Snagged the last couple pieces needed for the 8.8 to bolt in. Phase 1 of the chassis is almost complete! Just a little bit longer and this truck will be rollin with a Ford 8.8 with 4 disc big brakes all the way around and a fresh set of wheels.
I'm actually getting excited.
Sick McNasty. Lots of work on this her' truck.
And here goes my update......
The custom world can be a huge pain in the dick. There really is no way to get around it. You must always take a fresh look at what you are doing and approach it one piece at a time. Any other way, you will just end up overwhelmed and with a pile of parts.
Some things you end up finding out are not the way you anticipated them to be, some others are dead on. I have been getting very frustrated with 2 portions of this build recently, but I remained patiend and steadfast to making it happen. The first issue I am running into is this particular 4G64 block. As I mentioned before, it is one of a kind. It is a wideblock, it was only available in one vehicle here in the states, and it full of surprises. I have been patiently collecting Evo bits to run a single 6 rib belt up front that will allow me to stack a supercharger on top of this engine. After buying the first round of parts, it only made me realize what a huge headache I am now in for.
Virtually every other 4G6X engine will allow use of 4G6X parts. They have many of the same holes, castings, and components - but this one remains the odd ball. Aside from missing some castings, I must also figure out how to make Evo bits mingle with Momtero Sport bits.
He is one example - the water pump. Since this is a RWD block, the thermostat is on the side of the block with its own housing. It works with the Montero Sport water pump, but the Evo pump is clocked differently. Here is what I have to solve.
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The inlet of the Evo pump is now right where the thermostat housing bracket is
and.....
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They are now offset.
It is an easy fix for any custom fabricator - simply modify the pump to work. In my opinion, that is crossing the line. There is a difference between fabrication (to build, fix, or solve anything), and engineering (devising a solution rather than a fix).
I need to cut a section of the bracket off and build a new water pipe so I can replace the water pump with any other if it ever goes bad. There is no point in custom building something that I will have to do repeatedly in the event of a failure.
Here is problem two - the idler.
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This is the back side of the Evo idler assembly. It also mounts the power steering pump. If you look closely at the pic, you will see that 2 bolt holes were never casted into this block as they are on every other G63/64/69. Instead, they casted holes for the AC bracket that fit on the Montero Sport. I'm about 90% sure I have the solution for it. I has to be there, otherwise I cant use the Evo setup without reconfiguring everything (which is not what I want to do).
Finally, I had a problem with the IS300 wheels I scored. They do not fit over the Toyota hubs, and they definitely do not fit over the Ford hubs. I went out of my way to come up with solutions since I already have money invested into the wheels and lug nuts that fit Lexus mags to 1/2" studs (not cheap). At the end of the day, I can't put my name on any half assed solution I could think of or find. I had to scratch the wheels off the list. No matter how temporary the wheels might be intended for, I will not let even my own vehicle out the door with anything less than a well engineered design.
So I went hunting for more wheels. This is more difficult than it seems. I have 2 very different offsets to deal with, and 2 dufferent hub sizes. I was at the yard again today pulling little bits and pieces when I saw a set of Enkei wheels for sale. I test fit them to both hubs - and they cleared! I wasted no time buying them.
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They are in very decent shape. I do have to put a little work into them, but not as much as most yard wheels.
Then I took a break from the rest of the junk to do some fab work. I need a break every now and again...
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This is our exclusive Merrill Performance SFT design, and it is a total bitch to do in the space I have vs. the requirements I need it to be for this particular build. Yes, technically I have lots of space. However, I can't just send header tubes flying all over the engine bay
The angle it needs to be at, and the position it needs to exit, it really making this tough.
Aside from that - another score! I've been on the hunt for a rack & pinion unit for this truck. Mitsu never offered one for itbut I think I have found a suitable part. Funny enough its from the same model Tacoma I am using the 5 lug hubs from. The trickiest part has been finding a rack that sits behind the axle (as opposed to in front), and fits the dimensions of my truck. Some rack designs will make the wheels turn the opposite direction when installed behind an axle if they were meant for the front.This should be a pretty straight forward install - 2 bolts and done.
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That's pretty much all I have for now. I have been flip flopping around on this build recently. I think it has to do with availability of parts and when I find them. This build schedule has pretty much followed the delivery schedule of parts I find and buy.
Kickin' ass today, but ended up shelling out more money
Started off with the idler bracket on the engine. As I stated before, this engine is a 4G64, but it doesn't have the same castings as the other 4G6X engines. It's an odd ball. So here is the solution
First off I measured the bracket to find out how much needs to come off and marked it, followed by cutting it down, and cutting a new bolt plate to fasten it to
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Next up was a quick weld and a trim to clean it up
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Since this piece was added, the back plate needed to be modified as well. A simple slit did the job.
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While the coating was drying, I shaved down the existing bolt hole on the block and the serial number casting to clear the plate I welded to the bracket. Once it was all dried, I fitted it and marked the holes for the hardware.
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Now on to the cool stuff..... stopping power! This is the mounting solution for the rotor to hub mounting. Basically nothing more than some square nuts welded to the rotor. I used larger grade 8 hardware for fasteners. Here is the final assembly of rotors to hubs
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And finally - a wheel shot
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Sadly, without the caliper, a 17" wheel makes a 12.5" rotor look not as big
The total badassery of this next pic is: the front rotors (right) are 20% larger than my stock ones (middle). The rears (left) are even bigger than my stock rotors. There is nothing cooler than saying you have gigantotasticcrazy big brakes so big that the rears are bigger than your old fronts.
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Speaking of calipers.... I was making the 2 pot Montero Sport calipers work with the 314mm rotors. The only problem with it is I don't like it. In order to get the clearance I needed, I had to remove about 1/4" of metal from the bracket. That really isn't much, but it did make the bracket look pretty wimpy. Instead of rolling with it, I shelled out a lot of money for a new front set of VR-4 4 pots for the front. They should be in next week sometime...
It was only when buying the VR-4 calipers that I thought I should have run the smaller brakesthe big calipers are almost twice as much, and harder to find unused.
them rotors man... Awesome
Looking good, got to love the art of fabrication and engineering.
IDK why the name change did not take. But you did everything right as far as I could tell. All i did was add a . to the end of it.
Members come and members go, But the board keeps track of them.
Come join me at Navarro Mills Lake RV in Texas by clicking HERE.
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Or look on YouTube, just Click Here.
No clue. But thank you! I appreciate it.Originally Posted by camoit
Wish I could weld like that...never did much welding in my life. My welds would look like the torch took a series of dumps along the trail, lol. I Need to get me a wire feed maybe and just practice with the entire roll of wire until I get the feel of it. Or continuing using Super Glue.
Practice makes perfect... Everyone has to start somewhere. I don't even own a MIG (wire feed) anymore, only TIG. I think I've been welding consistently (more than hobby/occasionally) since 2001. I'm still learning and perfecting it every time I pick up the torch. I usually tell people to grab a decent "hobby welder" like a Lincoln MIG from Home Depot or a good Miller to practice with. Crappy welders work, but they end up teaching you how to correct the inferior product result rather than how to weld properly. Proper instruction and understanding of Metallurgy helps as well. Above all, practice makes perfect.
On that note, I did some more welding to my headers. I had to correct one of the primary tubes, then another.... then I ran out of tubes
More are on the way now along with lug nuts, front pads for the VR-4 calipers, and new lug nuts (for the third time) to fit my third set of wheels.
Here is a shot of the header as it stands now
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Since the engine build and swap is still a little ways away, I just work on parts in my spare time. It's not really part of the immediate build schedule.
On the plus side - the Ford 8.8 is now completely ready to drop in. I had to remake the brake line since I narrowed the axle. Just waiting on the calipers to show so I can swap the whole chassis at once. At the moment I have no shop, so its a mess trying to work in here, but whatever... this is how it looks (sadly - this isn't all my stuff - some is still in SoCal). Either way, here is a crappy pic ..
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I had a mild scare last night as well. Some friends and I were gearing up to start racing again, so I decided to join. We were out in the middle of nowhere playing on some new roads (part of a new development) where there is no traffic at all. I can to a traffic circle, dropped to 2nd, got loose, pulled it around into a drift, made it about 3/4 of the way through until I ran out of usable power. Once I pulled out of it, I slid into third to roll out and suddenly - there was nothing there..... where second used to be is now 4th, where first was is now 3rd and I didn't have any other gear
I know these transmissions are kinda built like glass, but here was the problem
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Not entirely sure how it happened, but it's going to happen again at some point, so I need to be more careful until I get the new trans in.
These last bits of parts should be in mid next week, and I will have to find the time to make this swap happen. Until then - questions or comments are accepted, and appreciated!
What happened with the shifter? 5 years of abuse of my km132 holding a few 4g63 turbo motors without issues. Few grinds and mised gears kinds of abuse. Lol
i had the same problem in my truck regarding the shifter coming almost off the transmission, sucks...
Somehow the shifter bolts came unscrewed. Could be vibration - could be stripped enough to not tighten enough.... who knows. I put it all back together and it seems to be good enough to last until the other trans goes in. I dont really care about it at the moment lol.
Looks like I have an opening Sunday. There is a high probability I will have the 8.8 installed.
The rest of the parts for the front will arrive throughout next week between Monday and Friday. I am in a rush to get the brakes and everything installed so I can focus on this engine swap.
THE 8.8 IS IN!!
Here are some pics of the install. It's pretty straight forward as far as the job goes...
I will make a 2 "How To" on narrowing and swapping since it is all done now, but here are some quick pics and notes for now.
First - get the old one out. The size difference between these two is very VERY clear
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Then roll the 8.8 in and mount it all up in place
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There are a few yoke options, but these are the new pars I used. I don't see a need for rebuilding an entire rear end, but using used parts for the drive shaft.
Spicer U1670 weld yoke for a 3" drive shaft tube.
This a Ford 9" yoke, so you need a hybrid Ujoint to fit to the Ford 8.8 Spicer yoke.
The Ujoint part number is 348. I used Precision for the brand, but there are many brands to use.
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Drive shaft mods are very simple. You can either send it out to a drive line specialist, or use a series of specialty tools to correctly measure the yoke for welding in straight. Cut the old yoke off, weld the new one on, paint it. If you need to send it out to get balanced (recommended), do it.
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Even though it will pretty much never be seen, my friends decided a "Merrill Performance Custom Drive Shaft" needed to be announced. Personally, I think it looks awesome! I'm glad they talked me into it.
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This is the final - all fitted and adapted to the Mighty Max
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For lack of a better word - this truck just got stupid. I can't even begin to describe how insane it is. Equal power, breaks loose with the tap of this little 8 valve (no bullshit), solid pulls.... The list goes on.
I went from 3:9 gears to 3:73's and it takes so little to get these wheels cooking. I was in such a toss up about the gears I have or going with 4:10's, but I think I wouldn't be able to accelerate
In all honesty, I would seriously recommend this swap for the Mighty Max. The fact that it is ridiculously simple to do, parts are cheap and plentiful, both new and used. It is so easy to do, it would be foolish to pass it up.
With any luck, I'll have the big brakes on next Sunday.
This last pic shillin at the bottom is one I want to be seen. This is the one piece that allows the 8.8 3/16 flare brake line bolt up to the 10mm Mighty Max line. Just cut one end off and re-flare the line with a 3/16 male fitting. One side fits the Mitsu, the other side fits the Ford.
Questions or comments welcome.
Nice Job. The 8.8 Ford rear is without a doubt the bast strength vs. cost option out there. I have an 8.8 out of an 1987 Turbo Coupe in my 4G63T Mitsubishi Sapporo (Challenger). I installed it in 2004 and have had zero issues with it since, and that's countless launches on Mickey Thompson Drag Radials with 60' in the 1.5-1.6 range. I used 31 spline strange axles, Eaton Posi, and 355 gears.
Good luck with it! you wont be disappointed...
I use a Ford 7.5 out of an 83 Ranger. Payed $19.95 for it one weekend and ended up being a 3.45 Auburn posi. Upgraded to the 88 Aerostar 10x 2.5 rear drums and found a stud cover. Wheels are a 17x7, 5 of 4.5" bolt circle with a 42mm offset and they fit great.
Love the work on the 8.8" I had one with the 3.73 posi sitting around out of a 92 Ranger (4.0L Sport) but as you found out it was a few inch's to wide and I didn't feel like cutting all my air bag mounts and 4 link off my 7.5 so I sold it for a couple hundred bucks.
Thanks everyone!
I'm enjoying it so far. I do have a brake issue, but I will solve that once I swap the 314mm fronts. I don't want to keep bleeding the system out. I'm going to ditch that rear proportioning valve and hook up the hand brake. I swapped to the 1 1/16" master cylinder already, but I have a brake line that has a tiny leak, so I can't maintain pressure.
One of my calipers arrived today. The other will be in tomorrow, and the brakes Thursday. That leaves me Friday and Saturday to buy tires for my wheels and get the front brackets fabricated. Should be a breeze.
I also have to notch the rear cross member above the axle. Since the 8.8 has a ABS sensor in it, they casted a guard to surround it. I tossed the sensor and added a -10 return for the diff cooler. The casting smacks the cross member on a big bump. It's a quick fix at least...
I'll have more updates as they happen! I dig car talk in the mean time....
Today I made the notch in my rear crossmember to clear the housing. I'll get pics up soon...
I also finally hooked up the hand brake and tossed the rear proportioning valve as well as made some additional plumbing changes. Only problem I have now is my pedal takes 2 pumps to stop me. Even with the biggest Mitsubishi BMC I can find, it still doesn't push enough volume to keep this system up. I ordered a residual check valve today, so that should fix it. With these big ass rear calipers, and additional plumbing (hand brake and such), there just isn't enough volume to fill it all up in one pump
Not a lot of talk over here..... The views are close to the same as the other board I post to, but the chat is less... Oh well.
Here we go!
This is the quick fix notch I made to the rear crossmember until I build the rest of the chassis (this crossmember wont even be there). If you are dropped in the rear with this same rear end, you'll need to do this too.
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Not my best work by any means - just a quick and easy... My G.A.F. factor is low on it since it wont stay this way for ever. All it has to do is hold (which it will).
Since I added an adjustable proportioning valve, I tossed the Mitsu one that was on the back. Now its all clean and simple with a single line
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Speaking of brakes - they are SO CLOSE to being installed. Today I managed to find time enough to fab brackets for the calipers.
Here are some shots...
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As most of us that have ever done our own brakes, or had our wheels off, the factory Mighty Max calipers are rear mounted. There is no room what so ever to make a bracket for these calipers to fit in the same place, so they had to be relocated to the front (just like the VR-4). Only trouble is the suspension and steering is very different between the two vehicles lol. This truck has twice the control arms, 4 times the steering components, and even a few additional parts that don't exist on the VR-4. That being said - there is little room for error. Truth be told, I had to make a bracket twice because I "missed" on the first measurement.
The first bracket would allow the caliper to contact the sway bar before lock. There is no way in hell I will tolerate that, so I had to remake the brackets but clocked them to rotate the caliper clock-wise. Now the calipers are free and clear of everything and sit perfectly above the sway bar.
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I did have to recess the center bore for hub clearance, but I decided to make them nice with a fillet edge.
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I'll do the finish work on these tomorrow. This was just "mowing it down" to get it shaped. It was a long day.
Amazingly, those junk yard wheels I recently purchased, cleaned up very nicely! I was truly surprised after I gave them a wash down. Also wrapped them up in some cheap new rubbers (for the summer).
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Pretty good fitment.... I was going to paint them (still will at some point) - but a buddy of mine talked me into rolling like this for a minute before painting them.
That's all I have for today. In theory, I will finish the machine work on the brackets, coat them, get my brake hoses made, and ready everything to install on Sunday. I am PUMPED about getting these on. That means Phase 1 of the chassis is crossed off the list and I can move on to the engine!
The wheels look GREAT oh and the real size of that rotor upgrade is finally seen through the wheel..."IT"S HUGE"
Those rims look so unusual on a MM, love it. Got a diagram of your brake plumbing set up with the MC, check valve and prop valve? Is the parking brake hydraulic but on a separate circuit or is it a drift brake? I want to try a Montero rear axle but I'm not sure how to set up the parking brake so it's safe. Also don't know if the dinky stock MC can move enough to clamp down on Montero rear discs.
You're a skilled fabricator, if I ever get around to doing a full-on 4 link and bag suspension, I hope you're available for hire...your shop is in San Diego?
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Looks badass Merrill!! What rotors are you using, looks really good and looks to be rear mounted like stock? I love the tuner wheels on there also, look great!
I just finished up my passenger side mounting of my vr4s and 12.5 rotors, now I need to make my brackets for the drivers side.
I don't have a diagram of it, but all I did was plumb 2 lines into a single, splice in the prop valve, hand brake, and line lock, then send it out to the back. I tossed the cable brakes since everything is hydraulic now. The line lock is what holds it still. It's basically a plunger that holds pressure in the line. Look at the pics of the hand brake - the little black know is the parking brake.
If you swap the MC with a larger one, it will have all the stopping power in the world. All that info is on page 1. I used a 1 1/16th bore MC which is a bolt-on to the MM.
The shop has been relocated to Vegas. We are always for hire, and chassis are definitely one of our favorite areas to mod. Whenever you are ready, we can definitely get you set up.
The front rotors are from a VR-4. The center has been bored to 86.1mm to slide over the Tacoma hub. They are now front mounted just like the VR-4 is. Brackets take about 20 minutes to make if you have the tools. I used my band saw and drill press to do these. The machine work took a few extra minutes, but not every design needs machining.
Is line lock safe? I read the valve can burst or otherwise fail if you park on a hill because it's only meant to clamp the brakes for a moment while staging.
That's a staging line lock. This line lock is a mechanical valve made for parking. Staging locks are usually electro mechanical and aren't meant to hold the vehicle. They are meant as a "roll stop"
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