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Father & Son 1 Ton 4Runner Build

LowDown

What an idiot...
Joined
May 22, 2020
Member Number
1119
Messages
151
Loc
Land of Mary
Huge thanks to our family, wheeling family including Dave's Off Road Supply, WFO Concepts, Off Road Design, East Coast Gear Supply, and Bill Griiffith - Verb Precision Machine for helping to make this dream project happen. This is pretty surreal. In ways it seems like just yesterday, other ways a life-time ago, that I was dreaming about building our '89 early body style 4Runner when my oldest son who was just a few months old and the youngest was still about 2 years out. They're now 16 and 14. Their Mom and I bought the 4Runner in '04 from the original owner with 303K on it. I drove it daily for about 5 years, documented the 22RE rebuild on the old PBB site, retired it in '10 to build it, but had to back burner it. Unitil now.

Plan - Full bodied wheeler on 40s capable of street driving. Front and back halfed stock frame, one ton solid axle swap, drvie train swap, simple suspension, full hydro, cage, seats, re-paint, and body protection.

Stock piled: KP Dodge D60 front axle we narrowed to ~ 64" WMS-WMS, Cab and Chassis 14 bolt, 4.56 gear sets, WFO 14 bolt truss, Total Metal Inoovations 14 bolt shave kit, 2014 Chevy LV3 4.3L V6, NV4500 trans w/6.34:1 first gear, NP205, Champion aluminum radiator, Trail Gear leaf springs, shackles, Bilstein 5100s, and the front spring hanger / 8274 winch mount I built early this year. Dave hooked us with a set of Raceline Avenger beadlocks which are on the way and we have a set of 6x 40" MTRs on stand-by. Once money allows, we'll order another ORD Magnum underdrive, call Dave Williamson for steering, seats, harnesses, axle setup kits, lockers, etc, get the LV3 harness worked over, ECU flashed, have Bill machine the 205 case, shave the 14 bolt housing, shave the R&P, and round up all the odds and ends.

Summer 2020 Noah and I dragged home a pretty beat down and rotten '93 W250 for the 60 front and 205 transfercase. We gutted it and scrapped the left overs.In between projects on my FJ45, Noah and I built the leaf spring hanger / 8274 winch mount.

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Narrowing the Dodge king pin D60 front. I cut the C off with a cutting wheel and grinder and final cut the housing with Bill's band saw. I split the left over tubing inside the C with the sawzall then hammered out the pieces. We heated the C to about 400* to burn off any junk, wire wheeled, let it cool to about 250*F, welded the C back onto the housing and welded the tubes to the center section.








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I like what I see so far ought to be a good build to follow time sure does fly by
 
As for the 4Runner itself, years ago I trimmed a few inches out of the front fenders and rear wheel openings. I'm not a paint and body guy at all so I just bedlined over the bare metal. It did the job at the time, was always ugly, so we'll probbaly strip down and repaint the entire body eventually. It clears 37s with zero lift so with rear moved back about 1" - 2" and the front moved foward about 4", I'm hoping to won't take much more sheet metal work to clear 40s. I gutted the interior years ago (seats, seat belts, carpet, and interior panels) and Noah power washed years of funk off the body back in January 2020. This past weekend (13 Dec 2020,) we unhooked everything in preparation of separating the body and frame then pulled the body with the excavator. Fortunately the frame is in great shape and very solid.






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Shitcan the V6 and throw a V8 in there. Tons and 40s Bro.
No thanks. I have an LM7 5.3L in my FJ45. I love it, it rips, but the LV3 makes the same power in the same power band and weighs about 150lbs less. Plus, we already have the LV3 along with motor mount plates, new accessory drive plates to bolt up a power steering pump, and a new flywheel.
 
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Following along for the father/sons build. FYI a bud built a 1 ton 88 xcab with 40s a 22re and duals and taco'd a set of TG front springs in 2 trips due to axle wrap. Ya might want to think about an an-wrap bar for the front as well to keep that from happening. His springs were the 3" versions so if you are running the HD 4s or 5s it may not be a problem.
 
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We pulled the NV4500 out of a friend's project YJ that he was parting out. It's an early Chevy case, early 6:34:1 first gear & 23 spline output shaft. Advance Adapters must have built this trans years ago but as far as I can tell, I don't think it has any miles on it.
 
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2014 Chevy LV3 aluminum block & heads w/~75k on it. Bought it as a complete drop out from Bow Auto Parts in NH.
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Dodge NP205. Small diameter input shaft bearing that I'll ask Bill to machine for the 90mm input shaft bearing for the Magnum. In the meantime, we've torn down and bagged up all the parts.
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Following along for the father/sons build. FYI a bud built a 1 ton 88 xcab with 40s a 22re and duals and taco'd a set of TG front springs in 2 trips due to axle wrap. Ya might want to think about an an-wrap bar for the front as well to keep that from happening. His springs were the 3" versions so if you are running the HD 4s or 5s it may not be a problem.
Thanks for the heads up. There's a good chance I'm going to try and get rid of the stock 3" TG springs we have and get a pair of the HD springs. I'd like to install an anti-wrap bar in the front, rear for sure.

That's pretty much it for now right. Next steps are to pull the stock drive train and start stripping down the frame. If anyone is interested in a high-zoot, low-mileage 22RE, W56, top shift t-case, IFS rear axle, IFS steering box, or IFS parts, hit me up. Whatever we make from selling the drive train will go right back into the build.
 
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Thanks for the heads up. There's a good chance I'm going to try and get rid of the stock 3" TG springs we have and get a pair of the HD springs. I'd like to install an anti-wrap bar in the front, rear for sure.

Not sure where ya are in MD (Im about an hour south of Salisbury Md) but I have a complete spring hanger and shackle kit from Skys Offroad for the rear as well as a set of 57" F150 and 63" chevy springs if you are interested. Also got a set of 3" tg fronts, a set of 4-12" bilstein 5150s, and a bunch of steering boxes, and a complete TG hi steer kit. Send me a PM if ya need any of that.
 
Not sure where ya are in MD (Im about an hour south of Salisbury Md) but I have a complete spring hanger and shackle kit from Skys Offroad for the rear as well as a set of 57" F150 and 63" chevy springs if you are interested. Also got a set of 3" tg fronts, a set of 4-12" bilstein 5150s, and a bunch of steering boxes, and a complete TG hi steer kit. Send me a PM if ya need any of that.
Glen Burnie, right by BWI. I might take you up on the springs and shocks depending on how things go. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Nothing new to report but we plan on getting busy stripping the frame down once this weather system coming through the East Coast clears out. Drive train, minus the engine, is all sold. I spent way too much money on building the 22RE back in the day just to net way too little power but hey, hopefully somone can use it.

 
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Heating Cs with charcoal makes them brittle by introducing carbon according to Reid. They are supposed to be heated in a gas grill.
 
Depending on what you want for the engine I may be interested and my bro in law may want the trans. Holla once the disassembly process starts.
 
Heating Cs with charcoal makes them brittle by introducing carbon according to Reid. They are supposed to be heated in a gas grill.
Maybe but then you won’t get that unmistakable charcoal flavor! I’d like to see some data to back up that claim.
 
Not a bad width, but you'll probably end up using ~3.5 bs wheels to keep the tires out of the leafs and frame. ~5" bs wheels with stock front would have been about the same. I couldn't fit 39s on my FJ80 front (63.5) with 4.75 bs, but they fit great with a full width gm front 60 (69.5) it still fit between the fenders on a car hauler with 14.5 wide tires.

Also, I think your wasting time with only a 205, may as well do a Blackbox now, so you don't have to redo shit later.

Lv3 is the all aluminum 4.3 with 300 hp? Those things look badass, but damn are they expensive.
 
Maybe but then you won’t get that unmistakable charcoal flavor! I’d like to see some data to back up that claim.

They’ve stated it multiple times on the “other” forum.
 
Not a bad width, but you'll probably end up using ~3.5 bs wheels to keep the tires out of the leafs and frame. ~5" bs wheels with stock front would have been about the same. I couldn't fit 39s on my FJ80 front (63.5) with 4.75 bs, but they fit great with a full width gm front 60 (69.5) it still fit between the fenders on a car hauler with 14.5 wide tires.

I swear I told him the exact same thing before, I ran a 64 wide D60 in my last rig and keeping the tires outta the leafs and even links later was a issue. I'm so glad my new rig nothing rubs even with 50* steering and a 65 wide axle.
 
-Reid makes an interesting argument here (https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/we.../post-32728594) and would like to see some data. I emailed Reid the picture I posted so I'm interested to hear the response.
-Axle stuff: This is the first 60 I've ever narrowed so we'll see how it goes. Worst case, we can get wheels with less backspacking, in-board the frame rails, and imagine we'll have to modify the hell out of the front of the body to clear the tires anyway. I'm hopefully getting a truck cab that I'll strip weight off of to use to for mocking up the drive train and suspension.
-T-case; we're going to run an ORD Magnum underdrive between the NV4500 and 205. I hope to use ORD's mechanical shifters versus the cable shifters I have in the Cruiser.
-Right, LV3 is all aluminum, about 300hp/300lb-ft and I lucked out getting the entire package cheap.
 
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I remember using self tappers to screw my bumper ends back on too:lmao:
 
Depending on what you want for the engine I may be interested and my bro in law may want the trans. Holla once the disassembly process starts.

You’re a class act, man - thanks for the four Bilstein shocks!

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Priorities at home have been other places so we haven't done much with the old girl recenlty but our wheels came in. Huge thanks to Dave Williamson - Dave's Offroad Supply (http://www.davesoffroadsupply.com/) - for hooking us up with these 4x 17x9 (4.5 back spacing) Raceline Avengers. Part number RT260M-79080-1.

Also, now that the entrie OG 4Runner drive train sold (sold the 22RE 25 Jan), we should be able to order the Magnum in February.
 
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