the Adventures of Penelope the Death Machine or How I Learned to Love the Apocalypse Build

Meet Penelope.


My 2006 Tundra Limited 4x4 V8 AKA the Death Machine AKA Big Pp, AKA my Apocalypse Build. Purchased in late August 2018 with 199k miles... Now she's almost to 265k miles.

That's her on the right, and these are some of her adventures:
2019:



2020:





2021





Lone Star Toyota Jamboree 2021




Exterior mods
Brute Force rear bumper and sliders
Coastal Off-road front bumper
Black billet grill
Retrofitted HID headlights
Jason bed topper
Skid Row full skid plates set
35x10.5R17 Kenda Klever RT tires
MST Time Attack 17"x9", -10mm wheels
Spidertrax 1.25" rear wheel spacers
Desert Armor amber light pods
Rago Fab ditch light brackets
4Crawler 1" body lift

Interior mods
Waterproof seat covers
Pioneer touch screen
10" Kicker sub
Sony 6.75" speakers
Rear seat delete
Fire extinguisher
Gentex power compass mirror

Performance mods
JBA long tube headers
Dirty Deeds race exhaust & 12 hole injectors
Airaid modular intake tube
ECU tuned by @texoma
Nitro Gears 4.56 front and rear
Eaton rear e-locker

Suspension & Steering mods
King extended travel 700lb coilovers
Wheelers Offroad front Super Bumps
SPC UCAs
Solo LCAs
Total Chaos uniball LBJs & spindle gussets
Energy poly steering rack bushings
333 Fab steering rack bracket
KP Off-road cam eliminaters
Alcan leaf springs & u-bolt flip w/ bump stops
Deaver add-a-leafs
4Lo Fab custom rear shock relocation with 20" Kings
Archive Garage Hammer Hangers


Future plans
Throttle body coolant bypass
10k lb Warn winch
Wire Gentex compass mirror
Wire ditch lights
Chase light
Install tailgate torsion bar
Aluminum gas tank skid plate
Supercharger
Paint truck horizon blue metallic

 

2022 Hidden Falls Adventure Park




2022 Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area
Lone Star Toyota Jamboree


2023 Hidden Falls Adventure Park


Tundras To Sedona 2023







2024 Merus Adventure Park
Panhandlemonium Pt. 2: Merustober






2024 Hidden Falls Adventure Park
Thanksgiving Run



2025

 

Nice album. Where's the shots at the mall though?

 

Kroger Parking lot do it for you?

 

A few more oldies



@KNABORES here's Big Pp at a bar.

And here she is at my favorite taqueria

Here's one at the chemical plant

How about a gas station?

The gym with Kroger in the background

The dog/disc golf park I walk at


At work

 

I forgot this one

I really need to get some mall pics someday

 

Only reason I asked

 

I guess it's time to actually show the build process... Sort of.
Penelope's first suspension upgrades

2018




2020 suspension redeaux


2022 I bought her some jewelry. Bitches love shiney shit.



And how the long tubes look after a few years of off-roading...

 

2023 I replaced the bent Skid Row transmission skid with a new one, that I had reinforced by 4Lo Fab




Dirty Deeds race exhaust to compliment the JBA long tube headers



https://youtube.com/shorts/EdzqZqCMOjY?si=3rKK3vzO2gGNot9c
https://youtube.com/shorts/y1B-alJ0snE?si=T4XZq91eZInpsm6N
https://youtube.com/shorts/u76-gcpxDLw?si=ObySOJ5QiUdMPYXS
https://youtube.com/shorts/Vn0bbo7mYgs?si=qDkfYUFqm4zUcWA1

 

Installed an Airaid intake tube at some point.


Went to Panhandlemonium and helped Beau with his truck, but me, Beau, Casey, and Josh also installed my Alcans.


Much later down the road I got the Total Chaos Spindle gussets welded on and the spindles rebuilt with Toyota parts.
Once again @Sirfive and Polo answered the call.



Then several months later, Casey, Polo, and I installed these beefy components, on the road to 35's.

 

After all the major progress on the front end rebuild/upgrades prior to T2S and Jambo, my radiator took a shit and I had to postpone to trip to visit Casey and Polo, to work on both our trucms, for T2S.
Luckily this crack to the radiator happened in my driveway and not in the desert.

I tried and failed to temporarily seal the crack with JB Weld, after it was pretty unanimous among the best gens, that I DON'T use a pour-in radiator sealant.



New Denso radiator in my possession. I should've learned how to do it myself, but I don't have the time, and honestly I'm a little burned out, so my mechanic is doing it. Ouch $$$

Me and @Polo will be working on our skid plates and my rear suspension this weekend. We are going to try to add these Deaver AALs to my Alcan leaf packs.

 

Got the truck back with the new radiator installed. Gonna drive her to work tonight, for a shake down.

 

Penelope moved rocks for Casey yesterday and posed on a few too.

Polo was not impressed...

 

Leaps and bounds made this weekend, but it's always two steps forward and one step back...
We got the skids bolted back on, but they fought us pretty hard. Had to do some drilling when a rivnut stripped.

Then same with the AALs... The u-bolts fought us hard.


One u-bolt snapped






And my rear diff, that was just re-rebuilt 7 months ago, is slinging juice everywhere from the pinion seal

I already talked with Juan at Toy Lex, and he assured me he could have it fixed, under warranty, before T2S in two days!!

 

Wow! It's cool you overcame all this last-minute truck drama to make it to T2S 2025. Not like the SoCal contingent, showing up and then breaking everything so we have something to do together.

Good job getting your build thread up and running!

 

Nice looking build. The 35s are what I'm most interested in. I looked around, and maybe I missed it, but did you end up having to do anything to clear the 35s in the front? Did you clearance the wheel wells? Also, have you regeared for the 35s?

 

I've regeared to 4.56
I still need to clearance for the 35's.
Right now I know it rubs a little when flexing. I've got the 33's back on for now. I plan to do more testing/trimming for the 35's and a 1" body lift.

 

https://youtu.be/D6-DUR0deOc?si=Aw2KGLCBxoiD_fHf

 

Big plans in the works. Thursday I'm taking my 06 to 4LoFab for some new goodies:
1. Archive Garage Hammer Hangers
2. King rear shocks with a custom relocation job, for more flex
3. 4Crawler one inch body lift, so I can clear my 35's without tubbing the firewall or cutting the fenders.
I'm not sure what kinda turn around to expect, but hopefully it'll be ready by Jeep Vs Toyota at Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area in Gilmer, TX Aug 29-31.

Once I have Penelope back, I have some 14WA (GX460/5th gen T4R) front brake upgrades I need to install, so she can better stop the 35's. Right now the 13WL brakes are struggling.


Lastly, the not so exciting CEL needs to be addressed: P0172 & P0175, running rich on both banks.
I'm thinking it's either a vacuum leak, the fuel pressure regulator, or maybe something like the coolant temp sensor or thermostat. Because I had the radiator replaced right before T2S and the CEL came on in NM, OMW home from T2S.
I've already cleaned the air filter, cleaned the MAF, changed the air filter, changed the MAF, cleaned the TB and ran a seafoam aerosol through the intake. The CEL would go away for a few days or weeks after each time I tried something, and then comes back.
The truck is running great 99% of the time. It's only sometimes idling low or stumbling from take-off.
When I pick it back up from 4LoFba in New Braunfels, TX I may just drive another hour or so to Lago Vista to have @texoma hook up to it to techstream, since he tuned it. Maybe he can give me some incite, or even disable the SAIS with his VF Tuner, so I can unplug the Hewitt bypass and see if it is the issue.

 

Pretty sweet. Is that moab you’ve been to?

 

Thanks.
No, but Moab, UT is on my bucket list.
I've not been further West than Flagstaff, AZ and Sedona, AZ yet.
Heck, there's still places in Texas and the surrounding states I need to explore.
In Texas I've only done Merus, Barnwell Mountain, and Hidden Falls.

 

I can't tell you how much this makes me want to move to TX and build a FGT.
(I'd keep the 3rd gen for mall duty.)