GHOST SHIP: Custom Chingaderas

i need a couple of days away.
maybe I'll take the grandson fishing.

 

Good for you. I need to do the same thing

 

Big thanks to Sergio aka @GHOST SHIP . Tailgate with tire carrier and fold down table cameout awesome, super happy with it. It just so happen to be my Birthday today. I will post some more pics later after I eat some of this Menudo we picked up on the way hom3.

Sorry for taking some family time away from you on this Sunday. And explaining some of the details on the gate opening and closing it. Again big thanks. Appreciate your time. Will talk soon on the bed rack, too many ideas on what I want done.

 

Looking good man! No worries! It was a pleasure to build and glad it worked out that you picked it up on your birthday!

 

Beat the crap out of my @GHOST SHIP swingout. It yawned and said “is that all you got?”

 

Had more time to play outside today - super stoked on the tailgate:
Added some badging hopefully it's secure enough with 3M tape.


Table folding down:


Now waiting for some used tires for the spare:

 

That 4WD badge looks right at home there. I dig it!

 

Clearing out some old stuff. Free for whoever wants them but you gotta come get it:

Tire chains. From my previous truck. box tells you what tire sizes they fit. Never used but test fit once in my driveway.


Portable charcoal grill. Brand new, never even opened until now.

 

Man, seeing all the cool stuff you continue to make

Makes me wanna pick your brain.

 

Let me know man! You already got the skills, it’s just a matter of visualizing your designing and seeing how everything fits together once it’s done. Because I don’t use computers to “prebuild” things virtually I’ve gotten really good at thinking things through before I even start sketching things out on paper. If I took the time to learn sketch up or a different 3d design software I might be able to build things that were a lot more complicated and with better repeatability. But as a general rule of thumb I plain dislike computers.

 

That is clean as fuck work

 

Left home for over a week to visit family on the east coast. Came home to a P0333 code and “Trac off” light on my truck…

Fuck….

For those that don’t know what that means and how infuriatingly common it is on our trucks: a rat made it’s way into my engine bay and chewed up my knock sensor harness. This also causes distinct power loss and timing retardation to the point of noticeable MPG loss. You can still drive the truck but it’s very noticeable that something isn’t right.

Having not driven the truck in about two weeks, critters are able to nest when the engine doesn’t reach operating temperature on regular basis. Even if you drive your truck regularly, they’ll get in there looking for a warm place to sleep at night, but they just are less likely to make themselves at home and start decorating the place. The knock sensor and associated wire harness resides in the engine valley between the valve seats, beneath the lower intake plenum. That is a perfect nesting spot with easy access for rats or squirrels at the rear of the engine and hidden from view to even a trained eye that knows what to look for. Driving the truck regularly makes it hot enough in that area where they can’t get comfortable and stay for long periods of time without the risk of cooking themselves to death.

Using this thread (https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...p0333-diy-knock-sensor-harness-repair.547066/ ) and several YouTube videos as a guide I took about 5.5 hours start to finish. Here’s some pics of what to expect:

Dusty engine bay with evidentiary rat prints all over:


Close-up of the fucker’s tracks:

Bastard even chewed up the power lead for my hood lights. Funny enough, these hood lights were the very first thing I bought from @Bee-radd over at Anti-Dark when I joined TW. They were old, had already served in two of my trucks and were starting to dim through the yellowed vinyl so I had been meaning to replace them so I also took care of that.

Here’s how far you have to tear down your engine to get to the knock sensors and wire harness. From top to bottom: engine cover, air filter housing, throttle body, upper intake, fuel rails and lower intake. You have to keep track of all your nuts and bolts as well as several hose fittings and harness connectors so it may seem really daunting to someone not used to this level of fuckery. Just go slow and take your time- taking pictures of details helps so you know how to put things back together. Some people as well as the FSM mention needing to remove the cylinder heads and water pump (to drain and remove the coolant crossover lines) I felt this wasn’t necessary since the extra work involved didn’t justify the extra access you’d be gaining to the harness. The knock sensors are under those metal coolant tubes right in the middle of the engine valley. Slim fingers, a creative use of several long reach tools and a lot of patience will get you there though

Here’s the damage. From what I can tell it was most likely a single rat that spent the week gnawing on the two wires and protective loom. About 2” of wire were completely gone so there was no chance of splicing it back together.

And the replacement harness and part number.

No after pictures because I’m tired. But I cleaned the engine bay and sprayed the ever loving shit out of it with diluted peppermint oil as a deterrent. I even used a few drops of pure peppermint oil on the engine cover insulation. My thought process is that it’ll last longer and the heat cycles of driving the truck regularly should reinforce the scent as long as possible.


Not an impossible task but very tedious and knuckle damaging with all the tight spaces to work with. Code is gone but I’ll cross my fingers for a few days before I can be 100% on it. That’s just my anxiety though.

 

Holy shit, sorry you went through that.

 

Bound to happen sooner or later. I live up in the foothills so rats and squirrels are really common here. I often find a few tracks on my engine bay when I haven’t driven the tuck in a while. As soon as I saw the dash lights, I knew exactly what is was.

 

Good Lord what a B to deal with!!
Luckily you are a very capable guy and mechanically inclined. I’m sorry to hear you had to deal with this but am glad you were able to handle it on your own. My fingers are crossed that the P0333 Code stays gone.

I vaguely recall reading a thread on TW about installing something under the hood as preventative maintenance in attempt to stop something like this from happening. I’ll see if I can find it...

 

That's hella weak...f**k rats!!! If it makes you feel better, I beat the crap out of my swingout you made and it just yawned and laughed at the challenge lol

 

Driving the truck today I got my power back and it drives so much better. No code! Good thing about the knock sensor code is that it appears immediately at start up rather than an emissions code that may take a day or two to show up. I’m going to call this one solved.

there are several rat-proofing threads for the intake and blower motor cavity, but nothing that has been able to solve this specific problem in the engine bay. Although I’m driving around now wafting people with peppermint so that’s kinda cool- mobile air freshener.

 

Dude! I still need to build another one for myself. Just haven’t made the time.

 

I see what you did there