What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Valvoline - VV985 Moly-Fortified...

$13 Valvoline Moly-Fortified Gray Full Synthetic Grease 14.1 OZ Cartridge

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CQ4DK0?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

 

just added 2.5 inch lift kit. 2003 Tacoma. Purchased 1-19-2003 with 8 miles. Now 203,000 miles. Runs great! Bumper Guards, side steps, roof rack, magnaflow exhaust, etc

 

This thing is CLEAN!

 

Solid backup plan. Open bed is nice but having all that locked and covered storage is super nice.

Microcontroller FTW
Stoked to see how this turns out.
I have been wanting to put one in the truck but need to figure it where how and why first.


Replaced the brake booster with the Napa special.
Learned the truck shop replaced it less than Two years ago and it's already failed. Would likely be out at least 500+labor but would have needed to wait till Wed to even see what could be done. Wound up fixing it myself with probably the same shit they would have used in 2hours.

Brakes work again! So amped.

 

Thanks!
Was about 5 hours labor.
Thorough cleaning at the spray-n-wash, invisible glass on windows, ultra-black on trim, chrome polish to bumpers, plastic polish on exterior lights (I think I missed the fogs.)
ONR-lubed synthetic clay bar, to start, followed by M205 Finishing Polish on a white pad, then Meg's Ultimate Polish on a black pad, and finally Meg's Ultimate Liquid Wax - also with the black pad on my orbital.
I was tempted to really correct the scratches by starting with M105 Utra-Cut on a fresh orange pad, but also was afraid of how little clearcoat might be left after 25 years of sitting outside.
Though the M205 took some black off the mirror caps, not a single bit of red transferred to the white buffing pad. So I think I'm good for a bunch more years, as long as I maintain it a little better than the previous owner.
It'll be in there for extended stays, but isn't likely to get full garage treatment like the 2 BMWs. Going to be an outside cat.

Can I just leave this here?
1st night at new home:


After a little love and elbow grease:

 

I detail as a side job, I can tell you really put the work in. The truck is now a deeper more vibrant color. Looks wet. You did a fantastic job!

 

TUNING:
Changed settings to 9.3 A 3.29 kHz And set 02 offset .23 V the other day… Today I added a bit of potassium hydroxide KOH to the reservoir because the solution has been freezing.

Just changed frequency to 6.94 kHz And the O2 offset at .27 V(I can hear the frequency generator whistling pretty good). The engine’s power output is surprisingly enjoyable!

Any advice on tracking oxygen fuel ratio so I don’t burn my valves? I was thinking either an air fuel mixture guage and or an exhaust sniffer. I know that I can’t increase my exhaust temp too much.

 

Install a wideband O2 sensor into the exhaust and a gauge to read the afr. Although you're OEM ECU should be keeping it pretty spot on 14.7 in closed loop most the time

 

Absolutely this! Tuning without at least an AFR gauge is really just fiddling around with crap and hoping you don't make things worse.

 

Played hooky from work yesterday...

Got the cases final torque
Filled the Tcases
Installed drivelines
Swapped out the 16 in coils for some 18 inch coils
Fixed the alignment
Adjusted the front brakes
Got the shifter linkages adjusted and tightened.
Finished the patch in the floor board.

All I need to do to finish the dual case install is put the center console back in and the front seats. (My son has a day off today. If all goes well, my interior will be done for me when I get home tonight)

 

Did you get the rear axle done? You making it to hammers?

 

I have about half the parts I need for the rear axle. I wasn't planning on even trying to tackle that before Hammers. I think I'll probably have everything I need for the rear axle, to start that project in April. We don't have anything planned for April (trips) so that will give me some time to get it dialed in.

We WILL be making it to Hammers. That's going to be our Feb trip
March will be Death Valley
April - open
May - Sourgrass / Corral Hollow / Slick Rock / Deer Valley / Forestdale Rd (over 3 days)
June - Rubicon
July - Swamp Lake
August - Fordyce or Barrett Lake
September - Dusy
October - Red Lake / Coyote Lake

And I'm sure there will be 3 or 4 trips to Niagara Rim Trail in there as well.


As you can see... April is the time the axle will need to be done. My current set up is fine for Hammers and DV.

 

Gotcha. Sounds like a solid schedule. Although I bet most all of those trails are going to be closed in May due to the snowpack levels. It's going to be a late wheeling season this year

 

We've been looking at that. The trip is the 3rd week of May. We'll definitely be able to do Sourgrass and Corral Hollow. (we know a group that went through Sourgrass this past weekend, and Corral Hollow may be a slog, but I know people who run it in the snow.)

Slick Rock will be up in the air for sure. And I'm not sure 4 will even be open to Hermit Valley... so we'll have to plan accordingly.

Snow pack is why we are having to keep the Fordyce trip open for a plan B as well. There's no telling what the flows on Fordyce Creek will look like. If it's going to be too high, plan B is Barrett Lake.

 

Are there times of the year where Rubicon/Fordyce are like the perfect time? I am starting to plan my 2027 trip for my 40th

 

July is a great time to go, but usually pretty busy as well.
Make sure you check the event calendar so that you don't end up going the same time as Jeep jamboree or something where there's hundreds of rigs

 

The group I run with does Rubicon every June. The biggest thing on Rubi is scheduling around all the Jeep bullshit that goes on all year. They do mid June because normally it's the best mix of less worry about snow and less worried about strings of 45 JKs that all look the same, coming down the trail towards you.

Fordyce is HIGHLY dependant on how much water PG&E is releasing on Fordyce creek. If you go at the wrong time, you'll have to put your truck on pontoons to get across. The perfect time to do Fordyce is during Sierra Trek... but then you're dealing with a million Jeeps there too. (and it costs, like 500 bucks a person or some dumb shit... but you get food... lol) PG&E shuts down, or greatly reduces, the flows for Sierra Trek.

 

This is Fordyce Creek, when flows are relatively low, on a dry year.

https://youtu.be/u-QzlWI5_Wk


This is how Fordyce Creek looks when I'm not interested in going

https://youtu.be/ljyP6b-oheM

 

Auto trans drain and flush, took about 5L. Easy peasy.

On the flip side, looks like my engine mounts are going...well, I did get 202k miles out of them, so I'm not complaining. Going to study Timmy's video on replacing them myself.

 

My middle son is my favorite today.




Yes, I quoted myself.