habanero

I so needed that after the crazy lunch lady day I've had today, thanks!


1982, 22" in February, which is way huge for us, school cancelled for the entire week, dad drove his (later mine) 67 Bronco up and down the street so people could get off it, the plows didn't show up for days. I made soooo much money shoveling the neighbors' driveways.

EDIT: SNOW DAY! In November? What the what???

habanero

Dangit...


And it's still snowing. When it's done I'll pull the blanket off and see what's what. Still supposed to be above freezing tomorrow.

old87yota

Well, at least the snorkel mod. still looks great!

I guess this is what happens when we joke about snow....

Of course "above freezing" probably means 32.1°F or "just" above freezing.

In the meantime, start finding a way to get the 5VZ-E to run on snow.

In all seriousness, I am looking forward to seeing everything get put back together!

habanero

But I didn't know I'd need the snorkel mod to find the truck in the snow...

Supposed to make almost 50 tomorrow and mid 40's on Saturday! I am unreasonably excited.

Hmmmm, the snow mod.....

Excited to see progress? You and me both

Today I did the usual snowday things, get bored hanging around inside and running out to shovel a couple of neighbor's driveways- only this time I forgot that my 4Runner....isn't....so I'm driving the VW wagon- which means we also shoveled our driveway too.
After that I cleaned a lot of the snow off the 4Runner and shoveled around it in preparation for tomorrow.

Still looking for something to do and have a house-bound neighbor so winter showed up waving hello right outside his window.

habanero

96 Doorstop

Today? Today? Today? Please?? High of 46....have to work first....today?
Buckets in and spinning freely


May I never see the top half of the engine sitting on my dining room table again! Because it's all good and runs beautifully ever after, of course.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

No fair
at least if it's still snowing you will have some cool bowls prepositioned for the mashed potatoes and gravy!

old87yota

Soon, Hab, soon....

habanero

No fair is what I think too! Last year we never even had a snow day at all.
Ha, I can try snow potatoes but they never fall for it and every time I try heating it up to trick them that way, well, it doesn't work either.
also
I refuse to decorate for the holidays until 2 weeks before. Not my fault!

Like before I retire maybe?


96 4Notrunner

Got home this afternoon, it was 52 degrees, one last wipe-down of the block and clean-out of the holes, then the MLS (stock gasket for 1/99-02 instead of the composites) head gaskets got plopped on, they are marked L and R so driver and passenger
#11115-62081 right


#11116-62081 left


A couple of straw guides...


The prettiness...



And a pic of the knock sensors for anyone who might want to know what they look like under the intake manifold



annnnd then the kid came home adn the teacher emailed a bunch and I felt like some kind of go-between and ran out of daylight.
So the heads are just sitting there looking shiny. Tomorrow maybe I'll get some bolts in! New ones, TTY bolts.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Oooh Straw guides! That's 10 years in prison in California!

.



.
looks good!

habanero

Nooooooooooo! I'm too...young? Old?......busy putting truck back together to go to jail!
And thanks! I'm really trying to not mess this up. Want it to be both the first and last head gasket I do on this truck.

habanero

96 Coffee table

Got up to a pleasant 52 degrees today. Somebody knocked our mailbox off the post (again) but at least left the mail in it. They also weirdly stuffed a spent fire extinguisher inside it. At first we thought cool but then realized the trigger is broken off. Pooh.

I also got to work on the truck today.
Cleaned out the bolt holes and stuck the head gaskets and heads back on.
Heads now officially on. Dunno if you can see the little silver marks on the new head bolts....25 ft lbs in a pattern, wait a little bit and double check 25 ft lbs, marks towards front on bolt heads, 90 degrees, 90 degrees. Marks now at rear.


Right side cam first. Intake, then exhaust. Caps on (they're numbered and arrowed)


16 ft lbs in a pattern, several passes tightened evenly. Got the little double dots on the gears lined up and exhaust cam installed, same on the caps. Once everything was good I removed the bolt from the exhaust gear and turned the cams to line up the single dots.


About halfway through the right side the wind picked up and brought a 12 degree temp drop. With humidity it now feels like 36. I'm freezing but want to get the cams in and done.
So I did. Double checked the caps are on correctly and the dots lined up, and remembered to remove both of the sst bolts from the gears. I'll triple check before putting the valve covers on- that's the next step.
Pic is kinda dark because I ran out of daylight. It's getting there!

chuckles89

You're a trooper to be working out in that cold!

habanero

Thanks for the compliment! It's not too bad except for the damp part. Currently 36 degrees and misting but I spent a lot of this morning cleaning up Valve covers indoors. Did check my valve clearances and am about to button up the heads with the valve covers. Slowly, slowly.

We had a substitute lunch lady working with us this week. My co-worker told her I'd taken my engine apart and was repairing the truck. Sub lady didn't believe it. I showed her a pic with the missing heads and stuff. She couldn't believe I'd work on it outside so I told her it won't fit in the garage. She told me I should clean some stuff out and make room. I told her it still wouldn't fit. She said I should just drive it to a lot and sell it and get something new. She's actually being serious. I told her it wouldn't start. She said I should have someone tow it away.

It's not often I find someone I can't get along with. She nailed it.

habanero

96 4ever getting worked on
304,219 miles


And not that it matters, but the one I did when I did the valve cover gaskets at
282,376 miles

habanero

96 4got to eat lunch. How is that even possible?

Valve covers on. 53 inch lbs.


Next up: Exhaust manifolds

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

Personal flashback -- my first headgasket job was nearly 12 years ago, on a 22RE, during Thanksgiving break in the crummy wet/cold weather, with a sinus infection! I feel (or once felt) your pain, Hab.

Best of luck! Won't it be great when you can finally fire it up??

habanero

This AND a sinus infection? You win the crazy times award and also gave me an 'at least I don't have that problem' to be happy about.

Firing it up will be AWESOME!!

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

Yes, except for those highly anxious first 2 seconds as you turn the key -- "please don't blow up, please don't blow up!"

habanero

It's not gonna bow up, it's not gonna blow up!
(it better not...)

I sure did not enjoy lining up and reinstalling the exhaust manifolds! Ran out of light, still have to finish torquing them down 30 ft lbs, but at least they're installed.
Time to start putting the intake manifold back together with the new fuel lines and vacuum and cleaned up injectors. At least a lot of that stuff can happen indoors. 39 damp degrees today, supposed to be a little colder tomorrow, hopefully it will also be more dry.

habanero

96 4get that blowing up thing!

Too dark for outside but not too dark for inside.
Prepped the intake manifold with its injectors that came back from Witch Hunter, all new vacuum line and new fuel line. The rails got new metal seals and everything was torqued to spec.


Was very careful about the injector o-rings, hopefully I did good. All of them moved freely before I torqued the rail down


When I twisted the return fuel line to pop it free from the hose nipples it fell apart


I'm really glad I'd decided to replace the fuel lines!


Ready to go