SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

And..........

............neighbor's media blaster worked on the wheel cap things!!! Check it out!!! Getting a coat of sparkly glittery silver in a few!!!

Also, thinking about pressure washing that skid plate. Anything else I should blast hard with the pressure washer under the truck?

 

I wouldn't put those caps back on, the truck would look better with out them!
Paint your skidplate though...

 

Nah, I'm pretty much hell bent on finding some little detail to paint with the glittery stuff. If it looks like ass, we can always take them off later. I'm trying it

Might paint the skid plate, will at least wash it.....

 

Dented and slightly mangled but sparkly! I'm allowed to have a few feminine touches, now that it IS my truck and all

Eric is almost done with his projects. Time to fire up the pressure washer and maybe start the topper.........

 

That poor sob. Making him work in the gravel drive.

Got my lumber down. Only took 35 minutes. Would have taken less, but I had to hydrate

 

Wow. Gorgeous!!! Excellent job on the CR K!!!! Looks beautiful, great work man.

Wait, how are you gonna blame the gravel on me???? The dirty underside of the truck, I'll give ya that. But the gravel? C'mon man!! I'm about to bring him his 3rd Corona, after serving him (and the neighborhood) lunch, literally on a platter. After running around town all day to gather food, Taco stuff, had to go BACK to Auto Zone a 2nd time because he didn't estimate enough gear oil the 1st time, which is no fun task on a Saturday. Does all of that redeem me?

About to do the Scotch Brite scuffing the topper step. We'll see how this goes.......

Funny story - another neighbor's dad just bought him a brand new RAM whatever giant souped up truck. It's a nice looking truck, no doubt, but the dude lives under his dad's thumb because he does stuff like this for him. No way to live in my opinion. Plus naturally he's COMPLETELY PARANOID about any little speck of dirt or god forbid someone leans on it or breathes on it wrong. That would suck, just my opinion again. Anyway - just now I was spray painting those wheel things in our driveway. His truck was at least 100' from where I was working. He looked over and saw what I was doing, and moved his truck behind his house.

 

LOL, unless it is REALLY cold and REALLY windy and his truck has ZERO wax on it, there is no way overspray from rattle can paint would stick at more than 50 feet. What a dork. Well, he drives a RAM, so . . .

Anyway, what are you using that rust stopper stuff on? Your cap is Fiberglas and already has paint on it. You should just scuff it and paint it, no need to add another layer. Thick, multiple layers of paint are not desirable. Best would be scuff thoroughly (with painting, it's all about the prep work) and roll that enamel on.

 

Nice!! Thanks TenBeers!! That's what I was thinking too, a few people told me what you are saying, but then the Depot lady convinced me to do primer first. I was undecided about it but wanted to get the hell outta there (crazy Saturday mob scene, starving people at home) so wound up at the checkout with one can of primer. Once I realized, I figured screw it, decide later, they are good about returns.

But it sounds like I can skip that step like I hoped/thought then, and return that crap!! Sweet!! Also will return that rust coating spray stuff, since neighbor cleaned up those wheel things. $10 towards beer =

Exactly about my neighbor. He is a dork. They let their poor little dog run all over the neighborhood and crap on everyone's lawn. They used to never even pick it up!! Then we all bitched and moaned and they pick it up most of the time, but still, the little guy could get hit by a car. I'm constantly paranoid when I'm backing out, he's a short little dude. Guy works in construction, basically has access to free building materials, but won't build a f'ing fence. I hint about it CONSTANTLY to him.

 

My first vehicle was a 1971or2 Toyota Corona Deluxe. It was 12 years old, only had 30K miles, and still had the factory plastic on the seats! Sadly it was that ugly well-hydrated piss yellow, but it only cost me $600. A friend's mom inherited from his drunken great uncle along with other things, and she needed the cash to pay the inheritance tax. He liked to drink and fish, so there were a few dents. OK, more than a few. I am sure some trees remember it. I put the cheapest Sears tires I could buy on it and drove the crap out of it through fields, trails, whatever. That thing would never die.

Hopefully Eric got the struts done OK. Like someone mentioned, the hooks on the spring compressor are sometimes hard to fit between the coils, but even then you can probably get it compressed enough by moving down the coil to where there is just room enough. Make sure the compressors are directly across from each other on opposite sides of the coil. Looking at it from the side, they should cross each other pretty evenly.

There is some danger involved, but I have done several sets and never had an issue. Just keep people away, especially from either end of the coil. It's a little scary seeing a hardened steel bolt flex like they do. I have used an impact gun on small car coils, but it didn't work on the truck coils. But I have a crappy Harbor Freight gun. I do it by hand, it's like a trip to the gym. I think, I don't go to gyms.

When I did my wife's 4Runner, the top nut on the strut was seized and the flattened top of the bolt sheared off. I had to use a grinder to cut it off while the spring was compressed, and then my cutting wheel got too small and I had to run to Home Depot in the middle of everything. A little nerve-wracking, but rarely does car repair happen without a little stress at times.

That Taco is getting spoiled, you need to call it some names and smack it around a bit so it doesn't start giving you attitude.

 

Yeah, the red is the primer. Scuff it up, wipe it down and paint it up.

 

@TenBeers , seriously, she is getting totally spoiled! I cleaned the crap outta the visors. Embarrassed to admit they'd never once been cleaned. Couldn't believe the filth that came off. Then my new paw print license plate holder that I've wanted FOREVER didn't fit on the back one, too wide to fit down into the Taco's bumper plate hole. But then someone said try the front! Bingo, looks awesome. Cleaned some serious funk from that area too.

AND, the big news. Eric just finished putting my sparkly "new" wheel cap things back on , not bad for an amateur Taco detailer, right?

 

Thanks K, doing exactly that!! : )

 

Great. Just looked at those pics more and now the rusty looking lugnuts are bothering me........

 

Tested out some Permatex Rust Treatment today. Rust shellac,,it glues the rusty bits together so you can paint over it,,lol. Kinda what I expected. It can be used under enamel and makes a thick black hard candy shell over it all. Only attaches itself to rust to turn the black color, after 15 min. A little bit of black showed here and there, so a scuff and shoot paint, the next nice day. Sadly,,we are in for a drenching on monday and wet the rest,,off and on. Damn weather!!,,stay 75° and no wind. Dammut!.

 

Oh fuck, just read this and was reminded of the forecast. Didn't even put that together, even though I looked at the forecast about 10 times today. S'posed to start raining Sun night/Mon early morn here. Was planning to paint the topper tomorrow, realistically in the afternoon. Think I should wait til later in the week with the rain coming the next few days? Tomorrow is supposed to be gloriously hot and sunny here.

 

@Old School , whadya think?

 

Now thinking of doing the topper later in the week after the rain clears and using tomorrow to play!! There's a little lake up in the mountains that we used to go to a lot, because we'd always get the whole place to ourselves. Literally, the whole lake. To ourselves. Even in beautiful weather. Basically drive right up to it too, on logging roads, ~2 hrs from home, beautiful drive along the Clackamas River. Thinking of taking our little blow up boat up there tomorrow and soaking up the sunshine, topper can wait!! Time for Taco to do some work around here

 

Just waking up, I think the paint job turned out fine, the caps are a little beat up looking...
Probably should replace them down the road, lugnuts could be cleaned up...
Now your headlights, you might be able to clean them, I replaced mine on my old '98, ~$100 for both or less, Amazon or ebay.
here's my old '98, sold it recently, don't need 2 trucks, but I miss it.

 

Wow, why'd ya get rid of that?????????????? I would have bought it!! When did you sell it? Of course you need two trucks!!! That was a nice looking '98. Very nice looking. Shoulda kept it. Although I guess not everyone is a sentimental fool like me, to each his own, right?

Headlights are next. Not spending the cash to replace. We have a polishing kit in the shed that we're going to bust out today if we skip the lake plan and go for staying here and doing truck/yard work stuff. Maybe I'll try cleaning the lugnuts some too......any tips on that?

Oh come on now. You KNOW that paint job on the wheel caps turned out FINE AS FROG'S FUR buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!! More than fine!! That is damn near a pro job right there!!! OK, so there's a few dents....... but, they're like the Taco - a little banged up but still gorgeous and ready for anything!! The dents in contrast with the nice paint says: "I'm beautiful but tough too, let's find some dirt roads!" whereas non dented AND perfectly painted would say, "I'm perfect and prissy and I don't want to go off road anymore, let's find the mall."

By the way, you guys don't think it's weird that the wheel center caps (in addition to the Taco itself) talk to me, do you? That's how it is for everyone with their truck, right?

 

DEFINITELY getting two of these sweet seat covers for the Taco