3rd gen 4Runner, Racing Build (1 Viewer)

[Good Mayhem]

Howdy folks, I am building a '99 4x4 4runner to Score competition reg's. It's been wheeled alot from Moab to Texas, and I decided to build it for racing. The goal? Build a race-spec 4Runner, get some experience with smaller races for a year, then tackle the Baja 1000.

^Current photo

Current state of the build?
Wheeling Mods:
- Long travel Total Chaos Front with rear coilover conversion (this will likely put the truck in a Sportsman's Unlimited or Modified class)
- Radflo coilovers w/ Eibach springs. Dual rate setup in the back, 500 lbs in the front.
- Shrockworks Front bumper and sliders (mounts welded to frame)
- Warn Winch
- Some lights
- Not enough lockers
- Alot of Fender Cutting
- LBJ uniball conversions.
Racing mods so far.
- Frame Mounted Roll Cage (AWS D1.1 Tubulars/Clause10, GTAW, Spec size is 2" .120 wall DOM Tubing // welded with ER70S-2 and ER80S-D2, undersize tubing is 1-3/4" x .120wall tubing). Bend Radius is 6.5", Steel-it gray and black
- Seats and Harnesses Mounted (PRP Podium Elites & SFI 16.5 / 5.3 point harnesses).
- QD Steering Wheel

^photo doesn't include passenger seat^

^current photo^

^current photo^

Next up?
- Dashboard
- Fire Suppression, (2 5lb portables, and 1 permanent).
- Fuel Cell / System (probably FuelSafe 50 gal Truck)
- Safety Nets
- Comms & sirens
- Spare Tire Mount



First question to those who race SUV's (big nod to Monica and the Canguro guys), where are the fuel filler lines and caps in your rig? Can you show some photos? I'm hung up on CR22 of the competition req's: My first thought is to run the fill line and cap to the OEM gas tank cap location. Thanks ahead for the help!

"
CR 22 FUEL FILLER LINES, VENTS, and CAPS
Fuel filler lines and caps must be mounted in a location where they cannot be knocked open or off during movement of the vehicle. All fillers must be located within a line drawn from two extremities of the frame or body structure so as to prevent opening during a roll-over or accidental impact.

`CR 22 FUEL FILLER LINES, VENTS, and CAPS - continued
Fuel pick-up openings, lines, breather vents, and fuel filler lines shall be designed and installed so that if the car is partially or totally inverted fuel shall not escape. Fuel breather tubes must be routed completely around roll cage to form complete loop and open end must extend below bottom of chassis. Fuel breather lines must have a check valve. Fuel tank breathers must be vented outside the driver's compartment.
All fuel fillers attached to the frame or body must have a flexible coupling to the tank. Positive locking nonvented fuel filler caps (no Monza/flip type) are required. If the fuel filler cap is located directly on the fuel tank a check valve is not required. If the fuel filler cap is not located directly on the fuel tank (I.E. within 2 in.), a check valve must be incorporated in the fuel tank to prevent fuel escaping if the cap and filler neck are torn from the tank. It is recommended that all lines, filler openings, and vents be incorporated in a single fitting located at the top of the fuel tank. All fuel fillers must be surrounded at the outer extremity with a splash guard or boot designed to direct spilled fuel to the outside of the vehicle away from the driver, engine, and exhaust system when fueling. A body panel is acceptable as a splashguard if the fuel filler penetration is sealed.
"
2020 Comp Regs 3.24.20 Web
© 2020 SCORE International, Pages 6 & 7 of 15

 

[splitshot]

Hey, keep us up to date on this, ok?

 

[Good Mayhem]

Hey, keep us up to date on this, ok?

Yezzir, will do!

Here's what the mount for the portable fire extinguishers looks like. I think the QD mounts will work, but I had use better hose clamps than the ones provided.

And for anyone who's curious on what's going on inside, here's a transparent view in solidworks. That shows all the roll cage tubing present, except for the gussets. Fuel cell will go right behind the rear axle/panhard, going through the rear floor board about half way.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Hey, keep us up to date on this, ok?

Here's the updated model with the gussets--finally figured out how to do them.

Saddle gussets were welded where occupants get into the vehicle, and plate gussets were used everywhere else. If I remember right, there's 10 saddle gussets and about 50 plate gussets.

Currently I'm working on sealing up the roll cage holes. Since the roll cage is frame mounted, it cannot be welded directly to the body. For convenience / inspection sake, I'm just sealing off the holes with rubber and making some gaskets to make them water tight. A couple of examples are included below.

 

[ajordan1975]

Very cool!

 

[Good Mayhem]

Very cool!

Thanks man! Update:

I installed bed lights as cabin lights, but I went ahead and wired an on-off-on switch to run it with the OEM door system. Meaning, they turn on when the doors open like normal, and they can be manually turned on, like normal. It's a little detail, but a satisfying one. Something to keep the truck progress going in this Texas "blizzard." That, and having hardwired lighting is really nice. They are 3M sticky tape mounted, both the LED pods and ziptie-pad mounts.

 

[ThePurpose]

Hey Good Mayhem!
Just made an account to ask you some questions. Are you keeping this 2wd? I really love how my 99 4Runner handles just being 2wd, though I keep reminding myself to buy a truck and go crazy with that instead. Here's my instagram Login • Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thepurposeisthepurpose/ and I use youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/lifesgo0d/videos to document building and driving things and trying them out. I can try to build an exact version of your truck if you tell me how much it weighs, wheelbase, just whatever you'd like for me to know.

Also how does your cage tie into the frame? Do you need or plan to build an engine cage? Are you happy with your long travel front and how did you come up with your rear suspension setup? I moved my shocks outboard and use 5th gen 4runner springs/shocks to get a little better travel and range of motion. What's your welder/metal fab setup? Are you happy with your fender cuts? Are you happy with the front bumper? How well is the rubber sealing up holes through the floor? Is your truck very stiff and uncomfortable on the street? Are 35's your ideal tire size? Gearing change? I have an aussie locker in my 99 and really love it but I'm thinking about putting in a tundra axle because the pinion design is stronger. I want to be able to beat on this thing pretty hard and I'm always worried about bending my axle. I should probably just come check out your truck in person sometime...I've got family down in Houston.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Hey Good Mayhem!
Just made an account to ask you some questions. Are you keeping this 2wd? I really love how my 99 4Runner handles just being 2wd, though I keep reminding myself to buy a truck and go crazy with that instead. Here's my instagram Login • Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thepurposeisthepurpose/ and I use youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/lifesgo0d/videos to document building and driving things and trying them out. I can try to build an exact version of your truck if you tell me how much it weighs, wheelbase, just whatever you'd like for me to know.

Also how does your cage tie into the frame? Do you need or plan to build an engine cage? Are you happy with your long travel front and how did you come up with your rear suspension setup? I moved my shocks outboard and use 5th gen 4runner springs/shocks to get a little better travel and range of motion. What's your welder/metal fab setup? Are you happy with your fender cuts? Are you happy with the front bumper? How well is the rubber sealing up holes through the floor? Is your truck very stiff and uncomfortable on the street? Are 35's your ideal tire size? Gearing change? I have an aussie locker in my 99 and really love it but I'm thinking about putting in a tundra axle because the pinion design is stronger. I want to be able to beat on this thing pretty hard and I'm always worried about bending my axle. I should probably just come check out your truck in person sometime...I've got family down in Houston.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more.

Howdy ThePurpose!
To answer your questions:
- It's 4wd, and I plan to keep it 4wd. The extra 1/2" of long travel that can be added by losing the front diff isn't worth it in my opinion, especially since my truck isn't fast enough to really push the 100mph+ rated 4x4 setup Toyota manufactured.

The cage ties into 2.5" box tubing that is welded/gusseted to the frame and rock soliders with solid 6"-10" long pins that cap the 2" tubing.

- I might do an engine cage, but I would use to to protect the engine, just tie the front of the frame to the roll cage.
- I like Total Chaos's design and recommend it. I came up with the rear coilover conversion with the limited space the 3rd gen has between frame and axle. Cutting out the spring perches and installing coilovers in their place made sense, and I use traffic cones to waterproof the coilover perches.

-Welding machine is a water cooled Miller syncorwave. Water cooling is probably not needed for welds like these. I am a degreed welding engineer in heavy fabrication, so this has been a fun learning project. I used a crane to lift the roll cage up and down to fitup and weld in position.

answer continued on next post:

 

[Good Mayhem]

Are you happy with your fender cuts? Are you happy with the front bumper? How well is the rubber sealing up holes through the floor? Is your truck very stiff and uncomfortable on the street? Are 35's your ideal tire size? Gearing change? I have an aussie locker in my 99 and really love it but I'm thinking about putting in a tundra axle because the pinion design is stronger. I want to be able to beat on this thing pretty hard and I'm always worried about bending my axle. I should probably just come check out your truck in person sometime...I've got family down in Houston.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more.

- Fender cuts have been fun and fine. I want to figure out a better way to cap the inner fender wells in the front.
- Truck is not uncomfortable at all. The stiffening of the frame helps the suspension do it's job, so ride quality improved with the roll cage install.
- 34's are my ideal tire size.
- 5.29 is planned for regearing. Even if I get a V8 after that, I'd keep the 5.29 gearing. I'll go E locker in the rear and air locker upfront.
- A Tundra axle is probably overkill, since Tundras are practically underrated 3/4 ton trucks. A swap to the venerable 8.2 diff would probably be more straight forward.
- You'll be hardpressed to bend the rear axle--I'd bet your frame would fail first, so you're in a good starting point.
- I designed my own lower uniball conversions for the front. Bored out OEM balljoints and fabricated a uniball cup setup with shearpin-sleeve connections. They work great.

To answer a few more questions:
- I also have the 231 WL's. but I have kept ABS and it works great. However, I plan to do a rear disk break conversion that keeps a manual E-Brake.
- I learned solidworks as part of my degree program, but it was only one class. I've been learning and practicing with solidworks after hours as I've been getting more serious about modeling more than just the cage.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Hey Good Mayhem!
I should probably just come check out your truck in person sometime...I've got family down in Houston.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more.

Yeah, we can meet up sometime! Hanging out with other offroad guys in Houston is a blast.

Here's more photos from my uniball conversion.

^^I also modeled it in Solidworks before manufacturing them.

 

[ThePurpose]

This is really amazing information. Are you on other forums? Or do you have videos of you and your truck?
Gosh this makes me really think about changing to 4wd..... I've been so set on 2wd because of simplicity or whatever I've been telling myself and even my girlfriend asks me why I don't look into 4wd. I think your rear coilover is genius. Do you plan to lengthen the arms or 3 link? All my buddies who I drive trails with have newer stockish toyotas which are extremely capable. I didn't think rock crawling was all that appealing (then again I do have a 2wd with 4.10s) so most of my offroading inspiration has come from the pre-running/desert truck world via the internet. I figured I could build a long travel 2wd truck and attempt to surprise/keep up with the 4wd...
Anyway, I started learning to weld a year ago and just worked a seasonal mig welding job where I got many hours of practice a day. Now I've bought a plasma/stick/tig PrimeWeld and practicing stick every day. Going to a sheet metal shop tomorrow to buy material to make my friend some bumpers and sliders. I would really love practice designing structural pieces and my plan has been to build things and test them for strength. But building them on a computer first or being able to mathematically/theoretically calculate their strength and design on paper first would be pretty helpful, it would seem. Do you recommend just buying the solidworks program? I think it comes with some sort of a tutorial...

Yeah, we can meet up sometime! Hanging out with other offroad guys in Houston is a blast.

 

[Good Mayhem]

This is really amazing information. Are you on other forums? Or do you have videos of you and your truck?
Gosh this makes me really think about changing to 4wd..... I've been so set on 2wd because of simplicity or whatever I've been telling myself and even my girlfriend asks me why I don't look into 4wd. I think your rear coilover is genius. Do you plan to lengthen the arms or 3 link? All my buddies who I drive trails with have newer stockish toyotas which are extremely capable. I didn't think rock crawling was all that appealing (then again I do have a 2wd with 4.10s) so most of my offroading inspiration has come from the pre-running/desert truck world via the internet. I figured I could build a long travel 2wd truck and attempt to surprise/keep up with the 4wd...
Anyway, I started learning to weld a year ago and just worked a seasonal mig welding job where I got many hours of practice a day. Now I've bought a plasma/stick/tig PrimeWeld and practicing stick every day. Going to a sheet metal shop tomorrow to buy material to make my friend some bumpers and sliders. I would really love practice designing structural pieces and my plan has been to build things and test them for strength. But building them on a computer first or being able to mathematically/theoretically calculate their strength and design on paper first would be pretty helpful, it would seem. Do you recommend just buying the solidworks program? I think it comes with some sort of a tutorial...

Yes, making the switch to 4WD is worth it. If you think about long travel as a great equalizer, it's that much more of a contender when paired with 4wd. Most production long travel is optimized to take 4WD setups to their absolute limit while keeping their reliability. I too prefer the desert/pre-running style of offroading, but my appreciation for it is all the more from the experience I've had with rock crawling--so much so, I hope to DNF at the Everyman Challenge of KOH.

And good luck building your fabrication skills! Keep it up, man! If you have a chance to learn Tig as well, it'll compliment your GMAW / Mig skills. Rather than modeling things on the computer first, I suggest reading through some specs around what you want to build, and then start there. For example, if you want to make structural stuff, find a previous edition of AWS D1.1 online.

Solidworks is great, but it's super costly, like $4000 upfront and $1000 a year costly. If you want to learn some software, may I suggest 360 Fusion? If I remember right, Fusion 360 is free for hobbyists and the like.

 

[SL0WHUG0]

What an awesome thread! I'm in a lot of 3rd gen FB pages where long travel is becoming the cool new thing to do, it's very refreshing to see it done in a more usable and "real" way, rather than just for likes and coolness factors. With that being said... this thing is badass. Well done, can't wait to follow along!

 

[Good Mayhem]

Does anyone have experience with Fuel Safe's Enduro Cells and raced with them? FIA-FT3 Certified bladder.
Link-->Fuel Safe Enduro

This is my current plan:
-50 Gallon Fuel Cell
-6AN Pickup, Dual Pickup and Return Size (might do 8AN, but I hear 6AN is still fine for V8's)
-2" 45 degree fill
-ST100 w/ 3 ball check valves.

Thanks ahead for the help. The plan is to install the Fuel cell behind the rear axle. I'll cut the rear floor out to fit it through the body to mount to the frame. Images below (the fuel cell's shell has a black Rhino liner texture in the pictures).

 

[Good Mayhem]

What an awesome thread! I'm in a lot of 3rd gen FB pages where long travel is becoming the cool new thing to do, it's very refreshing to see it done in a more usable and "real" way, rather than just for likes and coolness factors. With that being said... this thing is badass. Well done, can't wait to follow along!

Thanks man! It's fun to build the 4runner to utilize long travel to it's full extent. By the time 3rd gen drivers push their long travel kits to the limit, bet's on the rest of the truck is feeling the pain. From daily driving to the woops, making it more usable is worth it.

^long travel + uniball lower ball joint conversion + 13WL brakes.

^rear coilover conversion mounted where the previous spring perches were.

This weekend was a tedious batch of minor work.
-1 chop the steering column cowling to better clear the instrument panel.

-2, splice the wire to the ebrake/parking brake sensor---I cut it accidentally during the roll cage work.
-3, wire the horn, torque the QD steering assembly correctly. I used a dome light's grounding shoe to complete the circuit. I think the Honda Shoe Horn connector is a better idea, so I've ordered one to keep laying around if mine starts having problems.

^^fun fact, all of the wiring harness for cruise control is still there. Cruise control is pointless on a build like this, but it's neat to still have the option to fiddle on.
-4 remount my wheel facing, marker lights, I had broken a few zipties over the years.

-5 get it state-inspected (passed with flying colors)
-6 dry out the firewall/floorboard, because a couple of fresh rock whips in the windshield allowed water to leak through during some rain today. Time to get a new windshield, again.
-7 ordered a replacement instrument panel. I'd like to figure out a better way to mount one, but I broke 3 of the 4 mounting points on mine. Once I get that figured out, it'll be time to fabricate a dashboard.

 

[90tonka]

Nice!

 

[Good Mayhem]

Nice!

Thanks, 90Tonka!

I daily drove it last week, and here's some of the work I did in the meantime.

1. Added magnets to the rollcage overhead to act as QD points for the harness buckles. It makes both ingress and egress much easier. They're strong enough to hold the buckles during road driving and speed bumps, but light enough to easily pull overhead.

Next up was an ipad mount w/ an obd2 scanner full time, Veepeak OBDCheck BLE+. The ipad's old, so it's slow at refreshing. Maybe I'll try my iphone and compare it to the ipad, see if the ipad's the limiting factor. However, I wonder if it's just as limited by the data rate of the 90's erra OBDII computer system instead, since it's about 50 times slower than today's CANbus computers. This would be the copilot's/navigator's gauge cluster if I keep the stock system in place. If I were to ever do an engine swap, I'd rather do a double-dash setup where both occupants can see drivetrain/temps info.

The biggest thing I learned about this week was alignment---even though I'm lifted within a reasonable range for the TC long travel, I really need the heim uppers from the 96000BK-4H kit to get a better alignment for racing. I only have the 96000BK-4 kit. The heim uppers are way better for setting camber and caster together, whereas my current setup makes me compromise on one or the other--one's gonna be way out of spec. So, I need the upper heims. Just the hiem uppers of a long travel kit are right below the $1000 range from TC as bare parts, so if anyone has a set for trade, let me know. And no, the poly-bushing uppers cannot be modified to take heims. Total Chaos parts example

 

[ajordan1975]

Sick stuff!
What part of Houston are you in?
I have family down that way, and one of my best friends owns Brave Motorsports.

 

[Good Mayhem]

Sick stuff!
What part of Houston are you in?
I have family down that way, and one of my best friends owns Brave Motorsports.

Thanks! I am in the northwest area, and I am inspired by Dave and the guys at Brave Motorsports. They're a solid, good shop!

 

[ajordan1975]

Thanks! I am in the northwest area, and I am inspired by Dave and the guys at Brave Motorsports. They're a solid, good shop!

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!