Glad you figured it out. The leaf springs on that old frame could easily be tired. People beat the living hell out of these trucks. That frame could have lived a hard life in which the previous owner may have overloaded the truck frequently. I've done it on occasion dragging home two or three 1uz motors from the junkyard at one time.
There's a nice 84-88 toyota mini near my home that serves as firewood hauling/storage in it's bed year round. Always overloaded with wood. I'm sure the leaf springs are shot in that poor truck.

 

Yeah, that's exactly what it looks like. I can compress the rear end of the old frame barely when I stand on the frame and jump. But the new frame can easily be compressed my holding the bed and putting weight on it. At one point I was able to load it with my hands and the suspension sagged so much the rear tires hit the wheel weld on the bed.
They are really bad

 

It's interesting to hear feedback on this from experienced people, other than "it's so badass."
I was all 2JZGE until I really thought about all that weight up front and what it would do to the original handling.
I don't think 10" tires out back is a real reasonable option.

Anyone ever consider actually *gasp*...adding weight to the back end? 100lbs of strategically placed stiffeners might do some magic.
I could spin a tire on a damp road with my 22RE.

 

The old dog solution is to toss a few sandbags in the bed. A fiberglass shell also adds weight and security to the rear.


Why not swap leaf springs for the ones off the old frame? Those ones didn't sag right?

 

That was the mistake I made from the beginning. I always knew the truck drove and handled well with the bed empty, but felt better with a bit of weight in the back. This time around I will be doing the sand bag trick.

That’d be no, the other leaf spring did not sag. I had decided to just replace the leaf springs considering the one on the old frame is a bit it rusty, and could go out soon. Yesterday after work, I decided to just use them for now and save some money. Went to pull them off and that was impossible. They are welded in from rust. I am soaking it with some penetrating oil and hopefully they come off, but I’m not too confident that will happen following its refusal to come off after an hour of pounding on the bolts to come out. Not even the torch was helping. The bolts are seized really badly. Let’s see if the oil helps.

 

Yeah, we all know the sand bag trick, I figure in a truck building forum we can come up with a more refined solution.

 

Relocate fuel tank to spare tire area for better weight distribution and keep it full? lol

And of course LSD!

Or body drop, so u could raise the bed floor add fuel tank, battery and spare tire to the rear?

HEAVY custom tube rear bumper that actually looks decent on a lowered mini?

 

Other than the one time I basically dragged the truck home running on two cylinders from the seller’s location to mine, I’ve never really driven one of these trucks with the 22re in it to be able to specifically tell you, yeah, the handling is off with the 1uz installed. Realistically speaking, the 2jz is heavier than the 1uz. If I’m not mistaken, 2jz weighs roughly 600 lbs, and the 1uz is about 475 lbs complete. It couldbe a little under that for both engines.

The weight will vary with a manual/automatic transmission attached to either engines. But frankly speaking, my truck handled fine with my setup. Depending on what type driver you are, you may feel differently.

Adding rear sways, or upgrading the front sway to a 1’’ thick sway bar, which was/ is on my to-do list would make things even better. But yes, I am adding weight to my bed and the 10” tires are fine as well. I haven’t had any rubbing issues going over bumps, not even during a body dive situation which why I am trying to maintain my original ride height.

 

Hahaha! Yeah, as long as you can keep it full at all times that’d be an option! Adding LSDs would help as well. But for a daily driver, the sandbag trick will do.

 

Well I suppose if you're looking for a REAL solution to improving handling it's going to take some fabrication work. One example would be to swap out to IRS off another vehicle. Another example is to place your engine more centered in the truck - that should help tremendously in helping weight distribution and improving handling but it requires a lot of fabrication to make it happen.

I'm new to the street truck thing, but on a rock crawler moving your engine back a tad results in a truck that clings like a spider to rocks, I don't see why it wouldn't do the same to a lightweight truck you're trying to flick around a turn.


One thing I'm considering doing to my Hilux in the future (for if/when I decide to do a 1uz swap) is to use leaf spring slider boxes instead of shackles. Supposedly they stiffen up the ride on leaf spring vehicles because they are more rigid than a shackle and they don't have that up/down movement or the "twist" a shackle allows for. No idea if they'll actually work, right now it's just a pipe dream, I want the v8 swap first! Wife already knows once we get a new place I'm lookin for a cheap Lexus to rob the drivetrain out of.

 

LSD is a must after you V8 one of these, I don't need to even drive one to know that.

Fabrication is not off the table, and I think an option that does not change bed capacity is important. I actually USE the bed of mine for anything from dump runs to sleeping quarters when I'm camping.

Honestly a clean looking topper might be the best trick out there. I never ran one when I was packing 115 horsepower, because I was packing 115 horsepower LOL.

 

Updates, updates

On Sunday I loaded the old frame on a trailer and took it to the junkyard, and I cut a new clip off a 4wd Regular Cab while I was out there. I then made a stop at a car wash and had it clean before I got home. I put in some time and got the front core cut and mounted in place. I've decided to not weld in the core/ apron assemblies. I'll make it removable so that if I need to pull my engine or do a big job under the hood it will be easier by just removing the core. Next will be to figure out how I'm going to mount the core at the cut section and move along with the rest of the build. I have a few ideas in mind for mounting the core, I will keep you guys posted on that. I’ll be posting a how to on here because I know of a few on and off this forum that wants to do this to their trucks for their own personal reasons.
Damaged Frame:



Front:

Cut section L/F:



Mounted:
I had both L/F fenders mounted after aligning the bolt holes, and it fitted perfectly. Here is what it looks like for now.

 

nice! It's coming along again..

 

Bit by Bit Orlando Muniz!

 

You guys getting these photobucket error messages:/?

 

Yep. Gotta pay an annual fee to support 3rd party hosting now.

 

Looks nice.

 

Thanks man!

 

That sucks..

 

Yea im slowly switching all my shit to imgur. Seems to be working ok.