Adding 5-Channel Amplifier, Subs, Door Speakers and Head Unit to 2000 Land Cruiser (1 Viewer)

[100seeker]

Hey guys, thought I'd share the build for my 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser with the forum in exchange for all the reference information ih8mud provided along the way. Turned out to be a decent amount of work due to some snags along the way, but overall very happy with the result! I did the work in two stages, replacing the head unit and door speakers (bypassing the factory amp) about 18 months ago, and adding a 5 channel amplifier and dual 8" subs in a custom sealed enclosure to the system over Memorial Day.

I went with pretty entry-level gear due to budget constraints (lots of other projects I have in the works that need my money and time, haha) and wattage limitations. Didn't want to pull over about 40A of max current due to being limited by the stock 100A alternator. I also wanted to preserve power for the AC system in California heat. So I put together a ~700w system based on the Infinity Kappa 5 5 channel amplifier, Infinity component front door speakers, Infinity coaxial rear door speakers, and dual JBL 8" subs in the back, all controlled by a single DIN Kenwood digital media head unit.

I started under the hood doing the "big 3" with 1/0 cable for the grounds (had some spare 1/0 cable to use) and 2awg for the alternator power lead. This alone increased system voltage by almost .4v at the battery terminals.

Then I went ahead and routed 12v+ through the engine bay. In this image it's the black loomed cable running across the top of the firewall. There was an existing grommet I found with sufficient room to run the cable through the firewall, which was a big help.

Loomed 4awg amp power cable connecting the battery terminal to the fuse location, which is mounted into the sheetmetal support structure. I didn't have enough loom for the entire run, so I protected the most visible/heat exposed parts of the cable and will do the rest later.

When the under hood wiring was done my friends and I began work on the drawer setup/subwoofer enclosure. I decided to use 2 8" subwoofers to fit into my existing drawer system in sealed enclosures. The unpainted plywood panels mark the sub enclosures, with a storage compartment w/ lid in between.

Cont. below due to image limit.

 

[100seeker]

Originally, the drawer system had a full-length storage compartment in the back with a piano-hinged lid. We cut down the hinge and lid to make room for the subs. The "before" drawer setup:

The enclosures coming together. We are right at the "optimum" manufacturer sealed enclosure volume for the subs. The enclosure walls are plywood and MDF. We marked the holes with a pencil compass and then eyeballed the cuts with an edge router. Not as perfect cuts as a plunge router on a circle jig, but more than good enough.

After the enclosures were cut my friend volunteered to wire the subs (2x SVC 4ohm subs wired in parallel to 2ohms) including a soldered quick disconnect so the drawers can be quickly removed to put in the third row of seats or for extra cargo space at the expense of bass. I don't anticipate taking the system out often but I do it enough that I wanted quick disconnects in the wiring. While he did that I went ahead and installed the amplifier and wired it up.

The quick disconnects for the speaker wires going to the subs in the finished product:

Another image of one of the finished subs in the drawer system:

I installed the amp in the factory amp location under the passenger seat mounted on a piece of spare plywood cut to size and then drilled into the sheetmetal of the floor pan. Luckily my 100 is not equipped with navigation and I tossed the factory amplifier when I bypassed it with the head unit, so the valley under the seat was completely empty. There was more than enough space for my full-sized five channel amp in the stock amp location.

I tied into the factory speaker wire via my amp bypass harness (Metra 70-8116 btw) which I cut up and removed to make room for the signal RCAs from the head unit. The specific Infinity door speakers I chose use a 2.7 ohm resistance. That means even with crappy factory wiring the impedance at the amp was only ~3ohms for all 4 doors, letting me push a good ~80 watts on all 4 door channels. Since the subs were wired in parallel for 2ohm resistance, I can max the amp out at 350 watts split between the two subs (175w rms each for 200w rms drivers.)

I did run into some issues along the way. The first time I powered up the amp, it went into protect. I had triple checked my wiring and am 100% it was correct, and when I increased the voltage by turning the engine on, the amp actually blew (let the magic smoke out.) I'm not sure what went wrong. Either I got a bad amp, or possibly a few strands of loose wire had bridged the 12v and ground inputs? It didn't blow any of the onboard fuses at all. I'm not sure what happened, but when I got the replacement in (free warranty) a few days later it worked fine, without changing any wiring. I also had a bad noise issue related to the amp shorting (I believe) that took a while to track down (bad RCA outputs on the head unit - the grounds for the RCAs had become disconnected from the head unit ground.) I have a new HU on the way, but in the meantime I followed this guide to repair the issue.

Overall, this was a challenging but rewarding project! Even though my gear isn't the top of the line or high wattage, I think it sounds GREAT and is more than enough for me. Perhaps in the future I'll try 4x 8" subs running off a dedicated subwoofer amp mounted in the center compartment and a 4 channel for the doors, but for now I'm very pleased with the setup and the install. I'll probably do a 2nd battery system and the 150A Sequoia alternator before I add more wattage anyway. Hopefully this info might help with your own amp install or subwoofer build in your 100 series LC or LX470.

 

[Lonegrasshopper]

You and I went two different routes. I just installed this unit, and now I can be hip all the way to my trailheads.

 

[100seeker]

Love the old school there!

 

[uHu]

You and I went two different routes. I just installed this unit, and now I can be hip all the way to my trailheads.View attachment 2324862

What is that thingy? Do you have more info - maybe an install writeup? But in a separate thread, not to pollute this wonderful install write-up. I'll delete this post in a couple of days.
I can't see from the pic how/where it is installed, or the size of it, only that it's ugly but cool. Can u use it while driving? Is it singles only? Why?

 

[Njck22]

Love the drawer integrated subwoofer. Probably gonna try and do something similar!