Builds "Rednexus" - 2007 GX470 Build Thread (21 Viewers)

[DRANGED]

It's the bad side of being an engineer

I'm not an engineer, but i play one in the forums.

 

[Rednexus]

I'm not an engineer, but i play one in the forums.

I'm a dirt engineer but play mechanical.....and now acoustical too

 

[Maxacceleration]

Rednexus, over a period of time have you been satisfied with your WAT Nomad valve body and its shift performance?

I have a decently set up 470, re-geared to 4.56 on 34" tires (295/70-17). The rpm's are right, but the tire/wheel combination is heavy. Its just the way it is with oversized tires. The GX470 motor is a low output V-8 in any modern V-8 format. The available torque does not make up for it.
Towing my minuscule 12' aluminum trailer weighing 1200lbs dry apprx and then with 600lbs of gear equaling rougly 1800lbs in total. Certainly under 2000lbs in weight...
I find my engine power and transmission limitations obvious. Just as you stated, with lazy downshifts and the motor falling on its face, until I punch down more for a downshift. 6-9 mpg's towing this set-up 1400 miles one way in my recent '23 road trip.
Of course I will never have big power with this motor, and I want to keep it bone stock as its such a smooth sweet quiet gem.
So... I am giving serious consideration in the WAT set-up.

I appreciate your thoughts and mucho time you have spent on your GX (sorry for my pic in your thread).

 

[Rednexus]

I've had the Nomad and lockup switch since June of 2022, so around 8 months. Still very happy with it. I am surprised you are only getting 6-9 mpg with that trailer, perhaps it's a tire size/weight thing? I run P-rated 32's which are only 46# per tire. Before my Nomad I was usually in the 11-12 mpg range with our 3-4K pound TrailManor, now it's more in the 12-13.5 mpg or so range, but drops off to 11 mpg or so if I tow at 70 mph or faster. We've towed at least 2K miles with this setup, usually with a bike or two on top of the GX, and it's much improved over stock.

I do think the Nomad and a lockup switch would be a good upgrade for your setup. Headers (long-tube if you live in a non-emissions area) would also be a good addition and give you more power, and an exhaust on top of that would help even more. With those 3 mods the 470 is a totally different animal than stock, and will have plenty of midrange torque and punch (at least unladen).

No problem posting a pic in my build thread, you have a beautiful GX!

 

[Maxacceleration]

Thanks Rednexus. My scenario was this... Idaho and Nevada have high speed limits (75 & 80). I had 1200 miles to cover. Also I always/mostly had a headwind. I was only trying to cruise at 70, and I did mostly, but in 4th @ roughly 3100-3300 rpm's a lot.
I also have fresh r&p gears... Could they be on the tight side?? I will have the oil changed to inspect.
I have never got over 14 mpg with this GX (it came with 33's). With my current set up it is 9-11 mpg's with a 12-13 mpg flier sometimes (I record my mileage with every fill up). 9-10 mpg normally in my local hilly town. :-/

I am very onboard for this valve body upgrade. Gotta check availability and install.

Edit: My Toyo Open Country R/T tires are 64 lbs per. So roughly 20# more than your tires! Thats a lot.
Big time flywheel effect for sure. We know that can't help. Also they are sorry snow/ice/winter tires.
...I'm always learning.

 

[Rednexus]

I can see 3,300 rpm in 4th gear getting 6-9 mpg! Instant MPG while towing on mine drops to 8-10 mpg on flat ground at 70 mph in 4th. I usually tow in 5th whenever possible, but do keep things in 4th when towing on twisty 2-lane roads at 55 mph or so.

The valve body is distributed by Cruiser Brothers in Stockton, CA. They don't list it on their website but were responsive via email, and sent me a quote. I later paid over the phone. They seem to have them in stock. The actual valve body install is easy, took me maybe 3 hours as a DIY. Any transmission shop can handle it. The lockup switch install (which I also recommend) is quite a bit more difficult and requires splicing the ECU harness, which has very short and fragile 22-ga wires. The instructions for mine were incorrect so I had to cross-reference it with a 2005 GX FSM and reach out to Wholesale in Australia to have them correct the instructions, after first hooking it up wrong. I wouldn't want to pass that part off to just anyone.

One other minor detail for mine is that I got the valve body with 1st gear lockup enabled. This results in the GX sometimes having a harsh shift into reverse. According to Wholesale, this is due to the changes they made to allow the 1st gear lockup. I have yet to use lockup in 1st gear, so in hindsight I would have rather skipped that feature and had a smoother reverse engagement.

I see you also mentioned wanting to keep the GX quiet....headers will give you a nice power boost and won't really affect the noise level at all. Also a somewhat expensive mod, but worth it if you are with your GX for the long-haul.

 

[Maxacceleration]

I can see 3,300 rpm in 4th gear getting 6-9 mpg! Instant MPG while towing on mine drops to 8-10 mpg on flat ground at 70 mph in 4th. I usually tow in 5th whenever possible, but do keep things in 4th when towing on twisty 2-lane roads at 55 mph or so.

My intent also. With cruise control it would only use 4th gear. With my foot, back & forth continuously between 4th & 5th. As I mentioned headwinds on rolling flatland (between Boise & Twin Falls Id, all the way to Ely Nv), so I had extra wind resistance for sure.

The valve body is distributed by Cruiser Brothers in Stockton, CA. They don't list it on their website but were responsive via email, and sent me a quote. I later paid over the phone. They seem to have them in stock. The actual valve body install is easy, took me maybe 3 hours as a DIY. Any transmission shop can handle it. The lockup switch install (which I also recommend) is quite a bit more difficult and requires splicing the ECU harness, which has very short and fragile 22-ga wires. The instructions for mine were incorrect so I had to cross-reference it with a 2005 GX FSM and reach out to Wholesale in Australia to have them correct the instructions, after first hooking it up wrong. I wouldn't want to pass that part off to just anyone.

One other minor detail for mine is that I got the valve body with 1st gear lockup enabled. This results in the GX sometimes having a harsh shift into reverse. According to Wholesale, this is due to the changes they made to allow the 1st gear lockup. I have yet to use lockup in 1st gear, so in hindsight I would have rather skipped that feature and had a smoother reverse engagement.

I will contact CB in Stockton.

I see you also mentioned wanting to keep the GX quiet....headers will give you a nice power boost and won't really affect the noise level at all. Also a somewhat expensive mod, but worth it if you are with your GX for the long-haul.

Is there a map or flash available for our GX when doing that?

Bottom line is... modifying changes the characteristics of a stock vehicle!
Thank you for your input Rednexus.

 

[Rednexus]

Bottom line is... modifying changes the characteristics of a stock vehicle!
Thank you for your input Rednexus.

YotaWerx does have a tune package for the GX (that should accommodate headers), but I have not used it (and, am frankly on the fence about the $700 cost with how well my GX pulls after upgrading the exhaust).

On my GX with long tubes, there was a very noticeable difference in power and especially midrange torque with no ECU or other changes. It was immediately noticeable after pulling out of my driveway. Headers will also fix the annoying exhaust manifold cracks and corresponding ticking noise.

 

[Rednexus]

In the latest episode of Rednexus - the Exhaust Saga, my drone came back! It happened after I hit a railroad crossing pretty fast, leaving me with a big grin but a louder exhaust. Climbed underneath and found that the jump seemed to have loosened the clamp connection between the Vibrant resonator and the rest of the exhaust. So I pulled it off and welded it - still super-happy with the Amazon flux core SS wire (welds don't look good but they are solid - being able to do this with a cheap HF welder and not a TIG is huge). This knocked the drone back down to pre track-jumping levels, likely due to less vibration in the more solid exhaust.

I also noticed the OEM exhaust had a rubber/steel mass damper on the tailpipe, where it wraps around the spare tire. Figuring Mr. T put the damper there for a NVH reason, I added it to the Borla exhaust, in the same place, with some exhaust clamps. To my surprise this made a noticeable difference in the drone and noise low-speed volume. The exhaust sounds great with a perfect volume around town, and a minimal drone at 70 mph on the highway. I may go ahead and add a Helmholtz resonator on the tailpipe as well to totally kill the drone, since I found a good spot for it, and have got the exhaust removal/reinstall/welding down to a art now.

In other news, ran into another Cypress Green yota at Lowes. I've only seen a couple of other Toyota/Lexus vehicles in the color.

 

[DRANGED]

In the latest episode of Rednexus - the Exhaust Saga, my drone came back! It happened after I hit a railroad crossing pretty fast, leaving me with a big grin but a louder exhaust. Climbed underneath and found that the jump seemed to have loosened the clamp connection between the Vibrant resonator and the rest of the exhaust. So I pulled it off and welded it - still super-happy with the Amazon flux core SS wire (welds don't look good but they are solid - being able to do this with a cheap HF welder and not a TIG is huge). This knocked the drone back down to pre track-jumping levels, likely due to less vibration in the more solid exhaust.
View attachment 3264076
I also noticed the OEM exhaust had a rubber/steel mass damper on the tailpipe, where it wraps around the spare tire. Figuring Mr. T put the damper there for a NVH reason, I added it to the Borla exhaust, in the same place, with some exhaust clamps. To my surprise this made a noticeable difference in the drone and noise low-speed volume. The exhaust sounds great with a perfect volume around town, and a minimal drone at 70 mph on the highway. I may go ahead and add a Helmholtz resonator on the tailpipe as well to totally kill the drone, since I found a good spot for it, and have got the exhaust removal/reinstall/welding down to a art now.
View attachment 3264077
In other news, ran into another Cypress Green yota at Lowes. I've only seen a couple of other Toyota/Lexus vehicles in the color.
View attachment 3264078

sweet.
BTW, have you reported you plate in the custom plates thread?

 

[Rednexus]

sweet.
BTW, have you reported you plate in the custom plates thread?

I have not but might just do that! I purposely chose it with a space between UZJ and 120 so only diehard LC and Toyota guys would notice it as a custom plate

GXOR and a couple others I looked at were already taken in MO!

 

[HomersCanyonero]

I was tracking all my expenses to the penny and I eventually stopped once I got past $25k including purchase price of $8k.

I was trying to categorize my costs into 3 areas:

1. Maintenance
2. Repairs
3. Upgrades

However, sometimes a repair turns into preventive maintenance (while you are in there) and sometimes maintenance turns into an upgrade.

Anyways, after 6 years of ownership…costs keep on adding up. I can’t help myself make little upgrades here and there and keep doing preventive maintenance here and there.

 

[Rednexus]

I was tracking all my expenses to the penny and I eventually stopped once I got past $25k including purchase price of $8k.

I was trying to categorize my costs into 3 areas:

1. Maintenance
2. Repairs
3. Upgrades

However, sometimes a repair turns into preventive maintenance (while you are in there) and sometimes maintenance turns into an upgrade.

Anyways, after 6 years of ownership…costs keep on adding up. I can’t help myself make little upgrades here and there and keep doing preventive maintenance here and there.

I got the original idea to post costs and break them into the three categories from either your build thread or one of your other posts . I didn't set out to track costs to a penny, but I do retain a binder of all receipts for my GX, mainly to prove the value in case I were to ever sell it (or, heaven forbid, it gets totaled by myself or another motorist). With unique vehicles like these it can be pretty hard to prove the value without the receipts; insurance would likely treat it like a normal 16 year-old used car without the info to back it up.

I, and I am sure you too, certainly have plenty of money/income to dump more into our GXs, but doing the cost tracking helps ground things. I have enough in mine that I'm no longer chomping at the bit to do any more extensive mods, as the improvement is well past the point of diminishing returns at this point. But I do love the GX and will continue making smaller tweaks to improve it and keep it as long as possible.

 

[HomersCanyonero]

I got the original idea to post costs and break them into the three categories from either your build thread or one of your other posts . I didn't set out to track costs to a penny, but I do retain a binder of all receipts for my GX, mainly to prove the value in case I were to ever sell it (or, heaven forbid, it gets totaled by myself or another motorist). With unique vehicles like these it can be pretty hard to prove the value without the receipts; insurance would likely treat it like a normal 16 year-old used car without the info to back it up.

I, and I am sure you too, certainly have plenty of money/income to dump more into our GXs, but doing the cost tracking helps ground things. I have enough in mine that I'm no longer chomping at the bit to do any more extensive mods, as the improvement is well past the point of diminishing returns at this point. But I do love the GX and will continue making smaller tweaks to improve it and keep it as long as possible.

Right, after a while…I’m just going to go out and enjoy the rig.

Just gonna do the Taco Tabs to fix the alignment and the eimKeith lower link skid bracket. And that’s it until I start breaking stuff! Lol

 

[Rednexus]

Built a Helmholtz resonator today and installed it just before the end of the tailpipe. Used 304 SS components including a 1.5" 90 (4.75" long) and a 4" straight pipe turned into a sealed can (4-7/8" long). Added a clamp so the can portion can come off. The drone is gone. It's almost stock quiet at cruise, at around 58-59 db at 70 mph. Lesson learned, the drone on one of these comes from the tailpipe behind the muffler, not in front of it (which is probably why Mr. T put the OEM resonator here).

I also extended the Borla tip a couple of inches and finished the edge of the cut into the OEM bumper cover.

Realizing the tip has a decent chance of getting destroyed off-road, I also added a slip joint to make the Borla tip removable, and cut a 2.5" turn down to length for off-road use (or when hauling stuff on a hitch carrier).

Really happy with the low-speed and highway sound. Buuuut....the exhaust now has a whistle at 3K RPM. Not sure if it's from the slip joint or a small glob of weld/wire inside the exhaust. I may play with it more later, but am pretty happy for now to have a better-performing and cruising-quiet exhaust for our upcoming spring break trip with our camper.

 

[Rednexus]

100-acre Wood Rally spectating with friends this weekend. Great event, but will never be like it used to without Ken Block racing. His daughter drove a BRZ/86 and blasted through all of the stages though. Hearing all of the Subies fly through the woods made me miss having an EJ25 powered vehicle with a MT. Other cool cars in the race included a AMC AMX, some Audis and BMWs, and some oddball rigs like a Honda Pilot and a 1st-gen S10.

Saw a few other GX's, including a nice lifted black GX that was one of the zero cars, a pretty sweet lifted 1st gen Tundra was one of the sweep cars. Lots of folks came up to compliment and ask questions about my rig - and overall a great weekend in the woods with other gearheads of all shapes and sizes. Slept in the GX with temps in the 20s and stayed toasty in a 0 degree bag with a liner. Loved the ease of camp setup and teardown using drawers and a sleeping platform, instead of messing with a tent and totes of gear (less than half the time).

 

[Rednexus]

The GX had developed a hard start when warm problem after replacing the fuel injectors. I eventually narrowed it down to the fuel pressure regulator. $95 to Mr. T and 10 minutes of work seemed to fix it.

Also added some new Kuat racks since I have a thru-axle bike now. Big improvement over my decade-old Yakimas.

 

[Rednexus]

Ugh, hard start came back, but not as bad as before. I used 12-hole rebuilt Denso injectors from CS Performance. Going to put some new O-rings on my old 4-holes and swap them out (it's a 30-45 min job) and see if that fixes it. If so, I'm going to return the injectors and source them elsewhere. Otherwise, I'm at a loss as I've been over all of the fuel system connections, vacuum lines, etc and everything is in order. This problem only happened after I swapped the injectors. Otherwise the GX runs great (tons of power, decent MPG, etc).

 

[Rednexus]

Completed another GX vacation, towing our camper to the Gulf coast in AL and FL and back for spring break. We did it in two 670-mile days. The towing improvement with the exhaust and 12-hole injectors was substantial. I was able to pull the camper 70-75 mph in 5th gear without issue, for almost the whole trip, with power to spare. Fuel economy was bad (10-12 mpg), but I was going faster than normal. Next time, on a shorter trip, I'll try a 60-65 mph tow and hopefully be back into the 13+ mpg range.

Also saw tons of GX460s in the south and had several people compliment my rig.

 

[Rednexus]

Took the kids out to enjoy a beautiful spring day in the woods. Turns out the inside of the GX makes a good picnic table for little folks. Also had some fun doing creek/river crossings.