Toyota '90 toyota pickup build

[UVRUGBY]

Well tell the back ground of the truck. I bought the truck off my boss for $200 with 198K miles. He told me that it wouldn't turn over. He told me it was a distributor coil. HA!! it was the timing belt, and the whole timing belt system. Made my way to Autozone picked up the timing belt kit and timing belt, got the truck running for $148 + a case of Coors Light for my uncle to install the timing belt and the kit while I was working 64 and 56 hour weeks. Now I am into the truck for $348 and a case of beer. Drive the truck to my house from my uncles, and realize the speedo doesn't work. Get the truck into the air :fork: and trace the speedo cable to the tranny and realize that the cable itself was pulled out and needed to be replaced. Start following the cable up to the firewall and notice that it is rusted out and cracked and so now the speedometer cable housing needs to be replaced to have speed. Get a brand new speedo housing threw my dads shop for $82.50, get it installed in a matter of 2 hours, because I have never had to do one before. Truck runs great now, and I am $430.50. This is going to be a DD weekend warrior. I plan on being MOAB ready.

Plans for the truck-

Engine- 7mge AFM, custom ISR/safari snorkel, PnP/build up heads, larger injectors, piggy back A/F tuner, headers, and exhaust. Possibly 5vz-e upper intake/plenum/TB (more research to be done)

Interior- rhino lining the floors, 4 point harness, bucket seats, roll cage, new sound system.

Exterior- ARB front bumper, winch, bar rear bumper, body armor, roll bar/ light rail, modification to fenders, jeep door mod/bar doors for summer.

Suspension/undercarriage/axles - rear locker, IFS long travel, rear leaf lift, reservoir shocks, 15" wheels, 32-33" tires, 4.88 gearing, axle armor, upgraded CV axles and joints, scrap plates- front axle and tranny. <--- to be updated as education builds :lof:
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Please if you have thoughts, comments, or ideas, I am open to hear them out. This is my 2nd toyota truck I have owned. But, 1st that I want to modify this much. This is the first vehicle that is older then 1995 and am learning about the whole system of AFM's and this old of ECU's.

Interior during speedo cable housing swap.

 

[iamsparticus]

Looks like a great build. I do have a few suggestions from building lots of these some are out side the toyota box.
If your keeping the ifs front how do you plan on lifting it to match the rear? You could go with your standard drop bracket lift or step it up a notch with custom a-arms running uniball joints instead of ball joints, porche CV's and coil overs it will perform 100% better. Also if your going to go with remote res shocks why not do res airshocks instead, they run the same on price and offer the same dampening, but you can use the airpressure in the shock to fine tune your spring rate in the rear or just run 5psi or so for no added spring rate. If you ever decided to link the rear you would already have the shocks to do it, as would you on the front if you did the coil overs. Another thing on the IFS suspension is to run the 3/8 thick bumps it will gain you alot of front travel yet not enough to over extend the suspension. And making your front swaybar some quick disconnects, wow disconnecting those makes the front perform so much better offroad on the 90's Toyota trucks!

There is alot of possiblities for the yota your building they are one of the best starting platforms for wheeling in my opinion. Make sure to include rock sliders as part of your armor for wheeling they help more than anything else as far as getting more places on the trail. Keep us posted

 

[UVRUGBY]

Wells needs more articulation in the suspension/ new suspension, haha.
there is hardly any articulation in the front. lol

after speedo cable housing install

 

[iamsparticus]

alot of the restriction in the stock suspension comes from the sway bars, they are very stiff and beefy, good for corners on the road bad for trails

 

[Kevin B.]

Nice truck, and nice price . That's a lot of engine mods for that little 3vze though. For all that money and effort, why not just swap to a 3.4?

 

[UVRUGBY]

Looks like a great build. I do have a few suggestions from building lots of these some are out side the toyota box.
If your keeping the ifs front how do you plan on lifting it to match the rear? You could go with your standard drop bracket lift or step it up a notch with custom a-arms running uniball joints instead of ball joints, porche CV's and coil overs it will perform 100% better. Also if your going to go with remote res shocks why not do res airshocks instead, they run the same on price and offer the same dampening, but you can use the airpressure in the shock to fine tune your spring rate in the rear or just run 5psi or so for no added spring rate. If you ever decided to link the rear you would already have the shocks to do it, as would you on the front if you did the coil overs. Another thing ont eh IFS is run the 3/8 thick bumps it will gain you alot of front travel yet not enough to over extend the suspension.

There is alot of possiblities for the yota your building they are one of the best starting platforms for wheeling in my opinion. Make sure to include rock sliders as part of your armor for wheeling they help more than anything else as far as getting more places on the trail. Keep us posted

excellent info, best info I have received yet out of the 3 forums that I am on. for lifting the front, after I go to the Long Travel I am thinking about going with the OME torsion bar that should add a more level lift if I decide to go with another leaf in the back. I am attempting to stay away from the drop bracket lift, they are terrible for IFS in my mind. So far the front is my only knowledge struggle right now, but deciding to go with a Long Travel suspension in the future is my starting point, with either a t100 or porsche cv's.

but the ball joint spacers are just temporary for a minor lift to clear my 33x12.5r15's that have rubbing problems. Not wanting to do to much body fab to the truck yet.

 

[UVRUGBY]

Nice truck, and nice price . That's a lot of engine mods for that little 3vze though. For all that money and effort, why not just swap to a 3.4?

I have actually put the rebuild on hold. I figure let it kick itself dead before doing any rebuild. I was in the market for a 3.4 swap a little while ago. my thought process is to get a salvage title 96-2004 taco or runner from a salvage auction, But was put on hold due to finding out that i need to go through a brocker. Which didn't have the funds for a the vehicle and brocker fee's. So that is still in the works. But, I have been reading into a diesel swap, but that is a bit more complicated. So unsure what to do at this moment in time for the engine.

 

[UVRUGBY]

My new wheels!! 15x8 6 lug 5.5 stud. 5 wheels for $90 bucks. $17 to clean up, remove minor rust from oxidation of the metal at rock chip points, and repaint to close off that oxidation point of the wheels.

After getting them I ran a rust removal gel on the wheels, did a WD40 layer after then had dried from the gel and rinse. After allowing them to sit for a day with the WD40 on them I put 3 layers of Car paint/clear coat on the back side and 4 layers on the front side. after letting them dry for 24 hours I went and got 33x12.5xr15 BFG All Terrians KO mounted.
got the pickup on some new wheels and tires.

 

[UVRUGBY]

latest mod that I got done was the ISR mod, I have to get a photo of the mod at final finish of today. But, it does make a difference. It is running a lot better up hills, can really tell that the straight piping is in there when I am idling at a stop sign or light.

after intake removal

with IRS installed

final pic of the ISR mod.

 

[UVRUGBY]

random pic of when it started down poring last week.

 

[iamsparticus]

A diesel swap will be much better than a the 3.4L swap, you'll gain way better low end power, gas mileage and over all power, the 3.4L is only 50 extra horse power and torq. As for the front there are lots of long travel suspension options from several companies and shops. You might want to just keep your eye out for some used prerunner fiber glass fenders, they are a little rare but well worth it for fitting bigger tires and lots of suspension travel

 

[UVRUGBY]

For the LT suspension I have basically decided to go with Blazeland LT. They are good quality for the money, they are perfect for what I am going to be doing, mostly weekend warrior stuff. I don't need to go with the total chaos highly expensive stuff sense im not going to be running any baja races. For the prerunner fiber glass fenders I am still unsure about the look. I haven't totally wrapped my head around the look yet.

For the diesel swap, that is my thinking. For 50hp gain that isn't much for how much it would cost to get the swap completed. If I was to stay gasoline, I would have to go probably with a 350 swap. More power, worth the money for the swap, bigger after market for that engine. But, if I was to go that big it would be with a SAS to better support that extra weight.

 

[iamsparticus]

there are other comapnies that make the control arms besides total chaos i will have to look them up, but what id do it have a shop or your self make the arms, buy the uniballs from total chaos and use poly bushings on the frame, it cuts way down on cost and still allows you a sweet set up

 

[UVRUGBY]

I am currently waiting for 1.5" ball joint spacers for the front end to arrive at my place.
I have ordered pro comp es9000 shocks, waiting for those to get to the shop on friday, and I picked up pro comp AAL kit for the rear. I don't need to go crazy big right now. this will be sufficient enough to get me by till I decide to go upgrade the whole Leaf system in the back to get rid of the horrible 20yr leaf droop.

 

[UVRUGBY]

there are other comapnies that make the control arms besides total chaos i will have to look them up, but what id do it have a shop or your self make the arms, buy the uniballs from total chaos and use poly bushings on the frame, it cuts way down on cost and still allows you a sweet set up

total chaos, blazeland, and there is 1 other that I can't think off the top of my head, that are all within average joe vehicle needs.
But, I never thought of custom fabbing a LT system. The only things I know of that goes into them are the longer UCA and LCA, other then that when it comes to IFS I am still a noob in IFS training.

 

[iamsparticus]

well yes you have to design the LCA's and the UCA's to be longer but also high clearance and and strenth to handle the extra load, you also need to lengthen and beef up your steering tierods, and oviously the longer CV's. As well as making new shock mounts and setting up the suspension to travel as much as possible with out over extending it and causing pre-mature failure, hiems would be best for steering but they can cause a problem come inspection time

 

[UVRUGBY]

Good info. seems like I am going to be doing some research on LCA and UCA designs for clearance and strength. The rest is the easy part, they already have aftermarket longer tierods, and I could use either the total chaos, T100, or porsche CV's. The shock mount points would all be tied into the LCA design.

Not so sure about hiems though. I am not familiar with them enough.

 

[UVRUGBY]

picked up my shocks today from 4wheel just waiting for ball joint spacers to come in and will be getting the PU lifted up.

 

[UVRUGBY]

heading to work this morning in the pickup in provo, realized that I definitely need to regear the truck. But, in the process I noticed my clutch was slipping. down shifting having in to 3rd from 5th to make it up and over, sucked!!

 

[UVRUGBY]

Received my ball joints spacers over the weekend while I was in Florida. I now have everything that I need to get the truck lifted 2" which is perfectly fine with what I am trying to accomplish right now. That is get me by until I get a long travel suspension system worked up, and installed on the truck, with that I will go to a 4" lift in the rear and be perfectly content on the way the truck offroads, at least for awhile.

Now I just need to find the time to get everything installed on the truck.