Superman3043's Build Thread

[superman3043]

What I've been up to

Modding Toyota's for my family, not so much my own.

About a month and a half ago, I stormtrooped my wife's Venza with some Plastidip

Before:

During:

After:

Then about two and a half weeks ago lifted my brothers Taco:

Then...

 

[superman3043]

Metaltech Long Travel Rear

Yesterday I did this.

Old (Bilstien 1500) and new (Icon VS 2.0 MT LT version) shocks:

Old (Overland Warehouse) and new (Metaltech Medium Duty Long Travel Progressive) coils:

Installed:

The kit came from my buddy up north and I was very surprised at the amount of corrosion that was on the hardware from being up there for such a short period of time. I soaked some in a bath of "rust eating" chemical and replaced some. I definitely don't envy you guys up north for this... among other reasons lol.

Install wasn't too bad. Bobby told me that I should handle the install in stages, which was a great idea. I installed the extended stainless steel brake lines on Monday evening which, to me, was the most difficult part of the whole job. Working by myself, with a jack that doesn't do the best job of getting the truck in the air (won't even lift the rear tire when jacking from the lowest point on the frame), in the dark just plain sucked. Learned that the stock brake line clips work just fine so you don't need to use the ones that come with the new lines if you don't want to or don't have them. My install was made even more difficult because the lower fitting on the axle side is right next to my extended Diff/Locker breather line, so it was very difficult to turn a wrench on it. Once the "hard" part was done, I still need to bleed the brake lines. Easy enough right? Not when one of your damn bleed screws rounds off because somebody over tightened them, ugh! As a move of desperation I threw my impact on it and it actually opened, thank God! Speed bleeders on the way, so we'll see how those work out. Probably took me two hours start to finish to do this nightmare of a brake line swap, while my wife patiently waited for me to finish (she also helped bleed the lines) so that we could watch the DVR'd season premier episode of Walking Dead (Wow, what an episode, right?)

Put the bump stop drops on yesterday during my lunch break. Very straight forward. I think it took like 10 mins. I've got the old style huge chunks of billet aluminum. I'm happy that MT went away from this. What a highly overpriced piece for such a ridiculously simple function.

Did the shocks and coils at dad's house yesterday evening. Took about 2 hours start to finish. Very straight forward again. I used a spring compressor and it really helped on the drivers side where I once again re-used my Daystar spacer to correct the driver side lean. I removed the rear sway bar at this time. I did not need to disconnect the lower links or panhard bar. Passenger side and shocks were cake. What I always do when installing coils is wedge my bottle jack between the axle and bump stop and open it up as much as I need to pop the coil in. Works like a charm. I unbolted one ABS sensor line bracket because it was really stressed at full droop.

My initial impression is that the ride is really nice. A slight improvement over my old set up which already rode very nice. I'm sure off road it should perform very well with all the added down travel. My biggest joy has come from the fact that the rear end squeek that I've been chasing for years IS GONE! So it was either coming from the sway bar bushings or old shocks. Possibly even the coils. I was starting to think it was the panhard because I replaced the bushings with poly. I'm so happy to have eliminated it! Once again thanks to [MENTION=86190]Alex T4R[/MENTION] for everything you've done for me.

 

[Darklight]

You ol dog. Glad you got it all taken care of.
What the rear ride height at?

Bobby

 

[t-man]

Wow those shocks are so much longer! Awesome man!

 

[superman3043]

What the rear ride height at?

Gained just a tad. I was sitting at 40-3/8" even on both sides

Now I'm 40.5" DS and 41" PS.

Could have been more since that was a ground up measurement and my tires could be lower since I took that previous measurement. These measurements are all subjective anyway. Too many factors like suspension settling, how level the ground you took them on was, tire pressure, how full your fuel tank was, etc. But I guess it's good to baseline.

I really didn't expect to gain any height, but oh well.

 

[superman3043]

189K Mile Update

Got a little time Saturday to address some items that have been on my hit list for a very long time.

First I installed some Goodridge Speed Bleeders on my calipers. For those curious ours have a 7mm x 1.0 thread (P/N SB7100) on the fronts and 10mm x 1.0 thread (P/N SB1010). My rear lines were flushed out pretty well when I installed the new rear brake lines, but I wanted to replace the rounded off bleed screw and flush the front lines out.

I ordered the parts from Amazon from two seperate sellers. The rears came in nice Goodridge packaging and the fronts came in some zip-lock bags... So that already seemed suspect to me. Installed them on the truck. Bled the front driver, then front passenger and all seemed well. Went back to bleed the passenger rear and the truck started beeping at me.... The first one that I bled, just straight blew out! Tightened all the way in, it would just spew fluid every time the pedal was depressed. WTF? I'm glad this happened in the shop. I hate to think how catasprophic this could have wound up if it had failed out on the road somewhere. This was the result:

Next I started my first of a series of transmission ATF drain and fills. This was pretty easy. Hardest part was locating the fill plug lol. I drained ~ 3 qts from the drain and over-filled it. Temp check mode worked pretty straight forward. Popped the overflow for a bit and was done. I plan to do this about 3 more times for a total of about 16 qts of fresh fluid through it. If anybody is curious, it's going to cost me over $150 worth of fluid alone at the best price that I can find. So if you can get a dealership to do for around $200-$250, it might be worth while. For anybody that wants to see what WS ATF looks like with 189K miles, here it is. Looks similar to my PS fluid. It now looks like coffee with a little pink tinge after the drain and fill.

After the maintenance was complete, I drove her around the neighborhood to make sure the remaining 3 speed bleeders was not going to kill me as well as make sure my transmission didn't fall out. While doing so, I attempted to stretch her new hind legs for the first time since install.

33's still definitely stuff even with them big ass bump stop drops. I think 35's would still be nothing but trouble without a lot of trimming:

Good Golly!!! This wasn't even close to lifting that tire. Just ran out of hill to climb. When I looked, there was still plenty of coil left, all of my lines still had slack, and the lower link had not bound on the axle mount yet:

Compared to the last trip with tire lifted:

Yeah... I'd say it was an improvement. Can't wait to see what it'll do once I get some custom links built.

 

[Darklight]

Bummer about the speed bleeders. I wanted to add those to mine but now I'm triple thinking it.

Glad you found a little dirt to stretch out on.
Hopefully we can get some trail rides together in November.

Bobby

 

[superman3043]

Bummer about the speed bleeders. I wanted to add those to mine but now I'm triple thinking it.

Glad you found a little dirt to stretch out on.
Hopefully we can get some trail rides together in November.

Bobby

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure it out. The idea seems sound enough. I've read up on a few conditions that have caused them to fail. Some very bad like on a race track. But I've also read a lot of success stories. It seems to me like the taper or conical seal doesn't isn't seating properly in the caliper housing. Only thing that would cause it to act like this IMO.

Hell yeah, hope we can too!

 

[KingGeorge]

with your after market wheels and the small spacer. how large of spacers would that be if you still had your stock wheels? what i'm trying to say is if i got 33x12.5 with my stock 4th gen wheels how big of spacers would i need?

 

[superman3043]

with your after market wheels and the small spacer. how large of spacers would that be if you still had your stock wheels? what i'm trying to say is if i got 33x12.5 with my stock 4th gen wheels how big of spacers would i need?

I think my wheels are about a 0 offset for 8.5" width, which is about 4.75" backspacing. Add a .75" spacer brings it to 4" of backspacing.

I think people normally run 1.5" (or 1.25") wheel spacers to bring stock to 0 offset. Add .75" to that and you'd need like a 2.25" (or 2.00") to have an equivalent offset to mine.

With that being said, I really wouldn't recommend running 12.50's on a stock width (7.5") wheel. It's just too wide of a tire for that wheel width. I don't think any tire manufacturer would recommend it. Not that you couldn't mount them, but I think if you were planning on doing any sort of wheeling, it probably wouldn't be a good idea. Truth be told, I really wouldn't recommend 12.50's on these trucks period. It really is just too much tire. I had rubbing prior to the little spacers. Some on my UCA probably at full droop, so that was rare, and a little on the frame at the rear of the tire, which happened at full lock and compression. Now after the spacers, I don't have any more UCA rubbing obviously, but I do still get frame rub, but only on the passenger side at full lock in reverse. But what has happened now is that my body mount rub has gotten far worse. Almost violent at times, to the point where its ripping the tread blocks. So I haven't found the ideal offset to fit these tires, nor am I sure one actually exists. I think if I'd have gone with the little 1/4" spacers just to clear the arms, it may have been better clearance wise than the route that I went, but then I'd have to live with a shim style spacer. I can still go that route though as I've got all the parts (spacers and long studs) to do it. I plan on hacking more out of the body mount as well for now.

Now Mud Grapplers aren't your typical 12.50's, they actually run very wide (12.8"). I think other tires will have a narrower cross section like say KM2's for example. So YMMV. You can find actual tire cross section widths on the manufacturer websites.

My next set of rubber will not be 12.50's for many reasons. They don't fit, gas mileage sucks, they track like crap on uneven roads. I'll be looking at anything from 255's to 285's for the next set. 295's and 305's aren't off the table completely, but 12.50's definitely are. It just makes more sense for me on a truck that sees daily driving and gets to see the dirt like twice a year. Something lighter, narrower, and quieter are in my future. Hope that helps.

 

[Alex T4R]

Nice drop you got, can't wait to see what you will do when you go offroad, I haven't experience the full abilities of the kit, but i'm sure you will and I will live through the pictures.

 

[KingGeorge]

I think my wheels are about a 0 offset for 8.5" width, which is about 4.75" backspacing. Add a .75" spacer brings it to 4" of backspacing.

I think people normally run 1.5" (or 1.25") wheel spacers to bring stock to 0 offset. Add .75" to that and you'd need like a 2.25" (or 2.00") to have an equivalent offset to mine.

With that being said, I really wouldn't recommend running 12.50's on a stock width (7.5") wheel. It's just too wide of a tire for that wheel width. I don't think any tire manufacturer would recommend it. Not that you couldn't mount them, but I think if you were planning on doing any sort of wheeling, it probably wouldn't be a good idea. Truth be told, I really wouldn't recommend 12.50's on these trucks period. It really is just too much tire. I had rubbing prior to the little spacers. Some on my UCA probably at full droop, so that was rare, and a little on the frame at the rear of the tire, which happened at full lock and compression. Now after the spacers, I don't have any more UCA rubbing obviously, but I do still get frame rub, but only on the passenger side at full lock in reverse. But what has happened now is that my body mount rub has gotten far worse. Almost violent at times, to the point where its ripping the tread blocks. So I haven't found the ideal offset to fit these tires, nor am I sure one actually exists. I think if I'd have gone with the little 1/4" spacers just to clear the arms, it may have been better clearance wise than the route that I went, but then I'd have to live with a shim style spacer. I can still go that route though as I've got all the parts (spacers and long studs) to do it. I plan on hacking more out of the body mount as well for now.

Now Mud Grapplers aren't your typical 12.50's, they actually run very wide (12.8"). I think other tires will have a narrower cross section like say KM2's for example. So YMMV. You can find actual tire cross section widths on the manufacturer websites.

My next set of rubber will not be 12.50's for many reasons. They don't fit, gas mileage sucks, they track like crap on uneven roads. I'll be looking at anything from 255's to 285's for the next set. 295's and 305's aren't off the table completely, but 12.50's definitely are. It just makes more sense for me on a truck that sees daily driving and gets to see the dirt like twice a year. Something lighter, narrower, and quieter are in my future. Hope that helps.

yea i hear ya. i think 285/70/17 will be plenty and will have better gas mileage than 12.5's. but i'll let you know.

also once i get a suspension set up and some tires i want to meet up with y'all cause i'm anxious to see y'alls rides since i'm located in columbia

 

[HHIRunner]

yea i hear ya. i think 285/70/17 will be plenty and will have better gas mileage than 12.5's. but i'll let you know.



also once i get a suspension set up and some tires i want to meet up with y'all cause i'm anxious to see y'alls rides since i'm located in columbia

I'll be down for some meets when I get back stateside

 

[t-man]

I don't remember, and I know you guys don't really get snow much down there, but do you know how the mud grappler are in snow at all?

 

[Nyc-Runner]

Gotta love that MT Long Travel:thumb3: Looking Good! Just wait till you really get to wheel it your going to love it even more! I have yet to get one of my rear tire's anywhere close to off the ground and have been thru some pretty technical trails.I'm still planning on making the trip down the in a few weeks for Thanksgiving week,we should try to set up a run one of those days that week I really wanna wheel at Uwharrie!
[MENTION=110010]KingGeorge[/MENTION] That's actually where i'm coming down to I have family in Lexington. I don't know if you'll have your set up on by then but if so you should def roll with us to wheel!

 

[superman3043]

yea i hear ya. i think 285/70/17 will be plenty and will have better gas mileage than 12.5's. but i'll let you know.

also once i get a suspension set up and some tires i want to meet up with y'all cause i'm anxious to see y'alls rides since i'm located in columbia

Sounds good. Just holler at me.

I'll be down for some meets when I get back stateside

When will that be?

I don't remember, and I know you guys don't really get snow much down there, but do you know how the mud grappler are in snow at all?

I drove them this year in what would be considered a considerable snowfall in this area (but a dusting up there). They did fine.

Gotta love that MT Long Travel:thumb3: Looking Good! Just wait till you really get to wheel it your going to love it even more! I have yet to get one of my rear tire's anywhere close to off the ground and have been thru some pretty technical trails.I'm still planning on making the trip down the in a few weeks for Thanksgiving week,we should try to set up a run one of those days that week I really wanna wheel at Uwharrie!

[MENTION=110010]KingGeorge[/MENTION] That's actually where i'm coming down to I have family in Lexington. I don't know if you'll have your set up on by then but if so you should def roll with us to wheel!

Yeah I've been pleased with the new rear suspension so far. I've got new front suspension parts going on this week as well as some custom rear links in the works, so the truck is being treated to slight suspension upgrades all around.

Sounds like a plan. I'll organize a URE run for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Start a thread in Off Roading section. Sound good?

 

[Nyc-Runner]

Yeah I've been pleased with the new rear suspension so far. I've got new front suspension parts going on this week as well as some custom rear links in the works, so the truck is being treated to slight suspension upgrades all around.

Sounds like a plan. I'll organize a URE run for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Start a thread in Off Roading section. Sound good?

Nice, I still need to finish up my rear with the offset links. Hopefully i'll have my front bumper by the time i come down there but idk it's going to be cutting it close.

Yeah that's cool we can do the Saturday after Thanksgiving..

 

[HHIRunner]

Back for a month in December and then I'm gone again until August

 

[Socalbuzz]

2007sport v/8 2wd painfully stock

Looks great. I have a stock 2007sport v/8 2wd. Looking to do some modifications to her. Any suggestions? I will be needing tires soon and I found some 2012 4runner factory stock 20's . Will I need to lift if for the 20's?. Any suggestions on some mods would be helpful. Also I tow a a 5000 lbs boat year around. Was thinking about putting on a bigger transmission cooler maybe some drilled slotted brakes.also was thinking about getting one of those $99. Chips (any good ?) How about a cool air intake, maybe change out the muffler? She just rolled over 105k. I love her. This is my 6 Toyota wouldn't have anything else. thanks in advance:hatsoff:

 

[KingGeorge]

Gotta love that MT Long Travel:thumb3: Looking Good! Just wait till you really get to wheel it your going to love it even more! I have yet to get one of my rear tire's anywhere close to off the ground and have been thru some pretty technical trails.I'm still planning on making the trip down the in a few weeks for Thanksgiving week,we should try to set up a run one of those days that week I really wanna wheel at Uwharrie!

[MENTION=110010]KingGeorge[/MENTION] That's actually where i'm coming down to I have family in Lexington. I don't know if you'll have your set up on by then but if so you should def roll with us to wheel!

That's awesome. I'm about 30 minutes from lexington. Even if I don't have my set up by the time you're down here we should definitely meet up so I can see your setup.