So after a long and much cherished 8 years with the FJ, parted her out and decided to move on to a new build. The FJ didn't go easily, spent a month tracking down factory parts, destickering the rig was a pain in the ***, and the hood decal adhesive took 8 hours of goof off and scraping it off with a plastic razor blade.



Finally tracked down a clean, well kept, garage stored 06 Lexus GX470 in the exact color I wanted (Ash Blue Mica) owned by a CEO's wife just to drive the kids to school in. I ended up trading in the FJ and getting 9 grand for it with 152k miles on the odo and lots of offroad abuse. Reason for picking a GX was for the V8, having 4 doors, and the fact all the FJ suspension would swap over so I wouldn't have to start over, but mainly it was for the V8: 280 hp, 330 lb/tq. Also planning on a lot more traveling over the US and Baja Mexico next year, so the space was a huge plus for comfortable multi day traveling trips.



Next day after purchase, went straight to the exhaust shop and had them delete the resonator and install a Magnaflow exhaust to give that V8 some breathing room and add more rumble, I'm happy with the way it turned out, not too loud and no interior drone, but still sounds like a mean V8 on WOT.

Next day after that, tracked down a contact for Method wheels in Riverside and ended up buying a set of 17"x8.5 Method Double Standards for cheap. Mounted them on stock tires for now since I will be leaving for a Zion roadtrip for gas mileage. As soon as I get back, the Icon lift from the FJ will get rebuilt along with the TC UCAs and they will be installed along with 285/70/17 Falkens. Look forward to mods to come.







Upcoming this week: running board delete

Preview, the suspension coming off my FJ, in the process of getting them rebuilt for the new rig - Icon 2.5 extended travel coilovers with reservoirs/Total Chaos UCAs/Icon VS2.0 rear shocks/Toytec Custom Flex rear springs:

 

I was intrigued by your choice to remove the resonator. A quick web search indicates that removing it may reduce an engine's power... am I uninformed?

 

Looking forward to the build. Considering doing one myself.

 

The factory resonator is a straight through resonator, no baffle or anything inside, the exhaust guy said it won't do much of anything, truck feels better without it and it got a lot louder and picked up 1 MPG lol (maybe due to the long magnaflow muffler). All the resonator does is control a bit of exhaust drone, but not much at all.

 

Interesting project. I'll have to keep checking in to follow the GX's progress.

Alpha

 

Yes you are.

The resonator is strictly there to tame exhaust noise. Removing it will make your exhaust a little louder depending on your setup. Removing it will often create drone inside of the cabin. With the GX's being in the tail pipe you might be ok but I would still keep it on.

 

(Wait until he sees the balance weight that's attached to the exhaust!)

 

Subscribed!

 

The resonator is not that big of a deal, there is no drone inside, I actually wanted it loud, but its not, a nice little rumble at idle, and loud at WOT, but decent to no drone when driving around. On my FJ, I had intake/throttle body spacer/catless y pipe w resonators/and flowmaster exhaust, and boy was she loud, but sounded mean. Exhaust is not a new thing for me

BTW: the balance weight is still there..

 

Slowly deleting all the chrome off this thing. Wet sanded, Duplicolor self etching primer, and Duplicolor bedliner.

 

Good riddance to those ugly running boards, off-road rigs say no to running boards unless you're a mall crawler

 

you said you went to riverside for your wheels ? are you local to the area ? i live in corona and looking for people to meet in the area since it seems the GX is rare here

 

MaGoo, I'm from Anaheim, so I took a long drive out to Riverside, but once the GX is built up a bit more, I'm down to go wheelin!

 

Nice! I'll be watching this closely. Looks great so far. This might be the motivation I needed to pull my running boards. I've just been lazy.

 

I agree. I did the same delete and left the factory muffler but added a Y pipe for dual exhaust pipes. Sounds perfect nice growl on acceleration and quiet on start up.