Desert racing season is in full swing and the Baja 1000 race is just a few weeks away. As such I've been spending 2-3 days/nights a week wrenching on the 200 Series race car with our team (
Canguro Racing) which hasn't left me much time for personal vehicle projects. I was able to enlist the help of teammate and Toyota master tech Will C. on the Doug Thorley header install and replacing the t-case front output seal. It had been weeping for quite some time and the bearing was a little loose as well. All fixed now and the headers seem to have added a bit of giddy up as well? At a minimum I won't have any exhaust leaking in the future. Along with that I went ahead and replaced the front O2 sensors on the manifolds (headers) themselves. One had a code following the install and while it didn't come back after a resent, they were 180k old and I wanted to replace them before I re-installed the skid system. While I had it back in the shop we swapped some rear brake pads and adjusted the park brake. I sure do miss the self-adjusting park brake setup.
DT Headers installed, no more exhaust tick at startup!
On the tire front, I had made up my mind to stick with BFG. Other options came with great reviews but I have an agenda to stick with not only what has worked well for me personally, but also a company that supports our desert racing endeavors. With that said, the new KO2's in the 285 size were just becoming available here locally. I was really torn on dropping a tire size (approx. 1/2") 3to get the new model or just sticking with the tried and true 295 KO I have been running for the last two years. Price is a near wash between the two. I languished far too long over such a trivial thing BUT tires are freaking expensive and I didn't want to regret the purchase. My buddy and Canguro Racing team mate Dave C. is also re-shoing his 100 Series for Baja and was dead set on the KO2's, he called me to tell me they arrived at the local warehouse and his 5 were en route to the tire shop. I called my tire guy and there were no only 2 left in Utah, the other 3 would have to come from Grand Junction, CO with a $25/tire shipping charge if I wanted them soon. That made the decision... 295/75R16 BFG AT's got mounted yesterday.
It didn't end there however. After mounting the tires they tried to align the truck and my rack had too much play
. I had know about a little play and had ordered in a couple of OEM Toyota inner tie rod ends hoping that was the culprit. It wasn't... the rack guides were gonzo on the drivers side. They had it apart at the tire shop to inspect and quoted me 2 hours to swap a rack. I doubted the possiblity but had a new Toyota rack sent over anyways. Sure enough after a few hours battling it, they didn't even have the hoses off. They buttoned it back together in 20 minutes and I took it back up to my shop. My buddy (and old shop hand) Jake offered to come rock out some late night wrenching and by 10'oclock we had the rack swapped and R&R's a lower ball-joint with a torn boot. Both LBJ's were new 555 units but this boot appears to have been the victim of a rock or branch? Last project is to lower the motor back down and bolt the motor mounts back up, low and behold my drivers motor mount is shot, one more project to knock out before B1K. This poor girl is having a rough month. Crazy thing, it still drove like a dream albeit a tiny shimmy at 75+ mph, gotta love the robust Land Cruiser!
Next up, the big drive down the Baja peninsula chasing a much faster 200 Series
