Custom 4-Inch Stainless Steel Exhaust on Our 76 Series Land Cruiser
In this 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser build story, we show you our custom 4-inch stainless steel exhaust that we had made to fit around our Long Range Automotive auxiliary fuel tank.
We had been wanting a long-range fuel tank for an extremely long time as carrying additional fuel in jerry cans is ok but, it can be a real hassle to store and a pain when you need to refuel. After plenty of research and finally deciding on an auxiliary tank over a replacement, we had to modify our exhaust to fit the fuel tank (you can read our build story on the LRA auxiliary fuel tank here).
After receiving a few costly quotes to build a custom exhaust in 3-inch, 3.5-inch, and 4-inch stainless steel, we were thankful that our mate put his hand up and said he would help us out saving us quite a few dollars (more than the cost of the auxiliary fuel tank). We were quoted $2k for 3-inch, $2.8k for 3.5 inch, and $3.7k for 4-inch stainless. Initially we were going to go the cheaper option and get a 3-inch custom exhaust made but after the offer from our mate as well as him having plenty of 4-inch stainless pipe leftover from his exhaust build, we said let’s see if we can make it fit, so we did, and this is how it went.
Getting Around the Auxiliary Fuel Tank
The biggest concern we had with going with a 4-inch stainless steel exhaust was fitting around the Long Range Automotive auxiliary fuel tank. Just after the DPF there is a chassis rail cross member, the LRA auxiliary tank starts at this cross member – yes, we still have our DPF and so should everyone else! There was only a small amount of space between the cross member and the fuel tank, and this was where we thought we would have to go with a smaller pipe to fit. Photos are deceiving (I am referencing the LRA photos of the tank fitted), so once we had the auxiliary tank fitted, we then realised we had more than enough space to fit a 4-inch exhaust in this space. Although, it was going to be a little fiddly to get the bends just right to fit perfectly and maintain ground clearance.
We started by cutting the existing exhaust from the flange. Then welded a 3-inch to 4-inch pipe reducer to our existing exhaust flange. Once this had been done, we bolted this small section of the exhaust back onto the DPF. Once this was mounted, we were able to then line up the bends so that we could take the exhaust between the chassis rail cross member and auxiliary fuel tank. This was a time-consuming process, lining up bends to try and get this perfect. Once the right angles had been determined, we would mark both sections, remove, then tack weld in place. This process continued until we had a nice long straight pipe section welded. On the end of the straight pipe, we welded a 4” stainless steel V band flange clamp to join the multiple sections of the exhaust. Once this first section of the exhaust had been built, we then needed to weld a supporting mount onto this part of the exhaust. Along the chassis rail of the 76 Series Land Cruiser there are several threaded holes that will take an M8 bolt. We found one close enough to this first section of the exhaust and spent some time lining this up, working out the angles and then welded this to the exhaust and mounted securely in place.
First section of the exhaust was done and took a good 3 hours to get completed.
Working Around the Rear Shock & Airbag
The next tedious part of the exhaust build was getting between the rear passenger side shock and airbag. There is little room between the two and once we were able to get the exhaust through this section, it got even tighter trying to get the exhaust to the rear of the 76 Series.
We started off by trying to build this section of the exhaust as one long section but ended up having to cut this into two. Once we welded on the exhaust mount at the rear, we found that it was impossible to fit back in with the amount of space available. The first part of this next section of the exhaust required the other end of the V band flange clamp to be welded onto a small section of straight pipe. We then had to cut down a 45-degree elbow to give us the right angle to take the next straight pipe up and through the rear shock and airbag. Once these sections had be tack welded together, another small section of the 45-degree elbow was cut smaller, tack welded, and then a 45-degree elbow was welded on to this small bend. This gave us enough pipe to just get past the rear shock and airbag.
The final part was getting the exhaust to fit under the chassis rail beside the passenger rear wheel and through to the back of the 76 Series. Again, multiple bends were required to fit through this small space to pop the exhaust out at the back of the vehicle. Once we had this fitting right with just enough clearance between the rear shock, airbag, chassis rail and rear wheel, it was all welded together properly. We reused the rear exhaust mount and rubber from the original factory exhaust and welded a section at the end of the exhaust to secure to this rear mount. We then cut this section of the exhaust into two pieces to make it easier to fit back in and connect with additional V band flange clamps.
We had to cut the factory rear mudflap to fit the 4-inch exhaust as there was just not enough space for it to fit through. After a few weeks of driving, we realised we needed another mount to secure the exhaust closer to the rear shock and airbag as there was too much movement in the exhaust. We removed the middle section of the exhaust and welded on another mounting bracket. This bracket was bolted to the chassis rail using another of the threaded holes that takes an M8 bolt. With this additional bracket there has been no movement in the exhaust.
Total time to build our custom 4-inch stainless steel exhaust on our 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser was 14 hours.
The Question Everyone Asks. How Does it Sound?
Since fitting this custom 4-inch stainless steel exhaust on our 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser, the one question we constantly get asked is, “how does it sound?” Obviously the DPF has a big impact on noise, so it won’t sound anything like a pre DPF model with a 3-inch exhaust. But it does sound throatier. To be perfectly honest, I would not want it any louder as it would be painful to drive as well as being a real annoyance to our neighbours every time we drive up our driveway.
Overall, we are extremely happy with how our custom 4-inch stainless steel exhaust on our 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser. A big shout out to our mate Rick from Svnty6 Fab who fabricated this for us. On a side note, Rick from Svnty6 Fab does not build custom exhausts and this was a favour for us. We are only giving him and Svnty6 Fab a shout out so that you can see the quality of his fabrication skills highlighting the quality of his Australian made products.
Thanks for reading. For more stories on our 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser build, you can find them all here. To keep up to date on our future stories, join the growing 4WD Adventurer Community here. For more regular updates, follow us on Instagram.
The thoughts of Peter.
