Project Lazarus: Bringing an LX470 back from the dead (2 Viewers)

[LJE]

Hi folks! First time poster, but I've been lurking for the past four months or so as I've been searching for an LX470. This first posts covers a couple weeks (so it might be a little jumbled), but I hope to stay on top of it more going forward.
I've been looking for something to replace my wife's 2005 Liberty CRD (diesel), because:

1. There's an oil leak I can't track down, and it gets just about everything in the engine bay covered in filthy black diesel oil. @ 240K miles, I spend a decent amount of time in that engine bay, and I hate it. Also drips on the garage floor…
2. It's an Italian diesel engine shoehorned into a Jeep Liberty. It's about as unfriendly to work on as it gets, and it always needs something. Huge shout-out to Jim Hulse over in the CRD Facebook group for all the advice he has provided to the community - without him, I'm pretty sure most of these would have already been in the junkyard.
3. If we decide to have another kid, we can't fit two rear-facing car seats in the jeep.

My daily driver is 2014 Honda CR-V - while not exciting, it does get decent gas mileage and has been reliable - it's at 138K now, bought it with 55K on it in 2017. My parents gifted us their 2003 Sequoia (that they've owned since 2004, and it's the car I learned to drive on) in DEC of 2022. We use it as a truck/secondary vehicle, but I did rebuild the entire suspension (Eibach springs/shocks, all new Siberian control arm bushings, front diff needle bearing replacement, big brake upgrade, etc…). I really loved that project, and have fallen in love with the 2UZ, so I knew that I wanted to replace the Jeep with another Toyota SUV. I initially was looking at a GX470, but decided that we wanted the space of an LX470 - so, I started looking…

I'm in South-Central Indiana, so while not the worst of the rust belt, we do still get some rust and I was seeing a lot of LX's from the northern Ohio/Illinois area that all had severe rust. To get a rust free vehicle, I was looking at $15K for something with 250K on it. Now, I know that the 2UZ can last much longer than that, but the rest of the vehicle is going to need some love at that point - control arm bushings are going to be shot, globes are going to be need replaced, etc. Spending that much money on a vehicle that I knew I was going to want to sink another 2-3K in parts into really just didn't sit well with me, so I started thinking… What if I just bought an LX that I knew was bad from the start?

What I settled on was to buy a LX with a blown engine for 'cheap' - that way, I could drop a sub 100K mile 2UZ into it, replace everything that I want to, and still end up around that $15K price range, but with many brand-new OEM parts. I got lucky and found exactly what I was looking for online - a CA/FL LX with a blown engine. I got pictures of the frame and it was SPOTLESS.

I bid on it, won the bid, and it was delivered a couple weeks ago. As you can see in the picture below, it looks like it dumped coolant from the radiator cap - the pictures below are after I power washed the engine bay even - you can see all the dried coolant. The engine cover (removed) is warped even! When I drained the engine oil I got at least a gallon of coolant out of it too, so this headgasket has probably been vaporized and I assume the heads would look like a banana if I were to take them off. I scoped the cylinders too - lots of rust and scoring. The heater tees are both intact, although one is just a brass tee with hose clamps. I'm not sure I've ever heard of these failing in this manner, so it's definitely a little weird to me.

I thought it was silver in the auction pictures, but it's actually the 'Blue Vapor' color. I dig it! I did replace the hood struts right away, since that's sorta a safety issue while working on the thing…

This was pre-powerwash at my house:

Before I replace any mechanical parts, I'm waiting to get the title for it (EDIT: it's on it's way now actually!) In the meantime, I've found a salvage yard that has several sub-100K 2UZs (non-VVT) for around $1K near me that I plan to grab one from. I realize there's the great debate of US made 2UZ vs. Japanese made 2UZ - I'm not necessarily convinced there's a huge difference. Something to it all? Maybe, but I'm not overly concerned. The US made 2UZ in my Sequoia still seems to be loving life at 250K miles! I ended up finding a 67K mile 2UZ out of an '03 Tundra that I should be picking up next weekend for $960 out the door. Again, I'm replacing most things on this engine anyways, so other than cylinder wall and valve seat wear, it'll nearly be a 0 mile engine...

I did go ahead and put in a Impex order for 361(!!!) parts - $2700 total before shipping (still waiting to see that bill…). That's all the gaskets (other than head gaskets) for the engine, crank/cam/rear main seals, ALLLL the hoses (transmission cooler hoses, radiator hoses, heater hoses, vacuum lines, evap lines, fuel lines, power steering hoses, and new clamps to go with all of it…), ALLL the suspension bushings (other than the rear control arms - didn't find the thread that had the part numbers until after I made the order - doh!), the body mount bushings, diff mount bushings, motor mounts, globes/accumulators, and brake caliper rebuild kits. In addition, I ordered a set of Doug Thorley headers to put on the engine before I drop it in - not sure what the state of the current manifolds is, but after reading how difficult it is to replace in-situ, I figure I might as well just bite the bullet now and do it while the engine is out. This is going to be a lot of work, but I'm excited for the project! I built an awesome insulated and conditioned attached garage a couple years ago (32x42'), so I've got plenty of room to work in and can be comfortable while I do it. No lift though - maybe in the future…

 

[LJE]

While waiting for the parts from Impex & the title to come in, I went ahead and stripped out nearly the entire interior - short of the headliner, dash, and upper trim panels. I wanted to be able to deep clean everything, and power wash the carpet. I'm super glad I did - it was filthy!

This is after I pulled the rear seats and the middle row, and did some preliminary vacuuming:

Prewash photo of the carpet - it was definitely more gross in person!

This is after scrubbing by hand with spot cleaner, power washing that out, shampooing, and now I'm making sure all the carpet shampoo is rinsed out…

After I rinsed it thoroughly, I shopvac'd it to try to get as much water out as possible. It's been drying in the sun for the past several days to make sure all the pad gets dried before I reinstall it.

So bare inside! This was before I pulled the door panels and glove box out.

 

[LJE]

This shot was taken after I pulled everything out here, cleaned it, and put it back together. Minor surface rust on the plate, but nothing I'm worried about. The well where the parking brake cable jumps through the body was especially disgusting! So glad I took the time to deep clean this thing. I also pulled the amplifier and navigation DVD player under the passenger seat.

So many trim pieces! This was after a good scrub.

I washed the big pieces outside and let them all dry in the sun:

This is after conditioning all the big trim pieces:

The door panels all cleaned up really nicely too. Overall, the interior did clean up really well - I'm quite happy for a 19 year old vehicle with 255K miles on it! The big trim pieces that cover over the rear wheel wheel have some scratching/gouges, but nothing major at all.

 

[LJE]

I used Aerospace 303 on all the parts - there's probably something better out there, but it's cheap and easy. I've been using it on our other vehicles and I think it does a pretty good job for interior components.

While I wait for all the carpet and padding to dry, I decided to work on the speaker foam on the rear two speakers. The front two are totally fine - not sure if they've been replaced in the past or what, but the rear spears were SHOT. I spent $20 on the refoam kit. It's not a super fun process, but I got it done. Here's an in-progress shot:

I didn't grab a final picture of these, but I figure you folks know what a speaker looks like . I decided to keep the Mark Levison system for the moment - we'll see if I upgrade in the future. The subwoofer is SHOT (like, the cone has been ripped out and is hanging…), so it's time to replace that rather than refoam. I ordered the SKAR EVL-65 D4 that's been recommended here. I'm not expecting huge bass, I just want it all functional.

Oh! And first SLEE package showed up! I went ahead and ordered the stainless steel brake line kit from them. Figured while I was replacing all the other rubber components on the vehicle, I probably shouldn't neglect brake lines:

I'm also working on cleaning out the power steering reservoir too - this was mid-disconnection/draining from the vehicle. The rack itself isn't leaking, so very happy to see that! Like @2001LC has said in the past, cleaning these are a pain and definitely takes a lot of soaking to try to get all the gunk out from inside!

 

[LJE]

And that brings us to just about current as of 3/23/24. So what's my plans with this vehicle?
-> Get it in mechanically GREAT shape! Besides replacing all the bushings, rubber hoses, gaskets in the engine, vacuum actuators, etc:
-> Planning on getting a new OEM radiator from a dealer up in Indianapolis (because my closest dealer wants $220 more…). I hate that OEM is the only way to go here, but from what I've read there's a lot of issues with the others. I'd loved to go with an all-aluminum CSF or Mishimoto, but I just can't find any long-term feedback on those. Thoughts from the community here? Definitely seems like the cheaper Denso/Koyos are no-goes...
-> Will replace all diff/transfer case fluids too - planning on leaving the transmission fluid alone (other than replacing what I loose from the transmission cooler that's in the radiator) since that seems to be best practice for high-mileage, non-maintained transmissions… Again, open to opinions here.
-> I did order steering rack bushings from the seller 'Best Parts Online' on ebay - they're theoretically Kotek America bushings (since OEMs aren't available), so hopefully they're good. I put poly urethane bushings in my Sequoia, and I can definitely feel it I think. Trying to keep the LX all rubber for comfort.
-> I'll flush all of the braking and AHC system too. Right now my brake accumulator runs for sub-40 seconds, so that's good news!

-> Install one of the 2K TEyes head units to replace the aging aged nav system. I'm watching a couple people who are planning on installing the 360 camera kit too to see if that's worthwhile or not.

-> Repaint the side mirrors - the paint is just baked off of them. Figure this is a good area for some color-matched spray paint from Touch Up Direct or similar.

-> Replace leather in the front and middle rows with some of @FJ60Cam 's from over at Mosley Motors. I also plan on retrofitting the heated/cooled seats too! That's always been a bucket list item for me, so while it's a little extravagant I'm definitely doing it here.

-> The front bumper chipping/peeling paint, and we get a lot of big deer here in Indiana. The wife is already onboard with some sort of steel offroading bumper replacement for 'safety', haha!

And I think that's it folks for the moment - is there anything else you can think of to do while the engine is out? New headers/motor mounts/steering rack bushings seem like the big thing to me. As previously mentioned, gaskets/seals (crank/cam/rear main/etc) will be replace as well before I drop the 'new' engine in.

Looking forward to being part of the community!

 

[Petertn45]

Welcome! It looks like a huge project but will be worth it! Looking forward to seeing the build and end results.

 

[2001LC]

Welcome!

Nice restore project, should be fun.
I didn't see the year. I'll guess it's a 04LX?

You asked about automatic transmission (A/T) flush, which you're not doing out of concern.

A/T flush:
I've done more full 12 qt. flush in 100 & 200 series (14 qt.), than I can remember. On A/T with 60K to 360K miles on them. With nothing but good results. Not one A/T failure. Shifting improved and A/T fluid temp dropped in ones with hard shifting and or running hot.

The concern is the clutch plates are held together by gunk or gunk dislodging clogging valves. Then by flushing, it washes out the gunk. Then clutch plates fall apart, resulting in A/T failure. My feeling on this is; If fails with a flush, it's a bad transmission. Better find out now, near home-base. Then 500 miles from nowhere. But in never has happen to any I've done. It's not a Honda!

If there is a concern of really badly gunky A/T. A few drain and fills over a few thousand miles, may easy out the gunk. But I've not seen the need. I've more concern about, with which A/T fluids may have been mixed in over the years.

The "year" is key to how we fill, with what A/T fluid (ATF) and at what fluid temperature we set level.
98-02: Toyota ATF III, Dexron III. M1 FS MV ATF (Mobile 1 full synthetic multi-vehicle ATF), is my go to for 09-02. Level set at 158-176F.
2003: Toyota IV ATF. Level set at 158-176F.
04-up: Toyota WS. Set at 97-114f

M1 ATF is my favorite. But it is not approved by Mobil 1 for Toy IV or WS. It would likely be fine for either. But since not approved, I do not use it for either.

About 3 years ago. Mobil (shelve below Mobil 1) reformulated their blended synthetic MV ATF, to a full synthetic and approved it for: Dex II & III. Toy II, III, IV and WS. I've been using it in all 03-up since.

Good luck with the restore project and have fun.

 

[excessive]

what a great project and documentation !I love the color and spec you got, in my opinion the grey interior is the better interior color ( doesnt show dirt as bad as the tan) . Can't wait to see the engine process. I had to pull the engine out of my 100 series, it's doable in a home garage with just a 2Ton cherry picker.
I have bene running the CSF aluminum radiator for a year now, and it's great. Fits perfect, No complaints whatsoever

 

[GerLC100]

Really getting down to the bottom, nice!

 

[LJE]

Welcome!

Nice restore project, should be fun.
I didn't see the year. I'll guess it's a 04LX?

You asked about automatic transmission (A/T) flush, which you're not doing out of concern.

A/T flush:
I've done more full 12 qt. flush in 100 & 200 series (14 qt.), than I can remember. On A/T with 60K to 360K miles on them. With nothing but good results. Not one A/T failure. Shifting improved and A/T fluid temp dropped in ones with hard shifting and or running hot.

The concern is the clutch plates are held together by gunk or gunk dislodging clogging valves. Then by flushing, it washes out the gunk. Then clutch plates fall apart, resulting in A/T failure. My feeling on this is; If fails with a flush, it's a bad transmission. Better find out now, near home-base. Then 500 miles from nowhere. But in never has happen to any I've done. It's not a Honda!

If there is a concern of really badly gunky A/T. A few drain and fills over a few thousand miles, may easy out the gunk. But I've not seen the need. I've more concern about, with which A/T fluids may have been mixed in over the years.

The "year" is key to how we fill, with what A/T fluid (ATF) and at what fluid temperature we set level.
98-02: Toyota ATF III, Dexron III. M1 FS MV ATF (Mobile 1 full synthetic multi-vehicle ATF), is my go to for 09-02. Level set at 158-176F.
2003: Toyota IV ATF. Level set at 158-176F.
04-up: Toyota WS. Set at 97-114f

M1 ATF is my favorite. But it is not approved by Mobil 1 for Toy IV or WS. It would likely be fine for either. But since not approved, I do not use it for either.

About 3 years ago. Mobil (shelve below Mobil 1) reformulated their blended synthetic MV ATF, to a full synthetic and approved it for: Dex II & III. Toy II, III, IV and WS. I've been using it in all 03-up since.

Good luck with the restore project and have fun.

Gotcha - I'll probably give it a whirl then. Like you said - I'd rather know now then later! Also, worst case scenario, the salvage yard I'm getting the engine from has a bunch of the A750F transmissions with sub 100K miles for cheap, haha. I did buy a bunch of the Valvoline MV Maxlife ATF that is WS approved a couple months ago when it was on sale, so I'll look up how to fully flush the transmission. Oh - it's an '05 by the way.


Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! Today I was able to spend some time taking the flywheel bolts out, taking the bellhousing bolts off, taking the brackets that hold the transcooler lines to the engine, and disconnecting the transmission harnesses from the engine harness. I also was able to get the nuts that hold the exhaust manifolds to the cat downpipes off without too much issue - penetrating oil let me get 5 out of 6 off with no trouble, the 6th rounded and required an extractor socket, no biggie. I also continued the soak/rinse/soak/etc process on the power steering reservoir. Getting closer to getting the old engine out!

I also was able to put the front carpet back in and the center console as well - looks really good I think! I'm waiting on some dynamat knock-off to put on the inside of the door skins and then I'll put the interior panels back on as well. I'll also throw the dampening on the interior of the skins above the rear wheels. Otherwise the LX is really well damped I think.

Here's that totally blown subwoofer - I pulled the box out so I can fit the new subwoofer in when it comes. I think the Skar EVL-65 takes some trimming of the rear ribbing to fit entirely. We'll see when it comes in.

Also, while I working on getting the radiator out I found this as well... definitely not a happy radiator. Thanks for the feedback on the all-aluminum CSF @excessive - I'll give it some more consideration!

The speaker grills in the interior door panels were pretty rough. They may have cleaned up with some soaking, but a couple of them were a little ratty looking. I ordered some speaker grill material from Amazon - I'm not sure how well it'll hold up, it's definitely thinner than what came in the vehicle. It's an easy enough job that if I need to redo it if this stuff doesn't end up being durable enough, no worries.

Step one is to use each of the old grills to trace out & cut out the new material:

There's a black mesh that sits under the fabric. Once I cut the new material out, I lined everything up before applying the contact adhesive.

Once I apply the contact adhesive to the back of the plastic grill, I let it set up for a couple minutes, then start gently stretching the fabric over it and pressing down. Super easy!

And here's all four of them done. I haven't put them in the door panels yet, but I think they'll look sharp.

 

[Phil Devtec]

Awesome work! Something I'd like to do as well, but I'm way too lazy.

 

[LJE]

Awesome work! Something I'd like to do as well, but I'm way too lazy.

Hahah, it's definitely a lot of work to be sure! But, I find I'm definitely more motivated to do this stuff all at once - sorta like painting a house before you move in.

I was able to take some time today to work on sound deadening the interior skins above the wheel wells, and the inside of the door skins. The rest of the LX is deadened really well I think, so making any sort of significant improvement would be really difficult without going all-out with a three layer approach (sound deadening butyl, closed cell foam, then mass loaded vinyl). Doing this additional deadening of the panels is a minor change overall, but again, might as well do it while I've got everything pulled out.

sounddeadenershowdown.com - https://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/ has a lot of good information on how to truly soundproof a vehicle, but you'll have to use the Way Back machine or something to access it - I think the site has been down for a while. I thought about going all out, but decided against it... at least for the moment, haha.

This is the stuff I used - I think it was $35 (plus another $8 for the roller tool) for 18 sqft - which was nearly the perfect amount for this job. I had one sheet (maybe like 2 sqft?) left over. I believe this was the 80 mil thickness variety:

This is the passenger side area above the rear wheel well that I'm going to do (behind the DVD player). Sound deadening has the most effect on large flat panels - so the inside of the doors, and these panels. I haven't actually popped the interior panels of the tailgate yet, but I figure that might need some too - so I'll use my last piece to do that. The floor of the LX already has an asphalt sound deadening applied, so no need to add more.

And here's the area on the driver side - normally behind the subwoofer enclosure:

And here's the stuff applied - you only need 25% coverage on a panel to get maximum effect. There's no need for it to be a single sheet/piece, so I cut it into smaller strips to make it easy on myself. Once you stick it on, you use the roller tool to press it down until the raised texture is gone (already done in this photo). That's easy to do here, a little more difficult in the door panel interiors.
I cut this stuff with a utility knife without too much fuss, so please excuse the sloppy lines. It won't matter once it's all covered under the panels! Be careful with the utility knife - remember, always cut towards your chump, not towards your thumb!
On an unrelated note, taking applications for new friends....

And here's the same on the other side. Tapping on the outside of the panels, it seems like they're less hollow sounding, so hopefully a little less vibration noise. With both the shape and the ribbing on the wheel wells themselves, I'm really not sure anything was really needed there (since the shape/ribs makes the sheet metal stiff) - but again, easy enough to do now.

Here's the inside of one of the door panels - which were much more difficult to do! Cutting and laying the butyl was easy enough, but rolling it all down was somewhat of a pain to do inside of the doors. Doable, just time consuming and you have to be careful with the sheet metal edges of the door openings so you don't accidentally scrape/slice your hand or wrist while working inside of it. Again, cut it up into pieces to make your life easier here.

And here's the inside of the door once I taped the vapor barrier back together - that's an important step you shouldn't skip!
On the front doors I added a little bit to the exterior of the interior panel (if that makes sense - the part you're looking at in the below photos) since some of those areas are bigger/flatter on the front two doors.

And I had just enough time to put one of the doors nearly all the way back together (still need to clean the light insert). I think it looks really nice with the new speaker grill material! Certainly doesn't look/feel like a 19 year old door - definitely a testament to the materials Toyota/Lexus used. The doors definitely sound more solid now when you shut them - which is impressive, because they were pretty solid sounding from the start.

Will it make a difference while driving? Who knows - having never actually driven this LX, I won't be able to provide even subjective information, haha.

(excuse the terribly messy garage - once I get the LX's interior all put back in, I'm going to clean/organize everything before tackling the engine. I've been finishing up a bunch of minor projects so that I can clear things out).

The next step is to get the rest of the interior in, and then continue disconnecting the engine.

 

[LJE]

My replacement subwoofer (SKL-65 D4) came in today, so I took some time to get it mounted. It's not quite a direct fit, you do need to trim out some of the ribbing on the interior of the backside of the sub enclosure.

I marked out the ribs I thought I needed to remove - I think I ended up taking some more of the vertical ones above the ones I marked, but this is close:

I found the easiest way to remove the ribbing was with just using some lineman's pliers - grab it as close to the bottom of the rib as you can, and then just twist. I used the endsnips to clean up anything nubs that got left behind. You could definitely spend more time with this if you wanted, but this ended up decently clean:

The EVL-65 D4 is a dual voice coil - so there's two 4 ohm coils. The stock ML sub is something like 12 ohms (though, I didn't actually measure), so it's definitely weird. 8 ohms is close-ish, and it seems like people get away with it without destroying their stock amplifier. To achieve 8 ohms, you wire the voice coils in series (so the positive (+) terminal of one goes to the negative (-) of the other - like this:

Then, I just wired the red wire running to the original sub to the remaining positive terminal, and the black wire to the remaining negative terminal:

The bezel is also larger than the stock ML sub, so I used some butyl rope material (the same stuff you'd use on the vapor barrier on the doors) to form a seal. I ran a continuous 'bead' around the bottom of the bezel of the subwoofer, then pressed it down tight into the enclosure. You're seeing the squish-out here - I think it made a really good seal. I definitely wouldn't skip this part, since I can only assume it'd negatively affect performance.

And here the sub enclosure is back in the vehicle:

I gave the whole system a whirl - it sounded pretty decent! Definitely not mind blowing bass, but that's fine. However, the driver side rear door woofer (you know, one of the two that I refoamed...) doesn't work at all. I didn't actually ever check to make sure that it worked before I worked on it, so that's a lesson for the future - at least it was only a $20 refoam kit. I confirmed that the woofer was bad by swapping the one from the passenger side rear door over temporarily to rule out any wiring issues (though I was already pretty sure, since the tweeter in that door was working fine).

So that leads me to a question - what's a good 'budget' set of rear door speakers for a LX? I'd like to stay around the $100/pair price range unless there's great reason to go more expensive.

Also, Impex let me know that a handful of the parts I ordered are delayed - I'm curious if they'll hold the entire order, or ship it out in chunks? Anyone had experience with this before?

 

[LJE]

With the time I had available today, I spent it mostly cleaning up the garage/shop in preparation for pulling the engine out. I also spent a little time replacing the gasket that seals the lid of the fuse box - it was entirely dried up and more brittle than dried spaghetti. Definitely wouldn't do much to keep dust/water out for sure.
The gasket isn't a part that you can order separate from the lid (or do you have to order an entire fuse box? I can't remember...). However, I found a post somewhere here on MUD where a helpful user (@05JLX470 ) stated it's just a 3/32" square gasket. I ordered 10 ft (the minimum order...) from Zoro for something like $9.50 shipped. Super quick and easy!

You can see part of the gasket that is laying in the left of the fuse box:

And here's the rest of the gasket left in the lid - it just shattered into pieces trying to get it out with a pick:

Here's the gasket material I used:

And this is what it looks like:

Pick a spot to start at and just make your way around:

I realized that I forgot to get a picture of the gasket once trimmed and fully installed - but I figure you can use your imagination, haha. Just cut it a little long and trim it down to get a perfect fit when you butt the two ends.

Here's a picture I grabbed with the lid reinstalled. It's amazing the contrast between the (uncleaned) fuse block body and the cleaned/conditions lid, haha:

I also had a chance to disconnect the engine harness from the ECU and pull it out. RELEASE THE KRAKEN! hahaha.

At this point, I just need to dismount the AC compressor (sounds like I should be able to leave the AC system all connected, just need to pull the compressor off the engine) and then disconnect the motor mounts and I (think) it should all be ready to pull out! I'm going to review the FSM again to make sure I'm not missing anything though.

 

[Berkut10r]

Hey nice progress. Rear speakers can be addressed with Dayton Audio components, such as in the link. I have some B-stock, 2 bnib and 2 open-box/never installed units, all four for $160. If you are interested, DM me on IG or my shop's site, I am a one man army so just say that you are from Mud.

Home

Dayton Audio DCS165-4 6-1/2" Classic Subwoofer 4 OhmDayton Audio's rugged DCS165-4 6-1/2" subwoofer has all of the performance-enhancing attributes you would expect from a larger high-output subwoofer. With a vented pole piece and 4 ohm, 4-layer voice coil, this driver can handle up 100 watt...

www.parts-express.com

Omega AutoWorks (@omegaautoworks) • Instagram photos and videos

275 Followers, 398 Following, 228 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Omega AutoWorks (@omegaautoworks)

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[katit]

Very interested to see how this goes and most important - how quick? I never took on project like that. Most my projects were runners, but I had to baseline/bring up to spec.

I think in a way - you taking right approach. How much of crap need to be replaced all around engine? Gaskets, hoses, etc, etc. Sometimes you almost feel like pulling engine and doing whole thing at once. (I just finished replacing headers..)

Good luck! You will love this truck.

 

[LJE]

Hey nice progress. Rear speakers can be addressed with Dayton Audio components, such as in the link. I have some B-stock, 2 bnib and 2 open-box/never installed units, all four for $160. If you are interested, DM me on IG or my shop's site, I am a one man army so just say that you are from Mud.

Home

Dayton Audio DCS165-4 6-1/2" Classic Subwoofer 4 OhmDayton Audio's rugged DCS165-4 6-1/2" subwoofer has all of the performance-enhancing attributes you would expect from a larger high-output subwoofer. With a vented pole piece and 4 ohm, 4-layer voice coil, this driver can handle up 100 watt...

www.parts-express.com

Omega AutoWorks (@omegaautoworks) • Instagram photos and videos

275 Followers, 398 Following, 228 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Omega AutoWorks (@omegaautoworks)

www.instagram.com

Thanks for the offer! I think I'm going to keep the front speakers (still in great condition) for the moment though. I'd like to get an idea of what this system sounds like as close to 'stock' as possible I think.

Very interested to see how this goes and most important - how quick? I never took on project like that. Most my projects were runners, but I had to baseline/bring up to spec.

I think in a way - you taking right approach. How much of crap need to be replaced all around engine? Gaskets, hoses, etc, etc. Sometimes you almost feel like pulling engine and doing whole thing at once. (I just finished replacing headers..)

Good luck! You will love this truck.

I am the worst about trying to estimate time required for a project, haha! I've certainly never done anything like this either.
I love tackling big projects, but I tend to get annoyed having to go back and redo/fix something that I could have done in the past - so by starting from (nearly) ground level and building up, I'm hoping to avoid that. I just hope my steering rack lasts a long time, since now would be the perfect time to replace it - but it's not leaking yet, and this project is expensive enough as is! hahaha.

And speaking of manifolds/headers... these came in yesterday!

 

[excessive]

wow, i thought those headers were NLA! They look beautiful !

 

[LJE]

wow, i thought those headers were NLA! They look beautiful !

DT does short runs, so sometimes you have to wait - but they've got some in stock right now! They definitely look really good. Too bad they'll be nearly invisible once installed, haha.

 

[katit]

I just hope my steering rack lasts a long time, since now would be the perfect time to replace it - but it's not leaking yet, and this project is expensive enough as is! hahaha.

Thats actually "the thing" with those trucks. Replacing steering racks that is.. Maybe wait for one of those big sales and get one.
From what I understand truck was parked for a while? Thats not good thing either when saying "not leaking". Once you start driving it - all kind of stuff will start coming up.