Hey guys, I've had this 1985 22RE truck for a couple years, bought it built and beat by someone else. Originally it was a 4WD 22RE Automatic truck that has been manual swapped and dual cased. I've been going through it and fixing stuff and lightly wheeling it over the past few years. I'll mention what I've done to it, if you have questions ask away, and I have some questions hopefully I can get help on.
What I've done;
1) Went through a few used Marketplace W56s to finally get a good one with no issues/leaks. Added a marlin crawler short throw shifter which I recommend doing if you can.
2) Went through all the aftermarket wiring for lights and accessories that have been added, deleted a lot and added a auxbeam switch panel which is great in terms of simplifying wiring clutter, highly recommend them.
3) Had the driveshafts rebuild and added a double cardon to the rear, since I had a lot of driveline vibration on the highway. I still have to turn the rear pinion up a few degrees to the correct angle to reduce the vibration hopefully to zero. I'll address that when I swap the rear axle (mentioned below).
4) Replaced the rear third member with an ARB since the one that was in it blew up the first trip up the hill on the highway. Now it has ARB front and rear.
5) Fixed some hose routing for the air system that had been installed, there is a york compressor with a water separator, and a small air tank.
6) Swapped in a SR5 gauge cluster to get more information about the engine (RPM, volts, and oil pressure).
7) Installed some morimoto 5x7 headlights to replace the cheap amazon. The morimoto have a nice crisp cutoff line which is good for on road driving, they also have the ability to incorporate the blinker into the headlight, a nice touch when you don't have a factory bumper.
8) Replaced the old frayed steel winch line with a synthetic badlands winch line.
9) Had the exhaust rebuilt from the manifold back. The cat and muffler were not in the original factory positions for whatever reason, but the muffler was smashed and dumped right behind the drivers seat which made for a horible highway driving experience, I legitamately wore earplugs due to the drone being so bad.
Current issues I am addressing are;
1) Making the SR5 gauge cluster I swapped in work properly, right now it doesn't really fully work which is super frustrating because I spent a lot of time after work going through the wiring diagrams of the SR5 and DLX manual/automatic trucks to figure out how the gauge cluster connectors needed to be re-pinned. I ended up figuring that out but the gauge cluster temp and tach aren't working right. The fuel gauge is working good enough, the oil pressure is working (I did swap the sending unit to a gauge unit), the speedo works (since its mechanical), and the volt meter is working. But, the temp gauge sometimes will go to normal running temp within 5-20 seconds of starting the truck bone cold, which is definitely not accurate. As for the tach, I added a wire coming from the negative terminal of the ignition coil to the correct wire on the connector for the gauge cluster. It works sort of sometimes, but its not very responsive and by ear the RPM its showing doesn't match the engine RPM. So if anyone has any ideas let me know, and I will update the thread when I figure these two issues out, I may just end up installing an aftermarket gauge in a inclinometer housing so I have a reliable accurate temp reading. I don't want to ruin the new motor by overheating without knowing it.
2) Installing a new stroker engine built by Jim Putney, a LCE header and maybe the new wiring harness and 1992 ECU. From what I've been told the newer ECUs will manage the engine performance a lot better than the older 1985 ECU that is currently in it. The only reason for the 92 ECU is to maximize the performance of the engine since its getting a stroker and a ported cylinder head. Currently thinking of putting the wiring harness on and ecu in with the current intake setup, obviously swapping the injectors for some 89-95 injectors and having the oxygen sensors installed in the exhaust. But the current setup only has one VSV on the valve cover, I think for the EGR, and the new harness has connectors for more VSVs. This part is a little intimidating but I will update the thread with what happens and what I end up doing, I intend on making it work to get the most out of this engine.
3) Swapping in a 89-95 rear axle for more strength and because my mini truck axle is bent and leaking oil by the pinion where the previous guy welded a torque arm on. This should be a easy swap. Install the axle, weld on new shock tabs, get a new torque arm and get different wheel spacers to match the fronts spacing.
4) Not sure what to do about the york air compressor. It works great, pumping a lot of air, but when I put a new motor in last year (not the stroker, but a replacement for the motor it came with when I bought it that burned a lot of oil) I filled the compressor with oil and welded back together the bracket the guy had made that cracked in half. When I used the compressor, the few times I was able to get out, I noticed a lot of oil in the water separator as well as a lot of water coming out of my air chuck. I'm thinking of just deleting the compressor because the bracket bolts onto the factory A/C bracket on the engine and sets the pump out pretty far from the engine which makes a lot of weight torque on that side of the engine. I don't know for sure if this is what cracked the timing cover on the replacement engine, but I wouldn't be surprised given how heavy the compressor is and how far out its levered with the bracket. If someone has a good idea for a high flow compressor I would like to still have one hooked up to the air system on the truck.
Alright that is a lot of information, I am sure I missed something important in there. But basically the SR5 gauge cluster doesn't work right for some reason, I'll be installing a new engine and am a little intimidated about the wiring/ECU swap part of that and do I keep the york setup, replace it with a new york or do I go with a different compressor so the engine doesn't have a huge levered weight on the one side.
Thanks for reading my post, I'll comment some pictures below.
What I've done;
1) Went through a few used Marketplace W56s to finally get a good one with no issues/leaks. Added a marlin crawler short throw shifter which I recommend doing if you can.
2) Went through all the aftermarket wiring for lights and accessories that have been added, deleted a lot and added a auxbeam switch panel which is great in terms of simplifying wiring clutter, highly recommend them.
3) Had the driveshafts rebuild and added a double cardon to the rear, since I had a lot of driveline vibration on the highway. I still have to turn the rear pinion up a few degrees to the correct angle to reduce the vibration hopefully to zero. I'll address that when I swap the rear axle (mentioned below).
4) Replaced the rear third member with an ARB since the one that was in it blew up the first trip up the hill on the highway. Now it has ARB front and rear.
5) Fixed some hose routing for the air system that had been installed, there is a york compressor with a water separator, and a small air tank.
6) Swapped in a SR5 gauge cluster to get more information about the engine (RPM, volts, and oil pressure).
7) Installed some morimoto 5x7 headlights to replace the cheap amazon. The morimoto have a nice crisp cutoff line which is good for on road driving, they also have the ability to incorporate the blinker into the headlight, a nice touch when you don't have a factory bumper.
8) Replaced the old frayed steel winch line with a synthetic badlands winch line.
9) Had the exhaust rebuilt from the manifold back. The cat and muffler were not in the original factory positions for whatever reason, but the muffler was smashed and dumped right behind the drivers seat which made for a horible highway driving experience, I legitamately wore earplugs due to the drone being so bad.
Current issues I am addressing are;
1) Making the SR5 gauge cluster I swapped in work properly, right now it doesn't really fully work which is super frustrating because I spent a lot of time after work going through the wiring diagrams of the SR5 and DLX manual/automatic trucks to figure out how the gauge cluster connectors needed to be re-pinned. I ended up figuring that out but the gauge cluster temp and tach aren't working right. The fuel gauge is working good enough, the oil pressure is working (I did swap the sending unit to a gauge unit), the speedo works (since its mechanical), and the volt meter is working. But, the temp gauge sometimes will go to normal running temp within 5-20 seconds of starting the truck bone cold, which is definitely not accurate. As for the tach, I added a wire coming from the negative terminal of the ignition coil to the correct wire on the connector for the gauge cluster. It works sort of sometimes, but its not very responsive and by ear the RPM its showing doesn't match the engine RPM. So if anyone has any ideas let me know, and I will update the thread when I figure these two issues out, I may just end up installing an aftermarket gauge in a inclinometer housing so I have a reliable accurate temp reading. I don't want to ruin the new motor by overheating without knowing it.
2) Installing a new stroker engine built by Jim Putney, a LCE header and maybe the new wiring harness and 1992 ECU. From what I've been told the newer ECUs will manage the engine performance a lot better than the older 1985 ECU that is currently in it. The only reason for the 92 ECU is to maximize the performance of the engine since its getting a stroker and a ported cylinder head. Currently thinking of putting the wiring harness on and ecu in with the current intake setup, obviously swapping the injectors for some 89-95 injectors and having the oxygen sensors installed in the exhaust. But the current setup only has one VSV on the valve cover, I think for the EGR, and the new harness has connectors for more VSVs. This part is a little intimidating but I will update the thread with what happens and what I end up doing, I intend on making it work to get the most out of this engine.
3) Swapping in a 89-95 rear axle for more strength and because my mini truck axle is bent and leaking oil by the pinion where the previous guy welded a torque arm on. This should be a easy swap. Install the axle, weld on new shock tabs, get a new torque arm and get different wheel spacers to match the fronts spacing.
4) Not sure what to do about the york air compressor. It works great, pumping a lot of air, but when I put a new motor in last year (not the stroker, but a replacement for the motor it came with when I bought it that burned a lot of oil) I filled the compressor with oil and welded back together the bracket the guy had made that cracked in half. When I used the compressor, the few times I was able to get out, I noticed a lot of oil in the water separator as well as a lot of water coming out of my air chuck. I'm thinking of just deleting the compressor because the bracket bolts onto the factory A/C bracket on the engine and sets the pump out pretty far from the engine which makes a lot of weight torque on that side of the engine. I don't know for sure if this is what cracked the timing cover on the replacement engine, but I wouldn't be surprised given how heavy the compressor is and how far out its levered with the bracket. If someone has a good idea for a high flow compressor I would like to still have one hooked up to the air system on the truck.
Alright that is a lot of information, I am sure I missed something important in there. But basically the SR5 gauge cluster doesn't work right for some reason, I'll be installing a new engine and am a little intimidated about the wiring/ECU swap part of that and do I keep the york setup, replace it with a new york or do I go with a different compressor so the engine doesn't have a huge levered weight on the one side.
Thanks for reading my post, I'll comment some pictures below.