What have you done to your 5th Gen 4Runner today?

Finally installed my Rival engine, trans, and t-case skids yesterday.
Stock internet photo:

I didn't take any pics of my own as install was a bit of a PITA.
First impressions are that the materials are very good with one exception. The attachment process on the other hand was a little cheesy. It didn't help that I was doing it straight up on the ground under the truck.
The material I found lacking was the bolts that hold in the plates for oil filter and oil drain pan.

They required a 4 mm Allen but it did not fit in well and they were in extremely tight. I ended up stripping out 3 of them and had to get them out by drilling and bolt extractor. Not a good start to the day. On the upside, I did have the forethought to check them before I installed the plate so at least it wasn't on the truck...

It took a lot of adjusting and fiddling to get the placement right which was frustrating, but now they are on and seem solid. Now to go see how they hold up.

Cheers

 

I 3d printed a ev charger port that is magnetic I stick on when parking is hard to find at work hahahaha... I guess I should get a hybrid sticker for it!

 

cleaned throttle body first time

 

Good job. Did you just spray with wreckless abandon? Or the spray on the rag first and scrub?

I usually choose the wreckless option on most things. Lol. But seen vids saying that's bad for some reason.

 

I live in the heart of Bourbon country and don't drink. Lol. I think Bardstown KY is the king of Bourbon. Rickhouses going up everywhere there. Wild Turkey is about 4 miles from my house and Buffalo Trace is about 8.

 

Yes, don't let the kids see something as pornographic as that, LOL

 

Wish I had did what you did, my backs killing me today lol. Still raining so I can’t even get good pics of it, still gonna go give it a quick car wash to get all the hydraulic fluid off underneath.

 

Yesterday: installed and wired some Hella Black Magic cubes behind the grille, and finally got to wash off last week's salt and gunk.

 

have any pictures of the cubes installed? I want to install some lights behind the grille but trying to figure out scale and mounting options is tough. Something like below is what I am thinking.

 

I did take a few pics along the way. They're not great, for sure, but I'll sort through them and see if any are clear enough to be worthwhile.
Being the nerdy engineer that I am, I did build up the assembly in SolidWorks first -- I can share the image of the model. Heck, I could make up a parts list, too....

These 3.2" cubes are in the location of the lights in the image you showed. Hard as heck to get a pic of them, though, given their black coating (which is the stealth effect I wanted).

 

I use Revit for any modeling I need to do. That's how I built my leveling platform for the back because I am an architect and that's the program we use at work. I have heard of SolidWorks but not sure I have the time to learn an entirely new program.

I'll send you a DM

 

I use AutoCad at work and am fighting ising/learning solidworks recreationally for my new 3d printing hobby haha

 

SolidWorks is fun for me at the moment. It's a lot to learn, though the built-in tutorials are great.
I've never had a class in CAD, oddly -- I've picked up SolidWorks from a) just banging on it, b) bugging the crap out of coworkers, c) the tutorials, certainly not in that order.

I use it a lot for 3D-printed things... it's a fun change, going from a machining (material removal) mindset to a 3D printing ("additive manufacturing") mindset.

Within the context of my job: Hole Wizard is a wonderful tool! That, and the dimensioning tools. ;^)

 

Finished installing my Molle shelf. Max Trax will live on the roof come spring when I get my Crestone. Will probably move the 2nd shovel - TBD.

 

So gave her a good scrub done even though it was rainy just to get the leftover grime from the install off. Man I gotta say this was a great investment upgrade! Even though the fronts are just stock takeoffs this has improved everything one hundred fold!

You know it’s doing right when the missus who doesn’t know cars goes wtf happened to the ride. The nosedive is almost nonexistent now, took it through bumps and holes that would normally have me wondering what suspension part was failing, never missed a beat and felt great.

Going to set up an alignment to finish dialing in next weekend and get the tires done at discount tire. My pre alignment is about 90-95 correct so happy with how it turned out.

 

Good deal!
Reminds me of a few years ago with my old Pathfinder when TLG (The Lovely Girlfriend) asked, "Did you get new tires? This rides SO much better!"

 

Yeah, the tires already got that reply, the suspension when we hit the speed bumps and potholes today got the wtf, and was quite happy to hear it. You always see it yourself but it’s a whole nother thing when you hear it from another person.

 

Working on winter projects.

Drilled holes in an extra set of crossbars for Maxtrax pins. Next up is to drill holes to mount up the Pelican case. I plan to run 3 or 4 crossbars when I have these on the roof and the nice thing with the '10 to '13 4R Trail crossbars is that they can be removed without having to slide them out the rear of the roof rails.


2nd is testing the EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus I picked up Black Friday. Running my Engel fridge for the last 3.5 days via DC which draws about 30-36W while the compressor is running. They're sitting on the platform that goes in the cargo area that I built a couple years ago. Added the carpeting on it recently.

 

So...I have this kit which happens to be quite similar to what you're looking to do SS5 Stealth


Another optional bracket, meant for lightbars but can be easily modified by adding a crossbar member between the two mounting brackets. Attaches a bit differently than the SS5 kit (which I couldn't re-use as the crashbar was removed for my winch install.)

Stealth Lightbar Kit For 2014-2019 Toyota 4Runner



Another method for behind the grill mounting, with a little modification for non-light bar lights... HIDDEN GRILLE LED LIGHT BAR MOUNTING BRACKETS FOR 2014-2024 TOYOTA 4RUNNER

 

Drove the SR5P to church this morning!

 

New shoes finally rid of those crappy dunlops!

BFG Trail Terrains 265 70s

 

Looks slick. I couldn't convince myself to take the front end apart, so I went about it differently. I'll have some pics to post tomorrow.

 

If it’s of any assurance, pulling the front bumper assembly really is not that difficult, Diode Dynamics has a really good installation tutorial for the second ‘Lightbar’ kit that I linked above. First time it took me about 10 mins, subsequent work less than 5 (honest!). The only tricky part is bearing down on how much tugging it takes to separate the clips along the front of the wheel wells…it’s all gravy after that. And oh, disconnect the fog lights (connector is behind the bumper’s drivers side) before you start tugging!

 

Thanks dude, the process had me frustrated a couple times but I know how it’s done now!
I followed what YouTube buddy said and sprayed the microfiber, not directly into throttle body because it can go through engine and could damage cat converter apparently. Went well besides me unknowingly breaking a plastic clip on the electrical harness connector, realized when I put it back on..might need e-tape haha

 

I envy those who invested in grille lighting mounting brackets, I straight up tie strapped to the inside of the grille itself and called it a day LOL. Mine are small cheap lights tho

 

Got into some snow with the new shoes tonight. It was only a couple inches but I really had to try to spin the wheels in 2 hi. The couple times I got her going sideways traction control ruined my fun. Really impressed by these tires so far. So much better than the AT20s they replaced.

 

Circled in red is the remaining grime I didn’t get off, but the whole ring looked black like that

 

My rig is fast approaching 50K, I better get on this and check the MAF sensor too!

 

Ya man probably not a bad idea, I’m at 65k miles! The two sprays costs less than 15 Canadian pesos each at auto parts stores (including a discount)