Burt, The Old Man With friends Daryl and Donna

A couple weekends ago we took a trip up Schofield pass to Emerald lake. Then decided to head back down through the Paradise divide and down by Oh Be Joyful

 

Happy Birthday to Burt! 275,000 Miles!

It is time for a bit of maintenance.
In the last couple thousand miles, I started to notice the temp gauge slightly climbing after long climbs into the mountains, I noticed it leaving Denver on 285 that after a few miles the temp gauge would start slightly pointing up. Last time I just "left it because its not overheating" it resulted in a warped head on my Jeep. So I made sure that I was going to take care of this asap.
To do that I did a few things:
A full coolant flush, I ended up flushing it 3 times because the PO put green coolant in after I presume the radiator cracked since it was replaced at some point.
I changed out the Thermostat as I found it looked to be the original and was pretty crusty from the years of green coolant.
And I finally put a Heatshield on the header, which cylinder 1 conveniently is about 3" from the Coolant Temp Sensor, which after a few miles at 3000rpm probably doesn't help the situation.
So after all that. In the places Burt usually got warm, the temp gauge stayed rock solid no matter how hard I was running the motor. WIN!

Next Up, I thought that it was about time to do a fuel filter, not a hard job but a bit of a pain to do. I think that the fuel filter is the original, as they normally don't get changed too often.

Next up, Sloppy shifter bushings, as with most first gens. My shifter had the same amount of play in gear as it did in neutral. So I put in a new Marlin Crawler heavy duty shifter seat to replace the rubber crumbs that came out of the trans. And a New OEM lower shifter bushing to replace the heavily grooved one. Burt now feels better than any new Tacoma I have ever driven, similar to a Subaru STI trans with how notchy the new set up is. Its so much easier to grab gears on a climb.
I Highly recommend this to any first gen owners, its cheap too, around $25 for both bushings and about a half hour worth of time, and a Philips head screwdriver.
DO IT!

A New Exhaust since mine has slowly been falling apart since before I owned it.
Before
After


Then the Usual Oil Change (I do 5k) and Air Filter Change (15k or until roached by dust)
the old filter had 9k on it and was gone. All the fires in Colorado have meant that Burt's been sucking in lots of ash, and being that I try to hit dirt at least once a week, I have been going through filters quickly, even with the Snorkel.

On the topic of snorkels, to reduce the crap sucked in, especially insects, specifically large insects I decided to switch it up to a cyclone pre-filter.


I'll report back how long it takes to fill this with crap and how well it does when the snow comes.

 

Finally ticked Medano Pass off my bucket list! After knowing about it for about 6 years I finally planned a trip down to complete it.

Started off with a 3 hour drive from Gunnison to Westcliffe, driving past the Bison Farm. And then dropping down to 8 psi for the off road section. First climbing up to the top of the pass from the east with plans to drop down the pass and into the dunes.

Catching some of the fall colors on the way up to the top.


Eager to get to camp we pushed on and arrived just in time to set up camp as the sun set at the very top of the pass and got cooking!

The Nights dinner, Steak Fajitas!

Woke up to a beautiful day at 10,000 feet Ready to drop down into the dunes.
Burt cruising down the trail.

It was as fun trail, nothing too challenging, in the upper section.
It was prime leaf viewing time, mixed with a few nice water crossings it is a trail that I highly recommend.
Made it to the Dunes! Sorry about some of the photos being a bit crap, I haven't used my DSLR in a while and I think I didn't have it in the right mode.
Duratracs down at 8psi, with a light truck the sand was not an issue. Burt floated over even the deepest sections. 3rd Lo was the best mix of power and control on these tracks.
Stopped to climb up a dune.

It was a lot steeper than it looked. It was a starting to get hot by the time we got to the top so we bailed back down.

Enjoyed the view of the dunes and trees for a little while.

Finishing the pass granted us quesadillas and salsa before heading back to Gunnison. And passing both an Alligator Farm, and a UFO tourist attraction.
So the trip can be summed up with.
Bison, Mice, sand dunes, Mexican food, Big Horn Sheep, UFO, Alligators, and Yellow leaves.

 

I totally forgot!!
Real toilet planters!
Highway 17 through the San Luis Valley is a trip for sure.

 

I also ordered new vacuum lines to replace the 22 year old cracking ones on the engine.

 

I think I may be starting to have a clogged or leaky injector. Burt has been more difficult to start as of late and seems to be a little down on what power it has. In talking to a friend of mine he also believes its showing the same symptoms as the times he has had injectors go bad. So I think I'll be replacing those soon.

 

Could also be a faulty coil pack. I'd check those as well.

 

I'm not getting any codes. But that's worth a look as well. I'll see what I can do to test them.

 

Are you still rocking 31’s? I got 31’s but i got a 3” lift i want to fit 33’s

 

Yup 31x10.50s. Up here at 8000 feet the 2.7 has zero power so unless I geared the truck way down it wouldn't be drivable. I also haven't lifted the truck more than maybe 1" so it looks fitting with the 31s.

 

i have the auto so its got 4.10’s ill be good with 33 all terrains, thx nice truck bro

 

My manual has 4.10s as well. But if you are down at sea level or around there you can probably get away with it for a while.

 

you ever rub when offroading with the 31’s?

 

None with this set up. I did when I ran 235/85r16 on 2nd gen steelies. It rubbed the frame on full lock but nothing more than pulling a little bit of paint off.

 

I got these 31 km3’s they weigh 50lbs each the 33 ko2’s weigh the same if not .5 less, I would imagine it be better as the mud terrain tread is more agressive making it harder to keep pushing

 

Burt is looking good, nice job Wyatt. Functional mods are the ticket.
When you were having rubbing issues running 235/85 16, were that an 8” wide wheel? I wonder if the backspace is different on second gen rims, I run 235/85 16 on the 16”x7” stock steelies(all spare rims) with no rubbing issues so far anyway. Just a curiosity....

 

I didn't have any rubbing "issues" but after a lot of wheeling and city driving I did notice that the tires just barely made contact with the back section of the frame. Never enough to notice it, but enough to just take the paint off over time. I think they were a 16x7, with just a hair less back spacing then the first gen wheel. I even have the slightest amount of paint being taken on with my 31x10.50s on factory 15s. It might be when I run really low pressure off road. Anywhere from 6-10 off road usually.

 

On the topic of the 235/85r16s. I actually mounted them back on the truck for a kick to see how they looked with the build.

They look good, I always loved the tall skinny look. But after using C-load Duratracs the last 16,000 miles. Those E-load Generals rode extremely rough, smooth in terms of the rolling resistance but rough as hell on any bumps.
I'm still surprised at the amount of tread left on these Generals after 40,000 miles (ish).
If only they made that size in a C-Load they would be on Burt right away.

 

They do look pretty good, not fond of those early steelies, they always held chunks of ice that made life way to interesting. I hear you on the load range C tires, I would like to be able to go with that light of a tire but they don’t hold up in my commute:


The road eats lesser tires. Here I am heading out to work for the season, day one- 2 flats.
Withe these wheels and the Toyos, should be good for awhile, I finally found these 16x7 and swapped the. 8” Tundra wheel for another set, might put them on the 85, or use them for studded winter tire.

 

Yeah, the roads around here are pretty bad as well. Very similar climate to your area I presume. Anything off road here is on a mix of sharp granite and even sharper volcanic rock. Which happens to be what our dirt/ gravel roads are made out of. I have chunked through a set of tires wheeling here in less than 4k miles. (Even worse on dirt bike tires). Plus our 6-7 month winters usually freeze and crack tires after a few years. So E loads might last longer, but any tire that focuses on sidewall and tread strength will likely do better in any Load level. Tires like the ST Maxx, MTR w/Kevlar, Cooper at3 XLT, and so on.