3rd gen 4Runner, Racing Build

[Good Mayhem]

Right on! I introduced Dave to his wife.
I helped him move into his shop when he first opened.
Dave is a hell of a dude for sure!

Sure is, and that's awesome!

Would anyone have feedback on mounting locations for the permanent fire suppression and it's nozzles? I've included a drawing of my current idea.

This will be manually activated (pull type) fire suppression setup using a 4 liter bottle.

^Example of the bottle size, to scale.

Thanks ahead for the help!

 

[SL0WHUG0]

Sure is, and that's awesome!

Would anyone have feedback on mounting locations for the permanent fire suppression and it's nozzles? I've included a drawing of my current idea.

This will be manually activated (pull type) fire suppression setup using a 4 liter bottle.

View attachment 2644479


View attachment 2644480
^Example of the bottle size, to scale.

Thanks ahead for the help!

Holy smokes you're a detailed builder, what awesome drawings and blueprints. I've said it before and I'll say it again-- stoked to be subbed to this thread and can't wait to see it in action!

 

[Good Mayhem]

Holy smokes you're a detailed builder, what awesome drawings and blueprints. I've said it before and I'll say it again-- stoked to be subbed to this thread and can't wait to see it in action!

Same here! Looking forward to it!

So the firebottle fits right where I was hoping, and LifeLine did confirm that it can be mounted flat. I purchased the Lifeline 2000 (link here). I'm planning out the 8 nozzle locations. The nozzles have a 90 degree spray pattern, so I'll plan 3 in the main passenger compartment, two for the fuel cell, two in engine bay, and one in the survival-gear/tool area. I'm not sure how the mounting tabs for the nozzles are going to work, and running the suppressant lines is flat out thought provoking.

Now, running the suppressant tubing is not inherently difficult. The challenge is to match head pressure between the different tubing systems the fire suppressant flows through. If one line to the nozzle is significantly shorter than the others, it will get more flow. Here's a link if you need a nap (link here). The easiest way to address that challenge is to match the lengths of tubing coming from the bottle. It'll be far from perfect, but if I can match them within 20% of eachother, that'll probably be good enough.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Update!

Since I am using the OEM steering wheel bar that mounts hardware in the dashboard, I'm fine tuning where fire suppressant nozzles mount.

^^current brainstorm on running the fire suppressant tubing and where the nozzles go:
1. two in engine bay
2 . two for the occupants' feet/legs
3. two for the occupant's waist/torso
4. two for the fuel cell
1 and 2 share a primary feed from the extinguisher.
3 and 4 share a primary feed from the extinguisher.

I had aluminum laser cut into the following shape (oshcut.com):

Then they were bent to fit around tubing:

Then I'd form them at their mounting location.

And here are several nozzles mounted in a single pic. If the solidworks picture doesn't make sense, hopefully these help. Cheers!

 

[Good Mayhem]

UPDATE!!

My daily FJ cruiser was totaled in a freak incident, so I had to drive the racebuild 4runner daily for a while trying to get that situation squared away.

^^now totaled FJ.

^daily driving. Lucky clear skies for one day--the rest were rainy.

Night time commutes, 3rd gen headlights stink. It was ironic, cause I had just added new proctor headlights to the FJ.

Needless to say, that seriously delayed the build schedule. I had to stop working on the fire suppression stuff. Currently I'm designing the rear spare tire mount. Ideally, the spare tire can be hard mounted in the 4runner with the hatch closed while clearing the upcoming fuel cell. Right now, that's not possible with a hard mount. To make a version where I can still close the hatch, a section of non-critical tubing would need to be cut and rewelded. Sense be darned--let's see what that cut and reweld would look like:

^^live 3d render of the solidworks file using Augment. It's far from perfect, but its a really cool concept.
Any ideas on the tubing arrangement? I'm torn between doing a 3-way node and a 4-way node. The hard mount will have to be removable to service the fuel cell beneath it, which is why there heavy duty tubing clamps in the model. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Redgrrr]

Wow cool build! Subbed…

It’s way far north of you but have you checked out the YORR or Yellowstone Offroad Race series? A few friends of mine race the series and I’ve co-piloted once in Columbus Montana. My friends son Landen is 12 years old and beats all the adults frequently! This is his 3rd season!

 

[Good Mayhem]

Wow cool build! Subbed…

It’s way far north of you but have you checked out the YORR or Yellowstone Offroad Race series? A few friends of mine race the series and I’ve co-piloted once in Columbus Montana. My friends son Landen is 12 years old and beats all the adults frequently! This is his 3rd season!

That sounds awesome! I'd love to go up there and race once this thing gets built up. Stay tuned!

Here's the current update.

I've redesigned the tire mount to the following:

1. Mount is now a triangulated member.
2. Mounts with a removable triangulated assembly using TMR customs link here. That way, the mount can be removed to work on the fuel cell beneath it. I will use these three connections very, very sparingly (pun intended). They are super cool, but I don't know of any codes that allow these for life saving members, just for accessorizing like a spare tire mount.
3. The spare tire mount is movable up and down the length of the center tube. That way, it can be high in the cabin for when the back hatch is used, and slid down when the back hatch is removed.

^config for inside cabin space.

^^race configuration. I didn't move the mounting plate in the render--my bad. That tire mount would be the part that slides along the center tube. I'll use a tubing clamp as seen in the link here! The mount will be angled to let the spare tire hang out so far.

Parts are being delivered everywhere from California to Canada, so this is going to take a while to start.
In the meantime, garage goals! I'm buying a 3 car garage with attached house, so we're getting hellogarage to do their floor coating, and I'll figure out the shelving later. Here's my render using their marshmallow colored finish. It's about $8 a square foot in cost.

Cheers!

 

[Good Mayhem]

Update on the spare tire carrier!

Realization is underway!
1. I bought a welding machine for the home. Once we verified its calibration, it was off to the welding races on the spare tire mount.

^welded mount.

^Model/sketch

^race config (no hatch)

^Road use (with hatch)

I hope to have the rear assembly fabricated in October. Cheers!

 

[Good Mayhem]

Update!

Some cool things this week.
1. I coated the mount with Steelit. Man, I love the finish of that paint! Worth every penny. It's about time to buy some more.
2. We bought a 3 car garage with attached house! The garage will become home base for the build.
2a. The floor will be coated with polyaspartic late this week.
2b. 240V wiring for welding use is up next.
2c. We may raise the garage doors in the garage.
3. We're going to figure out shelving in the garage in a while.
4. We may raise the roof of the garage. I'm going to talk with a framer and a PE and find out how feasable it it on the house. Fortunately, we have blueprints.

 

[raisinhell2]

Nice looking rig . I hated my inside cage on my 2nd gen. Im 6ft 2 and hit my head on the cage everytime I wheeled.. Your seats are much better than mine and lower.. Who designed your cage? Im not digging your frt hoop or lack of. When I did a hard low speed roll about 15 ft off a ledge . I bent my 1 piece frt hoop almost 6 inches down. I see you did yours in several pieces. Fit looks great. But I don't think you have enough structure to handle a semi hard roll.. I think your gussets from hoop to down tubes welded toghter need to be twice as big. That is right where mine bent. Id prob be dead if it was a high speed roll.. I have a picture of my cage after the roll but cant find it .,.,

 

[Good Mayhem]

ard low speed roll about 15 ft off a ledge . I bent my 1 piece frt hoop almost 6 inches down. I see you did yours in several pieces. Fit looks great. But I don't think you have enough structure to handle a semi hard roll.. I think your gussets from hoop to down tubes welded toghter need to be twice as big. That is right where mine bent. Id prob be dead if

I appreciate the feedback! I'm designing and fabricating it, and I've had multiple design reviews/guidance from Score Tech throughout fabrication. It's gotta do two things:
1. Save lives
2. Pass Tech to race.

Out of curiosity, what grade of tubing or pipe did you use in your roll cage build, what welding process did you use, and what kind of joint preps? Using people's feedback to make it better is more better. I've been thinking about adding tubing at the red or green lines in the image below. Would they prevent what your talking about?

 

[raisinhell2]

I.5 .120 wall dom. The material was good .. It failed due to an engineering problem. On the inside 2nd gen cage it has a bend on the frt hoops down tubes to go around the dash . It failed in that bend. Damn near about the same spot were your pieces connect . I don't think you need and extra tube just prob alittle more gusset between the 2 blue tubes. .. I really think if mine had something there it would not have failed. . The pass side had a grab handle in that spot and didn't bend .. Now my buggy we used .180 wall for the hoops. It isnt a race car we weren't worried about weight. Im building a pro street 4 x right now it will be the 1st cage I have made that has to go though a tech inspection and have to worry about weight. Im sure there is a big learning curve

 

[Good Mayhem]

I.5 .120 wall dom. The material was good .. It failed due to an engineering problem. On the inside 2nd gen cage it has a bend on the frt hoops down tubes to go around the dash . It failed in that bend. Damn near about the same spot were your pieces connect . I don't think you need and extra tube just prob alittle more gusset between the 2 blue tubes. .. I really think if mine had something there it would not have failed. . The pass side had a grab handle in that spot and didn't bend .. Now my buggy we used .180 wall for the hoops. It isnt a race car we weren't worried about weight. Im building a pro street 4 x right now it will be the 1st cage I have made that has to go though a tech inspection and have to worry about weight. Im sure there is a big learning curve

How big was your grab handle? The gussets there are 30% larger than what spec requires, so it might be getting closer to diminishing returns in my case. I've been thinking about doing a grab handle there anyway, and it'd be a nice compromise.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Here's a good photo of that joint if you're interested.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Here's an update!

This is the configuration I settled on. It allows for good protection for the future fuel cell while making a good mounting point for the tire.

^Plan

^Reality

I'll have to cap those open tubing ends, but that cut allows the tire to stay in there with the hatch closed.

^Spare tire mounted.

^tubing clamp can slide up and down the tube to fine tune the spare tire's position.

From a race standpoing, next up are the following:
- Fuel Cell
- Dashboard
- Sirens/Horns
- Comms
- Exhaust relocation (due to fuel cell)
- Rear Chase Lights / Hatch delete.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Update!

1. Started routing the lines for the fire suppression system. It's so satisfying to get this far in the build, even though there's still alot more to do. I'm about 1 meter short on tubing, so I had to order more. I also busted one of the nozzles, so I went ahead and bought engine nozzles for the engine bay too. LifeLine's initial build cost was only $450, and buying two more nozzles and more tubing added another ~$170 to that toll. Those should come in tomorrow.
2. I laid down NASCAR fire blankets for the floorboards. I bought them over at SRI performance in Charlotte NC. They are rad! Quick knifework and gorilla tape sealed the deal.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Fun-update!

1. Fire suppression system is up and running! Engine nozzles are in, tubing tied down, and handles are placed. Once I finish the dashboard, I'll relocate the cockpit pull to the middle, where both driver and navigator can pull the handle.
2. I mounted the door and window controls to run parallel to the tubing on both doors, and it's a natural spot to work from. Doesn't encroach on cabin space at all, and they're still mounted to the doors.

^pull placement and door control example.
3. I've been procrastinating on this one, but I capped the ends of the bumper. I cut them years ago and hadn't capped them yet.

^Cap on driver side.
4. I removed the rear hatch and mounted the spare tire in the "race" position, sticking out of the cab. With that, I also mounted the license place in the middle of the spare with a License plate light and 3rd brake light kit. Driving around with no hatch / no rear spoiler allows for more exhaust to backflow into the cabin--it'll probably not be a problem once the windshield is removed. The drop in center of gravity is very noticable--corners and brakes flatter, with the front lifting up a bit more in acceleration.

 

[Good Mayhem]

This weekend was alot of tedious TLC, but well worth the time.

With the rear spare tire stuff figured out for now, it was time to take everything in the back apart, weld caps on the cut tubing and weld a bent tube that clears the spare tire with the hatch closed.

After confirming fit with the hatch closed, it was time to paint all of the new steel. Used steel-it gray coating, like the rest of the cage.

Got it all reassembled after drying and took it driving. It feels so good to have a rear view out the back.

I also added the rear spoiler to the back of the body, because that really does help with exhaust backflow. Ideally, I'd cut up a rear hatch to do the work, but this may work better with chase lights anyway once those happen. If you notice, there's an ABS light on--that comes on when brake lights are out on 3rd gens, including the 3rd brake light. Since the job of the 3rd brake light is now being done with LED's, their resistance doesn't match the original bulb, so that's something I'm going to figure out long term.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Big little update!


1. I welded in Total Chaos' cam tabs.
2. I've designed an alignment kit!
3. Replaced the steering rack bushings.

Details,
1. Even though the 4runner's gone through a tremendous amount of work since Toyota Jamboree 2018, I hadn't fixed my trail damage from that weekend--squashed alignment tabs. I welded the tabs up a couple years ago, and now I've finally gotten around to welding them to the frame. That, and since I don't have the adjustable upper control arms for TC's long travel setup, I modified the rear tab mounts by pushing them out 3/8" per side on the frame. That way, the 4runner's alignment gets better camber and caster.

2. Speaking of camber and caster, I've wheeled alignment kits into the ground. Whether it be OEM, aftermarket, or diy stuff, I've destroyed them all. I was researching alignment delete kits alot, and found ways to improve them. So I've made my own alignment kit that has 10+ fine tuning settings per set. I fit them to the TC cam tabs, so their tolerance is tight. By upgrading to a 3/4" bolt, there's no more OD tube for the control arm to collapse.
Here's how my alignment kit is different from others online
- 10 adjustments
- Doesn't use different plates for outside and inside settings
- Alignment Parts aren't removed to align the vehicle.
- Uses 4130 laser cut material and grade 8 hardware.
- Coated with Steel-it.
- Long smooth shank bolts to prevent binding on threads and galling.
- Tight tolerance to the cam tabs.

3. I replaced the steering rack bushings. That was fairly straight forward, but I wish TC's instructions could be improved somewhat.

If you're ever thinking about lifting your truck, bite the bullet, buy adjustable uppers.

 

[SL0WHUG0]

That homemade alignment kit is super cool and badass. It's awesome seeing people still getting this creative and innovative with Toyotas as old as ours. Are you familiar with the 333 alignment eliminator kits? They have a similar goal from my understanding, but yours look like it's executed much better. 4Runner is looking awesome man. When do you plan/hope to be "done" with its current build?