Giving a First Gen some love!

Hi everyone! I'm the proud owner of a white First-Gen (2001) SR5 with the 4.7L V8, and 4wd. I'm fairly handy and enjoy fixing bicycles and other stuff, but never really thought of myself as a "car person" and always relied on the mechanic for oil changes and maintenance. Up until a few years ago...

As the trusty First-Gen ticked over 200,000 miles a couple years ago, the need for a few maintenance items became apparent, and my wallet encouraged me to look into DIY. That's when I discovered the awesome community on this forum! Thanks to all the knowledge, how-to threads, and encouragement folks share here I decided to save a couple bucks and change my own oil for the first time. That went pretty smooth, so I figured I might as well dive in...

Since then I've been working to catch up on maintenance and repair:

• Drain and fill ATF
• Refreshed power steering fluid
• Bled brakes
• New spark plugs - went with original Denso copper tip
• Replaced O2 sensor
• Replaced radiator and hoses after original radiator sprung a leak at 210,000 miles
  
• Drained the block too, fresh coolant
• Changed front and rear diff oil, and transfer case oil (4hi and 4lo working!)
• New set of tires
• Replaced headlight assemblies with aftermarket after the truck ran over a deer. The truck ran it over, I had nothing to do with it.
• Experienced the dreaded rodent-chewed knock sensor wire. My rodent of choice was a mother pine-squirrel, who decided to raise four beautiful young squirrels between my starter and knock sensor two winters ago... Thanks to the detailed threads on this, I worked up the courage to remove the manifold and repair the chewed knock sensor wire. Engine code gone, and performance restored! Thanks to all who've posted photos and info on that issue.
• Loosened timing belt cover and inspected while I had thing opened up.

So my biggest question is: what kind of oil is best? And these no-name aftermarket lower ball joints should be a solid choice for my First-Gen, right?

NAH JUST KIDDING! I do need to get some OEM LBJs in, and I have some questions about play within my steering rack and a worsening clunk from the front suspension drivers side. I will try to post those in the appropriate place soon, and get some pics up for y'all.

Meantime, here's a teaser of the trusty Tundra in camping mode:

 

Impressive list! Satisfying doing all that work

 

Welcome from LA (Lower Alabama)!

 

Love it. Keep mechanic-ing; think of all the money you are saving!

(That's what I tell myself when the work is tough!)

 

Welcome from NY.

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Thanks everybody! Glad to be here. Check out this post about the front suspension work I am hoping to undertake soon: https://www.tundras.com/threads/steering-rack-play-front-suspension-clunkage.153190/#post-3815109