Topic: Rebuilding Pumba

[RovingDutchman]

January 2019

So there I was, sitting on the back porch of my place in Juba South Sudan smoking a cigar with one of my teammates. I make it a point to watch Fight Club at least once or twice a year (serves as a bit of a philosophical reset), and the movie is at the point where Tyler Durden is explaining his minimalist philosophy. "does this dining set define me as a man" and then later on "You're not the car you drive, you're not your Khakis."

A lot to ponder considering I had resigned to renew my contract and would be going home to start a new job in a month.

Johnny asks me later on "don't you and your wife just have the one car?"
"yeah ive gotta buy something"
"well dont take on another car payment, just my 2cents"

I thought about it, a lot. A vehicle does kind of define a man. At least it can. After all the gnar i'd been doing overseas, id better roll some of that experience into the Daily Driver i pick out, and at the very least, will I be taken seriously managing a department of ex cons and gang bangers setting up wedding tents if I roll up in Prius? What was I going to drive? This was a priority and I knew I had to get it right. So i set about scouring CL and FB Marketplace. After an exhaustive search of the southeast I had a shortlist. A bone stock 87 runner in north GA with no service record, and a lifted and locked 86 with lots of body work done by the PO in South Florida. Emails were sent, and the response from FL was exactly what I needed.

John is an owner who absolutely loved his "warthog". He had meticulously cut out and repaired all body rust. Painted the outside with marine enamel "Durabak" smooth paint in desert tan and the interior in black Durabak rough. He'd installed TG bumpers and sliders all the way around. And what was super awesome, is that John could answer any question I had about the warthog. Unfortunately I didnt have that many. I was sold. Price was right, and he was willing to pick me up from the airport when I landed in the states.

Maiden voyage for me was driving sight unseen from west palm FL to Charleston SC, starting at about 6pm. No tags. Two tough boxes full of parts and fluids, food that his wife put together, redbulls and cigarettes. No better way to learn a new vehicle than a 500 mile shake down.

[RovingDutchman [OP]]

The highway shakedown was uneventful; took it slow. Camped out in Sebastian's inlet the first night, stayed with a Marine buddy of mine on Jekyll Island the second. Rolled into town and pulled up to the house. Finally home. My wife new I was buying something but didn't know what. Needless to say, she was stoked (as was my 3yr old daughter who decided that the warthog's real name was Pumba).

I took about 2 weeks to settle in. The truck needed no attention as far as I knew. It started and drove great. John had done an excellent job keeping it maintained but with 280k on the clock, time was running out.

I got thrown right into the fire in the middle of wedding and festival season. OJT and learn from the bottom up and entirely new trade all while trying to reform a previously "unmanaged" staff of 15. Set up tents - write SOPs. Take down tents -counsel guys for callouts and being late. Weekends were non-existent given the nature of the industry, and unfortunately, my normally Apollonian self discipline had given way to the fever pitch of Dionysian chaos. All energy was directed toward work.

I faced a 30 mile stop and go interstate commute 6 days and once it got hot - cooling issues. Replaced the radiator cap. All good. Carry on.

After about 4 months, Pumba won't start - dead battery. Alternator has been catching a lot of PS fluid and there's a good bit of oil leaking from around literally every seal on the engine. Well that's alarming. New Battery and Alt has it running again. Call John and ask what kind of oil he was using. 20w-50 Full Syn. Hmmm. I had been using 10w-30 conventional. Synthetic oils drying out the seals on older engines must have been the culprit, that and heavier weight being better in hot FL.

Neglect crept in. I'd topped off the Radiator w/ tap water and new I needed to flush and refill the with toyota red and distilled but never got around to it.

Almost made it a year and almost broke 300k. Overheated on the way to work. Pulled over, let it cool. Topped off the rad with water and decided to crank it with the cap off, just to see, if just maybe, the head gasket was blown. Sure enough, geyser. Shaking my head on the side of the interstate, I reluctantly called for a tow to my warehouse. Looks like I'll be tearing things down. Never gone that far into an engine before but what the heck, I've got a Haynes manual.

[RovingDutchman [OP]]

I ended up getting Pumba over to my dads house and taking up some of his empty garage space. Haynes manual. Youtube. Forums. Disassembly is going nicely. I'll say this about Toyota engineers; for most things, tool access is easy for 90% of the fasteners. There is almost always one bolt or nut though that is a PITA to get to, and once you get the right combo of ratchet extension swivel, they give you one or two clicks at most. I was having a blast. I'd made it a point in my mind that if was going to be a serious Toyota owner, that I had to be able to wrench with the best of them.

The bad news and the really bad news.

Wiring harness was so rotten and "fouled" that it was completely falling apart as I was removing the Intakes. The intakes were soaked in fuel and oil. I figure that to be badly worn rings.
When I pulled the head, sure enough, gasket failure at the #2 cyl. The amount of corrosion in the coolant passages was shocking. Solid nasty chunks.
Cylinder walls showed noticeable wear. I figure that to be crankshaft bearings.

So now I'm left with a dilemma; slap a new head gasket an drive it till it completely goes. Buy a new head and blow out the bottom end. Or pull the motor and have it rebuilt.

Option three made the most sense.

[RovingDutchman [OP]]

So all this happened in December of 2019. Saying holidays completely stalled my momentum on the project is a pretty heavy understatement.

My dad put the house up for sale so I had to move Pumba over to my place. Good thing I run a tent business. For the last year the 4runner has sat under a tent with the top end of the engine in the back and a tarp over the engine bay. The wedding industry took a dump due to 'rona so that hampered any financial progress on getting things sorted out throughout 2020.

Lets fast forward to present day.

Last month I bought an 85 22r pickup. I'll be starting a subsequent build thread for that vehicle but needless to say, that acquisition has lit the proverbial fire.

I pulled pumba out from under the tent and washed a years worth of pollen and other BS off. Cleaned up the area and reset everything. Started taking a real serious look at what I have in front of me and feel confident its going to be rolling by the end of summer.

Here is my plan:
SAS with RUF
63" rears
High Steer
auto to w56 & RF1a conversion
efi to carb conversion
Dual Webber 38
Plumbed for dual fuel (propane) I plan on having a second intake manifold set up for whenever I wheel in the mountains

[RovingDutchman [OP]]

Just got done removing both drive shafts. Figured that to be “low hanging fruit” and decided to get that out of the way while I had a time after work today.

I need to sort out the process for switching over to a 5spd from the automatic. Seems straightforward enough, but, ducks in a row I guess.

I did the rear driveshaft first. 14mm. Disconnected from the diff first, but it hindsight, doing the front DS first would have allowed me to use the transmission (park) to keep the truck from moving around when I yammed on the front. Dust cover was kind of a PIA to get out of the way. Doubtful that it will go back on.

I’ think I’ll drain front diff, automatic, and the tcase next time I’m under there.