The Mistress of the Dark Street Truck Build

My 2003 Tundra
355k miles, 2wd, V8, tow package, T3 package, LSD, TRD exhaust, TRD rear sway bar
How she looks now





Bought this truck for $2800 about 5 years ago, with 330k miles.
It needed a lot of little things and a few big things. But had a solid foundation.

First it needed an alternator, ignition coil, windshield was leaking, most the dash lights were out, needed new clock spring, the T3 grill was falling off, valve covers were leaking bad, cats bad, AC resistor was bad, etc...

It took lots of jumps just to get her home.


First things to go were the ugly bull bar, side steps, air bags, motorcycle hauler thingy in the bed, hot air intake, and altezza tail lights.


She got some JBA jewelery right before covid and before JBA stopped making em and the price doubled for the same long tubes design, now made by a different vendor.




PO had installed like an AutoZone special hot air intake and removed the fender liner, the the tire was pitching debris at the filter.
Hot air intake replaced with a Volant intake.

 

I scored a "used" (new in box) SOS 2"/3.5" lowering kit and a set of five GX460 18" wheels with tires from FBM.

Me and Casey knocked out the install ourselves. Pollo helped too.



We had to chop off the precious TRD exhaust tips, because the leaf springs would have hit the exhaust, once lowered 3.5".

 

Exhaust tips welded back on in their new spot. Instead of exiting right behind the mud flaps, they now exit closer to the bumper.

 

Nice,,,, looking forward to more of the tale!

 

Polo was a little shit back then

 

Yeah, now he's a big shit

 

Next things to happen were all new fluids, filters, 12 hole injectors, and exhaust resonator delete.

Casey had this great idea to swap the tired old 2wd leaf packs for my old 4wd leaf packs with Wheelers progressive AALs.
Which would raise the rear about an inch and I didn't like the rake, so we used a 1" lift block as a lowering block, and swapped the cheap KYB shocks for 5100's.





I scored a another new in box (used) part on Craigslist... A grill! I had already lost the T3 grill emblem to the road and wasn't ready to let the grill fall off next. Thought a Lexus emblem would be fun and match the wheels.


Replaced the radio and added a backup camera and replaced burnt dash lights with LEDs

 

Did you use 5w30 or 0w20???

 

5w30 full synthetic. Sometimes it's Castrol, or Pennzoil, but Mobil1 is my go to.

 

I approve

 

Me, Casey, and Frank scored me this Sequoia 3rd member with 4.10 gears at a junk yard and I bought a TrueTrac to replace my 3.91 gears and OEM LSD.

This truck gets pretty good mileage.





I scored a used URD o2 simulator

 

First pic is (mostly) the way I bought her.
Second is after the drop.
Third is after the drop and the leaf swap.
Fourth is after the drop, leaf swap, and 1" lowering block.

Found this in the glove box when I went to install the newly tuned ECU




I think that brings it up to speed. Hehe

So for those keeping score at home and the haters thinking ignorant shit about lowered trucks, here's the full run down.

Racetruck mods:
•JBA long tube headers
•TRD dual exhaust with new high flow cats, resonator delete, upgraded Y pipe
•URD O2 simulator
•Volant intake
•Dirty Deeds 12 hole injectors
•Toyota 4.10 rear gears with Eaton TrueTrac LSD
•TRD front and rear sway bars
•SOS 2"/3.5" lowering kit
•2006 Tundra 4wd leaf packs with Wheelers Offroad AALs and 1" lifting(lowering) block
•Bilstein 4600 front shocks
•Bilstein 5100 rear shocks
•Quantum Tuned ECU

Stock 0-60mph is 7.4sec
My record before the new rear end and tune was 6.1sec.
I can't get an accurate 0-60mph now because the TrueTrac just doesn't deliver enough grip to the one tire. It's a terrible LSD for a racetruck. Mid drift it will switch which tire gets the grip and try to kill me. I hate it. But I assure y'all that this thing scoots.. I just need an LSD like the OEM that actually locks both tires when one slips, instead of only sending power to the one that is slipping the least. The TrueTrac is basically just one step above an open diff. The OEM LSD was better.
My best average MPG was 19.8

What's next for the race truck?
GX front brakes
Different LSD for sure, probably Eaton Positrac
Maybe 4.30 gears
Either an 05-06 intake manifold swap or a Bullet supercharger


I guess if anyone is wondering why we swapped the leaf packs for the heavier duty ones after lowering, it was for a few reasons. One: it was Casey's idea and that dude has good ideas. Two: it stiffened the rear more for cornering. Three: it stiffened the rear more for hauling and towing.

 

I can't get an accurate 0-60mph now because the TrueTrac just doesn't deliver enough grip to the one tire. It's a terrible LSD for a racetruck. Mid drift it will switch which tire gets the grip and try to kill me. I hate it. But I assure y'all that this thing scoots.. I just need an LSD like the OEM that actually locks both tires when one slips, instead of only sending power to the one that isn't slipping.


I'm thinking if you're serious about this, it's time for a Ford 9", tub that MF'r and throw on some cheater slicks.... You'll be in the low 5s

 

I'd need a different engine lol
But if I could get down to 5.9 while naturally aspirated with this 2uz, I'd be impressed.
If I decide to buy the Bullet supercharger kit, I bet mid to low 5's would be possible.

 

I think this is photoshopped to look a little lower than it really is.

But this definitely happened IRL...

 

The funny thing is if you could only have one of those girls... I know which onde it would be

 

Really? Cuz it's a tie between redneck girl and Peggy Bundy

 

My first question would be, why would you keep something this cool under wraps for so long?
Makes me want another 2WD "race" truck, and a Yota this time. (Previous were all GM's)
Love it!

 

Didn't feel like making a build thread til I was bored at work last night.

If I ever get my hands on a 2wd RCSB 5.7L... I'm going to do bad(ass) things to that truck. Like a supercharger.

Honestly I'd probably have been better off making a race truck out of an early 2000's Chevy. Probably would be cheaper to make more power. But I'm a Yoter Kool aid drinker.

 

The funny thing is that when everyone talks about building the ultimate 5.7 Tundra 'race truck', they want a RCSB 2WD; yet almost everyone that has a SC'd 5.7 and is launching it for the best 0-60 or 1/4 mile times, they do it in 4HI.... food for thought!!!!!

 

Yeah that's for actual drag racing.
When I say "racetruck" it is entirely tongue in cheek. I just enjoy driving and passing other vehicles, being loud, doing burnouts and fishtales, etc lol.

General hoonery, if you will. Just don't write me a ticket.

 

Copy that... 5.7 2WD w/ 'no nannies on' it is

 

Putting the leaf packs to the test

 

So what are yalls favorite street tires? I need a new set of 265/60R18 tires soon. I'll likely go through Discount Tire.

The tires that came on the GX wheels don't all match and the driver front has no tread left on the outter section. I guess the alignment was off for a little too long. The outter tread on passenger front isn't bald, but still not great. The inner and mid sections look better, until I notice how close they both are to the wear bars.

The driver rear tire is definitely getting close to the wear bars.
The passenger rear is at the wear bars. Hmmm. I'm kinda surprised the state inspector didn't fail my tires, since safety inspection was still on the law books in Texas in December.
Rubber is a little cracked too.
I'll have to find my tread measurement tool today and see if they are below 2/32". I guess I need to check my spare too.

Honestly this may explain why I been hating on the TrueTrac so much. Also might explain why my ABS kicks on sometimes.


Driver front.


Driver rear.

 

For the 14R I continue to use Michelin Pilot Power. Lots of grip for a steet tire with enough sipes to keep you "sunny-side up" if you traverse a puddle. Wear is abysmal.

For the nazi scooter I've started using Dunlop Road Smart 3. Grip is decent and they give plenty of feedback to the rider when you start grinding pegs. Lifespan is about 3500 miles if you're a throttle/hard corner afficionado.

 

For a second I thought the nazi scooter was slang for a VW slug bug or something, and that 14R was T4R. As in Toyota 4Runner. Now that I reread this post, you disappointed me.

 

265??? Get some meat under that thing.

 

It's got the stock tire size (but for an 18" wheel). Keep in mind it's lowered 2" in front and 4" in rear. The rear has 1.25" Spidertrax, but front has no spacers and rubs frame on tight turns. I been thinking about buying some 1.5" Bora spacers for the rears of both trucks and either 1" for the T3 front or reuse one pair of the Spidertrax.

 

Ok gang, I kinda want these. Dude claims 40% tread left.

I shot em a message. We'll see if he answers. Lately I've tried to buy a handful of things on FBM and gotten no replies