209 TACOS - B/S and shenanigans

Needed to get out of the house yesterday so I tried to go find Matt. I never found him but I did find some other stuff.

 

Wow! You found a dog! You keep it?

 

Where did you go

 

Yeah, though I'd gladly trade her for one that sits still for 30 seconds. 20+ pics and all of them blurry.

 

Over by the Box Spring trailhead, then got lost for a bit and had to backtrack due to a crazy stream crossing. Eventually found my way back to the highway and headed up to Sonora pass.

 

Congratulations!

 

Congrats

 

Congratulations! That's awesome

 

Sorry our plans got shit on bro. Wish we could have hung out man.

For those that don't already know, we had some technical difficulties getting up to our camp, that caused us to have to return home instead of going to our second day's locations.

We overheated in Long Barn and didn't make it to camp and get set up till 2AM.

Here's a run down of what my thoughts are, and how we're going to tackle this. (long read) (Feel free to chime in and add thoughts)
@foxrcing07
@Pella
@nDub
@Pickeledpigsfeet
@anyone-else-that-has-ideas

Oil is perfect color.
Trans fluid is same color and smell as brand new.
Coolant does not seem to be leaking from anywhere now.

1) The sudden overheat seems to tell me some kind of blockage, or bad Tstat. Although the Tstat is only about a year old (Genuine Toyota), and it seems far fetched it would fail that quickly, a new one was ordered. When it is replaced, the system will be flushed thoroughly.

2) My winch solenoids are mounted in front of the radiator. I have read that a contactor can be used in place of the solenoids. I'll be looking in to sourcing that part, because it is more weather resistant than solenoids, and much smaller, where I can locate it in the engine compartment, where it doesn't block air flow to the radiator.

3) The trans temp was really high when we boiled over. I believe it may have been a contributing factor (as we were loaded down climbing a grade when it happened). A trans fluid cooler (with fans) is going to be installed (ordered). I'm thinking it will be installed under the bed. Since it has cooling fans, I think I want to keep everything clear in front of the radiator. Also an external trans filter (to add additional fluid capacity) will be added (ordered). I will also be draining the pan to inspect the Trans strainer, and replace the lock up solenoid (which is a known contributor to high trans temps if performing incorrectly).

4) Last but not least, I'm going to re-do the shrouds on the radiator. When I installed the larger radiator, I kind of hacked up the lower part of the shroud (to make room for trans lines etc) and I think the air flow from the fan may not be what it should be.

So... that's a pretty good run down of how I spent my day, researching possibilities, parts, etc.

 

Let me know when and where,
I also have a small list of to-do’s
1 Hint

 

Looks like most everything will be here this week. I really want to get it done before Jen has her next weekend off. (was really disappointing, to me, that her first weekend off in quite a while turned to shit).

 

Well let me know what days stuff shows up we can knock it out over a few evenings
Unfortunately I’m out of town this weekend I leave Friday

 

I'm thinking this. I thought you had a cooler already(?) With all the conversion to 4WD work, I'd definitely revisit the transmission as a possible cause.

 

How long does it take to get that far back off the highway? Scenery looks awesome.

 

It's probably 45-60 min off the hwy. All but the first pic were taken further up 108 between the Donnell Vista and Sonora Pass, which is an absolutely beautiful drive right now save for a few fire scarred areas, but sadly all on pavement. Not to say that there aren't beautiful spots back there, just most of them requite a bit of hiking.

 

Did you actually make it to Bourland Meadows?

I've tried 4 times now this year and haven't made it up there, for one reason or another.

 

Yeah I didn't hike down or anything, but I turned around at the trailhead. I think I saw the giant tree you mentioned was blocking your path someone had cut it into sections.

 

Ya, I should have done a trans cooler when I did the swap. Note to anyone doing the swap... do a trans cooler. It's not going to hurt anything.


I'm FUCKING PISSED at Modesto Toyota (and myself) though. When I did the shift kit, it was a suggestion, in the instructions, to replace the lock up solenoid. I priced it at Modesto Toyota and they wanted $158 for it (so I just decided not to do it)... I should have priced it in other places though. I found one from another Dealer for $53 yesterday.(average prices that I found were around $55)

Add to that... when I replaced the Tstat a while back, I got the wrong one sent to me, by a vendor. I needed one right now. Modesto Toyota charged me $57 for the Tstat and o-ring. I just got one from a different dealer for $23 for Tstat and o-ring yesterday. (average prices that I found were around $25)

DO NOT GO TO MODESTO TOYOTA FOR PARTS IF AT ALL POSSIBLE!!!

 

Add to my last post... FUCK Modesto Toyota. Don't go there for anything if you can help it.

They charged me $2000 for "Certified Pre-owned" on my truck... that still had 2 open recalls on it, at the time I bought it.

 

So... Found a pretty good deal on Amazon today.

This little doo-hiky should replace my solenoid box, and uncover a good portion of my radiator.