The4Rocker

I have been lurking around this forum for a while, this is my first post! Anyhow, after spending four months rebuilding the supercharger, upgrading the valve body in the transmission, removing/installing the suspension, and painting everything red with Dupont Enron polyurethane, I wanted to show my progress. I have some build pictures of certain parts of he truck and only completed pictures of other parts. Here are the pictures I had saved on my hard drive, I will take a few more soon:

Enjoy:

The4Rocker

A few more suspension pictures:

The4Rocker

The lower links before I painted them from the Sonoran Steel site:

Beadlock wheels, this set was custom made, I do not think there is another set powder coated gray like them:

The4Rocker

I might as well show what I did previous to this as well, wanted to do a build up thread for a while now. Continuing on, gear swap pictures:
Front differential removed (with old suspension system):


Rear axle carrier:


Rear differential:


Front differential w/ new yukon gears ready for install:

The4Rocker

Here is part of the fuel system. The supplemental fuel system for the supercharger has three parts: the 7th fuel injector including boss and lines under the hood, the computer to control it, and the fuel pump. Here is the pump install:

First, the tank needed to be removed, and the pump/sender/level switch required removal:



The 255lph next to the stock pump. It required a little modification of the bracket and harness, but wasn't too bad. I originally upgraded to a 190lph pump, but I was leaning out when I had it dyno'ed. I couldn't get a AFR less than 13:1. The 255lph fixed the problem. So I had to drop the tank TWICE. You think I was working for the government:


Installed pump:

The4Rocker

Automatic transmission upgrades:

Limited model 4Runners only came with an automatic. The A340F transmission is also used in other vehicles like the Jeep Cherokee and Toyota Supra. What many do no realize is that the valve body, the mechanical computer of the tranny, is set up different for the vehicle it is going into. The 4Runner comes stock with 'luxury shifting' and made for the power of the motor. What happens is that the tranny shifts too slowly, burning up clutch packs between shifts, similar to burning up the clutch on a manual. This type of modification is best left to a transmission race shop that specializes in the transmission model you have, which are only two in the U.S. for my A340F: Level10 and IPT (I went with latter). There is a ton of R+D of removing, adjusting, installing, test driving, and repeating as needed to get it perfect before they offering this service to the public, which is what you pay for. For the stock power the motor was making, the tranny was fine. When I almost doubled the power, the shifts were extremely long with a noticeable decrease of vehicle speed during shifts, (OVER 1 SECOND between 1st and 2nd for example)! I sent the valve body to IPT (import performance transmission) up in Maryland where it was disassembled, orifices were enlarged, new solenoids installed, new springs for the accumulators, and it was adjusted to add twice the line pressure at max boost. I don't have pictures with it out due to the mess and how I had springs rolling everywhere on the garage floor, only installed:



All done, new filter, pan painted, flushed, and serviced with Amsoil synthetic.


Transmission oil cooler installed. This is a quality stacked plate design, what should be looked for when buying any type of oil to air oil cooler. A note on attention to detail: Those clamps securing the oil cooler lines are aircraft adel clamps. Far superior to the wire-tie method. All in the details:

The4Rocker

Here are some exterior pictures. The roof rack is made by Gobi and is unique in that it spans the entire length of the vehicle, is one solid piece, and can be walked on. As flimsy as the roof of the 4Rocker is, I got my fat ass up there and there was no flexing on the rack or rear ladder. It took months to get it as once again it was custom made because I wanted a few different things done to it. I mounted a HighLift jack on it (I painted it to match the vehicle) and some old school lights (Ironic: lights are solid aluminum, DOT/ASE approved, with glass lenses. Yet they were only $20/set because the store had them in inventory for 15 years! Case of 'pay less to get more'):



One of the rear ladder. Would you believe no holes had to be drilled?:


4Rocker just happens to be 7 characters and was actually available:

The4Rocker

Never mind plastic and fiberglass, THIS is a body kit! I installed a new front bumper on the 4Rocker, made by TJM from Australia. This thing was only $600 (probably another $150 for shipping) compared to twice that for the stocker! I had LineX truck bed coating applied with Kevlar coating to keep it from turning gray and because I was sick of having a tank front end, but have to worry about the powdercoating getting scratched on tree branches.

Here is the stock bumper removed, you can see the tranny cooler and the wiring and solenoid pack for the winch:



The bumper brackets. A winch puts side loads on the bumper during sidepulls using the winch, so they are a little on the big/dorky sie for a reason:


Naturally, the 4Rocker being of really small stature, the winch wouldn't fit between the front crossbrace and the TJM bumper and the clutch lever would have been unreachable. I had to remote mount the solenoid pack and build a harness with stainless steel brackets, clock the clutch, and then color code the wiring because I will forget how everything goes together when I remove and reinstall everything 6 months down the road. Here is the stripping and prep of the winch:



The bumper didn't have provisions to mount the stock fog lights, so once again I needed to fab up some brackets. The front turn signal holes in the bumper was of legal DOT size so instead I installed side marker lights as turn signals which are exactly half the width leaving room for the fog lights. I fabbed out of aluminum some brackets to hold both the fog and turn signal lights, painted, and installed. No wires were cut/spliced as I reused the stock turn signal bulbs and made out of aluminum receptacles for the stock turn signal bulb holders. Whew. Go to a 4wd shop and get a bumper installed and it takes them 2 hours. After all the LineX harnesses, brackets, and relocating, it takes me a couple weeks:



Front bumper finished off with some shackle hangers I fabbed up and painted using polyurethane. On off road trips with the Suncoast Flatlanders they require a drivers license, insurance, and yes, front and rear tow hooks. No, attaching a tow strap to your grill or through a hole in a plastic bumper doesn't count. "Back in these parts we use Steel":


Sonoran Steel made and shipped me a rear bumper to match the front, while they still shipped them from AZ. This thing it awful heavy, probably 150 lbs, takes 3 people to install, and is one solid piece. I feel sorry for the bloke with front crumple zones who rear-ends me. I also had LineX applied with the kevlar coating. I fabbed up a stainless steel antenna mount to go with it:

yotaman85

nice work, allot of paint, but nice work..

The4Rocker

Due to the milage, the supercharger started to leak out of the nosecone input shaft seal. Rebuilt nosecones are about $300 with the core, and the whole supercharger rebuild is twice that. I found the seals online and repaired the leaks for $30. While I was at it I added some paint:


Supercharger bolted back on:



Alternator upgrade: Can-Am Motors built a custom alternator for me, 200 amps, two internal cooling fans, and was machined to fit the stock alternator brackets on the block. I had heat issues effecting the performance of the regulator so I removed the alternator and installed a adaptor in place of the stock regulator and mounted an external regulator on the firewall to help with the heat. I fabbed a stainless bracket for the regulator, which also has a potentiometer to adjust alternator voltage and even has diagnostic LED's. Also I had a smaller pulley installed on it, the original being for a GM vehicle drive belt system, so now it spins faster at idle to maintain 14.5 volts. Lastly I built a heat shield mounted between the back of the alternator and drivers side header. 1/0 wiring was used between the battery and alternator, and also between the battery and the stereo system in the back. You can also see the MAP sensor for my boost/vac gauge:




External power receptacle to play the stereo with the engine off. I used a type of towtruck connector mounted on a stainless bracket located below the front bumper on the drivers side:


To tune the motor for the supercharger, I needed a wideband AFR sensor. I installed a bung in the exhaust before the cat for the sensor. This is where a wideband sensor should be mounted as after the cat or at the exhaust tip like you see the guys at the dyno shop do will give false readings.

dannomite

Looks pretty schwanky. I like it. How about a couple of shots of the whole vehicle.

The4Rocker

I will post a few more later of the whole vehicle and the stereo...

TinMan

Slick, I like, great attention to detail.

keep the pics coming.

The4Rocker

Thanks!

4Rocker

That looks nothing like my truck.