Had great success repeating the cam/engine break-in sequence of 2000 RPM for a full 20 minutes today with a new OEM thermostat installed. Temp to 190* and no more. Used the Dakota Digital tach as the Sniper tach reading was reading too high and clearly not accurate.
Sniper was still a bit unhappy with wrong tach info and still not accessing closed loop tuning, but running smooth and strong otherwise. So., reloaded the "Wizard" settings to start over from scratch. Idle still very high with TPS and IAC at 0. Performed the "curb idle" adjustment with the ignition cycle every time to reset the TPS to 0. After a what seemed like a bazillion repetitions, achieved IAC value of 5 with TPS at 0, well within the specs of 2-10 with 3-5 ideal.
35% learning complete as closed loop was working after the adjustments
Loaded up the wife, backed up the drive, pulled back into the shop using the e-brake only as brakes are waiting for the disc swap.
Called it a first drive with the new engine and claimed a moral victory.
Getting closer to a real drive all the time.
A surprise box from Saudi Arabia arrived end of the week.
Turns out Meshal didn't like the look or sound of the 45's starter when he was here, so he picked up a more correct model and had it sent it to me.
What an awesome surprise from a truly generous and great guy.
Finished up the install work for the driver's side disc brake swap.
A few interesting discoveries on that side.
Evidently the birf had been previously replaced with one that was the larger diameter like the minitruck birfs that require the axle housing to be relieved to get it inserted all the way. While the passenger side required the grinding, the driver's side was already done for me. I still used the minitruck birf as the Saudi truck had front drive plates and that birf probably had more use and wear.
When I got the caliper mounted on the driver's side, after torquing the bolts, the wheel was locked up tight. Turns out the one caliper bolt that was missing and that I had ordered from Mr. T was a few millimeters too long and was binding against the rotor. The addition of 2 grade 8 washer on the caliper bolt solved that problem. The other 3 bolts, while not touching were slightly protruding from the housing, so I added single washers to them. Had to be caused by the size of the aftermarket, remanufactured calipers. Never saw this mentioned in my research.
Time to bleed the system and adjust the rear drums and the proportioning valve.
Blake bleeding complete, finally.
I had one new flare on a stock line that I reconfigured to (almost) work that would not seal up. I had attempted it in the very cramped and busy space in the engine bay and could not make it happen. The stock Toyota brake lines are hell for stout, so I find them pretty unforgiving to flare without perfect access.
My solution was to remove the air cleaner and get all of the electrical and hoses off of the firewall and out of the way so I could remove the brake line supports across the firewall all the way to the junction on the passenger side frame rail. This got enough wiggle room to move the offending line where I could trim it, flare it, attach a splice and add a new line to the master cylinder. I used copper-nickel line which is a lot softer and easier to work with. The line I bought was 20 " with flares and M10x1 tube nuts on both ends. I used the M10x1 nut on the master cylinder, and cut and flared a 3/8x24 nut for the splice end.
Bleeding was the usual pain. Between the harbor freight vacuum bleeder, my wife's strong legs, the correct adjustment on the rear drums, and a bunch of passes through the bleeding sequence, it was done.
The Saudi starter is installed. It is definitely smoother and quieter than the after market version, but I don't get to listen much as the Sniper fires up so fast.
I drove about 40 miles of paved roads close to the house yesterday to shake things out. The Sniper was pretty rough at first, struggling with idle and acceleration, but after it got to temp and started learning, things got real good, real fast. I felt so confident that I drove 7 miles to see my friend who has helped me a bunch over the years so he could finally see the truck drivable. All was good, until we got in for the test ride.
The clutch pedal went to the floor, and fluid was dribbling out of the relief hole on the slave cylinder boot. We tore the brand new slave cylinder out, which was a challenge because the piston had overextended and was jambed crookedly outside the cylinder bore under a bunch of pressure from the clutch fork. Turns out the jamb nut that locks the rod length had loosened and the rod adjustment had shortened enough that the piston was pushed out of the bore.
A quick trip back to my shop and we found the slave cylinder spare parts pile. We robbed a piston and seal which was in good shape and put it in the bore of the almost brand new one that the aluminum piston had not damaged. Back to Wayne's house and an install, bleed, adjustment, and uneventful drive home.
Today, the jamb nut gets a healthy dose of locktite and a good tightening better than I evidently did last time.
Nothing exciting happening on the build right. I am in the "test drive with cell phone coverage to build confidence stage " now and sort out issues as they appear. Drove about 70 miles from one end of the valley to the other and had no real issues, just the following items.
Driver's side seat slider stuck and spit out a mystery part, wouldn't adjust all the way back and then started rocking front to back. I ended up reinserting the "adjustable screw driver blade" that I had removed when the seats went to the upholsterer, but with a bend so it was removable and able to be adjusted. Not elegant, but functional.
Next was the "hyper speed " blink on the turn signals. I had started to address this when the front main bearing seized (almost a year ago). After a bunch of research and some really bad AI info, the cure was replacing the new stock flasher with an old school 255 mechanical one.
My success with the turn signals didn't last very long. I still had intermittent problems with a few blinks and then a solid indicator with no flash at the signals after a period of good function. This random occurrence made me believe that the 41 year old flasher unit (81980-30040) was probably the culprit, so I ordered the available replacement substitute (91980-12H04) and installed it. So far, so good except the turn signal flash period is faster than the more normal period of the hazard. We will see how this does over the coming weeks.
The door mounted rear view mirrors would flop around in the breeze while driving. The solution was to tear the mount apart and add a washer above the tension spring on the arm in the mount as there were pieces of the old disintegrated plastic washers in the body of the door mount. And clean out the ton of Fluid Film that had been soaking in there.
Finally, a quick adjustment on the rear drums per MUD wisdom fixed the slightly wonky braking.
Ready for the next phase, a drive today on some rough forest service roads to a hike to a beautiful high lake, with the option to return on a mild 4WD drive road if the drive up goes well.
Test drive was a great success. Bounced around in the dirt and exercised locking hubs and 4WD high and low ranges with no issues.
Had a beautiful hike except for the lack of Colorado's impossibly blue skies due to the smoke from the wildfires in Utah.
The only mechanical issue was an extremely pressurized fuel tank when I got home and a high 1200 RPM idle . I heard a small hiss which became a large one complete with fuel bubbling when I took the gas cap off. After research and testing, I ordered an AC Delco charcoal canister and a purge valve per @wngrog to replumb the tank/canister/Sniper vacuum venting and hopefully cure the issue. The old canister was plugged up, so I think this will solve the problem. The high idle disappeared as soon as the pressure was off of the tank.
