Local Legend Project: Tur-BRO-yota

[Turboyota]

May 2021

Mammoth to Phelan with @dose and @do dah

The Turboyota was missing and stuttering on the ~300mile commute, so we drunkenly changed them in Dusty’s driveway. I killed one of the TRI ACE tires outside Bishop, so I had to do the rest of the trip with no spare. Also, I had to fuck with my thermostat per usual.

 

[Turboyota]

July 2021

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Moises drove out from LA to hang with us. @the bodj has done work on that toyota, and it has my old trussed Turboyota rearend in it. He flogged that thing pretty good.

 

[Turboyota]

July 12, 2021

Miles over the previous 12 months: 4739

Trips:
2X Apple Valley to Yucaipa via dirt 75 each
Phelan to mammoth 300
Bradshaw Trail 300
Lucerne-Caruthers Canyon-Primm-Afton Canyon 350
Landers-Calico-Hinkley-Adelanto 150
KOH TT course prerun 75
Rattlesnake Canyon/Swapmeet 75
Anza Borrego 300
DR Meat Feat 100
Mammoth to Phelan 350
+ Lots of rips through the local hills

Broken parts:
1 thermostat
1 loose T-bolt clamp on turbo inlet
1 melted turbo inlet coupler
1 broken T100 axle & diff carrier
1 cracked steering arm on upright
1 cracked 2” hollow spindle snout
2 blown head gaskets
1 A-Arm spindle-side tab delete
1 fuel pump & filter (not sure which was the culprit)

Great times!!!

Bumper delete:

 

[Turboyota]

August 9, 2021

Since the motor was out, I plated the insides of the lower A-Arm pivot horns. There had been a significant amount of cracks propagating through the inner frame/horn interface area.

I noticed and fixed some of the cracks right before one of my recent trips, and threw on a quick gusset.

Recently added gusset circled in red, new cracked area shown in pink:

Did some cardboard CAD, then utilized my nesting software and bandsawed those bitches out:

Bent the 1/8” P&O gussets on my finger brake.

Rear pivot gussets getting fitted. Passenger side required 1 bend, driver side required 3 bends.

Clampage before tackage

Tacked those fuckers, then hammered the edges down to better contact and wrap around the chincy stock 0.090” jap samurai sword steel.

Miggered those bitches in. I draped wet rags over the forward Delrin pivot bushings and rear 6-6 Nylon bushings. Fun fact: driver’s side rear bushing is 6-6 nylon, passenger is delrin.

Firewall paint prep!

More 3/16” gussets added to the forward side of the rear pivot tabs and vertical 3/8” bolts and fancy MS21042 jet nuts(of course) added to the removable sub frame at the forward a-arm pivot horn cross member. Tear-out strength added, and the subframe will still be removable.

All that sexy MS and AN hardware makes my balls tingle!

Drivers side rear lower arm pivot:

Firewall & subframe gussets all painted. ACE premium spray paint is the fucking chronic, by the way. 10/10 would bang again. Highly recommend.

 

[Turboyota]

Installed the fabricated stainless turbo manifold and Garrett T4 that I got from @Do Dah

Turbo was too close for comfort to the cagework and the engine cross brace would have needed to be moved or eliminated.

After some deliberation and talks with turbo-smart friends, I purchased a Garrett GT2871R from Performance Techniques in San Bernardino.

Even with a smaller frame turbo, shit still interfered with the shock mount cagework and engine crossmember.

It became apparent that the manifold would need to be modified to facilitate fitment.

Started manifold surgery. Clamped the T4 flange to a knee and bandsawed off the flange.

Adios, T4 flange!

I needed to pull the turbo inboard toward the motor, so I scribed my cut lines with a height gauge.

Yes!

YES!!!

Ground off the remaining welds flat~ish.

Sandblasted affected areas and welded myriad cracks

T4 flange was cracked off in the cylinder 3 area. Built it back up with 308L rod.

New flange tacked into position

 

[Turboyota]

August 9, 2021 continued still…

Modified manifold installed. There is at least 3/8” clearance between turbo and engine cage shock mount tubes. Previous setup only had 1/8” on some areas and there was no evidence of contact.

Clearanced the shock mount crossmember.

Started on the downtube. The V-band flange had this yucky step:

So I machined a 35 degree chamfer for better flow:

Much better!

Exhaust is all 3” 304 stainless mandrel bends. I bought a U-J bend on eBay and used damn near all of it. The discolored section at the bottom is a piece of Ford stainless exhaust that I needed to use after I ran out of 304. About halfway through building this exhaust, my Argon regulator started leaking and spewing gas out the pressure relief port. Cocksucker!! I tacked this shit up as quickly as possible to try and save gas.

The TiAL 44mm wastegate used to be vented to atmosphere. I decided to route it back into the exhaust. I started with a section of 1.5” 304SS mandrel U-bend

Tacked the 1.5” tube to the TiAL v-band flange and 1.5” stainless flex coupler from eBay. Black Wastegate on the left.

Connecting into the 3” exhaust at a nice flowy angle. I traced the egg-shaped contact patch onto the 3” exhaust tube...

...and drilled it out with a carbide-tipped holesaw and my trusty 10-year-old Nairobi drill.

Opened up the round hole to satisfactory Easter egg shape with a drum sander. Fits nice and tight with no protrusion into the exhaust flow path.

Assembled for the 420th time, and tacked it while on the truck.

Complete minus final purge weld.

I’m stoked on it, and it’s easily removable!

 

[Turboyota]

August 14, 2021

Hot damn it looks clean with a stock bumper!

Approximate trim location depicted with orange tape. It’s going to end up getting chopped even more because 37’s. That corner light will assuredly visit the saw.

Seriously considering a stock valence to compliment this gorgeous bumper.

37” Tensors vs 35” Tensors

Radiator and fan shroud mounting

And I made an aquarium stand for one of FatJeff’s clients:

 

[Turboyota]

August 28, 2021

Hours: 15ish.

Beers: zilch. Fucking loser.
Music: none. Fucking psychopath.

Weight added/removed: probably 5-10 lbs by converting from copper to aluminum radiator and shortening the boost and radiator tubes. (Lower radiator hose/pipe doesn’t loop around the motor mount anymore)

Cost: $74 is misc silicone couplers and reducer elbows for radiator & intercooler.

Made a beading tool. Works aight, makes the kung fu grip stronger.

Turbo-to-intercooler boost tube:

Driled out the intercooler mounting bungs and tapped 7/16-20

Drilled through the cross tube to mount the intercooler and made a quickie radiator hold-down clamp.

Mocked up intake with 3” aluminum mandrel bends and a Ford flexy coupler

Upper radiator hose goes from 1.375” at the thermostat housing to 1.5” at the radiator. That reducer 90 was $30. I had the 1.5” CBR 90 in my stash.

By moving the intercooler up I was able to eliminate about 2 feet of boost piping.

Intake tube fully welded and $9 egay hump coupler. Intake tube necks down to 2.75” at the filter side so I could reuse the AFE filter and prefilter. 3” ID filters will work also, just have to clamp them to the bigger tube.

3” to 2.75” reduction at top, mediocre quality crimped bead at bottom.

Aluminum couplers with 1/8” NPT for turbo & wastegate cooling lines. $13 each on egay.
Lower radiator hose:

Upper radiator hose will have 2 water lines connected to it also in that little black coupler.

I like this intercooler mounting scheme much better than my previous scheme that used rubber isolators. Super easy to remove.

Lower radiator mount is 1x2x0.120” rectangular tube. Radiator is fastened to that tube with 6X 10-32 screws.

Lower radiator fit tin prior to weld. It clears the steering box by 1/8”

Turbo oil feed line & Earl’s filter. Need to buy a 1/8-28 BSP to 1/8” NPT adapter for the oil feed line. Block is that weird British thread according to the interwebz. 1/8” NPT is fucking close, but only threads in like a couple threads.

Then I pulled the motor out again for hopefully the last time.

I think I have sourced a 5 speed trans.

 

[Turboyota]

August 30, 2021

Purge weld setup

Time: 1 hour
Materials: 1/8” 7075 aluminum
Tools: bandsaw, Ameribrade, drill press, 7/16” drill bit, 1/4” NPT tap

I cut discs of aluminum on the bandsaw that easily sandwich inside the 1.5”, 2.5”, and 3” v-band clamps. I ground a bevel on one side similar to the flanges on a typical V-band clamp.

Dual regulator from weldmonger.com

I let the argon bleed out from the gaps until it’s mostly welded, then drill some bleed holes

 

[Turboyota]

September 1, 2021

Down pipe complete & fully purge welded.

Total time: 12 hours fab, 1.5 hours weld

Materials: 3.0x0.065” 304 stainless U-J bend, stainless V-band flanges, 1.5” stainless flex coupler.

Cost:
3” 304SS U-J bend: $75
3” V-band clamps: $50
1.5” flex coupler: $19
1.5” 304SS U-bend: $29
Total: $173

Fucks yelled: 1. I blew a hole in the tube in one of the most visible locations near the turbo.

Staring into the exhaust gape shows pretty good shielding coverage and resultant penetration. Yup, I used penetration and gape in the same sentence. I should call her…

Here are my simple aluminum purge plugs.

Like 0.025” hole in the weld regulator to 1/4” NPT fitting. I stole that fitting off one of my old leaky Victor argon regulators.

 

[Turboyota]

September 21, 2021

Worked on plumbing, final install & assembly.

Checked the standalone harness and megasquirt computer on the bench. Everything works. Deleting an unneeded resistor for the injectors and adding an Innovate Motorsports O2 sensor that’ll talk to the computer and AFR gauge.

Modified PS resi feed hose location. Silicon bronze is awesome for 0.0fuckingthin” jap tube.

Welded AN-4 fitting on the stock sending unit for the return. That little 0.25” line was fucking thin also. Silicon bronze again.

Upgraded to a WalBRO 255 fuel pump

Back in its home.

Drilled and tapped the front crossmember to hold the oil cooler down. Broke a 1/4-20 tap in one of the holes, so it’ll be held down with 3X fasteners.

Power steering cooler mounts are old craftsman tool box 1/8”x1.0” locking bars.

Moved the Aeromotive 10 micron fuel filter from the side of the block down to where it’s easily accessible on the inside of the frame rail. I had a stock fuel filter before, and it was a motherfucker to access and change. It took both @Do Dah and me like 6 beers to change that bitch at @dose ‘s place before out bi-annual Mammoth to Phelan run.

More power steering line routing mods involving thin tube and silicon bronze... this time on the pump.

Manifold was kinda warpy, so I sprayed it with dykem and assaulted it with the 20” disc sander. Got it within 0.009” flatness and called it good.

Yes, I broke out the granite surface plate.

Added the O2 sensor bung 24” down from the turbo exhaust and wrapped it with lava wrap

Love welding 304 stainless.

Dirty orange 440cc injectors above, 1050cc badass fancy Injector Dynamics units ready to go in.

Made another custom AN-6 fuel return fitting. It never fucking ends...

Fuel rail installed and ready to fuckin’ party. Oil feed line for the turbo and filter can be seen atop the valve cover.

 

[Turboyota]

September 23, 2021

Clutch:

Clutchmasters 6 puck.

I described in detail exactly how I intend to drive and my typical driving conditions and took Clutchmaster’s recommendation on a setup.

Resurfaced stock flywheel is what they recommended. Unfortunately, this is an 8.875” stock 22R unit, not the 9.25” turbo badboy.

 

[Turboyota]

September 28, 2021

Almost fucking ready.

Final to-do list before startup:

Install Fuel pressure gauge
Add fuses into the standalone harness(there were no fuse provisions)
Add Lucas 30W high zinc break in oil
Add power steering fluid
Bolt in radiator and shroud
Throttle cable
Wastegate vac line
Add Trans oil 75W80
Tighten v-bands
Yell fuck
Install steering
Figure out new drivers side shock resi mount or replace hose
Drink beer
Zip tie up old harness and worry about it later
Replace carrier bearing
Install colder spark plugs
Coolant
Wire oil pressure gauge
Route wires for innovate Motorsports oxygen sensor and AFR gauge


Mounted the coil with sexy NAS1304 bolts and jet nuts.

Everything is pretty much in there.

Machined one of the stock plugs in the intake manifold for my water temp sensor

Steel fitting is toyota British standard pipe thread bullshit. Brass 3/8NPT only screws in like 2 threads before fuckery ensues.

 

[Turboyota]

January 6, 2022

Time: 17.5 hours
Time to get just the fucking seats out: 1 hour
Sawzall blades: 1
Flap disc: 1 (36 grit CGW)
Fucks yelled: 5ish
Dropped truck off sketchy high-lift Jack: 2
Music: Bad Religion Christmas & Metallica And Justice For All extra bass YouTube
Beers: 0. my liver is getting a break.

Pulled the truck into the back of my shop and started removing shit:

Leveled the truck side-to-side, but left it ass up for headroom.

Adios, sissy 30 spline T100 rearend. I broke lots of parts on that rearend, the fronts of the tubes are very dented from rock hits because they are 1/8” ~ish wall tube, and I’m constantly fixing gear oil seepage from cracks around leaf spring pads & shock mounts.

Gas tank supported on pipe stands made removal easy.

Stripped!

Stock crossmember is an impediment to progress. The /\ is where my carrier bearing used to mount, and it ties into the bottom of the 1.25x0.065” seat mount tube.

Get outta there, bitch! Used a corded Milwaukee sawzall with a Milwaukee blade and the M18 hackzall with a Diablo blade. No appreciable difference in cutting speed or vibration.

Aero air hammer cuts through the welds like butter. It took like 3 minutes to cut all those leftovers off.

Freshly shorn.

Upper link pivots want to be thru the floor, so fuck that floor!!

See that upper link pivot sticking up off the frame like a sore dick? That’ll get some gusseting and frame plating down the road. I want to check geometry and get shock mounts started. Also, I haven’t hacked off the rear cagework yet because I want to determine what can stay and what needs to get bailed.

Frame side:
Link vertical separation 7”
Link fore-aft separation 7”

What a ball-tingly upskirt shot!

Axle-side upper link pivot from muffstuff.

Got down with the lazy migger.

Hello Schreiner 40 spline floater with 3.25x0.312” wall tubes and ugly truss! Axles are equal length.

CAD work. I’ve been using Ram board from Home Depot lately. It’s way cheaper than buying the 24x36” sheets from Amazon, but it always has an annoying radius because roll.

Vertical Link separation at axle side: 11” ~ish.

 

[SaltyMethods]

I buy all my GRNDR lube on eGay. Just wanted to share. Keep GRND'n, heeeyyyyy....!

 

[GahnRacing]

You bes slow your roll there little mis. I’d like to add these to the historical record.

March 20th 2021

Toyotas doing Toyota thangs.. carry on

 

[Turboyota]

You bes slow your roll there little mis. I’d like to add these to the historical record.

March 20th 2021
View attachment 8169View attachment 8171View attachment 8170
Toyotas doing Toyota thangs.. carry on

Interesting.

We have done 3 trips together.

1 of which you completed approximately 20% of the trip before retreating with your Ford tail between your legs with a broken transmission. On the Lucerne-Primm-Afton-Lucerne trip, you broke an axle and had to do the rest of the trip in 4x4 because you got stuck in a campsite outside Afton.

Interesting.


On the Anza Borrego trip, you had to add 69 quarts of oil to keep your venerable 2.9 motor alive on the arduous commute from anza to my house.

 

[GahnRacing]

Interesting.

We have done 3 trips together.

1 of which you completed approximately 20% of the trip before retreating with your Ford tail between your legs with a broken transmission. On the Lucerne-Primm-Afton-Lucerne trip, you broke an axle and had to do the rest of the trip in 4x4 because you got stuck in a campsite outside Afton.

Interesting.


On the Anza Borrego trip, you had to add 69 quarts of oil to keep your venerable 2.9 motor alive on the arduous commute from anza to my house.

I’m reporting this

 

[Turboyota]

I’m reporting this

I guess it’s down to the moderator…


are you gonna get the Toyota moderator @dwphoto or the Ford moderator @theycallmeWALLY

 

[Turboyota]

January 6, 2022

All 4 links mocked up

Time: 3 hours.
Tools: JMR notcher, Millermatic 210, 13/16” & 7/8” wrenches, digital angle finder
Music. Metallica

Lower frame pivots are fugly. I’m going to church them up a bit when I cut the tacks off for frame plating. Probably shave 1/2” of the rock magnet lower side at least…

Next I’ll tack the RuffMuff uglylinks together and determine how much original cagework will be retained. My guess: almost none.