Build 1987 Toyota Xtra Cab - From Scrap To Truggy - Build

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Chapter 23: Fuel Injector Upgrade, Seats, Rear Axle Straightening, & Boatside Creation

With the big projects out of the way, it was time to tackle a few smaller things. I had a leaky injector, and I had concerns that the injectors may not be able to support future mods so I chose to look for some injectors around 50lbs. I ended up deciding on using new Bosch injectors for an LS3 with adapter caps to fit within the stock rail. The injector duty cycle is light at idle but work really well at idle regardless.

My dad had a set of VW seats from a golf or something that he decided he didn’t have a use for and had asked if I did. I thought they might be a good fit for the Toyota so I took that little project on. They fit very nicely in there and actually allowed me to get a little closer to the floorpan. That was nice for my height.

 

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The next order of business had bugged me for a very long time; the bent rear axle. This was how I purchased it. Looks like it banana’d from the truss welding the prior owner had done. I probably made things worse because some of the welds were very poor so I set my welder to HOT and burned them in better. Anyway, it had come time to make this proper. So, I bought a precision bar and made a couple of pucks to sit in the carrier and slip fit the bar. Then, I fabbed a simple jig using an old I-beam in my press and started pushing until I could at least get the bar through. At first, I couldn’t even get the bar in the first puck, pump the jack a couple times and a couple pops of weld cracking, and now I could push through both pucks on one side. I moved the jig so I was pressing on the other axle side and kept pressing until I could get the bar through. After that, I used press and heat to dial the axle into perfect enough for me. I left pressure on as I rewelded portions of old weld that had cracked. After releasing pressure, it was perfect. I was very happy with the results.

 

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Finally, it was time to tackle the last thing I promised myself I wouldn’t climb on a rock until I had done; the boatsides. I really wanted this to have hidden fasteners for no good reason other than I didn’t want rocks mucking them up. So, I took a little extra time to build them in with perpendicular flats that mount to the ribs I had fabbed.

After this work, I really spent a lot of time driving it and getting to trust it was worth taking on a longer trip to an offroad park.

 

[aztoytec]

Very impressive build! Good job!

 

[aztoyman]

Those seats look great. Great job on the skids and great save on the axle housing. Those suckers are thin.

 

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Chapter 24: Rear Axle Limitations

A friend and I packed up and took a trip down to the badlands offroad park in attica, Indiana. It was the best 1.5hrs of wheeling I ever did up to that point! So, let me unpack that last sentence. It climbed like crazy, even with 20-year-old hummer tires. BUT, I was on 20-year-old hummer tires. It turns out that they really don’t stick no matter how much heat you put in them. So plan B? Bump it, bump it hard! And so, we did.

 

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This was meant to be sort of a torture test on the drivetrain. I wanted to know what it was capable of. At one point I had all 4 off the ground because I was bumping so hard to get up a rockface. Nothing but smiles! This thing was awesome. Then came a challenge that required grip and what I didn’t quite see, a pinch point on the back right rear tire that when bumped, the tire would set into and provide absolute traction. When I bumped on this hill, that tire gripped, the locker clicked in and kaboom! I knocked gears off the ring gear instantly and twisted a chromoly axle shaft.

Like I said, best 1.5hrs of wheeling I’ve ever had! The cool part was it still drove itself out. Sure, it had a big bang every single axle rotation, but it carried itself out regardless. I have three takeaways for revisions. I decided then and there I did not like a Detroit style locker anymore for this type of wheeling, I was tired of stalling it with a lack of control over idle, and the hummer tires had to go.

 

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Chapter 25: Air-locker, Idle Air Control, Pitbulls, & Rock & Valleys

I had decided I wanted the same air-locker that was in the front of the truck so I bought it and a fresh set of 5.29 gears from Yukon. In the name of upgrading, I also started with a brand new V6 housing instead of the 4 cylinder housing that I had.

Once the rear axle back up and going it was time to start playing with idle air control. I took an idle air control valve off a 2008 Ford Ranger that was in the junkyard. I made a mount plate for it and mounted it in the same spot the original air valve used to sit underneath the intake. Programming this was easy enough and it made a tremendous difference in being able to predict the stall better on rocks. I also added a high idle feature for when I air up my tires or just want to use the air in general.

 

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I happened across a set of old pitbull tires on marketplace that fit the bill and the budget enough to act on. I have been very happy with these in comparison to the hummer tires. With all these updates I was ready to give another test, so I went to Rocks & Valleys in Michigan for a shakedown. It performed very well besides having a power steering pressure line give way.

 

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[aztoyman]

Pretty slick idea adapting the Ford IAC.

 

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Chapter 26: Turbo Time

This rig has been running great! One thing I would like it to do better is pull itself along in the sand better. I live near Silver Lake Sand Dunes in Michigan. I didn’t build this thing to be a sand monster but as it turns out, this rock rig does very well in the sand. The long hills show this Toyota’s weakness though. I have tried everything to get this rig to run up the biggest hill and it just plain runs out of breathe. Here’s the thing, the design intent really wasn’t around running sand hills or the highway. But I do both more than I thought I would and I’d like to be able to not have to hold wide open throttle the whole time.

So, let’s talk about this pair of turbos I have had in my back garage for 10 years. They were part of an eBay kit for a small block chevy from the early 2000’s. They are hybrid T3/T4’s with a .63 aspect ratio on the exhaust and .50 aspect ratio on the compressor. One of these turbos had shrapnel from the engine that they had helped destroy and isn’t worth fixing. The other is still in good shape. I think it is a little oversized for what I want but not oversized by a lot. Should I put this on and see? Why not.

I started collecting parts. First, an eBay header, then a Chinese blowoff valve, finally a summit racing (also Chinese) wastegate. With most parts collected, I started into it one evening by simply bolting the turbo to the header. Then, I pulled the NA header off and bolted it on to see how fitment was. Not great. The lower coolant pipe was in the way a little bit and needed to be moved. I fixed that and it sat in its spot ok.

Alright, time to build a downpipe. I aimed to have the pipe mount to the same v-band location as the NA header mounted, so if this all turns out terrible, I have a fallback. Once that was pieced together, I started working out how to make the wastegate fit into the design. I felt pretty good on where that ended up.

 

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Next came the step I was dreading. Where do I put the turbo drain? A lot of people choose to drill a hole in the pan and weld a bung on there; but here’s the problem with that, that I’ve learned; if your oil covers up your drain opening and it can’t “breathe”, it will push oil out the turbo shaft seals. Knowing this, I opted to drop the pan and drill a hole where the 22RET mount boss is.

Finally, with that out of the way, all that I needed was for boost to get to the intake. For that I chose differently than those looking for raw power numbers may. I picked 2” tube to feed the intake instead of something larger. I did that to keep my volume as small as possible to allow the boost lag to be as minimal as I could make it. For this same reason I also opted to not run an intercooler. Now, I fully understand I am leaving power on the table and choking power under wide open throttle, and I’m fine with that for my application. My expected return was to have boost sitting on the torque curve as well as I could and as quickly as possible.

So, did it work? Why, yes, yes it did! I set it to 2PSI, then 5PSI, then 8PSI, then 10PSI. My spark curve was virtually nonexistent to go over 10PSI at the time. With intake temps getting out of control past 10PSI as well, I stopped there.

Time had come for a test. Silver Lake Sand Dunes was a week out from closing for the season. I rushed to get the truck well enough to get up there. I hit the first big hill, WOW! The turbo lit and just sailed it up the hill. What a difference! I didn’t get a long time to test before my fuel pump started to act up and ultimately failed. My only gripe, she falls from boost under 2800RPM. I knew this damn turbo was going to be too big. Time to buy the right one because I love this thing.

 

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Chapter 27: The Right Turbo & Airbox

With my goals achieved but knowing I could do better, I researched my options. I wasn’t planning to buy the correct turbo right now, but I kept finding this T3/T4 Chinese turbo for $140 with an exhaust A/R of .48. I was sure that is what I needed to make this way closer to ideal. The price was too ridiculous to wait, so I made the purchase.

I popped this puppy in and here we are. We make 10PSI at 2200rpm and it comes in nice and smooth. This thing feels factory. I’m still not super happy with my limited timing yet. I think I am at 10* at full boost or maybe even less, but I realized I hadn’t put colder spark plugs in after the change. I added those and haven’t had a chance to play with time yet after.

To better manage intake temps, I made an airbox. It did help cut temps by 20-40*. I was seeing 205* in the dunes under WOT. I plan to add water meth at some point to manage those temps better as well. Again, I know an intercooler would accomplish this but would add boost lag. With what I am trying to accomplish here, I feel like lag is more important then intake temps.

With the end of this chapter, it brings us up to date with where this project it. From here, I'll keep plugging away at it. I still want to add a clutch switch for flat shifting, a e-brake that mounts a rotor on the t-case output, and I would like to run a switch to limit boost when I have both gearboxes in low range.