93 2WD Toyota Truck Mods |
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| I bought a 22RE lemon from LC Engineering | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| When I started building up my truck I used the Internet to gather information from others who had already modified their trucks. I figured it was time to put together what I've learned for other use. My truck is a 4 cylinder 22RE engine so any references to the engine will be about it. |
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| The 2WD and 4WD Toyota trucks made between 1988 and 1995 are very similar. Engines, mounting, etc are the same. Headers and suspension(of course) are different. When slightly modified the 2WD trucks can far out handle and out drive almost any 4WD vehicle. In most cases 4WD traction isn't an issue, being in control on rough roads at high speed is. |
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| Suspension and Handling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Torsion Bars Toyota trucks use torsion bars in the front end to provide spring action. Increasing the diameter of the bar is recommended if larger tires are installed or bottoming out occurs when off-roading. Stock bars are 23mm, after market bars are offered by Downey(24mm) and Sway-A-Way(25mm). I installed the 25mm Sway-A-Way bars (SAW1636P). They run about $100 and can be found at ORW, Four Wheel Parts Wholesalers or other off-road\low rider shops. Installation is simple - measure ride height, lift up the front end, remove the Torsion bar tension bolt(impact doesn't work due to springyness of tension), replace torsion bar then assembly is reverse of removal. I bought my truck used with a 2" body lift plus 2" suspension. The 2" suspension lift in the front was achieved by grinding a new alignment grove in the torsion bar spline and cranking it up another 2". This sounds odd but works extremely well with Rancho 5609R shocks allowing 2" of additional upward travel. The thicker torsion bars complemented on road performance as well as off road. They helped reduce the pitching in turns caused by lifting the truck 4" and putting on larger tires. With this setup I was able to drive 50 MPH on roads with 4"-6" whoops consistent and occasional 12". I installed a Fabtech spindle lift and regained the travel lost by the torsion crank in lift. The increased drop was well needed. A Total Chaos kit is close on my list but the Fabtech spindle was a deal on eBay that I couldn't pass up. I've hit it pretty hard a few times and they've held up so far... |
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| Steering Stabilizer Rancho 5402 Steering Stabilizer w/ 5502 bracket was the best $70 I ever spent. It stopped the steering shimmy that was killing tires and added control both on and off road. A must for larger tires. Easy to put on, the key when you install it is to connect it to the opposite side of the center link than the stock stabilizer. Otherwise the stock mounts get in the way, this isn't in the directions. |
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| Sway Bar Bushings Energy Suspension make replacement bushings out of Polyurethane(red) rather than the stock rubber that is soft and cracks. Greatly improves handling and reduces pitching in turns. Easy to install and well worth $25 they run at www.suspension.com, ORW or Four Wheel Parts Wholesalers. After weekends of (ab)use my sway bar finally gave out and snapped. I ended up stuck in a dune with one tire high and the other low. I was also going a bit fast when it happened. I didn't notice the break until I was home replacing the cat converter gaskets that blew the same weekend. I've completely removed the sway bar since it broke. On road steering drives me nuts when I need to make a sharp turn, hitting the gas helps when I can. Off-road, is of course, better. The lack of sway bar improves articulation which also improves traction(Letting one of the front tires go down all the way allows the opposite rear touch the groung, giving traction. The front being heaver than the back, wins the battle). The sway bar tries to keep the front wheels level which takes away from rear wheel traction when off road. I want the best of both worlds and plan on making some custom disconnects to use when off road. |
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| Rear Springs The 2" lift that came with the truck was a Rancho kit that added a 2" piece of steel to the leaf spring to keep it from bending. It looks kinda like a spring but it doesn't provide 2" of additional travel, just lift. I unintentionally tried to jump a small version of the Grand Canyon and it bent the left rear spring(It was 1 1/2" lower than the right). I took it to National Spring and had them bend the spring back and add a new leaf in place of the Rancho steel. Got 2" of travel out of it and the rear end doesn't kick the front end down so much when hitting the whoops. That was a $400 trip to the District 38 Races in Plaster City but my truck drives smoother now and has an additional 400 pounds load capacity(which it needed). |
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| Rear Shocks I need my truck bed to haul my motorcycle, cooler, etc so I had a bar welded to the frame under the bed to mount the new shocks. The body lift allowed just enough room for 10" Fox shocks with the lower mounts slightly lower than the axle. My truck now has 12" of travel in the rear, 5" compression and 7" drop. I gained a lot of traction and I'm yet to have a rough landing. |
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| Engine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Headers Replacing the stock exhaust manifold with headers allows air leaving the engine to flow freely with little resistance. Headers improve high RPM performance but at the same time they reduce the back pressure needed to provide low RPM power. Essentially moving the power band to 3000-5000 RPM. Prior to installing headers, the top end was 4,000 RPM where it lost power and started to "break up". After installing headers, power starts building at 3,500 and keeps going to 5000 RPM, running smooth the entire way. I picked the Downey header which was about $50 less than my other choice which would be from LCEngineering. Installation would have been easy but the pipe that connects the header to the cat was off by the slightest angle and didn't line up. I had to take it to a muffler shop and have them bend it a little. I also installed a Downey on a friends 4WD and it was a piece of cake compaired to the 2WD which needs a few extra bends to get around the torsion bar. Make sure you retorque the bolts after a few hundred miles otherwise they WILL work their way off. Headers are a little louder than a manifold and increase the amount of engine noise transmitted through the firewall. I ended up installing sound dampening material to reduce the noise and improve stereo sound. |
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| Exhaust I had a DynoMax Super Turbo installed at Ed Hanson's Muffler Service in Spring Valley for $175. It's a quiet muffler that lets air flow and also comes with a life time warranty. While test driving my LSD on Shell Reef during a sand storm, my front end went off a nice drop off. My truck was resting on the frame and catalytic converter which normally sits 2 inches below the frame. It bent the exhaust pipe at the bottom of the header connection and muffler where the exhaust pipe enters. The hole near the header was weldable but the muffler was shot. Ed Hanson's replaced the muffler under warranty for $25 labor, such a deal. To prevent my exhaust from being damaged while bottoming out again, I had a friend weld two pieces of 2 inch steel bars to the frame. I also installed a free flow cat from LC Engineering. I could feel a small amount of power increase when I replaced the cat. When looking through the old one, it wasn't too bad. You could see that a few of the passages were clogged and most were a bit fuzzy. The new cat mostly improved throttle response but I got a little more out of the top end. |
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| Intake K and N filters provide more air flow with less resistance. They and Downey have a kit that replaces the small molded plastic intake tube and air box with a large chrome intake pipe and open element filter. The re-usable filter uses oil to trap dirt and is cleaned in soap and water when it gets dirty. I also recommend the pre-filter that goes over the element to keep larger particles from sticking to the filter. The increased air flow provided by the intake kit improves acceleration response. You can feel the truck jump when you put it to the floor. |
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| CAM Shaft So far I've tried two different cam shafts. I bought the first one on eBay from engnbldr.com. All in All, I like this cam. It didn't effect my mileage which was running about 20 MPG no matter the driving conditions. It improved top end performance but the motor hesitated a little at low RPM(3,000-) with Wide Open Throttle(WOT). When I rebuilt my motor the engnbldr cam had some wear on the lobes so Ted at engnbld.com replaced it and the rockers under warranty. I had to send them in for inspection so I ended up installing a DOA Racing C270 while waiting for replacement. The C270 has better low end torque than the engnbldr cam but the engnbldr cam has noticeably more power than DOA at high RPM (4,000+). The DOA cam also came with a pretty good dip in gas mileage. I'm now getting 20 MPH highway(same as before) and down to 17 MPH or less around the city and when racing off road. |
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Head / Engine Rebuild I was burning about a quart of oil a week through the valve seals so it was time for a rebuild. I bought a new casting from engnbldr.com complete with oversized stainless steel valve and bronze valve guides. Replaced every hose, gasket and seal in the engine. It now runs quieter and smoother than I ever remember. |
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Injectors When I rebuilt the motor I send the injectors to RC Engineering and had them cleaned, balanced and blueprinted. Total cost was $100.
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| Clutch I replaced my clutch with a CenterForce II which provides 60% more holding capacity over the stock clutch. The clutch fingers have weights between them that are pulled to the center by a spring. As RPMs increase, the weights move to the outside providing more holding force. Driving around town is the same as a standard clutch. When you get to higher RPMs it hooks up for sure. If you accidentally over rev and let the clutch out, it won't slip and will hook up hard if you let it out too fast. |
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| Motor Mounts After a few years of off roading, the motor mounts wore down to a point that the header pipe was hitting the torsion bars when the engine twisted. Also the oxygen sensor before the catalytic converter. I replaced the stock mounts with the solid mounts available at LC Engineering and they are a little too hard core me since I still drive my truck on the street. When I first started the engine, it made me think of the six million dollar man, "She's breaking up! She's breaking up!". It was a rattle and hum machine. After tightening down the front license plate and a few other items, it wasn't as loud but the vibes are just too much for a long drive. The LC Engineering are basically a hinge with bushings so they won't break but don't offer much flex. I replaced the solid mounts with the NWOR version which have a urethane block between the motor and side wall. The urethane can eventually separate but the two pieces are hooked together to keep the motor in place until they can be replaced (A picture is worth a million words...). They are MUCH smoother than the solid mounts and closer to that of stock. I've gone through several of the NWOR mounts over that past few years and they no longer carry them. My truck is used mostly for offroad and Baja now so I installed ONE solid motor mount on the driver's side and ONE NWOR urethane mount on the passenger side. The engine torque pulls up on the solid mount(not going far) and pushes down on the urethane mount. It vibrates a lot but not nearly as much as with two solid mounts. |
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| Cooling The radiator had a small leak for a long time so I finally replaced it with a larger three core CSF radiator. It was a direct bolt in from www.radiatorplus.com. It was $125 with tax and shipping. Installed a Perma-Cool Universal Engine Oil Cooler which also relocates the oil filter. I installed it on the frame below the battery. The placement allows me to use a PH-8A oil filter which looks about 3 times the size of Toyota stock. The cooler itself installed nicely on the radiator directly in front of the fan. The kit is part number 69195 and can be ordered for less than $100 from alamomotorsports.com. |
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| Traction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tires The stock tires were 205/75-14(26.1") and I first replaced them with 235/75-15(28.9") then went to 31x10.5x15 when I installed the spindle and shackle lifts. The rear rubs a little, not enough to mention. The front used to rub quite a bit, I used a cut off wheel to get rid of the bolts and screw that were carving lines in the tires. Then I took a small sledge hammer to the fender wells where it was rubbing. It doesn't look any worse than it did to begin with and it really seems to help with the tire rub when i hit bottom. BF Goodrich All Terrain KO is the best street and off-road tire made. This tire gets great highway and off road milage and traction. If you're more on the off road side get the mud terrain. I don't normally buy extended warranties but the road hazard replacement option is a good idea if you do lots of off roading that often results in abnormal tire damage. |
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| Differential Stock trucks have "Open Differentials" which only provide power to one wheel, the one that is slipping. This is why you spin out or squeal wheels when accelerating quickly on turns or slick surfaces like concrete. One wheel is usually favored, right rear and left front on 4wd. The stock differential got my truck a lot of places including sand but I, of course, got stuck lots of times and wouldn't think of going in others. That was then, this is now. I installed a clutch type Limited Slip Differential from Downey, aka Posi-traction, which provides 100% of power to the wheel that is slipping and 80% to the wheel that has traction. The results are unbelievable. On the street, the wheels never spin and I'm able to accelerate quickly with no road to tire noise. On the sand, I can go all of the places I'd never even think of without it. I was running 15lbs of pressure in my tires and I was able to drive slow(or fast) on the soft sandy burms of Barrel Springs. High speed turning in the dirt is going to take a bit of getting used to because the rear end doesn't slide out as easy. |
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| Gears Tires 3" larger in diameter put some gaps in the power curve from gear to gear. The stock differential gears are 3.56. When I had the LSD installed, I had a 4.10 set put in. My speedo was running about 10% short of actual, now it reads about 5% over. Installing 30" tires would put it just about back to stock ratio. When I went from 3.56 to 4.10 I got a lot more power but miss the 90 MPH cruising speed. |
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| Misc | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Headlights I replaced my sealed beam bulbs with a H4 conversion kit that allows you to use any type of H4 bulb (The stock head lamp is a 6054). The conversion kit allows you to swap out the bulb without replacing the head light housing. The bulbs that come with the kit are 100/90w Xenon, stock bulbs are 55w. Xenon are a white-blue color bulb that reflect more light, reflective signs stand out much more. Well worth the $45 including shipping. Interior Lights The truck never had enough interior lighting so I bought a rear view mirror that had a light in it. The fastoon bulb was even smaller than the over head light so it didn't do much good. Then I bought a SMT(surface mount technology) LED blub for the over head light from v-leds.com and it is damn bright. You don't want to look directly at them unless it is through the lens. I can now see everywhere in the cab of my truck and the light output of the standard rear view mirror light is almost unnoticeable. Brake, Tail and Turn After replacing the interior light with an SMT LED and "Seeing the light" I decided to replace my back up lights with an 1156 that has 27 SMT LEDs. I was hoping to make backing up at night easier but it didn't resolve the problem. They're brighter than stock but not enough to over come the tint on my rear slider. After badgering from Plumber Dave, I replaced the rest of the running lights with low wattage LEDs. The brake light(1157) uses 27 watts, the front and rear turn signals(1156) use 23 watts each, the front running light uses 5 watts and the stock blinker unit is heat based and sucks lots of juice. Switching to LEDs removes 5 to 10 amps of load off of the alternator. The LED bulbs are the same color as the lens (red, amber) so the lights are more vibrant than a brown incandescent bulb. To use LED bulbs in turn signals you need to install an electronic flasher unit. It is mounted under the dash to the left of the steering wheel. Easy to get to, just remove about 5 bolts in the dash. I bought the flasher from SuperBrightLEDs.com, they can also be found at your local auto parts store for about $12. The flasher part number will either be CF13 or CF13GL-02. The end of the wiring harness is in the German standard, the stock flasher is the Japan standard and Toyota has a small adapter between the two to switch from one standard to the other. I bought the German standard (CF13) and didn't use the adapter piece. |
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| Sound Dampening After installing the Downey headers it got a bit loud inside my truck, mostly when accelerating. I looked into getting DynoMat but it was a bit steep for my budget. I bought a case of Brown Bread from B-Quiet for a bit under $150. It was enough to install several layers throughout the cab. Approx three layers on the firewall/front floor boards. Two layers in the doors and one layer in the rear floor and rear panels. I was happy with the outcome. It dropped a lot of the noise down and also improved the stereo's bass. Now the major sound is wind. |
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| Spare Tire Mount I mounted a full size spare tire laying flat at the rear of the truck bed, one edge against the tailgate and another edge against the bedside. The wheel is held in place by two bolts that go through the bed with security lug nuts. The bolts are welded to a metal plate that can be pulled out if you want to use the bed. I originally drilled a hole in the plate and was planing on welding a bolt on the under side of the bed to hold the mount in place when changing the tire. The mount doesn't exactly fall out easy and there is a cross member under the bed that I can rest the plate on to keep it from falling out when the tire isn't attached. I have a dirt bike and the tire leaves plenty of room for the bike, cooler and everything else. It leaves exactly half the bed so you could mount two 31x10.5 tires flat at the rear of the bed. I use are 6.5" bolts and they go through the 1/4" plate, if your 33s are wider than 10.5" you might need to get longer bolts. Don't bother looking for a metric bolt, you won't find it and don't need it. Buy a standard bolt and put locking lug nuts on both bolts. Pics: Mount Tire in Bed Under Bed |
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| Links 4x4 Cyber Store Reseller of parts Amplified Performance Hardcore suspension modification Autopower Industries Roll Cages, Roll Bars, Seat Belts, Arm Restraints B-Quiet Brown Bread sound dampening similar to Dynomat but not as expensive CenterForce Clutches Cheap Tricks Club Knowledge Car Stereo Forum Cyber Auto Parts reseller DOA Racing Engines Toyota Performance Engines Downey Off Road Manufacturer and reseller of off road parts, specializing in 2WD Toyota Energy Suspension Manufacturer of polyurethane bushings Fabtech Motorsports Toyota suspension Four Wheel Parts Wholesalers InnerAuto Automotive learning online. Louisville 4x4 Parts reseller K and N Filters Kartek Off Road fabrication and parts LC Engineering Manufacturer and reseller of components Midnight Moose Lighting Northwest Off Road Manufacturer and reseller of off road parts, specializing in 4WD Toyota Off Road Warehouse Parts reseller Off-Road.com Lots of useful information and reviews Rocky Mountain Suspension Suspension parts reseller suspension.com Reseller of suspension bushings Sway-A-Way Torsion bars TCR Automotive Reseller of LC Engineering parts and technical information ToySport Toyota parts and technical information Toyota TRD Mostly useless website |