flg8r22

iTrader: (1)

[QUOTE=Heironymous Josch;52360652]Dude, I'm stoked you found it! My truck had a visor as well, gone now unfortunately. I think this might be be one of those trucks. It's a bummer seeing the state of the one on CL. Was that dude selling or parting out?[/QUOTE

He's still got it for sale. Just north of Huntsville into Tennessee

Sorry to hear your going in a different direction with yours but things will probably change several times during your resto and it will all turn out fine in the end

Heironymous Josch

Nate,

Unfortunately, I packaged up and returned parts unique to the long travel conversion (wheel spacers for the rear, gas shocks for the front). As fate may have it, the T100 axles are sitting in my living room as I'm waiting for a shipping label from JC Whitney. It is possible I can be convinced to stick with the long travel and only lose the $30 for sending back the other parts. I love everything about LT in front, I just don't want crazy track width. I'm about 1/2" wide of my stock fenders now with SR5 Alloys and 33x10.50's. How much more width am I going to expect? Also, I really want to run stock fenders without tearing them up. Am I going to be setting stops as such that the LT is negated anyway?

On the Chevy 63 Swap, I received the swap kit from lowrange offroad like 2 weeks ago and I'm picking the springs up from a local junkyard today, they're already paid for. Everywhere I read has stated 2-4" of lift from chevy 63 swap. I figured if I ended up with 4" or more, I'd mount the springs under the axle and like space-junk said above, adjust lift as necessary with shackles. A 4" lift mounted under the axle should yield around 0" in lift, no? if this logic holds true, than a 6" lift mounted under axle should yield around 2" in lift, which is what I'm shooting for.

With your kit, I would adjust the front to match the rear simply by cranking the torsion bars, correct?

BlazeN8

33x10.5 on the SR-5 rims should just about fit without rubbing fenders. Minor tuck and roll to the rear of the fender and hammer the body seam flat. This is when using the factory bump and droop stops. Shim the bumps with 3/8" and no mods needed. Yeah, ride height is adjustable via T-bar adjusting bolt.

I found on my Chevy 63s 4-5" lift but that was a 1986 xtra cab P/U. 4 Runner is heavier. Some people french in the front hanger. Shackle length is a factor. Positioning of the shackle hanger. Overload leafs. Condition of donor spring; sagging vs strong arch.

Heironymous Josch

Screw it, I'm back on board with the long travel, which means I'll have to reorder shocks. I sent back the wheel spacers for the rear too but that's okay. I'd rather wait and see exactly where the front tires sit in relation to the fenders before I space out the rear.

The Low Range Offroad Ultimate Chevy 63 swap kit I ordered comes with rear shackles and mounts, which means I've got a lot of flexibility in setting the shackle angle by locating the shackle mount on the frame. With a higher shackle angle, I can expect much less lift and more droop. I'm ditching the idea of mounting the axle on top of the springs, totally negates the droop I'm getting from the springs but I think I can cheat the overall lift to between 2-3", hopefully closer to 2" and I'll adjust the ride height in the front with the torsion bars. If it rides too stiff, I'll body lift the front to match my ride height in the rear. Where there's a will, there's a way.

If I have to get fender flares, I'll do it. I found some I don't hate, so long as I can paint them.

Let's do it, I'll send you an email.

magnet18

This would put your body at an angle relative to the frame... not so sure that's a great idea

I think the bolt on look fender flares look pretty sweet, but don't mess up your fenders in case you change your mind. I have rusty holes where you have nice chrome trim, i'd hate to see that ruined.

Charchee

I've actually wondered about body lifting only the front half. I'm gong to need 2" of body lift in the front for my 3.4 swap and really don't want to lift the whole thing if possible. However, I really don't like the idea of doing a partial body lift.

I doubt you are going to see 5" of lift out of the chevy 63s but you might. How long are the shackles you are going to use? That's a good way to make adjustments to your rear lift.

One more thing to consider. You saw mine. It is dead level but if you are just looking at the fender to wheel spacing, it looks like mine has more space between the tire and front fender than it has in the rear. That's just how the body is set up. If you end up a little high in the rear, it won't look awkward due to this even though it rakes down a little. Like I tell everyone who starts lifting on one of these, lower your torsion bars down low and then put on what you think will work for a rear lift, then crank them up to match. Call me if you have any questions or want me to take any measurements.

Heironymous Josch

I originally posted this to the Tech Section but got no hits, hoping you wise fellas can help me out on this.

I've been dealing with a bit of a rough idle and have been meaning to check the valve clearances and emissions control system for a while. Today, I took the valve cover off and set the valve clearances according to the FSM. In reassembly, I checked most of the vacuum lines on the top end and found the inlets on the VSV were busted off and two vacuum lines were dangling loose, the one coming from the AS Reed Valve and the one coming from the manifold with the Check Valve in line. In reassembly, I installed the new valve cover gasket and grommets and plugged the two loose vacuum lines. I reconnected the other vacuum lines with about 90% certainty. It's possible that the two hoses that are side by side on the top of the EGR Vacuum Modulator got flip flopped.

The only other thing, one of the acorn nuts for the valve cover slipped out of my fingers when I was taking the cover off, and fell somewhere down below the distributor. I looked for it for nearly 30 minutes and couldn't find it for the life of me. I started the truck and everything ran fine. Drove it for about 15 minutes and it started boiling over like a mother. I'm scratching my head. Anyone got some input?

Heironymous Josch

I'm pulling my hair out over this. The truck never overheated once since I owned it. The FSM doesn't seem to indicate that any of these vacuum valves and switches that could have been disturbed from the valve cover removal would have any impact on engine temperature. The only link between all this emissions control garbage and the cooling system is the BVSV which reads water temperature and regulates the EGR system. The FSM has two possible causes for engine overheating - engine cooling system malfunction and incorrect timing. Given that I've had no cooling issues before now, I'm going to rule out the cooling system. So I guess that leaves me with ignition timing.

The valves were tighter than factory spec before I adjusted them. I haven't checked the ignition timing yet, that's my next step. Is it possible someone purposely advanced the valve timing while retarding the ignition timing? Like some sort of hack adjustment to compensate for some other problem or to change the characteristics of the engine?

Gonna get the timing light out, hope it solves my woes. I've got lots of driving to do in this rig in the next week. Starting tomorrow.

gsp4life

While I don't have the answers to your problems, I know for a fact that tighter valves can cause overheating issues. It's popular to tighten them .01 or even .02 tighter than fsm spec to quiet down valve tick, but I'll take some ticking over higher temps any day. Messing with ignition timing to make the engine run more lean will also raise temps.

Heironymous Josch

Thanks GSP,

I definitely loosened the valves to spec from where they were which shouldn't have had any impact on operating temperature. I'm starting to think the overheating was some crazy coincidence. I replaced the thermostat; time will tell if that fixes the problem though I'm skeptical.

I checked the ignition timing to see if it was retarded and may be contributing to the overheating. What I found was even weirder than my initial problem. When I hooked up my timing light, it read ~30' BTDC!!! Obviously the gauge only reads to 14'. It was at least that much further advanced beyond the 14' mark, way out in outerspace. My first thought was instrument issue or misread. I've never had an issue with this timing light before and I relocated some plug wires to be sure there was no interference to the pickup on wire #1. Same result. I loosened the distributor bolt and rotated the distributor as far as I could but it only made it back to ~14', I could not retard it any further. So I pulled the distributor out enough to rotate the shaft and reinsert the planetary gear back into the crank one tooth over. Ran like garbage through the whole adjustment range of the distributor.

So then I pulled the distributor, cleaned it up and reinstalled it according to the FSM, which has the pulley set to 5' with cyl. 1 on compression. In this position the rotor tooth should be in line with the pickup coil on the distributor. Was able to get it to spot on 5' but it wouldn't run for crap. Got it to idle at ~14'. Revved it and it sounded like two cylinders weren't firing. Pulled the distributor and rotated the shaft clockwise one tooth on the gear, reinstalled. Tuned it back to the imaginary place in outerspace around 30' BTDC and that's where it runs the best. All this proved that my timing light is fine. The truck won't run at the factory spec'd timing so what gives?

I've never seen anything like this in my life.

gsp4life

That's some strange stuff going on. I'm newer to this stuff than many here, but before I rebuilt my 22re, it was not timing right either. Reading somewhere around 30° as well. I went as far as pulling the cam gear and moving it over a tooth to no avail. For me, it turned out the chain tensioner was done. Do you have good chain tensioner on both sides of the cam sproket?

Heironymous Josch

This is a very intriguing lead. I didn't inspect the tensioners when I had the valve cover off, stupidly. I just got in adjusted the valves and replaced the seals on the way out. I'll pull the cover off again next weekend and recheck the valve lash, cam chain and tensioners.

Was yours running pretty well, even with the timing out of whack?

gsp4life

I had a bit of a typo there. There's just one tensioner on the passenger side behind the timing cover. The guides can hold in a chain with a bad tensioner for awhile, but they'll fail soon after and then more damage will occur.

You can at least check how much tension you have with the valve cover off. If you push the chain on each side of the gear, it should be tight. You can also take a screwdriver and gently push the edges of the guides to make sure they haven't cracked. They can look ok even with the cracks, you've got to apply a little pressure. The driver's side is much more likely to fail than the passenger guide.

gsp4life

Oh yeah, mine started up not too bad right up until the tensioner arm fell off, passenger guide snapped and the chain began breaking up the timing cover.

I had some other major issues like flat cam, broken piston rings and headgasket failure so it was hard to tell what problem was the worst until it got that bad.

space-junk

iTrader: (1)

sounds like whoever had their hands in it before either reinstalled the chain a few teeth off, or the chain jumped and they rotated the dizzy to compensate. either way, id suggest pulling the timing cover and checking just to be sure.

Heironymous Josch

I haven't had a chance to confirm but I'm confidant that either what you've suggested or what gsp suggested is the cause of my woes. I'm going to set aside a weekend in the next couple of weeks to do the timing chain, guides, tensioner, etc.

Kind of a bummer, I was hoping to use that time to do my Blazeland Long Travel or my Chevy 63 swap. I've got all the parts for those jobs.

Thanks for your input space junk

Heironymous Josch

Well,

Beyond the timing chain, I believe I have a blown head gasket. I took a 120 mile round trip Saturday and the truck used up a ton of coolant. It's also blowing white smoke, especially when I start it. All that combined with the rough idle at startup is pointing in one direction. I will do a leak down test to confirm but it looks like I've got a big job ahead of me. What other work should I be doing, considering how deep into this thing I'll be getting?

gsp4life

At this point you should be hoping that it's just a headgasket. The other possibilities are worn through or cracked timing cover, cracked or warped head or block. All of them besides a cracked block aren't that hard to fix, though.

If it's as bad as all that, measure cam lobes while the head's off, pull the pan to clean it and the pickup tube and check the bearings. If you have reason to suspect rings, now's the time to pull pistons.

If that all checks out, you can be a lot more confident once it's back together with a milled head and quality hg and timing set.

flg8r22

iTrader: (1)

Agreed. I'm doing the the top end on my 89 4Runner too. I will be going thru the entire motor and will definitely be re-ringing. The rings don't hold up well to oil mixed with water. Hopefully the rest will just need a good clean up

Heironymous Josch

The drivers side timing chain guide is still there, just broken so no apparent damage to timing cover. Cracked or warped head, doesn't matter, I'm getting Engnbldr's StreetRV assembled head along with either their Crawler or Torkr Cam. Cracked block or bad rings? Total rebuild. I was hoping to do this job, the head and the timing, with the engine in the vehicle but the more I read seams to indicate that it's a lot easier out of the vehicle. The amount of work to remove the oil pan seems like the clincher for me. I hadn't considered it until now but I wonder if I ought to just pull the motor. This is a much bigger job than I anticipated.

The truck is blowing a ton of white smoke now but I don't have the milkshake oil yet at all. I could really have used another month before this job. Are there any products out there that may help with the HG breach that aren't going to gunk up my cooling system?