New Owner: '88 Pickup
 

I just got this truck in a trade. I have been pretty loyal to my '85 Mercedes 300TD, but I think think this guy is going to take my attention for the summer. Hope to hit the trails, going to try and get a little lift out of the front with the torsion bar adjustment and then take it in for an alignment (someone tell me if I'm being stupid here). Will also be my DD for now, I don't like running the old diesel wagon for a 2 minute drive to work.

It's got either a 22R or 22RE? Maybe this picture will help identify.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...73fa8ddf1e.jpg
The idle is a little rough. Going to photo-tach it and hope to dial it in if it's low. I see the service manual says 750 is the proper RPM.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...f656f6bcf7.jpg
Manual five speed that feels great. Need to fix the parking break. It's zip tied down and the PO has no idea why. He would just leave it parked in first gear. Is it likely that I just need a new cable? Seems pretty easy.

looks like a 22r (carbureted) with a 22re (fuel injected) valve cover.

:wave: Welcome to YotaTech!

You definitely have a 22R (carbureted) engine. The valve covers for the "late" 22R / 22R-E engines are the same as far as I know.

The 22R-E is a fuel injected version of the carbureted 22R.

The rough idle is most likely caused by a vacuum leak somewhere.

:safari:

I think you'll be very happy to have one of these trucks. They are very easy to work on and still very inexpensive to rebuild. I just did a complete engine rebuild with new bearings, rings, piston heads, water pump, oil pump, valves, valve springs, timing chain kit and all new gaskets/seals for about $400. I now have a brand new motor that I'll very likely run for 300k miles or more. If you've got an engine stand and engine hoist these motors are quite easy to remove from the truck.

Agree that rough idle could well be from a vacuum leak. I recently reduced the vacuum/emissions system on my truck to this diagram below which is the most simple setup that was available in Canada in 1983. Most trucks had much more elaborate emissions setups. But any 22R pickup can be relatively easily reconfigured for a vastly simplified system. Not pictured in this diagram I also left the Deceleration Fuel Cut and the Mixture Control which are all small useful items. If you have a Haynes manual or similar you can read all about the emissions items and you can pick and choose which ones to delete or keep. The main two large items I removed are the EGR valve system and the Air Injection system. EGR valve directs exhaust gases back into the air intake and the Air Injection system injects fresh air into the exhaust to help burn leftover fuel vapors in the exhaust system before they reach the tailpipe. Your exhaust is slightly louder without the Air Injection system. In reality these systems are simply meant to help the truck run more effeciently and in theory pollute slightly less. But they also introduce more areas of failure, vacuum leaks, and the EGR valve in particular really can dirty and gum things up as it's literally sending burned exhaust fumes back into the fresh air intake. On these 30+ year old trucks chances are your emissions equipment is either not working at all or only partially working. So a popular solution has been removal.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...e1414c7b08.jpg

In comparison to the simplified vacuum system above from the 83 Canada 22r, here is the vacuum diagram from your truck. Federal and California 1988:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...85859b7323.gif

Irv, thanks for the all the info. Exactly the stuff I wanted to ask but didn't. All it took to disable most of the OM617's emissions equip was two ball bearings placed at the ARV and EGR vacuum fittings.

I'd love to clean up the vacuum, one thing I like about this truck is that everything is manual. On my Merc', vacuum controls so much and it's so annoying on a 30+ yr old vehicle.

The gears can be a tough to find. Maybe shift bushings of some sort?

It needs new mirrors, drivers side is missing mirror itself and trim. Any recommendations?

If you take a look around ebay or LC Engineering or a few other websites you will find some aluminum block plates for the EGR valve and the air injection ports. Along with a gasket they work nicely. What is OM617? RockAuto may have mirrors for that truck.