Ultra4 4628 Race car - Sherpa Motorsports

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

What have y'all done to upgrade/bulletproof your radiator?

We have done nothing to the radiator, just a factory. No issues, never goes above 195 in a race yet.

 

[xtremewlr]

We have done nothing to the radiator, just a factory. No issues, never goes above 195 in a race yet.

Don't know the class rules for what you guys race in but it's technically still stock.

Drop a plastic VVT intake and throttle body from a 2005 - 2009 4Runner in place of that aluminum chunk in there now. You'll get a little more grunt low end to mid-range, maybe even a little more on top.

Did this to my 2003, it's a direct swap, just have to flip the throttle body upside down so the wiring still plugs in. Can't use the TB for the aluminum intake, won't fit the plastic VVT one.

Cheap and relatively easy mod to get a few more horsies. It really does work, I can attest to it. Here's mine.

 

[rdruss]

Don't know the class rules for what you guys race in but it's technically still stock.

Drop a plastic VVT intake and throttle body from a 2005 - 2009 4Runner in place of that aluminum chunk in there now. You'll get a little more grunt low end to mid-range, maybe even a little more on top.

Did this to my 2003, it's a direct swap, just have to flip the throttle body upside down so the wiring still plugs in. Can't use the TB for the aluminum intake, won't fit the plastic VVT one.

Cheap and relatively easy mod to get a few more horsies. It really does work, I can attest to it. Here's mine.

Love your Sequoia wheels! They are some of the best looking wheels for a 4runner IMO.

 

[FjHugo]

Cool! Awesome 4runner, good inspiration!

 

[rdruss]

We have done nothing to the radiator, just a factory. No issues, never goes above 195 in a race yet.

Exactly! I appreciate the way you are approaching things. There were certain things needed in the beginning to be competitive and for reliability sake and you did them: suspension, wheels, tires, armor, cage, etc.
Now it's a matter of addressing things that are not working or need tweaking to work better. Radiator may fail next time out, then it will have to be replaced. No since throwing $$$ at stuff that is still working.
Keep up the good work, very enjoyable watching a more modest approach to off road racing. Thanks!

 

[JONBOY345]

We have done nothing to the radiator, just a factory. No issues, never goes above 195 in a race yet.

I didn't expect it to have issues keeping it cool, more so reliability running it hard offroad with plastic components on the radiator.

I wasn't able to find an all-aluminum radiator off the shelf from a reputable company, but did some googling and found Griffin Radiator which will custom fab and build radiators to spec so figured it might be useful for y'all to know of in the future.

Griffin Performance Aluminum Radiators

Love the build and content thus far.

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

I didn't expect it to have issues keeping it cool, more so reliability running it hard offroad with plastic components on the radiator.

I wasn't able to find an all-aluminum radiator off the shelf from a reputable company, but did some googling and found Griffin Radiator which will custom fab and build radiators to spec so figured it might be useful for y'all to know of in the future.

Griffin Performance Aluminum Radiators

Love the build and content thus far.

I have definitely seen Griffen, I have heard mixed reviews. Worth keeping in mind though. So far the plastic works, being plastic, it allows some play which lets things wiggle around under force and honestly, the more parts we can keep oem the more reliable it will be. If it becomes a problem we will definitely address it though.

Exactly! I appreciate the way you are approaching things. There were certain things needed in the beginning to be competitive and for reliability sake and you did them: suspension, wheels, tires, armor, cage, etc.
Now it's a matter of addressing things that are not working or need tweaking to work better. Radiator may fail next time out, then it will have to be replaced. No since throwing $$$ at stuff that is still working.
Keep up the good work, very enjoyable watching a more modest approach to off road racing. Thanks!

Appreciate that, its built on a budget for sure. The whole idea is testing products in our industry and showcasing our partners products that get this thing across the finish line. Over time it will certainly get more and more ridiculous and built!

Cool! Awesome 4runner, good inspiration!

Thank you!

Don't know the class rules for what you guys race in but it's technically still stock.

Drop a plastic VVT intake and throttle body from a 2005 - 2009 4Runner in place of that aluminum chunk in there now. You'll get a little more grunt low end to mid-range, maybe even a little more on top.

Did this to my 2003, it's a direct swap, just have to flip the throttle body upside down so the wiring still plugs in. Can't use the TB for the aluminum intake, won't fit the plastic VVT one.

Cheap and relatively easy mod to get a few more horsies. It really does work, I can attest to it. Here's mine.

Awesome work. Thats a cool mod for sure, I would have to see if that is legal, Im sure it would be.

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

The Wild West 100​

This race was a butt kicker for sure. Glad we did it though, it put some new stressors on the car and the team and that is exactly what we needed.

We loaded up the truck and trailer and headed up on Thursday evening to allow ourselves a whole day of pre running and some time to work on minor changes the car may need. This proved to be very helpful.

https://flic.kr/p/2jK9ZEqhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/140899154@N02/

https://flic.kr/p/2jKeq8Khttps://www.flickr.com/photos/140899154@N02/

https://flic.kr/p/2jK9ZAc url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/140899154@N02/][/url]
We spent most the morning get the car through tech, registering, setting up the tracker and getting a few last minute changes done to the car. By noon we were suited up and headed out for our first lap.

It was apparent the course was rough right of the bat. Hayden went out in his Tacoma to just follow us and have some fun in his taco but after about 2 miles decided it wasn't worth it. It wasn't hard by any means, but super bumpy, big dips, lots of branches and close trees and big nasty rocks in silt. So, you had to be careful about tire placement etc.

After the first lap the only adjustments we made was more preload to get the front end higher off the ground as we hit our front diff skid A LOT. This helped a ton. Then we headed out for the second lap of pre running. This is where about half way through the car started to feel real rough. We lost all dampening from the right rear. Limped it to pits and saw that we blew the cap off the resi. Snap ring and all, it just pushed out the aluminum housing.


So, we threw the 14" shock from Hayden's Tacoma in the race truck. By the time we were finished, pre-running was over and we just had to hope that it worked.

Race Day
​

The team got suited up at 8am so we could line up at 8:30.
https://flic.kr/p/2jKpJaw by Chase Brock

Pulled up to staging and got in some last minute stretches
https://flic.kr/p/2jKkigx by Chase Brock

Then it was time to lineup and start the race.
https://flic.kr/p/2jKoThq by Chase Brock
1 by Chase Brock

Right away, you could tell that shock was WAY softer than the rest. Not setup for what we are doing at all. This proved to slow us down quite a bit. We hit that corner to full bump nearly every hard hit, and there were a lot of hard hits on this course.

Lap 1 was great for us. We made really good time on both cars that started in front of us and even got a pass in. We zoomed past pits on lap one and hunted for the leader on lap 2.

https://flic.kr/p/2jKoT7L by Chase Brock

https://flic.kr/p/2jKpHkW by Chase Brock

https://flic.kr/p/2jKkhXg by Chase Brock

This is when we started to notice that the right rear was getting softer and softer and more and more harsh on bumps. We blamed shock fade, which it very well could have been. Then, after another hard hit, we heard a terrible rattle and banging. It sounded like a driveshaft bouncing around in a drive shaft loop. We decided to roll through pits at the end of the lap, so we limped it the last 2 miles of lap two.

Sure enough, as we pulled into pits, the checked the drive shaft and nothing, no problems. But, someone noticed the entire right rear shock tower was ripped off the frame. It turned out that the King we put in was about 1” longer than the Locked Offroad 14” short body shock we normally run. This caused us to be bumping on the shock and not using the entire hydro bump.

https://flic.kr/p/2jKpHHE by Chase Brock

https://flic.kr/p/2jKoST9 by Chase Brock

https://flic.kr/p/2jKoSPw by Chase Brock, on Flick

The pit crew thought fast and just removed the whole thing and sent us out on lap 3 with no shock on the right rear. It honestly did not feel terrible and we still were making really good time. We zoomed out of pits right behind a Bronco, eating their dust for about a ¼ mile before going through a marked caution and speeding up only to smash into a massive G out we did not have marked because normally it was super easy to see. Live and learn, mark EVERYTHING on the GPS. The truck took it like a champ though. It annihilated the front diff skid and bent the front cross member but we had no issues outside of that.

We kept cruising at a slower pace but still pacing towards a second place finish within our class. Which is not bad at all for who we were racing against. Then, a new noise. Very similar sound but it really did sound like the left side. We were close to starting lap 4 so we limped into pits again. This time, the whole bump stop on the right side was bent out, and it had punctured our soft line going to our caliper. No bueno. It had happened very recently as I had working brakes the entire time with zero sign of fade. Very thankful for that.

https://flic.kr/p/2jKkhKs by Chase Brock

https://flic.kr/p/2jKpHvW by Chase Brock

https://flic.kr/p/2jKpHt6 by Chase Brock

Sadly, the soft lines we had at pits had different fittings that this one and we had to call the race. There was no way to pinch to head back out and we put ours and others safety first. Not worth another band-aid just to hurt someone or wreck the truck.

Heads held high, we went and resigned from the race, but we were all in high spirits as we found new weak points and tested ourselves under rougher conditions. Gives us a lot to work on and to learn from which is what it is all about.

https://flic.kr/p/2jKpHpU by Chase Brock

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

Here is the whole recap of the Wild West 100 in video form.

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[JONBOY345]

I have definitely seen Griffen, I have heard mixed reviews. Worth keeping in mind though. So far the plastic works, being plastic, it allows some play which lets things wiggle around under force and honestly, the more parts we can keep oem the more reliable it will be. If it becomes a problem we will definitely address it though.

But race car! It needs all of the fancy parts! lol.

 

[Forum148]

Been following you guys on Instagram for a little while. Stoked to have run into this thread! How you guys get those squadrons in the high beam slots??

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

Been following you guys on Instagram for a little while. Stoked to have run into this thread! How you guys get those squadrons in the high beam slots??

Andrew over at Home | BXBuilt knocked the whole headlight build out for us. He is working on making a stonger set for us as the stock hardware just can't handle what we throw at this car. But, the internals and all the custom work he did has held up awesome and works amazing. The BD's in the highbeam spot is awesome.

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

Are next big project is under way.

FJ Transfer Case Swap.

To start this process we had to hunt down a transfer case. Using Carpart.com I found one for around $300 in Denver. Went and picked it up and everything seems well. We purchased a 2010 Toyota 4runner Part Time case.

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Now that we had the case, we pulled the original case out.

Here are the two cases side by side. Factory on the right and "FJ Case" on the left.

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You'll notice the FJ case is much smaller and let me tell ya, much lighter! Bonus! So, the first thing that came to mind is the stock driveshafts may not work for this application, especially the rear driveshaft as the rear output sits about 3" further forward, and the front sits about 1.5" further forward.

Outputs on the case are the same to the transmission which was a relief.

FJ Case
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Original 4runner Case
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Next thing to worry about was shifter placement.
Original Case
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FJ Case
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The shifter comes up right where the automatic shifter mounts on the tunnel... So thats a problem.
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So, I pulled everything and started cutting.
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Then, I welded some new rod onto the shift lever and pushed it over about 3" to pop up in the cubby hole next to the trans shifter.

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This is where we are at so far, we have tested the case. Everything functions, 2wd - 4hi - 4low. Its so nice having a J shift in this truck. Im used to it with the 4runner.

Rear driveshaft is off getting rebuilt as we speak to be 3" longer, front works for now but we plan to have it rebuilt as well to be shorter as the front needs to be installed with the transfer case. Not easy for a quick u-joint replacement if it were to break.

I'll update more as we button it up for some wheeling this weekend.

 

[Piggity]

I would be surprised if the front driveshaft from the FJ Cruiser didn't bolt up perfectly....it looks like you didn't get it with the t/c though.

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

I would be surprised if the front driveshaft from the FJ Cruiser didn't bolt up perfectly....it looks like you didn't get it with the t/c though.

I am sure it would work perfect, but we did not purchase any driveshafts with the diff. Rear may also work, not sure on the FJ Wheel base though, it may be shorter than the 4runner.

 

[Inv4drZm]

I am sure it would work perfect, but we did not purchase any driveshafts with the diff. Rear may also work, not sure on the FJ Wheel base though, it may be shorter than the 4runner.

I measured my brother's FJ rear driveshaft a while back and my notes say its .28" larger in diameter and .5" shorter than the V8 4Runner's.

I would be surprised if you can get the rear driveshaft lengthened. I took mine to a shop to get shortened and they said they couldn't because of the swedged diameter just before getting welded to the joint. They ended up ordering a custom length driveshaft from one of their oem suppliers.

FJ on top, 4runner on bottom:

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

They are basically rebuilding the entire thing, new slip yoke, u-joints, from my understanding the only thing staying the same is the flange yokes.

 

[SherpaEquipmentCo]

Prepping for the racetruck for Moab as well as installing the FJ Cruiser Transfer Case!
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Our most recent trip out to Moab Utah!
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[xtremewlr]

I measured my brother's FJ rear driveshaft a while back and my notes say its .28" larger in diameter and .5" shorter than the V8 4Runner's.

I would be surprised if you can get the rear driveshaft lengthened. I took mine to a shop to get shortened and they said they couldn't because of the swedged diameter just before getting welded to the joint. They ended up ordering a custom length driveshaft from one of their oem suppliers.

FJ on top, 4runner on bottom:

The driveline shop I used had to make custom length driveshafts for me based off my measurements after installing the FJ tcase. They told me that because of the way the OEM 4Runner driveshafts were welded, they weren't able to cut the welds and have them work properly. He had tried before and it just never worked.

Worked out tho, the FJ tcase is wonderful and I had zero problems with it or anything else out at Moab.

Now I just need to figure out how to get VSC & TRAC turned off properly. Been trying a few things I found in threads here but so far, no luck. I'm starting to think maybe it's because the ECUs don't see the OEM tcase actuators any longer. Going to play with it some more this weekend.

 

[xtremewlr]

Prepping for the racetruck for Moab as well as installing the FJ Cruiser Transfer Case!
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Our most recent trip out to Moab Utah!
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qtQLCSsOPuM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

For the 4Lo and CDL flashing lights on the dash, I found the wires for them coming off the 4WD ecu and un-pinned them from the plug. Then I made a new harness to plug them into the FJ tcase switches so that when I shift into 4Hi, the CDL light comes on and 4Lo turns on the 4Lo dash lights now. It's pretty simple actually.

They are in the left hand plug when you have them facing you to unplug. Not sure if the wire colors are consistent across years for the 4th gens or not but my 2003, it was the green w/ red stripe wire for the CDL light and the brown w/ white stripe for the 4LO light.