Trooper vs 4runner for a budget minded build? whats your thoughts?

[wesfab1]

The wife just bought an '02 Trooper this past friday. One of those Craigslist deals that sounded to good to be true; just inspected, new brakes, new exhaust, recent engine tune up, blah blah blah. Well we got there and it wasn't inspected (excuse was brother was suppose to do it, but is lazy. Garaunteed me it will pass) The "new brakes" were just that - new in the boxes, The "new exhaust" was just a newly scabbed on flex pipe. She bought it anyways, but I'm glad she did. This thing is friggin cool. Full frame, and came out of Georgia so no rust.

Since Friday I've done the usual fluid swaps, and installed the new brake pads. Two out of the four brake calipers were seized, and all the pads were bare metal, and the rotors are shot. MAF sensor was clogged, throttle body looked like someone dumped tar in there, and there was a rip in the intake tube. :yikes:

Future plans for this thing is to Mall Crawl the hell out of it. Bumpers, safari rack, snorkle, tires. She'll never take it anywhere that she would need any of that, but atleast it'll look cool. Research shows this can run a 33X10.5 with no lift:Wow1:

 

[BigSwede]

The wife just bought an '02 Trooper this past friday. One of those Craigslist deals that sounded to good to be true; just inspected, new brakes, new exhaust, recent engine tune up, blah blah blah. Well we got there and it wasn't inspected (excuse was brother was suppose to do it, but is lazy. Garaunteed me it will pass) The "new brakes" were just that - new in the boxes, The "new exhaust" was just a newly scabbed on flex pipe.

Gotta love craigslist

She bought it anyways, but I'm glad she did. This thing is friggin cool. Full frame, and came out of Georgia so no rust.

Troopers were marketed to soccer moms in the US but are in fact rugged beasts. And no rust is SO cool, my previous Trooper came from Massachusetts, and my current Trooper came from Texas... what a joy it has been to work on a rust-free vehicle.

Future plans for this thing is to Mall Crawl the hell out of it. Bumpers, safari rack, snorkle, tires. She'll never take it anywhere that she would need any of that, but atleast it'll look cool.

Well then ARB is your friend. Roof racks are rare, except for generic ones, but you can get a Front Runner on a slow boat from South Africa. ARB bullbar is available, but rear bumper would be custom. I'm sure Independent4x would be happy to build you one, or possibly Darlington Off-Road.

Research shows this can run a 33X10.5 with no lift:Wow1:

Yep! Although some OME rear coils work wonders on a Trooper, the factory springs are too soccer-mom soft.

 

[wesfab1]

I'm a metal fabricator by trade. The bumpers and rack will be made in house.
Here is my old expo toy I made the bumpers and rack for.
100_2234 by Fazekas Industries, on Flickr

Totally agree with you on the soft spring rate, this thing seems go have some major body roll. Granted I think its still sporting the shocks it left the showroom with. The OME rears and crank torsion bars is most likely what I'll be doing


Any tips on getting the TOD check light to go away?

 

[BigSwede]

Not really, I have a regular part-time transfer case, sorry.

Regarding body roll, replace the sway bar bushings, it's cheap and surprisingly effective. Also, I think uprated sway bars are still available from Calmini...those are not so cheap.

That's cool you can roll your own bumpers, that will save you some jing.

 

[cnutco]

+1 for a Montero. Far more of a offroad

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sebas]

Yup, just took my '91 out for a nice 4 day camping trip. With the new OME shocks and HD springs, she did very well with the heavy load of gear we were packing. And the ARB air lockers kicked ********!

Troopers ******!

Bart

This Trooper looks very nice!

 

[wesfab1]

I'm trying to calculate the price difference between ordering all the individual parts through my shop to see if its any cheaper than purchasing a whole kit. I have the OME # for the coils.

Wondering if anyone can suggest a shock length? Using the Old Man Emu #929 coils

 

[double moo]

Call the tech rep at ARB... they were great to give me the lengths and options for shocks to work with my coils. I ended up going with the OMEs on the recommendation of a local 4x4 shop and they have been great.

 

[BigSwede]

Wondering if anyone can suggest a shock length? Using the Old Man Emu #929 coils

I would just suggest the OME Trooper spec shocks, they are longer than stock but not so long your coils will fall out on extreme flex. You CAN go longer though if you want to deal with coil retainers and such. There are OME shocks for a Nissan Patrol I believe that fit and are around 3" longer than stock (Independent4x can hook you up)...with those shocks and disconnected sway bar you would not believe how much a Trooper rear axle can flex.

 

[wesfab1]

Ok, I spoke with ARB USA yesterday. Dude on the phone tells me that the 929 springs (actually superseded to #2929) will only give a net lift of 3/4". Am I missing something?

I'd also like to share my TOD fix here since there are a few Trooper people watching this thread. The Trooper my wife bought has the CHECK light flashing, I got 7 codes when I did the check. I thought there was no way because underneath this thing all the sensors had allready been replaced (poorly, cheap butt connectors and didnt tie any wires up) When shifting the Tcase into low the front axle wasnt engaging, so I figured this may not be a TOD problem. Crawled inderneath the front axle, pulled the axle skid, and low and behold I found broken bare wires and broken plugs. BINGO. When someone did the engine swap at one point they lowered it onto the wiring for the vacuum solenoid crushing the plug. I temporarily hacked this back together using blue buttconnectors in lieu of the plug.

Does anyone have a source for the replacement plug/ pigtail?

 

[SRN]

Ok, I spoke with ARB USA yesterday. Dude on the phone tells me that the 929 springs (actually superseded to #2929) will only give a net lift of 3/4". Am I missing something?

Nope, thats correct.

 

[BigSwede]

Ok, I spoke with ARB USA yesterday. Dude on the phone tells me that the 929 springs (actually superseded to #2929) will only give a net lift of 3/4". Am I missing something?

That is what ARB says, but I have 929s and reality is about 2" lift. I would not be able to fit 35s on my Trooper with only 3/4" from the coils.

 

[4Rescue]

Whatever you decide, stay away from the GM 2.8L V6... possibly one of the worst engines ever made (maybe even THE worst) anywhere in the world. We had a 91 Trooper and while we LOVED the truck, the seating position, interior and the cargo capacity etc. the engine was a complete dud. The power band is from about 3500-4000rpm and it's not exactly "powerful" there either. otherwise the truck was awesome. Were we savvy to doing an engine swap back then we might still have it we liked the chassis so much. My uncle still has a Gen 1 2dr. Turbo Diesel/5-speed and it's still going down the road with 460K on the odo and it's SO much better to drive then the GM V6 it's not even funny. The Gen2 V6 trucks were great trucks ruined from the factory with a boat anchor engine.

Cheers

Dave

 

[BigSwede]

Heh, yeah the first gen V6 Troopers weren't any more powerful than the I4 models. But FWIW the V6 models are easy swap candidates for a GM 3.4L, which wakes them up nicely.

 

[outofrshell]

I normally don't let ignorance of a subject bother me but when it is so far off the mark that it is just plain insulting then I will counter with factual info. The 1st Gen. Trooper with the 2.8 V6 was not a bad vehicle, granted it was under powered but the 2.8 V6 was not a POS it was absolutely reliable with many of them going 250,000 or more and a lot of them still on the road. In todays world you are way better off with the V6 than the 2.6 4 Cylinder. It is simple fact that Isuzu is out of the SUV market in the USA and parts are becoming harder to source. On the other hand GM is still around and parts for the 60 Deg. V6 are available almost anywhere. Also if you like the old 1st Gen. Trooper there is no better platform to build on than the V6,you can build anything from mild to wild and the 2.8 block is a very stout engine. A step up is the 3.1 from an early Rodeo another step up is the 3.4 from a Camero or you can build the 2.8 into a 3.2 and with the right parts you can end up with about 165 to 180 HP. So if you are a gearhead or like to tinker don,t shy away from the V6 just because some one posted BS that they know nothing about. Now as far as the 2nd Gen. Troopers and their boat anchor engine,more BS the 3.2 overhead cam engine was was a very good engine with very few issues, the later 3.5 twin cam engine did have an engineered flaw that with poor maintenance allowed it to start using excessive amounts of oil but with good service and the right oil they are fine and they make a very respectable HP and Torque. Our 2000 Trooper has 85000 miles on it and uses no oil and will out perform many of the newer SUVs of the same size, my 1989 Trooper with a built 2.8 is a joy to drive being able to pull long hills in 5th gear and still maintaining speed or actually being able to pass some one with throttle left over. Dave