School me on Toyota's.

TapouT

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Location
Hickory nc
First off, be easy on me. I don't know a single thing about Toyota's as I haven't owned/messed with one before. I've really been toying around with the idea of buying a rolling chassis Toyota truck and building it while I'm in college this fall. I like the 79-83 models the most. What motor, transmission, t-case did they come with? I'd like to stick with everything Toyota. I assume a lot of the stuff from later models is interchangeable kind of like Jeep's?

I'm wanting to build a dual purpose rig. I want to be able to wheel it hard and still be able to drive it home. I've heard that Toyota's are extremely capable in stock form with a nice set of tires so I guess I'm good on that part. What are some little things that can be done to one to help the performance of one? I'm going to be buying a 22r block off of a guy on here and rebuilding it myself that way I'll know my way around the motor just in case there are problems with it later on. What transmission and t-case go behind the 22r? That way I can keep my eyes peeled. I'll probably have everything I need drive/power-train wise before I actually buy the rolling chassis truck. What's the tallest set of tires you can put on a stock Toyota? I'm not scared of trimming with an angle grinder so that's no problem. I thought about doing this with an XJ but I like the simplicity of a Toyota. Any tips/tricks you can give me would be great! Thanks for the help!
 
I could tell you more than you'd ever wanna listen to. Give me a call
 
Rears up front, Weld the rear end, High Steer, 4.7 Tcase Gears and a set of 35's will get you a LOT of places and provide a great starter rig for not a lot of $$$ considering the capability.
 
one thing to think about is a 79-83 has a carbed motor which can be tough to keep tuned for trail use, otherwise super solid trucks. get a toyota and never look back
 
You will want the '83 model as it has a gusseted front axle, (not that you couldn't gusset an earlier one.) They all had either a 20r or 22r motor, get a w56 trans or if you can find one an r 151 out of a turbo truck. (Lower 1st gear) but hard to come by. When buying look for rust on the frame behind the gas tank especially. The bed will most certainly be rusted out unless it came from out west recently. And they tend to rust in the windshield frame some too. When you lift it get a rear axle out of an IFS truck as they are 3 inches wider and get 1.5 inch wheel spacers for the front. Big tires will rub the frame on full stuff without the wider rear axle. Lockright or if you got the money e lockers.
 
I'm wanting to keep it on a budget so I'll probably stick with what the truck has axle wise. What is an L52 transmission? Is it a 5-spd Toyota transmission? I remember seeing some for sale awhile back and if I remember correctly they were a Toyota trans. Are they worth anything or should I go with a w56? I have a set of 33" tsl's in my shed set aside for the truck for whenever I get one so it may be stock height with 33's for awhile. Welding the spider's in the rear sounds good and I'll more than likely do that. I've read that putting a 20r head on a 22r block will give it a little extra umph because it bumps the compression ratio up. How hard would it be to come across a 20r head? Thanks for all the help guys! I'm just trying to soak in as much as I can.
 
l52 is similar to a w56 with smaller bearings. i vote with stretchasu for simple and cheap mods. we just built an 80 model at the shop on the cheap, just like u want to. maybe have $1000 in it. good stuff is what costs, doubler,x over crossmember. rest of it is what we had or found in junkyard. itll be at uwharrie this weekend if you make it out and wanna take a look.
 
92yotaman said:
one thing to think about is a 79-83 has a carbed motor which can be tough to keep tuned for trail use, otherwise super solid trucks. get a toyota and never look back
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Propane will take care of this issue.

Go ahead and upgrade the studs in the steering knuckle before they let go on the trail :rolleyes:
 
FrontPorchFab said:
Propane will take care of this issue.
Go ahead and upgrade the studs in the steering knuckle before they let go on the trail :rolleyes:
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YES,Get the ARP studs I replaced my broken studs twice before I finally bought them and Im SO glad I Did!!
 
I have an 85 with a 22R, stock gears at the moment. I am going to go with 33" tires for a while, and am thinking about going up to a 35" later on, but I am not 100% sure I will do that yet though. If I go with the 5.29's, and decide to stick with the 33's, will it be overkill? This truck will occasionally see road use, but it will be on the trail more than the street.
 
Getting a first gen is a wise choice. If you want to save money, it already has the solid axle. We have done several solid axle swaps up here in Boone and there really isn't a cheap way to do the swap.
As for the carbed 22r...some work great some make you look for alternatives fast.
If you start building toyota parts are available everywhere and a lot of them are somewhat interchangable. The wiring harnesses were pretty close from my 82 to 94 as far as being able to plug and play. I just got done doing a EFI swap in mine a couple of months back.
Toyotas have a ton of aftermarket and a ton of easy mods. If you want stuff to read about..google Toyota Bible from Pirate4x4...lots of info and ideas.
 
i have a 1980 toyota first gen and its got the solid axle and carbed 20r. i got lucky with getting this truck because i came stock with 4:37 gears but, it came with the 4 speed tranny. ive swapped it out for the l52 5 speed. it was such a good choice to do the swap. also on the 79-83, you can get up to 5 inches of lift for about $30 by buying 63" chevy springs and making new hakle an brackets so theyll fit on the back and move the stock back springs to the front... I could go on and on about the first gen toyotas pm me if you got anymore specific questions
 
MCTacodriver said:
I have an 85 with a 22R, stock gears at the moment. I am going to go with 33" tires for a while, and am thinking about going up to a 35" later on, but I am not 100% sure I will do that yet though. If I go with the 5.29's, and decide to stick with the 33's, will it be overkill? This truck will occasionally see road use, but it will be on the trail more than the street.
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I've got 5:29's and still on 33's. Other than the engine running at higher rpm's at highway speeds, I don't have to drop out of 5th to go up a small hill. My plans are to go 35 or 36's when I wear out my 33's.
 
96tacolx said:
I've got 5:29's and still on 33's. Other than the engine running at higher rpm's at highway speeds, I don't have to drop out of 5th to go up a small hill. My plans are to go 35 or 36's when I wear out my 33's.
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Thanks, do the lower gears with only 33's help out at all when you're on the trail? I only have the 4 speed, and plan on swapping in a 5 speed eventually, but that is pretty low on the priority list. The few times it will be driven on the road, I guess the engine will just have to scream a little...
 
They do fairly well for the most part. Now that I have a SA I can do the harder stuff but have no control in easing into it. Need dual cases to slow it down.

Btw, this is for my 89 p/u. Not the one in my pic or screen name.
 
Here is the pirate toyota faq. Almost any question you could think of, it is answered here.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=459180

Go to these sites to look at yota crawlin stuff.
www.marlincrawler.com
www.trail-gear.com
www.allprooffroad.com
www.4crawler.com
www.budbuilt.com
There are more, but you get the picture.

My rig is on 33s with 4.56 gears and a single case with 4.7 lowrange gears. I am very happy with the crawl speed. You dont need a ton of HP, just gear it right and you will be able to walk up most stuff with ease.
 
Thanks for the answers, and I've already been to almost all of those sites you listed sgtbriangreen. I've already got a parts list planned out that with money going to most of those companies. However, I used most of the money from this deployment to pay off a good chunk of my Tacoma so what's left over is getting spent on the pickup. At this point it looks like I'll only have enough for gears, tires, and some armor.
 
i have an 87 4 runner. everything there but the 22r. the front suspension is messed up. would be good for an sas. i'll sell it if interested.
 
sgtbriangreen said:
That will get you farther down the trail than most fancy stuff will.
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x2 on this. couldn't be more true. i learned this the hard way.

on the axle thing that was mentioned, you can get a IFS rear axle for 100-250 bones. there not that pricey. and spacers will cost you, idk 100 bucks?

nice to see another feller buildin a yota. if your just plannin on runnin 33s right now, i would put any money in lifting it. i would get some 5.29s, 4.7s, lunchbox lockers, and some sliders
 
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