When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Current Specs:1995 Toyota 4Runner SR5 / 3VZE / R150F / 4.56 Gears
Front Suspension:
4Crawler 1.5" Ball Joint Spacers
Relaxed Factory Torsion Bars (~ 0.75" Lift)
Rancho RS5000X Shocks (Shimmed for down travel)
Energy Suspension Low Profile Upper Bump Stops
Rear Suspension:
Eibach 2" Lift Coils (installed by PO)
KYB Shocks
Drivetrain:
Factory 4.56 Gears
Wheels/Tire:
Factory 15 x 7 SR5 Wheels
33 x 10.5 R15 General Grabber X3 Mud Terrains, Load Range C
Armor:
Factory Dented Bumpers
Other:
Trail Gear Extended SS Rear Brake Line
MC Sticker over old bondo patch by PO
Background: Howdy YT, I've been a lurker on this site for over a decade and it's finally time to make a profile and start posting. I've always liked Toyotas and I spent a lot of time riding in the back seat of them growing up. Learned to drive on my dad's 2000 Tacoma Ext. Cab / 3RZ / 5 Spd / 4x4. I got my first Toyota in ~ 2016 and it was a 2005 Tacoma Ext. Cab / 4.0 1GR / 6 Spd / 4x4 / TRD Off Road named Randy. I did a lot of work on it (including putting in a new clutch on the sidewalk next to my apartment) and spent a lot of time sleeping in the back for mountain biking trips. The main modifications were:
- Used Icon 2.5 Coilovers Front / Wheelers 3 Leaf AAL & Fox 2.0 RR Rear
- 265/75R16 BFG AT II
- ARE Topper with BedRug for sleeping
Lots of great memories and trips with that truck for my fiance (now wife) and I. It always got us home no matter where we went. When my wife got pregnant, we decided a car seat and an extended cab was not going to work so it was time for "Randy" to find a new home.
In November 2021, I picked up a 1995 4Runner in the mountains by Taos, NM. It was rough and dirty, had 223K miles, the tires were old, it was throwing code 52, the tail gate window wasn't working, but the head gasket didn't seem to leak and the PO was letting it go for a decent price. $1,700 later and it was sitting in my driveway.
Goals: I always liked the pre-1995.5 Toyotas for probably the same reasons you all do. Before picking up my 4Runner, I was deciding between trying to find a 2nd Gen 4Runner or a Jeep XJ. Pickups are awesome, but I needed something to fit my family, YJs and TJs are out because of the lack of storage when fitting a family, and I wasn't interested in wheeling a full size. XJs are great, but when it came down to it, I love having a Toyota! Also the cost of suspension work and axle upgrade to fit 33s was not justifiable it to me. I'm happy with IFS and excited to see how far it can take us. I would like this rig to do the following:
Drive my family around town and on weekend trip, and be a backup for my commuter: After the engine repairs and tune up work I will post about in future posts, I have seen ~19-20 combined MPG so I like to take us around town in the 4Runner rather than our F-150. I drive a 1994 Ford Ranger XLT Super Cab / 4.0 / 5 Spd / 8.8 w/ factory LSD 100 miles twice a week to work and while it is reliable, it's old and things happen.
Get my family off road at a reasonable price: I do all the work to our vehicles and I don't see that changing in the future so I won't be paying a shop for labor. Hopefully, this means more money left over for modifications and improvements. I've bought into the ethos that these rigs are capable with IFS if you focus on drive train (lockers & gearing), minimal lift, 33s, and armor. I remember reading about the $4K 4Runner project vehicle FourWheeler magazine (https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/13...runner-part-1/) did when I was a teenager and it was such a cool concept. It won't be built to do options lines on the Rubicon, and frankly, I do not have many off road driving skills yet, but the plan is to learn and our 4Runner seems like a great way to do that.
Serve as a Guinea Pig for metal fabrication: We bought our house ~1.5 years ago and I've been filling the garage ever since. I had plenty of hand tools since I spent my college summers working in auto shops, but I didn't have any of the big tools. I'm slowly learning how to work with metal and I have a number of projects in mind for the 4Runner. Recent additions have been:
used Millermatic 200 MIG welder (just wired a 2 phase outlet into the garage)
3' x 8' work bench I made
used 25 gallon air compressor
20 ton shop press
Evolution 14" Chop Saw
old metal working cart (kind of a cool story, I went down to pick this up in Albuquerque, NM. When I pulled up to the gentleman's house, I saw a Brown 1st gen explorer (dana 35 ttb style) on 33s and with plate bumpers. It looked very familiar and turned out to be one of the old project vehicles for FourWheeler or Peterson's4Wheel or Off road (I used to read them all growing up). The gentleman looked familiar as well and I figured out I had seen him on episodes of Dirt Everyday and that he used to be an writer for the mags.)
Final Thoughts: I know, build threads are a thing of the past and IG is where you post things now. Doesn't matter, I've always wanted to have a build thread, I don't have social media except for facebook so I can use FB Marketplace so here we are. This may not be the place, but feel free to have sidebars about others kinds of cars and trucks in this thread. I have lots of interests and I may have already broken some rules by talking about Jeeps and Fords.
Some of my other projects are a 1973 Plymouth Duster I pulled out of a horse field in Roswell, NM and the Ford Ranger I talked about earlier, and lots of motos. For the Duster, I grew up loving Mopars and my first project vehicle was a 1952 Dodge Power Wagon my dad and I hauled out of a nearby farm in CA when I was a kid. I bought the duster off an old Mopar gentleman who threw in a couple transmissions (904 and big block 727), a small block 360 core out of a van or truck, and a big block 383 High Performance Code from a 1970 Roadrunner. It's currently sitting in the weeds on my property now, but I'll hopefully be breaking into the 383 this winter.
I always wanted to build a prerunner, but I don't know what I'm doing with a welder so we're starting with the 4Runner. I actually have a set of equal length +4" beams from Threat Motorsports for the Ranger, but my wife loves driving our little grandpa truck so much that I don't think I'll have the heart to cut it up when the time comes. Instead, I'm on the lookout for a post 1979 full size Bronco that I can build into a family "Funrunner" with stock width C&T Dana 44 beams, front coilovers, deavers/bypass rear, 35s, Rear 9", caged, and an LS. I already have the 9" and a 6.0 LQ4 I rebuilt, just need the bronco now.
My first motorcycle was an old BMW airhead, 1980 R100, that my wife and I each learned to ride on. Then she got a Yamaha SR400 (kick start only) as her bike. Then we had a used Honda CRF250X before finally picking up a '99 KLR650. They're all gone now since our daughter is too little to ride with us, but we're always on the lookout to pick up two more wheels.
If you're into mountain biking, I ride a good bit. My current ride is an used '18 Guerrilla Gravity Smash I just built up and an '18 Commencal Meta HT AM I built up a few years ago, but I've had a Gen 3 Santa Cruz Nomad and Gen 1 Santa Cruz Hightower (built this too before selling the frame after a couple seasons).
Last edited by uncle_tito; 08-16-2022 at 09:02 AM.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional Toyota mechanic or a real mechanic by any stretch of the imagination. Please take my experiences on this job and all future jobs as my opinion and nothing more. I will not be writing up any tutorials in this thread unless it is something novel since I don't enjoy writing instructions. There are plenty of great YT write ups on everything I'm doing and I will try to include the write ups I follow when I post modifications.
Background: When I bought my 4Runner, it was throwing a code and there wasn't much power. Before purchasing, I had suspected it was Code 52 and confirmed after purchase by jumping TE1 and E1 terminals. Code 52 is the infamous knock sensor so my 3VZE had it's timing retarded. I had read about the problem on YT before doing the job and had heard that often times, it is the knock sensor wiring harness that goes bad and not the actual sensor. I gambled when ordering the parts and only ordered the harness since the OEM sensor is pricey. When I went in to do the work, my gamble paid off. I don't have any pictures, but it looks like pac rats were living under the intake runners. The wiring harness sheath had been bitten through and I assume the wires were grounding on each other.
(Nice video, doesn't go into the most detail, but helpful quick reference)
Tech Tip: To replace the knocks sensor and/or knocks sensor wiring harness, you are going to have to disconnect many of the vacuum lines, electrical connections, fuel connections, and more. To keep track of everything I numbered both sides of broken connections with matching numbers on blue painters tape. It made disconnecting everything very tedious but was completely worth it when putting everything back together. Additionally, I took videos as I went explaining to myself what I was disconnecting. I didn't think I would need it at the time, but it proved to be crucial at the end.
I can't say this was a fun job, but it needed to be done and I replaced other components while I was in there. I cleaned and rebuilt the injectors:
I also ordered a full timing belt/water pump kit and replaced the upper idler pulley while I had the intake manifold off to make a future timing belt job easier. I found while i was in there that the timing belt was one tooth off. Not sure if I did this or it was a PO, but I ended up having to take the front cover off to fix it. Not sure why I didn't just do the timing belt while I was in there, but I didn't. Oh well, I guess you'll see that on a future post. When I put everything back together and fired it up, the code was gone! But performance was still poor and it now smelled like fuel so I pulled the intake runners off again to see what was going on.
Due to just having done this, I was able to remove the vacuum lines and intake in the same evening. Turns out the number 2 injector was leaking because I had reinstalled in the injectors like a dummy. I took the injectors back out, replaced the seals again, and installed them according to the manual. No leaks, success!!
I got the 4Runner back on the road and took it to work for a shakedown. While driving in the mountains and pulling up a steep grade, it started pinging. I got back home and ordered OEM Denso plugs, NGK plug wires, and a Bosch distributor cap, but it was still pinging. I also cleaned the K&N intake the PO had installed which was filthy. I ordered a timing light and found my problem. Someone had this thing at ~ 32 degrees before TDC, no wonder it was pinging. I dropped it back down to 12 degrees before TDC since I read the 3VZE likes a little bit of timing and it has been running great ever since, returning ~19-20 combined MPG (speedometer has been GPS verified). I live at 7,000 feet and found with my old Tacoma as well that Toyotas seem to like high altitude with the 86 Octane fuel from a mileage standpoint. I have about 3K miles on it since the repairs and it is still running great.
Thank you and good luck with your build @Wylderayne06 !
After the 4Runner was running correctly, it was time to address the old dry rotted tires. 35s are awesome, but I just don't have faith in the stock carrier so I'd rather run an ARB front or a solid axle if I ever want to run 35s. I think the stock SR5 wheels look great so I wanted to be able to keep them, hence running 33x10.5 instead of 33x12.5. I picked up a set of General Grabber X3 Mud Terrains.
08-16-2022, 08:55 AM
