What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

When my 01 taco got its new suspension I took it for a test drive and forgot
A can of wd40 on the bumper… took it on a 5 mile test drive and hit ~50mph. Got home and found a wd40 can still on my bumper. Lol

 

Nothin much accomplished on the tundra today, rained pretty much all day. Ordered all the parts for the sequoia though. Ole girl is getting the following:

*oem outer tie rod ends
*oem inner tie rod ends
*Rack & Pinion Bellows
*Total Chaos steering rack bushings
*overland custom designs sway bar links
*Front duro bump bump stops
*CVJ Reman 9550 TR Cv axle
*East coast Gear supply needle bearing delete
*stoptech stainless front brake lines
*Toytec diff drop
*Total chaos upper control arms (my wife’s like what my trucks not good enough for those. I really figured she’d baulk at the price tag lol)

coil overs are in the cards but nothing much is in stock right now

 

Thank you baby Jesus! Only needed 1 cut to come out!

 

All ready for drop off tomorrow.

 

thanks for the tip. I figured I’d try to stay honest.

 

Another quick camping trip:

 

Tundra took us up and back to the parent's cabin. Had lots of fun and the tundra makes me very happy. It rides and drives like a champ with the raptor shocks on all four corners now. She just needs more power. I'm really stuck on dropping money on gears and long tube headers and being disappointed or just saying FML and throwing in a beefed up gm 5.3.

Anybody know how much a 150k 4.7/transmission/ transfer case is worth in good operating condition? I can get a complete 5.3 Chevy truck for $2k. The numbers just have to make sense I guess. Long tubes and gears are going to run me $2k and yes I know I'll be dropping money in the 5.3 to swap it, but the money from selling the 4.7 might pay for the odds and ends and a cam for the 5.3.

Spend 2k on gears and long tubes (maybe 300hp?) or spend 5k+ before the money back on selling the 4.7 stuff and have a cammed with headers/etc 5.3 (maybe 350hp with 25-50hp to grow without boost)? That's tough.

 

You may spend a bit more on the 5.3 swap, but you'll get a lot more from it. I don't know how reliable those motors are but if it blows they're common enough and cheap enough.

Long tubes, exhaust, gears, might fetch you 300 buff ponies and around 350tq. Reliability in favor of grunt. If you go that route you'll only wonder if the 5.3 was a better choice.

 

Ive thought many times about the cost savings of all the mods ive done/ Boost vs swapping an LS or something into my LT Tacoma. At the end of the day though I would feel really dirty with a non-toyota motor in the truck.

 

Just glue a Toyota emblem on it

 

Yeah but id know and itd eat me up inside having to look at her with the transplant. Itd feel worse than I have for letting sit last few years....

 

The last sentence is what I'm thinking. The other thing is that I think the LS will appreciate the the current gearing more and likely get better gas mileage. My average going 83mph in some slight wind And some moderate hills was maybe 13 and that's with a good bit of shifting to 4th and a hard climb in 3rd. The trans/ converter never got over 165 though so that's awesome.

Oh and the 5.3s last nicely into 200k. Not much less reliable than a 4.7 I'd say.

 

I feel ya. I couldn't swap a Chevy motor into a Toyota. If the pursuit is for power though, there isn't really a cheaper alternative.

 

Personally I couldn’t do an LS. I just can’t bring myself to throw reliability out the window for power.
But I’m also towing with my truck and not racing. Personally I’d do a 4.3l (3uz) with some beefier rods and some boost.

 

My integrity is worth the cost (or being underpowered) haha

 

I took the tundra to the hay field and loaded bales. There is a left turn onto a highway at the bottom of a long steep hill. The tundra pulled the hill with 90 bales on the trailer without any issues at all. I was impressed with it. That hill was the reason I bought the truck so it made me feel good that it handled it.

 

What about a Lexus 5.0L 2UR?

 

Now that would be badass but $$$$

 

How long did that take you? I keep debating if I'm going to tackle it myself or just take it to a shop. I've been debating that for over a year now

 

If you're cheap like me, the ATS HD springs are a great option. I had a camper shell and random junk in the back and it rode great unloaded, but didn't squat when loaded down with gear, tools and 4 bikes hanging off the back. When I save my pennies again that's what I'm going to do on the double cab.

 

These ones? Yea, that certainly saves some money over the Alcans...

 

I see engines here in CO for $1,200 and up. Transmissions are quite a bit cheaper at $500. Haven't seen a used transfer case so can't comment on that. If you were willing to do the install for the purchaser I'll bet you could come out ahead money wise.

I feel the same as others that it just feels wrong to take the best part of our trucks out, but you've mentioned the power a few times. And you don't seem to put a ton of miles on your truck so even if the 5.3 only went 100,000 miles before needing a rebuild that's still probably at least 8-10 years.

Also, I'd hate to lose you here, but with all the work you've done to your truck, you could probably sell it for a fair amount and get something with more power and overall be cheaper

If you do the swap would you be able to get rid of the terrible cruise control?

 

Yeah, and there are four or five of us now who have installed them and been happy with them.

 

We are talking about taking a Toyota engine/trans that goes 200-300k and replacing it with a gm engine that goes 150-200k. It's not like I'm doing a rotary. Rebuilds for the 5.3 and 4l80e are cheaper and easier than the Toyota also. At least the engine is.

I could sell my truck, but I don't think I'd be able to buy anything I really want without adding more than I'd have in the swap. I don't want a Chevy truck because I don't really like them. Just the engines. If I got anything else it would be an f150 to make a raptor clone, but the 5.4 is not something I want and to get into a 5.0 or an Ecoboost is going to be more than swapping an engine. And then I'd have a stock suspension truck with more power.
I would likely have to ditch the cruise control and do an aftermarket unit. For around $250 there are options with good reviews. I would also have to register it at our Idaho property to avoid emissions. It could be done to pass, but that sounds like a pain I don't want.

Let's put it this way... I floated the idea to the wife and she didn't say no haha. I bet if I sold my ranger prerunner she'd have zero issues with it. That would mean the biggest hurdle is behind me.

 

I say go full send!! An ls swap has crossed my mind a time or two.

 

Sounds like an easy decision!

I thought Utah did away with all emission inspections. Is it just the more rural areas?

 

Unless someone can give me a path to better return on investment ideas, I'm thinking ls is the way. Gears and headers might get me similar mpg to an ls swap, but power will be down 50hp at least.

I honestly think an ls with more torque would still get better mpg anyway, but it's just a thought about keeping my foot out of it and power to weight.

 

I don't think the rural areas ever had emissions, my county does though. We got rid of safety inspection a few years back. Obviously the sky fell and blood ran in the streets. Actually nobody noticed the difference besides shops that did inspections and tire kickers maybe.

Our Idaho house doesn't have either. It's very laid back.

 

Had the truck into the exhaust shop today to find out if the manifold was the cause of the burbling noise I'm hearing. According to them, it's fine. My resonator did have some holes in it and a flange was leaking so I had that fixed. $200 later and the burbling is still there. Next step would be to put headers on I guess and see if that solves it but I'm not willing to spend the $2000+ it will cost.

I'm also still chasing that fucking vibration. Starting to regret going down this refurb path. So far I'm into it for $4000 and I haven't started on the remote starter and headunit yet. Could have sold for $15K+ as it was. Should have just sold the truck and bought a new one. Fuck me though right? My truck will probably be up for sale this time next year depending how the market is and what the pricing looks like on the new Tundras. I'm done buying and driving old trucks.

 

Have you tried a smoke test?

If you can't work on your own vehicle then older stuff will nickel and dime you. I know the feeling though. I rebuilt my sweet jeep stroker engine twice and I still don't like it. I might sell the jeep for the price of the initial engine and maybe half the vehicle purchase price.