Chaos - 1987 Toyota 4Runner

[greenseaman]

Now I’m REALLY jealous!!

 

[4LowandSlow]

SUCCESS!

First trip was a super successful shake down, I honestly can't be more happy with how capable and stable this rig is, a whole new level of confidence driving. Gearing is perfect and everything worked butter smooth other than the front driveshaft not having a long enough slip. Popped out on first ledge but thanking was going slow so no damage was caused. Popped it back in and continued on. Played on the daniel hill climb about 6 times learning new lines and learning the capabilities and nothing seemed to put me stuck in my path. Just dents and scratches, Sorry @forrest5000

 

[4LowandSlow]

So on the list was to fix the front driveshaft and add some rock lights, i got a long slip from where i bought greaser so i cut and welded a new driveshaft, will have to see how it does next time out. Got some cheap rock lights from amazon that are actually pretty bright and work well, added the switches where the factory rear window switches are so they are clean and convenient to use. Added rear lights and a front light bar lights for future lights. Plan on adding flush rear lights when i build the rear bumper and ill figure out something for the front, Might be pods, but for now I'm happy.

 

[Fort Knox]

4Runners rule!!!!

 

[4LowandSlow]

Ahhhhhh just how I wanted things to go, install a cam, install goes too smooth. lash the valves and start it and let it run at 1750rpms for 25 minutes. let it cool down and lash the valves again to ensure they're in spec and which they were. drive it and it does great, really got some low end pep back in the old girl. decide to drive it to the gym at midnight thinking nothing could go wrong. Little did i know my workout was going to be pushing it off the road and walking partway home lol. cruising about 55 in 5th gear and give it some load and PING, with a lot more pings and no power. immediately turn in off and coast to a stop and figure out wtf just happened. eventually get it home and get in the cruiser to resume my drive to the gym to get rid of my new fueled frustration. well next day I pull it apart and figured out yet again I'm the luckiest person alive. Somehow I snapped the top of the valve off at the keep which allowed the valve to drop, somehow didn't hit anything but the piston and no damage to the cylinder walls.

Called a buddy with a Toyota junkyard and asked if he had any 22re heads that could get me by for a couple weeks. he said he had a few but didn't know if they were any good. after 3 bad heads I kind of lost hope until there was a black 87 4runner with what seemed to be a good head. 1 hour later and $100 spent I pulled myself a new head and it wasn't warped, the cam spun like butter! pick up some intake gaskets and a head gasket from the advanced and head on home to expect to slap this thing on and get it running in one day. Since I'm so lucky that did not happen. I blame all the heat as it felt like 105* outside that day I failed to see the amount of solid materials in the coolant passages from what seemed to be fix a head gasket. Still yet determined 2 hours later I got all the crap out of the head and started making headway again.

here I am at about 10pm, head and cam are in, exhaust and lower are on and wiring starting to go back together but as I'm about 10 hours straight into working on this thing I've lost all my drive. I still keep on for another couple hours cleaning and putting stuff back together. get everything but the cam gear on and valve cover, I for some reason just could not get it on for the life of me. so I decided to throw in the towel and resume tmr as I was 12 hours into this thing all day. Next day of course the cam gear goes right on. and lash the valves yet again and she pures to life yet once again. was only down for about a day and a half. fixed a couple leaks I had and double checked everything and took it on the first drive. definitely notice a power difference with this head but not anything too crazy. been watching the coolant temps pretty close cause of the head but so far so good. will drop the head off at the machine shop to get buttoned up and do it yet once again! till then will be taking her pretty easy.

 

[4LowandSlow]

Racecar!!!! Honestly the most comfortable seats I've ridden in.

 

[4LowandSlow]

I’m getting really good at this and I’m not happy about it… took 25 minutes to pull the head…. Yet another trashed head…

 

[GLTHFJ60]

How does this keep happening?

 

[fourtrax]

Well that head has a gouge right at the head gasket seal ring.

 

[4LowandSlow]

Well well well, i guess It's due for an update as its been a year and a half lol. A lot of big life changes have came and a lot of things have come and gone for better or worse lol. But let me try and catch up on everything that I've missed so far since the last update. Right around that time after the head issue with the cam and the valve spring clearances being too tight and snapping valves I ended up putting the stock cam for the time being and ran it like that for awhile, ended up throwing the 37's on it and after 3 years I finally had my first own vehicle make it to logan's run 2021 and it sure did not disappoint! as stated when I first built the front axle because of the FROR v6 caliper kit it made very easy access to the birfs if I ever did, and let me tell you It sure did. Except the part of where i forgot my wheel lock key, that sure did make things interesting. broke a birf TWICE thanks to the Hillclimb on Daniel at the same spot, you think i would of learned my lesson the first time it broke but I let me ego get the best of me, but hey I still made it up in 3wd lol. Thanks to @Fort Knox that trip for lending me a birf to get me back on the trail. I'm sure its everyone's favorite story of me at 2am trying to split the birf from the inner shaft to get the inner shaft for the new birf while waking up everyone in the process. I'm still sorry till this day! here's some pics of that time period. I think @Hokie LX was the first ONSC member to ride in it on a trail with me.

Heres me giving it " the good ole fist" as @GLTHFJ60 says

 

[4LowandSlow]

Here's the phase I like to stay stray from lol, The teenage phase, full of bad decisions and regrets. After logan's run I put yet another set of shafts in it and just DD for awhile saving up some funds to add to it and make it better and more reliable. Found a good deal on a built 22re and a single 4.7 case so I threw those in to get some more gearing and hopefully a reliable 22re cause I thought this one was cursed from me never finishing Greaser. Ran that for about a month and took a uwharrie trip. thought i made it home unscaved but started hearing a bit more top end noise then normal so checked everything out and nothing stood out to me, check oil and coolant and everything seemed fine so i took it easy and limped it home. Got it home and pulled the valve cover off and found a lot of slack in the timing chain and found out the tensioner gave out. So yet another 22re strip down happened, i was getting too good at doing this... found a dead Tensioner, broken chain guides, and the guide bolts about gone from the chain shaving down on them. Pull the motor apart and tried to clean everything out as best as i could, threw a new timing chain and metal guides in it

Here's the first trip with the 4.7 duals so i had to see the stupid stuff i could do with the crazy gearing.



rocked it till December and bought a lot of upgrades for it so it was time to install them. Bought a MS2 Microsquirt and DIY harness, RCV shafts for the front, 4Xinnovations cage, and sliders! The wiring harness was my first big wiring job and it was quite the headache but all worth it in the end, Learned a lot during that with doing research, understanding wiring schematics, trouble shooting, and doing proper wiring. Ran into a lot of issues with the ignition system, held me up for about two weeks just trying to figure out what worked and what didn't, ended up with a lot of going back and forth but man hearing it start up for the first time was worth all the headaches! was able to build a base map for it and learn a lot about tuning and ended up doing my own tune and learning how to do so.

 

[4LowandSlow]

Ended up getting it running the 5 hours before a trip to AOP for a buddies Batchelor party. Threw tires on it, drove it 20 miles down the road and back, and on the trailer it went! That trip was rowdy, first real beat down on the 4runner and it sure didn't disappoint, I thrashed on it like it owed me all the money that I had just put into it and more. It was a great first real hard wheeling trip on it and I surprisingly came home without anything major broke. with all the rain AOP had gotten it was sloppy and wet and it sure got a lot of beat downs getting through the trails, still had some kinks to iron out with the tune and such but I was super happy with how it went, with everyone breaking and a incoming snow storm the trip ending short me and @40LandCruising went to his grand-parents house in Georgia to do some snow wheeling and had a great time and headed on home in the snow lol. kinda funny story here, On one of my stops on the way home I was getting some snacks for the road and the clerk at the gas station was talking on the phone about how she might of had covid and wasn't wearing a mask or anything and touching all the stuff I got, ended up going home and a day later I got covid, I blame her. F that B.

Heres a first beat down of the day, i might of gone a little crazy and forgot how to lift... but i was tired of not making it lol

 

[4LowandSlow]

This is where things really go south, ended up rolling the rig, blowing another motor, breaking a t case mount jumping it thinking I'm dukes of hazzard. But hey after blowing a bead at AOP I ordered some 39s and beadlocks. After rolling it i tried to straighten the body i best i could and slapped a kustom with a k windshield in it and drove it around for a bit here and there and took it down to my buddies in Clemson to hangout down there and hit up glutches while i was down there. body parts were removed at a rapid rate as tires were rubbing and trying to rip off everything it could. had a great time down there and on my way home i got about 20 minutes from the house and the motor spun a rod. Cause of that was a lack of a oil pressure gauge and i think pieces of that bolt and timing guide from the previous failure that caused the oil pump to start and BOOM there it went. This is where i started to question do i really keep throwing money into 22re's but instead i rebuilt it with turbo pistons, upgraded valvetrain, stronger and balanced crank and rods, and built it to be ready to handle boost when the time came to get a turbo kits, had a stand alone ecu at this point so i was planning on throwing in a turbo kit. new motor ran better than ever after the rebuild. Also finally added some oil pressure and water tempt gauges. I learned my lesson. Also with my dukes of Hazzard shenanigans I bend the front and rear springs pretty good, so those got swapped out. It sure does cost some money to fly!

 

[4LowandSlow]

So at this point the new motor is installed, revised the tune, hooked the gauges up and she was ready to rip! ripped her around for awhile till the next trip, her first trip to windrock! Ending up going to one of the Clemson trips to windrock, loaded her up, went to work and grabbed some pallets for a buddy and left around lunch and off to windrock we went! This trip started out rough with my buddies pushed over the 4runner after flexing on my buddies bus but all was good they kinda had some permission lol, then some spark plug/wire issues but got those resolved and back on the trail we went, We ended up hitting 15, little school bus, Walden's, Devils Elbow
and then finished by heading up to Caryville and did some donuts and might of rolled it yet again, buddy ended up blowing his 22r up doing donuts at Caryville so that was a long flat tow back but the 4runner took it like a camp, 3 hours later we were back at camp talking about the day around the fire, as far as I remember correctly i only lost a windshield that trip lol

Heres a snip of waldens ridge:

 

[4LowandSlow]

Got home did some maintance checking everything over, throwing some new seals in the front axle and off to windrock for GSMTR with the onsc crew, that was a blast of a trip, no issues that trip other than running over my own foot with my truck, but sh*t happens lol. Pretty sure we ran the same trails as my last trip, 15 multiple times, little school bus, and me, @ceby @AJR @uzj100 @aquatech3 went and ran 21, sketchy but a blast of a trail, me and @AJR played some bumper cars until i pretty much completely collapsed my core support and inner fender, little winching and back on the trail we were, ended up splitting off and wheeling with @NCTrey133 and that crew, we went and attempted Cadillac hill but were ultimately defeated after spinning a driveshaft and a few other breaks along the way so we made the call to turn back and head back to camp, trail for another day.

Trail 15 final climb

 

[4LowandSlow]

At this point the body was pretty much toast, lots of cracks, not a straight inch of panel, i tripped with the sazsaw while working on it and off came the front clip, Went to my buddies house @NCTrey133 with 12 state offroad and we fabbed up a front clip and some way to late quarter panel protection, honestly just slide rails at this point, it came out killer. Got it ready for Appalachian Trail Round-up and we headed out there for windrock. This was ultimately the last trip for the ole girl. This was yet another rough trip all over but defiantly one for the books. Lost an alternator shortly after meeting up with the boys just outside of greensboro in the f250, had trey run and grab one while i started pulling the old one out, gave me flash backs to the trip with @fourtrax and @GLTHFJ60 when his alterator went out in his ferd. Good times. we got to charlotte and i picked up a set of 39" stickies for a good deal, and then we trucked up the rest of the way to windrock, ended up rolling into our airbnb cabin at about 5, grabbed some dinner and started mounting some beadlocks and tires! Stickies are a game changer, went and dry these performed great! had a blast and hit some new and old trails. and got redemption on Cadillac hill! felt good to get through that trail even in the rain. One of our buddies broke on the last time and the old girl was able to drag him up the rest of the way and finished out the day. Didn't get many pictures at all that trip. Send the 4runner out with one last whoo rah on 15 on saturday night, after multiple 3rd gear drops and getting rowdy trying to get up the last ledge i broke the radiator fan and into the radiator it went, got up the soft line and got the the tow of same and flat towed back to camp, Just went i thought all my problems were over went to go pull out of the parking lot after loading the 4runner on the trailer to head home i heard a loud bang and the ford said the trailer came unplugged. I said to myself thats weird, we had just finished swapping new axles onto the trailer and changed out the wiring and had no problems on the way there, got out and took a look and the trailer was still hooked up and plugged in, walked back to the trailer and saw that one of the wheels was way too far back and took a look and bam leaf spring had snapped. Didn't want to hold anyone up getting home so i sent them on there way and started chasing down leaf springs, found some just outside of Knoxville and went and picked them up and got them swapped out, was a pain in the ass getting the leveler straight but some help with the 4runner's winch i was able to get it up and the bolt in the leaf spring, finally leaving back on the road by 4pm. about two hours into the trip i lost yet another alternator, Thanks oreileys for quality parts, after getting that all addressed i think i finally rolled into the driveway at about 3:30am lol, was definitely quite the trip but all worth it!

 

[4LowandSlow]

I was at the point in life where i kinda need to pick a path of what i wanted to do, I had been going back and forth on whether going to school, joining the military, or continue being a bum working a job without either. Military it was, Shipped out to basic in September and currently in AIT as a 15 series working on Apaches doing Electrical, Armament, And Avionics Mechanic. Been liking it so far but ready for the training and schooling to end lol, About finished with AIT, Then heading to Airborne, then of to 160th green platoon. I should be done with everything around October/November, The first year and a little more will conisist of just training and hopefully with my first unit by November or sooner.

I was at the point to where I didn't know what to do with the 4runner, it wasn't street worthy, I wouldn't be able to bring it anywhere without investing into a trailer and tow rig and a place to store it all on base wherever I end up, Ultimately it just wasn't fitting with my needs and wants. Made the decision to part it out and my buddy offered up his 1st gen to me that he was selling and had to move it quick with a deal i couldn't refuse, Here i introduce the new 4runner, its an 87 with a 3rz. duals w/ 4.7, 3 linked front with 80 axle and a clean body and exo cage. more details to come on it but its a solid start. This is my new daily/wheeler when i have time to get out and go wheeling, its on the chopping block right now getting bobbed, 80 series axle in the rear with a 4wheelunderground 4 link kit and some maintenance stuff knocked out of the way to get it where I want it.

I'd like to say the red 4runner was "the one that got away". I hated to see it go, i had lots of time, money, blood, and tears into it, was my baby. But bad descisions and carelessness got the best of it and was something that i just couldnt keep around. I'm thankful for the memories and friends that it has brought me, But time to contiune its legacy with the new one. Going to try and get some wheeling videos uploaded tmr.

 

[lt1fire]

I'm going to need the cliff notes on all of that

 

[4LowandSlow]

I'm going to need the cliff notes on all of that

I tried to keep 1.5 years as short as possible lol