New guy here with some SAS questions

[TheBFA]

I'm pretty new here and got a 94 manual 4Runner already on its way to be a decent rock crawler. All the current mods were done by the previous owner other than I've added some Rigid lights to the front. The head gasket is blown now and instead of fixing and rebuilding I'm going with a 350 swap, but I've found plenty of information on that. What I can't really find is what I need as far as suspension components to try to match the front to the rear when doing an SAS swap which I plan on doing either while the engine is out or soon after, depending how long it takes me to finish the engine.

It currently has a 7.5" lift with front and rear spartan lockers. I'm not sure what the previous owner said exactly about the rear suspension, but it has some parts from a Landcruiser to overcome the rear sag.

I'm a welder fabricator and a prior flight engineer and have plenty of mechanical experience, but it's mostly engine, electrical and fuel type of experience. I am pretty new to suspension and drivetrain. I'd like to keep my 7.5" lift, but all the swap kits seem to only go to 5". Can I keep portions of my original suspension to maintain the lift? I'm already going to add the 2" body lift for my engine swap. Any general information that I might need to know would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm going to be moving to Houston soon and once I get settled and get my welder set up I'm going to be working on fabricating different armor pieces to sell so I may be looking to be a small volume vendor on here. I started dabbling in CF and kevlar molding also so I'll be working on fenders and fender flares along with tube and plate bumpers, cages, sliders, and tube doors.

 

[DeclansDaddy]

The only thing you'll need to match the front and rear is wheel spacers in the front as the solid front axles are narrower. Unless you plan on leaf springing the rear then the 63" chevy swap is a good way to go. Plenty of write-ups here and on yotatech on both of those projects. Nice rig by the way. Going to be a beast with a SBC in it.

 

[DeclansDaddy]

Also not sure what type of wheeling you plan on doing but if you have to put a 2"BL on I'd be careful with how much suspension you run. That tall of a vehicle will be tipsy. Is think if you want it to stay about the same height then a 2" BL then the 5" swap kit will be good then just do what ya gotta do in the rear to match.

 

[TheBFA]

The only thing you'll need to match the front and rear is wheel spacers in the front as the solid front axles are narrower. Unless you plan on leaf springing the rear then the 63" chevy swap is a good way to go. Plenty of write-ups here and on yotatech on both of those projects. Nice rig by the way. Going to be a beast with a SBC in it.

I was thinking that because the suspension part hasn't been specifically mentioned, then it wasn't even an issue, but I wanted to make sure. I've got 1/4"spaces on the from now so I'll look into it more later when the time comes. I'm sure it'll need much more than that.

 

[TheBFA]

Also not sure what type of wheeling you plan on doing but if you have to put a 2"BL on I'd be careful with how much suspension you run. That tall of a vehicle will be tipsy. Is think if you want it to stay about the same height then a 2" BL then the 5" swap kit will be good then just do what ya gotta do in the rear to match.

I would really prefer not to do the body lift, and I like the height where it is. I'd prefer ground clearance over gross height anyway. I might have to take a look at just cutting some firewall and re-fitting some paneling for the headers. I'm already planning on ripping out the entire dash and redoing it with a simplistic carbon fiber panel, so I'll have some access on either side of the firewall.

 

[DeclansDaddy]

Sounds like it's going to be quite the machine when you're done. Take lots of pics and share the experience here. It should be cool to see.

 

[bump530]

You have a big project ahead of you I'm in the process of doing a 4.3 swap, SAS, and rear lead swap. If your moving to Houston,I assume you want to keep AC (if you even have it now). What transmission are you going to use? A GM auto trans is huge compared to any toyota trans ever installed in it, so it makes fitment issues worse. But if your going to cut up the firewall that will help a lot.

On the rear, I would recommend getting rid of the factory rear suspension and going to leafs or custom 4link.

 

[KidVermicious]

7.5" lift??? That's, what, a 4" bracket lift, 1.5" wheel spacers and the torsion bars about cranked out, that might get you there. I don't know what sort of Landcruiser coils he put in the rear, but I think they give 3-4 inches so there's probably a thick spacer in there, and then I dunno.

Are you sure that's a 7.5" lift? It doesn't look that high, and if it is I don't know how he did it. That's way too tall to be stable, at least at stock width. If you're willing to trim sheet metal, 3-4 inches is all you need to clear 35s, and a 4Runner on 35s with a solid axle is a mean crawling machine.

 

[Sharpie330]

If it still has the factory 4 link in the rear you should strongly consider offing that in the process of all of this.

There are about 1,000 SAS build threads across the interwebs, Marlin Crawlers site, here, yota tech, etc.

It all really depends on what you are doing. Swapping to an old toyota solid axle? Tons of info and step by step instructions, even full kits that have everything you need. Now if you are wanting to do a full size Dana or something similar then there are a few more fabrication issues to tackle, still tons of info out there for it.

Also KidV is sort of the local guy around here who pretty much knows everything it seems, just read any thread and he probly has some solid advise on whatever the subject is. So you can trust him when he says 3-4 inches is sufficient and that 7.5 is way too tipsy.

 

[KidVermicious]

Don't put me up on that pedestal. There's several posters in the Classics section that know much more than I do, they just don't post whore like I do. :thumb:

 

[Quatre Coureur]

:hail::hail::hail:

 

[TheBFA]

7.5" lift??? That's, what, a 4" bracket lift, 1.5" wheel spacers and the torsion bars about cranked out, that might get you there. I don't know what sort of Landcruiser coils he put in the rear, but I think they give 3-4 inches so there's probably a thick spacer in there, and then I dunno.

Are you sure that's a 7.5" lift? It doesn't look that high, and if it is I don't know how he did it. That's way too tall to be stable, at least at stock width. If you're willing to trim sheet metal, 3-4 inches is all you need to clear 35s, and a 4Runner on 35s with a solid axle is a mean crawling machine.

I'm just going off what the receipts say. It says 7.5" lift kit from what I remember. I don't have them in front of me now. Those are 34s on it right now in the pic just for reference. I've had my runner up in Moab on Poison Spider, and the only issue I ended up having was my departure angle, which I can fix a little when I make my rear bumper. But it's pretty minimal as it is now, so they're isn't much room for improvement out side of chopping into the rear door area. Lowering it any more is going to make my departure angle worse. It didn't keep me from making it up anything but I did get a lot of scraping here and there. I don't want to reduce my ground clearance either. I made it up some pretty sick walls that I may have been close to bottoming out on even with the current lift. I know I can always go with another vehicle with a shorter wheelbase but I have some sort of fondness with my runner, and I have a baby on the way and the four doors are somewhat of a necessity. I'm actually getting rid of my FJ Cruiser tomorrow for an 04 Wrangler and some cash and I'm going to be putting the wrangler up for sale right away.

 

[TheBFA]

You have a big project ahead of you I'm in the process of doing a 4.3 swap, SAS, and rear lead swap. If your moving to Houston,I assume you want to keep AC (if you even have it now). What transmission are you going to use? A GM auto trans is huge compared to any toyota trans ever installed in it, so it makes fitment issues worse. But if your going to cut up the firewall that will help a lot.

On the rear, I would recommend getting rid of the factory rear suspension and going to leafs or custom 4link.

For right now I'm sticking with the stock 5 speed. I don't want to go with an auto. I'm sure they are stronger, but I really like manuals, and some of the offroading I've done, I really like having the control of the manual especially when going downhill. I never even use my brakes. I hate to rely on them, especially if it's wet and you are going down a steep angle. I just ride the clutch down in 1st in 4Lo, and it crawls down on its own with no brakes.

I just want to get the engine in for now. It's going to be my grocery getter for the most part, as I'll have a motorcycle as a daily. But I'd still like to keep it driveable as often as possible so I'll take on projects one at a time to minimize down time. Also, I'll need to learn more to decide what I really want to do with the drive train. I'm going to be spending a lot of time messing with armor and my interior after I get the engine in though.

 

[bump530]

For right now I'm sticking with the stock 5 speed. I don't want to go with an auto. I'm sure they are stronger, but I really like manuals, and some of the offroading I've done, I really like having the control of the manual especially when going downhill. I never even use my brakes. I hate to rely on them, especially if it's wet and you are going down a steep angle. I just ride the clutch down in 1st in 4Lo, and it crawls down on its own with no brakes.

I just want to get the engine in for now. It's going to be my grocery getter for the most part, as I'll have a motorcycle as a daily. But I'd still like to keep it driveable as often as possible so I'll take on projects one at a time to minimize down time. Also, I'll need to learn more to decide what I really want to do with the drive train. I'm going to be spending a lot of time messing with armor and my interior after I get the engine in though.

What's the reason for the going with a 350? They take up a lot of room in there. Are you planning on running carb, tbi, or csfi?

 

[TheBFA]

What's the reason for the going with a 350? They take up a lot of room in there. Are you planning on running carb, tbi, or csfi?

Mostly because I can haha. But really, the V6 bugged the shit out of me. I plan on using my runner as a multi use vehicle and would like to take it camping and be able to tow something when I need to. I couldn't even do the speed limit going up the mountains here in CO trying to turn my 34" tires and it's slightly over geared, so when my speedo says 60, I'm actually doing 50. I'm going with the 350 because I feel like I can get the most aftermarket help with it. I would have liked to use the Lexus V8 but there wasn't as much info and I was having a tough time trying to find a donor vehicle, and it looked like a more expensive route than the 350. I'm going to go with tbi for now, and possibly installing one of those $2k EFI conversions later. I would prefer to go EFI from the beginning but not sure how to go about that as far as selecting an engine.