Truck Page

<- - - Go Back to the Shack- - ->

This page is dedicated to my truck. On this page you will find links to Toyota Truck pages, pics of my truck(when I get them), and mods that I have made to my truck. Some of these mods I have gotten from others. Credit to those will be given.

Most modifications that I have made have been to the engine, and its peripherals. As to the engine, I will start my little story back about 1996, just after I got the truck. When we bought the truck, the seller said that the radiator had leaked, but that he had fixed it with plumber's tape. So I didn't worry about it. Not to long later, while driving the truck, all of a sudden the temp gauge went to past the red line. Not good. So I stopped, let it cool down, put water in it, and went on my way without anymore problems. Until about a month later. thats when the radiator dropped all water, and what it didn't drop went past the head gasket and into the oil. Not good.

So the head gasket was toast, the head was warped, and the exhaust manifold was warped. Took the truck down to Doc's Auto Clinic, where they changed the head gasket and did all other repairs. After that, the truck ran good. Didn't do anything major to it other than a set of tires and a few small parts repair. About a year later, I started noticing that the truck was using oil, probably about 1 quart a week. So I took it back to Doc's. After some troubleshooting and evaluation, he said he thought it was the bottom end. Time for a rebuild. . .

So down at Doc's, we pulled the engine, and disassembled it. At this time I wasn't too happy because the truck had had the engine rebuilt just before I bought it, at around 200,000 miles. The mileage was now 215,000. Something wasn't jiving. During disassembly, many problems were found. The previous rebuilder had lined up the gap in the piston rings. The guides for the timing chain were broken. The block was bored, yet it stated it nowhere on the block or pistons. The water pump was the wrong style, it diped where the timing cover didn't, so a bead of silicone was all that was keeping me from dropping all my water(?hmmmm?).

Doc put the engine together with new rods, pistons, timing set, and water pump. I also threw in a broad range cam. At the same time the clutch was replaced for cost reasons. Ah, the truck ran good, sounded good ( especially with the straight pipe back to a flowmaster), and performed much better than before. That newfound power is what got me hooked. It was time for some engine mods!

First off, lets talk gauges. I know they don't do anything power wise, but they're worth they're weight in gold. All mine are Autometer. I have a 3 3/4" tach on the dash, and a mechanical oil and water temp. gauge under the radio where the cubby used to be. Both those are 2" size. Mechanical is good because you can tell whats going on after the engine is off. I mounted the tach with the supplied hardware, just to the right of the Combination meter. The 2"ers were mounted into a sheetmetal bracket that I custom rigged to use the stock mounts under the radio. It actually looks pretty decent.

With the cam installed, and still running the stock carb and exhaust manifold, performance was good but not that great. Great as compared to stock. So eventually, the bolts in the stock exhaust manifold started falling out, and the exhaust started leaking, and the truck sounded really bad. At one time there was one bolt holding the pipe on; I thought it would fall off. So I went to the local "speed shop", and they ordered me up a Doug Thorley header. Ahh, what a nice piece. I think the chrome plating they use is worth a couple of horsepower in itself! The beauty part was that it was smog legal. What a difference the header made. Low-end torque increased, and loads of power. And, of course a great sound too!

Next came the Carb. I got a used 32/36 weber from the local "speed shop" and took it apart. We cleaned all the cleanables, and put it back together with a new gasket kit. Then we ordered up the adapter kit (so i could install it on the stock manifold), and the weber air cleaner, that came with a K&N filter. Then we installed it. Man, what a difference in makes to the look of the engine compartment! Now, intead of zillions of vaccum lines, I have one, that goes to the vaccum advance on the distributor. I can actually change the oil filter from the top! Here is a picture of my engine compartment. Sorry about the low quality, will get a better pic soon! How about this pic?

Even better was what it did for performance. Power, torque, and acceleration were all benefits of this carb swap. I can actually use fourth gear up hills now! The one major drawback is my gas mileage went down. That is mostly because I keep the hammer down when driving, so it is mostly due to my lead foot. The other minor reason is its not . . .nevermind.

As to major engine modifications, that's it so far. I have installed a Flex-a-lite Black Magic electric fan though. Once I got it workin', it worked great. I did find though that some washers are needed between the fan and the mounting brackets to make it line up with my radiator. That could be because my radiator is not stock. (check out page 2 for fan update)

Ok. . . from now on i'll ramble on less. Just get to the point man!

Ok. Stock hubs are junk. One side broke on me. It was the spring inside-snapped in half. Toyota wanted over $100 for one hub. The set of Warn hubs I got cost about $120 from 4WPW. They are about ten times beefier than the stock ones too. The olny thing I don't like is that they are taller then stock, so they stick out a little ways past my tire.

For ever now I have been running without a tailgate. Just recently I bought a pair of bed supports from Downey. They are supposed to bolt up where the stock tailgate bolts in. Well, thats if your bed is straight. To make a long story short, I had to crank in my bedsides with a come-a-long to get them in. And I'll tell you what, I don't think they're ever coming out.

Just bolted on a set of stock Toyota chrome wheels. I must say, they look much better than the white wagon wheels I had before. Look up the page at the Warn hub pic to see those wheels. Here are the new ones. Thanks to Mike "Did you put the rocks back?" Tempesta for hooking me up with these. Chrome has got to give me at least 5 extra horses.

Go To Page 2 of Truck- - >

Thursday, August 10, 2000 was the last time I got around to updating this page.