1UZ into my Off-Road Long Travel Tacoma

[Smitherz]

Engine runs great - truck is rediculously fast and rollcage is top priority now. I got the wheels I've always wanted and the all terrains ride so much better then the muds - the ride is much better. I'm also am building a full floating Ford 9" rear end which will complete the rear suspension that was designed for it. The front suspension and spindles are being built and I'm hoping I'll have time to tie it all together before the end of the year. The trick will be keeping it looking street legal.

 

[spf_lexus]

Looks great Smithers, how many inches are you currently pulling with those rear deavers/shackles?

 

[Smitherz]

18" travel in the rear. Deavers hung on Total Chaos shackles, custom mounts of course. Not sure about what I'll end up with up front. Definitely keeping the 4wd and I'm sure I'll be making some custom axles to get longer travel up there. I'm shooting for 16-18". Should be fun!

 

[Jay351]

Nice, rims look sweet!!

When are gears coming? It'll be pretty snappy with some 4.88's

 

[Smitherz]

Just picked this up last week. I'll be trussing the thing from left to right and stuffing it with 35 spline axles. I have hubs and Wilwood brakes I have to pick up as well. My rear suspension was designed with this rear end in mind so I can't wait to actually have this underneath the truck!

 

[Smitherz]

Video of a friends truck that I was riding around in last weekend. You gotta have nerves of steel to last 5 minutes in this truck at the speeds he drives at. We went over the largest bumps and sane berms I've ever hit at the speed... really really fast and you have to keep telling yourself you are safe in a strong rollcage with the 5point harness and it also helps to think of a happy place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKxQw195tMc

He's building my front suspension however I want. I don't think I need super travel like he has on the race truck but I want at least 17". Then we'll build a new steering system to handle it all just like his race truck. DOM for the roll cage will be in next week. All I have to pay for is the steel and heims so I'm hoping I can afford to keep the ball rolling on this build. Fiberglass is the only thing that's going to be hard to pay for right now... since it costs some $ for the fasteners and stuff to secure it as well. I will have to find a used set of bypass shocks too. Hopefully be done by the winter/spring.

 

[Smitherz]

Biggest update this week, grabbed some PIAA lights of the shelf and threw them on the front of the truck. I hate it when people are driving slow and act like you aren't there. These little daytime lights will get their attention I think. They are a quick fix for now until I get my bumpers made and put some real lights on them. I was going to put them right under the headlights as you can see where there is plastic missing from under the drivers side one... but that would have taken forever to make a bracket for them and they would be moved eventually anyway.

 

[Smitherz]

Man I passed an LS460 on the fwy today... what a fine looking car. You don't see many of those around the Central Coast area . I have two 90's cars that I'm going to sell for a few grand each and buy myself an older RX300. Those things are sweet and go for really reasonable prices. I saw one the other week up on a lift at a shop and noticed that is was AWD. The mechanic said that it only transfers 30% of the power to the rear but that's good enough for me. That would be pretty safe in snow and sandy/wet conditions. Very nice little SUV's.

 

[Smitherz]

Ok here is an interesting topic. I didn't torque down my ARP studs enough to get a good clamp on the Cometic headgaskets. I probably drove it about 1,000 miles before I noticed the engine was running rough so I quickly removed the spark plugs and found the two middle passenger side cylinders were wet. I know I didn't tighten them quite as much as people typically do with the ARP/Cometic combo. Nonetheless the middle head stud had pulled up out of the block causing the head to lift and leak fluid into the cylinders. I put a heli-coil into the block and I'm ready to put the head back on. Here is what I have right now - engine apart and some low miles Cometic gaskets. I'm not running boost and the heads have been ported polished aggressively. The heads weren't milled down enough to bump up the compression noticeably.

 

[Smitherz]

I've read of many people re-using these gaskets with good results. And have read of people tightening down the torque a bit more and taking care of leaks. Should I spray with copper sealer and re-use? I can remove my heads out of my truck in about 1.5 hr and put them back in about 2. So I'm considering torquing down on them to give them another go.



I'm suspicious of the water passage in the middle. The edge of the passageway is awfully close to the bead roll around the edge of the cylinders. This is just one side of my engine. The other side is doing just fine but if I re-use these I'll go ahead and increase the torque on the other cylinder bank as well.

 

[Smitherz]

Engine is back together and running great again. My tubing was just delivered and the moons are aligning for my rollcage finally. And once the cage is welded up I can get to the final touches of the V8 install. I'll be building a solid tube intake and new frame mounts for the engine now that I know that I know where it's going to stay in the chassis for good. Then I can build hard lines for the AC system and tidy up and secure the wiring even more.

Some Youtube engine sound I recorded yesterday ;] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o9Noq0Wrdg

 

[runnyrunnerton]

I have been researching this rig and swap for about a month now. I think i can grab an engine in the next few months or so for my 97 runner. But when you got your engine, all i can see is that you basically overhauled all the seals, pumps etc. Did you completely disassemble the engine and have the cam checked? Did you replace the cylinder rings, check cylinder walls etc? I know you ported and polished but I didn't see any pics with a completely disassembled motor. I want to build a bulletproof motor that runs for 200,000 miles so I can DD my rig, thus i want to budget anything and everything that will go into the motor rebuild up front. Excuse my newbness. Hope I'm not asking a answered question but I couldnt find it on here, uz swap or fourwheel forums.

So far I think Ill be gathering and revamping parts for a year and try to make the swap last about 3 weeks. Going to run my a340 auto with a dellow converstions adapter. I believe i need to have a shop modify the valves for firmer shifts (found 2 so far that can do it) Excuse the info, just excited there is hope for my runner!

thanks in advance.

 

[Smitherz]

These engines cost so little I'll just throw in another block if I have a problem. I didn't put new rods in it or new pistons for that reason. Those would cost more than getting another 1uz.

 

[runnyrunnerton]

I see. I was going to ask why noone wants to get a vvti engine then i realized the wiring situation. Thanks for the info. Dont forget to post the roll cage, Im curious on your plans. Are you going to run exterior rock cage or interior cage? I thought i saw somewhere you were adding some bumpers, are you going to tie them into it as well?

 

[Smitherz]

Long time no post. Been getting ready for the rollcage build. Pulled the truck in, stripped it in a flash and now it's down to business. My fabricator dude and I making some really fast progress and it's looking incredible. I've been waiting for a long long time for this. The cage is going to be in the walls of the body and I'll be insulating it all when it's done so it will be cozy. Hey RunnyR - We'll be going from front to back on this thing (interior cage) and time allowing, bumpers too. My friend knows how much time I've put into this truck so he's doing his best on the rollcage to compliment the rest. He doesn't even have a mig welder in his shop so this whole thing will be tig all the way. More to come.

 

[cribbj]

Good luck with the cage Ryan!

Interesting that you had a head stud pull out on an N/A engine. Was it the stock 10mm, or an ARP in the stock size, or a 7/16"?

 

[Smitherz]

Hey well the cage is like molding clay to me. Nice to just turn off the phone and go for it. The ARP stud pulled out and now David sells an "updated" stud length that goes in below that center cam gear. I went for broke and threw in the double heli-coil! I don't recommend anyone do this though just so you all know. But I did it very very carefully! It's NEVER pulling out now.



Wrap your brain around this picture below. Talk about nervous... slap in a couple heli-coils one on top of the other and feel how that stud torques down inside that! I had to take a shot of whiskey before I did it.



But I kept telling myself I have an extra engine 5 feet away from me in the garage so no worries!

 

[cribbj]

The stud that pulled out - was it the stock 10mm size or the 7/16"?

 

[runnyrunnerton]

Eagerly watching

 

[Smitherz]

Stock size ARP. The old measurement for the studs Lextreme used to sell were way too short and I was told that there was nothing to worry about. Well there was and I paid the price. Now the ones he sells are longer for this very reason so there's nothing to worry about unless you were sold the original length stud that was "supposed" to be ok.

Here is another picture of my truck in the worx. Having lots of fun working on this cage stuff. Now I can mount the seats on the crossbars instead of the flimsy floor and also the stereo stuff will be resting on the cage as well. I'm really looking forward to having a much stiffer chassis and better handling as well.