ShaneFonseca
New member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2025
- Messages
- 1
What's up guys, my name is Shane. I'm 23 yo from thousand oaks Ca
I'm late to the party on posting my truck so my apologies for the massive post, but here it is
Its an 89 pickup on D60 front 14B rear with some 40s
Still rocking the 22re! (with a few mods)
2.3/4.7 cases with 5.38 gears
I've only had the truck about a year but I figured I'd share the journey I've had with it so far.
This is how I bought the truck, the original owner had just finished the build with plans to throw in an LS and bypasses for an ultra 4 prerunner. Plans changed and he decided to go with a rear steer buggy. I was super happy with it and decided to make it "street legal" so I could drive it around town.
Short after I took it out with a buddy for its maiden voyage. I quickly learned that the truck was way more capable than my mind is when it comes to confidence on the rocks and technical stuff. (I had zero experience with anything 4x4 let alone crawling.)
My other observation was that there was a lot left on the table when it comes to the open "go fast" bumps and trails. (This is where I am most comfortable in the past)
Overall I was very happy with the truck and it making it through a day of bashing into rocks and picking terrible lines.
After this trip I consulted with Mikey at the Fab Lab, (If you are local to the 805 and surrounding areas I highly suggest you give him a call if you are looking for any work done, he is an honest dude that does great work and has helped me with many projects including getting my tow rig all dialed in.)
I took the truck to him with the goal of making the truck handle better through the whoops along with getting rid of some of the body roll. We went with some fox 2.5s front and rear along with valving/spring rate suggested by accutune.
He also shortened my front bump stops from 4" to 2" to give me a little more useable travel with good feel.
We were both excited to see what the truck did in the dirt with some pretty high expectations. (Those expectations were definitely exceeded which I will get to later)
Big thanks to The Fab Lab!
Upon receiving the truck back I had some parts arrive to try and get that little 22re spinning a little faster...
Parts included an LC engineering ported head, pro torque cam, throttle body spacer, and a shorty header. (I can not fit a standard long tube because of my upper link)
After a few long nights (and a few "sodas") I got everything installed and fired the truck up for the first time. It idled and ran great for about 10 minutes until it developed a pretty horrific knocking noise.
Long story short the cam chain guide snapped and was hitting the timing cover. Crisis averted!
The truck ran great around the complex! I had a noticeable power gain and the truck felt pretty "quick" for a 4 cyl on 40s.
On to my first trip out with the new coilovers and engine mods...
First thing I did was go find some rather large whoops and rolled through them at about 20mph, to my surprise the truck didn't bounce right into the bumps and give me whiplash. It floated right over!
With that in mind I decided to throw everything that little 22re had at said whoops and the truck ate them up like they werent even there. Safe to say I was thouroghly impressed with the truck and its new found capabilities. Thanks Mikey!
Onto the crawling... this was my first time out with experienced crawlers and some big boulders, I was intimidated. It took some time to realize I'm not flipping over when the truck gets sideways and it has a lot more to go! The truck walked up everything I asked it to regardless of my questionable line choice.
I learned a lot and still have a long ways to go but I gained some confidence for sure.
The only issue I had with the truck was my alternator crapping out after some time with the stereo and lights running. Safe to say I'm happy that's all that broke.
Onto present day, I developed a new issue which I'm suspecting was due to water from washing my engine bay.
I had just installed a high output alternator and did an oil change to prepare for new years out in the desert. It was a nice day so I decided to take the truck home from my shop. Immediately the truck developed a huge misfire and lost all its power on acceleration.
I suspected it was my Air flow meter (essentially an outdated MAF) I tried a spare that came with the truck which didn't work.
I still thought that was my issue so I bought one off of Elliott, also didn't work but he brought me another to try (thanks Elliott)
The truck was clearly running lean (see header pic below)
After doing some digging I started looking into my TPS and discovered it was out of adjustment. I got it reset in the right place but it seemed harder than it should've been.
The truck instantly ran better but felt sluggish. I checked the timing which was a little off so I decided to advance it to about 7-8. The truck ran fine around the neighborhood so I parked it for the night.
Upon driving it the next day and getting the truck hot the misfire came back.. WTF!!
After lots of adjustments and effort I finally decided to try backing the timing up to the oem suggested 5* initial.
All problems went away and the truck runs great. Still not sure if the issue was my tps or my timing but I think its weird the truck ran great for a whole trip then decided to change, which leads me to believe my old TPS was faulty.
Now that the truck is running proper and all prepped I'm looking forward to bringing it out for new years.
I've also just finished getting my crawler hauler together and cant wait to have somewhere nice to stay instead of the truck cab!
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all gave a fun and safe new years.
Cheers
I'm late to the party on posting my truck so my apologies for the massive post, but here it is
Its an 89 pickup on D60 front 14B rear with some 40s
Still rocking the 22re! (with a few mods)
2.3/4.7 cases with 5.38 gears
I've only had the truck about a year but I figured I'd share the journey I've had with it so far.
This is how I bought the truck, the original owner had just finished the build with plans to throw in an LS and bypasses for an ultra 4 prerunner. Plans changed and he decided to go with a rear steer buggy. I was super happy with it and decided to make it "street legal" so I could drive it around town.
Short after I took it out with a buddy for its maiden voyage. I quickly learned that the truck was way more capable than my mind is when it comes to confidence on the rocks and technical stuff. (I had zero experience with anything 4x4 let alone crawling.)
My other observation was that there was a lot left on the table when it comes to the open "go fast" bumps and trails. (This is where I am most comfortable in the past)
Overall I was very happy with the truck and it making it through a day of bashing into rocks and picking terrible lines.
After this trip I consulted with Mikey at the Fab Lab, (If you are local to the 805 and surrounding areas I highly suggest you give him a call if you are looking for any work done, he is an honest dude that does great work and has helped me with many projects including getting my tow rig all dialed in.)
I took the truck to him with the goal of making the truck handle better through the whoops along with getting rid of some of the body roll. We went with some fox 2.5s front and rear along with valving/spring rate suggested by accutune.
He also shortened my front bump stops from 4" to 2" to give me a little more useable travel with good feel.
We were both excited to see what the truck did in the dirt with some pretty high expectations. (Those expectations were definitely exceeded which I will get to later)
Big thanks to The Fab Lab!
Upon receiving the truck back I had some parts arrive to try and get that little 22re spinning a little faster...
Parts included an LC engineering ported head, pro torque cam, throttle body spacer, and a shorty header. (I can not fit a standard long tube because of my upper link)
After a few long nights (and a few "sodas") I got everything installed and fired the truck up for the first time. It idled and ran great for about 10 minutes until it developed a pretty horrific knocking noise.
Long story short the cam chain guide snapped and was hitting the timing cover. Crisis averted!
The truck ran great around the complex! I had a noticeable power gain and the truck felt pretty "quick" for a 4 cyl on 40s.
On to my first trip out with the new coilovers and engine mods...
First thing I did was go find some rather large whoops and rolled through them at about 20mph, to my surprise the truck didn't bounce right into the bumps and give me whiplash. It floated right over!
With that in mind I decided to throw everything that little 22re had at said whoops and the truck ate them up like they werent even there. Safe to say I was thouroghly impressed with the truck and its new found capabilities. Thanks Mikey!
Onto the crawling... this was my first time out with experienced crawlers and some big boulders, I was intimidated. It took some time to realize I'm not flipping over when the truck gets sideways and it has a lot more to go! The truck walked up everything I asked it to regardless of my questionable line choice.
I learned a lot and still have a long ways to go but I gained some confidence for sure.
The only issue I had with the truck was my alternator crapping out after some time with the stereo and lights running. Safe to say I'm happy that's all that broke.
Onto present day, I developed a new issue which I'm suspecting was due to water from washing my engine bay.
I had just installed a high output alternator and did an oil change to prepare for new years out in the desert. It was a nice day so I decided to take the truck home from my shop. Immediately the truck developed a huge misfire and lost all its power on acceleration.
I suspected it was my Air flow meter (essentially an outdated MAF) I tried a spare that came with the truck which didn't work.
I still thought that was my issue so I bought one off of Elliott, also didn't work but he brought me another to try (thanks Elliott)
The truck was clearly running lean (see header pic below)
After doing some digging I started looking into my TPS and discovered it was out of adjustment. I got it reset in the right place but it seemed harder than it should've been.
The truck instantly ran better but felt sluggish. I checked the timing which was a little off so I decided to advance it to about 7-8. The truck ran fine around the neighborhood so I parked it for the night.
Upon driving it the next day and getting the truck hot the misfire came back.. WTF!!
After lots of adjustments and effort I finally decided to try backing the timing up to the oem suggested 5* initial.
All problems went away and the truck runs great. Still not sure if the issue was my tps or my timing but I think its weird the truck ran great for a whole trip then decided to change, which leads me to believe my old TPS was faulty.
Now that the truck is running proper and all prepped I'm looking forward to bringing it out for new years.
I've also just finished getting my crawler hauler together and cant wait to have somewhere nice to stay instead of the truck cab!
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all gave a fun and safe new years.
Cheers
