it didn't and kept spinning and the torque wrench is calibrated. After 2 studs snapping I stopped and looked up the specs, adjusted down to 84, and did the rest of them no issue.

Maybe it had to do with the paint being where the nuts meet the wheel, or maybe the previous owner did plenty of over-torqueing already? In any case, I'm glad they're easy to replace.

 

[J053619]

Looking good man. I originally wanted the FJ 8 hole wheels, but couldn't pass up the deal i got on my recent setup. Also, hoping to switch to an icon suspension later on. How do you like the overall ride?

 

[JustinB]

Looking good man. I originally wanted the FJ 8 hole wheels, but couldn't pass up the deal i got on my recent setup. Also, hoping to switch to an icon suspension later on. How do you like the overall ride?

Thanks! I like the routes you've taken with yours. Wanna see those wheels mounted, that red on black must look mean as hell.

I like it alot. I think the rear is a bit stiff at times, but I also do most of my driving with no weight in the car besides me and maybe a 20lb recovery bag in the rear. We'll see if it softens up over time, only been a few months of mostly street driving. If it doesn't, I guess I'll just have to fix it by adding a rear bumper to load it down :shrug: Front rides buttery smooth though. I love it.

 

[JustinB]

Got the RCI sliders installed finally. They bolted right up super easily. The are a bit high (back doors both rub) but I've been thinking about a 1" body lift lately so it works out alright for me. Super happy with them and how easy they were to install.

Got out today and got to try out the winch and everything. Digging the setup thus far. The ARB took a shot when I slid a bit and came down on a rock, zero damage. Did find myself around more rocks/boulders than I had planned, and if that continues to happen skids may be on the list soon.

VSC-off mod was fantastic at speed through gravel roads, no more random 'oh you lost traction? let me fix that for you while you are already correcting it by countersteering' situations nearly throwing me into a ditch/off a cliff/into a tree. (To be honest that only happened once when I had an emergency call to come back to town, I'm more just excited to no longer hear obnoxious beeping when I accidentally take a turn too quick).

All in all I'm pretty thrilled with the build so far and am looking forward to a couple other projects I am lining up to keep the build going.

 

[dg0503]

Looks great!!

 

[JustinB]

Been a while here. Got busy with travelling with work and such and didn't find time to check in much, even while I managed to make some small trips. So here are some photos and brief discussion:

Back in August Dad, brother and I decided to check out a section of the WABDR. We went Ellensburg to Chelan just to get a taste for it.

Very cool trail, definitely get the range out scenery, from deep woods/green, to higher altitude (not quite alpine, but starts to look close), to almost desert like. We took it reasonably slow and spent just one night on the trail.

Whole trip was dusty as all get out thanks to the great summer we had in the PNW. Definitely worth it though. Looking to get the rest of the sections or hit it straight through another time.

Spot his 5th gen?

Only sustained minor scuffs from tight sections of trail consisting of formerly burned branches. Almost all buffed out with no elbow grease. I'll get to the rest someday when the weather is nice again.

 

[JustinB]

About a month ago my brother and I decided to head up Highway 2 in search of anything as we hadn't been exploring there in ages. Turns out most everything is shut down (at least that we found). Unfortunate, or just oblivious of us, either way. We did find a couple areas to have some fun but will probably spend more time in the i90 area from now on if we are in search of something not east of the mountains.

On the way back we decided to check on Reiter's pit since we hadn't been there since it was closed and reopened. We were greeted with plenty of jeeps, and super narrow trails. But that didn't stop us from finishing one...

However; at one point things got a bit too narrow and slick and everything lined up well enough for me to make a mistake and slide into a tree:

The culprit...a tree leaning slightly into the trail...while the trail slopes slightly toward the tree. I definitely wasn't the first to have a run in with it.

You could say the tree inspired my mirror disassembly/parts swap write-up here. Tree took out the mirror, put a small dent in the driver's door (hardly noticeable) and the nice dent in the rear panel. Also broke the tail light a bit.

Managed to get a homie-hookup to put a bit of work into the rear dent, it's not good as new but it's not as bad as it was and only cost me a 12-pack of beer.

Next up: Got some extended rear brake lines to put on and some DIY extended sway bar links to finish up (courtesy of this forum of course) once I find a bit of time.

 

[JustinB]

Been a while since an update...let's start from the beginning!

Figured it was time to finally replace the cabin air filter...I've had the rig for nearly two years, didn't know when it was done last.

Turns out 2 years was too long...I thought I had been smelling old dog hair caught in the cabin air filter all this time, but instead it was mouse haven:
Filter:

From the glove box, AFTER removing the filter:

Looking down into the intake..."where's the fan?!":

Installed the 'rodent be gone' mod:

After a new filter, and a dryer sheet laid on top of it, the 4Runner is smelling quite fresh.

Next up, noticed an oil leak on the block around dipstick tube when I went up Surprise Lake a few weeks ago. Pulled the dipstick tube to replace the oring on it.

Old oring, looking a bit flattened/squared off on the tube:

Old(left) vs new(right), notice how much more plump the new one is:

Hard to tell but that old one was severely flattened and looked more like a circle gasket with squared/hard corner edges than an oring.

That fixed it, no more leak. It's just a single bolt to remove the dipstick tube as a whole, I'd recommend doing the oring replacement to anyone thinking about it. Takes zero mechanical knowledge other than what a wrench is.

 

[JustinB]

Next up, got in on the RCI group buy...

Went with brush on bbq paint, wasn't feeling like covering the entire garage in a layer of paint dust like I did when I sprayed the wheels n sliders. Seems to be alright, we'll see how it holds up against daily driving/flung pepples. I plan to touch up once in a while anyway after offroad trips, because rocks. Don't have photos of them mounted up yet after painting. They fit like a dream though. Couldn't be happier.

Unfortunately stripped one thread on the front. Then I compounded the problem buy trying to tap it. The very front 2 bolts appear to screw into some welded nuts inside the frame crossmember...I only say this because when I tried retapping the thread, thinking I'd go all the way through, something popped. Now I have a tap stuck in something freespinning within the crossmember, tap hanging down like a tiny cylindrical christmas onament. Without that front bolt the skids are all still tight underneath with no rattle so it'll hold for now until I can get in there. Definitely fixing before next real off road trip.

Also got out in the snow with a buddy of mine. This was out near Greenwater.

Traction mod:

It was a disaster. The roads were super well traveled and mostly sheets of ice. Aired down to about 10psi. People couldn't even walk without slipping and falling on their face/rear end when they tried to recover their vehicles from ditches. Witnessed victims of the day in ditches: 3rd gen 4Runner, Volvo XC70 (w/ chains), 2nd gen Tacoma, Ram 2500, and a Blazer (w/ chains). We did alright, and would have offered our help except that every time we came across someone it was during their recovery which typically included 15 people so we didn't want to complicate things.

Did witness another 4th gen, black I think, hammer his way out of some snow with the skinny pedal. Not sure if he was stuck and had to spin his way out, or if he was just having fun. If stuck though, props for showing up the chained up Blazer. Met another guy in a 3rd with Duratracs that was finding his way alright as well, so props to him.

All in all it was at least nice to see some snow and not end up with any issues ourselves.

 

[JustinB]

Wow, can't believe it's been over a year since my last update here. A few changes since the last post:

Added a 4x4Labs rear bumper with dual swingout for tire and 3 jerry can holder.
Installed some Dobinson C59-701V rear springs.
Installed some Rigid Dually Floods for extra reverse lights (haven't wired yet, waiting on switches ordered).
Installed the secondary air injection pump bypass kit by [MENTION=8828]slyfox75[/MENTION] (was the second easiest thing I've done, close behind the anytime fog light mod).
Installed a CB (Cobra 75WXST) with Firestick and hatch mount.
Ordered a new roof rack to replace everything up top (installation coming soon).

Got in a bit of snow, a bit of the WABDR with the dad (5th gen) and brother (Tacoma), and some other miscellaneous things. Here's some photos:

Zoomed in shot of the 4x4Labs Rear in all its glory:

Rigid Auxiliary Reverse Lights

Some snow:

Family outing on the WABDR:

Possible advertisement, get at me Budlight and Benchmade, I've got your next commercials covered:

Pictures of rack to come in the not too distant future.

 

[4Runrrun'n]

Love that 4x4 labs rear bumper. Nicely chosen! Can’t wait for the rack instal.

 

[ollieholic]

Looks great. Def my favorite rear bumper.


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[4runner206]

secondary air injection pump bypass kit.

Is this still working out for you alright? I installed one about 10 months ago and ended up throwing check engine codes, curious if you experienced this? I never installed my block off plates and only did the Maf bypass. Who knows! :shrug:

 

[JustinB]

Wow - It's been some years.

Logged in to seek some help, figured I'd post some updates:

Is this still working out for you alright? I installed one about 10 months ago and ended up throwing check engine codes, curious if you experienced this? I never installed my block off plates and only did the Maf bypass. Who knows! :shrug:

YES - still working out great. Never thrown a code, never had a problem.

UPDATES:
Got the rack installed, never did get pictures. I'll see if I can upload some later.

-Doug Thorley Long tubes - no cats, DT Y-Pipe. Custom exhaust from the y-pipe back, added an aftermarket resonator and a magnaflow straight-through muffler. Working on fine tuning the sound so the muffler will probably change. Ran into the same body-lift issue I've seen others have in that one of my steering coupler bolts rubs on the headers. I shave that bolt down and bumped the header a bit, all good now. Used 2 spacers on each of the rear O2 sensors, no codes. There were codes with just 1 spacer on each. No spacers on the front sensors.

-No other major changes. I've still got only about 160k miles on it. The suspension is due for a refresh though. Everything pops, squeeks, squeels, and clunks at the slightest bump or turn of the wheel. But, somehow, no catastraphic failures yet ray2:.

 

[Ralph Blake]

A really great post i thank you for all the detail pictures and the details about your work.

 

[OSSGuy]

Thanks for the update. How has the bbq paint on your skid plates held up?