Build TRDdrew's build thread

[TRDdrew]

Fun little evening project, installed some under hood lighting, does a nice job of lighting up the engine bay. This is a check kit off Amazon so we will see how long it lasts. I did ditch the switch that came with the kit for a waterproof switch since I don't want it on every time I open the hood.

Almost all of the NVH foam securing the hood skin to the frame has pretty much rotted away so I'll be pulling the hood to redo all of it and clean it lol

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBWX7N4J?tag=ihco-20

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Fun little evening project, installed some under hood lighting, does a nice job of lighting up the engine bay. This is a check kit off Amazon so we will see how long it lasts. I did ditch the switch that came with the kit for a waterproof switch since I don't want it on every time I open the hood.

Almost all of the NVH foam securing the hood skin to the frame has pretty much rotted away so I'll be pulling the hood to redo all of it and clean it lol

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBWX7N4J?tag=ihco-20

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Very interested to see how this project goes. I think we would have the same issue with the roof panels as well.

 

[TRDdrew]

Very interested to see how this project goes. I think we would have the same issue with the roof panels as well.

Ya I dont get the "tin can" sound when t tap on the roof as I do with the hood, but a very similar foam is used there as well. Although it doesnt have the heat from the motor affecting it so it may not break down fast

Ill document it as I go along

 

[TRDdrew]

@DC470 came over today to join in the fun, I told him about my plan to reseal the hood and I guess he decided that sounded like a good time lol.

We pulled the hoods and spent a little bit scraping and plucking as much of the old foam as we could, before we gave the hoods a good power washing and leaving them out to to dry.

We each used on full tube of 3M single part seam sealer, working the sealer behind the frame and filling the voids. Decided on this product due to it still having a bit of give even once fully set up.

I will tell you the difference is night and day! The hood feel and sound super solid! No more "tin canning" and the audible sound of the hood closing is just a solid click.

 

[Land Shark]

Love it. Does that come in a tube or a brush bottle application?

 

[TRDdrew]

@Land Shark tube style, can use it in any standard caulk gun

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40066999/

 

[TRDdrew]

Did some wheeling this weekend, took a little bit of damage nothing serious. Also the flex joint in the exhaust cracked so I'll have to deal with that. Over all fun weekend but didn't take many photos. ( really need to get better about that)

 

[Trapper50cal]

Hey, I got one of those...

 

[TRDdrew]

Hey, I got one of those...

adds character lol, Im just putting some touch up paint on mine

 

[TRDdrew]

Started working on the replacement intermediate pipe last night. Picked up an ANSA replacement but when installed it was about an inch to short. I could get it to bolt up but it would be stressing the flex joint and would cause premature failure so that's getting returned today and I have one coming from Toyota.

 

[TRDdrew]

Forgot I never followed up on my exhaust saga here. Was kinda a chit show. I decide that it would be a good time to take care of something that has bothered me for years....

the passenger side downstream O2 sensor had been replaced as some point in time. Whoever did it snapped on of the studs off the exhaust and instead of fixing it they "fixed it" by holding the O2 sensor in with hose clamps. Now with that said, its not stupid if it works, it has been like that since I bought the truck and has never leaked. But it wasn't right and now would have been the time to fix it since the exhaust was off the truck. I heated up the exhaust and induction heated the three manifold studs... well wouldn't you know it all three of the manifold studs broke I tried every extraction trick in the book, nothing worked and I ended up drilling all three studs and just running bolts and nuts to reinstall the cat pipe. That was extremely frustrating, all the years heat cycles had hardened those studs like I couldn't believe. Many a drill bits were sacrificed lol and I took no photos

With that nightmare behind me I did successfully extract both O2 sensor studs out of the cat pipe and replaced them. So no more hose clamp which made me happy

turning back to the rest of my exhaust, I thought the reason for that ANSA mid pipe not fitting properly as due to poor construction. Well when the OEM mid pipe pretty much fit the same way I knew the Borla had been tweaked beyond repair. I reached out to Borla and they did agree to split up a system and sell me just the muffler section at the tune of 900 dollars which was not in the cards at the moment. So i cut all the piping of he crushed Borla, bought a Flowmaster FX and got to work.

This was the end result, it sounds great, is tucked up higher out of the way, has a similar tone to the Borla, and the best part only costed about 80 dollars and some time.

 

[TRDdrew]

Well after 6 years of having my Dual battery set-up I finally have an issue out of the aux Interstate MTZ-75DT.

Regrettably truck has been sitting around a fair bit and not hooked up to the on board tender but I went out to it the other day and the alarm for the aux battery was going off indicating a low charge. I plug it in not thinking much of it and left it on charge for about 3 hours until I took it to run some errands. Drove it about 15 mins to the hardware store and when I came out the low voltage alarm was going off again, again I didn't think much of it since I didn't have it on charge that long and figured I'd plug it back in when I got home.

Got home plugged her back in for the rest of the evening until this morning. This morning is where I started to notice some issues.

Came out to unplug and drive it to work. As I walked up, I first checked the battery monitor in the truck which was reading full charge on both batteries (no surprise there as it was still plugged in) I had left the hood up for whatever reason over night and as I was unplugging the on board NOCO I just was giving everything a glance over. I reached up just to confirm the battery terminals where tight on the aux battery and they were very warm, boarder line hot, the whole battery was! I checked the voltage with a meter and it was reading 12.2. Now I know that AGM's will get warm while charging but this felt more than warm honestly took me by surprise. Drove it to work, no signs of an over charging, everything was normal. About 3 hours into work I walked out just to check the monitor in the truck again and it showed almost down into the red (indicating low charge)

Pulled the aux battery and dropped it off at Batteries Plus, where they will run some tests on it and report back tomorrow but they think its probably bad based off of a quick load test they did with me there. According to that quick test they showed the battery to be at about 40 percent and only producing 300 cold cranking amps vs the 715 is should be.

I'm complaining but not at the same time, the battery is 6 years old and has done its job powering my fridge on trips and other accessories but, I was hoping for a bit more life out of a 430 dollar AGM battery, we will see what the verdict is tomorrow.

 

[TRDdrew]

Small update on the aux battery. It did test out bad, I order another one from a interstate vendor just to be called back a day or two later and was told they couldn't get it. I found that interesting so I called and actual Interstate batteries store. Again I was told they didn't have it but could order it. Perfect ... go ahead and order it, was told they would call in a few days once it arrived. Kinda forgot about it but it has been about a week so I reached out....

I was told that interstate is discontinuing that model and they were unable to get it

So now I'm switching gears to modifying the Slee tray to accept a bigger battery. I don't run anything in the air compressor spot so this shouldn't be to difficult.

Just figured I'd pass along the information about the MTZ-75DT interstate. I know there are other battery that fit in the slot (odyssey, optima yellow tops, some duracell agms ) but if I have to replace it I might as well try and get a bigger more common size in there

 

[TRDdrew]

Ended up settling on the MTX-35 Interstate AGM, no modifications to the tray were necessary. The battery has roughly the same foot print but is about an inch taller, Hood clearances are fine. The MTX is Interstate's mid grade AGM line up, they do offer the group 35 in the higher end MTZ line but I couldn't justify the additional cost and the spec are very close. The biggest difference is about 5ah less which is never going to be a problem for me. Whenever my MTZ start battery dies ill swap it to match

Did redo quite a bit of the dual battery wiring just to clean up and better secure some of the cables

 

[TRDdrew]

@D21FJ60 was nice enough to send me one of his "HUNDY" tags from his gone but not forgotten 100. Scuffed it an spray bombed it black to add a bit of flare. I've never had a vanity plate, I guess I kinda do now lol