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Nice work as usual.
Really nice work Mike.
The .250" dia rod is an idea I got from a Toyota Trails from the late 90's for reinforcing the cut wheel wells.
I just opened up the wheel wells on my 4Runner to fit 35" MTR's and this is proof in the pudding that it is totally feasible.
My 60 has been in daily driver status now for 3 years....STRONG.
Gotta love a big wagon for seeing above the masses.
john
Really nice work Mike.
The .250" dia rod is an idea I got from a Toyota Trails from the late 90's for reinforcing the cut wheel wells.
I just opened up the wheel wells on my 4Runner to fit 35" MTR's and this is proof in the pudding that it is totally feasible.
My 60 has been in daily driver status now for 3 years....STRONG.
Gotta love a big wagon for seeing above the masses.
john
- Thread starter
- #563
Thanks again john, I'd seen the rod idea floating around too so I don't claim any creative rights but it was definitely flimsy without it and the liner support. Are you getting the 4runner ready for DD status so you can put a diesel in your 60?
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na, he's prepping for a BB. 
That is my underlying plan.....evil laugh...
I am doing a lot of driving lately and anything I can do to lessen the cost of the miles per gallon helps.
If I can pack away enough cash in the next year, it would be in my best interest as I am gonna have both of these rigs for a while.
Good to see this thread always on page 1.
You have a metric ton of tech on here and so many folks appreciate it.
You are an internet hero!!!!
I am doing a lot of driving lately and anything I can do to lessen the cost of the miles per gallon helps.
If I can pack away enough cash in the next year, it would be in my best interest as I am gonna have both of these rigs for a while.
Good to see this thread always on page 1.
You have a metric ton of tech on here and so many folks appreciate it.
You are an internet hero!!!!
Due to an increase in Fire Danger and the Industrial Precaution Level of Restrictions – the OHV trails in the Tillamook State Forest (Browns Camp, Jordan Creek, Diamond Mill, and Trask) and the trails in the BLM Nestucca Riding Area are CLOSED effective at 1:00 AM Friday, August 15th and will remain closed until further notice. The gravel roads in the Browns Camp, Jordan Creek, Diamond Mill, and Trask areas remain open for OHV use.
Happens about every year @ the this time.
Rain is coming Mid September...
Happens about every year @ the this time.
Rain is coming Mid September...
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Yep, trip is bagged... Might be a good weekend to finish up a couple odds and ends on my cruiser and get it legal again.
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fender cuts look real good
- Thread starter
- #571
biweekly update
Still working on it. I spent some time painting so that's taken some time. I started out patching up the slits cut into the fender well. This is my way of keeping it toyota, I cut patches out the the fender cut-outs to weld onto my wells.
After I got done with that I got it ready for coating/paint. I prepped by cleaning, wire wheeling, and sanding the wells and the area for coating. Here it is on jacks taped off.
Of course as soon as I get ready the clouds roll in and the temp. drops. Seems like whenever I want to paint something the weather turns sour. I went to the local hardware store for some supplies and ran across this stuff: Snow Roof: Mobile Coat.
I figured if it was good for the roof that sees the elements maybe it would be good for the wells. It was only $20 for a gallon so I decided to give it a try. I have that undercoating gun and borrowed a more powerful compressor to give it a shot. I sprayed the pass well and the stuff went everywhere! It's got the consistency of marshmellow cream (and looks like it too) but the spray application was too messy so I used the roller with 1" pile I picked up at the same time. I found the roller much easier to apply, less messy, but layed on a thinner coat so more coats would be necessary. This is the texture after 5 roller coats.
That wasn't enough texture for me so I got out the Spectrum Spray to see what it'd look like with roller application. I wanted to use this in the first place but didn't think I had enough to finish. I was right but I was able to get two coats on the panels and one in the wells.
The texture up close using a 1" pile/nap roller. They only had long ones (~10") so I cut it up in thirds to use the narrow roller I bought (~3").
While I let that dry I got the gutters ready for a reseal. I scrapped out all the old seal and taped it for a coating of Rust Bullet. I had some rust dusting under some of the old seal but nothing serious so I felt a coating of Rust bullet was a good idea for protection and to give the sealant something clean to bond to. I ended up with two coats of Rust Bullet and used Vulkem 921 Grey as my sealant. Rain is coming next week so I'll see if the gutter seal did the trick. Here the gutters are cleaned out ready for paint.
I planned on having Rust Bullet as my top coat so I put 2 coats on with a 1/4" nap roller. That makes 5 layers of Mobile coat, 2 layers of Spectrum, and 2 layers of Rust Bullet. Definitely overkill and if I did it again I'd just do Spectrum and Rust Bullet. I ended up recoating the wells with another 4 layers of Mobile Coat to cover up the Spectrum I put in the wells. With my white cruiser I think it looked better having white wells instead of dark wells; personal preference. I don't know if the Mobile coat will hold up but it was cheap and seemed like a good choice so I'll watch it through a wheeling season and let you know. Final product.
texture
Pass well. You can see the patches and how messy the spray started out. With this done I can clean and paint the hoops.
I'm happy with how it turned out. Some of the nap came off when painting with Rust Bullet but that will wear off and isn't noticable until you get up close, adds texture.
Still working on it. I spent some time painting so that's taken some time. I started out patching up the slits cut into the fender well. This is my way of keeping it toyota, I cut patches out the the fender cut-outs to weld onto my wells.
After I got done with that I got it ready for coating/paint. I prepped by cleaning, wire wheeling, and sanding the wells and the area for coating. Here it is on jacks taped off.
Of course as soon as I get ready the clouds roll in and the temp. drops. Seems like whenever I want to paint something the weather turns sour. I went to the local hardware store for some supplies and ran across this stuff: Snow Roof: Mobile Coat.
I figured if it was good for the roof that sees the elements maybe it would be good for the wells. It was only $20 for a gallon so I decided to give it a try. I have that undercoating gun and borrowed a more powerful compressor to give it a shot. I sprayed the pass well and the stuff went everywhere! It's got the consistency of marshmellow cream (and looks like it too) but the spray application was too messy so I used the roller with 1" pile I picked up at the same time. I found the roller much easier to apply, less messy, but layed on a thinner coat so more coats would be necessary. This is the texture after 5 roller coats.
That wasn't enough texture for me so I got out the Spectrum Spray to see what it'd look like with roller application. I wanted to use this in the first place but didn't think I had enough to finish. I was right but I was able to get two coats on the panels and one in the wells.
The texture up close using a 1" pile/nap roller. They only had long ones (~10") so I cut it up in thirds to use the narrow roller I bought (~3").
While I let that dry I got the gutters ready for a reseal. I scrapped out all the old seal and taped it for a coating of Rust Bullet. I had some rust dusting under some of the old seal but nothing serious so I felt a coating of Rust bullet was a good idea for protection and to give the sealant something clean to bond to. I ended up with two coats of Rust Bullet and used Vulkem 921 Grey as my sealant. Rain is coming next week so I'll see if the gutter seal did the trick. Here the gutters are cleaned out ready for paint.
I planned on having Rust Bullet as my top coat so I put 2 coats on with a 1/4" nap roller. That makes 5 layers of Mobile coat, 2 layers of Spectrum, and 2 layers of Rust Bullet. Definitely overkill and if I did it again I'd just do Spectrum and Rust Bullet. I ended up recoating the wells with another 4 layers of Mobile Coat to cover up the Spectrum I put in the wells. With my white cruiser I think it looked better having white wells instead of dark wells; personal preference. I don't know if the Mobile coat will hold up but it was cheap and seemed like a good choice so I'll watch it through a wheeling season and let you know. Final product.
texture
Pass well. You can see the patches and how messy the spray started out. With this done I can clean and paint the hoops.
I'm happy with how it turned out. Some of the nap came off when painting with Rust Bullet but that will wear off and isn't noticable until you get up close, adds texture
.
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looks great!
- Thread starter
- #573
Update Cont.
While stuff was drying I looked at other stuff. In my hunt for more boost I decided to replace the signal line to the wastegate where I had inserted a T for my boost gauge signal. Maybe I was getting some small leak there so I relocated the boost gauge signal to another port on the intake manifold. I picked up this barb to fit in that port. It was 1/2" pipe thread to 1/4" hose barb.
This is the port.
All hooked up.
I also tried to tighten up the small hose that connects the actual wastegate to the hard line behind the turbo. That was more difficult but did feel like it was loose. I drove it to work yesterday and almost got 20psi. It was hard to tell because the needle was fluttering. With my foot on it EGTs stayed at 1000F so I know more boost was helping bring that down since previously it would get higher than that. I'll cap the line going to the wastegate and see if that is my leak I've been trying to chase down. The gauge still flutters so I know I'm still loosing pressure somewhere. Here's a question for those with boost gauges, is it normal for the needle to flutter (looks like it's vibrating)? Seems like it should be smooth or at least smoother than what I'm seeing. If so that has been telling me there is a leak somewhere all along I've been needing to troubleshoot.
I also started some real battery straps. Just need to get some longer bolts and drill another hole to tighten them down.
I'm not driving it the rest of the week because I've developed a wicked case of Death Wobble. I believe the main culprits are unbalanced tires (the 14 oz. of airsoft pellets I put in each tire just aren't cutting it or are turning to dust), the looseness of the steering box, and not having a stabilizer on it. So it looks like I'll be going to the traditional balancing method of weights on the rim because this kind of tire vib sucks. This also stepped up the priority of getting hydroassist mounted and hooked up. I know the ram will be a bandaid but it's got to be better to run it than without it.
While stuff was drying I looked at other stuff. In my hunt for more boost I decided to replace the signal line to the wastegate where I had inserted a T for my boost gauge signal. Maybe I was getting some small leak there so I relocated the boost gauge signal to another port on the intake manifold. I picked up this barb to fit in that port. It was 1/2" pipe thread to 1/4" hose barb.
This is the port.
All hooked up.
I also tried to tighten up the small hose that connects the actual wastegate to the hard line behind the turbo. That was more difficult but did feel like it was loose. I drove it to work yesterday and almost got 20psi. It was hard to tell because the needle was fluttering. With my foot on it EGTs stayed at 1000F so I know more boost was helping bring that down since previously it would get higher than that. I'll cap the line going to the wastegate and see if that is my leak I've been trying to chase down. The gauge still flutters so I know I'm still loosing pressure somewhere. Here's a question for those with boost gauges, is it normal for the needle to flutter (looks like it's vibrating)? Seems like it should be smooth or at least smoother than what I'm seeing. If so that has been telling me there is a leak somewhere all along I've been needing to troubleshoot.
I also started some real battery straps. Just need to get some longer bolts and drill another hole to tighten them down.
I'm not driving it the rest of the week because I've developed a wicked case of Death Wobble. I believe the main culprits are unbalanced tires (the 14 oz. of airsoft pellets I put in each tire just aren't cutting it or are turning to dust), the looseness of the steering box, and not having a stabilizer on it. So it looks like I'll be going to the traditional balancing method of weights on the rim because this kind of tire vib sucks. This also stepped up the priority of getting hydroassist mounted and hooked up. I know the ram will be a bandaid but it's got to be better to run it than without it.
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Hydro assist was the best steering stablizer I ever did. Didnt you end up doing the hydro?
- Thread starter
- #575
I've got all the parts and already ported the steering box but I just haven't gotten to it yet. Plan is to get the ram mounted by next week and see the difference.
I really like the idea of dynamic balancing for my tires (media inside) but I've read that does little if you need lateral balancing due to wide tires. Maybe the two will work together.
Are you legal yet? We gots to wheel soon!
I really like the idea of dynamic balancing for my tires (media inside) but I've read that does little if you need lateral balancing due to wide tires. Maybe the two will work together.
Are you legal yet? We gots to wheel soon!
In all the turbo cars I owned, the boost gauge (aftermarket or factory) never fluttered. They did spike above the boost gauge set point if there was an exhaust restriction, but never flutter.
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I did some reading yesterday and found that gauge flutter can be caused by a leak in the system, a faulty gauge, or a need to regulate/restrict the signal to the boost gauge (this one I don't quite agree with but it was mentioned). I'm going to go through my system and tighten everything up, maybe reseat some gaskets and go from there. Wrenching doesn't cost me so I'll start there. Fluttering like you guys said is not normal and does signify a problem, just got to figure out the cause and since I've already had some leaks I'm not convinced that I got all of them fixed. Tuning just takes a little time.
I realized in some areas I'm kinda like goldylocks where I want that just perfect combination instead of settling for the first bowl of porage or any kind of bed.
I realized in some areas I'm kinda like goldylocks where I want that just perfect combination instead of settling for the first bowl of porage or any kind of bed.
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you rebuilt your th400 right? How hard is it to switch out the tail shaft? I need to switch out mine longer version shaft for a shorter one I have to bolt up to a 203...sorry for the hi-jack.