1UZ Tacoma

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pato

New Member
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8
Location
Santiago, Chile
Hello, i'm new to this forum, and with a customer have a serious project in mind, we have this '96 Tacoma 4x4, reg. cab that we want to convert to a dune monster, we already have the 1UZ engine, but my customer wants to turbocharge it, i don't know if that's possible because of the engine bay space, but that's why i'm here asking questions, turbocharge the engine is just half of the problem, because we need a manual tranny that will hold up to the power (he wants 600 flywheel hp), but i believe that would require an entire drivetrain swap, including diffs and axles, anyone have some advice for a project like this? i will really appreciate it.
 
Thanks for the answer, we just want to pick all the parts (if they already exists) for doing this project, so if any of you have them, just tell me the price for it.
 
Hi Pato I speak from experience and a decent racing background.
sandy_01.jpg

You must have over 10" or 26 centimeters of suspension travel minimum up front and in the back (I have 17inches or 43 centimeters ) of that truck. You won't be able to use half of the power you are planning without suspension. You will hit a bump and go flying (or rolling). That kind of power would be extremely dangerous with that short of a wheelbase. The Tacoma is too small of a platform to put BIG power to unless you widen the front with a long travel suspension kit (like Total Chaos) and you need a much wider rear axle to match (like a Ford 9").

You will only need 2wd. 4wd is NOT necessary at all with such a light truck. In the sand I rarely every use 4wd. The T-56 transmission is the one you want. You will have to make a custom adapter plate. Just put a limited slip differential in the rear and some paddles on a spare set of rim if you want. You will have to spend a huge amount of money to get 4wd to work properly with that much power. It's not worth it unless the owner needs to get though mud or up rocks or something. You said Dune monster so 2wd is definitely what you want.

With that platform you have outlined for the truck you have better have a roll cage planned throughout the whole truck or the driver will die. Safety first, and don't buy cheap parts when it comes to safety. People buy the cheapest driving suits, helmets and harnesses when they should be spending the most money on these. A good and complete roll cage is a must and with that much power the factory frame will crack EASILY. It will break if you don't attach the front frame to the rear with a roll cage.

I have been building my truck for quite some time and built the long travel rear suspension from scratch. I'm putting a 1UZ in mine currently and then I'm doing the front suspension from scratch and then the roll cage to tie it all together.

The roll cage also MUST support the cabin or else it will fall (tear and break) apart at the factory supports very easily! I know, I've done it all. You basically want to build a larger wheelbase to control the power that you want. Here is a picture of a friend of mine's Toyota Tundra sand truck. This is more ideal for a sand truck becuase it's easier to control the power and speed with a larger size truck. That is why you don't see Baja 1000 trucks that are small. You can easily lose control of a small truck with that much power. Good luck and build safe!

ks_tundra.jpg
 
450Kw at the flywheel... Drag Car :) Not Dunes :)

Thanks for the referance David :)

While on the Power side ( And I have your attension David )

Know anyone that has a 5.7 or 6.1 Chyrsler 300C ?? I can do Superchargers for these :) Fully Integrated..heheheheh

Also the GEN 3 GM :)

Hopefully Twin Screw Integrated for the VVT-i 1UZ - 2UZ - 3UZ :) End of year / New year..
 
Thanks for your reply Smitherz, i also believe that a turbo 1UZ is way too much for a Tacoma, but my customer wants it that way, the Total Chaos suspension is considered anyways, but i don't know if my customer likes the idea of not using 4wd in the truck, we have to see what his plans are.
thanks for all the info. :smoker:
 
Total Chaos will ship internationally without a problem as far as I know. This is uncommon. They have been one of the only companies I have seen go out of their way to accomodate international orders. They are a reputable company and stock any components for their kits so that you can get a replacement right away. ANd with that much power you will need replacement parts :yup:

You will need to look into using a drive system from a Toyota Tundra or some other heavy duty U.S. domestic transfercase setup. I don't know of any less expensive route you could take.

Make sure and put as much weight you can in the rear of the truck when you make room for the fuel cell and spare tire and tools. You might have to go out of your way to design the storage but it's the cheapest way to make the truck handle better.

Keep us updated here. This will be interesting =]

You might want to suggest a normal 1UZ setup with headers for the first step to your customer. Then you can build the rest of the truck with the additional power he has in mind. Then let him take it out and play with it for a while and see what he thinks. I'm not sure of his experience off-road but he will probably recognize that he doesn't need anymore power... especially considering how much a twin-turbo setup would cost him. A regular cab Taco with a 1UZ would be very fast as is!~

Also mention that having such a complicated engine system would bring about MANY more things that could go wrong while he is driving in the middle of nowhere! I chose NOT to use a turbo setup because of this. There are so many ways that the added components of a turbo system could fail while you are doing some hard driving off-road. It is really rare to see off-road race trucks with turbos on them for this reason. I know you see them in dune buggies and such but those are designed without a budget in mind!! But if that is who you are building the truck for then go for it!!

Just post some pictures of your progress while you are at it.
 
Smitherz, thanks again for the info you give me, we make a different "use" of dunes here, we don't want to jump and do a pre-runner-style of driving, we climb huge dunes, and the vehicles are modified to do that, our dunes are really huge (Medanoso is the 2nd highest dune in the world) and the Tacoma has to be able to climb those dunes better than the rest of the vehicles (a big bunch of modified vehicles), here's a link to a video of the last competition of this year:

http://up-file.com/download/00d859837051/video-para-web-256.wmv.html

Beware, it's a 175 MB video, but you're going to have a better idea of what we do, and what we want to achieve with the Taco, here you can see a Jeep Rubicon turbo climbing a big dune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3X7KPni1wY

That's our goal with the truck, but we want to climb faster than that (that Jeep has 280 RWHP)

About the rollcage, we are going to do an homologated one (in Argentina they have the know-how and the best materials), and about safety, it's a prime concern for us also.
 
Ahh the first video file was moved! Any chance there is another link for it?

Definitely the T-56 transmission with a turbocharger! I plan on adding a turbo to my engine once I finish the rest of my suspension.
 


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