ATG Parker's 91 4Runner Build

June 6, 2018

• The 4Runner with 235,424 miles was acquired for $1,600 and was 80 miles away in San Diego, CA
• It had a set of very tired 32x11.50-R15 BFG All-Terrains on it two of which were blistered and it had not been driven in 6 months.
• I picked up a Red top Optima and two quarts PS fluid at local Auto Zone and installed the pair of wheels from my sons 4Runner which I had brought with me to get it home.
• Ran like a top and cruised at 70 MPH with out any issues.

 

Over the first couple of months:

• A timing belt kit and PS rebuild kit were installed
• 65-AGM Dura last battery from the now soon to be scrapped Range Rover was transferred and all the goodies were stripped from the Rover: Hellas, MAX-Air Compressor & Tank, 7100SB Bilstein's. Hellroaring Battery Isolator

• To experience each end of the reliability spectrum is to know a Land Rover and a Toyota.
• My 1982 Long bed 4X4 lives on in Bishop Ca

• Need I say more well yes, good rid dens P38A!...

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THY-50S-C headers were installed along with a BCP Blue 1988-1995 Cold Air intake and an AFM from a Cressida.
Then the head gasket about cylinder #1 let go on the Grapevine Pass near Lake Castaic and she sat from the end of July through to April 2019 as I pulled the engine and rebuilt it and upgraded various things as follows:

• 5 new 31X10.50-R15 Cooper Discover AT³'s replaced the tired BFG's.
  
• A G-Plus two row aluminum radiator
• Zirgo FAN16S
• Derale Thermal Switch & Relay

• 2-1/2" BJ spacer kit
  
• H4 Relay harness installed for the Hella headlights.
  
• Hayden 291 Remote Oil Filter Kit
• Replaced OEM oil cooler O-rings.

• KYB SS10351 Steering Stabilizer
• MLS/ARP Gasket Kit from LC Eng
• Pistons, Rings, Wrist-pins exhaust valves and a rear main seal
• Air intake hose for AFM to TB
• Injectordyne; Four hole Fuel Injectors
• Heli-Coils 6X M14 x 1.25 to fix the spark plug threads in the heads.
• 91T4R Distributor, O'Reilly's
• Dash Pot for EFI-Throttle Body
• Mangna-Flow 2-1/2" Carb-compliant CAT
• Turbo band clamps to rework the DT header connections
• WIX fuel Filter
• Sky Jacker M9552 Shocks
• Sky Jacker M9522 Shocks

• Denso Ignition Wires
• 3/2019 Engine Components & Machine:
  • 3VZ-E block decked bored and reground crank
  • Rods bored and hung on new pistons.
• I port matched everything and cleaned up the heads ports, the intake and plenum. Fish mouthed the TB and smoothed all casting irregularities.
• Rebuilt and assembled engine

• Dayco 1-1/4" Spacers rear coils
• 57-9006 Summit's OEM K&N-FIPK CAI (Hot air intake)

 

Is there an under drive pulley set available?

 

June/ July 2019

• The rear bumper got a work over and I sold the OEM bumper and the mud flaps and fender arch trim pieces on Craig's list to pay for some metal from IMS.

• I raised the spare tire up bit to clear the receiver hitch, mounted the high-lift jack on the carrier and repositioned the License Plate to get a better departure angle.
• I put in a round multi element LED lamp in the hole at the middle of the spare wheels center as a back up light and had to replace the transmission switch twice.
  • The first was a Chinese piece of garbage that worked for a month.
  • The second was an O'Reilly unit with lifetime warrantee.

 

Ok so the CAI was not really very cold because it has no shroud so that was next:

• I replaced acrylic cover with an aluminum panel and insulated the shroud inside and out with foil backed foam with PSA in the foam side.

• It pulls the cool external air exactly like the OEM air box does from behind the DS head light.
• Hella "Traffic Blasters" installed behind grill with relay fires by OEM plugh from original horn.

 

Is there an adjustable fuel pressure regulator available?

 

May 2020

• Experimented with Dual shocks on the front suspension but just could not get the steering to clear at full-lock.

• I'm dammed to understand how Northwest Off Road and Downey had figured this out?

Sept 2019

• Power Stop Brake upgrade (PWR-K1150 Rotors and Pads) with post 1991-1/2 calipers improved things immensely.

 

Nov 2019

• Upgraded the audio system with a five channel SoundStream PN5.640D amp and built a sub-woofer for the fifth channel to harbor most the its 640 watts of power.
• This works really well with the OEM speaker locations as the amp has gain and crossover pots to get everything adjusted correctly across the five channels.
• The Kenwood deck that came with the 4Runner never sounded so good and CD's absolutely hammer.

• I added a 170 Amp alternator to the electrical system so as not to kill the 65-AGM battery from the Rover.
• Also will be needed for the winch later on.

 

Dec 2019 2-1/2 Exhaust Upgrade.

• FlowMaster Flow-FX and some mandrel bends from Speed Way motors.

• It was a grand improvement over the OEM Bosal CAT-Back and is lighter as well.
• I had to put in FlowMaster HP-2 in place of where the CAT is located as it seems to provide a little better drivability than a straight open system that the Flow-FX will give you by its self.

 

January 2020 through April 2020

• Marlin Crawler, Short Throw Shifter kit well worth the money if you like shifting your 4Runner like it was a roadster.
• Hella H4 Head light bulbs 100/55W to go with the already installed high current relay upgrade made earlier. What a fantastic improvement in illumination.
• Spartan SL TV6-30 lunch box locker. Holy moly these things are awful on high traction paved surfaces. But they cost next to nothing and are a great way to make your 4Runner 3 wheel drive. My Son likes his much more with the rear anti-roll-bar removed from the chassis and axle.

 

May 2020

• All Pro Offroad and the X-Bull 13,000 lbf. winch
• Now a place for the Hella's from the Rover.
  

July 2020

• OME Torsion bars to help with the added front end mass.

• X-Bull comes with remote wireless controller and synthetic line.
• I sprung for the X-Bull winching accessories kit too and did that come in handy.

• Its a noisy bugger but pulled my sons 4Runner up this grade with three consecutive 30 ft. pulls as we removed the snatch straps from the end of the hook with each pull.

 

July 2020 placed order with TNARacing.com for my third attempt in trying to procure Blazeland Long Arm Travel Front Suspension Kit. First attempt was directly with Nate who Is Blazeland. The Second was with Pre Runner Industries in New Zealand which was in October of 2019.
Aug 2020

• T-100 CV's through CARiD $130 for the pair.
• Yukon Grizzly locker replaces the Spartan Much nicer on the tarmac

• Stabilis Inc. Gas Struts for the bonnet.

• All Pro Economy Disk Brakes upgrade for the rear axle, but first a parking brake solution:

• BMI Kart & Supplies; Go Cart disk brake rotor is 8-1/2" diameter
• Caliper is a cam action that needs a stout pull on the short lever to smash the brake pads and floating caliper onto the disk.

• Almost the final iteration for the lever but still had to sort out a tension spring and revise the main arms pivot point for higher leverage so that the OEM pull on the lever secured the clamping pressure on the disk.

• Economy Disk Brake kit with 1982 4X4 Front Axle staggered piston calipers, rotors and pads.

 

Jan 2021 Rear OEM coils are done and its time for an upgrade.

• So go big or don't go at all like I couldn't on this last trip in Dec 2020 with the 4Runner loaded with kit.

• Time for the Pro Comps and to out board mount the 10" travel 7100SB Bilstein's.

• Custom made some shock mounts and have installed 2" TG hub centric wheel spacers to keep the rotors secure to the axle flanges and to clear the Shocks.

• That is 3-4" of lift over the very sagged out 1991 OEM 5 active coil springs with the Daystar spacers removed as well.
• Front Frame Brace added to secure the rear A-arm lower pivot axis in the frame made of light gauge 2" x 3" tube with a notch for the diff.

 

Feb 2021

• Last Years replacement ProForge idler arm got Brass bushings in it from 4Crawler but the end pivot now loose allowing the center link to axially rotate which is not good, so enter the idler arm to end all needs for replacement!

• This thing is a beast is sealed, greased and solves the weak link in the OEM steering. It has a double row angular contact bearing in the pivot that interfaces with the center link which has to be drilled to 5/8" to secure it to the bearing.
• The housing uses the three OEM through frame bolts and adds a machine screw on the frame under side to fix this unit more securely than the steering gear is to the DS frame rail.
• It blows the Total Chaos unit away in design with its attention to detail in solving the problem.

• Austin Sytsma is the manufacture and creator of this awesome unit. Find him on the FBG's:
  • Toyota IFS And Long Travel Tech
  • 2nd gen 4Runner Mafia

 

March 2021

• Ok the Pro Comps are mighty high and the Pan Hard rod was having fits of angular misalignment so an extension was fabricated with 4" of off-set to make the rear suspension be centered again:

• Notice the aluminum plate to offset the brake bias valve is 2" high based in the OEM sacking by about two and the Pro Comps providing 4" of lift.
• This is an improvement over the 4Crawler approach in doing this as it is two pieces of square tube with a lap joint weld to make this design work.
• Upper OEM bolt is internally sleeved as is the top bolt that has a washer stack to allow for the unit to be rotated and shifted left to right to get the axle centered at ride height.

• Boom; with 4 washers in the gap on the upper bolt, the TG wheel spacer to frame distance is 12.25 inches on both sides give or take an 1/8 of an inch.
• The 4Runner has less roll sensitivity to steering input now that the bar is almost dead horizontal.
• I had planned to reposition the axles pivot mount but that proved to be a lot more work than is this removable solution.

 

Hello ATG,
I am new to these vehicles. Just bought my first 4Runner, a 1992 LP gas powered vehicle in Costa Rica where comfortable survival depends on 4WD working well. What you said below is interesting to me and I want to understand. Why would you want to make a "4wd" 91 4Runner into a 3wd?

"Spartan SL TV6-30 lunch box locker.... these things are awful on high traction paved surfaces. But they cost next to nothing and are a great way to make your 4Runner 3 wheel drive. My Son likes his much more with the rear anti-roll-bar removed from the chassis and axle."

I recently got stuck with one wheel in the ditch. Interestingly that was the only wheel turning. I believe I was in low 4WD using the lock outs. So I need school-ing as to how this all works.

Also what is the difference between driving in 4WD with the lock outs engaged as opposed to driving without them engaged?

Thank you bro.

 

March 25th thru the 27th my son and I completed our 3rd desert trip to Anza Borrego.

We put about 100 miles of Anza Borrego silt, sand and hard pack under the tires and I was able to give the Pro Comps and Bilstein's on the rear suspension a really good working over. Loaded down with three days worth of kit the rear suspension rides at 14" from rim to fender which is appreciably higher up than it was with OEM coils and Daystar 1-1/2" spacers. So there was plenty of working wheel travel left before the bump stop was engaged.

I have been waiting for what seems an eternity to get my Blazeland long arm travel front suspension kit from TNA but the promises have been many yet the delay on delivery is still in hand. The point being that the Pro Comp equipped rear suspension is easily out performing what the BJ spacers, OME torsions and M95 Sky Jacker monotube front shocks can manage when I try to obtain Pre-Runner levels of speed. The hope had been I would have this modification in place before this trip and now it is yet another week and am patiently still waiting.

The next post should be the installation of the Blazeland kit!

 

TNA-Blazeland arrived on Friday, April 16th 2021. The WIY kit is to the far left for my son's project. Notice the TNA idler arm is highly recommended.

With Energy Suspension's low profile bump stops the travel cycles to 11 inches when measured from the tire to the fender.

Shock geometry is quite progressive as the A-arm to shock angle gets very close to 90° at full bottom out.

Stuffing the suspension into full bottom out fills the wheel well with an inch to spare (31x10.5-R15, Cooper AT³).

At full lock and fully bottomed out the tire misses the inner fender by just this much!...

Gonna be a ton of fun!

13" of crossmember clearance with 8" fender to tire ride height setting

Had to modify the lower arm for the anti-roll bar to attach the link rod.

Lower A-arm mod for Bilstein Shock Mount.

Upper shock mount for Bilstein 7100 SB 10" travel dampers.

 

Well took the Pro Comps out and put the OEM coils back in with the Daystar 1-1/2" spacers on 15May2021. Nice and slack and the handling is greatly improved. But the load capacity and spring rate with these coils is stiff at 210 lb/in.

So I have opted for some Eibach's P/N: E30-82-004-01-02 which are 155 lb/in and stand tall at 15.59" for Free length with have 5.40 active coils. They arrived last week and in they went on 22May2021.

They are slightly stiffer than the Pro Comps which are calculated to be around 124 lb/in and yet the ride height is a bit better suited for the OEM rear suspension linkage when left in stock form.
The fender to tire distance is 6-5/8" with the Eibach springs which is slightly less than 2 inches lower than what the Pro Comps run at when unloaded.
This is putting the wheel travel at about 4.5-5.0 inches with an inch of bump stop engagement.
So, this is a much better height for the 10" travel 7100SB Bilstein's which I have repositioned at the upper mount and laid the shock forward a bit to make sure everything is clear at bottom-out and full droop.

 

Last night the T-100 anti-roll-bar went into the Blazeland suspension.

New mounts were fabricated to secure the bar to the frame out board of the OEM mounts as this bar is wider and uses slightly different u-shaped brackets to fix it to the frame.

A couple of things about this bar and the Blazeland modifiaction:

• The T-100 bar fits the Blazeland modified A-arms.
• The T-100 bar is a hollow formed tube and is considerably lighter than the 4Runners OEM solid steel bar.
• It is a larger outside diameter at 27mm over the 4Runner's OEM bar at 24mm so its going to resist the rolling motion of the 4Runner.
• The OEM bar with the narrower mounting on the A-arm is disadvantaged with the Blazeland modification by 3.5" per side.
• Since the effective spring rate of the suspension is greatly reduced by the Blazeland 3.5" A-arm lengthening, it makes the roll stability of the 4Runnner quite poor without any of the anti-roll-bars in place.

Also because of the Blazeland modification to the lower arms, the bushing and bolt stack, line up perfectly on the A-arm with the T-100 anti-roll bar in place.

 

I added my Daystar spacers to the Eibach coils and this is how it sits unloaded:
The travel is the same but the ride height is better suited to the overall range of travel. There is about 5-1/2 inches of up travel before the snubber is engaged and then about another inch before the shock bottoms out. With this ride height I get about 3-4 inches of droop before the limit strap goes taught.

 

November 2021 right before my 61st birthday the 6 year old AGM I had pulled from the Range Rover finally would not start the 4Runner. So O'Reilly's had one in stock (SSB 65PLT AGM Battery with 3Yr Replacement Warranty) and off I went to pick it up and replace it on my way home from work. So here is a picture of the new battery installed with a piece of wood 2x4 making up an excellent spacer to allow the OEM clamp strap to work.

The 65PLT AGM is a bit wider than the OEM battery specification but clears the PS pump pully just so and is a tad shallower in height which doesn't hurt with the CG of the battery being what it is! One more accessory will require a complete re-thinking in how to manage its connection to the plus terminal. So replacing the OEM sheet metal affair with a boat post terminal has aloud me to attach the winch power cable, power amp line feed for the audio amplifier, Max Air air compressor power line and a heavy gauged power lead for the 400 watts of Hella off road lights that are all switched with a 100% duty cycle Trombetta solenoid. This AGM is 750 CCA rated and is a good candidate if you have a winch. The other side to this is uprating the alternator so it can keep up with the load that the winch places on the battery aside from the Hella's, Picasso Nano Amp and MaxAir compressor. I went with this (BNRParts eBay) 170 AMP unit which uses a smaller multi-V pulley to boost the output.

The only modification I had to do was reposition the adjustment bracket and lengthen the slot so I could still use the OEM sized fan belt. The electrical connection is plug and play using the OEM connections. I did run an additional heavy gauge wire to the battery to supplement the OEM 80AMP fused wiring.

 

Is been awhile but finally the Sway-A-Way torsion bars arrived 2 months ago and in they went to the front suspension. They are painted black these days when shipped and are 25mm in diameter so the spring rate and load capacity is a bit closer to OEM at ride height with the Blazeland suspension. The plus side is that the roll stiffness has been increased so handling on the road is a lot better with abrupt emergency cornering. In the meantime I managed to work out an EGR delete solution by placing a washer and nut on the end of the temperature sensor and fixing it to the DT-header. Getting that tube out of the plenum has got to enhance the air flow inside the plenum if nothing else but to keep the air charge a bit more dense as it peels around the corners into the plenums feed ports to the intake manifold. It certainly makes getting at the spark plugs a darn site easier!

The cooler temperatures have the 3VZ-E making great power and am hopeful that the warmer summer doesn't see an appreciable loss. So that would mean the EGR delete is really improving the horsepower as I seem to managing about 12 MPG and am cruising at 90 MPH with little effort in keeping the throttle plate at about 1/4 open.
On the other side of the engine the EGR delete includes this modification to keep the TB cleaner.
Cam cover seals need replacing and the PS cam cap is spewing oil so its that time again and its only been 20K miles since the rebuild.
The 3VZ-E cam covers just really suck in keeping the seals well pressed against the heads.

The other find that has been fun at night are some 12V 140/100W H4 headlamp bulbs. They are fantastically bright and illuminate the road way very well. partsfreakusa on eBay does a nice job selling these and tests prior to shipping to prevent your getting a DOA bulb.

A LUXERAD three row aluminum racing radiator core with 16 inch electric fan has been purchased and is hoped will be an improvement over the 2 row one that I have been using with my 16" Zirgo. I rewired the Derale thermal switch wiring with relay so that the ac compressor when engaged will energize the fan to help the ac be more robust. But while I was burping the system after installation, the 30 amp fuse folder started smoking as the prolonged current draw with the AC running keeps the fan on. The cheap Chinese crap really is irritating at times as this fuse holder was less than 2 years old. So I rewired the power feed to the fan with a much larger 30 amp spade terminal fuse holder which is shared with the 4 Hellas. I may just swap out the new fan with my Zirgo as I am suspecting the new fan is a current hog and is not as efficient as the Zirgo. I suspect this is because the motors are similar but differ in overall thickness which can only mean the Zirgo has a larger armature and will hopefully draw less current than this unit that came with the LUXERAD. A test is to be conducted soon enough to compare the two fans with an amp meter while they are running.

 

Today Magnecor KV85 Competition Ignition wire kit (P/N: 6570, Made in Detroit) went under the bonnet.
They are nice big 2.50mm conductors in pure silicon Ø8.50mm insulated jackets which do indeed squish into the OEM wire holders. Note the kit has the right fitting for locking the coil wire to the coil. I will keep my 2 year old Denso's as spares. I checked there resistance and they are all well below 5k ohms which is a long way from the FSM spec. for replacement at 25k ohms.

 

Within the last six months I replaced the headlamp bulbs with 140/90 Watt high/low beam filaments. These certainly up the current draw and are almost 12 amps/bulb when the high beams are turned on. I had a 12 gauge wire on the battery terminal with a 30 amp fuse holder set to manage the power to a pair of 40 amp relays that are part of a headlight upgrade kit I installed a while back. Well that fuse holder had caught fire where the spade on the fuse plugs into a female spade connecter that is inside the molded rubbery housing with a flip top lid. As I was using the headlights for like the third time with the daylight savings time change they had been seemingly intermittent when I would flick the beam selection for the brights. So as I was turning into my driveway the street lamp nearby was illuminating my bonnet and I could see smoke was wafting from were the battery is located. So I killed the headlights and proceeded into the garage, popped the hood and saw flames as the fuse holder had ignited. Upon further inspection, I'll be damned if the ruddy fire hadn't burned a hole in the side of my AGM Battery to make matters worse as I blew out the flames with a stout breath of air from my mouth. You would have thought the ruddy fuse would have smoked before the holder melted down and ignited with 20 amps flowing which it should have been able to manage. So enter the solution:

This is a Maxi Fuse from Summit with 10 gauge wire and a nice 12 gauge soldered and heat shrink "Y" split near the relays to deliver 12 amps to each relay without looping from one to the other. It is glued and screwed to the adjacent fuse relay compartment which allows the ring terminals to sweep out of the bottom of the holder to the battery and the relays.

 

Fantastic work. I always loved the looks of those generation 4 runners. Very cool.

 

Well after bouncing the 4Runner a few months back I realized that the Blazeland A-arm extending really overwhelms the OEM bump stops and ended up bending the passenger side bracketry with the OEM rubbers. So I have fabricated some squared tubing and plate to move the contact point out by 3 inches or so to get some better leverage at stopping the tire from smashing into the fender. I had to make sure the extension cleared the shock absorber at full droop which forced me to position it more forward than the OEM position ends up being located.

This is the front extension with a smallish plate added to the lower A-arm to stop the snubber from sliding down the front edge when I bottom out the suspension.


Here is the rear extended bump stop at the back of the lower A-arm which needs to clear the T-100 anti-roll bar.


I modified my T100 anti-roll bar with some angle iron so I can use the 1991 links that are different from the 1990. The 1991 links feature a pivot joint with the lower being the double washer and bushing affair that goes through the lower A-arm. The snubbers used are tapered polyurethane Energy Suspension units that are 1.5" in diameter at the mounting surface and are about the same dimension in height.

 

A Few Weeks back I decided the OEM clutch fan moves considerably more air than the electric 16" diameter Zirgo can manage and so I bought a new shroud and reinstalled the OEM fan back onto the auxiliary shaft. I pop riveted and silicone sealed the shroud to the aluminium 3 row cored LUXERAD. Now if it would just get hot so I could see how well this works.

Hoping the AC will work better with this arrangement as I don't think the radiator for the AC was getting enough air flow to work effectively in spite of the OEM pusher. I might add a water misting system to leverage the latent heat of evaporation to help cool off the radiators when running the 4Runner really hard at Sand Hollow or some other such place in the dead of summer. Because the last time I did this I over did it with the two row radiator and Zirgo and the cap let go as I had exceeded the cooling capacity with that set up.
Live and learn as they say!

 

Upon daylight savings this year the two year old 140/100W headlight on the passenger side went out. Classic melt down but am glad the uprated relays and fusing are able to illuminate these beasties when they are turned on. Be sure to clean the glass of the bulb with IPA and only handle the back area of the unit with your fingers or this will likely be what happens to your LiMASTER H4 140/100W 12V P43t bulbs.