Alright, so two updates.

1) Engine wise, I've decided to postpone the 4BTA swap. After doing some research, budget, among some other things, I've decided that at this time it's just not in the cards. Plus, I think for advertising purposes for my shop I want to make it out to the Easter Jeep Safari with this truck.

Last night, my business partner had his buddy over at our shop and he was doing some fine tuning on my partner's 06 Evo, and I started talking to him about the 5.9 in my shed that I bought months ago to swap into my truck. After discussing what I need out of it, I decided to pull the motor from the shed and I dropped it off with him this morning bright and early. For $1500, he's going to strip it to bare block, bore it .20 over, port and polish the heads (as long as they're not cracked, which with less than 90k on them they should be fine), then do the kegger mod and bore my throttle body out to 53mm. Included in the price is all of the gaskets, and misc parts like spark plugs, wires, water pump, timing cover, etc. Only additional parts I need to supply is the eBay plenum plate which I ordered yesterday, along with some valve covers which I need to find and paint red and he'll throw them on.

Then, for an additional $500, he's going to throw the engine in the truck for me and get it running, including all the synthetic oils and other fluids needed.

The other cool thing about him is he does a ton of ECM tuning, and he told me if I picked up an SCT he would do all the tuning for me as well, which will be sweet since he's local.

So hopefully by Christmas I'll have the engine in the truck and done with, leaving me give or take 4 months to finish up everything else. This gives me an additional year to research and source everything I'll need for the 4BTA swap next winter.


Update 2) Bed rack. I've decided I'm going to go through with ordering an All Pro Off Road Pack Rack for the 00-06 Tundra non welded. I'll probably hold off on doing the Gear Rack and Accessory Bars for now, as I can always add them later on. There's a ton of other stuff I want to do to the Pack Rack down the road, so I'm thinking temporarily I want to get it assembled, then I'll probably just rattle can it black for a while until I can safely call it "done" and then send it off to powder coat. But playing around last night gave me some idea's which I'll give some ideas with.

This is the rack itself, following pictures show the gear rack, and the first picture there you can see a part of the accessory bars. When I do finally get the gear rack, I'm going to relocate my hi-lift to the location shown to get it off the back of my TireGate.











I want to add some kind of a cover or protection from stuff falling out of the truck. I'm thinking I'll do some kind of webbing, along with some kind of a canvas cover I'll make from scratch. Not sure exactly my plan of attack for this yet, as I do plan on doing the ARB awning and the Smitybilt XL roof top tent, so getting a cover over it will pose difficult without removal of both items, but I'll figure something out.





This image is just to show how I think I'm going to mount that Go Rhino SRM rack I have on the camper shell right now. Build off the Pack Rack to make the SRM extend over the cab of the truck. With the Go Rhino finally over the cab, I can swap the panels out to add some more lighting. I know I want to do the Rigid Adapt 50" across the windshield (yeah, mall crawler) but I'm thinking I'll probably throw a Rough Country 40" black series in the front of the rack, then do some Rough Country black pods in the sides.







And just for clarity, this is my roof rack I have on the shell.







Last update I have here is related to the bumper as well. When I build my rear bumper, I want to add some tail light guards that tie back into the TireGate so it flows a little better than it does now. When I build the bumper, I also want to weld some tabs to the top of the tube and build a ladder to the top of the Pack Rack. Then I'll weld some tabs onto the side of the Pack Rack, making it so the ladder bolts to both the rack and the bumper, making it easily removable. The picture of the Toyota also shows the awning mounted on it, I want the ladder bolted to the driver side of the truck, so I'll swap the awning to the passenger side, then make it so the Smittybilt tent flips off the drivers side. The toyota also shows the RotoPax mounted on the accessory bar, which is where I'll relocate my 4 gallons as well.






And that's kinda the idea. As I said, for now I'm going to start with just getting the rack, and hopefully by All 4 Fun I'll have the roof top tent. I might order some DOM while I build the rack and make my own accessory bars and gear rack with my own designs, we will see.

The camper shell I want to save for an expo trailer. I wanna find a 2nd gen short bed and turn it into a truck bed trailer, then put the shell on it and color match it to my truck. From there, I'll add a water tank underneath which will be filled by the fuel door, then start adding parts back onto it to match the truck, such as rear bumper with the tire carrier, a second roof top tent, Rhino Rack Foxwing, and in the bed I'll do the DECKED flooring which will hold camping supplies and accessories, etc. I'll go further into details later, but I do have the plan for the shell. It will not go to waste.

 

I have to ask but how do you afford to change parts all the time and buy the exspensive parts ?

 

Skip doing anything with the stock heads. Just replace them. They were crappy castings to begin with, and are VERY prone to cracking around the valve seats. It's highly likely that with 90K miles, your are already starting to crack in any event.

Clearwater/Odessa cylinder head, offers NEW castings, with thicker decks, for around 600 bucks for a PAIR. No core charge, no returning your old dead heads. (or, even if they want them back, they pay shipping. At least, they used to.....) have your engine builder do whatever he wants to the NEW heads, save yourself some pain, and money... having to do it again later.

You can find them on Ebay pretty easily.

 

Project $$$$$

 

This lol. Very sweet rig and great coverage on getting it to where it is today, but the money spent in parts that keep getting swapped out makes my head spin. Although being in the biz I'm sure you have access to good deals and the truck ends up being your advertisement as well.

 

Does that make it a tax deduction?

 

I own a shop, and I'm direct with a ton of manufacturers. Being direct gives me even better pricing on the parts, as many manufacturers are more than willing to sell stuff for advertisement purposes, especially if it's on one of the owner's/employee's trucks as it's at the store every day, and usually on some form a display.

He checked the heads on it, one of the heads was already cracked.

I actually already ordered a pair of assembled EQ heads off eBay yesterday morning while we were getting dinner setup.

It's a main form of advertisement. One thing that is loved about my truck, is it's not a Jeep in the off road world. The two main popular companies for off road use is Jeep and Toyota, and although the dodge is neither, it has a lot of Jeep inspired parts on it, along with a ton of the aftermarket parts give ideas and inspiration to yota owners.

I take the truck to shows and off road runs usually once a month, sometimes up to 3 times a week during the summer.

It actually does. By the time taxes turn around, a ton of the parts on my truck usually only wind up costing me the state tax on them.

Overall invested into the truck, if it was a walk in customer, right now the way it sits is about a 50k build. I do all of my own work, so deduct the labor of about 20k off of that, leaving about 30k retail worth of parts. Now take off the amount of mark up on a lot of this, all in all in my receipt book in aftermarket, the way it sits right NOW, is about 20k. I have about 5k worth of mishaps and upgrading the upgraded parts to something better.

 

So my builder ran into 2 issues. 1) As stated above, one head is cracked; 2) He does not have access to pistons for a Magnum engine to go with the bore.

So, we worked out a different deal. He'll do everything for a $1000 in labor, and include the small items such as plugs, wires, fluids, and such. I'm supplying all the rebuild parts.

So, everything is ordered as of about 20 minutes ago. No going back now.

Ordered From eBay:

1) Redline Engine Rebuild Kit: Designed for a bore of .30 over, includes: Hyper-Eutectic Pistons / Piston Rings / Rod Bearings / Main Bearings / Full Gasket Set / Rear Main Seal / Valve Stem Seals / Timing Components / Oil Pump / Camshaft Bearings / Expansion Plugs

2) EQ Assembled Heads

3) EQ Head Studs

4) Runningstrongllc Lifters

5) Aluminum Plenum Plate

6) CGM Fabricated LA Valve Covers

7) SCT X3 tuner

Ordered From Summit Racing:

8) Harland Sharp 1.7 Rockers

9) Crane Cams Camshaft: Specs:
Basic Operating RPM Range: 1,000-4,500
Intake Duration at 050 inch Lift: 194
Exhaust Duration at 050 inch Lift: 204
Duration at 050 inch Lift: 194 int./204 exh.
Advertised Intake Duration: 250
Advertised Exhaust Duration: 260
Advertised Duration: 250 int./260 exh.
Intake Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio: 0.434 in.
Exhaust Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio: 0.458 in.
Valve Lift with Factory Rocker Arm Ratio: 0.434 int./0.458 exh.
Lobe Separation (degrees): 112

Ordered from O'Reilly's:

10) Mr. Gasket LA Valve Cover Gaskets

And that's it for right now. My builder is going to supply everything else that needs replaced, otherwise the rest will stay original unless he comes across something else that I need to order that he doesn't have access to.

I gave shipping addresses to his shop for my parts ordered, so unfortunately I won't be able to follow up a whole lot, but he did say he'll document photo's of the build as he goes. I've decided to do the bore at .30 instead of .20, just for that little extra. He's still doing my kegger and boring the throttle body to 53mm. Once the motor is assembled from here, I'll drop the truck off, he'll install it all and then from there start the tuning process.

So, might be longer than a few weeks now depending on eBay ship times, but other than that everything that's really needed right now is on its way!

 

Well, we are starting in to the silly season.... but, I just got two of three orders I put in on Sunday, delivered today. And that was for Subaru parts.

 

So I'm going to push back my engine install a few weeks. I was going to shoot for around or just after Christmas, but now I'm going to wait until after the first of this next year. Reason being, after months of trying to figure out a daily driver that I still tinker on, I finally decided I know what I want.

The holidays are preventing me from wanting to leave the state at the moment, we've been slammed at the shop on top of obvious family time, but I've browsed the entire northwest ranging from Idaho, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and northern California. Prices aren't changing, and the vehicle I'm after isn't really easy to find, nor is it cheap for what it is.

I'm after a Toyota Land Cruiser 80 Series. It offers 3rd row for the kids, reliable, and it's a new project I can tinker on same as the Dodge, only a little more daily driver friendly.

I'd prefer a FZJ80, which is the 93-97 that has the 4.5 rather than the 4.0, as it produces more power and parts are easier to find for it. I'd also, again, prefer a 95-97 for the interior comfort, along with air bags for obvious reasons.

Everything I'm finding around my area, they're all ranging from 5k to 10k and are usually somewhat a mess. Northern California has some really nice ones, but prices on those are ranging between 10k to 30k (no, not a typo).

For whatever reason, while browsing craigslist, they are all over the place in Los Angelos, most in better condition than those further north, and prices range from 2500 to 5k for 95-97's loaded with leather and under 200k on the odometer.

So, after we settle down from the holidays, I'm planning on taking a round trip on a plane, I'll spend a weekend down there looking at quite a few of them, then make an offer on the one I want and hopefully leave a deposit, if not might have to pay in full, then fly back. Following weekend, I'll load up the family in either the Tundra, or a different tow rig, we'll drive down to LA and pick it up, then do some California sight seeing while down there.

With picking one of these up, plans for the Ram will slightly differ now. I won't be AS focused on an expo vehicle. I'll still do the bed rack and probably a roof top tent, but I'm thinking I'll make the FJ80 a little more overlandish and keep the Ram on a trail rig level. Basically the setup I have now for the truck, minus a roof top tent, will stay the way it is now. I'll keep the actual camping rig dedicated to the 80, which would include a roof top tent, Rhino Rack Foxwing, ARB Fridge, locations for the camping stove, etc.

With both setups, the wife and I can take two rigs out camping, lessening the need for a group to go with.

FJ80 being a DD, it'll stay a little more leveled back from the Ram, more so probably a 2.5" OME lift, 17's on 35's, ARB bumper and winch, snorkel, then I'll probably throw a Front Runner rack on top and for the most part call it's modifications good for the time being. Sometime a year or two down the road, I'll invest in a rear bumper with everything on it, but that takes my budget up a little more than I want to spend. I'll add accessories to the rack, but keep the vehicle modifications to a minimum. The only thing I KNOW I'm going to do is body work and repaint, as I want this project color wise to be a gun metal gray with blue accents, much like my truck is red with black accents.

One thing I love about the 80 Series, is they hold their value, and the value actually seems to go up with the aftermarket parts on it, unlike my Dodge. There's some fairly hammered, but built similar to how I want it, selling for 18-20k. Pricing out my stuff, I can keep it around 5k mark for upgrades, then always have the option of making about 50% back in the investment if I ever decided to part ways with it.

But here's some photo's that represent kind of the look I'm after with this project.

***EDIT: Forgot to add a Lexus LX450 would work just as well, as it's the identical rig***
















This one is more or less what I would want it to look like.