Brice's NA V6 Build

Yeah. It's due.

 

Think it would cause a ticking noise? Its fairly loud in high loud situations such as accelerating in OD, and the only timing belt component I could think would tick like that would be a tensioner...

 

I couldn't accurately say, without hearing it personally. Time to dig into it, I say.

 

Yeah I agree It needs replacing, regardless of the noise (pleeeeeeeeaaassee don't be the valves...) While I was in there I had planned to swap the 190 thermo for a 170, I read the 160 causes issues.

 

Usually if the valves are out of adjustment on the 3.4, they actually stop ticking because the valve has dug into the valve seat over time tightening the valve clearance up. When mine was ticking it was due to a very small exhaust leak in the manifold crossover pipe

 

I guess I'll give the vbands all a good tighten and see, but the noise is very mechanical, not saying you're wrong, these cheapo vbands do break easily...

 

I wish my entire exhaust was held together with vbands, bolts suck once they've been heated and rusted. I've become the master at heating them with a torch and hammering on impact sockets lol. But I've seen some vband clamps just straight up fall to shit because they aren't made of a high grade stainless or the gauge was too thin.

 

Might need to upgrade those V-bands to at least the Vibrant brand then.

If you haven't gone back and tightened all of your exhaust hardware, since install, you really need to.

This will also inform you of any hardware that might not stay tight for long. I have come acrosse plenty of hardware on turbo engines, which would repeatedly loosen itself, until a remedy was found to prevent that.

 

Well the down pipe has been gone through like 5 times for exhaust purposes, so I don't think it'll be the issue, ill take a look at the crossover pipe today and see what's goin on. I did double-nut the cheap vbands, but that doesn't mean it worked lol...

 

Just tightened the V-bands...Noise still there. When I rev the truck to 3500rpm then shut the throttle the AFR gauge goes lean to the point where it reads "--.--" I'm assuming this means it's dieing for half a second. After that it returns to normal idle ~14.6-14.9. The tick wont happen in idle only under load. I revved the engine in drive while holding the brakes and let of of the gas and for a split second the tick is prolonged then the AFR dips and the engine dies for a second presumably. Sound like anything to y'all? The Catch can smokes a tiny bit, but I assume that's normal.

 

Fuel cut. That is normal.

 

I was told the same thing today by a Mechanic I took it to for a second opinion. Good to know. I guess the stock exhaust was to quiet to allow me to hear the cut.
As far as the tick is concerned, he said he believes it's a leak at the manifold...guess that's what I get for using cheap gaskets... Welp time to tear into it, what a pain lol, but better than it being the timing belt or valves.
I also noticed while looking in the engine bay that the turbo support bracket on the CX kit is cracked, so I better fix that while I'm there. It probably cracked when My exhaust was ghetto rigged to the bottom of the truck lol..

 

http://www.markofshame.com/fsm/03_Tacoma/Repair_Manual/03tacoma/sf5vzfe/fcr/insp.pdf

The fact they say to turn the A/C off makes me believe fuel cut is partially load based so that way in high load-no throttle situations you aren't wasting gas.

It also affirms the 3500 rpm and above fuel cut I was seeing when free revving.

The more yah know

 

Any updates?

 

Still have an exhaust leak.
WG leaks (maybe) spool and boost are unaffected.
Uhhh, need new brake lines and fluid (maybe pads)
Accedently saw some Christmas present with a big happy URD label sooooo seems promising. other than that I think my passenger side valve cover is leaking oil (again) so Im gonna tighten the valve cover bolts and see what happens. When I replaced the gasket previously I cracked the cover and had it tigged back together (nice job no leaks) but it may have cracked again. I'm also thinking of switching to a thicker oil, multiple reasons.
1) Harder to squeeze past seals
2) better oil pressure for looser-older tolerances
3)it's usually hot here so cold weather shouldn't be an issue (cold being relative)

I also plan on getting the exhaust done out to behind the axle out under the bed (like stock). I like the way that looks better and it takes all the drone out from under the truck.

YouTube vids are existent but aren't edited as I don't have time/am lazy sooooo yeah.

I've also switched to post turbo MAF and noticed a few things
1)better throttle response
2)better low/0 vac turbo noises
3) no industrial vacuum sound
So yeah there it stays. Im also gonna clean up the IC piping soon and adjust various pipes.

Intake temp is usually 5-10°F ubove atmosphere at 73° and above at 72° and below they are around/at/under atmospheric and usually drop when in boost.

Gas Mileage hasn't really taken a hit unless I'm at boost often throughout the drive and even then I'm usually around 20mpg (about 23.5 not hitting boost at all) I also don't hit boost much since I'm waiting to properly tune it. 5psi at wot is around 12.9-13.5 (wanders alot) which should be fine as I don't hear any knock or ping and that's around what the s/c guys would see (I'd assume)(93 only) I also tried some e85 just for fun (bad idea). Terrible AFR, bad bad mileage, however it didn't pop the notorious P0420 code for bad cats sooooo maybe that'll be my solution for smog.


Other than all that, I drive it every day and it serves me well.

Now a picture of my ghetto gauge pod thing

 

Retro gauge holder. Ugly as sin, but still cool, IMO.

 

I am even envious of your AFR gauge. Sigh.

 

Why's that? Lol

 

You have their newest gauge which is low profile, displays in the hundredths, and uses the newer LSU 4.9 sensor.

 

Oh yeah. Wanna hear my expert theory and reasoning behind buying this one in particular? It was the cheapest lol

Cheapness aside it was super easy to setup and required no calibration, however I must say its really particular about what ground it sees, gotta be a really good one.