1987 Turbo SR5

Skudman

New member
I had a black on tan 86. One of my favorite trucks. Add the 5 speed trans, better turbo, and intercooler… it'll be fun.

I kinda like the auto trans, better for daily driving and easier to crawl with, not that I plan on crawling but.. with A high stall TQ and valve shims will shift faster than any manual box.
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Cool truck!
84-87 pickups had the 22ret option too. The pickups had the choice for manual transmission too. I had a 84 2wd 5 speed extra cab turbo.
Indeed, the turbo pickups could have a 5 speed. Those are super envious because they have a R151, which is similar to the R150 found on 3.0 and 3.4L V6s but has a lower first gear and mates to a 23-spline gear driven transfer case instead of a chain driven one. Both of those things are very valued. The t-case is nice because you can fit crawler gears in it easily or double it with a Marlin.
 

Chim

New member
ahh I saw that too Chim, I got him to drop a bit in price for that and a few other things, not much but some was better than none. I had a hunch it was original paint though, so a repaint is in the very near future anyway. For now they are taken care of, hit them with the wire wheel, rust inhibitor and some primer. It will last till summer when she goes in for paint.

Looks like you picked one up around that same time, looks pretty good. 5 speed SR5 IIRC?

You did a good job on buffing that paint though! Make sure to keep posting pics!

yeah I picked up mine shortly after.. I need to do paint way worse than you :) But for right now I am collecting parts till I move in April then I can start updating my thread :)
 

bknudtsen

Expedition Leader
Cool truck!

Indeed, the turbo pickups could have a 5 speed. Those are super envious because they have a R151, which is similar to the R150 found on 3.0 and 3.4L V6s but has a lower first gear and mates to a 23-spline gear driven transfer case instead of a chain driven one. Both of those things are very valued. The t-case is nice because you can fit crawler gears in it easily or double it with a Marlin.

Seriously? My first truck out of college was a 1987 Toyota Pickup with a turbo and a 5-speed. Didn't know it was that rare.
 

sgiandubh

Observer
So cool to see a turbo 'Runner on here. I have an '87 ex cab turbo with a 5 speed that I wish was in half a good as shape as yours. I picked it up with a blown motor and now it's back on the road but this is great inspiration to tend to the cosmetics and improvements. Keep it coming!
 

sgiandubh

Observer
Ahh yes, it likes to keep that turbo just at spool. I want to put a the Steed turbo manifold on and run a nice quicker spooling little turbo, Top mount intercooler, and BOV. It already has the 3" exhaust, over sized valves so I should have adequate flow but, I don't like his RV270 cam choice as it doesn't open the exhaust valve soon enough and has too much overlap, I'm just blowing "power" right out the pipe. Top end it falls flat on its face.

Would love to hear your impressions of the Steedspeed manifold/aftermarket turbo if you end up going that route. I am running the stock cam, exhaust manifold and exhaust with a modified CT20 on my '87 pickup and it runs out of steam pretty hard at around 4200 rpm. Motor is fresh so I was attributing that to the restrictive exhaust, and factory cam but your experience with 3" exhaust and cam sound similar to my performance. It could be that your cam is negating most of your gains from larger exhaust.
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Seriously? My first truck out of college was a 1987 Toyota Pickup with a turbo and a 5-speed. Didn't know it was that rare.
Fairly rare. The reason people like them is 1st gear in the turbo R151F is 4.31:1, where the V6 R150F is 3.83:1 and the W56 is 3.95:1. Plus they are generally thought to be stronger than the W56 and bolt right up to a 22R-E, so building a crawler driveline with one is relatively simple. Vice-versa, the bell housing from a regular R150 V6 tranny mounts to it and since it accepts a gear driven t-case, swapping a 3.4L V6 with one is sort of the bee's knees.
 

rustED

Adventurer
Nice looking turbo runner! The paint looked pretty good after you buffed it out, I need to do mine, what product did you use?
 

Skudman

New member
Nice looking turbo runner! The paint looked pretty good after you buffed it out, I need to do mine, what product did you use?

I used a single stage paint refinishing technique. As the color and clear are together you have to treat it differently than if it was a two stage paint. You basically need to gorge the paint with oils. I used Meguires Professional Glaze over the course of a few days, applying and removing after a few hour cure period with each coat. After you thoroughly nourish the paint you can use a little Meguires 205 and Low speed dual action orbital to polish out all the slightly tattered bits. Since you now have a squeaky clean surface you need to protect it. I used a Klasse Synthetic sealant, one incredibly light coat. Un happy with the reflection of the paint at this point I tossed on 4 very thin coats of Brazilian Yellow Carnauba, Really makes its pop and adds a decent layer of protection.

Living the NW we get a fair amount of adverse weather and my paint doesn't get garaged. It is now the end of February and it still beads tight and washes nice and clean.
 

Skudman

New member
So cool to see a turbo 'Runner on here. I have an '87 ex cab turbo with a 5 speed that I wish was in half a good as shape as yours. I picked it up with a blown motor and now it's back on the road but this is great inspiration to tend to the cosmetics and improvements. Keep it coming!


Thank you!

I wish I had your 5 speed!!
 

Skudman

New member
Would love to hear your impressions of the Steedspeed manifold/aftermarket turbo if you end up going that route. I am running the stock cam, exhaust manifold and exhaust with a modified CT20 on my '87 pickup and it runs out of steam pretty hard at around 4200 rpm. Motor is fresh so I was attributing that to the restrictive exhaust, and factory cam but your experience with 3" exhaust and cam sound similar to my performance. It could be that your cam is negating most of your gains from larger exhaust.
I think removing that "wall" (which supposedly creates axial swirl bumping torque numbers) in you intake will help you pick up that top end. On my old '83 Celica I spent 30+ hours porting the intake side and I must say the results were fantastic!!

Hopefully I will get to tear this tired old motor out in August and do a blueprint over the top build on the 22ret.
 

austintaco

Explorer
There was a guy here in Austin that had a built 4runner turbo. He tried many setups, and all I could say is that it was fast. I can probably track down his email, if you wanted to pick his brain. I'm not sure what he's building now, but he had the 4runner hooked up to his laptop, watching his boost, temps, etc...
 

Skudman

New member
hey everybody, long time no post. 8 months since my last visit and I had been happily driving the truck with no issues. October 1 after topping the oil off I decided to check my plugs as I felt a slight hesitation as boost crept to 6psi. my plugs were not so good. i had a very large amount of white buildup.




then after a compression test



I decided it was time for some bottom end work. So I started tearing into it. By the end of the night I had it ready to come out.



After working a 13 hour shift I dug into it the next night and got her all pulled out and the head off.





Now at this point I had called out to my machinist letting him know I have a block I need a little work on. It had been under the gun before and I had no idea what the previous owner had done. He said get it down here and lets take a look. bit I wanted to pull the crank first and see what it looked like. I had the moter fliped over on engine stand and I start to pull the pan off when I hear, clink...clink...clink. oh no, that doesn't sound good. I cross my fingers and hope it was just something the previous owner dropped in the timing cover and was hanging around in the bottom of my pan. It was not..



my thrust bearing was laying in the bottom of my pan. obviously my crank was toast, and i measured up the block..toast.



I start thinking okay motor swap time, my old '83 early 22re, maybe a 3sge, 5m, maybe 2j or LS swap. But then got to thinking how motor swapping would kinda ruin the "cool" factor of my pretty stock truck. Long story short after many hours of research and debate I decide to source another turbo block and crank and build the crap out of it. Its going to be 22ret. it will have CP pistions, H-beam rods, Arp main bolts, MLS head gasket, ARP studs, 1mm oversized valves with a little port work, new cam (I have yet to decide), Garrett T3 .60 trim turbo, steedspeed externally gated manifold, turbosmart wastegate, custom intercooler mounted in custom front bumper to retain my AC, supra MAF, ported intake manifold with frankenmeter, electronic boost controller, cheapo BOV, innovative Wideband O2, and for now stock rebuilt injectors and ECU. by march I will have megasquirt, 425cc injectors and the ability to push well over 14lbs of boost without concern. Almost all of my parts will be here before christmas and some will arrive the week after. woohoo and lets get this thing rolling again!
 

locrwln

Expedition Leader
Should be quite the runner (see what I did there?:sombrero:) when you are done.
.
I have an '85 with the 22RTE/R151 swapped in and it had a CT26 on when I got it and it would really sing from 3k on. The oil seals in the turbo were shot, so I ordered a new CT26 and installed it. Was running kind of rough, so I thought I would do a tune up as the plugs weren't looking that great. Ran a bore scope into the cylinders and found:
IMG_1099-L.jpg


There was antifreeze in the #2 and #4 cylinders and they were all worn out. In lieu of rebuilding, I am going for a 4.3 swap. Mine was already hacked, so no loss on mine, but I agree with your rebuild on yours, it deserves it.
.
Jack
 

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