Decades ago, mini trucking was as popular as the VW craze. The two segments of the automotive industry were often paired up at car shows and events, because they both had such tremendous appeal. Aftermarket parts for each were plentiful, and popular magazines included VW Trends and Minitruckin’.
For many third and fourth generation Toyota pickups, like Scott’s 1994 Xtra Cab, one of the popular mods was swapping the 4WD front fenders onto the 2WD trucks. It was popular with the those who lowered their 2WD Toyotas, as well as those who lifted them. It only required the fenders, and the side marker lights to complete the look.
When Scott bought his truck, it was his third Toyota pickup, and his fifth Toyota vehicle. Only two of those Toyotas remain in his possession, and this 1994 DX model had just what he needed: a manual transmission, the Xtra cab, a gray interior, a tach, and A/C. After owning a regular cab truck, he longed for the extra room, and being a gearhead, the tach was a requirement – as was the 5-speed transmission.
The interior was in great shape, though the seats were starting to show a little wear, and the body was straight and clean. Almost immediately, he began to go to work on the truck. One of the first tasks was to swap the rearend with his 1993 standard cab truck, which had a limited slip differential and 4.11 gearing – which he says works great with the taller tires.
The next parts swap was the Fabtech Motorsports 4-inch lift spindles and rear helper springs. He also swapped the fenders from his ’93, which were 4WD fenders, and he located a pair of 16×8 Mitsubishi Starion wheels, to match the other two he had when his ’93 was lowered. The wheel bolt pattern for the Toyota is the same as many Mopars, and the Starion wheels were a very popular mod back in the 1990s.
Scott says that his truck was probably towed behind a motorhome, because the odometer showed nearly 300,000 miles, but everything – including the engine – were very clean. He opted for another popular upgrade with early Toyotas with the 22RE engine: a dual row timing chain kit from LC Engineering, and also added a few other performance modifications at that time, including a header, and a Stage 1 TRD camshaft.
Unfortunately, the shop he had paid to perform the timing chain upgrade did a horrible job, and the engine developed massive oil leaks. After some thought, Scott opted to replace the engine with a new one rather than rebuild. Your first thought was probably that it costs a lot more for a new engine than it does to rebuilt the existing one, right? Well, that’s when Scott told us about a sweet eBay deal he had made a few years before: he landed a brand new, factory 22RE short block for – are you sitting down – just $200.
Scott tells us, “I was on eBay one day years ago, and a guy was selling brand new 22RE short blocks. Immediately, I thought it was a scam because he was only asking $700, and had seven of them.” Scott said he contacted the guy anyway and wanted to get a part number for the engines, and then went down a little rabbit hole of discovery about US spec engine blocks.
“The guy had bought a warehouse, and in the corner were seven factory short blocks, but he didn’t know what they fit because none of the local dealerships had that part number in their database,” he continued. “I happened to have a World Toyota microfiche where I worked, and I broke down all the individual parts from his part number.” The suspense was killing us, we had to know more.
Scott said, “After I found out that every individual part number for the block, crank, rods, pistons, and bearings were identical, I called a friend who worked for Toyota and asked him about the part number.” That’s when he found out the mystery of the factory short blocks, and he elaborated.
“It turns out that for any engine to come to America,” he continued, “the engine needs EPA certification. That certification tacks on additional costs, and therefore the engines coming to the US will have a different part number, even though all of the parts were the same.” When he informed the seller about his findings, Scott said the seller asked, “How many of these do you want?”
The seller had five engines left because people were concerned about whether they would work with other parts, and sold two engines to Scott for $400. Scott says he sold one for $485, and kept the other one knowing he would some day install it in his truck. That day was just three months ago, and he now has a 1994 Toyota pickup with a brand new 22RE engine.
Essentially, Scott got his engine for free, plus $85, but figures why split hairs on the matter, a deal is a deal no matter how you slice it. He recently had the new engine installed and says it is pretty impressive with the performance parts installed. The truck sat for a few years after failing SMOG due to a major coolant leak at the water pump, and after a few setbacks with his health, the truck was just sitting.
“I got about 14 or so note cards left on the truck over the years asking if I wanted to sell it,” he told us. “But I knew I’d eventually get the new engine installed and most of them were looking for a deal, anyway.” Scott tells us that these trucks have grown so much in popularity that the prices have skyrocketed to almost more than they were new.
Scott added a few ‘dress up’ items to the new engine, and made some of the cap covers himself, going with a skull theme.
Scott has added a double-DIN stereo and has a five-speaker system, with a powered subwoofer mounted under one of the rear jump seats for bass, and a small amplifier for a little boost in sound. We asked about the interior, and though it’s all stock he says he does plan to add power windows eventually, and reupholster the seats and the door trim panels in cloth.
He does remind us that it is an old truck, but admits that he missed driving it while waiting to install the new engine. He’s taken it off-road a couple of times, but says the lift kit is more for convenience when he does want to explore a dirt road, not for any real hardcore off-roading. He’s slowly replaced a few things here and there, but is looking forward to the repaint and possibly adding those popular side stripes that have been a staple on third and fourth gen Toyota pickps.
