mrb71710

Hi,

I've been doing a lot of reading and a little posting on yotatech for a little while, and I decided to share a few of the things I've been doing to my truck and others I plan to do. I bought this truck about a year ago. It's a 1993 4x4 regular cab 22RE with ~150,000 miles on it. Since there are apparently no small Toyota's for sale here it TX, I bought it from a little place in Seymour, TN and drove it back. It was a long drive. Everything is in really good shape. The cigarette lighter does not work as well as a few of the cluster lights, but the a/c blows cold for that Texas heat and it gets me from home to work and back. Here it is the day I got it.



I'd like to keep it as close to stock Toyota as possible as far as what you can see (what can I say, I like the stock look), but performance mods aren't out of the question. What am I gonna use it for? daily driver, road trips/camping for my wife and dog and me, a little off-roading. I'm not really a rock crawler. It has the potential to be a great truck for many years. I'd like to give it to my first born one day.

A little about me: I'm no gear head. I can change fluids and tires, but that's about all of the actual experience I have. I'm mechanically minded and I can usually work just about anything out given enough time.

That said, here is what I have done/plan to do for the truck:
Factory clock install (done)
new speakers (pending)
fix the cigarette lighter
fix cluster bulbs that aren't working
floor mats - didn't come with any
bucket seat swap
SR5 aluminum wheels
better tires
mods that I think are really cool (mag-lite, fire extinguisher, fuel can, etc, storage?)
gears?
locker?
SAS? (does it ride any better than IFS?)
diff breather?
diesel swap? if the 22re ever kicks it?
others?

I bought a clock off of ebay the other day and installed it. No problem. I like pics so here are mine of the install.



The connector for the clock was already there, just plugged into the back of this panel. You have to cut the tabs off of this piece to remove it.



You have to take the whole dash apart before you can mount the clock to the center part of the dash. Wow it is dirty back there!





While the dash was out, I thought I would try to troubleshoot my cigarette lighter. I read a post about either the fuse in the kick panel being out (mine is not) or the fusable link on the socket being blown. As you can see, mine is not. I know it's getting power because while the dash was apart, the cigarette lighter was dangling around and the wire hit the frame. It sparked and blew the fuse. Any other ideas?



I put it all back together and it worked like a new one (after I replaced the fuse).





I got a set of new 4" speakers for $20 that will go in soon to replace the stock ones. That's all for now. Cheers,

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

That is a great looking little truck and with a little maintenace should go as long as you want it to. Since you are keeping it as long as you are planning for to give to your kid some day, spend some time keeping the interior of the frame clean. I use an air hose and water hose to get all of the dirt out.

As far as the cigarette lighter, I only use mine for a GPS or phone charging. It is at its limits when using a cigarette lighter in it. It is best to use an aftermarket and wire with better wiring. The lighter pulls to much current and will blow fuses from my experience, especially using an aftermarket lighter,

Truck looks great and welcome to Yotatech.

mrb71710

any ideas for behind the seat storage? A toolbox in the bed isn't really an option as I haul stuff pretty often. At the moment I have an ammo box just sitting behind the seat, but I'd like a little more space for some necessities. I've searched the forums and google and haven't found much for reg cab pickups. Anyone done any custom jobs?

93Xtra-Cab

As for the dash lights, I would swap over to LEDs. They're much brighter, draw less amps, and you can pick colors other than the ugly, dull stock color.

mrb71710

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I've seen several people who have swapped for LED's and it looks great! That's something I plan on doing fairly soon, now that you mention it.

I swapped out the stock in-dash speakers for some new 4 inchers last night. The passenger side one was blown and the driver's side speaker sounded terrible. Only when I get it all apart and start hooking up the new speakers and screwing them down to the original holes, I noticed some other screw holes that that are farther apart than the ones for the 4 inch speakers. They look like they cold possibly fit a 4x6? Anyone know what these are for? I didn't buy new 4's when I could've gotten some bigger speakers with better sound, did I?

I'll post some pics of what I'm talking about this evening.

mrb71710

Here are some pictures of the speakers installed as well as those new screw holes I was talking about.
Old vs New



Installed



Holes for 4x6's??



I measured the distance between each. The two closest together are about 4" apart and they are both about 9" apart from the single hole at the top.

In other news, I went out to my grandparent's farm the other day to do some minor wheeling. I've never really been and it was a lot of fun! Definitely going again. I was closing a gate when I noticed that the exhaust sounded a little funny. I found this.



I'm not sure if it just slipped out or if it rusted through? I don't think it's a big deal. I poked the rest of the exhaust with a screwdriver and it seems to be ok. I may take it to a muffler shop later this week to ask them what they think.

Cheers

mrb71710

Got the muffler and tailpipe fixed yesterday. Took it to Graves Custom Muffler and Exhaust... highly recommended if you're ever in the Waco area and need some exhaust work done. The muffler was rusted through in several places as was the tailpipe. Thankfully, from the cat. converter to the exhaust manifold was in good shape. They had me fixed up in about 3O minutes, granted they weren't busy. Here are some pics of the new exhaust.

mrb71710

Took the dash apart last night to see about replacing lights in the cluster that weren't working. Strange thing is, none of them were burned out. Any ideas?

Some good news though. I completely disassembled the cigarette lighter and took out the fusable link and when I put it back together it worked! No idea why it wasn't working before, but... Ok.

mrb71710

My behind-the-seat storage - a couple of ammo boxes and a bag with jumper cables. I'd still like to design something that would be a little more solid, but then again, maybe something that I can remove if I need to isn't a bad idea.

mrb71710

Well, I guess this will now turn into more of a build up. A couple of months ago, the engine got super hot all of a sudden. I didn't have time to look at it so I took it to a good shop I know and they found out that the radiator was completely clogged, timig chain stuff needed to be replaced but they said the HG was ok, no coolant in the oil. No problem. New radiator, thermostat, hoses.

But about a week later it started getting hot again so I added some coolant because it was low,looked for leaks, searched the forums for possible causes/solutions. Did the same thing the next week. I checked the oil and it was ok. This went on for about a month-- adding coolant once a week (it was "magically" disappearing) and checking the oil and looking for leaks or anything, making sure it didn't get hot.

Then two weeks ago.... chocolate milk. The shop said I now have a blown head gasket. I drained the oil to put some fresh in and hopefully save the bearings... all 10 quarts of it.

Now I have it parked, trying to figure out what to do. Top end/ TC rebuild? Full rebuild? New engine? I don't know. Dammit!!

kornhuskerwizard

might be a hole or crack in your timing cover. might not be the head gasket.

Discombobulated

Dang dude that thing is super clean looks like you are starting about where I did on your truck, just a suggestion on the front 4 inchers, they make a sweet little factory box that fits right in the dash for those that came in 4 runners and possibly some trucks.

If you have a yard nearby go take a look see, although not much will ever come out of 4 inch speakers it was a major improvement getting them in an in closure

If you don't have access to a yard I have seen them on eBay.

mrb71710

Dude, thank you so much for saying that! I asked the guys at the shop about that because I've seen a lot of people here saying that happened to them. They looked at me like I was crazy. The timing chain/guides/cover/etc. definitely needs to be replaced and that's what I originally thought but those guys had me second guessing and just down right depressed. I guess I'll just have to dig into it to find out? Unless there is another way to see for sure it is the head gasket that I'm not aware of. Fingers crossed!

Discombobulated: You got a nice rig too. that sounds really cool. I've been looking to do something different with this sound setup. When its really cold or really hot out, the speakers rattle like crazy against the plastic. I wonder if this box (factory?) will fix it? Anyway, I'm still curious about whether those other screw holes are for 4x6's. I haven't been able to find any measurements.

Pressing on...

Gizler00

iTrader: (1)

Really nice truck you have there. I had 3 of those over the years. By far my favorite body style! I think you have a good list of possible mods for the rig. Nothing so crazy. As far as the SAS , some might say it rides smoother than IFS and some say just the opposite. I think that if you are planning to DD this truck but occasionally wheel it, you might be better off with a locker up front in your IFS.

x2 on the Timing cover, and also a crack in the head. We were going to do a HG on one of my students 22re runners and came to find out that after it was all torn down, it was actually a crack in the CC of CYL # 2&3. But most definitely can also be a worn out timing guide that caused the chain to rub through. However, If you are going to do a timing kit and cover, you may as well do the head gasket and head bolts also. I have found, with my luck, that if I left the HG alone, it would probably blow shortly after. Plus after its all said and done, its just more piece of mind for you.

Baltice540

Definitely sounds like the chain rubbed a groove in the timing cover or the head gasket went. Either way i'd replace them both and be done with it, I've done several here over the past few years and complete rebuilds and they aren't that hard to do if you know what you're doing. Nice looking truck too.

mrb71710

After reading what members have said on this thread and others, and after an extended conversation with Ted at engnbldr, I decided to compression test all of the cylinders (which I'm sure is a no-brainer for a lot of you). Turns out you all were right: all cylinders were between 165-175 psi. So the head gasket seems to be intact. I can't tell you how excited I was about that!

I have to take a minute and give a shout-out to Ted at engnbldr. He talked with me for about 45 minutes on the phone explaining to me about compression testing and how in his experience it is usually just the timing chain wearing into the water pump that causes you to have the milky oil when the engine is still running fine (as in my case). Needless to say, I called him up today and ordered the timing chain kit. And again, he spent 30 minutes with me explaining how to do it without removing the head and what to watch out for. Much appreciated, Ted!

I started tearing into her today and got everything off and labeled except for the oil pan. I'll post up some pics later, but it's definitely the classic timing chain problem, what a mess! More to follow...