My 2007 Limited V8 Ownership Journal

Timberland

Timberland

New member
About me:
Hey everyone, figured I'd introduce myself. Name's Tim, and I live up here in Ontario, Canada. I'm new to 4Runners, but not new to Toyotas or 4x4s. I've owned/built my 1991 MR2 Turbo for the past 11 years. I also have a 2002 Harley Night Train if anyone happens to care about bikes.

My MR2: Fully built with some pretty cool/rare parts. Likely around 400whp the way it sits currently. Started out as a clean, low mileage Canadian car and still wears most of its original paint. It's in great condition, but has just enough flaws to add character and some history.



My Harley: My dad has always been into bikes and has a gorgeous 2000 Wide Glide. He and I are very close and for some reason it dawned on me a couple years ago that I wanted to experience riding along side him while we're both still here and healthy. So I found this bike on ebay in a "no reserve" auction and scored it for an amazing deal. Drove down to Missouri and towed it home. I removed a bunch of the less than tasteful accessories and restored the condition of it overall and now it's a great bike! Turns out I've fallen in love with riding and we've racked up some great miles together.



My 2003 Grand Cherokee that the 4Runner has now replaced: This has been my daily driver / winter beater / tow rig / adventure machine for the last 10 years. It was fairly mild as far as modifications go. 2.5" spacer lift, Bilstein 5100s, 31" Duratracs, 3" catback exhaust etc. I loved my Jeep, but despite being a very well kept example, it wasn't immune to some of the quirks and failures that many older Chrysler products suffer from. I've always said the only thing I'd replace it with was either a pickup or a V8 4Runner. That became a reality in September of this year.



A good friend of mine's previous Sequoia: 2.5" lift with Method NVs on 285/65/18 Nitto Trail Grapplers. It has since been replaced with a brand new Tundra SR5 with all of the TRD Pro parts added.



Me polishing his new Tundra:



That brings us up to date with purchasing my 4Runner. The information on this forum proved to be invaluable to me while I was shopping and I'm going to do my best to pay that back to you guys. My plan is to document the life of my rig with lots of photos, provide some advice through my years of detailing experience, and perhaps share some info on what might be some less common parts choices. This really won't be a build thread as I don't plan on going too crazy with this thing. (Haven't we all said that?) More of an ownership experience than anything else. If you've read through all of this non-4Runner content, thank you!

Up next: an introduction to my 2007 4Runner Limited along with the gameplan...
 
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The rig:
I had originally been shopping for a V8 4Runner a couple years ago. I had handshake deals on 2 different trucks go sour thanks to the buyers backing out at the last minute. As we all know, 4th gen V8s can be pretty hard to come by, and it was around that time that I decided to expand my search to full size pickup trucks. I figured I could justify the extra cost because of how practical one would be for my business. Naturally I started looking for Tundras, based on my love for the brand as well as being around the 5.7 in my friend's Sequoia and Tundra. I had a hard time finding one in good condition in what I thought was a reasonable price range, but once again we all know how the market is on Toyota trucks. I decided to broaden my search to the Titan Pro4x, Ram Sport, and the Harley Davidson owner in me even paid some attention to the HD edition F150s. :crazy: Nothing seemed to work out. Started looking at Armada/QX56s and Sequoias - nothing. As soon as I'd decide to shop for a different model, all the good ones would dry up. Maybe this was a sign? So I went back to my original search for a 4Runner or GX470. I loved the Lexus, but just couldn't get past the rear barn door or the styling from certain angles. Then, after 2 exhaustive years of hunting, I stumbled across an ad for what seemed like the perfect 4runner.



It was a Shadow Grey 2007 Limited V8 with 200,000kms (124,000 miles) for a very reasonable price. It was only 30 minutes away which was much nicer than driving all the way to Toronto for most of the other trucks I looked at. So I met up with the owner on a Friday and everything seemed to check out. Timing belt was done at 165,000kms, chassis looked great (for a Canadian vehicle) and it drove very well. The negatives were a small rust bubble on the tail gate, and he told me he was aware of a small leak in the air suspension. According to him the ride height would drop after a week or so of being aired up. Knowing my plans to lift it in the future, I didn't really care if the RAS was gradually on its way out. I told him I needed to do some due diligence and I'd let him know.



Friday evening, I contacted a friend of mine that used to own a body shop to hear his opinion on the rust bubble. Sounds like the whole hatch would need to be repainted. Not the end of the world, but not cheap. Ran the VIN at a Toyota dealership and surprise surprise, full service history from the first owner! (Current owner only had it for 2 months before deciding to sell the truck and relocate). At this point I was confident in the truck, and told the seller I'm ready to go ahead on it. We agreed on an even better price, and it was in my driveway Saturday morning.



Up Next: A lesson learned...
 
Reality Sets In
The following Monday, I put insurance on the 4Runner and started driving it as my daily to keep the mileage down on my Jeep that I'd soon be selling. Since I received a valid safety inspection and emissions test with the vehicle, I expected it to be good to go. I made a few startling discoveries right away. First of all, the "slight leak" in the RAS caused it to be sitting on the bump stops every morning. Clearly this problem was way more immediate than I thought. The weather was much nicer this week than the previous one, so I was driving with the windows down.. I think you know where this is going. I heard the lovely tick tick tick of a cracked exhaust manifold. No way. Despite my test drive (with the windows up) I somehow missed this. My heart sunk because I know how expensive this fix is, on top of the other known issues. Suddenly the great price I bought it for was no longer so great. I also noticed the license plate lights weren't working the first time I drove it at night. Did they even look at this thing for the safety inspection, or just sign the paperwork?



Sometimes life has a way of kicking you in the junk and all you can do is say "thank you sir" and move forward. I was so bummed out with my 4Runner purchase that I considered putting it back up for sale and keeping my Jeep. In 10 years I never had to deal with broken air suspension or cracked manifolds on my Grand Cherokee, now within the first week of ownership I'm facing thousands of dollars in repairs? Reliability was the whole reason for making the switch from a Jeep to a Toyota! I decided I've come too far already to sell the 4Runner, and I couldn't ethically pass these problems on to the next guy. I still got a good deal on the truck, so there's room to spend some money on repairs without overpaying for it. The Jeep went up for sale, and I started tinkering with some small issues with the Runner.



First I removed the goofy looking exhaust tip and hit the pipe/resonator with some high temp black paint. I also cleaned up the crusty trailer hitch and used some Rustoleum gloss black on it. I took a look at the wiring to the license plate lights and sure enough one of the wires was broken. Ordered a new harness from Toyota and popped it in. I was interested to see if I could save or at least improve the stained OEM floor mats. I plan on getting some type of all weather mats at some point but these were bothering me in their current state, plus I like a good challenge.



I tried an all purpose cleaner on them first and it helped, but still wasn't good enough. So after some time spent with Meguiar's Super Degreaser, a vacuum and a bunch of scrubbing, this was the end result:



Still not perfect, but I can live with it for now. After going back and forth with the shop that wrote the fake safety, they agreed to fix the manifold for free. They admitted they were wrong and were afraid of getting in trouble with the authorities. Mistakes happen, and I really didn't want to go after somebody's livelyhood. That doesn't help my situation, it just gets someone in trouble. I wasn't comfortable with these same techs working on my vehicle, and I wasn't confident that their cheaper version of an oem manifold would last either. So I chose to take the high road and pay for a much better fix myself. (More on that later!)

If you can't tell already, I like to improve on things, not just fix them. It was time to set up the game plan to build my dream 4Runner.

1. Suspension upgrade and RAS to coil conversion. I've had enough of these stupid airbags already!
2. Wheels and tires
3. Headers
4. Tint front 2 windows to match the rest
5. Some kind of stealth light bar setup, I'm a fan of what some of you guys have done in the bumper or on the roof rails.
6. Oil spray the undercarriage to prevent further rust.
7. Full paint correction to get this thing looking like one of my vehicles. May do a separate thread on this to document step by step how to polish your truck. This one has plenty of defects to remove including scratches, swirl marks, water etching and even some hack's wetsanding attempt.
8. Possibly some kind of Nav head unit to work with the factory JBL system? The audio sounds good enough for me, but I'd love to have GPS and Bluetooth.

After all that, I'm hoping to be able to enjoy a fun, reliable rig. I believe driving should be exciting.. it should be something you look forward to whether you're going to work or hitting the race track. I can't seem to leave anything 100% stock. I'm not a doomsday prepper by any means, but I like to know in the back of my head that I'm prepared for any kind of weather or adventure. I think that once it's finished, this 4Runner is going to be exactly what I'm looking for.

Up next: Parts Gathering...

 
First of all, hello from out West!

Great build thread so far! I really like the "owner experience" documentation as I tend to do a bit of the same myself. Will be sub'ing this one for sure!

Cracked manifolds are a bummer but like you said, if you're in it for the long haul - upgrade it (longtubes?!?!), fix it properly, and enjoy the truck. You just ran into one of the very few issues known on these rigs (as I'm sure you've researched). I had the TRD Longtubes on the Tundra I just sold, and the 4.7 sounds absolutely glorious with a proper exhaust.

I'm excited to see what you come up with and also for the "how-to" on polishing. I bought a decent Porter Cable random orbital last year and have been slowly teaching myself the proper does and don'ts of the trade but absolutely looking forward to your professional guidance.
 
Thanks for the replies, fellas.

rickashay said:
First of all, hello from out West!

Great build thread so far! I really like the "owner experience" documentation as I tend to do a bit of the same myself. Will be sub'ing this one for sure!

Cracked manifolds are a bummer but like you said, if you're in it for the long haul - upgrade it (longtubes?!?!), fix it properly, and enjoy the truck. You just ran into one of the very few issues known on these rigs (as I'm sure you've researched). I had the TRD Longtubes on the Tundra I just sold, and the 4.7 sounds absolutely glorious with a proper exhaust.

I'm excited to see what you come up with and also for the "how-to" on polishing. I bought a decent Porter Cable random orbital last year and have been slowly teaching myself the proper does and don'ts of the trade but absolutely looking forward to your professional guidance.
Click to expand...

You're right, I decided to go with Doug Thorley short tubes mostly because of their design and warranty, but the performance gains don't hurt either. I plan on running them with an otherwise stock exhaust. I had a 3" catback on my Jeep and although the 4.7 sounded great, I sort of regretted having 3 loud vehicles. I tend to meet up with buddies late at night for coffee, so it's nice to have a quiet vehicle so I don't annoy the neighbors all the time. I'm going to do my best to hold out until the stock exhaust needs to be replaced, but we'll see!

If you have any questions about using your Porter Cable, feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to help out. That was my first buffer as well and I still use it occasionally.

07V8 said:
Why does your V8 have the V6 tow hitch?
Click to expand...

Good question. Maybe a Canadian market thing? I don't really mind because the few times that I tow the MR2, I'm still within the V6 rating. It's also nice to have a bit more ground clearance vs the one that hangs down more. My hitch is used 85% for mountain bikes, 10% for towing the Harley, and 5% for towing the MR2.
 
Ordering Parts:
There's not a whole lot of legal places to go wheeling in this end of Ontario. Twice a year, a motocross track known as Gopher Dunes has a Mudfest event. Now I'm not a fan of dunking my daily driver into a mud puddle, but they also have a fun trail system in the surrounding forest. This year we brought the Tundra, a Jeep JK, and my new to me 4Runner. I was interested in getting a baseline of it's on-dirt performance in stock form before upgrading things. Unfortunately, the leak in the RAS got even worse on the way there, and I didn't want to flex the axle on the trail and end up with a complete failure 45 mins from home. So I left it in the parking lot and hopped in the Tundra.

It's essentially a TRD Pro with an SR5 interior and chrome bumpers. He's added all of the Pro components right down to the TRD dual exhaust and shift knob. It handled the trails and the short course they had set up with ease. I'm really impressed with what Toyota has done with the Pro line up of trucks.



To be honest, up to this point my 4Runner experience hadn't been that great. I didn't spend thousands of dollars to sit on the sidelines while everyone else had fun wheeling. I realized the RAS situation needed to be dealt with asap instead of waiting till my Jeep sold to start upgrading. So I started browsing the usual sites, mainly Toytec, Wheeler's Offroad and Metaltech. It quickly became apparent that the shipping and duty cost was going to hurt me badly as a Canadian. This is something I was used to when buying MR2 parts, but right now our dollar is in tougher shape. Luckily, 4wheelparts in Burlington ON came through for me. They had a no tax sale on at the time and shipping is free if you pick it up in the store. Score! My suspension ended up being cheaper for me than Toytec's 5100 setup. I also took advantage of this sale for my tires, wheels, and rear springs.



Shortly after I ordered most of the parts I needed, the Jeep ended up selling. I was offered my asking price for it so as painful as it was, I had to let it go. Once you've owned a vehicle for a long time (or any type of machine you use regularly) you tend to develop a bond with it. It wasn't easy for me but it certainly helped to recoup some of the parts cost for the 4Runner. The excitement of getting the Runner set up properly cheered me up quickly and now it was time to dive in 100%.

So long, old friend:



Up next: Suspension
 
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Well, that escalated quickly:
The most pressing issue at this point was the leak in the RAS. Since I was planning on lifting/converting it anyways, I decided to take care of that earlier than I had originally planned. Like I said earlier, we really don't have many places for off road adventures nearby. No rock crawling, no desert dunes, we don't even have any fancy state parks like you Americans have to enjoy. So as much as I love the stuff, I couldn't justify upgrading to reservoir shocks from companies like Icon, King, Fox etc. Mild wheeling, bombing gravel roads and mall crawling were my main reasons for upgrading, and both ride quality and reliability were very important to me as well. The streets in this city are getting pretty beat up with potholes, rough pavement and speed bumps/humps all over the place. As a mountain biker, I wanted to be able to get to and from the trail heads comfortably as well.

I liked the way my Jeep rode with the Bilstein 5100s and spacers on stock springs, but I wanted to do a proper suspension lift this time around on the Runner. Naturally, I was leaning towards the Toytec 5100 coilovers or an OME setup. Both seemed like great quality parts at a decent price. Unfortunately I got a big reality check when I learned of the actual cost to buy these from the U.S. I would have been paying a premium price for what I would consider entry level parts. This is where the Fox 2.0 IFP setup came into play. No tax or shipping at 4wheelparts meant that it would actually be cheaper than the other options! I had just assumed that a company like Fox would be out of my price range, but these seem to be a low end option from a high end company. That was right up my alley, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger.



Obviously, the Metaltech RAS conversion kit was a no brainer. I went with the cheaper DIY option, and managed to find some OEM upper isolators on Amazon. These would have been $133 plus tax EACH from the dealer even with my discount. Amazon - 1 Canada - 0.

There isn't much info on here about the Fox 2.0 kit, but I was able to find a little bit about them on the FJ and Taco forums. Enough that I felt comfortable trying them at least. The biggest gamble I had to take was when choosing rear springs. Tacos have leafs, FJs have different bodies and a shorter wheelbase, GX470s are a bit heavier.. so I couldn't really turn to another platform for advice. I don't plan on adding weight from bumpers, armor, a roof rack etc, but I do load it up with my bike rack, work equipment, and tow occasionally as well. On paper it seemed like Icon 2" springs or the OME 895 were the best options for me. Couldn't find Icons locally, and 4wheelparts had 895s instock (although listed as 5th gen only). I wanted to lean more on the softer side rather than stiffer. I could always add helper bags if it's too soft, not much I can do if it's too stiff when empty though. Knowing that I was aiming for 3" of lift upfront, I chose the regular 895 over the 895e for a slightly raked stance with room to sag a bit under load. I'm not sure if anyone is running this exact setup on a 4th gen, but it seemed perfect to me and I was willing to find out for myself.



Suspension break down:
Fox 2.0 IFP Coilovers: 985-02-002
Fox 2.0 rear shocks (for 2" lift): 980-24-679
Old Man Emu 895 rear springs: 2895
Metaltech DIY air suspension conversion kit: MT-GX470-4002
Toyota rear spring isolators: 48302-35040

Up next: Wheels and Tires
 
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Time for some muck boots:
I was on the fence about which direction to go with wheels and tires. Initially I intended to keep the Runner as stock as possible with larger tires on oem wheels. I have to say, I'm a fan of the pizza cutters some people are running. Winter performance is a very large factor for me in choosing a tire, so I like the idea of a narrow tire cutting through snow. I also think tall skinny tires with mudflaps is a very "classic Toyota truck" look.

However, I didn't like the idea of going that direction with my 18" limited wheels. 18" tires are more expensive, have less sidewall, and I'm afraid might have looked a little goofy with narrow tires. My suspension choices put me on track to building what I believe to be my perfect 4Runner, so to settle for "making it work" on other aspects of the truck would bother me. Buy once, cry once. Might as well go all the way. So 285s and aftermarket 17s it is.

Ever since I first laid eyes on the SCS SR8 wheels, I fell in love. I love the fact that the company focuses on designing perfect wheels for Toyota trucks. They look good, fit good, and they're strong. These were my first choice. My second choice was the ever popular Method Standards. I really like their connection to the desert racing world. While the trophy trucks obviously aren't running regular production street wheels, these have got to be pretty tough considering all of their testing. They also score big points with me in the looks department. I know first hand how their satin black finish holds up to the harsh Canadian weather as my friend's NVs have been through 4 winters now. The only downside is that they're a few hundred dollars more expensive than SCS wheels (or so I thought). Once again thanks to the 4wheelparts sale, these ended up being a few hundred cheaper! Have I mentioned how much I love that place yet?



When it came to tire choice, I already knew what I was going to do. The Duratracs where one of my favorite parts of my Jeep. Mud terrains don't cut it in the ice and slush up here. The tread blocks basically act as tiny little racing slicks. A tire with lots of siping is the best way to go for winter performance, and honestly that's where my truck sees the most off pavement abuse. They're smooth and quiet for an off road tire as well, so that's a plus. Mine showed no signs of wear on my Jeep after 3 years either. I went with the usual 285/70/17 which is much larger than my previous set. Anyone wanna guess where I got them? :nod:



These took a TON of weight to balance. Strange, because my last set didn't take much at all. Not sure if it's the wheels or tires, but hey they're balanced now. Also interesting to see, these are taller than the hood of the MR2. Note to self: try not to rear end a truck on 33's... the car will turn into a door stopper.

This is where things got a little obsessive. Feel free to turn away while the crazy guy does his thing. Corrosion in the winter is a pretty big deal to me. So I spent the time applying a sealant I would normally use on paint to my suspension along with the wheels inside and outside. Then I followed up with some spray wax. I figure along with the oil spraying, that's 3 sacrificial barriers of protection on the finish. Despite oil spraying and cleaning them occasionally, my shiny Bilsteins lasted 6 months before they looked like trash. Hopefully these fair a bit better, but at least I know I've done everything I can!



Up next: Time to install some of this stuff.


Method Standard wheels 17x8.5 0 offset 4.75" backspacing: MR30178560500
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac tires LT285/70/17
 
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Great choice with your wheels and tires; same thing as what's on my dream build list. I too am torn on keeping the stock 18's. I can't wait to see this build progress, I've been enjoying your detailed and precise writing style. Keep it up.


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Subbed good looking start and let me know how the fox treat you I'm just on spacer lift for now. It will go full coilover and matched rear within a year probably


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Suspension Install:



Once again, plans changed. I was originally going to install the suspension myself at home as I've done plenty of stuff here before. The problem was that the car and bike hadn't been put away for the winter yet and I've only got a small single car garage to work with. I could have pulled everything out to work on the Runner, but if something happened and I got stuck on something I'd be forced to leave the car and bike outside overnight.. and they'd be gone or damaged by morning. I was also concerned about some pretty rusty/corroded bolts on this thing and I know I don't have the equipment to handle that nonsense. So I put my ego aside and made the smart decision to call for help. My buddy had been telling his coworker about my plans for the truck and he was really interested. He offered to help out in this situation and told us to bring the rig over to his place on a Friday night (with pizza of course). Did I mention that he's a Toyota tech at the dealer they work at? His expertise gave me a lot of piece of mind knowing everything was done right, and looking back I would have made the same decision to ask him for help.



Some initial details about the Fox 2.0 stuff. Overall, just like any other Fox product, build quality is top notch. From what I'd read on other forums, these usually ship preset at 3" of lift right out of the box. The rears went right on, no different than any other basic shock install. The fronts were a bit tougher. The lower mount was a problem. Fox uses 2 metal bushings that press against each other inside the shock with a little o-ring in there. At first glance, we thought they sent me coilovers for another vehicle because the bushing was about 1/2" wider than the mounting tabs on the control arm. We were eventually able to get them in by squeezing the heck out of the lower bushings together with channel locks and hammering the coilover into place. Sucks when putting them on, but kind of nice to have such tight tolerance once they're in. The rest of the install was fine. Plenty of clearance at the UCA and front swaybar.

The RAS conversion wasn't too bad either. The Metaltech stuff fit great. A bit tricky getting the nuts started for the lower perch. Found the leak in the air suspension... somebody had disconnected one of the air lines and didn't have it clipped back in all the way. Wow. "You sure you still wanna convert this thing?" Heck yeah. After disconnecting the swaybar and some strategic jacking, the OME coils went in nicely. Pulled the relay, 50a fuse, 10a fuse, and disconnected the plug going to the ride height computer and the "off" light is still flashing in the dash. Allllllrighty then. The important thing is that the compressor stays shut off at least.

Out of respect for my Runner now looking like a roller skate on stock tires, I went to the gym and skipped leg day.



I drove it like that for a couple days to make sure it was settled before putting the new wheels on and getting an alignment. First impressions: ride is great, even on stock tires. Mine were clearly set for only 2" lift which sucks. I hoped we would be able to adjust them up quickly before the alignment. I put the new wheels on and trimmed the front bumper just enough to get rid of any rubbing on the street. Took the front mudflaps off too. Once it's aligned for good and I know where the wheels are going to sit in the well, I'll finish trimming at full flex.



Up on the alignment rack. Toe was out a bit, caster is at 1*. No surprise, the cam bolts are seized. At this height, the CV angles are great, the ride quality is great, and the alignment is only going to get worse if I raise it up. So we decided to leave it like this in hopes of avoiding the cam bolt / LCA issue.



The extra sidewall of the new tires improved the ride quality even more. It tracks great on the highway even with the small amount of caster. This is purely subjective of course, and my expectations were for it to behave like a lifted SUV, not a luxury sedan so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Either the front has settled even more, or (more than likely) I've been staring at it too much. The height isn't going to cut it. I guess I'm going to have to figure out the easiest/cheapest way to adjust the alignment after raising it. I really want to max the caster out in hopes of avoiding a body mount chop.




Up next: Doug Thorley headers
 
I'll do thorleys in the next year as well, what are the plans for your stock limited rims - those are by far some of my favorite rims Toyota ever made, I'm interested if your selling.

Live in Florida though so...

Looks great and yes, front looks like 2" not the full 3", if you go up beyond probably 2.5" you will need the upper control arms, I got my SPC/Lightning racing off of Amazon via prime, not sure if you can do that but saved me 175 over the going cost of the upper arms via a sale they had going on and then was free shipping.

give it a shot?
 
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