TYetti's 2.7L Rebuild/FULL SEND/EAF build

That’s a hell of an upgrade! Interested to hear how they ride (before you get the kings....won’t even be a comparison between the two)

 

Teaser from Rubicon



I have 700 photos to go through most are not on my camera cause it died. Trip report to come

 

5000 miles to Rubicon

This was by far the most ambitious trip I had ever planned. It would be complicated, confusing and frustrating at times but the two most underpowered truck possible set out to take it all on.

5am Saturday morning may 19
Threw a few last minute items in my truck and we set off. The goal was to get past Seattle before the traffic started. We cruised down I5 grabbing breakfast around 630 and blowing through Seattle before 9am. The original idea had us staying at Mt St Helens but the park was closed for some power issues sooo we walked around for a bit and checked out some of the sights and made our way to the gorge scenic area, calling it a day at beacon rock campsite.

I wasn't really taking too many pics at the beginning of the trip, I mean you can only take so many pics of your truck set up. Instead we did a hike to the nearby water falls made dinner and had some beers.

In our usual fashion we were up around 530 6am made breakfast and were on the road by 7am, which made getting through Portland pretty easy. Although I must say the interstate system needs more and clearer signage I can't tell you how many times I had to push my way into the next lane because my lane was suddenly ending with only a few 100 meters notice. Anyways we carried on into Oregon passing through the breathtaking Tillamook Forrest. I really love how the American parks system caters to all users unlike in Canada where once a park is a park only hikers may enjoy it. We stopped for lunch in Pacific city because I wanted to pick up or ohv permits and lunch on the beach sounded great.

Again a common theme throughout this whole trip would be the friendliness we encountered people came up and asked about the truck and our trip it made for a great lunch stop. We headed off to our campsite for the night we settled on a place called fan creek in the sinsulaw national forest. After getting lost for an hour because of a detour we found some dirt bikers who set us on the right track. And we arrived to find a guy who'd blown a tire on his Chevy. I went to lend him my spare with his promise to return and if it got wrecked he'd replace it. With his address in hand we tried to get the tire on which was a match unfortunately his truck although 6 bolt was not 5.5. We set camp and enjoyed an evening by the creek.



Early to rise again we were on the road by 730am. We hit hwy 101 and cruised down the Oregon coast stopping in Florence for some salsa and munchies, and then carrying on towards our campsite which was to be the umpqua dunes near the umpqua creek lighthouse. However the map books I purchased were sub par at best and not like the back roads map book I am used too. These maps didn't have some parks and had them named different it was also filled with unnamed streets, which became ultra frustrating later on. So 70 miles later I stopped and found myself in gold beach. My coopilot has a tendency to nap in the truck. Luckily gas is cheap in Oregon so I hauled was back and we arrived on the dunes around 430.



Walked along the beach for some time and just sat there watching it was really spectacular.



The winds were intense as the sun went down the constant flapping of the tent made for a restless night. Also our other rig arrived. Jesse and his family had left a family event that morning which made their departure from BC around noon they arrived at our campsite at 130am Tuesday morning. However they were in high spirits and we spent an hour messing around on the dunes before setting off to crater lake at around 845am.




The drive to the lake was simply gorgeous even though we drove for nearly 10 hours I was spectacular. However the lack of signage would prove to be a pain yet again. We opted for the North access to the lake which was closed with no signage to suggest so. We then descended to the south entrance only to find all the roads had a sprinkle of snow and were closed. I've literally driven through deeper snow on my driveway. Severely irritated and now being 530pm we quickly accounted alternative campsites and round one on the rogue river. We set up and consumes many beverages that night. We also managed to plan our next days travel. I had originally planned to use b roads to get to Tahoe. It was simply taking too long so we opted to push down the I5 into Sacramento and onto Tahoe. By this point my phone was giving me issues so we had lost the directions to the loon lake trailhead. It would later start working again but after we had blown by our intended target.

Rogue river



The interstate is so boring to drive. We also didn't understand the rules once we got into California. People seem to drive on the shoulders and weave all over the place. Here shoulders are for emergencies only I find the whole practice insanely dangerous on a multilane highway because you just don't know what's around the bend. So we angered many people by staying in the right lane but so be it. We arrived in Sacramento at rush hour lol by now we were getting tired so we just used the trucks like the armoured vehicles they are and pushed our way around. Finally we got onto the highway to Tahoe and cruised our way into south Tahoe where the 4runner and it's mighty 3.0 needed yet another fuel stop. We spent the night at inspiration point in another campground. You guys are very specific in that the camp sites are setup so your car can only go here. You cook here and tour tent goes here. In Canada even national parks it's like here's a spot in some trees figure it out. At any rate we very much enjoyed the rest and again many beverages were consumed as we were excited to start Rubicon the next day.

Tahoe 745pm

7am


We woke up early Thursday morning and rolled into town to too up on fuel, food, and more beers. We headed out i had found a connecting road that would take us to the loon lake trailhead faster than backtracking to Placerville, it was here again we realized the map book had failed us. Not even mentioning the campsites sprinkled along the access road. Nevertheless we pushed on and found ourselves at the lake at 10am. We aired down and got ready to rock


And that's where I'm gonna leave you guys for today

 

Rubicon

Well what can I say. It's more than you can imagine. If you've never been there or seen it, no amount of pictures or videos do it justice. The rocks are bigger, obstacles are in corners and all around you. Areas that look flat are huge inclines. It is relentless and it will beat you down if you let it.

So on we go, grinning ear to ear we start out along this trail of legend. It starts off pretty tame the gate keeper at Loon Lake wasn't much getting onto the granite bowl had a few clutch standy moments but nothing crazy.





We emerged onto the granite bowl and man what a sight that was. It's also increasingly easy to get lost or pick the wrong line and fall off the face of the earth.


Oops






The crazy thing about the granite bowl is sometimes the easy looking lines are not actually that easy. I forgot to hit the front locker and got snagged on my bumper. Backed up turned the locker on and she walked right up with an assertive right foot that is.



And it just carried on and on obstacle after obstacle for a while.





On this rock shelf Jesse ended up clipping a small rock that I just rubbed. Because he had maxxis treps and they were new and sticky it launched him up almost rolling. We had to winch him up because he landed in a very precarious position.


As time went on everytime we found a Sunday drive section we became very afraid about what kind of fuck you obstacle was around the corner.



Everyone we ran into on the trail were super stoked to see the taco on the trail.








And then there was the little sluiece box......TBC

 

Sorry I have been working extra shifts and slacking here...

Ok little sleuice was awesome looking up and watching Jesse struggle a bit at the top I was skeptical but screw it full send or go home!!!






At the top of the hill we ran into Merlin who spends the summer on the trail and chatted for awhile he hooked us up with some sovenirs and we carried on. Shortly after that one of Jesse's treps met with its demise.


About 45 min later we had the spare mounted and everything put away so we carried on as it started to rain with a bit of lightning. We were getting tired and we're headed for the Indian trail trying to make it buck island lake for the night. We never made it. Jesse's truck had another almost flat. Turns out the tires were rubbing on the pinch weld. We had to go so slow and were so careful cause there is no way of getting help nor was it gonna be pheasable to get my truck out and back with a second spare. The Indian trail basically has you crabbing down the mountain side on the granite. Toss in a few insane rock climbs with 90 degree turns and it gives you an idea. It was so technically demanding and the trucks were soo bent out of shape no pics were taken. I literally rode on the passenger side slider of Jesse's 4runner the whole way down to try and keep the rubber down. We gave up getting buck island and camped off to the side near the old sleuiece entrance.


We Pounded back a few beers and made hot dogs as it got dark. At about 230 am some locals were on a night run. By run I mean they were running into everything out there lol. A few road pops had been consumed. They gave us some pointers and headed off. We would run into them the following morning as we passed buck island lake.

Day 2

We got up kinda late we set out goals for the day. Goal 1 dont break, goal 2 get to Rubicon spring. The trail immediately said fuck you.













Trying to escape buck island lake was probably the hardest part of the trail. As you can see the obstacles just kept on coming and didn't stop and everytime they did we were afraid of what was around the corner. Then the big sleuiece happened.





So in that squeeze my tire started climbing the tree and leaned me over into the rock. It was so tight I had to run my bumpers on the rocks to make it. The rock just reached out and gave the door a little kiss


Ok carry on with more rocks






The bottom of the sleuiece was rediculous. I also destroyed my lca skid here












And then finally the moment we'd been waiting for

I managed to run over the bridge a bit



We set up camp and immediately got very drunk to cope with the amount of focus expenses during another 10hrs of straight wheeling.



TBC

 

My thoughts exactly!.......

 

That is a long day of beating on your truck! I could only imagine how tiring that is!

 

Days!!! We have finished two 10hr wheelathons up to this point. Limping the 4runner along on 3.5 tires. It took so much Tims scouting every obstacle but it worked

 

Awesome looking trip! Good job!!

 

Rubicon day 3

We got a later start after many beers the night before. We were more optimistic about the chances of finishing on day 3 even with Cadillac hill to come. We packed up and got ready to roll. To be fair the drive from the springs to Cadillac hill was pretty tame compared to what we had just accomplished. I was feeling awesome having only had to break out the winch once and suffering no real damage to speak of.





This picture makes this part seem flat..... It's not I could only see the sky


And again the technical and gradient nature of Cadillac Hill meant few pics were taken
I had some issues near the top there was a sharp turn with a rock obstacle I kept getting caught and stalling which meant rolling backwards to take another stab at it. Which didn't feel awesome. Still Jesse spent most of the way up on 3 wheels which made his GF go into the bushes and throw up lol his front end likes to unload because of all the weight in the back of the truck. Anyways we ended up running into the caretaker group and the local Sheriff making it to the observation point at around noon.







Everyone we met was super pumped to see a late model taco on the trail. And even more impressed when they saw it was a 4cylm we bs'd with the group for a bit and made out way out of the trail and all the way back to Tahoe. Which was a nightmare cause it was a long weekend. Getting back to pavement we aired up and discovered the amount of damage we had actually done. Jesse had sheared two knuckle studs on the passenger side. He posted up on a Tahoe 4x4 page and a local guy helped him get it fixed at his shop. My steering wheel was no crooked at my front skid plate and passenger lca skid were broken. We found the first available camp sites made repairs and drank more beer.

Sunday
We got up early and putted around Tahoe for a few hours before finally leaving and heading towards San Andreas as we decided we needed to find Jesse a tire and I needed an alignment so Stockton would be our destination come tuesday being memorial day weekend. That created another issue we drove from site to site and they were all full. Finally a US Forrest service ranger came up to us at a gas station and suggested we head up hwy 4 he had known of some sites that still had availability. The second site we tried had some but the owner stated they weren't cleared of brush yet. We invited him to come look at our vehicles. He laughed when he saw them and said don't think that's a problem for you guys. We basically took over a corner of the campsite for the next two days




They had hot showers and the owner was super cool and came and crushed beers with us. It was nice to sit for a few days and just relax. It was also finally hot as fuck. We'd been dealing with rain and cold most of the time we'd been in California.

Tuesday.
Running low on beer and now able to make repairs we got up early and headed into Stockton CA. We first went to 4wheelparts we have such a good relationship with our local branch they have yota guys there and will go the extra mile for you. This one didn't even wanna hear us don't ever go there. We ended up at les Schwab tires just down the road the girl there went the extra mile got Jesse an off brand 37 MT as maxxis tires were a 3 day wait. They also discovered that I had broken the steering rack. Which made sense as I had a dead Spot in it. The tech said cause he took longer than he thought and that he didn't really fix it. He wasn't going to charge us. We then spent 20 min talking trucks lol. We resupplied (beer) and headed off towards Yosemite. We camped that night on the river at the rim of the world





Tbc

 

Can you please tell me where you bought your mirror? I cannot stand not seeing things...like signals! My family is all tall. : ) thank you.

 

It's the factory mirror. I bought a relocation bracket from ImMrYo

 

Wednesday
we got up reasonably early made some breakfast and packed up camp. Today we would be heading through yosemite and over to the 395 our final destination was to be convict lake. But as usual things would get interesting.

We decided to take the northern pass through the park. Which was spectacular we stopped at one of the lakes for lunch and did some exploring before moving on

Northern pass summit




We moved out of the park and that's when things got interesting. My brakes started smoking and I got crazy wheel vibes. Now since I knew all my wheels were bent I was like ok, but when it continues ingot worried. I did have a dumbass in a Prius infront of me who was afraid of the corners. We pulled over and checked things over nothing really looked out of place, so we carried on.


We made it to convict lake after spending an hour or two wondering mammoth lakes. I'm not gonna lie we ran out of beer again. We made our last food stop of the trip here as well. What we didn't know is that this area has all kinds of great fishing as it wasn't really on the original plan. Which we threw out and were now winging it. Not digging the lake and how busy it was we moved on down the 395 and found a series of sites one of which suites us just fine



This night we again had many beers and had a good ol' piss up as we sat around the fire.

Thursday
I woke up around 6 cause that's what I do and we were on the road by 830. Stopping for fuel and coffees in the first town we found. We decided to carry on down the 395 to Sequoia National park. Just an epic drive. I should also mention at this point my phone was broken and we were just enjoying the drive. We made it to Sequoia around 5 and drove through the park finding a place to camp amongst the trees.





Friday
Thursday night we decided to make a push for the coast and make our way back home. We decided to take the 101 since Jesse and his gf had missed so much of it. Everything was going great we entered the bay area around 1130 and were ahead of the traffic. Then I lost my brakes coming up to the Oakland bridge. Turns out that vibe I felt a few days ago was a caliper bolt falling out. The stress sheared the hard line. I managed to get the truck off the highway and stopped without killing anyone. Jesse had some spare hard line and a caliper bolt from an 85 axle. We bent up the line and shimmed the caliper bolt and blead the master and were on our way in about an hour. But now we were in the traffic which slowed us down. We eventually got free and carried on North. Finally entering the redwoods forest. Again we found a nice little site on the Ave of the giants. However it was around 7 when we arrived. A quick dinner and a few drinks and it was off to bed.

Saturday
We left the redwoods and carried on North along the 101 at this point we were just enjoying so few pictures were taken.



We made our way along the coast stopping at a few towns finally making camp in the dunes area yet again

We also discovered we had 32 beers left that we couldn't bring back so guess what you got it we drank em all and made the fresh crab we picked up along our travels that day.

Sunday
We go up and made our way into Lincoln city stopping at the outlet malls and scoring some sweet deals at the north face store. We also stopped at cannonn beach and went as far as astoria before jumping back into Washington and making the push up the i5 home

 

Back at home I still had 4 days before returning to work. So it was time to fix the brakes.

The fix

Russel SS lines elimating the caliper hard line and the soft line



Much better pedal feel than OEM.

Also my tires have been loosing air. Since I got back I had them checked and it comes back that the rims are so bent there may be cracks allowing air to slowly escape. So I'm having to replace them since I can no longer buy series 97 in 16" that will clear the calipers

And that catches us up

 

I did a thing

 

When your daily is full of yota parts

 

Well thanks, thanks a lot! now I want new rims!

Add it to the list.....

 

I'd forgotten what it's like to drive with balanced and unbent rims... Such an improvement