So I've got a pretty badass 88 4Runner and I take it through some deep stuff at times. My last time out I dipped the nose more than usual and something got wet. My question is can someone give me a check list of things to do to make my 88 22re waterproof? I'm still not sure what got wet this last time. Whatever it was made the engine not want to rev up. It was kinda like it would it the rev limiter but at a very low rpm. It started up just fine and idled fine.

 

I have washed my motors many times and never an issue. A couple of things that I do is to replace the seal on the distributor shaft as most have shrunk so bad that you get an oil leak around the head and distributor shaft. Another seal to replace is the seal that goes in between the rotor cap and distributor.

The seal for the cap is available from your local dealer for a reasonable price. The seal that I use for the distributor shaft I get from my local parts store as they have a seal kit usually behind the counter that has a variety of seals available.

I use Denso wires from ebay and I get my rotor from Toyota and never get a miss when wet.

The Injector Harness has some poorly designed crimps in it that operate the injectors. I remove the crimps and solder them together. The harness also gets oil, water, and other things in it. I remove the harness cover, give it a good cleaning, soldering the crimps and then I re-wrap the whole harness cover with electrical tape.

As far as the sensors, I would make sure I had great connectors on them.

 

I've rerouted the intake to near the firewall, put a tube on the vent for the distributor and put some rtv covering the small hole on the back of it, and lots of dielectric grease on all the wire connectors. Are there any other things I'm missing?

 

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If your really serious you could completely enclose the engine compartment .

Then run this compartment at a positive air pressure higher then the water pressure

Back in the day we built a project like this in school .

Used bulk head fittings for the coolant exhaust and air fuel intake lines

we even built a mini snorkel like a diesel boat

I am sure quite a lot more then what your thinking of

 

That definitely more than I planned on doing. It would be nice not having to clean the engine bay every time I take it out.

 

you should raise the ecu above it's current location in the passenger side kick panel, 4crawler has some tips on doing that.

running these trucks in deep water causes lots of problems... i think that the solid front axle truck fsm recommends replacing all gear fluids anytime that the axles are submerged, for example.

'88 is an ifs truck, but when i tore down my sas'd 4runner front axle, there was evidence of rust and moisture damage in multiple places... not sure how that would translate into an ifs front end, although i'd think that venting both front and back axle housings, and the transmission/transfer case, with tubing that goes well above the water line, would be a good idea.

 

The ecu is still by the kick panel. I have put vent tubes on all my gear cases. Thanks