New to board. Any street Hilux owners?

[rustyATV]

To each his own, i dont believe a rz motor is going to have the power to nicely pull out of turns whereas a 7m definitely is torquey out of boost comparatively. I do understand your weight forward of the suspension concern but i believe it would be more than mitigated by a good 4-link setup or traction bar in the rear and a rear sway. I completely disagree about the mountain roads not permitting a high revving motor, not sure where you get that from. I've never personally had that issue, and i doubt any of the thousands of street bikes or high hp cars that visit the area would agree either.

While I'd like to do it, a proper 4-link setup is pretty ambitious, more so than an engine swap, as the roll center, spring, and shock rates would all have to be developed from nothing, unless the 4wd systems are reasonable for street use. Also, there may not be enough room under my truck to mount upper links without also relocating things like the fuel tank. Adding a built motor may be too much for the W series transmission my truck has, which would require upgrading to the heavier and harder ($$$) to find R154, and then the rear axle may need to be upgraded to a Ford 8.8 if the hard to find 2wd Toyota 8" rear axle can't hold up(I have a 7.5", Not sure about what I can do about mixing and matching parts to build a 2wd 8". ). It's the cumulative effects on weight of strengthening the drive line that I'm worried about in trying to keep my truck around the stock 2800lbs.

Is it they're able to rev out, or do they stay in a low gear and keep the engine wound out to stay in the power band? I have to admit that my thoughts on this come from my prior experience with racing hare scrambles which was a pretty extreme in terms of rideability and tractability needs, but there I learned the value of a broad and smooth power band: http://youtu.be/qzuCsDv0op0

I just picked up a set of integra rear calipers, id be happy to snap some pics of them for you to see if the cable placement is something you could work with on your truck. Also, the 2nd gen eclipse has the same lug pattern as the 5lug tacoma, although i believe the parking brake is a drum. May be able to use the rotors though, but they would likely need the hub enlarged. The s14 (5lug) 240sx was 5x114.3 like your tacoma and had hydra-mechanical calipers. Im sure youll run into a hub size issue again, but it would seem to be an easy/inexpensive source for good brake components.

Images would be great. Weights would be also. I actually have a thread on another website with a list of cars I'm looking at for donor parts with weights and dimensions to try to maximize weight savings. I need to review it, but I recall the 95+ Nissan Maxima was one of the best fitting rotors. It has a compatible hub and a good low weight. There were a couple of others I was going to consider, and I think the 240SX with the five lugs was one. The main issue with the Toyota truck axle, though, is the flange that the wheel studs are mounted in is obscenely large, such that the only rotors with a large enough inside diameter of the "hat" is a Ford Mustang. But those rotors are pretty heavy, so I'm probably going to end up having a set of axle shafts turned down at the flange.

Other calipers I think would work well are the RX7, RSX, and S2000. Anything that sets the parking brake cable away from the center line of the rear axle is a possibility.

When you decide to lower for the front you can get belltech drop spindles they will lower the front 2 inches and maintain factory geometry in the suspension along with keeping a nicer ride also im sure they make the lowering leaf kit for your truck as well which performs better than blocks, and you may want to look into sway a way torsion bars. i dont personally run them in my truck (bc i have no money to buy anything for it right now) but i want them and everyone that i have talked to that has them said they are much better for handling hope that this can be of some help

Definitely will be using the drop spindles, though I'll have to give up on the idea of fabbing shorter arms to increase the steering rate since the Belltechs are cast in. Hoping I can find a quick ratio steering box, instead.

I thought I saw 3" lowering leafs and wanted to do those over the blocks. The things I'm wondering about are whether I can still use regular pickup shocks with the lowering leafs, what the largest size tires I can use with different levels of drop, and whether 3" is too much or 2" not enough. Another option I found was this, though I'm sure it's very pricey : http://www.flex-form.com/products.asp

Actually, the very first thing I ever did to my truck was add a rear sway bar because of how it handled when I carried my quad on the highway. It's a cheap JC Whitney piece that keeps bending at the links, though, and want to try to adapt a Ford Explorer piece. The lowering phase I think is going to come a bit later.

Here's a site that involves prepping a truck for road course: http://www.timskelton.com/lightning/mods.htm He covers a couple of things I was wondering about doing: relocating the battery under the bed, and improving the rigidity of a truck's ladder frame. The latter is going to take some custom fabrication.