mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

it's sunny....supposed to be around almost 70 today....that's why I thought I'd get an early start.

Tomorrow, nice or not is usually too busy to get any truck stuff done.

 

It's POURING out side right now. Good thing this weather isn't going to hold me back today

 

RAIN? In Texas?....next thing you'll tell me is you got 9 inches of snow a month ago...............hahahhahahaha.

 

At this point it is a little late for me to be bringing this up, but there is one thing about this job that keeps popping up in my mind. I have 186K on my engine, it's out of the truck, the head is off, the oil pan is off, the cylinder walls look great. My thing is that I kinda feel bad for not replacing the rod & main bearings, honing the cylinders & re-ringing the pistons. I don't think that this stuff NEEDS to be done and it's not in the budget anyways but I keep thinking that I am going to regret not doing it later. I'm sure the bottom end will last me for quite a while since I don't plan to daily drive the rig. Just wanted to see if I could get some feed back to how others who have gone this far and left the short block alone felt about it when they where done.

 

to tell you the truth, I'm hoping that exact thing won't bite me later.

my walls are smooth and clean and the truck ran like a top before this happened.

that whole "bottom end" rebuild is beyond me but not unlikely in my future.

I would like to buy a decent block and assemble a whole new engine in my spare time.

 

I guess that I am rationalising this by telling myself that when this motor dies, I am going to do a 3.4 swap. I just don't have the money to do it right now, and the 4runner needs money in other places. Like I said before, it's too late anyways. Once my Tacoma pays off later this year, I might have some more money to play with.

 

for me, doing things by choice will always take a back seat to more pressing matters.........if I blow my motor for good, then I guess my hand will be forced.

 

I got the motor most of the wat put back together over the weekend & started putting it back in the truck. I still have a long ways to go. Got the transmission bell housing & the mototr mounts locked down but that is about all. Plan on tackling the torque converter bolts tonight & working thru the week to try & get it running.

 

Not too shabby man, not at all!!! Looks like you'll have her running in no time now!!!

 

Thanks, I hope to have it running this week.

 

Nice work!!
The engine looks KILLER!

 

Here is a little before & after

 

I can't write all the f-words I was gonna use to describe my excitement for you...fan_____ingtabulous is one, holy------- wow!!!! is another.

Boy that silver looks nice,.......but a silver FRAM...not so nice....hahahahahah


excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks alot man, I am starting to get pretty excited about having this bad boy running again. The fram filter was on there when I bought the truck, I have a Napa filter on it now.

 

Put in a couple more hours last night & got several things done. Torque converted bolts are in. It was a real pain trying to get the holes in the flex plate lined up with the tapped hole's in the torque converter, but a little persistance paid off. Also got the starter back in, AC compressor bolted up, power steering pump in & several other odds & ends taken care of, spent the rest of the night trying to figure out the wiring harness. I labeled everything on the wiring harness when I disconnected it, but some of my labels are falling off or smeared with grease & unreadable. I had to go back & look at all of the pics I took but I think I have it figured out now. Next step is to start working on all of the vacuume lines. Not really looking forward to that.

 

I just spent the last hour trying to get a damaged stud out of the bottom of my exhaust manifold. Ended up having to weld a nut on the end of the stud & heat it up with a torch to back it out. What a pain in the neck that was.

 

wow.

i'm excited for ya.

 

Spent several hours last nght working thru the wiring harness & vacuum lines. What a PITA. Also got the distributor stabbed & most of the EGR stuff in place. Here are a couple pics of where I'm at right now.......Getting pretty close.

 

purdy.

 

It was a lot purdier before I ran all of those stupid wire & vacuum lines all over the place. Now it looks like somebody dumped a bowl of spagehetti noddles on top of the motor.