Well I have recently finished a build on my 1987 turbo 4runner and figured I should share it in case anyone finds it useful or entertaining. My name is Dave LaMay and I live in La Verne CA. Some of you know me as Aaron's partner at Driftmotion.
My truck is a black 1987 turbo 4runner SR5 automatic with every option. I bought it about 2 years ago with 179000 miles. It was in almost showroom condition. The previous owner had repainted it a year prior and installed an awesome stereo but no other mods and I don't think the four wheel drive had even been engaged.
Upon getting the truck I quickly remedied that problem and installed 4.56 gears, a detroit locker in rear, a detroit truetrac in front, 31 inch all terrains, homemade rockrails, an allpro rear bumper, and removed all the unnessary bits(mud flaps, front valance, etc.)
Anyway, I will post all my pics and detail everything I did but it may take a little bit of time as I don't get much freetime. Bare with me and feel free to question away as I go along.
Here is my baby just for referance.
At about 185000 miles or so all hell started to break loose. It started to run rough and overheat. It showed obvious signs of a blown head gasket. Then even though there was no oil and water mixing yet in started knocking. So that prompted the build.
Here is my empty engine bay...
...and most of what had been in it.
Upon disassembly I found a severly cracked turbo exhaust housing, a cracked exhaust manifold, and two large cracks in the head from the number three combustion chamber to the water jackets. It had also spun the number four rod bearing. Other than that everything looked great. :
The building begins.
So I started out getting everything machined. Everything was checked and was in great shape with the exception of the number four rod and corresponding rod jounal on the crank. Everything got cleaned good.
The crank got ground under on the rods only, and all polished.
The block got honed and decked.
Front
Bottom
Flat and smooth for the cometic MLS head gasket
I reused the original rods and pistons.
I did however need a new number four rod and a non cracked head. At this same time I happened to run across a 1987 turbo 4x4 truck with a manual for sale. I bought it for a few hundred bucks non running. Upon disassembly I found a cracked turbo housing(surprise), a cracked exhaust manifold(surprised again), and a head cracked between the valve seats of all four cylinders(sur... nevermind). I kind of suspected all this when I bought it but at least I had a replacment rod and everything needed for a manual trans swap later(hint hint). Anyway everything got balanced and checked again.
Ok so next everything started to go together.
Here is the bottom all together.
And here is the deck after assembly and with the new ARP studs.
This would be a comparison of the blown factory gasket on top and the cometic MLS on the bottom
So I wasn't able to find a turbo head that was any good and the more I reseached and thought about it I decided to go with a 22re head. I really felt the compression bump would help with spool and the head would probably be less likely to crack. Here is the cheap, new casting, prebuilt ebay head I ordered on top and the cracked up rte head on bottom. You can see the chamber difference between the two.
I should throw in hear that I totally forgot to mention the first owner had swapped out the cam for a DOA cam at some point. It was still in great shape so it was placed into the new head and then everything was torqued down nice and tight.
Well I will leave you guys with the completed longblock and then next time we can get into the fun bits.
My truck is a black 1987 turbo 4runner SR5 automatic with every option. I bought it about 2 years ago with 179000 miles. It was in almost showroom condition. The previous owner had repainted it a year prior and installed an awesome stereo but no other mods and I don't think the four wheel drive had even been engaged.
Upon getting the truck I quickly remedied that problem and installed 4.56 gears, a detroit locker in rear, a detroit truetrac in front, 31 inch all terrains, homemade rockrails, an allpro rear bumper, and removed all the unnessary bits(mud flaps, front valance, etc.)
Anyway, I will post all my pics and detail everything I did but it may take a little bit of time as I don't get much freetime. Bare with me and feel free to question away as I go along.
Here is my baby just for referance.
At about 185000 miles or so all hell started to break loose. It started to run rough and overheat. It showed obvious signs of a blown head gasket. Then even though there was no oil and water mixing yet in started knocking. So that prompted the build.
Here is my empty engine bay...
...and most of what had been in it.
Upon disassembly I found a severly cracked turbo exhaust housing, a cracked exhaust manifold, and two large cracks in the head from the number three combustion chamber to the water jackets. It had also spun the number four rod bearing. Other than that everything looked great. :
The building begins.So I started out getting everything machined. Everything was checked and was in great shape with the exception of the number four rod and corresponding rod jounal on the crank. Everything got cleaned good.
The crank got ground under on the rods only, and all polished.
The block got honed and decked.
Front
Bottom
Flat and smooth for the cometic MLS head gasket
I reused the original rods and pistons.
I did however need a new number four rod and a non cracked head. At this same time I happened to run across a 1987 turbo 4x4 truck with a manual for sale. I bought it for a few hundred bucks non running. Upon disassembly I found a cracked turbo housing(surprise), a cracked exhaust manifold(surprised again), and a head cracked between the valve seats of all four cylinders(sur... nevermind). I kind of suspected all this when I bought it but at least I had a replacment rod and everything needed for a manual trans swap later(hint hint). Anyway everything got balanced and checked again.
Ok so next everything started to go together.
Here is the bottom all together.
And here is the deck after assembly and with the new ARP studs.
This would be a comparison of the blown factory gasket on top and the cometic MLS on the bottom
So I wasn't able to find a turbo head that was any good and the more I reseached and thought about it I decided to go with a 22re head. I really felt the compression bump would help with spool and the head would probably be less likely to crack. Here is the cheap, new casting, prebuilt ebay head I ordered on top and the cracked up rte head on bottom. You can see the chamber difference between the two.
I should throw in hear that I totally forgot to mention the first owner had swapped out the cam for a DOA cam at some point. It was still in great shape so it was placed into the new head and then everything was torqued down nice and tight.
Well I will leave you guys with the completed longblock and then next time we can get into the fun bits.
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