If you don't mind a suggestion, despite all you've heard, and judging by the wheeling you've posted (I'll admit, I've only seen some, so I could be off on the type of trails you like, but it seems like "overlanding" is your style), you will likely be pretty satisfied with a new tacoma with a mild lift. I can't speak to reliability, but comfort, ease of use, mileage, etc... will serve you well. You can haul kayaks, camp gear, hiking stuff, whatever, pretty easily.
If you are set on 37's and big rocks, keep what you have. Fix the AC, and tow it, or just deal with slow running. Beating the sheet metal and plastic on a $40,000 truck is a rich man's game.
You're very right. In the last year and a half, I've hardly needed more than a bone stock mini truck. And 95% of the stuff that I did in Colorado could be achieved with a mild build, 33" tires, and careful application of skinny pedal.
I want to do bigger stuff though. Specifically, my mother has requested that I take her on the
Dusy Trail in the next few years while she is still able to do it. My parents are in the process of moving back to the Fresno-Shaver Lake-Dinkey Creek area for their retirement so she is eager to go on that trail one more time.
I'm not following that, but my understanding could be off. Cali swaps (to my knowlege) require that all emissions equipment for a california emissions truck that was standard at the time the engine was sold (so 1999 if you got a 1999 3.4L) be present in the swapped truck. (Feel free to correct that if its false, just what I've gleaned over the past 20 years from others).
I have a standard old 3.4L (fed emissions). It won't run without an evap tank and sensor, cats, and 2 O2 sensors. You can probably hack it apart and defeat all of that, but in terms of cost, it would be way more labor to fool the ECM into not having the emissions than it would be to just pull all emissions and such off a donor truck and have a plug and play wiring job.
People run into all sorts of issues in California with V8 swaps and diesel swaps. Domestic V8's are super easy to modify to run without emissions equipment, you can buy software to reflash almost everything in the ECM. Toyota has secretive closed source code, which is why URD sells piggyback units to modify incoming and outgoing signals from the ECM rather than a flash or re-code of the ECM itself.
People also bitch because when they swap, say an FJ40, to an LS1, the FJ now has to pass emissions at the LS1 level, which they never had to do before. "Why do I have to pass 2010 emissions standards if my truck is a 1976?" as an example. If they do a crate engine, they then have to source all of the emissions stuff, which costs more. You'd be getting a donor vehicle anyway, because you need a ton of other junk with the motor to make it work.
15K sounds right for the cost of a shop doing it, but the only expensive thing there is the cost of living, and thus the shop rates. The emissions would have very little to do with it.
And for Colorado, thus far what has been proposed applies to new vehicle fleets. Sucks for auto-manufacturers, but won't be an issue with engine swaps. Denver, boulder, CO-springs, etc... may adopt higher standards because of air quality issues (mostly ozone) but I doubt the outlying and rural counties will.
My parents live in Park County, and I doubt they will have to pass emissions ever, at least not in their lifetimes (hopefully another 30 years!). Time will tell, but the proposed Colorado changes are aimed at carbon emission reductions. California's standards are to try to keep death rates lower from actual air pollution poisoning.
My knowledge of California engine swap laws is only from googling a bunch of stuff -- no direct knowledge yet. It is my understanding that all emissions equipment needs to be swapped over in an identical configuration INCLUDING the exhaust routing. That's an issue for 3.4l engines because I believe they all have the exhaust go down the passenger side where the gas tank is on my 4runner. What I have seen on older forum posts is people basically temporarily building their exhaust system on the "stock" side for a 3.4l swap to pass the initial inspection. Then rip all of it apart and rebuild it to be on the correct side for a mini truck. Future inspections don't do a full "is this in the right location" inspection and only do a "is all the equipment here and does it pass emissions" inspection.
I'm all for having all of the stock emissions equipment aboard and operational. I have to believe that if I put a modern engine and emissions equipment into my 4runner, I'd be doing a major solid for the planet. Just wish it was a little more user-friendly on how a swap can be done in California. I totally get why they're anal though -- trying to determine if some custom exhaust setup matches emissions regulations is really hard.
It appears that diesel swaps are impossible to do because the state no longer will inspect them unless your vehicle came stock with a diesel engine. That could change again in the future depending on what the California Air Resource Board does. This is also why diesel gray market imports are impossible.
If it was practical, I'd swap to an all electric drivetrain and put one of those smug bumper stickers about being electric and saving the planet on my truck. Maybe in another 10 years
Decent unlocked 80 - $3500, maintenance items ($1500), arbs lockers and gears (you already have 1 locker) $2k, shortbus and winch $2k, 35s $1200. Just run the auto, its cheating at 4x4s.
Having a truck on 35s you could reliably drive from Alaska to Chili ... priceless. Bet you can even find a white one
. Quit being so hard on yourself and hit the easy button. FWIW, I think my old 60 is still for sale.... Its reliable as hell but still requires tinkering
Jackson... are you ready for me to come sleep on your floor when
throws me to the curb for driving an automatic?
I tried broaching the subject of an automatic to
last night and she laughed at me and walked away. I don't think she thought I was being serious. Maybe I'll try again tonight while at the same time giving her chocolate and wine.
For the sake of argument... about $11k into an 80 to make it kickass. Hmm. I could almost convince myself to ditch my daily driver for that
And after all that work you're still driving a station wagon, soccer moms rejoice! It'll be a highly capable, reliable one, though.
= soccer mom mobile. Well, in my zip code that was true in the 90s. Now only poor people drive 80 series here. All the middle class soccer moms drive 200 series. The rich ones are driving Mercedes AMG G Wagens. Heck, the girlfriend of the kid that lives in the apartment behind us drives a LR3. Everyone looks at me like I am a meth addict driving around in my old Ford Focus hatchback. I do get a lot of envious looks when I'm driving the 4runner though.
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I guess one other question I should be asking is what could I do with my 22RE to make it behave better. It looks like I can find California-compliant exhaust headers and high flow cat, I could fix all of the leaks and put in a new timing chain, I could put in a different cam. But would it be enough to get anywhere at a speed other than slow?
Seems bizarre to me, but I'm quite obviously not an automotive engineer (Given my hit or miss ability to modify stuff LOL!!). 
