Glen's 95 series Prado getting broken in

[fridayman Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fridayman]

Nice!

[Darran K Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darran K]

Looks like your welding skills have really come along. Love the new mounts.

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

Looks like your welding skills have really come along. Love the new mounts.

Cheers Darran,
My weld's on the bench are not too bad now, but geaaz, welding overhead from under the car with limited access/visibility is beyond difficult. It's on now.. and the final result is far from perfect but it's about as good as I can do without a workshop. If there's a next time I'm going to pull the damn engine out!!

I went through several designs of the bracket - had to come up with a balance between strength, chassis welding rules and ease of access.

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

The only issues I had offroad over the weekend was finding a worn ball joint on a tie rod end. I had a spare with me so swapped that over in a Macca's car park - it was for the wrong side but still works. It's ball joint was also worn but was still an improvement, and safer. I then tried sourcing a replacement from Toyota - what a waste of time that was! A quick call to Repco Fyshwick and they had only one in stock - exactly the side I needed! I replaced that one in a nice park and felt safe again

[fridayman Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fridayman]

The only issues I had offroad over the weekend was finding a worn ball joint on a tie rod end. I had a spare with me so swapped that over in a Macca's car park - it was for the wrong side but still works. It's ball joint was also worn but was still an improvement, and safer. I then tried sourcing a replacement from Toyota - what a waste of time that was! A quick call to Repco Fyshwick and they had only one in stock - exactly the side I needed! I replaced that one in a nice park and felt safe again

Terrain Tamer also do some decent quality tie rod ends for acceptable money if you ever need to replace them again.

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

Cool any idea how much? Repco's are $115. I didn't manage to get a Toyota price on the day.

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

Genuine next time, they're just under $100!

[fridayman Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fridayman]

Cool any idea how much? Repco's are $115. I didn't manage to get a Toyota price on the day.

I paid $85 for a pair. They are made in Japan. Are your prices each or pair?

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

Repco and Toyota prices are each.... geaz

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

There can be a big difference between the size 255/85R16 depending on brand:

Maxxis Bighorn, near new ~5,000km = 33.5" tall and tread 8" wide (851/203mm).
BFG KM2, brand new = 33" tall and tread 7.2" wide (838/183mm).
BFG KM2, heavily worn ~50,000km = 32.5" tall and tread 7.2" wide (826/183mm).

Despite the KM2's smaller size and width, I've found the KM2's had noticeably more grip on sealed road, rocks, and general dirt.

[baders Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close baders]

Hey Glen. I haven't been on PP for quite a while. Congrats on the supercharger install. You got more balls than I, deciding to do it all yourself. (Had an installer do mine). Mine has been running well since install last year, but has a slight detonation under load around 2500rpm, which appears to be a common thing even with 7th injector. I am yet to do a full dyno though, just saving up for that right now. The shop that seems best over here does a hub dyno and they are Xede experts, so I am going to bite the bullet and get it done.

Even now, I'm still amazed at the low down grunt the old girl has. I don't do any of the very rough stuff as you do, but get into some medium 4WDing whilst out shooting/fishing/beach and of course towing the boat.

When I get it dynod I'll post the results here http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...eries-Build-Up

I'd be interested in any further SC mods, perhaps start a SCed 90 series thread ??

Cheers mate and fantastic work.

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

Cheers mate. I can't agree more about the grunt they have - it's amazing, especially when running 98

SC thread sounds cool. If you haven't already seen my engine mount bracket failure and fix, do so. It probably won't happen to other vehicles, mine is under more strain due to the heavier 33" tyres and 4.88 ratios, but worth keeping an eye on just in case.

Detonation is always a risk and there are some options for reducing them, cooler spark plugs, high octane fuel, lower engine compression via thicker head gasket, meth injection, (de)tuning, probably much more. What I'd love to do if I could find the time, is hack into the vehicles wires to access the knock sensor output and see if I can make it trigger a circuit to illuminate a light up front. That way we could see every time a ping is suspected. Then purchase an exhaust air/fuel monitor and have it's display up front as well. Plus connect the laptop to the xede semi-permanently. As we drive we'll be able to monitor whats happening in real time, and can make changes slowly over time. This couldn't replace a full dyno tune, but by using real world scenarios we can improve the tune.

If only there was a way to get the timing figures out of the stock ECU, that would be very useful and interesting!

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]