No matter how hard you try, unless you build a full (non smog-legal) motor for your mini-truck, you're going to be limited as to just how much power you can put to the ground.
And because most of the feeling of available horsepower power is felt through the seat of the pants (not everyone drags a full dyno setup around with them), anything that gives you an instant sense of more rapid acceleration equates to more power.
Years ago, we installed a lightweight flywheel and a high-performance clutch in an extra cab mini we had. When we went head-to-head with a same year but standard-cab Toyota with its bed off and won, we knew something wonderful had happened with the installation of those parts.
Some 10 years later, we have the opportunity to show you just what it takes to smoke unknowing pickups with very little effort. Follow along to find out how.
To begin, we disconnected...
To begin, we disconnected the shifter from inside the cab, then pulled the driveshaft from the chassis at the truck's carrier bearing.
We pulled the remaining part...
We pulled the remaining part of the driveline at the rearend by removing the four bolts that hold it to the pinion yoke. Because our test truck has plenty of miles on it, this was a perfect opportunity to replace the driveline's U-joints.
To help us get to the transmission,...
To help us get to the transmission, we pulled the factory impact beam that protects the tranny. Because this truck is getting 'bagged in the near future, we left this where it belonged: in the trash.
Next, we pulled the slave...
Next, we pulled the slave cylinder and starter before removing the bolts in the transmission mount at the trans but left the mount in place to support the tranny. We also pulled the bolts out of the transmission at the bell housing before we slid the trans rearward to pull it out of the truck.
With the transmission out...
With the transmission out of the way, the stock clutch can be accessed and the pressure plate remove.
As soon as the pressure plate...
As soon as the pressure plate was gone, we simply pulled the factory flywheel
Because the truck has more...
Because the truck has more than 130,000 original miles on it, we took every opportunity we could to clean things up. You never get an opportunity like this, so we cleaned everything in preparation to install the new clutch and flywheel.
Shot side-by-side, the 26-pound...
Shot side-by-side, the 26-pound stock flywheel next to the 9-pound billet aluminum LC Engineering flywheel is a monster to carry around, much less to spin up to 5,000-7,000 rpm. The 9-pound unit works incredibly well in street applications.
We used heavy-duty bolts supplied...
We used heavy-duty bolts supplied by LC Engineering to bolt the new flywheel into place after we'd treated the threads of the bolts with a few drops of thread locker.
Once the bolts were in place,...
Once the bolts were in place, the fly wheel bolts were torqued evenly to LC Engineering's specifications.
Next, the clutch alignment...
Next, the clutch alignment tool was fed into the hole where the transmission's tailshaft goes to make fitting the clutch disk a simple process. We simply slid the LC Engineering dual composite clutch disk into place and were ready to finish the job.
Before the clutch alignment...
Before the clutch alignment tool was removed, the new LC Engineering pressure plate was installed and bolted down to LC Engineering's torque specs. We also placed the new LC Engineering throw-out bearing onto the transmission tailshaft.
With the clutch and flywheel...
With the clutch and flywheel bolted into place, a new slave cylinder was installed along with the transmission that was given a thorough bath in Fast Freddy's parts washer. When the trans was in place, the driveline, starter, and wiring harness were reinstalled, and the job was finished.
Once everything was double-checked,...
Once everything was double-checked, we went out and pounded the crap out of the truck to find that it was now capable of spinning the tires in First, Second, and even got a small scratch in Third with just the clutch and flywheel installed.