The Cream Pie - A 2005 Tundra Build

[the_white_shadow]

No sub-forum for the Tundra so I am putting this here for all to mock and ridicule. As some know, i already have a fully built crawler, The Dirt Squirrel 2.0. Its been great wheeling it all over the country, but it has always had one drawback. I cant drive it on the street. Full hydro, unbalanced 43s, etc..blah blah blah. So this leads me to build the Cream Pie.


Some details:

Base vehicle is a 2wd 2005 Tundra with a 4.0l v6 with a 6-speed manual transmission. 247k miles. Decent shape for the age/mileage.


Plans:

SAS with a 05+ Ford Super Duty 60 and a factory disc braked 14B. Built up with some lockers (detroit and grizzly). Front will get the 17+ larger shafts if i can find them.

3-linked front with hydro assist, deaver leaf rear with maybe a cantilever shock setup (always wanted to do that)

6.0L LS swap with a NV4500, 261 t-case (for now)

40" Toyos on 17" ATX Chamber Pro 2s

14" 2.5" Dia. Accutune Fox Coilovers

Bumpers/Sliders/Cage

hydroboost from the chevy (maybe)


Base Vehicle - As vanilla as a Tundra could get

Threw it on the lift and installed the 14b on the stock leafs. The pad spacing is basically the same as the Tundra rear so i bolted it up.

Picked up the wheels from a friend (krawlers were sold). Since the 05+ super duty is about 4" wider than the 14b, i bolted on some 8x6.5 to 8x170mm spacers.

Engine and transmission out

Choppy choppy. IFS cut off forward of the body mount. The tundra frame is super flexy so the new front frame section will be plated to the body mounts.

Mockup to check stuff and be a poser for IG

Start of the front frame section using some 2x4x.120 that i had on the shop floor. The stock tundra frame is basically straight to the front grille. The new one is about a 4-5" rise for panhard/draglink clearances.

Took a couple months off from the cream pie and built me a run around truck from a rolled tacoma and a 2wd 79 hilux. I give you Elma, the 4wd IFS 3rz/5-speed '79 hilux. I call it the first gen first gen.

Next to the Squirrel

Ass shot

Back to the Tundra. Took a while to find for a decent deal, but here is the donor for the drivetrain. 05 Chevy 6.0/nv4500/261 with 148k miles on it. Drove it 4 hours home. parked next to my tacoma (which is for sale)

LS mocked up

Plenty of room for a radiator and fan

Tundra radiator in to check clearance. room for days. If you have built a mini truck or tacoma, you know how much room you dont have in those things. This was nice. Stock manifolds clear the frame rails by a mile.

NV4500 bolted up against the floor. I had to beat the tunnel in a few small placed to get everything to fit as high as possible. Not bad at all though.

Modified the stock tundra crossmember with the mount off the Chevy crossmember and bolted in the 261.

Room for the driveshaft

Bonus, the stock chevy one piece driveshaft bolted right in. May have got lucky there.

Mounted the 40" Toyos

D60 mockup. Fancy tierod included. If you havent cleaned the radius arm brackets off one of these axles, then you havent lived.

Had to make some big boy snap ring pliers to get the ford snap rings off to remove the locked up unit bearings. NOTE to everyone. Check if the unit bearings are free before you buy a $300 front axle from the junkyard.

Steering box mockup. Using an IFS box

Big order from Ruffstuff during their holiday sale

Another from Artec to get their free shipping and 15% off holiday sale. So i went ham and ordered all the links and steering/drag link material to save on shipping.

Start of the 3-link. Used the Artec Combo brackets. Had to notch the factory crossmember for the lowers.

Shit pic but the truss to oil clearance is about 1/4". I may notch the truss some to get additional room.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Upper tacked in. I had to redo my passenger engine mount to get it to clear at full bump. Needed to be raised an inch and a half.

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Tie-rod built. Using the Artec weld on crossover steering arms.

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First panhard mockup. NOTE to others: Wait until you get the steering box position set before you waste time on the panhard.

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Won me a set of the Nick Barna BJ Eliminators on a FB waffle page. Score.

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Installed my flat pitman arm from Skys offroad and built the drag link. This is at ride height. Panhard in in the pic. Same angle.

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This let me set the panhard to match the drag link. Both are the same angle and damn near the same length.

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Thats where i am at as of last night. Going to use the lift to check for binding and clearance issues throughout the range of motion for the suspension. If everything checks out, im going to put some strong welds on things and weld some temp shocks in so i can make this a roller and get it off the lift. Its been on there for 4-5 months now. Need to work on other stuff while i wait for my Tacoma to sell so i can order up the coilovers from Accutune.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Full droop checks out.

Put on the passenger side hub to mount the tires and took the truck off the lift. I used a few blocks of wood under the oil pan to prop the truck up about 5" from full bump. Some trimming will be required. Especially the rear (if i use these springs). I had to cut down the panhard and drag link about an inch to shift the axle over to the drivers side some. Going to do some final welding to get it off the lift for a while until i can order some coilovers.

Not the worst approach angle ive seen.

0

Well, the cream pie is now officially a roller. Off the lift until i can order the rest of the suspension parts. I welded some scrap pieces between the frame and axle to keep it near ride height.

Havent touched it since i took it off the lift. Been working on Tims truck in the meantime.

Tims ride

Also picked up this gem through an online auction.

75 f100 Shortbed 300ci inline-6 Automatic. The base of all base models.

I got it running and driving(ish) last night. Plan is to do the typical crown vic front end swap and use a later model mustang IRS. Drivetrain choice is top secret.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Havent touched this in 4 months or so. Trying to get Tims truck done first and have this finished by September.

 

[Thefishguy77]

I dig the 1st gen 1st gen. The tundra is cool too But Franken Taco is my favorite. That said all your shit probably wheels more than mine. :(

Thanks for the tech.

 

[the_white_shadow]

I dig the 1st gen 1st gen. The tundra is cool too But Franken Taco is my favorite. That said all your shit probably wheels more than mine. :(

Thanks for the tech.

No problem. I hope to be able to provide to this site as the other one. I enjoy forums much more than following along on IG or FB. Ill do my best to update all my build threads.

 

[andyj]

keep on building!

 

[Slander]

Sweet, I kinda want to build a tundra next.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Build thread on the taco-hilux abomination?

I have one on Tacoma World.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/...tacoma.637344/

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

That 1st gen IFS is pimp!

 

[Boomtacoma01]

order any more parts for the creampie yet?

 

[rockota]

Saw a couple pics on the new buggy thread - any updates?

 

[the_white_shadow]

Saw a couple pics on the new buggy thread - any updates?

tons. I’ll post up some tomorrow. It’s 98% done now. Put about 3k miles on it so far. Need to replace the carpet with a new kit in bought a while back and China-mat the floor under it. It’s been a fun driver.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Long time since i updated this thread. My bad. Im not doing my part to make forums great again. I will try to do better.

Picking up where i left off. Ill try to get everyone caught up.

Rolled out of the shop after 18 months or so of not touching it. It was covered in so much grinding dust, it felt like 60 grit sand paper. I gave it a good bath and rolled it back in.

The reason it took so long is other stuff jumped priority. I built my 2JZ swapped '69 F100 and put rear steer on the Squirrel. I sold the squirrel last thanksgiving to start on my new buggy. Its living its best life in Arizona now.

Back to our scheduled program. I took the engine out for a cam and gaskets and remembered why the trans pilot bearing was making noise when i bought the donor.

Mocked up the hydroassist on the axle. I used one of the spare adjusting holes on the panhard bracket to mount it.

Started to plate the front frame rail i made to add strength back.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Added some steel-it to the front frame.

I also boxed in the entire frame all the way to the back. If anyone knows, these frames are completely riveted wet noodles from the factory. These dimple died plates added a lot of rigidity back to it.

 

[the_white_shadow]

For the fuel system, i replaced all of the lines with some braided PTFE lines Fragola stuff. I use their items exclusively on all my builds.

For the fuel pump, i swapped in a 07+ tundra 5.7l fuel pump. The cannisters are the same size but obviously different depths. I jut did a little mixing of the two and then had a pump that dropped into the factory 05+ tank, but had the necessary fuel pressure/volume to run the LS. Radium engineering makes some AN adapters that slip onto the toyota sending unit. Made adapting the lines super easy.

Next i did some upgrades to the LQ4. I swapped in a BTR truck norris cam and springs. Also replaced all the lifters with OE LS7 lifters. NNBS intake and ebay cable throttle body. I used my old Goatbuilt accessory brackets to move the alternator up and use a PSC p-pump. While i had the heads off it got new gaskets and studs to replace the bolts. You know, just in case i want to add boost. I also added some pretty gold paint.

 

[the_white_shadow]

I then rebuilt the 261 and change out the front cover. It had the infamous pump rub issue and apparently was ran for a while without fluid. It destroyed a shift fork in the process. I added an ORD front slip yoke eliminator and pump rub case saver kit. With the 32-spline output i used an atlas toyota flange so i could run a double cardan front driveshaft that i had made from Tom Woods.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Next up is everyone's favorite part, wiring. I am using a Holley Terminator X to control the engine. Ive installed a few of these at this point and they are super easy to get the engine running. I wanted the original toyota key to start the truck and wanted the toyota BCM to control the rest of the original function of the toyota controls, mainly AC stuff. I downloaded an EWD for an 05 tundra and started tracing factory wires for ignition/fuel pump/start/etc. The original 4.0l ECU is removed so i used the pinout for those plugs to tap into. It worked out great. I can start the truck with the key like normal and all functions inside the cab work like factory.

Next up was gauges. I chose to make my life easy and used a Holley Pro Dash. Its plug and play with the holley terminator and has a ridiculous amount of capability. I programmed the inputs/outputs to work the blinkers, lights, etc. Holley makes a universal template for their dash, so i bought one and modified it to fit the factory cluster bezel. It came out awesome. I even got the fuel gauge to work.

Ecu tucked into the glovebox and bolted in.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Exhaust. I used the factory LQ4 manifolds and cut up some of the factory exhaust to build a full 3" Y to 3.5" muffler and tail pipe. The factory used 3"/3.5" pipe as well. Muffler is a magnaflow.

Got a little kinky with the exit

 

[the_white_shadow]

I then took the front axle apart and fully rebuilt it with new brakes, nick barna BJEs, unit bearings, 5:13 gears and a detroit locker with warn lockouts.

And back in

 

[the_white_shadow]

Coilovers are from Accutune. The are 2.5" x 14" Fox.

A friend made me some shock towers and i trimmed them to fit.

Bump stop placement. I have about 4.5" of uptravel before the truss gets into the oil pan.

Made a crossover for the reservoirs to mount under the hood.

 

[the_white_shadow]

I moved onto the rear suspension next. I used new late 80s/early 90s 57" F150 rear leafs and made my own shackle flip. Shocks are some 15" bilstein 7100s i had from a previous project. I have since pulled the overload leaf.

rear end was rebuilt and also got 5:13s and a detroit. Along with new seals and brakes.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Ah steering. This part was fun. I used 3-4 different toyota steering u-joints/shafts to snake my way through the firewall and down to the steering box. I made my own plate using the original firewall pass thru as a template and used a 3/4" bearing to support the through shaft.

had to drill some holes through the shock towers.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Steering resi placement

Cooler up front

Picked up a used radiator out of a LS drag car. Ha the right dimensions. The fans are holley controlled and keep it at 205 all day long.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Ruffstuff battery box bolted to fender

Brakes. I went with a remote mount hydroboost setup. I really couldnt make anything else work that wouldnt hit the shock tower. HB is from the donor chevy 2500.

Mounted to the passenger shock tower.

I used another Tundra clutch master to actuate the remote hydroboost. It matches the one i have for the transmission. I made a plate and bolted it to the firewall and modified the pedal to bolt up to it. Pretty easy. Brakes lines are all new PTFE braided SS from Aeroquip. pricey but went together very and the brakes are awesome.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Added double shear to my pitman arm.

And drove it out of the shop for the first time.

Flex test

First test drive to the neighbors down the street. Ill try to upload a sound clip. The cold start on this engine with this cam sounds fucking amazing.

Shifters inside. I used the OE chevy shifter mount and cut the tunnel to make it fit. It shifts great. You can see i need to add some dynamat and replace the carpet.

Even further test drive. Compared to Tims M715 on 40s.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Got wood?

Modified a 2nd gen tacoma ARB bumper to fit and bolt on to the front. Winch is a Warn 9000xi

 

[the_white_shadow]

Modified a Trail Toys 2nd gen tundra to fit the rear of mine. had to trim the wings and make my own frame mounts.

High Clearance

Amazon special knockoff Switch Pros to run the lights

 

[the_white_shadow]

Almost up to date. I had a buddy come and clay bar the entire thing. Really brought out the shine again and removed all the grinding dust stuck in the clear coat.

Items outstanding:
Finish 2x AC lines so i can have AC.
Remove the shit old carpet
Dynamat the floor
Install new carpet.
Build a set of sliders for it
Ive been looking for a year for the right white camper shell for it. I want to take it on some long drives and camp out of it.
I hate the mirrors.

 

[the_white_shadow]

Link to a sound clip with a cold start. I could listen to it all day. Let me know if it works.

New video by Alex Matula

photos.app.goo.gl