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If you know your way around some plastigauge you could rebuild your old motor and either beef it up and swap it back in or sell it as freshly rebuilt to recoup some of your money on current repairs.
New powerplant is finished/installed and up and running good!!
She purrs just fine, all systems go so far. The shop appears to have done a good job, I go back in to have it looked over at around 1500 miles for a quick check.
$2800 plus tax for motor, plus a few bucks for knock sensor wire and clutch install. I spent about five hundo on parts listed earlier. So not too shabby considering I don't have the time or a good place to do it. Only gripe is that I think they put regular coolant in it instead of the good red stuff? dunno but gonna ask when I go back in, if it's regular then it's getting flushed and replaced with Zerex asian coolant.
If you know your way around some plastigauge you could rebuild your old motor and either beef it up and swap it back in or sell it as freshly rebuilt to recoup some of your money on current repairs.
honestly I'm not experienced enough to rebuild one yet myself from scratch. I wanted to just rebuild mine but it was the same price and at least 2 weeks longer so just opted to go the fast/easy route for now. In due time, my next one will be all me I do believe!
Do you still have your old motor? Or did you have to give it back as a core?
if you still have it, tear it down and poke around. See if you can spot the damage. Learn from it. It’ll make that day easier when you try to tackle the big stuff.
yeah, core'd that baby. The only thing wrong was boogered up crankshaft and the slightly damaged head from the ejected spark plug. But 18 yrs old, time for a freshy for peace of mind. I take this thing into the middle of nowhere every weekend, need an update!
I did re-install all the tuning software onto an old computer, I hope it will connect with the FTC controller this time, I had some issues in years past connecting to the ECU. Honestly it runs good enough to not have to worry about it but I'd love to get this thing dialed in as good as can be so I'll report back on how the tuning goes and might re-dyno this thing to see what she can pull with a new motor.
I really hope the gas mileage bumps back up a notch to where it was 10 yrs ago. I filled up the tank and will keep accurate mileage counts for a while to see what I get.
bad news is the CEL came on driving it to work today (about 150 miles total now) but it ran fine, no problems at all driving.
Parked and worked for a couple hours and decided to dig into the software for the FTC controller and the OBD scanner software I have. The good news is that the R4 Controller finally connected this time and was working perfect. Bad news is I decided to try to smooth out some weird spots on the idle and changed a few cells, re-imaged the thing and then it wouldn't run very well, would get to 2000 rpm and then die. Realized I had written the wrong maps/file.... Soooo.... went to load the original maps/settings and realized that the file is corrupt or something, it's BLANK!! son of a gun.... now I have to input like 500 cells or more manually based off of a picture I took of the screen years ago.... fun stuff right there. Who's got hundreds of cells to fill out and two thumbs? This guy.... 9.2, 9.2, 9.2, 9.4, 9.4, 10.1, 10.1, 10.2....... and on and on....
So my truck is sitting at work and I'm out all day tomorrow, so Sunday I guess I'll have a tuning party..... and my laptop died also so, all around good stuff. Should have left it alone and just gone to have the code read until I can contact Palmer Performance to see why my software for OBD is not 'registered' even though I paid $200 for it back in 2009. hmmm.
Called the shop so that they know they have the truck coming back on monday to see what's up. If my OBD reader won't work before then, I'll just have them scan it and tell me what is pinging the CEL.
But, very happy that the R4 is connecting again and appears to be functional, unlike years past.
dedicated the morning to getting my taco running right again, and finally had success after painstakingly inputting a million cells one by one. I was able to smooth out the weird idle issue I've had for years, she runs great.
Only issue is it still throws CEL codes, initially it was P0100 and a P0110 (MAF connection/MAF sensor) which appears fine but will clean that this week to be sure it's as good as I can make it, but P0125 keeps popping up after a few miles every time after I clear it. (O2 sensor)
So I will put the DMM onto the sensor and test it, but seems kind of strange that it went out exactly when I had my engine replaced? Probably due for a new one anyway, it's been about 70k miles I think off the top of my head. Will see what the meter says and maybe even have Palmer Performance email me back (no phone number) to get my real deal OBD software back up and running so I can just read the sensors through the OBD link instead of crawling underneath with the DMM. Everything is coming together and she's running smooth, soon I should be able to begin some WOT full on fine tuning. The shop told me to take it easy for the first 1500 miles so I'm not gonna get too crazy until then.
I do need to order the S/C rebuild kit yet and a new alternator also (probably a 130W or similar size)
running good but still throwing P0125 (insufficient coolant temp for closed loop fuel operation) which mostly leads to O2 sensor still, I tested mine, it was a wee bit out of spec but shouldn't be throwing massive codes I wouldn't think (resistance was off a bit from book) but I swapped in a freshy Denso and cleared the code again. All seemed solved until 200 miles later, same code keeps coming back... and back....
I cannot find any loose connections but then again I can't access the cable in and around the firewall area without a 12 year old Japanese hand/arm so I'll let the shop mess around with it. I swung by to have them check it out for about an hour but they couldn't find anything yet so I'm heading back in for the 1500 mile check soon and they are going to start tearing things off an testing/checking everything in addition.
And for some reason, when the code came back this last time, my alcohol injection quit working and something is up related to the controller and MAF sensor that it runs off of for signal, not sure what's going on there either. So some gremlins to figure out but the motor runs good and while it was running sans CEL light for that 200 mile period, it appeared to be getting very good gas mileage again like I was hoping for. Once this CEL stuff is cleared up, I'm excited to break back into the 20mpg range again! It was averaging about 18 mixed city/highway, when S/C installed I was netting around 23-25mpg. I'd love to get back to a solid 20 or so.
Next up is to swap in a high output alternator, thinking either the 140 or possibly even a 200 (direct fit).
and the seatbelt retractor is dead, not sure what I did to it but it's toast. I have new webbing in there but need to buy a new belt system which is like $180, ouch.
oh and forgot to add, Palmer Performance emailed me back with a registration code, super fast response!
I bought the software in 2009 and have no idea where the license went, the original computer I used it on is long gone, I expected that $200 software was down the toilet. But they came through with a huge win and their PCM scan software works awesome. I can read all the OBD-II stuff in both freeze frame and real time, record as I drive, etc. Awesomesauce.
major kudos to Palmer Performance Engineering!! solid company to me.
06-11-2018, 07:33 AM
