Mc1337sauce's (Modest) 1997 4Runner Build

[Mc1337sauce]

Really small update, but maybe one that others will find rather interesting. About a year ago, I vinyl wrapped my key fob as a bit of an experiment to both improve its overall look as well as to add a layer of protection to the ridiculously delicate plastic housing. It started peeling a bit at the corners a couple months ago since I didn't spend much time on the wrap the first time, so I figured that I would redo it while I have some free time since I do like the way it looks quite a lot.

My dad and I are huge fans of teak wood, and he collects tons of teak furniture, so I figured I would wrap my fob in 3M Di-Noc teak vinyl. It looks very good and actually appears to be real wood until you inspect it fairly closely. If you aren't a fan of having a wood key fob, though, I suggest using your desired flavor of 3M 1080 vinyl, as it is thinner and easier to work with and mold without causing wrinkles. Anyway, here are some pics - note that the overall product would be significantly cleaner using 1080 vinyl, but with that said, I think the teak re-wrap came out pretty well.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Got a rather large change finished today. I had been looking for a set of FJ Trail Edition wheels for quite a while, and finally came across a brand new set on Craigslist being sold by a local tire shop that works with one of the Toyota dealer networks here. I got a smoking deal, and I've got to say, the Dunlop AT20 tires are immensely more comfortable than my BFG All-Terrains were, and of course, I love the new look. I made a quick YouTube video showing them without center caps, with caps, and with a profile shot to show the offset of the wheels - I was concerned they would sit too far out since I don't have flares on my truck, but they are just perfect. Anyway, below is a picture of the truck with the new wheels, as well as the embedded YouTube video. Stay tuned, more changes coming in the very near future!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Finally made some improvements to the interior of my truck. Over the past month or so, I've been piecing together all of the woodgrain panels that came in Limited 4Runners - in 1997, the only wood was around the radio and on the window switches, but for 1999-2002, it also came on the dash and around the shifter. Since the color of wood changed for the 01-02 model years, I had a fairly limited selection of parts, but I luckily managed to come across them all within a few weeks.

What's interesting is the fact that the build quality of the woodgrain parts is actually significantly better than the plain black plastic that came in SR5 models. The pieces themselves are thicker and more solid, and they also have felt pieces to prevent creaks and rattles - just an interesting observation, not that it makes a huge difference.

Anyway, here's a pic of the finished product I snapped on the way home today - if anyone is interested, I can take more shots.



I also had time to detail the entire truck this past weekend, so I shot a few pics of it all cleaned up with the new wheels. I think it looks fantastic.









I have a few more mods in the works right now, and also have a few interesting tidbits coming from Japan as I write this. I also made a walkaround video of the truck a few weeks ago, but never posted it here, so I just added it to the original post - it's a bit out of date, before new wheels and interior changes, but shows everything pictures can't.

 

[UnderFire]

Looking great, jealous of those wheels for sure, but that turbo though...

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Looking great, jealous of those wheels for sure, but that turbo though...

Thanks man, I love the wheels and the turbo...but I'm pretty sure I love the turbo more...lol. If your engine is in good shape and you have the cash, you absolutely will not regret turbocharging. With these new tires I'm in dire need of a regear, though - even with the turbo, the engine bogs in the worst way taking off from lights and when hitting hills in overdrive. Mash the gas once it's rolling, though, and it's gone.

 

[UnderFire]

Thanks man, I love the wheels and the turbo...but I'm pretty sure I love the turbo more...lol. If your engine is in good shape and you have the cash, you absolutely will not regret turbocharging. With these new tires I'm in dire need of a regear, though - even with the turbo, the engine bogs in the worst way taking off from lights and when hitting hills in overdrive. Mash the gas once it's rolling, though, and it's gone.

More and more used turbo stuff is starting to surface in my area, probably since KO Racing is only an hour or so away, once I find the right deal I'm definitely boosting my 4Runner, I'd like to try for around 8-10lbs of boost.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

More and more used turbo stuff is starting to surface in my area, probably since KO Racing is only an hour or so away, once I find the right deal I'm definitely boosting my 4Runner, I'd like to try for around 8-10lbs of boost.

That seems like a reasonable goal, though I wouldn't push a stock motor to much more since the 3RZ has a rather long stroke and can't handle a ton of boost in stock form. I'm only running 5 psi, but I'm not intercooled and I live in Arizona where the outside temp gets up to 120 (I don't even want to know what the intake air temps are), so I keep boost down for reliability's sake. I have other vehicles I can drive during the hot months, but I like driving my 4Runner as well. At some point, when I have enough time to engineer a proper solution, I want to run methanol injection on my truck and crank the boost up to 6 or 7 psi, but until then I'm leaving it as-is. I'm curious to see how you do your setup in the future - I haven't seen a turbo 3RZ in an offroad-oriented truck yet, much less one with 35s.

Keep your eyes peeled on CustomTacos - I've seen KO setups go for as cheap as $1000 before, and also keep up with KO themselves, as they normally have a sale on their kits around Christmas, so you can score a great deal like I did during that season.

 

[UnderFire]

That seems like a reasonable goal, though I wouldn't push a stock motor to much more since the 3RZ has a rather long stroke and can't handle a ton of boost in stock form. I'm only running 5 psi, but I'm not intercooled and I live in Arizona where the outside temp gets up to 120 (I don't even want to know what the intake air temps are), so I keep boost down for reliability's sake. I have other vehicles I can drive during the hot months, but I like driving my 4Runner as well. At some point, when I have enough time to engineer a proper solution, I want to run methanol injection on my truck and crank the boost up to 6 or 7 psi, but until then I'm leaving it as-is. I'm curious to see how you do your setup in the future - I haven't seen a turbo 3RZ in an offroad-oriented truck yet, much less one with 35s.

Keep your eyes peeled on CustomTacos - I've seen KO setups go for as cheap as $1000 before, and also keep up with KO themselves, as they normally have a sale on their kits around Christmas, so you can score a great deal like I did during that season.

In the end I'll probably hand it over to the guys at KO and let them tune it up, I need it to be reliable too, but I only drive ~20 miles a day on average with the highest speed zone being 55, so that should help a lot, I'm also looking to build another truck here pretty soon, so a little down time every now and then for the 4Runner will be feasible.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Swapped out the Sport Edition skid plate for a JAOS one this past weekend (thank you [MENTION=30949]SIKHILUXSURF[/MENTION]!). I have another sweet JDM addition coming soon as well, so stay tuned if you're into that.

One pic of the new skid plate - more coming once the truck isn't filthy.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

As promised, a picture of the JAOS skidplate in all its glory...



Except the truck doesn't look exactly like this anymore. I was able to purchase a JDM Elford grille from a forum member (thank you [MENTION=84917]GreenbowCounty[/MENTION]!), but before I got to install it, my truck became completely undrivable, bucking and shooting lean every time I tried to accelerate above 1/8 throttle or so. Thought I had a fueling issue, so I ordered LCE's fuel pressure gauge for the 3RZ, but upon further investigation, I found a nasty exhaust leak between the turbo and downpipe where a nut had somehow come off, despite my abuse of Loctite. Oh well, got a nifty new gauge out of the ordeal; you can see it peeking out right behind the PS reservoir.



Also got some sick pictures lately parked up with friends and some of my professors at school. Good pics coming once I get them edited.





And a teaser of the new grille in a window reflection courtesy of my local post office...unobstructed pic coming soon.

 

[Unner]

Looks good! Can't wait to see what you've done with the grille. Mirrored buildings are dangerous, I keep trying to figure out who's driving that badass 4Runner in the parking lot that looks just like mine!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Looks good! Can't wait to see what you've done with the grille. Mirrored buildings are dangerous, I keep trying to figure out who's driving that badass 4Runner in the parking lot that looks just like mine!

True that on the buildings, plus here in AZ the reflection of the blinding sun makes them even more dangerous...lol.

Updates should be coming sometime this week if I have time, so stay tuned!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Finally, as promised, a picture of the new grille. I have a couple more mods in the works right now, so stay tuned.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Not much of an update, but picked up a CoverCraft sunshade on sale to replace my decaying cheapie. Definitely a huge improvement, it fits great and no more bits of sun shade falling all over dirtying my interior.

 

[BoarderDave]

Best sun-shades in the biz in my opinion. I buy one for every vehicle I get. Good buy. Cheers

 

[infamousRNR]

Not much of an update, but picked up a CoverCraft sunshade on sale to replace my decaying cheapie. Definitely a huge improvement, it fits great and no more bits of sun shade falling all over dirtying my interior.

Gotta love that  sticker!!

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Best sun-shades in the biz in my opinion. I buy one for every vehicle I get. Good buy. Cheers

It's definitely great, I've had some in the past but never got one for my 4Runner until I came across them on sale. I'll definitely be purchasing more for the rest of my vehicles.

Gotta love that  sticker!!

Yessir, every vehicle in the family has one except for the newest acquisitions.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

I've finally finished some upgrades and have others in progress. I picked up some OEM Hilux Surf 01-02 tail lights along with OEM 99+ Surf corner lamps and aftermarket 99+ Surf headlamps (thank you [MENTION=38004]ryhi[/MENTION]! Everything got here safe and it's all awesome!). Got the tail lights installed today...below is a pic and the install video I did on them. Not too hard, but you do have to change out the wiring harness for the lights, so keep that in mind if you plan on doing the upgrade.





I have not installed the facelift headlamps or corners yet because I plan on doing a projector retrofit with them. Since the lights are aftermarket, the chrome quality isn't the best (though the rest of the housing is really great quality), so I plan on refining the finish and either painting them a high gloss metallic silver when I do the retrofit since the corner lamps aren't a super high polish chrome (should match fairly well), or I may have them rechromed depending on how high the cost is. I really love the Surf headlights since the aiming adjustments are all internal (the entire lamp does not move when aiming) and because there are no nipples on the lens itself, which really detracts from the look IMO. Once the retrofit is completed, I hope to end up with a killer set of headlights that can only be topped by using OEM JDM housings (huge $$$ for a set). Here's a few shots of the new lights, showcasing the difference between Zenki (96-98) and Kouki (99-02) corner lamps as well as showing the features of the Japanese market headlamps.

The new style corner lamps:


Comparison with pre-facelift OEM Surf corners:


Front shot of the new headlamp:


Showing how the bucket sits inside for aiming:


And the rear of the new lamp:


Stay tuned for the results of the retrofit - I'm hoping to have it completed within a few months with my busy schedule, and I still have a bit of research to do on them in general, so it will take a while. I'm planning on using the Morimoto Mini D2S projectors, not sure what shrouds, likely Morimoto ballasts, and probably OEM Philips 4300K bulbs. Any suggestions are very welcome. I have a few more parts in the mail right now, so I should have another update and some more tutorial videos on the truck coming shortly.

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Smaller update here, but I replaced my front and rear sway bar and endlink bushings. Pretty easy job; due to a little rust on my truck, one of the bolts holding the rear sway bar bushings snapped, but I got it out pretty easily and the rest of the install went smoothly. The original bushings were still good (with the exception of the front endlink bushings), but the poly ones make a pretty noticeable difference in chassis stiffness, with no more tail wag when going around a bumpy corner. As usual, I made videos on the process, embedded below. I have a few more parts coming for the truck and a couple larger updates lined up, so stay tuned!

 

[Ed_C]

I have not installed the facelift headlamps or corners yet because I plan on doing a projector retrofit with them. Since the lights are aftermarket, the chrome quality isn't the best (though the rest of the housing is really great quality), so I plan on refining the finish and either painting them a high gloss metallic silver when I do the retrofit since the corner lamps aren't a super high polish chrome (should match fairly well), or I may have them rechromed depending on how high the cost is. I really love the Surf headlights since the aiming adjustments are all internal (the entire lamp does not move when aiming) and because there are no nipples on the lens itself, which really detracts from the look IMO.

Do my eyes deceive me or are those LHD Surf headlights? Where did you find those and are they plastic or glass lens? Have you tried them out in halogen form?

As for projectors, you may want to hold on for a while until TRS/Morimoto releases the 4th generation Mini D2S.