Topic: BigMike's Big Project

[BigMike]

Well feel terrible no more because much earlier today I got a chance to get the electric fan installed and got it's temp set on the thermostat, reset the computer one last time, and took it out for a spin after warming it up.

AND GUESS WHAT! IT RUNS ALMOST PERFECT NOW! That was the whole problem. Im sure the computer, being that the engine had never warmed up, was still in some open loop waiting to see all conditions normal before proceeding with full fuel mapping, etc.

It pulls really really strong to about upper mid range, I dunno maybe 3500+ rpm and then it kind'a goes flat and levels out. Im sure this is tuning related and not equipment related. It most likely needs some new plugs and wires, some injector cleaning and maybe a dizzy even.. But I STILL want to get a brand new Air flow meter so I can use my current one as a spare in case I need it on the trail someday..

Ryan, what are you talking about warranted? Can you exchange my sensor or something? Kidding right? Let me know about this-

So tomorrow after noon I will see about wiring in the speed sensor (which I am still not even sure it needs it) and then I will try to wrap up the conversion on Sunday. I still need to mount the charcoal canister, mount the fuse box down, cover up some wiring, and I want to find some plastic and mount a (+) positive terminal in the engine bay to use as a master hook-up for any accessories I plan to install in the future (since I dont have the battery up there, I have no real place to wire in driving lights/radio/speakers/c.b./etc). So I will try to finish up everything under the hood by the close on Sunday. That would

Then starting next Tuesday I could begin tearing out the ol' '81 interior and get working on that. Then just get a muffler installed, get it smogged, get it painted and reupholstered, and then I'll be about finished with the truck. Then I'll be saving up for the suspension and drivetrain mods that I want to have finished by April or so.. CANT WAIT!


Hey toyhatsu and ifssucks: KEEP WORKING IT MAN AND GET YOUR ENGINES RUNNING!!!! It's so great to be where I am so dont slow down even for a second!!


BigMike

[GrimReaper]

 

[Fireimp141]

BigMike,   

[BigMike [OP]]

Saturday,

I started pretty late, around 3pm today, but got some stuff done before doing a brake job on my buddies '95 4Runner starting at 8pm.

This weekend I am trying to completely finish up my engine conversion so I can start on the interior, so here's what left on my check list as of this morning:

• Mount Intake Air Temp Sensor
• Mount Engine compartment fuse box
• Setup a (+) terminal for accessories in the engine bay
• Mount the purge canister
• Install a speed sensor and wire it directly to the ecu

And after today I can cross off the first 3 items as they are in the bag.

BigMike,

You asked for it!

[BigMike [OP]]

So there's the intake temp sensor installed just the way I like it. It was too dark to test drive it to see if this helps out the flat power band area, so I'll check it out first thing in the morning..

And here's the (+) terminal I installed right on the side of the fuse box. Now I can add any accessories here. It's a direct link to the main 2 awg wire that comes from the battery, so it is separate from the rest of the vehicle's power.

Also note the lower bolt, I buffed off the paint and welded on a mounting nut so now the fuse box is mounted. It looks good too, just check the last pic!

So now all I've got left is the purge canister and the speed sensor, which I am just going to install even if the computer doesnt need it. I dont have ABS or Cruise but I'll hook it up none the less. Hopefully its needed so my time isn't wasted

Also, while rummaging through some stuff in the back yard I found a Flowmaster that belongs to Marlin. It's a 3 chamber and appears to be a 2.25". It was dark and I didnt have time to check it out, so I'll check it out tomorrow. Maybe Marlin will sell it to me!!! Then I can complete the exhaust system.

So what's remaining? The Interior, The Exhaust, Rear Shocks, and the Gas Tank's filler neck is not hooked up yet. And then this baby's off to the ref for inspection!

More work tomorrow, cya then-

[BigMike [OP]]

Hell...should have never got into wheeling with a Daihatsu Rocky!!!

Daihatsu Rocky + Taco power = one totally awesome rig man!
So he will have it all done by this coming Monday, right?

[BigMike [OP]]

Hey just take your electricity thing you have in your tv room and zap all of them!

Well if they can really do it in one week its amazing. Sheesh its taken me almost 3 months

So today, Sunday, I did......................nothing, well almost. I started out today with a side job. I removed a friends supercharged engine for him and set a new "BigMike World Record" of 1 hour 50 mins, breaking my previous MR2 engine removal record of 2 hrs 25 mins. I was smokingly fast. And he had the Intercooler, AC and the factory Oil cooler still intact, things I didnt have to deal with on my previous record time.

Then I took a nice long lunch with my girlfriend and my buddy who has an '86 Turbo 4WD on 33s. Then I went to back to the shop, cleaned up my mess, did a little bit of work which included replacing some hose clamps that were leaking, and then I drove it around a bit with the Air temp sensor installed, but the upper-range power "flat spot" is still present. Im now blaming it 100% on the speed sensor, although I still want to replace my air flow sensor with a new one.

Also my crummy cooling fan isnt really cutting the cheese with the cooling issue. Well it actually does work ok, but it doesnt have a shroud and its only like 12" or so, its pretty small and only covers about 60% of the radiator. Actually when I get the truck moving, the temp drops to about 1/4 gauge, then at an idle it'll slowly creep back up to about 1/3 gauge, and then after a long time of idling it will hit about half gauge and trigger the fan. I gotta be thinking about long hours of Crawling very slowly on the trail with dust and very little air flow, so I want a better fan and I know I can find one. So I took some width/height measurements and tomorrow morning before classes I am heading out to the wrecking yards to find a better low profile fan that utilizes a shroud. Then I'll switch out the fans tomorrow night and also get the darn speed sensor wired in hopefully..

So that's it, no pics sorry!
BigMike

[brainlessfool]

so mikey, are you useing the Flex-lite fan? their small one I put on my 83 covers about 60% of the rad. too. so I put on two! one on the inside and one on the front. had to cut the body cross saprot to make the one on the front fit, but I just welded in a pice of 1X1 tube to takes its place. and now it works fine! even when I was towing my 2.5K tent trailer up the siskues? on I5 out of Oregon. highest point on I5! and it was 94 in Ashland that day!

[WHITE_TRASH]

Look in Chrysler mid sized cars from the 80's.  They are rectangular and they have 4 mounts built into the shroud so mounting is easy.

[ifssucks]

mike, do you think the radiator that came off my 22r is ok for the 2.7? i cant see how much different it could be. and you think an electric fan woukd be the way to go instead of the stock fan? monday i should be able to fabricate new motor mounts and do the body lift and get the motor secure so i can start wiring it all in. what a chore thats gonna be. im not sure what i should do for all the wiring in the steering column. i have the column from the tacoma but there is quite a few differences. like the key being in the dash and not on the column. ill probably just try to splice it all in with the factory setup. well congrats on your progress. i cant wait to get where you are.

[brainlessfool]

Hey mikey, how about some more info on your gas tank? I just got a long bed gen 2 tank from toytaboy and would like to think about putting it in . would a 1" bed lift do it ya think? cut and weld the rear shocks mount too? any advice would be great!   

[Brandon]

the 1 1/8" came from a corolla - it was $5 at my pick n pull and it works great

[Brandon]

hep, master cylinder was what i was talking bout. huh, i thought the v6 trucks were only an 1" bore.  thanks

yep

Lookin good Mike! Time for another full truck shot

[BigMike [OP]]

had to cut the body cross saprot to make the one on the front fit, but I just welded in a pice of 1X1 tube to takes its place. and now it works fine!

Hey BLF, this is the best idea I've heard yet. I actually plan on installing AC on this rig, so with the condenser and the power steering cooler, I figured there would be no way to mount a pusher. I'll just replace that large support beam with some round tubing. I'll get a "safety" high-temp backup pusher fan installed up there in no time-

Hey mikey, how about some more info on your gas tank? I just got a long bed gen 2 tank from toytaboy and would like to think about putting it in . would a 1" bed lift do it ya think? cut and weld the rear shocks mount too? any advice would be great!

Hey sorry brainless, I've been

I had to trim the bottom of my bed, as shown here:


But after the 1" body lift went on, I found this was completely unnecessary. If you plan on using a 1" or more body lift, then you do not need to clearance the bed. Otherwise you will have to.

The rear shock mount cross member also was relocated back just before the stock brake portionting valve. The tank had the same bolt pattern as the carb tank, and once the shock mount was relocated, it just bolted right up.

The new fuel lines were purchased by the foot from a local parts store, Decker Automotive. I used American lines since they didnt carry metric, and then used the metric fittings at the two far ends to retain the stock Toyota threads. (more info on this later) The high pressure side is 5/16" and the return line is 1/4". Routing the lines was pretty basic. I just used a small hand tube bender, but you could use a large diameter pipe and hold it against something and rotate the line around the pipe creating any degree turn of the same radius of the diameter of the pipe your using to bend with. Then I used a "Double Flair" tool to reflair the ends after I trimmed them to fit where I wanted them.

The return side isnt so picky as to how you route it since its pressure is only around 4-10 psi max, simple 40psi fuel grade hose lines can be used with hose clamps to get around tight areas or to cover gaps between lines.

But the high pressure side of course can get up to 60 psi and more, so no simple hoses with hose clamps can be used. So I bought a couple femal-to-female couplers to combine the 5/16" lines together. These were all American thread, but since both the line to the fuel filter and the line on top of the fuel pump are Toyota (metric) threads, I cut the ends off of the stock fuel lines, removed the metric male fitting, and put it on the American 5/16" line and then double flared it. Now I have Toy metric male fittings at both ends of the high pressure side.

One thing that I did that was nice, was when I was at the wrecking yard and got lucky by finding a 85-88' style EFI extra cab 2WD truck, the tank was already junked by the yard guys who needed to drain the gas before putting the truck out in the lot, so they ruined the nice xtra cab tank, but anyways, I needed the fuel pump so I pulled it out and I had problems getting the truck line off of the fuel pump line. I brought some pipe wrenches with me, but even they were beginning to round off the pieces. So I just grabbed some wire cutters and mutilated the truck line and butchered it in half. Then I was able to get it off back at the shop, and I had the needed Toyota metric male end to use along with the Toyota metric fuel pump female end, so I used it on the 5/16" American high pressure line and double flared it - as I mentioned above.

Then for the other end, the end that connects to the Fuel Filter, I also got that from the EFI 2wd pickup in the wrecking yard. It came off nice actually but I cut off the truck line and stole the metric male end so I could use it on the same end of my high pressure line. The piece from the 22RE at the yard was about 8" long and had the Fuel Filter 17mm nut (what's that, like a 14mm bolt i think?) style end to connect to the fuel filter, and then had the other Toyota metric line female fitting to mate with the truck's high pressure line. This 8" line is a special flexible high pressure hose with some special clamps at each end, so it allowed for some flexibility in mounting my high pressure line just below the fuel filter.

Are you getting all of this? Im just typing along! Here, I'll just stop typing and post up some more pics of the tank swap:

[BigMike [OP]]

 

[ifssucks]

WOW,  HAD A HARD TIME FOLLOWING ALL THAT INFO. i just got my tank yesterday. its about half the size of the original. it came out of a 92 2wd standard cab. ijust ordered a factory t100 2wd oil pan. 88 $ ! not bad for dealer parts. th e rear pickup was 33 new also. i should get those this weekend and hopefully itll all go together ok and have the clearance i need. these pics of the tank swap will come in handy. ill have a 3in body lift so fitting should be easy. keep the pics coming. oh yeah, i got some  marlin crawler stickers today. ill give you some free advertising. even though i dont have any of your parts yet ill still rock it.

[brainlessfool]

Thanks mikey! 

 hey, one last ? could you post up a pic that shows how close the tank is to the rear end? alxe and pumpkin? would the drive line ever hit the tank? or the housing?  thanks guy, you rock! 

[ifssucks]

hey mike, can you tell me what you did for motor mounts. right now the motor mounts are too wide for the motor to fit so i just going to fab new brackets to make it fit. i just realized that the driver side bracket is wider than the pass. so im going to get another pass side bracket and put it on the driver side to narrow it up and hopefully fit. but what my concern is if its going to allow the tranny to line up properly and the t- case  have a stright line back to the diff. check back at my pic of the motor mounts to see what im saying about the length. let me know, thanks
 

[ifssucks]

mike never mind on the pics you cant really see, they were on page 17

[ifssucks]

im my pic there the motor isnt secured on the mounts and its tipped back resting on the fire wall. the valve cover isnt level from front to back or left to right. plus im putting in a 3in body lift.

[BigMike [OP]]

I went with the FROR cross member and skid plate thinking it would be easier to install than Marlin's...don't know but it is in.

Man you are a copy cat I've already talked to Brian over at Front Range and he made me one, then I ran out of money + wasn't exactly ready for it since I'm waiting to install it until I get the tripple cases in, so I had to pass it up. I should call him and get another one made since the last one took a couple of weeks.

Our crossmember (also like Budbuilts and Sky) is pretty darn heavy and they all use the stock factory Toyota mounts that themselves are a good 3-4" thick + the 3/8" crossmember = alot of lost ground clearance. So I've always liked Front Range's ever since I first saw it at our first annual Round-Up back in 2001. I've always thought "If I ever get a truck it's gonna get Brian's crossmember" but Im a bit concerned about using it at the back of THREE cases. I hope all of the bolts hold together because that's going to be ALOT of stress on everything.

I am going to end up with about a 24" rear drive shaft but a looong front drive shaft.

Yup, same here, but with tripple. My co-worker Tim (TURBO) has already measured his setup with a Turbo 22R-TE with R151F + tripple cases in an '83 shortbed frame which is the same dimensions as mine, and his front drive line is about 4 or 5" longer than the rear. And this is pretty interesting because once I relocated my axles, if I can somehow try to keep the difference in my two drivelines down to within 3" or so, then if I ever waste a rear driveline, I can just throw the front on right on the back and drive home

There isn't room to mount the cultch master cylinder so the plan is to run the clutch cable to the passenger fender and fab up a bracket and lever to actuate the master cyinder and run a line to the slave.

Dude that's alot of work. Are you sure you can't somehow notch the frame and make it fit??

Any more progress and pics?

I'll be working on it this afternoon and all day tomorrow. My goal by Sunday night is having a completely functioning interior.

Oh, I forgot to tell everyone. I am not going to do the 89-95 interior swap yet. I think it will wait until next summer. Sorry WT, I wanted it so bad and now its just going to sit around. If you need it back that's cool, otherwise I would like to hang on to it, so we can still do some business. I'll be calling you this afternoon to talk about it-

Yeah I just figured that if I just keep the stock interior for now then I could get it smogged and finished within two weeks and start driving the damn thing. Otherwise it will take me another 2 or 3 weeks just to get it converted since my only real time is on the weekends, then I'll still have to complete some small engine details, so its like I'll be out another month and I really just want to start using this truck. I like the 1st gen interiors, so I'll still be happy. And I guess it will be more of a sleeper too.. Anyways.............

BigMike

[cgbemis]

That's a toyota item. Actually, it's a TRD item. Maybe LC has it for cheaper, but it aint going anywhere after their sale is over.

[BigMike [OP]]

TRD discontinued their Supercharger kit (eaton) for the 3RZ a while ago. If you're lucky they can sometimes show up at dealerships under warranty or are damaged.

Is that LC info recent? I cant afford that right now for my life, but its really cool because the TRD one was smog legal-

[BigMike [OP]]

Hey check this out, its the Complete Installation manual for the 2RZ/3RZ Supercharger kit! Better download it before the link goes bad!!

http://www.customtacos.com/tech/files/2RZ-3RZ-SC.PDF

You're need Adobe Reader to read it. I recommend "Right-Clicking" and selecting "Save Target As" and save the file to your computer, and then use the Reader program to view it. Using the reader program with in the browser window is annoying in my opinion

It's nice with color pictures too -

[Fireimp141]

Mike thats a crazy air filter! what is it?

[BigMike [OP]]

It's a HKS knock-off, except its not the cheap one... You can find the cheap ones (like $15 bucks at Kragens/Pepboys or like $10 on Ebay) but they are made completely out of plastic and are garbage.

I searched for a couple of days for mine which is a metal version. It's way heavier and stronger than the stupid plastic knock-offs. I paid $35 for it. It was at an old speed shop that I used to frequent when I was showing off my MR2 back when it kicked ass. It was on display, and when I bought it he just put it in a clear plastic bag, so I dont know who the manufacture is. I will have to go back and ask him.

The HKS "Super Power Flow" filter is probably the best air filter ever made in my opinion. EVERY huge power Turbo Supra and Nissan Skyline engines that I see are all using the HKS filter.
The genuine HKS filter retails around $130-180. just for an air filter! Here is a webpage I just found, if you want to see how expensive it is
http://www.prostreetonline.com/buy/hks_super_mega_flow_intakes/toyota/


Here's a REALLY cheap garbage wanna-be HKS filter I found on Ebay. This is an auction, so the link wont work for long, but check it out, only $4.99
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7925183265&category=33659


You can tell its made of plastic and its also very small. The real HKS filter is 8" in diameter while the above Taiwan filter is only like 6" in diameter.

But the one I got is 8" and its constructed out of metal so Its gonna take some trail abuse and last.
So why did I want this filter instead of the cone? Because its really easy to clean. You just unscrew the cap and the foam insert comes out and you can easily wash it in the sink or throw it in the washing machine. I figured that its going to be really dusty/muddy out in the mountains so I wanted something I could use for a while and wash it time and time again.

Also I thought its more rare to see that filter in a Toy pickup, so I really wanted to run it 8)

[FIREBALL]

Mmmmmmm, blue booby with chrome mesh bra, mmmmmmm

[BigMike [OP]]

Mmmmmmm, blue booby with chrome mesh bra, mmmmmmm

so Rhonda's got blue fun bags then?

hahahahahaha


Actually, I asked the guy who sold me mine that I would like to have a Blue fesh, so he's ordering one for meh. That way I'll keep the green one as a spare and the blue will match my truck

[FIREBALL]

How come your on here, and not at the shop working on your rig? Get to work boy, the snow's gonna be fallin in a few months, and I need someone to drag around the woods.

[Fireimp141]

Where did u get this filter? i wanna get me one, looks like it would be better than a K&N, let me know what you think of it