I was hoping you'd been making progress on the Taco build :) The custom transfer case being assembled is great news! Very curious to see what that VVT ECTS-i throttle body will look like on the GE's Y-manifold.

haha, I still haven't driven up either of those peaks yet. I would love to drive up pikes peak in a properly setup car, maybe something to shoot for in the future.
I feel like the audi might be better suited to rip it up through that course, but I haven't seen too many trucks try it, and I haven't seen too many 2jz AWD trucks so maybe I should be the first to attempt it.
Probably have to put a cage in that thing, maybe carry a parachute with me or something :driving:

Yeah, that transfer case was a pain.. garage still kinda smells like gear oil.
At first I tried to borrow a 23 spline input shaft from a 3rd gen 4runner transfer case, but since it wasn't the torsen variety the gears on the back of the input had some differences.
eventually got hold of a 4th gen 4runner case which is torsen and even has 2wd, and that had the right 23 spline input and gears to work in the fj manual case.
An alternative would be to just use the 4th gen 4runner case, and retrofit all the ecu's and controllers to get 2wd, awd, 4x4, etc.. but its all electronic and I wanted to keep it straight mechanical.
The rear bias on the awd torsen case is quite large though, so I don't think I will be missing the 2wd that much.

The v8 throttle body on the GE intake won't look as good as a FFIM setup I was planning, but I decided in the end I rather have the torque and the installation will be alot easier, so we shall see how it looks.
When its done though the plan is to lay down the baddest AWD burnout possible with the 32" mud tires... after a quick clutch break in of course :D

this is the one I saw online like 8 years ago, that inspired me to do the non vvti version. So I will be trying to do something like this, with the TB more centered over the valley.
Hopefully it fits because I haven't' gotten the throttle body in yet... I have a good feeling about it though :uh:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...0/DSCF5999.JPG