Slomo
It's Complicated
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
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