E-mail sent to Mike up at Sunwest, brief cause @#$% I was almost ready to sell the hatchback and get the 94 it's new motor. It's always something

 

Do you think it is the same truck?

No!
Is your first gen 4R your DD?

 

Sorry, my OCD is kicking in.

US dollar symbol goes before the number, not after the number.



^^Fixed....

Alright, carry on!

 

It's the hillbilly, #$ = bucks.

Since we're correcting things..

 

Finally took it to the carwash, it smelled like roadkill (bird strikes, skunk, raccoon, opossum) was covered in a half million bugs with trans fluid all the way down on one side, power steering leak on the other (yes atf also)..

I had to pull over to take a phone call, first turn off happened to be the carwash. I say, "Hey what are you up to, I need a ride to get the car out of storage." Response, "I'm at the carwash then I need to....". I took this as an obvious sign and got in line behind a 3rd gen

A lot of the ugly washed off the topper, I'm gonna have to do it again with the windows rolled up next time. I missed a few spots completely, but for a minute or two it looked black (mostly).

​​​​​​

 

No response to the email I sent. Going to assume it's a busy to email, or email delivery issue. Not like I was going to pull it and ship it back for inspection at this point anyway..

Parts are in!



Made in Thailand. Seems to be a theme for new stock parts for this era Toyota.

Not sure I'm up for tackling this all tomorrow.

It's stored in farm country, on the corner of some of the siltiest dustiest roads imaginable. I've picked up a portable garage that will probably take longer to setup than the head gasket job.

My options are use the garage, or bring it back here and do it while my landlord is out of town for the weekend. In the garage I can probably wrangle up a helper and be a bit closer to town if the need arises. My place has a decent concrete drive and mostly paved roads, but is over an hour round trip if I need anything from the store.

I'm sore as crap fom slinging freight all week and I'm catching some cold or other nasty bug.

Need to pick up a couple cases of distilled water, a new tub to drain into, storage cans for old fluid, two sets of oil change material, misc gasket goop, and you can never have to much brake/intake cleaner or rags.

Last one went in smooth since I had just assembled all the accessories onto the block and it was fresh in my mind, it's been awhile now..

 

It fit barely... Wouldnt have made it under the door with the other tires.

Door opens, enough.

And a week of dust..

 

Some how I seem to of lost the overview of block with the gasket still on it



Number four...

 

90 ft/lb, ARP breaking inferior tools since ...


Manifolds still need attached. This go around has been a nightmare. Will have to finish up tomorrow after work

 

Left the valve cover a bit on the loose side, which leaked of course. Worse it let oil under the halfmoon so the goop isn't stuck to anything.





Two quarts all over the engine bay and all the way to the assend!

 

Gasket was hard as a rock and just wouldn't seal, pulled the spare from the "spare" ITM set.

Probably gonna bring it home tomorrow after I toss some fresh additives in with the oil if I can get one of the kids to do chase vehicle duty.

 

Any update?

 

Oh hello.. Sorry I've been slacking a lot apparently.

We had a hard sub-zero freeze, uhm December (?), I was headed to work and started it up to preheat like I normally would. Got two blocks down the road and the temperature gauge started flashing (The digital dash flashes the guage when it starts to get hot.) I pulled over and shut it off. There was a big BOOM from under the hood followed by a gush of steam.





I mean really really big boom!

It took awhile to find one of these, but I got it replaced. After I got it on and the radiator refilled it was still showing overheat on the dash, and had a throttle bog on tip in..

It sat all summer after this with a dead battery.

With the snow forecast to start later this week. I had to get my butt in gear because my hatchback heater sucks and it sits like three inches off the ground.

Today I replaced the thermostat, water pump, fan clutch, radiator cap, and battery. Idled it up to temp and (hopefully) got a good burb on the cooling system. I finally got a hose clamp on the tube inside the overflow tank and it sucked back in about an inch of coolant, which is a big improvement over sucking back in air. I should have tested and not guessed, but SNOW, if it was the cap or the loose tank hose.

...
My dash is doing the sketchy flickering again, where the RPM bar, oil pressure etc stop working. It does it at random and when loading the electrical like running the rear window up and down or stepping on the brakes.

Not really sure what's going on there, last time the new alternator made it go away. So maybe I've got another failing diode and am getting some AC output, I'm skeptical about this since I haven't had the power steering pump hooked up since I replaced the last alternator that was full of hydraulic fluid. Alternator is/was still clean and mostly dry, there was a bit of splashing from the radiator today while it was running with the cap off.

Maybe ground issue, maybe alternating current, maybe something loose.

 

Going back and reading that, I probably drowned the alternator again since that hose is the one that wraps around it.

 

@Rad4runner!

 

I forgot that @ thing works now..

Thread is here

 

Fixes the crusty body ground, gauges are good now.

Have another ~50 miles on it today.

Temp was stable.

Exhaust isn't steamy, but there is exhaust burning odor which is hopefully just the random splashing and crap on my hands. (Dumped a few inches of coolant into the overflow to get it up to the mark I put ~midway between full and low).

Gas tank is full, the Toyota grin is large. I even mashed the throttle pedal to the floor for a bit on the way home (right up til I remembered the turbo will happily pump 20psi).

I fully dislocated my shoulder about a month ago and no power steering is a bit of an adjustment from the little hatchback.

The metal moulding on the topper really needs some attention. Pretty sure slacker sells these in fiberglass.

The brakes are still a little less than adequate.

And I want my tall tires back, I smacked my head three out of four times on the door seal. Which puts me.back at the brakes aren't good enough.

 

Edit..

 

NOOOO! Everyone okay? That really sucks man, what happened?

 

Wind gust started it fishtailing, I kept it out of the other lane but not out of the ditch. It might not be clear in the photo but that's a good six foot drop off from the road.

Front glass, rear glass and one of the fixed topper Windows. A little damage to the fender from where the tow truck pulled it sideways. None of the toolboxes or other loose stuff came forward. It was pretty gentle considering what it could have been. Door area held up and the door wasn't stuck or anything. But the roof is banged up there in the front.

No major bodily injury. Seat belt did a number on my shoulder that's still healing from the dislocation a month ago. And a jug of antifreeze from the passenger seat smacked me in the face and tweaked my glasses.

$450 to get it towed.