My Suzuki Sidekick has 1JZ 1" lift pistons!

bigaaron

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Apr 12, 2005
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I bet you read the title and thought I was smoking crack, but it's totally true! (that I have lift pistons, not that I smoke crack LOL)
And those 1JZ lift pistons helped me ramp a 1154 RTI score at the High Desert Roundup '09 yesterday! I had the best RTI score for a short wheelbase vehicle up to that point in the day! I might have won the trophy for short wheelbase, but we didn't have time to stay for the awards.

The idea came to me when it was sitting too low at ride height, and it needed 1" in the back and .5" in the front. I called around the day before the event looking for lift blocks and couldn't find anything anywhere. Then after I measured the springs at 3.5" OD, I realized that I had a set of damaged 1jz pistons in a block sitting at the shop, and 86mm is damn close to 3.5"! So I cut the crowns of with a band saw, and they worked great and cost nothing!

Here's the lift pistons:
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Here's some more of the story of my 1989 Sidekick with Toyota solid axles! It's 4 link in the rear and 3 link in the front with a panhard bar. It has 5.71 gears in the axles with Lock-Right lockers front and back, 4.24 transfer case low gears, and FJ60 front rotors with Toyota V6 4x4 calipers. We build it at the old shop just before we moved to the new place.

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JDMMA70

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Dec 4, 2006
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Thats crazy i didnt know you could do that with Sidekicks my dad had one in the early 90's when i was little thats pretty cool makes me want to get one for a daily
 

bigaaron

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Apr 12, 2005
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JDMMA70;1327809 said:
Thats crazy i didnt know you could do that with Sidekicks my dad had one in the early 90's when i was little thats pretty cool makes me want to get one for a daily

With enough money you could make anything into a rock crawler! :biglaugh:

It's a fun little truck, and it still gets great gas mileage even with 35" tires!
It only costs $20 to fill it up!
 

bigaaron

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Apr 12, 2005
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Suprapowaz!(2);1327843 said:
Does a rockcrawler need alot of torque/hp to climb rocky terrain like that?

Dude, this thing only has 80hp at the crank! :biglaugh:

It's all in the gearing. In 4wd low it would literally crawl straight up if I had enough traction. A few times we did go almost straight up! It will idle up a super steep incline, I can let it idle in gear and get out of the truck and walk next to it.

The only time I wish it had more power is going up hills at freeway speeds, it's barely enough to keep from loosing speed.
 

SupaMan

Want The Boooooossttttttt
Oct 12, 2006
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Cape Coral,Florida
nice! thats a kickass sidekick! down here we dont have rocks and shit but those little fuckers get out in the mud with some bigger size tires and they just float over everything. its amazing.
 

bigaaron

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Apr 12, 2005
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RazoE;1328321 said:
very nice, I like how your taillights mysteriously swap back and forth between styles..;)


also your little "T" fell off in the pics..:D

Good eye!!!

It says ".5 Toyota" because of the Toyota axles, plus Toyota is just cooler then Suzuki, we all know that. :biglaugh:
The Suzuki logo was missing when I got it, and I had that Toyota logo sitting around from a 1jz clip LOL

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And the tail lights got changed when I found a sweet 95 Tracker at the pick-a-part! I got seats and a door panel, window regulators, and a bunch of other brand new looking items.