What have you done to your 2nd gen Tundra today?

Installed a kicker hideaway 8" sub I picked up on Facebook marketplace for $80. It rounds out the sound a good bit. Now I have all the speakers, head unit, and sub figured out, the last piece of the audio puzzle is an amp.

Pulled out one of my Morimoto fog lights to fix the connection, every now and then it would go off. Cut out the factory connector and added some of my own quick connects. I've amassed a good collection of electrical connectors, soldering supplies, and head-shrink at this point.

Took out the bed liner, cleaned underneath it and checked for rust. Minimal, if any. I hit any spots that the paint rubbed to bear metal with some spray paint and reinstalled it.

Adjusted the tailgate latch to eliminate some rattles.

To do list:

• New seat covers for Christmas. The current wet okole ones are just stained and ripping.
• Clean and replace hood adhesive that holds the hood skin to the frame. Currently flutters in the wind.

 

Dumb question…

What psi are you guys running for day to day driving? I have Nitto Trail Grappler 275/60R20 and had them at factory recommended psi, but had uneven wear. Nitto representative plugged some numbers in and suggested to run these at 44psi at the front and 47psi at the rear, so I did that. Does that sound high to y’all?

 

What's the load rating/index on those tires?

That is high if they are P rated.

Not really high if they are E rated.

 

They are E rated

 

Committed Toyota treason and added a Jeep to the fleet.

Long story short, this was my grandpa's jeep - he passed away a couple weeks ago, so it was time to get this out of storage. While this is my dad's vehicle, I am storing it for the time being. I'm sure I'll be spending plenty of time behind wrenches and the wheel. There are a lot of memories, so even though it isn't a Toyota, it is near and dear to our heart. Not the best circumstances, but it'll be a fun way to remember Grandpa.

The Jeep: it's a 1990 YJ Wrangler with 11,700 original miles (this particular example has the carbureted 4.2L straight 6). The mileagle is cool and all, but it means it needs work. The last oil change was done in 2010, but that was only 465 miles ago . Needless to say, she needs all new fluids and a carb job. Whatever it needs, it'll get because the top and doors are coming off to cruise in the summer sunshine!

Some history for the non-jeep folks: the YJ Wrangler was designed by AMC before being bought out by Chrysler in 1988. Renault owned 46% of AMC, so the YJ is a parts bin special (AMC motor, Peugeot gearbox, hodge podge of interior bits, etc.). That's all I'll write about Jeep before I get banned

 

Nice! I’ve been wanting a Jeep myself…

 

Cool little rig. Although, I have to say that it is basically a tractor for the road. Not too much more to it than a standard farm implement.

 

I run about 40 psi front and rear for city/highway, I drop it down to about 18 for off road

edit: 35/12.5R18 Micky Thompson mud tires

 

I have my 305/70R17 Nitto Ridge Grapplers at 45 psi. Wear is even. Ride is good.

 

We had a ‘97 Wrangler at one time that we played in off road and I loved it. Not much to it either. I’m wanting a 2012+ four door to play around in this time. Either that or a 4Runner. I just know now that I have kids they would love going off road with the roof and doors off.

 

I keep mine around 40.

 

Got my fogs installed. I went with the DD pro sae. Not gonna lie I thought they would throw a bit more light. I'll try aiming them better first. I had to get some new buckets/pockets to hold the fogs sincemy bumper didn'tcome equipped. The installed went pretty smoth for the most part . Had to bang my bumper out a bit to get the buckets fit. They are tyc fog pockets. My bumper it pretty dented and pushed in on one side. So the massaging was necessary.
Hard to get a decent picture.

 

I have them as well, mine throw a ton of light and are bright enough to just drive with them on at night, the fact that they're pushed so far back into the bumper fog pockets will diminish the light output/beam pattern

 

This is an excellent tool for getting PSI about right when you move to a different size or load rating. Then adjust up or down a few pounds based on how your load and drive your truck.

 

Installed the RCI Trans Skid and Cat Shields:


Before I installed them, I picked up a can of PB Blaster Surface Shield spray....That'll be the last time I buy that. It was like tring to get an old .77 cent can of spray paint to spray for more than a few seconds at a time.....

 

how much did you get them for?

 

I will be installing these soon as well. Any key info to share? Do you think they prevent access well enough?

 

@Shanet421 The hardware for attaching to the truck, are not the "anti theft" type bolts.
I put the main side guards centered in their holes (there's some wiggle room to adjust).
I had to run a drill bit thru a couple of the holes as the coating was thick, which really seems to be nice.
The rear guards had be adjusted more forward, just to close the gap between them and the crossmember just to close the gap a bit.
The rear cross piece I centered it, and it was good.
There's not much room left to get to the rear side of the lower control arm. I'm not sure that that maters.
I removed the factory rock guard on the transfer case, and it seemed to fit better.

All in all, I like it....other than thinking about having to get it off for any work. I really could have used a ratcheting box wrench to tighten the crossmember mounting bolts!

@Jorgesworld86, I don't recall, but picked them up on sale just prior to Thanksgiving.

 

Awesome thank you for that real world info. I got my plates used so I will be having them blasted and recoated. Also my trans plate doesn’t have holes for the cat plates so I will have to drill my own holes before powder coating.

 

First drive with the new (used) engine last night. Dead engine w/ 205k miles swapped for one w/ 66k miles. Looks like it's a good one.

There were some trouble codes I had to figure out this morning. I'd accidentally left a few loose bolts on cam position sensors, a ground strap and 1 bank of coil packs. That's what I get for working on it until 3am when I was moving sensors from the old engine to the new one. Tightened the bolts and the ecm is happy now.

While I was at it I put in a new alternator, water pump, thermostat, plugs and coolant. I also added new Poly LCA bushings, SPC UCAs, and Icon 2.5 front shocks since I rebuilt the rear suspension this summer.

Next up is bleeding the brake and the annual fluid film coating for the undercarriage before the road salt starts flying.

 

Waiting for my local store to get more of these. Looks legit, especially compared to comparable jacks for the $ and it'll sit in my bed most of its life(hopefully)

 

@Shanet421 , If you go to their website, the instructions are there to download. It gives guidance on drilling those holes.

 

Seriously though, you should generate a new thread illustrating the work on your rig

 

how hard were the LCA bushings to do? and glad to hear the truck is back running and sounds like its better than ever

 

@joseph_womack The old ones were rusted in place so I had to cut them out. I used a propane torch to heat the inner sleeve so I could melt the rubber and slide it out. Then I used a sawzall with a carbide blade to cut most of the way through the rubber and outer sleeve. Last, I used a punch and chisel to buckle the outer sleeve toward the inside at the sawzall cut. The outer sleeve will pop right out once you buckle it inward at the cut. Be careful to point the punch and chisel away from the control arm bushing holes so you don't mar the inner surface of the control arm bushing hole.

I don't have a press so I paid a local shop to press the new ones in. They almost ruined the new bushings because they didn't do any prep on the control arm bushing holes before they started pressing in the bushings. You should always hone the bushing hole surface until it's smooth like a cylinder bore before trying to press the new bushing in. After attempt one failed they bead blasted the holes and used a die grinder to clean up some burrs, but didn't hone them.

They started saying that it would be less expensive to just buy new LCAs (~$300 each), but new LCAs wouldn't have polyurethane bushings (~$240) like the ones I gave them to press in so I'd be right back where I started and $600 poorer. He told me I might want to just use new LCAs with the rubber bushing. I told him that I didn't spend $240 on polyurethane bushing because I "might want to use them". His guys just needed to do proper prep work before trying to press them in.

I asked to see what they had done so far (after a full week) and when he came back into the office he said his guy had just started working on it again. He must have sensed that I was about to ask for my control arms and bushing back because he asked me give him until the next morning to do some more prep work and try again. I told him to go ahead, but to stop if it looked like the bushing sleeve was starting to collapse.

The next morning they weren't pretty, but they were in and not compromised structurally. He charged me for an hour of shop time ($124) and I was just thankful it was over. I won't use that shop again.

If you're going to have a shop change yours make sure they know what they're doing. Most shops are in the habit of replacing whole assemblies rather than the one or two components of the assembly that are bad. It's often more cost effective for the customer and more profitable for the shop, but sometimes that's not the right solution. If you're trying to upgrade performance instead of just trying to replace worn items the shop needs to be able to do old-school mechanic work.

Ask them how they're going to prep the bushing holes before pressing in the new bushings. If they don't mention honing the holes find a different shop or use a cylinder hone to prep the holes yourself before handing the LCAs and bushings over to the shop to have them pressed in.

 

@tripleconpanna I didn't have time to document a step-by-step guide on engine swapping a Tundra 5.7L. Let's be honest. This truck's powertrain was essentially the same for 15 years and you can probably count on one hand the number of people on this forum that have had to replace the engine on this truck. I'm happy to answer questions, but I don't think an exhaustive engine swap thread would benefit many people.

It was honestly a pretty straight forward engine swap. If you've replaced pretty much any other engine you shouldn't have trouble with this one.

I had to replace the knock sensor wiring harness on the used engine I bought. It's under the intake manifold and mice had made a nest between the block and the intake. The mice had chewed on the wiring. I also found a smaller mouse nest in the same place on my original engine, but they hadn't chewed on the original knock sensor wiring so I moved it to the new engine.

The intake itself slowed things down. The one on the replacement engine was broken and my original had oil, aluminum shavings and bits of a demolished piston inside of it. I wasn't confident about being able to clean it out completely so I bought the one that @ssmokedz took off when he supercharged his 2019. There are two intake manifold part numbers in Toyota's catalog. One covers 2007 - 2008 and the other covers 2009-2021. The only difference is that the intake port that goes to the PCV valve has a slightly larger diameter on the 2009-2021 intake. I heated the end of the hose that connects to that port so that I could stretch it over the port until I can get the matching diameter PCV valve and hose to swap out.

I didn't feel like the suspension work warranted pictures. I bet there are hundreds of pictures of Icons with SPC UCA's on the forum and there is a whole thread about the Poly LCA bushings and other threads on replacing the alternator. Changing sparkplugs, water pumps and thermostats is not very difficult or interesting, especially when the engine is still outside the truck.

If I totally misunderstood your request, what do you want to see pictures of?

 

I actually work at a shop, generally we just replace the LCA, but like you said then it wouldn't have poly bushings, thanks for the tips!

 

Wound up having an oil leak at the oil canister, but it was the actual plate that the canister threads into. Had that repaired and additionally had the serp belt and tension pulley replaced and despite not showing any signs of a leak I had the water pump, t-stat, up/low hoses, and radiator all done. That also included an oil change and a antifreeze refill obviously. It wasn't cheap but, after having all the fluids and the plugs changed previously it runs better than ever. I don't regret a penny I've put into this truck despite it being a 2007. I'm looking for 400k out of this beast, now at 220k.

 

@tripleconpanna Here's the original post with the engine damage and empty engine bay: https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...2nd-gen-tundra-today.68/page-450#post-2993678

 

Put my new RadRubber inner fender splash guards.