Yotanewby

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troyjmueller

I got busy with the next phase of the project. Stripped 'er down to Cab & Floor today. Disassembly method, makes a bit less mess and yields more usable parts. First pics are with Trim & access panel/hatch/door/vents removed. Next few are of the Windows, Door, Siding & Insulation pulled, and last is the new, lean, mean, Toyota/Dolphin 'Convertible' Cab & Chassis with RV Floor flat-bed, loaded with a bunch of wood debris...

Next, I get to remove the coach floor, and have some more frame fun...

83

I'm jealous. I always wanted a Sunrader.

troyjmueller

Got ambitious today. Pulled the plywood floor, rear chassis wiring, rear part of the two-piece drive-line, fuel tank, and separated e-brake cables. Found a bit more 'impressive' customization by Gardner Pacific's trained gorillas, too...

troyjmueller

Got busy this last week. Lopped off the fugly Gardner-Pacific 'Engineering & Frame Modification', installed the replacement Rear Frame Section, Carrier Bearing Cross-Member, Sunrader Front Section of Rear Drive-Line, and Slip-Joint 4x4 Long-Bed Drive-Line as rear section of the Rear Drive-Line. Drove it around the lot while rough-assembled, finished fine adjustments yesterday. 53 1/16" extension from Toyota stock 2wd Long-Bed wheelbase of 110.2", for a whopping ~163.2625" overall. Also got ambitious, and removed the Dolphin RV fiberglass transition 'Flare' (The Sunrader Shell has it's own already). Next on the to-do, Rear-Overhang frame portion, welding, Floor Braces, Brake-Lines, Fuel Lines & Tank, and a bit more...

dirtdobberoffroad

Looking good! What a wheel base!

troyjmueller

Got a bit more done this week. Broke in the welder, got the frame, rear overhang extension, and floor supports in place.

troyjmueller

Took a short break on the project, shook the cobwebs off of the other rig, made a day trip..

troyjmueller

Got busy last weekend. Wiring fun... Both the donor Sunrader & original Dolphin rear wiring harness had been 'modified'. Decided that I wanted original Toyota wire color codes, and plugs...
Raided my parts bin, found a mostly intact (but not pristine) 83 rear harness.. Cut off all aftermarket spliced wiring & connectors, cleaned up wire routing, and re-built to fit the new chassis overall length, new tank location, and desired wire routing path...

So, after a lot of unwrapping, separating, and other electrical work, I now have a harness that plugs into the front harness fuel tank sender, and the oem Toyota left & right tail-light assemblies, with a pig-tail for sending signals to interior of the coach (and Coach RV taillight assemblies)...

Skimped a bit, didn't attach the side marker or license plate branch pig-tail plugs, and left RV coach pig-tail (custom) as plain wires. Debating as to whether to utilize a set of 6 way round trailer connectors for the interior/exterior junction, or some other disconnect (unlike the hard-wired splice used by both coach-builders)

Toying around with the idea of adding a second set of custom Turn/Tail/Back-Up lights in rear bumper (in addition to the original RV tail-light assemblies), to plug into OEM plug socket (I have a few pigtails from broken tail-light assemblies, am thinking I might be able to pull something off... And I don't think there is any legal problems with having more lights than required...

Also got the fuel tank in place, rear brake hydraulic line & fuel delivery, return, and vent lines plumbed & attached. Been troubleshooting, trying to get fuel to draw to carburetor (think I might need a bit more fuel in the tank... 3 gallons might not be quite enough to get above the 'reserve' level of the bone-dry tank. More fun ahead, then I get to transfer the shell...

Any thoughts on the lights or disconnect?

dirtdobberoffroad

I have used the trailer all weather connectors to connect a damaged harness before with great results so I think you are on the right track there. As far as lights I'm a big fan of LED's if they are extra lights on top of the factory ones you wouldn't even have to worry about the fast blinkers!

troyjmueller

I've been having a fun week, and I think Murphy is alive an well. I had one driver develop fuel supply gremlins and then starter troubles, and a second driver with a weak starter solenoid quit cranking completely. Project got a change of venue, weighed the Cab & Chassis at a local scale. 1800# front, ~ 1,200# rear, 2900# total. Light enough, methinks...
Next day, went to move to a better parking spot, and the engine decided to eat a couple of intake valves...

Not the best day, but the drivetrain was going to get some attention anyways, as there was a bit of a smoking issue & a slight clutch slippage (plus the whole 4wd conversion thing...) I think it was feeling left out... LOL.

Still, good that it happened in the driveway at slow speeds, but it does determine the next few stages...
Probably going to pull the cab, engine, transmission and re-work the center cab mounts, place the shackle tube, swap to the 4x4 steering box mount, and other SAS/4WD conversion stuff next..., and then go through the engine internals, rings, bearings, etc...

troyjmueller

Whelp, I now know beyond the shadow of a shadow of a doubt that I have experienced sabotage. I have experienced a second catastrophic engine failure, in a second vehicle, of similar mechanism.

Fool me once, shame on you,
Fool me twice, shame on me...

Short version, someone at the shop where I had my project put sugar in my fuel tank. I know the sugar was not present in the tank before, as the engine I pulled from the same vehicle is very good& strong. I filled the tank with 11 gallons of brand new fuel, got fuel feeding from my fuel tank. Drove 6 miles, ran good. Started next day, had a noise and seemed to miss. checked oil, topped off, seemed to quiet down. Next day, drove 2 miles, parked project rig. Following morning, started project to move to a better parking spot, made it half-way around the lot, engine died and would not start, experienced full stop on crank (due to valve/piston collision, as later examination revealed).

Having no reason to expect the fuel to be bad (valves do sometimes stick, float, or bend),

I drained the fuel and put it in my work truck, daily driver. Seemed to run fine all day.
Next morning, no start, cranked like no compression or valve clearance too tight. After a longer than expected session of no start, I pulled the valve cover and saw not just one, but TWO, broken cast iron rocker arms, broken on cold (attempted) startup, and a sticky valve (stuck open, did not return to seat when manually moved with a hammer.) Later evaporation test revealed sticky sugar residue.

I am now the proud owner of two early 22R, double row engines in need of rebuild, and 15+ gallons of un-usable, sugared fuel.

Fortunately, I do have spare engines, and know the root cause of the failure, so I can prevent another (3rd) failure.
Unfortunately, Timing is less than Ideal, and the work truck was my only current running driver and workhorse...

Got to love A*****S

gsp4life

A coworker did that to you? Holy s##t!

What kind of person looks at a vintage engine in an unusual vehicle and thinks, "I want to destroy that forever"?

Glad you have donor engines, but maybe time to switch shops...

dirtdobberoffroad

Wow on the engines and POS coworker, maybe they will need some fuel at some point.

troyjmueller

Suspicious circumstances, but no culprit. Possibility exists that tank was contaminated before I installed it, but I know that the engine in the vehicle I pulled tank from was good, and I had used that tank for fuel transport a time or two. But, sugar in tank is absolutely nasty. Pulled head from my daily today, bottom end seems to have little contamination and the rings aren't seized to the piston, or locked to the cylinders. I'm going attempt to rinse any residue I can off of the rings with boiling water, finish assembling the surfaced 20R head I was going to use when I refreshed engine last summer (I used the original 22R head because the valve seats needed work that was out of budget at the time), maybe with 22R valves, re-assemble with stock 20R intake and carb, and flush the heck out of the fuel system. Then, I plan on de-carboning using a combination of sea-foam, and water induction, and flushing the oil (like break-in), say at 50 miles and 500 miles) upon re-assembly.

On disassembly, I saw caramel-like deposits on all of the intake valves, thickest on the two back (the ones that seized). They had to be driven out with a hammer and punch. All of the exhaust valves were free, and the front two intake valves had slightly more resistance than normal. My engine is fairly clean, but there is a faint residue of tacky, crystalline carbon-like deposits on the head and intake valve surfaces, and piston crown.

Also, Mythbusters is full of ˟˟˟˟ on their sugar episode, in my experience. They say that sugar does not dissolve enough in gasoline to deliver sufficient quantity to the engine to cause damage, and that the fuel filters will block out suspended particles. I can say from experience, that my project 22R (engine A), did have sugar in the tank (there is sticky, grainy residue on the walls of the tank), and that the dual fuel filters ( I added a second fuel filter between the tank and the delivery line) DID NOT BLOCK THE TRANSFER OF SUGAR TO THE CARBURETOR, INTO THE AIR-FUEL STREAM, AND INTO THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER. (I have not dissasembled this engine beyond the removing the valve cover and noting that a.) the valves were open (and obviously bent, as evident by the engine failure to rotate completely around), the the interference was NOT caused by a failed or jumped timing chain (chain was tight and present), was not caused by valve float (engine was running way below 6000 RPM redline, necessary for valve float condition, as vehicle was being moved slowly at time of failure, and the repetition of the type of siezed-valve failure experienced in the subsequent vehicle.)

I can also say with confidence, THAT ALL SUGAR TRANSFERRED TO MY SECOND VEHICLE (The Daily Driver) WAS DISSOLVED OR IN VERY FINE SUSPENSION, AND, AGAIN, WAS NOT BLOCKED BY Either the FILTER UTILIZED TO DRAIN THE FUEL, OR THE FACTORY FILTER EQUIPPED ON THE DAILY DRIVER.

And, I have seen the damage done with my own eyes. Sugar is not a joke, folks...

troyjmueller

Update on project De-tour

Been working on getting the daily back together, made headway today. The saying goes that when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade...,
well, I got to taste some today.

When I got my 81 RN48 (4WD, Long-bed) last spring, the engine smoked when warm, the radiator had a hole worn in it from the frame due to the body lift kit radiator drops being too long, and you practically needed a ladder to get in. I had originally planned on building the motor as a 22R/20R hybrid, but had decided to keep using the 22R head. ~ 10,000 miles on rings, rods & mains, and I've found the source of the pesky 'rust inhibitor' coating. Had a hair-line crack in the timing cover. Being forced to replace the head, I decided to get the head swap done. Quick, dirty, and low tech, I got a couple of friends' help with tools, hand-cut the rust pits from the valve seats, pulled a set of 22R intake & exhaust valves from an old head, and slapped them in my surfaced 20R head.

Today, I got the 20R Head, a new Timing Kit, new Head Gasket, and a replacement timing cover installed, and did a quick, dry compression test. ~ 165, 165, 135, 165 cold, with no intake manifold. Not bad for parts I had laying around, gathering dust. My figuring is that the valves will 'wear in' after a bit of running, and I'm thinking I might see about 185 or so even with a proper hot compression test, after the valves & seats have 'broken in'. Waiting on an Intake gasket, going to have to dig up a good 20R carburetor, and figure the coolant plumbing, but I'm hoping to be running again by next week.

I'll post a few pictures soon, for the whole fiasco, and then I should be able to get back to the main event...

troyjmueller

Here's a few pics from the last week.

troyjmueller

Whelp, I'm thinking that I have a driver back together. The repairs was a horror story and a half, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed on my daily.

Getting back to the project rig, the damages are about a 9 on a FUGLY scale of 1-10. Pulled the head off the other day, saw the head of the intake valve loose in the bore. Next thing I immediately noticed, the #2 piston is now a low-comp model, with upper cylinder lubrication due to the massive hole in it. The #2 head chamber was hammered to death, and a friend of mine noticed that the cylinder has a vertical crack down the full bore. Fuuuun....

About the only way I can think of for more total engine death would be if the rod flopped around and knocked out the side of the block at high speed....

So, Parts... I've got a Timing Cover (already used on the daily), an oil pan, a cam/aluminum rocker set, and a Crank/Rod set, 3 out of four pistons, Flywheel, and rear main seal casting. Plus misc. brackets, and a handful of bolts.

So, to get this rolling again, I'm planning to swap in a hybrid motor I'd pulled from another rig a couple of years back... Early 22R Block with surfaced stock-valve 20R head, fresh and maybe swap the transmission with a 5 speed while I'm at it....

Update: Pulled the motor, worse than I expected. Diagnosis: Head, Shot, chamber scarring. #2 Piston, Shot Hole. #1, # 3 Pistons, signs of 'kissing' valve (slight dent in crown, dome ring) Block, Shot (two vertical cracks in cylinder casting) (not economically usable, needs sleeve for #2 Cylinder.) All four intake valves VERY tight in valve guides, 3 of four required punch to remove, all required hammer to get to move initially... UGLY!