Tflow Tacoma

[Tflow]

Alright guys I’ve never done a build thread on this truck. I’m going to give it shot here and see if I remember the long process it has been. It’s a 2008 Tacoma trd sport four door 4wd. I was fortunate enough that my parents got me this truck when I was 16 in 2008. I worked all summer that year to buy a 3” spacer lift and 33” tires with some sweet chrome eagle alloy wheels . Other than that the truck was stock and I drove it like that for 6ish years.


2014 is when I decided I wanted to build the truck into a prerunner. It’s a long story but I had a bad injury on a quad that put me out of work for a while. After that I realized I needed to hang up the quad and dirt bike riding and get in a cage. I was making ok money as an electrician so I did a bunch of research and started ordering parts and just stacked them up in my garage. The truck was still my daily driver, so I would work on it on the weekends but have to have it buttoned up Sunday night so I can get to work the next morning.







Two years later in 2016, still continuing to stack parts and save money. I got the point where I took the truck as far as could with my skill level. I got in touch with Steve at Dirt Designs, where he was going to cage the truck and set up a spring under rear suspension. I dropped the truck off and he got after it. Well things snow balled a little . Steve convinced me to do a 3 link with a pan hard. We kept the stock fuel tank and trussed/tabbed the stock axle. We also decided to do a swing set steering because it’s pretty well known the tacoma rack’s can’t hang. He also did a bunch of miscellaneous fab work that I was not capable of.

 

[Tflow]

After I go the truck back from Steve, I needed to finish some wiring and plumbing before I can hit the dirt.






The truck worked really well right out of the box. Plenty of power with the super charger and suspension didn’t need a whole lot of tuning.

 

[Tflow]

Maybe like a year later like late 2017 I started having transmission issues. The stock trans did like the power from the supercharger and the jump/smashing whoops probably didn’t help either

Well I went through this transmission issue for a year. I had the stock trans “built” but it would only last a trip or two. I brought the trans back twice to the guy for warranty repairs. You can guess it, the trans didn’t last. I was so fed up with it, I said screw it buy once cry once. I got a built th400 from maximum transmission and an atlas transfer case. I brought it to Steve at Dirt Designs and said let’s try to figure out how to make this work. Steve designed an adapter to adapt the stock bell housing to the reid case of the th400. We then had a torque converter built by tcs out of havasu. We put it all it and sure enough it worked.

 

[Tflow]

After getting this all sorted out the truck has been solid with minimal issues over the years. I have done little changes here and there. I’m sure there’s stuff that I’m missing. The truck needs a good prep right now. There’s a couple upgrades that I would also like to do. I’ll post up on this thread as I work on the truck. My wife and I just moved into a new house and I’m just finishing setting up the garage. As long as life doesn’t get in the way, I can start getting the truck ready for this next desert season.

The trucks specs as of today is:

Drivetrain:
4.0 v6
URD supercharger
Maximum th400
Atlas transfer case
Stock rearend
Stock fuel tank

Steering:
Swing set
Howe (pump, box, assist)
Heimed tie rods

Wheels/Tires
37x12.5x17 toyo mt
17” method beadlocks

Front Suspension:
Dirt Designs 4wd LT kit
King 2.5x8 c/o
King 2.5x8 3 tube bypass
King 2.0x2.0 bump

Rear suspension:
Dirt Designs 3 link kit
King 2.5x14 c/o
King 2.5x16 3 tube bypass
King 2.5x4 bump

Misc
2” cage
4- prp podium seats
Rugged radio
Baja design lp6

 

[smokeysevin]

What did you do to make the computer happy with the new trans? Just set it so when it is in drive, the ecu thinks its neutral?

Sean

 

[Tflow]

What did you do to make the computer happy with the new trans? Just set it so when it is in drive, the ecu thinks its neutral?

Sean

We left all the electronics unplugged that went to the stock transmission. When we turned the key everything worked except the starter wouldn’t spin. We tried plugging in the stock shift thinking it was a safety, but that didn’t work either. We ended up wiring the starter on a push button. Turn the key and push to start. It works and runs good. Idk what the computer thinks . I do have a piggyback ecu to tune for the supercharger, idk if that has any effect.

 

[smokeysevin]

We left all the electronics unplugged that went to the stock transmission. When we turned the key everything worked except the starter wouldn’t spin. We tried plugging in the stock shift thinking it was a safety, but that didn’t work either. We ended up wiring the starter on a push button. Turn the key and push to start. It works and runs good. Idk what the computer thinks . I do have a piggyback ecu to tune for the supercharger, idk if that has any effect.

Id bet it is still looking for the resistance of the shift/lockup solenoids, the speed sensor input on the trans, and the neutral safety switch. If running the "bypass" starter button works though, I wouldn't screw with it.

I asked because I am thinking about pulling the control of my a340 off the stock ecu and running on a microsquirt so I can control lockup/shifting more.

Sean

 

[2UZ 120]

Damn you guys freaking killed it on this build. Would love to have one of Steve's 4Runner 3 links, almost got in on a mini run of those kits, but I couldn't swing it that year.
Put a shift kit in my A750 and now my TC aint happy, so it's just a matter of time....money tree is always bare.

 

[Klever]

Dude this thing is rad. I love the way Dirt Designs does his cages...and the X intrusion tubes is

 

[Tflow]

Dude this thing is rad. I love the way Dirt Designs does his cages...and the X intrusion tubes is

Thanks man! Yeah we used joke that I ordered the PRP diamond stitch seats to match the cage work

 

[the bodj]

This thing is incredible. Easily the nicest crew cab tacoma I've ever seen. I bet it's a blast!

 

[2012SVTSC]

Insane Build!

 

[Tflow]

Finally getting around to working on this thing. Since the front suspension is a bolt on LT kit, I’ve been having a problem with the coil buckets starting to crack. I bought this setup from mitchmade like 2 years ago and this is the year I’m finally going to put it on the truck . It deletes the coil buckets and gets rid of a bunch on the anti dive the upper arm has on these Tacomas. Got it all prepped and tacked together this last weekend. Hopefully I don’t booger weld them together to badly

 

[2UZ 120]

Not being a Fabricator I won't to pretend to know shit, but at $600, this kit seems like a steal.
Hope it goes well for you.