1987 Toyota 4Runner SR5

22RE motor w/ 225k miles

Marlin Crawler Box

Full Cage/sliders

36 Iroks / 4.88 Gears

Bed Bob

Toyota SAS

Wade bought this 4Runner just before graduating high school.  He started putting the 4Runner to the test offroad and started dreaming up modifications. Pretty soon it had a 4″ Procomp lift/ 2in body lift and some 31″ Thornbirds.

Alot of miles and one too many burnouts later the bigger tires had taken their tole on the transmission and it had to be replaced. After 7 years of daily driving duties Wade found a honda civic and put the 4Runner play toy status. This opened up the possibilities for modifications. They started by regearing the axles to 4.88s and installing a rear locker. 33 inch tires and black rockcrawler wheels were added to finish it off.

In 2004, After a few different paint jobs and some hardcore wheeling the new weak link was found . Who can blame him when it only costs $60 to spray the whole rig. The new limiting factor for the rig was the Independent front suspension or IFS. This suspension design is not the best for rock-crawling purposes. It was time for a SAS Solid Axle Swap. Wade cut off the front suspension and swapped in an  Solid front axle out of a 85′ truck he got for FREE from his neighbor with a mix of All-Pro, Longfield, and Marlin parts. The whole swap including new rear springs took only 4 days and was done in the street in front of his house. Wow what a difference the swap made on the trail.

Since the SAS alot has changes on the 87 Toyota. A full cage from essentially offroad was installed. Tube rocksliders were built and installed. Some trick half doors were custome built for the rig. The best mod by far since the SAS has been the Marlin Crawler box and 36″ super swamper IROK tires. The rig was having some starting issues but these were easily solved by adding a hot shot starter relay. 

The 4Runner has come a long way since it was a daily driver. It has 225,000 miles on the odometer but is running like a top and tackling every obstacle Wade can throw at it. Check back for updates as this rig evolves because we all know that an offroad rig is never finished.


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BKF Featured Rig- 87 SAS 4Runner

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3 Comments

  • sou saelee

    hello my name is sou and i’ve something that i can not solve on my 1989 toyota 4runner i have a 3.0L v6 4wd and it is over heating on me i change the waterpump and my radiadtor and my termasat and it is still over heating on me and i have no heater in my 4runner so what can i do to fix this over heating problem please let me knoe thank you and have a nice day……..

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