Field Crust - Reviving an 1982 Pickup (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Threads
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1,379
Location
Nampa, Idaho
In October, I brought home a 1982 pickup that had been sitting in a field for about five years. The truck is virtually rust free and has not been seriously modified, which on my budget is not all that easy to find anymore. Now that I've spent some time working on it, I figured I'd make a thread for it.

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I got it cleaned up and started trying to get it to start, but was not able to get any fuel up to the carb. I was able to get it to run on brake cleaner or a splash of gas down the carb. The seller stated that the fuel lines needed to get replaced, so I temporally rigged up a gatoraid bottle with gas to get it going, but quickly found the fuel pump to be toast. Once that was replaced, I found that the carb was seriously blocked up with varnished fuel so I partially disassembled it and cleared out what I could with brake cleaner and eventually got it to start and run until it emptied the fuel bottle.

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Thanks @mattressking for helping out with picking it up!

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Next I started trying to get the fuel lines cleared with brake cleaner and compressed air. Once they were cleared out though, the pressure from the compressed air highlighted the next issue... rust holes in the fuel tank. The inside of the tank was a disaster! :lol:

After searching all the usual places for a new replacement tank and not having any luck finding one for an '82, I eventually came across a thread here on mud about using a tank from a later generation 2WD truck that was identical and available new. Amazon product ASIN B078Z39TXD
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The fuel pickup tube ended up being in pretty rough shape and heavily plugged with varnish, bad enough that I tried to find a replacement. Eventually I was able to burn the varnish out with a heat-gun and clear the carbon that remained with a piece of wire and more compressed air and brake clean. Needless to say, but the plastic strainer was also replaced along with the fuel level sender.

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Now that the fuel system was pretty much sorted and I was able to get it to run consistently, (albeit very poorly), the engine started to give some hints as to why it might have ended up sitting in a field for five plus years... There was a significant engine nock coming from the top end or front of the engine. My hope was that it was just a broken timing chain guide slapping around, but ski season was getting going so that would have to wait until spring.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and it's finally been getting warm enough to make working in the garage somewhat enjoyable again, so I decided to pull the valve cover to see what's going on. Straight away I noticed the #2 and #3 intake rockers were severely misaligned with the cam and valve stems and the #2 cam cap looked a little rough. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the spacers on those two rockers were the incorrect width and that the audible knock was just from the horrendously bad valve clearances that the misaligned rockers caused. I was hopeful that it would be a quick fix, so I ordered the new spacers and got to pulling the rocker assembly off.

Once it was all disassembled though, things started looking grim for the future of this little 22R...

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As it turned out, the #2 cam cap was more than just a little rough looking.... The bearing surfaces on both the cap and the cam were completely destroyed and entirely unrepairable. The cap was also broken into two pieces.
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The spacers that I previously thought were undersized turned out to be the correct size... but were halfway imbedded into the rockers. :cool:
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The valve adjustment screws showed all of the wear that you might expect after spending an unknown number of hours running with ~20% of contact with the valve stem.
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Having come to the conclusion that at least the top end of this engine was completely trashed, I decided that there wasn't a whole lot to lose by just re-assembling everything to see if I could get it running and driving for a while before having to actually fix the problem.

I replaced the ruined valve adjustment screws, added some shims to space out the messed up rockers, re-assembled the rocker assembly and re-installed it all back on the engine, then did a quick valve adjustment with the engine cold. Fortunately I was able to get away without replacing the headgasket when I removed the head bolts; compression test before and after showed no changes.

Ring shims that fit the rocker assembly if you want to get perfect alignment on the valves/cam: McMaster Carr #3088A933

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Next up I pulled the carb and got that rebuilt. I borrowed an older ultrasonic cleaner from work and let all the carb parts soak in it with some hot water and degreaser for a few hours. Ultrasonic is the way to go with carbs; I'll never go back to chemdip after how easy and clean this was. The carb came out way brighter than expected. It totally looks out of place in this messy engine bay now.

The carb definitely had some issues; several of the diaphragms were shot and there was quite a bit of varnish in most of the ports. Interestingly though, it seems like this is the original carb from this truck, (based on the casting date, caught by @mattressking ) and it didn't seem like it had been rebuilt before when I was disassembling it.
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Now that the valves are functioning properly and the carb is freshened up, its running pretty decently and starts up quickly. The knock from the top end is still there when you give it some throttle, but it was good enough to take for a few laps around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, getting it out on the road revealed that there is likely some damage to something in the bottom end as well, likely caused by the debris from the top end issues floating around in the oil.

All this is a round about way of saying that this truck is going to need a new engine before I can do anything else with it. I'll start looking in the junkyards locally soon to see if there is anything available, but the truck will likely be on the back burner for a while while I get my 60 ready for some summer trips.

If anyone has a lead on a decent, (and cheap), 22R, 22RE or maybe even a TDI :hmm: in the northwest...... let me know!
 
A friend back in California picked up a first gen 4runner that had a 22R sitting in the engine bay (not installed) and offered it to me for cheap, ended up picking it up on Thanksgiving.
Slowly started tearing it down a few weeks ago to get it ready to take to a machine shop to get freshened up. Still need to figure out which I'll be taking it to, but after searching around on google and mud, it seems like there are a couple of decent shops in the area. Hoping to have the engine ready to throw in by spring.

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I also found a set of headers in the junkyard on an old Celica. They should clean up pretty nice and cant beat the $30 price tag!

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Nice! I'm up here in N. Idaho with a 1982 22R manual tranny Sunrader restoration in full swing. I'll doubtless need to rebuilt the carb for the diaphragms, so I'll be reaching out to you. Cheers.
 
Nice score on the headers!!!! My You-Pull score last week was a pair of BMW M3 front seats for the Sunrader. Heated leather, fully articulated, extending thigh support for long trips, etc. They sell all day long for $950 plus shipping. Paid $32.50. For the pair.....
 
Nice score on the headers!!!! My You-Pull score last week was a pair of BMW M3 front seats for the Sunrader. Heated leather, fully articulated, extending thigh support for long trips, etc. They sell all day long for $950 plus shipping. Paid $32.50. For the pair.....
Rad! I snagged a set of FJ62 front seats over the summer that I am planning to use in this truck if everything fits decently. The bench seat that in it now is trashed and from a later generation pickup so it doesn't line up with the bolt holes in the floor.
 
Where did you find the fuel level sender? I've been able to source a new tank but a sending unit has me stumped.
 
Where did you find the fuel level sender? I've been able to source a new tank but a sending unit has me stumped.
I also had a hard time finding one but eventually I ordered this one. The quality is pretty low; the windings on the sensor look horrible, but it does seem to work with the small amount of gas I put in the tank.

Its showing out of stock, but you should be able to find a similar one on Amazon.
Amazon product ASIN B0BDFLKJ65
 
I also had a hard time finding one but eventually I ordered this one. The quality is pretty low; the windings on the sensor look horrible, but it does seem to work with the small amount of gas I put in the tank.

Its showing out of stock, but you should be able to find a similar one on Amazon.
Amazon product ASIN B0BDFLKJ65
Thanks! Do you have a link? the image isn't showing up.
 
Got the engine torn down to the short block, so now I just need to find some time to take it the a local engine machine shop. Thankfully didn't find any surprises in the bottom end, but the timing guides were broken and just barely hanging on. They cylinders were also pretty worn and glazed and there was a bit of oil sludge in a few places so this engine probably had a lot of miles and some less than ideal maintenance intervals.

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Also tried on the spare 35x10 from @mattressking's 40.... so looks like I'll be playing around with some suspension adjustments once the engine is done to get everything fitting nicely.

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All of the local machine shops were booked out at least three months so I decided to tear the short block down the rest of the way and see if I could get away without taking it in for work. Fortunately, the internals on this one seemed to be pretty clean and everything measured within spec so I did a light hone on the cylinders and lapped the valves to clean up any junk.
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After going down a parts ordering rabbit hole, I ended up replacing the rockers, rocker shafts and adjuster screws. I also put a set of #65 valve springs from 22RE Performance in for no particular reason. Then got the block scrubbed down and pressure washed to get all of the honing grit and other gunk out of the oil passages before giving it a few coats of paint.

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Finished assembling the long block last night. Standard size bearings gave perfect clearances on everything, new rings, new dual-row timing chain, new oil pump, new oil pump drive gear, etc. Still need to paint the crank pulley and and a clean up a bunch of other small parts that I am going to scavenge from the old engine. Going to try to get the old engine pulled out sometime in the next few weeks to start on that. Hoping to have this truck back on the road in early May.

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