It's the li'l truck because that distinguishes it from the big truck, my 4Runner. Which I guess isn't all that big, but in comparison it is, so it works.

Anyway, here's my rig. I bought it back in October from my parents' neighbor who I've known for many years. He got it from his brother in Oklahoma a year or so earlier and did a lot of stuff to it, including a new head and some other engine work. When he bought an '85 4x4 he put the 2wd up for sale, and I was visiting my parents and jumped on it. Paid $900 for it the way it sat in these pics.







The reason it's the little truck....


When I got it, the engine made a ton of valve noise and idled really high. Within a week I had adjusted the valves and begun tuning the carb to match the timing and RPMs. Finally got it running the way I wanted it to (although it needs about 5-10* base timing rather than 0*, for power) and it's running so clean it qualified for FastPass on the emissions dyno last month. Fires right up in single-digit weather too. The only bad thing I still haven't totally figured out yet is that it won't always kick down to a normal idle when warming up. I can pop the hood and manual the throttle into an 800-rpm idle, and it'll stay after that, but it just doesn't do it automatically. Oh well.

Around Halloween I found a set of tan bucket seats in a '94 4Runner at the junkyard, in great shape except for dirt. They're the 3-way adjustables, the super comfy ones. A quick steam-clean and they went right in. That same weekend I put in the same head unit I have in my Runner. It has aux input so I can listen to my mp3 player. Those two mods made this truck really start to feel like it was mine.

The reason for the mismatched paint is that my neighbor swapped the beds with his 4x4 because the original bed on my truck was super clean. I couldn't stand it anymore so I bought my buddy's '86 bed from him a couple weeks ago and it's way nicer. It's white, so it matches the hood (not sure why the white hood went on either, something about windshield pissers being bad in the stock one), and pretty damn straight and rust-free. The toolbox is currently resting in the bed because I refuse to put that fugly thing back on. I also got the SR5 steering wheel, door panels, W55 tranny (to replace my whining one), and soon will grab the SR5 gauge cluster as well. Several weekends ago I took the chrome beauty rings off the steel wheels, cleaned them up, and then painted the wheels satin black. They're just spraybombed but it looks a lot better than the stupid crappy silver.

I'm doing a heater core tomorrow because there's no heat and that's not acceptable in January in Colorado. When I get that taken care of and the trannies swapped, it'll hopefully be time to start the real mods. The general plans right now are at least 3" of static drop, ideally 5"+; Lexus IS300 rims; a decent system; some more bodywork; and paint that isn't all wonky. By summertime I hope to have this truck turned into a nicely modded, Toyota-reliable, gas-sipping (23mpg right now), nice-looking daily driver. That way I can save my 4x4 for the trails and my Mustang for streetracing, cruises and drag- and road-racing.

Current pics will hopefully come soon, if I remember to take my digicam with me for once. Any input is welcome and requested!

 

Looks like a great base to start from man!
And ya,Lexus IS300 rims are a killer look.
If i could find some, i would run them in a heartbeat.

 

Man, looks like u got everything under control! Lets see those new pics

 

nice project!

 

if your fast idle isnt kicking down there could be a couple issues.


but first realize, its supposed to do that. and it should idle high for about 5min just sitting there and a mile or two driving, then a decent bop on the throttle should kick it down.


#1 problem
dirty linkage.
hose the crap out of the linkage on the back of the carb with carb clean while moving the linkage by hand to free it up.

#2 problem
possible rust in the choke spring, inside the choke. would make it not quite move as freely as it should, or prevent the spring inside from expanding as it heats up.

#3 problem
bad vac lines



good luck and wheres the new pics

 

Congrats on the truck man, looking forward to seeing whats next . . .

 

nice score man. thats screamin potential forom the very get-go. hope to see this come along nicely!

 

$900? NICE!!! Let's see some current pics.

 

Well, it appears that I need to get a new digital camera. I took two pictures on a fresh battery and it promptly ran out of juice. No interior shots yet, but that's okay cuz it's torn apart from doing the heater core this afternoon. What a pain in the ass that was! I'm hoping I have some major air bubbles in the system still, because I still have almost no heat and I'm super pissed about it. I'll look into that tomorrow. For now, the two pictures I was able to get.





Thanks for the comments guys!

 

Looking good! Yeah heater core replacement is a PAIN!!!! but at least you got it done!

 

Yeah, definitely NOT looking forward to doing a heater core in the Yota that's for sure! Can't wait to follow the progress of this truck! You guys and your pretaco's are really growing on me ! I want one now. Cool little truck man. Try checking all the gadgets onthe heater box and make sure they are working normal and maybe change the thermostat too. Make sure the ducts/vents went together correctly too.

 

I know it's supposed to do it while it warms up; the problem is that it doesn't kick down off that even when it's warm. I've lubed the hell out of the throttle cable and linkages there, and sprayed some lube down into the carb. You may be right that there's a bit of buildup in there though. Which vac lines do you mean?

The ductwork is back together but I'm not getting nearly as much airflow as I do in my 4Runner. Not sure what that's about but I'll mess with it some more. I'm fixin' to go burp the cooling system and see if that gives me some more heat. See if this makes sense to anyone else. I'm getting warm air from the bottom of the heater box and kinda from the floor vents, but cool air from the upper vents. This would indicate to me that the bottom of the heater core is full of hot coolant, but the top is full of an air bubble. Not sure if that's exactly how it would work, but it seems logical enough to me right now.

 

From SD's thread:

Shoot me some info, I need to start planning this out financially. I'd like to have this truck low and painted by sometime this summer.

 

i mean ALL your vac lines. these carbs are designed pretty poorly, and complicated for no reason other then to choke the motor into putting out less emissions. that being said, a couple plugged vac lines can mess up unrelated things on the carb. so if you havent changed them or are at all unsure change em. its a very cheap investment for substantually better performance.

also you mentioned "lube" wtf?

you shouldnt EVER lube the linkage, all the parts that would possibly need linkage have a lil plastic bushing that will lube it enuff while dry. only thing ever to be sprayed at a carb should be carb clean. and no brake clean doesnt count, it will corrode plastic and rubber.


your heater problem sounds like either wrong ducting routing like beefed mentioned or your "vent" isnt closing all the way. if it doesnt close all the way the fan will be pushing cold air into the cab without going through the heater core. on my truck i have a zipty holding my vent closed so i dont get cold air coming in.



btw is your screen name a refrence to the wheel of time, the best unfinished series of books ive ever read?

 

pretacos are waaaaaay cooler than tacomas

 

I run a pretaco rear axle...... just waiting for my 18"X9" rear wheels now, I have some 255/35/18's to toss on. sorry to taint the forum with anything Taco, I really like the pretaco vibe that goes down here.

 

not to mention better built

 

sounds like its time for Beefed to start looking into a pretaco

i think you have gone far in the tacoma world. its time to venture back to the past some

 

I may go through the vac lines when the more pressing things get taken care of. I'd like to swap to a Weber if possible, so it might not even be worth it. I hadn't though of it though, so I'll keep it in mind as a possible culprit.

I hit the linkage with CLP (all I had around lol) and the actual throttle lever on the carb with some Militec lube, and the Militec did appear to solve the problem. Sometimes it'll kick itself down, and the rest of the time it'll stay good once I manual it the first time. Not a really pressing thing for me right now, as long as it's running right otherwise.

Got heat! I had to burp the radiator, put the HVAC panel back together, fix a broken pivot point and adjust the door pushrods, but I got things working smoothly. Good thing, too, because I had to drive the 2wd in six inches of unexpected snow on the way to work this morning. I thought this was why I owned a 4x4 too?

Yep, WoT rocks! Hopefully this new cat doesn't **** it all up.

 

Got an SR5 gauge cluster in today, and put in a mild system last night! Got an Alpine amp and JL 10" sub from a work buddy for $40 and slapped 'em in last night. I need to find a new sub enclosure because this one only fits behind the seats with the sub facing backward, and it just doesn't sound good. Other than that it's sweet. My SR5 cluster is a little bit wonky, with the temp gauge reading 3/4 of the way up the scale at operating temp, so I'll have to figure that out. Might be a bunk sender or something, who knows. And I have yet to get the correct oil pressure sender so I've currently got it disconnected. No biggie, I'll get that taken care of soon too. All I really need now is a decent dash pad and unbroken dash vents and the interior will honestly be pretty much done.