I figured I'd just post up what I've done in the last year.

First day I found the truck

Towed it 50 miles, once I got it back found that the idler arm wasn't attached to the frame and why it was dragging the other truck all over the road on the way back.

Pulling the Buick 231 the previous owner decided was a good idea

Fresh rebuilt 20R in place.

Started on the interior with a dash cap.

 

How it sits now, has 15x6.5 BBS off of a Infinity Q45 with 38 mm spacers also lowered 3" in the back and a unknown amount in the front. Replaced the tie rods Pitman and Idler arms and all ball joints with Kasei replacements.


Replaced low beams with H4 conversion headlights with PIAA super plasma bulbs.

Did a few modifications to clean up the engine bay.

Found a rust free bed at the junkyard and traded them out.

Not too much here. Replaced factory steering wheel with a Midship mahogany wheel, and put in a retro sound radio with 2 5 1/4" Sony speakers in the doors.

 

Was that 231 set in there with Downey mounts by chance? If so I would be interested in buying them off you if they haven't already been scrapped!

 

They used a piece of sheet metal lol. It was pretty rigged up.

 

Looks awesome. Hello from another New Mexican. Good luck with your ride.

 

That's a shame. Properly built the Buick 3.8L is a fantastic motor, but it sounds like you had a real hack on your hands.

Truck looks good. I like the BBS crosslace rims on it.

 

Thanks!

Yeah there was no room for the manifolds between the frame and the head so it would've never worked. I'm more of a purist so the rebuilt 20R is first and a 1UZ or 3SGTE will most likely be in the future. Or, maybe not haha I might just go built 20R with side drafts. I have another set of BBS RS that I'm painting bronze.

 

I suggest you do a hybrid build instead of a straight 20r .. not much performance there. Find yourself a 82-84 22r bottom end and its a bolt on hybrid. Or you can use a 85-95 laser block but you'll have to mill the head quite a bit to make it work.. 160hp..

nice truck and sweet bbs (minus the external weights, sticky weights ftw)! good luck!

 

I have a dual chain 22r just sitting in the garage, and another one for my Celica, but I was gonna do a hybrid in my 4 runner. Whats so bad about the 20r bottom end? I got the head milled down a little and I had it rebuilt with .40 over hypereutectic pistons. A hybrid would only have slightly larger pistons so I'd gain... a little torque??? and that would be the only difference right? I haven't really looked into it much so I'm not too informed lol I figured either one wasn't going to make much power anyways so I didn't really care. The external weights were there when I bought them so they'll be coming off for sticky weights when I go to polish the lips.

 

20r make a decent 90 hp, when going hybrid you raise compression therefor volumetric efficiency.
mate it with a decent cam, carb intake and exhaust you can get good power out of a 22r/20r combo.

straight 20r even if you toss all the goodies you can think at it.. its 8:1 compression.. aint going nowhere fast.

 

Looking good! How do you like that dash cap? Also are your interior headlights a film or is the cover amber/yellow? I'm looking to do the something like that.

 

* I'll give my opinion on cap as I have installed one as well. Well they are our only option when it comes to fix dashes haha, They actually fit great and I think they look really great. I get a lot of people asking me how I fixed the dash as it looks like a true dash.

They sell replacement yellow light assembly. You can also use film or translucent paint..