1999 Tacoma 3RZ Build

makgti

New member
Hey everyone,

I recently picked up this relatively clean 1999 4 cylinder 4x4 off Craigslist for cheap. It had 288k miles on it when I picked it up and was suffering a bit but the A/C and heat worked and it drove under its own power with no noticeable issues with suspension, steering, or braking.

The previous owner had driven it as a daily through the worst the rust belt had to offer for around 10 years accumulating around 150k miles. Luckily the frame had at least been sprayed under a Toyota recall to save the majority of it, but there are some questionable spots on the rear of the frame near the bed that will probably need attention.

Mechanically its surprisingly good for nearly 300k miles. There is an exhaust leak and it feels a bit down on power, but I wouldn't be surprised or upset if it needed a rebuild.

Plans are to use this mainly as a motorcycle hauler but also as a camping/weekend rig. Hopefully can scrounge together a topper and some other amenities to create a good climbing/mountain biking rig with better sleeping arrangements than my 2006 Nissan Xterra.

It's already been the distance to the moon, hoping I can bring it back...

Specs
5 speed manual 3rz extended cab SR5
Manual hubs
3.58 gears
235/75r15 tires

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makgti

New member
First things first, fix all the crumbling 20 year old rubber bushings, starting with the shifter.

Shifts were incredibly vague and I opened the shifter bushing to find nothing remained. Even the little plastic end on the shift linkage wasn't actually attached to the ball of the shift arm. 20 mins and $10 later it shifts like new.
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makgti

New member
Next order of business. Truck had some questionable spots of rust on the frame. It's been driven for 12 years in the Midwest so I decided that I would take the frame down to bare metal and POR15 it. Unfortunately my nightmares were realized when I started to clean away the undercoating that the frame had and found a big fat hole in the frame. Luckily have some good friends out in Detroit who got me all patched up. Like it never even happened.... To be continued, went through the process of covering the rest of the body undersides in fluid film and will need to break the grinder out again.
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makgti

New member
In the mean time I went ahead and replaced the tired old wheels with some from a new Tacoma. Snagged off Craigslist I gained about an inch of ground clearance and a lot more grip, will need to get some more aggressive tires come spring, but for now they'll do.

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Last edited:

makgti

New member
Truck was running a bit rough and sounded a bit strange. At first thought it was just an exhaust leak but could hear audible valvetrain noise. Decided to go ahead and pull the valve cover off and discovered that every single exhaust valve except one had less that 1 thousandth of clearance between the shim and cam. Was able to take the exhaust cam out, measure the shims and order new ones. Guy at the Toyota dealership cut me a deal on the shims and had them shipped to me in about a day. The intake shims were also out of spec... But not by much and the bucket tool I bought isn't actually tall enough to hold the bucket in place. Taking out the intake cam would be a bear right now so I'm leaving it for when I eventually need to tear this motor apart. Runs way better now, no valve noise. Still has a bit of sound from a leak between the header(aftermarket lce) and the cat that I'll need to get a new gasket for, but for now, it drives solid.
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