[Slomo]

First off a big thanks to Woody, Romer, cruiserdan, Beowulf, Refug and all the other moderators, and regulars for all their contributions to this site and for this especially good 80 series tech/FAQ section. This is the first forum I have been involved with and I missed some proper etiquette early on but was still treated very well, cheers to all.

Since I am still pretty new here a little history, I have been a rabid Toyota fan for 17 years since I got my first 4Runner. I have had predominantly first generation 4Runners but I have wanted an 80 since the 93’s came out with the factory lockers. I wasn’table to get one until a couple of years ago when I totaled my daily driver and started my search for a clean 80. After a month or so of searching I lucked out and found my top choice, a white 97 with gray interior and factory lockers, and only 123k on the clock in July of 05. I paid a little high for it but I look at it as an investment since I don’t ever plan to get rid of it. Ok enough blabbing.

The first order of business was to baseline all of the fluids and switch to synthetics. Mobil 1 0-40 for the engine, Redline 75-w90 in the diffs and t-case, Chevron Dexron III Mercon ATF (non synthetic, couldn’t afford the Redline) in the tranny, Stalube power steering fluid, and Toyota Red/Distilled water in the radiator. I haven’t decided on what brake fluid to use but I will be flushing that along with the front axle rebuild soon.

The HG started to let go while doing a full cooling system/heater flush with the obvious steam out the exhaust at normal running temp on a warm summer day and active bubbles and soot visible in the radiator neck when running. Thankfully this all occurred while idling in the garage and the engine never got hot or ran with water in the oil.

I placed a call to cruiserdan and asked him to set me up with everything he would replace if he were doing the HG which was a huge help. Big thanks for that! While I had the engine apart I took the time to clean everything inside and out. I had the injectors rebuilt, head completely redone and wound up replacing just about every hose, and every gasket and seal from the top of the block up. I also replaced the flexible rubber intake tube between the MAF sensor and throttle body. Turns out that the old one was cracked in two pieces down in the accordion part but wasn’t visible and the pressure between the MAF and the throttle body was the only thing holding the two halves together. I basically didn’t want to have to worry about anything on the top end for a long time. It has a slow seepage around the two oil pan halves but I will leave that for now until it is a more pressing issue.

Otherwise I drove it stock for awhile and tried to avoid any impulse mods, taking things on in a methodical way for once. That didn’t last long. Mods thus far;

Body & Armor:
ARB front bumper with Milemarker 9500 winch
Hanna Quality Sliders
Valley Industries Reciever Hitch (replaced damaged OEM with duplicate)
Slee AC Drier Skid
Slee T-Case Skid
Flares removed and Durabaked
Factory Roof Racks removed and Durabaked
Windows tinted with metallic tint to help reflect heat
Hella horn upgrade
APC iridium headlight bulbs
Antenna mast replaced
Custom front license plate mount

Drivetrain:
HG replaced and everything removed was cleaned or replaced with OEM
Head milled, valve grind, and rebuilt
Injectors balanced and rebuilt by RC Engineering
Optima group 31 blue top
Magnaflow muffler and removed resonator
CDL/7 pin mod

Suspension/lift:

OME heavies, N73/N74E’s, steering stabilizer, castor bushings
Heavies replaced with Frankie’s Off Road springs
OME castor bushings replaced with Slee castor plates
Swaybars dropped 1” front and rear
Stainless Braided extended brake lines
American Racing Mojave Teflon wheels
315-75-16 BFG A/T’s

Interior:
Pioneer DEH-P5900IB-CD, MP3 ,XM ,Ipod ready head unit
Icom IC-2100H 144 mhz narrow band race radio in dash
Radioshack TRC-503CB mini CB in dash
Write up of all 3 radios Here
Radial-larson roof mount antennas
Pioneer speakers in front door
Marine grade aux power ports x2 front and x2 rear
Extreme Aire compressor
Spector Off Road floor mats front, rear, and cargo
3D cell Mag light/mount
B-Quiet sound deadening material
Yellow Box speedo re-calibrator
George’s LED’s front to rear
Led’s in f/r doors
Aux 6 port fuse panel with 85 amp capacity hard wired to battery mounted under dash

Future PM:
Complete front and rear axle rebuilds
F/R brakes with caliper rebuilds, new rotors, 100 series pads, and fluid change and flush


Future Mods:
Fab a rear bumper with swing out tire carrier
4.88’s
Heavy duty rear lower control arms
Panhard adjusters
DC front driveshaft
Aux fuel tank
Fox 2.0 external reservoir non-emulsion shocks on custom mounts
Route exhaust over frame in full 2.5” tubing
Slee headlight harness
RavenTai temp gauge mod


Sorry so long winded, here are some pics.

1. Unfortunately I lost the disk with all of my early pics of the truck so this is the best before I have. Besides you all know what a stock white 80 looks like.
2. Heavies and 25mm packers with 315’s
3. Current set up with 3.5” FOR springs no spacers and 315’s, link to write up Here

[Slomo]

More

1. Back, rear bumper corners and receiver are off now and rear bumper is being fabbed
2. Roof Durabked with XM antenna at rear and CB/2 Meter antenna base forward.
3. Bottom up view of the plate I made to mount MileMarker 9500 winch in ARB. Mounts to top of USPS frame rail with two of the bolts used to install the ARB. No spacers on winch.

[Slomo]

More

1. Front license plate mounted as tight and low as possible, also so it won’t bend from air pressure as with the ARB mount that only holds it on the bottom two holes.
2. First actual Mod, Tillie dog my official co-pilot
3. Front interior, I tried to keep it as clean and uncluttered as possible

[Slomo]

More

1. Mag light mounted under/along driver’s seat
2. Only blank used so far for air compressor
3. Radio set up in center dash, OEM CDL is just out of frame, link to write up Here

[Slomo]

More

1. Main XM reciever and Ipod connection for head unit, XM adapter inside shifter console. , toggle to switch between CB or 2 Meter to external speaker is barely visible by the ebrake handle boot in upper left of the pic

2. Cargo area with compressor mount, dual aux power outlets, and permanent antenna/coil storage.

3. Group 31 blue top and 100 amp relay and circuit breaker for compressor. Quart of Mobil 1 wrapped in towel.

[Slomo]

More wheeling shots

1. Posing while goofing off before 315’s, still trying to completely kill the 275’s
2. Holcomb Creek trail in Big Bear
3. Anza Borrego very close to El Diablo Drop Off

[Slomo]

Even more but I swear these are the last

1. Wheeling in Calico after a trail clean up day

2. Hardcore Southern California water crossing, risky without snorkel.

3. Exploring Borrego washes

[Bluto]

Hey Mo!
That is one nice 80.

Love the pics and the lic. plate.

[petrolhog]

Thats a really sweeeet rig. Love what u did to the roof rack...

[marchthroughathens]

Awesome Rig! Good to see such a great cruiser residing in So Cal. Are you fabbing the rear bumper yourself?

[Newps]

Mo:

Great write up! Your rig has come a long way in a long time . I look forward to seeing what you create for the rear bumper. I’m sure it will be very clean and very trick just like everything else you have done to your ride. Can’t wait till this summer, Big Bear is calling, time to hit John Bull.

P.S. During the next SoCal 80s trail run, one mention of what time your wife is expecting you home and I am sorry but..... you will have to die!

Tare




One thing I will say Mo is very smooth on the trail, he picks great lines.

[boydmick]

Originally Posted by petrolhog

Thats a really sweeeet rig. Love what u did to the roof rack...

What kind of pattern is that Mo? ]||[ Some sort of Alien landing site?

Truck looks good!


Oh yeah, where'd you get those sliders?!

[Proven]

1st- Of course I am going to steal some ideas from this rigg.

last comment - I thought that all FZJ80's used ATF for power steering fluid and the use of anything else would cause premature wear of the power steering pump's impellar?

[F0RSAKEN]

Love it!!

[Brentbba]

Great write up Mo! Gotta luv those door leds!

[Capocaccia]

Very nice. I ordered my OME 2.5 springs last friday and will have 1 inch spacers all the way around. Im hoping its going to sit as tall as yours. Great looking cruiser!

[Slomo]

Thanks to all for the kind words, Boyd who picked up my sliders from Ken for me, Brent for the door led's, and Tare whose insult and complement offset each other so no thanks to you.

Originally Posted by marchthroughathens

Awesome Rig! Good to see such a great cruiser residing in So Cal. Are you fabbing the rear bumper yourself?

Yeah fabbing the rear bumper myself so it will probably take awhile. I will do a write up when it is done. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Proven

I thought that all FZJ80's used ATF for power steering fluid and the use of anything else would cause premature wear of the power steering pump's impellar?

The debate seemed to go back and forth and I honestly lost track, I haven't had any noise from it before or after the PS flush. I thought I read that they called for PS fluid but I just double checked and the FSM does indeed call for ATF Dexron II or III. Perhaps cary or RavenTai will chime in.

[smittycrusher]

JAFW80









JAFWOC80






















Great write up Mo. I would expect nothing less of you. Your rig has changed a lot since I last saw it. Very very nice. I am loving every moinute of those heavies that you no longer needed . Thanks for all your help during my journey into this sport. You have truly forgotten more than I will ever know.

Boyd now knows where his relatives can land on arrival

You rock Mo


Smit

[reffug]

Excellent write up.

Great use of links.

Very impressive rig.

As always thanks for contributing.

[Beowulf]

Mo,
I only have one thing to say: I love white trucks!




Actually, as expected, I have more than one thing to say. Nice rig and nice write-up! Thanks for doing the ROTW. I'm not sure who had the original idea of doing this in the 80-section but I look forward to every ROTW so I can steal more ideas for spending money on my own truck.



-B-

[fzjchase]

Nice looking rid.

How would you compare FOR to OME springs (ride wise; stifness, and etc)?

[SOCALFJ]

Ive seen the rig in person and it's a very well built rig. Nice write up Mo!

[PabloVTA]

X2

sweet rig. your write ups are great.

[Ting]

Can you tell us more on your roof solution.

Nice rig!!

[fzjchase]

Is that a noose hanging from your rear view mirror?

[Slomo]

Thanks again all I really enjoy being able to contribute something, and appreciate the kind words and thoughts, the write up turned out pretty cool. I am so anal I had it written in Word first, spell checked, links layed out pictures sized and in order in a seperate file.... The SoCal 80's guys can vouch for meticulousness. (cool word )

Originally Posted by fzjchase

Nice looking rid.

How would you compare FOR to OME springs (ride wise; stifness, and etc)?

I like the FOR springs very much, the ride is similar to the OME's but they hold a load better (less sagging with same weight). I really had hoped to replace my OME shocks by now with some valved according to what Nay and Frankie decided on so the shocks would be properly tuned to the springs. I imagine the ride would be even better. That being said it still rides fantastic, controlled but not harsh and minimal body roll. I still have both swaybars but dropped 1" each. Pretty good considering the truck weighs in at 6k lbs with all the crap we put on and the fact that we take that extra weight lift it higher to do the exploring/wheeling that we all love here. Except LX_TREME of course!



I second Beowulf, I love checking out the rigs each week and finding out what else I "NEED" to do to mine. White 80's rule, the rest of you are just jealous.

Originally Posted by Ting

Can you tell us more on your roof solution.

Nice rig!!

I removed the factory rack and drilled out the wellnuts, then I used aluminum tape to cover the holes and marked out the pattern in tape. I just followed the molded ridges in the roof and the basic footp print of the factory racks to cover up all the scuffed and damaged paint. Then applied Durabak like "normal" on the rest of the truck. concretejungle has a great write up on his Durabak process that I used when I did mine.

Originally Posted by fzjchase

Is that a noose hanging from your rear view mirror?

Very good eye. That is my lucky noose, I have had it in every one of my trucks since I turned 16, almost 20 years! I do have to confess that the physical original finally disintigrated to dust, literally, about 2-3 years ago and I had to make the current one and bless it, drive in the dirt, and pour a little beer on it and I was back buisness. Brings me good luck and keeps me from getting killed behind the wheel. FYI I didn't have it on my ride I totalled two years ago mentioned in the first post. Won't make that mistake again.

[LX_TREME]

Originally Posted by Slomo

Pretty good considering the truck weighs in at 6k lbs with all the crap we put on and the fact that we take that extra weight lift it higher to do the exploring/wheeling that we all love here. Except LX_TREME of course!

Hey let me out of this by the way nice truck, but the customized plate [4LO 4MO] should be in the center and you should complain to DMV

[boydmick]

Originally Posted by LX_TREME

. . . the customized plate [4LO 4MO] should be in the center and you should complain to DMV

Mo,

I noticed that at Calico, but didn't have the heart to mention it

I think you should have specified a space in the middle.

[boydmick]

Oh yeah,

I cant believe Smitty beat me to it. . . JAFW80!!

[Bluetribal]

Originally Posted by Slomo

concretejungle has a great write up on his Durabak process that I used when I did mine.

Can you post the link for this? I couldn't find anything on Google. I have convinced my Tundra owning friend to remove the flares he is complaining about coming lose and rhino/durabak the fenders. I have offered to lend a hand and want to get schooled since I convinced him to use his vehicle as a giny pig (SP?)