Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Oooooo I gotta new project

Been laid off for a few weeks now and am getting restless. Also I need to have a truck that I can go out and play with, without worrying how am I goona get to work on monday when something breaks (something ussualy breaks).

So heres the start. 1981 toyota, The 22R in it, has no compression. So It'll get rebuilt, or....Something bigger will replace it

Anyways heres my lil project. It was covered in moss from the oaktrees it was parked under. But a few hours later with a scrub brush and a hose and its here.

Oh what a feeling.

A high school buddy had one of those. Try as we might, we couldn't kill it.

The bed stakes are cool.

I logged more than a few miles in that thing, strapped in a car seat. Then it went to an uncle who ran it until the motor died an then it sat.

Should make a fun lil truck.

Cool,

Will a 302/289 fit in it?

Would be tight but I would imagine so. Theres enough toyotas running around with 350's in them....

Was thinking a 350 but it was mentioned that the location of the distributor in the ford motors would let me get the motor tucked further back. Wich would be nice as I really dont wanna relocate the radiator to the bed of the truck, like I see on so many 'yotas around here.

Well the problem I see with the 350 is that it is a Chevy.

Is there any rust on that thing? It looks pretty good.

Agreed lol.

I'm goona have to do some reading on it. As I'm sure the toyota tranny wont hold up to a V8. Course then I'll probly have to swap transfer cases wont I? Then how are the axles goona hold up?

theres a lil bit of rust. I can see some speckling under the paint on the rocker pannels. Also at the head of the bed. One small pinhole in the hood. and I'm sure theres some on the floor boards. But in reality she's pretty clean.

I think the biggest issue is goona be replacing every piece of rubber on the thing.

I would go Buick V6 or Ford 302. Roll a set of axles under it - being that light you don't need Dana 60's - ford 9in or Dana 44 would rock, Maybe a set of full size from a Jeep Wagoneer. Let it be wide - hack the fenders off and abuse it.

Probly depend on what kinda deals I come across. Goona be kinda a budget build up.

I got the tailgate all welded up. The spot welds had come apart and it had just spread on down the line. Entire gate was seperating. Also got the interior cleaned out.

Found a RoosterTail, so now I'm money ahead

The ford is lighter than the chevy too...........

Landed a 302. Came outta a 85 T-Bird. Has around 100k on it. $200


Now, a tranny

weird question what trans does it have in it right now?

Its a manual 4spd.

wow bogger, very cool.

i can't believe you found one of those that wasn't rusted away to nothing.

my dad bought a brand new one of those in 83


what is this going to turn into?

you got a vision yet?

Advance adapters has everything you need for that swap so you won't need a tranny.Your 4spd yota tranny will take that 302 easy.

I'd use that if you can get a bell housing that mattes up to the 302, which I think they make.

I like teal's idea of Jeep axles, but you may have strong enough ones on that yota. What gears is it running?

Are you making crawler, mudder, or just a hunting truck?

More than 1 guy has been left stranded by putting too many horses in a truck designed for a small engine. They get to a tough spot and gun it, twisting off an axle or drive shaft.

Agreed.Add power stuff tends to break.
In my opinion there is really only 2 powerplants that fit that truck.Both are G.M.First engine the 231 Buick V-6.Second 4.3 liter chevy V6.Forget the ford it'll be a money pit.They don't call those engine swaped Toyota's Chevota for nuttin.They work with TONS of aftermarket parts availiable.Better way with zero headaches.Sounds good don't it.

Dave they dont use Salt around here. Rust isnt that big of a deal. Finding one that isnt thrashed is the hard part. Although they are now using some sort of de-icer now that is hell on wireing.

The 4.3 would be a good route. Should be plentiful.

While full width axles would be cool. I kinda want to keep this thing narrow as well. So I dunno.

Been lurking over on Pirate4x4 and sucking up info where I can find it. Found upgraded axle shafts that will handle the motor and tires, so I might go that route. To soon to tell though.

Dunno bout the gears, havnt checked. I asked and He thought they were 4.30's?

Found an interesting issue when I was unloading the truck. I tilted the trailer down, kicked everything into nuetral and nothing happend. Couldnt get it to roll. But when I sawed the wheel to the Left, It would roll a lil bit. Pretty soon something broke loose and she rolled free. Goona try an figure out what that was, today.


Carlwer, mudder, hunting truck. Yes Just want a capable rig that I dont have to worry to much about. Needs to be legal to drive on the road though.

Cool. Not too many legal crawlers around though.

4.30's should be plenty deep if you stick with the stock ones. Probably too deep with the 302. Depends what your going to do with it I guess.

It looks like a fun project.

Got the bed unbolted and propped up far enough that I could get the fuel neck unhooked. Just gotta wait for an extra hand to pull the bed.

Finnally gave up on pulling bolts with an impact. I wasnt goona reuse them anyways so a torch and air hammer worked alot nicer.

good ol' smoke wrench how tight are oregon lift laws?

Dunno if we have any. Around here I see suburbans runnin around on 46's without any troubles.

Think it all depends on the area, and if the cop is having a good day or bad day.

They tend to be picky about mudflaps and fender flares though.


Well I remembered that there is a skidsteer in the backyard with forks on it "DOH" Got the bed pulled, frame cleaned up and painted with that rustolium stuff.

That "rustolium stuff" works pretty good. You might want to think about that roll on bed liner that you can buy at hardware and autoparts stores. Quite a bit tougher and durable as heck.

I used it on a trailer that kept getting rust and had issues with rocks, and it has held up for a few seasons of use now.

was planning on using that roll on bed liner on the floorboards.

Just hit the frame with the wire wheel an paint as I was bored and it'll be nice to work on a rig that has a clean underside. Never had that privilage yet


Found a complete 4.3 outta a 93 S10 with 120k on it, on Craigslist. Been doing alotta reading and Its starting to sink in that, it might be the motor to use instead of the 302.

I'm slow to catch on Might go check it out tomorrow.

As much as a dislike the chevy's...I have nothing bad to say about the 4.3. One of our old work trucks had it with an auto tranny. Between that and the toyota, they were the two least worked on rigs we had. I don't remember anything being done to either.

The chevy was sold to a guy at work, he bought it for his son.

I had an 88 4.3, couldn't get that thing to last longer than 80k. Replaced it with a NEW one from GM. That one survived another 45k before it started to go.

What I like about the 302 is the amazing aftermarket help from the mustang guys.

sounds like you already picked up the 302 which are good motors.I forgot how many miles might want to change bearings before stuffing it in though.Seems that is the weaker link to them.If not i also recomend giving the chevy 4.3 a look they are fairly stout and powerfull.Ijust changed one from one of my old trucks to a truck i picked up from a friend it has 190k and as far as i know nothing done.I've had since 150k.Either motor can be repaired or cobbled to get running without much trouble out on a trail.

As far as axles a good fab shop can shorten them for you.To save a little money.Jeep axles are about the width i believe.Probally have to look for cj axle though not yj's

looks like a nice project have fun keep the pics coming from different stages

Ended up getting sidetracked an not calling on that motor. So unless I find another I'll focus on that 302.

Have ya even bothered to check out that 22R? Bought my 87 2wd for $200 because,supposedly,the motor had overheated and was shot. It wasn't! It had 224,000mi on it and now has 306,000mi. Daily driver,wood wagon,etc. Consistant 32mpg. GREAT engines. Just don't over rev'em. One problem is the carbs on them. They're like the old Jeep BBD's. The throttle shaft wears the seats out and then you can't adjust the air/fuel mixture. If you get a good one though your ready to go. My first replacement from the salvage yard,$50, is still doing the job. One word of caution. If you decide to pull the head,there's a bolt that is located at the front center of the head that bolts to the timing chain cover. Probably under sludge so don't miss it.
One more thing about the early transmissions.4spd=GOOD 5spd=BAD
Don't think about swapping for better mileage.

The easiest, cheapest and best route to go is to find a older Chevy full size truck or blazer and use the motor tranny and transfer case.

if you lived near i'd give you a motor but freight cost too much

Tbear. thanks for the thought, thats awfull nice of ya.


Heres all I did with the ass end, for now.


Spent an hour or so last night pulling the front end apart. I like having room to work. Goona try an pull the motor today. If I can get it running with out throwing to much money at it. I'll try and get a few bucks outta it and the tranny.



One shot of the interior. Its not to bad except for the where your heel rests on the the drivers side.

It's not too bad he says...that is about the nicest interior you'll find on a 4x4 truck that age.

In the mid west, that floor would be wrecked just from the salt on your shoes.

Looks like fun to me. Thanks for the update. keep them coming

Dude that little Toy right there is in awesome shape for its age!

the floor fix is why road signs come up missing

Anybody else notice the lack of garage clutter?????why too much space

It took a while to get it to that point. Its all still there...just creativly stacked. I hate tripping over schit. Or even worse having the creeper get jammed up on a lil bitty rock. oooooo pisses me off

A buddy stopped by and everything is disconnected except for the bellhousing and motor mounts. The bolts come in through the engine side! what kinda moron came up with that idea? Also seems that the bolts are all different sizes..wtf is up with that?

Oh Tzone.

I told ya the floorboard was in bad shape wore all the way down to the floorpan, hideous I tell ya. I see a roll in bedliner in the near future.

wow, what a nice clean starting point for your project, amazing condition as others have said.

keep posting!!

That floor isn't in bad shape....there is still a floor there.

By the looks of that pic, the floor MAT is in bad shape.

I love that roll in bedliner. I put on nearly all the metal I have that needs paint. Doesn't look bad either.

Main thing on my mind is that I dont think that I cant go to much further without the tranny. Im still tossing around manual or automatic...... No question that an auto is nice for hill climbs and banzai attempts at a snowed in road. But the manual is alot nicer IMO for just creeping around and expecially when coming down hills.

Ahhh I dunno.

Manual - if you have balls. If it's a 'giner, go auto.

Fun rigs are supposed to be manuals. God intended it that way.

LMAO it makes so much sense when you put it that way

floor you need a speed limit sign as far as tranny wait to find the motor you are going to use

Well, if you're going with the 302, I'd go maunal. If you going to use a different motor...I'd go manual.

Lots more fun.

Anybody got a NP435 laying around in the corner of the shop?

Nobody has any extras of those, we'd all be using 'em.

Did you find a tranny? Not the cross dressing kind, the shifting kind.

Have you thougt of those granny low 4-speeds that the 70-mid 80's Ford truck had? Give you super low in 1st, for crawling, and reasonable ratio for street use.

What are you going to run for gears? What is in it now for gears?

Matter of fact I did NP435 married to an NP208 for $125 Gotta love Craigslist I'll pick it up this evening

Needs the bell housing though. Found a used one at the bronco graveyard for $60. Is there any changes in the block from the 70's era to the late 80's era

ITs got 4.30 sumthing or others (technical term) in the truck now. I know for a fact that the axles wont survive decent sized tires, that motor and my foot.

I can upgrade the shafts but for that price I might as well upgrade the entire axle. Might be able to save a lil coin in the long run too as I might be able to get around upgrading to the crossover steering.

I can't imagine the block would be different. northern_dave would know that better than I would.

For that price, you have some room to play with bell housings if you need to.

What kind of mods would you have to do to get jeep axles under there? Or even 77' and under bronco?

I dunno to tell you the truth. I'm learning the majority of this as I go. Lots and Lots and Lots of reading up on it.

I know the steering would need to be changed, Decided I want it to be about the width as it is now, so they would need cut down. Regear them most likley.

Right now I got the motor loose and can lift it a few inches and wiggle it around but its still hung up on something. Took a break to let my fingers warm up and then we'll see if I cant get it out.

You're going to spend some coin if you start shortening axles.

4.10's would be nice, but not much for mileage, and she'd be a screamer at highway speeds, but it would give you some grunt on the low end too.

I have 4.11's in my '55 ford and really, it too much gear for a lot of highway driving, but it is fun as hell from stop light to stop light.

the bell housing are the same from 70 to 80's

Ok thats good to know.Were they a hydralic clutch in the 70's?


Picked up the tranny. It'll be perfect for this. However the T-case wont, as its a drivers drop. The yota T-case will hold up, just gotta get an adapter
Course if I swap axles, I get one with the diff on the drivers side......



And the daily picture and lesson for the day... When using a skidsteer to pull the motor. Do you (A) remove the forks before lifting the motor. (B) Pull truck far enough out of the shop so that the gutters are safe from the forks. Or (C) pull truck under gutters, remove gutters from house with forks, then remove forks, pull engine, re-attatch gutters to the house and get on with life?


If you picked (C) You are correct...

I like those older Toyotas, but I don't fit in 'em. My buddy had an '83 longbed on 33s that we fried the transmission in driving between Burns and Bend.

Well at least you didn't lift the front of the truck off the ground with the skid steer because you forgot a bolt of two.

You should be able to find T-case for that tranny pretty easy. Getting it to fit the yota might be something else though.

Well at least you didn't lift the front of the truck off the ground with the skid steer because you forgot a bolt of two.

You should be able to find T-case for that tranny pretty easy. Getting it to fit the yota might be something else though.

What year truck is your tras out of? The later 70's were hyd. clutchs. I know 1980 had 'em.

i don't believe they had the hydralyc clucth in 70's but you can go any way you want easy enough

Sounds like a pretty cool project! I would have to think a re-built 4 banger would do it all in that little rig?

he needs the extra ponies of v8 or v6 for turning the bigger tires that will eventually be under this truck

Transmission is out of a late 80's 1/2 ton according to the guy I got it from.

For the most part the 4banger woulda been fine, I dont need the extra ponies of the 302 for the most part. But I WANT them

my new favorite thread

Cleaned up the headlight rings and the grill, sanded them down and painted them. Kinda some instant progress.

Goona be doing more research than anything for a lil while, until we are back up and working.

you are young aren't you??

good for you man!! Go, Go, Go!!


I remember when i used to tear into projects like you, fun aint it??

Is your 302 a carb unit or TBI or?

You said 80's, guess it don't matter much, you can go any way you want.

Sure is fun to watch/read about your project. Go man go!!

Yea Dave. Kinda a downside to it though. As since I'm the only one in my group of friends that isnt old 'nuff to hit the bars yet. They have deemed me as the drunk retreiver Its got old enough that I'm charging $10 bucks a person now They got the hint and started taking it a lil easier.


Its fun tearing into the project like that. But I just hit the "what the hell do I do now" stage

Goona be running a carb setup on the 302

cool, mind the "slosh"

I wonder if you can still buy a predator carb?

they were real big with the truck builds back in the day... or back in a day

but you can get conventional carbs set up for the rockin & sloshing of a mudding/rock climbing truck too.

Honestly dont know much about carbs Dave. Everything I have had has been injected except for an 85 Ranger. And the only thing we did to it was add fuel

Right now I'm tryin to figure out the whole axle delema. As that depends on wich T-case I use and so on and so forth.

i guessed you as older but that is fine a young man building.Some people build hot rods i used to build 4x4's.I used to have to make quite a bit of my own parts as there wasn't the kits avaible back then

pulled the drivelines and tranny/Tcase. If I pull another tranny by myself I gotta come up with a lil better way to do so. As a floor jack and a ratchet strap do work, but not very easily

While I was underneath it I pulled off the exhaust.

Also Pulled the floor mat and that insulating stuff off the floor boards. It was all pretty damp, found a few spots that were just starting to rust. I chucked that and then noticed some sorta rubber spray stuff on the floor boards. Well It looks like crap so Its goona come off.

What a PITA that stuff is. bogged out my 4" grinder with a wire wheel, so I got out a 6" grinder/wire wheel. My knuckles cant handle the vibrations of it for more than a few minuets though A heat gun and narrow putty knife seemed to work decently. Gotta long ways to go on it though. It will be alot nicer looking with the bedliner in there. Was talking to dad and seems that he has a gun for spraying that bedliner. WTF? He's holding out on me Makes me wonder what other goodies he has stashed away.

I pulled the seat before I started working on that rubber stuff.



Also the grill and headlight rings after the krylon. Much better than the oxidized molded form that it was in.

looks like you are moving right along with this.Don't worry dad's never let you at all the goodies.You have to learn the hard way before they tell you they have the tool for the job

probably an old schutz gun for spraying undercoating. sould work good for spraying rocker guard material. That's pretty good stuff, paintable rocker guard spray.

There are so many "bedliner" materials out these days we could just as well call rocker guard "bed liner" True bedliners or really good ones are polyureas which are a 2 component material usually mixed at about a 1 to 1 ratio & applied with an expensive spray unit that introduces the 2 liquids to the spray gun at super high pressure through heated fluid lines. Like a very high end airless sprayer of sorts. the 2 liquids are introduced as they leave the gun tip, they mix in the air during spray & when they hit the spray target. The set time is often a matter of seconds, very fast stuff, like spraying rubber out of a gun.

Originally formulated & applied as tank linings, exterior weatherproofing like roof coatings & stuff like that. It was in use in large industrial applications for many years before somebody decided to spray the inside of a pickup truck box with it.

Since then the need for a coating specific to truck beds has invited all sorts of products to the market developed or being sold as "bed liners"

Tbear, you have no idea... He did auto body repair for a lil over 20 years. Covered everything from the comercial collision to R.V's, to Paintless dent repair and then the standard vehicles. Was pretty good. When he quit to start up his own business, we got a couple calls a day from different shops that wanted him, thankfully those stopped..... I keep getting the "you did what??" and "why would you do that, that way? all ya gotta do is....." and lets not forget the most popular one "what the hell are you tryin to do?"

Then I have one grandpa that was mechanic since the beginning of time...ok maybe not that long but its close. He dont know it yet but he's goona get roped into this project.

And the other grandpa is an obsessive compulsive highstrung meticulous Italian who was a machinist for about 40years. This is the guy who raised a 1/2 acre yard 1/2" just so it was perfectly level. He also has the straightest ditches in Oregon.

Yea, they all keep swinging by checking out the project and how I'm going about things and then leave with a smirky smile. Dunno if thas good or not Everynow and then They toss me an idea, but I think they would rather sit on the sidelines and watch :grin

Drivers side floorboard is cleaned up. Still got the passenger side to do.

I think I'm goona leave the stuff thats behind the seat and on the back wall though. You cant see it when the seat is in, and maybe it will help deaden some of the sound.

Turned around to grab a wrench and found this thing when I spun back around.

Gotta love him, but damn its hard to get anything done when he's around

Ha!! I got one here at home just like that!!

Is he smiling? I think he's smiling!!

Mr. mud bogger;
This topic takes me back to my first 4WD pickup, a 1980 Toyota that came with a 20R. It was back in a time where most pickups weren�t 4WD and Toyotas had just come out with their version. Actually believe it or not, Toyota trucks were a bit of a rarity up here then.

It was unique enough that one night in 1982, my wife and I were pulled over by 2 young RCMP officers who wanted to know if the truck was stock or a kit and just wanted to look it over.

Anyway, we ran that truck all over 2 provinces for about 12 or so years until the body fell off of it, so I learned a couple things about that vintage Toyota 4WD.

The front brake rotors weren�t overly robust and it didn�t take too much to warp them. I think a few years later, maybe �84-�85 they put in heavier rotors, but it is something to keep an eye on.

The rear spring packs would break the main spring right at the rivet. This happened to both sides on mine and one replacement I bought off a wrecker.

I then got some custom ones made up, which were lighter than the stock ones, so then it had better weight transfer to the rear end and consequently climbed better after that. I think if I would have kept better shocks in the back they would have been less likely to break as well.

I had a serious bush guard fabricated up for it and mounted a 6000lb Warn on it and some Bosch driving lights. As well I ran aftermarket headlights and a couple 5� aircraft landing lights on the headache rack. The stock alternator more or less handled it, well it never died anyway.

I eventually ended up putting a 22R from a 1985 into it before teh body went away, but it was a great truck that led us to many wonderful places.

I hope this project does the same for you and I�ll enjoy watching your progress. Thanks for the thread.

Have fun,
Dwayne

I know the feeling with the companion but no fears he is just marking his territory making sure you know the passenger seat is his.Mine is barney in my avatar pic actually that was was taken while i was working on my truck and he wouldn't leave me alone so i took pic with my phone.He goes with me on most all trips he can sit there 10-12 hrs and never bug you other then the pet once in awhile

He sees an open truck door and that means He gets to go "least in his mind it does" lol

He can sit and be content to hang out the window longer than you can sit and drive. HOWEVER!!! every 3hours and 47minuets you must stop and let him pee. You dont wanna wait for 3hours and 48minuets trust me. Nice thing is that he will give you about 2 mins worth of a warning.

LOL

she's comming along nicely bogger...and quick.

I like the pooch, looks like you'll have a boggin' partner for a while anyway.

That tranny looks pretty heavy duty for an old 4 banger.

Dave, are those Preadator carbs the big ol square box ones? or am I thinking of the Deamon's?

I remember them, but don't know anybody that actually had one.

I put the yota tranny, drivelines, an the block on craigslist. Hopefully I can bring in a lil bit of cash and maybe cover the cost of that 302, or better yet the adapter that I need.

After thinking on it for a while, I'm goona sell the NP208 and just run the yota TransferCase behind the NP435. It just opens up my options as far as axles go, as its the passenger drop where the 208 is a drivers drop.
Since I wanna keep it narrow I might just stick with the yota axles as it is and just replace the shafts. Found a line of them that are rated for 9000' lbs torque. That should hold up to the 302 But if they dont, they do have a lifetime warranty

Thats the general direction I'm thinking of going. Granted I'll probly change my mind half a dozen times between now and tomorrow but thats how it goes. Main objective is to get the motor/trany/Tcase all bolted together. That way I can work on motor and tranny mounts while I work up a lil extra cash for the motor itself.

I'd use the tougher axles in the yota equipment too. If you can find stronger ones, and it sounds like you have, that'd be what I would do.

It gives you a lot of pluses. Stock width, stronger, if you're keeping the stock trans, you can use the stock drive shafts. You might be building new driveshafts, but it will give you a starting point anyway.

yeah, square box looking carbs.

popular with mud runners, off road racers etc

http://callieskustoms.com/CalliesKustoms-Predator.html

Looks like they still make them. Aint cheap though...

yep, that's the one.

Price was pretty normal for a Hi-Po carb.

Ugly suckers aren't they?

Looks like they tried to pretty them up. They used to be painted or anodized if I remember.

I guess I remember people painting them to match the engines & stuff but i had remembered them as just raw aluminum. it's been a while tho, not possitive.

Floor boards are cleaned up. Found a few odd ball bolt holes that I wanna weld up as they werent being used. Also found a patch of rust bout 2"x4" or so. I'll cut that out and get it patched up next.

Also got to thinking about the odd ball holes and patch of rust that was hidden under that stuff. So I'm going to go ahead and pull the rest of that stuff off.

Good idea. Get it now while it is all tore apart. Pain in the azz stuff to fix, but it will matter in the long run.