Project Widelux - 1978 Toyota Hilux 7.3L Powerstroke Swap - Holley Ford Festival

10/04/2019
10 min read

Project Widelux - 1978 Toyota Hilux 7.3L Powerstroke Swap - Holley Ford Festival

10/04/2019
10 min read

We just cut it right down the center so we got it 15 inches wider and I said we might as well so we cut it again the long way and it stretched three inches so now it's the world's widest and longest Toyota Hilux.


I'm Josh with Vague Industries and I brought my 1978 Toyota Widelux pickup truck, it's got a 7.3-liter power stroke in it, it's sitting on 2006 Crown Vic police car suspension front and rear.


When we saw that Holley was doing a Ford Fest, we had to be part of it because we support everything that Holley does and we saw an opportunity here to take a bunch of recycled, reused, scrap metal parts and those old wore out power stroke Ford pickups and slap it all together and we built this whole truck with a tube chassis and everything in one month.


The last couple of days were basically sleepless nights and we jumped in the truck as soon as we got it done, the test drive was literally from New Hampshire to Kentucky and we only had to stop once in Scranton, Pennsylvania so that we could put a couple of Tac welds on the steering collum U-joint and then our chase car, we had too many people coming with us, we took another vehicle. Our chase car in Cleveland, we stopped at a shop to put new tie rods on it but other than that it was pretty much trouble-free and this thing boogies for a more or less stock 7.3 power stroke.


We were trying to decide what we were going to do about the widebody kit, and I've got my other trucks widebody all digital and I could just print another one out, every time I wreck it, I print another panel out, but we just thought that was not original enough so instead of building flares to this, we just cut it right down the center, we were supposed to widen it 18 inches but it ended up being 16 because fat Eric can't do math and so we got 16 inches wider and I got a might as well syndrome like I'm in here I might as well do that, might as well paint this and we cut it in half again the long way and it stretched three inches so now it's the world's widest and longest Toyota Hilux with a power stroke in it.


We got a TS6 tuning module, it's basically got 6 positions on it so we can have fuel economy and performance mode and blow coal, that's what everybody wants to see. We've got a CTS2 Edge monitor mounted on the dash, this thing actually has gauges, it does not have a fuel gauge and tell me how hard it is to bleed a diesel on the side of the high way in the middle of the night.


We're a Grand Champion competitor and we're getting rid of the tred, we're going to do some autocross, drag racing, go run, who knows what else we're going to get into if it lasts.


Yeah, I'm so glad to be back, every event that Holley has ever done that I've been to has just been top shelf and I just love participating in them.


It's fun, it boogies pretty good, it's a shredder, it's a fun pickup.

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