Some essential mods we made out here included:
1. 70 series stabilizer bar upfront. Remember we run 70 series diffs and it was a bit of a pain to find and a tricky fit (slightly offset to the left) as it was hitting something or the other.
2. 40 series stabilizer bar at the back. Even bigger pain to find....
3. Oil cooler: We had a slight concern on over heating last time in the sand, as out here the 1UZ has a bad over heating reputation. Decided to throw in an oil cooler after customized oil output assembly from the oil temp sender and back in at the sump. Some concerns over the design and whether the oil pump would handle it but seems to have pulled through well...
4. Double shocks: To compliment the set of bilsteins, a set of old Rancho 9000s at the back and Monroe Air Max air infatable shocks at the front. We had planned to swap some more suitable shocks off of a friends
car but it could not happen. Reminds me of something mean I read recently on racedezert from a desertracer to rockcrawler "if it wasn't for us, you would still be racing ranchos and leaf springs"
5. Extra leafs at front and back: It was a decision between advice on keeping leaf count as low as possible (to let the suspension cycle) and my reading of Billavista's theory of keeping the suspension frequency high. We went with the latter.... it was an experience! ! !
6. Cut and welded 60 series tie rod and ends along with secondary TLC steering stabilizer.
7. More rugged, compressible rubber bump stops, which are perhaps the only non Toyota part (apart from the shocks)
8. Hooked up the AC onto an air tank at the back to create an on board compressor to inflate tires and shocks!
What we didn't do was to get rid of our 285/75/16 BFG MT KM2s despite ALL our rally friends down here advising that they would soak up too much power and would make the car unstable by raising centre of gravity. My only concern was that the 4.1 gearing was too tall for the heavy 3 ply tires but
when we timed the car, it was consistently 8 to 8.5 seconds zero to hundred on the street so we decided to just go with them and spare ourselves the expense....
What we couldn't do was get replace the 40 series steering with a 60, there was no easy line available with the big TLC 100 radiator. I wish we had mounted the cam slightly back to capture Cholistan Jeep Rally and WrestleMania II simultaneously. Counter steering any 40 doing 120 kmph in the sand has to be a bad nightmare for any 40 series driver....
Thankfully, despite all the limitations, it all worked and behaved rather well and the most limiting factor was navigational and driving challenges largely owing to unfamiliarity with terrain and car....
BTW Thanks for keeping up with the Build! Support is always a great thing!
Chirping days are over with newer 33inch MTs!
