What's new

2000 Taco racetruck

Crawl

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 26, 2021
Member Number
3848
Messages
46
Loc
Ontario, Canada
2000 3.4 a340 racer build.

Parts list.
Duels 23 spline input.
A340 adapter.
Fj62 front axle, welded, hex bolted flanges, 30 spline cromos, trussed, 5th stud, homebrew arms from stock.
Taco rear axle with flange collars, welded, trussed.
Front 4 link duel triangulated
Rear 4 link reversed triangulated upper trailing arm type.
39 KRT’s
Full hydro duel ended ram.
Etc.

I’m just gonna dump some pics. I’m well into the build and hoping to hit the starting line around July......hopeful.

I’ll get into more detail as we go. Thanks for the space to have a forum again.
74E11AAB-583D-49E8-A10F-430D3D9A2E1F.jpeg
2CA8BF18-8C3A-45F1-9E35-760D201B39F3.jpeg
1D3B61CE-5098-42B1-95FE-8A43059B4E87.jpeg
BD6D8DA0-4BE0-495A-85F0-3D8DAFEBA067.jpeg
98543180-F76A-40CB-997E-C93139E7AE27.jpeg
B56947CE-37FC-4568-B40B-231BBC28CA5C.jpeg
4EBDC582-9EBA-433C-A4B2-2CEC053A57CC.jpeg
C1BA0001-ABDF-4AC3-8CD9-1B900F2DA6C2.jpeg
E18D8B97-8596-4066-B6A0-97CEBC2BD0C0.jpeg
 
Last edited:
8F006756-7D6B-48A0-9ABF-B23B272B1E3D.png

This is my old race whip. 84’ extra cab. 37’s, Leafs, 22re, g52, duels, ifs rear/minitruck front axles, lots of repair and reinforced stuff over the years of beating. It was a “rockcrawler” that progressed into a racer.

I’m getting sick of the absolute beating my body and arms take at race speed. The steering is just a highsteer kit. No assist with a 1.5:1 steering quickener. I’ve had great success with it, but it’s time to move on.

The Tacoma is going to be everything I would do to the 84’ if I was upgrading it.

Bear with me on this thread. I just learned the big pic option.
 
Looks like fun, where do you race at? Do you have to bump up a class on your new build?
 
Ontario, Canada is where I’m out of. We have a local series of usually 4-5 races a summer. TMR Customs Off-road racing series. I race in Modified class, but you can choose to race in any class above, if you meet safety tech rules. The mod class rules are very similar to ultra4, but 42” tires are allowed, 8 shocks, and the fuel cell doesn’t need some of the things ultra4 calls for. I’m still going to race Modified class. Mod needs to retain stock frame from engine mounts to behind occupants. 50% of the stock sheet metal. The rest is basically open. No rear steer allowed.

The terrain is a lot like the last ultra4, Battle in the bluegrass race. Expect mud, rocks, trees, tight woods, jumps, rally X track. We race door to door, but leave the line 15 seconds apart based on qualifying results. 1 hour enduro for Stock and Modified class, and 2 hour race for unlimited. A few of the teams in the series have raced KOH, one being the first Canadain team to finish. A few have been to “TOP Truck Challenge”. It’s a great group of people to party, and race with.

The shock package on the Tacoma will be some old 2.0 x 14 Fox emulsions, 2x14 Radflo emulsions(new), and some 12” 2-tube bypasses. I’m super new to coilovers, and am going to try to put the 12” on leading axle mounts for the front, and the upper trailing arm rear. Hopefully I can place them to match the travel of the 14” coil overs, or more.

I grabbed the 12” Bypasses cheap on Facebook. They came off a brodozer, and one of the tubes was bent from tire contact causing the resi to leak. I think I got it straight, but I’ll know when I put the nitrogen in.
F34892C4-BDC9-4035-B186-162AD015A9F8.png
5BE2589D-E0E0-4278-A461-020E4666E8AA.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Yes, 2” diameter. I have been looking at the parts to add reservoirs. It’ll probably happen.
youd be better off selling all your shocks and going to a single 2.5 with a dsc. the 2.0 bypasses are not very effective
 
youd be better off selling all your shocks and going to a single 2.5 with a dsc. the 2.0 bypasses are not very effective
I’ll go price some, and look into it. Thanks for the advice.

I have read that the Dsc thing was kinda gimmicky, or not even comparable to a real bypass as far as the effect. But, I can definitely see what your saying with the small bypasses I have in comparison. My uneducated self has me thinking the races are not long enough, and the truck is light enough to get away with what I was buying for a deal.

I’m obviously a slight cheapskate on my junk, but I’m open to smart moves. In my local used market race type parts are scarce to none. New is a premium on exchange/shipping/brokerage etc.

All adds to the money matrix.

I’ll put a picture of how blued/heat soaked my Rancho’s got from the one hour race on the rallyX type, high speed track. The other courses in the series are slower, and more technical.
CD9C9F83-4E31-4844-9FEB-380A9652E48B.jpeg
 
Last edited:
DCS is different than a bypass. they do work as intended, which is to add damping to the shock by restricting flow to the reservoir. if you are racing and plan on going fast they also help fight piston plunge. at $300/pop they arent cheap, but i feel well worth the money.

have worked with Eric over at Brink Fab quite a bit, so im well aware of how nothing is cheap in canadia.
 
DCS is different than a bypass. they do work as intended, which is to add damping to the shock by restricting flow to the reservoir. if you are racing and plan on going fast they also help fight piston plunge. at $300/pop they arent cheap, but i feel well worth the money.

have worked with Eric over at Brink Fab quite a bit, so im well aware of how nothing is cheap in canadia.
Thanks for giving me some insight on this. I got 3800 into all the shocks, and springs I’ve gathered up. I priced some new Fox 2.5x14 DCS remote resi shocks to my door at 3800 without springs.
I also looked into getting the Accutune treatment that includes springs, and a base tune on the same package, shipped up here from California. That comes around $5500.

It’s definitely something to consider. 3” I.d. springs are scarce here, and roughly $800-1000 for 8.

To get the shock tune and spring in the ballpark out of the gate has big value.

I was going to award myself some real bumpstops near the end of this build, and the trade off budget wise to re-buy the shocks might be worth sacrificing the air bumps a few years for foam/shitty bumps.

I’m used to the driving style of being well aware of the big hits, and how to throttle my way over certain known places on the track that are going to hurt. The un planned comes though. No doubt.

I’ve broken my old frame I few places learning to drive as best the truck could.

Thanks again. Lots to think about. More photos and progress on the build to come this weekend.
 
Last edited:
Snowracer is this your toyota alter ego?

No, but I went and checked his posts. Looks like he’s having a great build for sure. I’m going to guess he’s in the western area of Canada.

yep im other side of Canada. Very cool build and will be fallowing along for sure, big fan of the TRM race and wish we had something like that out this way
 
yep im other side of Canada. Very cool build and will be fallowing along for sure, big fan of the TRM race and wish we had something like that out this way
I didn’t quite understand that the poster was asking YOU about the alter ego. Pfft.

It’s really cool to hear you even know about our little, ever-evolving race scene on the other side of the country.

Mountain havoc looks crazy. There’s a few guys into the big stuff around here that are wishing they had an event like that.

I respect ya for posting about that tweaked chassis you fixed. It’s good to show the mistakes and fixes imo.

Build on!

Pics, just cause chit chat makes threads boring.

A screenshot of the “woods” type course in the series. Things are not always so wet, and muddy, but 2020 was wet at every event. It’s not my favourite taste, but it’s fun during the ride.

I had to swap the cross-over exhaust manifold to driver side dump. It’s a pretty simple, and cheap process on the 3.4 v6, thankfully. The OEM tcase was driver drop. It needed to be done for the front driveline space.

The third member pic is just a visual of the size comparison between the rear, Tacoma 8.4 chunk vs. the front fj62 9” chunk. I’ll hang them on the scale at some point just cause weights of things are good to know.
CB5319DF-5EE8-4136-AD66-53ACE19FCE6A.png
0AEEFA1E-3E0D-4BF1-A2F9-0EBCE82BCC14.jpeg
44806B31-ADE9-4A99-BDAE-C7EADFFC981F.jpeg
 
I had someone say no-bend cages are good, but when the primary tube in the node is open ended, it should be capped. Makes sense to me. Continue to follow for great examples of how to make decent tube work look shitty with amateur level welds.
3FEF8167-E393-44A3-B897-E1EA7A23FF8C.jpeg
2202D6E4-91F6-4AA2-B23C-4C2F1347483D.jpeg
C0A9F888-F55A-4D80-A986-FDE368D8D4E2.jpeg
AF4F23FF-A9E3-4506-9476-01A9EEF77B7E.jpeg
DAD12A9F-23C9-4981-B9B0-9E63823E24E1.jpeg
F52CE93D-8692-4F44-8CF1-5B2030BE6E2A.jpeg
 
Burning in some cage that can be at this point. I’m waiting on some laser cut mounts for the rear arms. I can’t go any further to the rear at this point.

I dropped the upper half to weld the inaccessible nodes in the roof area. All the roof bars are fitted against sheet metal. I will tie the cage to the body in places.
E9DD9C9F-245C-4D21-A4E8-EC6BA3298E3B.jpeg
61EF4D10-7557-444E-A647-8F7A8C999E39.jpeg
88D1BE83-36C4-479D-961A-4ADC51AE6C0A.jpeg
 
protip - if you are having stuff laser'd always toss in a handful of tube caps, basic tabs and gussets. you wont see much increase in cost since you already have the setup and design time covered for the larger items.
 
protip - if you are having stuff laser'd always toss in a handful of tube caps, basic tabs and gussets. you wont see much increase in cost since you already have the setup and design time covered for the larger items.
Haha. That’s exactly how I get it for free. I have a friend putting an order together, and he likes the build. He offered some space on the sheet to fill in.

I got rear upper mounts and some sandwich plate front tug points on the way. The holes received a radius pattern for the upper squat adjustment
24C223A5-5C06-4047-84B7-7F294552B79C.jpeg
F577B759-9D09-4955-B633-B09F4A210660.jpeg
 
Just looking at these two chunks on the bench I thought the FJ 62 third would be about 1/4 heavier then the Tacoma 8.4. Both are welded. 5 lbs difference between the two.

8.4 chunk
DA9FF1CB-07F9-479F-8E29-6E95EFC08065.jpeg


9.5 chunk
760E1026-7639-4BAE-B353-C9D356567EB2.jpeg
 
Midweek progress- pulled the tcases to do some work. Install the 23 spline input gear, install the VSS signal converter, finalize the crossmember and mounting plans, and fix a stripped out shifter bolt hole.

For anyone that plans to use a FROR style rear mount flange, the TG VSS signal converter thing will not just screw in. My mount is 3/8” thick. I needed to clearance quite a bit with grinder.

This would suck to do from underneath, after it’s installed. Or, not notice and screw the plastic thing on cross threaded.

The speedo gear thing is 35 years seized in.

The last cross remember left under the truck will be cut out soon. I left it to brace things while all the other stuff was happening. It will be a flat belly.
2A15970D-4BA1-4CCC-8A8D-B6164B122F85.jpeg
0B797361-9867-44DD-8F11-D12C35166A2A.jpeg
6513DF55-05D6-49AC-8114-A09F0F741534.jpeg
 
Last edited:
9.5 3rd weighs more than 66 pounds. They are closer to 90 pounds.
 
I’ll check my scale. I’ll drop it on the bathroom scale tonight, and see what it says.
I used my bathroom scale with it in my hands this time, and it came out to 60 lbs. I’m gonna assume the crane scale is a better accuracy.

Maybe 90 lbs is for an e-locker 9.5, or high pinion version, if there is such?

This 9.5 third is from an fj 62 cruiser. Low pinion 4:10.

I hung it again on the crane scale. Same again ( 66.5 lbs ). It’s got the driveline hardware, and the bracket I used to weight it on it. 1/4 lbs of extra.

Idk.
19D264FD-B959-456A-BD88-ABB9BF4B0F1E.jpeg
 
Odd. My 9.5 3rd feels significantly heavier than the hi pinion 8 3rd sitting next to it.
 
Same. The 9.5 beside the 8.4 looks heavy in comparison, but only comes in 6-7 lbs heavier.

Did some adapting at work last night. I want to keep my stock steering column cause I’m cheap, and I like the tilt feature. I need a steering disconnect, but all the ones I found that are a direct fit are not SFI approved, and rice. I grabbed a Longacre quick release for welding on to 3/4” shaft and made it work.

So, I cut the taper spline sleeve out of my stock wheel, bored the quick release stub to fit it for dia. and depth. Tig welded the .060 lip, and cleaned it up on the lathe. Bored the opposite end for the stock wheel nut.

Also, I got the tcases all back in for the last time, and finished the mount and crossmember. I’ll grab some pictures tonight.
0274FDD8-D6A2-4BE1-B7F6-BDB6E44F48B4.jpeg
A6F7BACD-CAC4-4F0E-BB3F-3EA7DA1365D6.jpeg
 
Last edited:
This bend on the passenger side was 1” further away from the A pillar bar then on the drivers side. I spent a week glancing at it knowing something was fuct and not wanting to put a tape measure on it.

C56A5818-F346-44BE-AE92-FA0F7A9BC019.jpeg
483EC925-160F-4041-A217-D8C0B4D40D57.jpeg


Decided to just fix it like it’s already been racing. There’s 1.5” sleeved inside of the 1.75” crew.

I couldn’t stomach taking it out and chancing another bend mistake. I wasted a tube already doing this front end, and steel is still 3x the pre Covid here.

I still have the whole back half, and more to build, and the steel pile is looking a bit light.

I have to buy some DOM 1.25 ID for the front upper arms soon. I’m sure I’ll puke a little bit after that phone call.
 
Top Back Refresh