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Hello all,

I'm new here to the site. Had anyone own or familiar with a Toyota Mirage RV? I had recently bought a 85 Toyota Mirage RV. It only had 86,000 miles on it. It now had around 90,000 after I drove it from Columbus, OH to Seattle, WA.

Just want to share a slow and long successfull roadtrip with my family across the country.

I owned a couple of larger RV before, but this is my first Toyota Mirage RV, but I must say it's reliability is amazing. After driving almost 4000 miles across the country I had very little issues with the car, only problem I had was with an A/C line blew up in the middle of the trip which I gave up trying to repair it and concentrate on enjoying the trip.

The only complain that I would have about this RV is the lack of power. For the whole trip I can only managed 55MPG on freeway and 25-35 on a sligh mountain incline. That was brutual. I just wasn't used to the small power from the 4 cyl. engine with 4 Sp Trans as compared to my previous V-8 powered RVs. This is something I would have to do something about later.

In the beginning of the trip, after seeing the RV, I took a deep breath and my toolbox and took a leap of faith and went on the roads. All and all, this Toyota Mirage RV did its job by taking us family of four across the country through many mountains and national parks with incredible reliability. I completely trust this rig now.

Now, if I can only do something with that performance....any suggestions???

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Hello, nice Toyota, I like it!!!

The power issue that you have is that you have a 4 cylinder engine. Do you have the 22R with

a carb? There probably is not much you can do to improve the HP more than it had when new,

but probably the first thing you should do is be sure it is in top running condition. Even though

it ran well for you overall, it still might need a good tune-up (new plugs, wires, cap, ect), new

fuel filter, carb cleaning, and a new air filter (a dirty one can rob up of up to 20% mpg and HP).

Also, if you have any exhaust issues (slight hole in the muffer or leakage around the manifold),

you are loosing some power.

I would not expect more than 60mph for cruising.

Hope the above helps, keep us updated,

Dennis...

Indiana...

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This RV has 22 RE engine. It's very reliable. Day after day, that starts up and slow but sure move me on the road. That's one thing I did not have to worry. Thanks God. My wife would have killed me if we got stuck in nowhere land.

I did do the complete tune up before taking it on the road, but I guess with 4 cylinder and 4 speed I shouldn't expect much as far as get it up and go, but I would like to at least pass someone on the road. Oh, wait! I did pass someone in an old Corolla on my way through Kansas, but he must have been half asleep. As soon as he realized I passed him, he overtook me right away.

You maybe right about having an exhaust leak; I did hear some hisses around the manifold, but I just didn't want to get into it since it would require removing the manifold and replacing the gasket.

Are you sure, even after everything is working right, I can only go 60MPH....are you sure. Come on, give me hope here!

How about Cam, intakes and exhaust header and free flowing exhaust system...will that help?

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This RV has 22 RE engine. It's very reliable. Day after day, that starts up and slow but sure move me on the road. That's one thing I did not have to worry. Thanks God. My wife would have killed me if we got stuck in nowhere land.

I did do the complete tune up before taking it on the road, but I guess with 4 cylinder and 4 speed I shouldn't expect much as far as get it up and go, but I would like to at least pass someone on the road. Oh, wait! I did pass someone in an old Corolla on my way through Kansas, but he must have been half asleep. As soon as he realized I passed him, he overtook me right away.

You maybe right about having an exhaust leak; I did hear some hisses around the manifold, but I just didn't want to get into it since it would require removing the manifold and replacing the gasket.

Are you sure, even after everything is working right, I can only go 60MPH....are you sure. Come on, give me hope here!

How about Cam, intakes and exhaust header and free flowing exhaust system...will that help?

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For starters prepair you wallet for some shocking news :wacko:

I would start with the exhaust. If you don't have smog inspections dump the cat converter.

go with a 2.25" exhaust with a single muffler. A turbo muffler is good but nosie. I using a muffler from a Ford pickup with a 460 and single exhaust. I figure that there ain't much backpressure from a 140cid and its quiet.

A cam will help some, also there places that can bore out the TB for more airflow. Thats about all for bolt on stuff. A good aircleaner will help too.

A header may be possible, but be aware that most wont fit a column shift.

Last is a head with O/S valves, a 3 angle valve job and some porting.

Keeping a streetable engine you can end up with 135-145hp up from 116

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Dennis: Sounds like my Dolphin. You have a nice looking rig. The aerodynamics must be be a fair amount better than mine and I bet it is quieter at 55mph too. I get a lot of wind noise. Did you get good westerly winds on the way out west ? I had terrific wind going west that at times had us slowed down to 40-45mph even on the level. You can forget about OD unless the wind is from behind. I was only able to use OD for less than 300 miles out of close to 4000.

I suggest you visit your local scales and get the rig weighed. Weight is one of the biggest killers. Drag is a factor at the top end and with winds, its like driving while towing a parachute. The weight kills you at the slightest incline and this is accentuated at altitude. At 6000ft I felt like I only had 10hp..

Keith

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Are you sure, even after everything is working right, I can only go 60MPH....are you sure. Come on, give me hope here!

I can see your problem.....

You have 2 small boys on the roof.

This will add a lot of drag.

Put them inside and you will go faster

:whistling:

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I have put my two kids inside and still this thing didn't go much faster than 50-55MPH on freeway. Next, I should get rid of the deadweight..(like the wife), LOL...just kidding!

I guess I will start with a header and a new exhaust system to give it a better flow. Then I'll go into cams and headwork. For now, I'll just have to be patience. After all this RV had brought me always from Columbus, OH through many back roads and mountains of Colorado and Utah and Wyoming. I should be thankful that it didn't leave me stranded.

Thanks for all your inputs.

Cheers!

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I guess I will start with a header and a new exhaust system to give it a better flow. Then I'll go into cams and headwork.

I have a 1988 4x4 (pickup not RV... my 2 Toyota RVs are a diesel and a V-6). On the 22RE I replaced the cam, added headers (4 into 1), 2 1/2" free flow with a flow master muffler and an L-88 catalytic, put on an enlarged throttle body, and had the ECU reprogrammed. All of this added around 30-35 HP (which is a LOT considering it started with 105 HP)... Outside of an engine swap that is just about as far as you can go economically. Adding high compression forged pistons, crank balancing, and enlarged valves is not going to go much further and will cost more than what all of the other "simple" additions would.

Remember..... You may have to do some other engine work if you have a lot of miles as adding components that add HP will also add stress and if the engine is tired it will not last very long pumping out additional HP.

You can go "junk yarding" and try to find a stock 22RE-T (turbo) which has around 135 hp. You will need to get the ECU and harness along with the engine (if you can find one). A V-6 or other non 22R engine will require fabricating motor mounts and if you are going to do that you might as well put in one of the GM 350 cid swap out kits and stop fiddling around (the 350 V-8 is a popular engine swap for the 4x4 off road crowd and there are several companies that make them).

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Have you done a compression check on each of the cylinders yet?

If you have compression down on one or more cylinders you could

easily drop 5 to 10 mph off of your top end. Bad rings would require

a complete tear down, but a bad valve or two would only require the

head to be rebuilt.

Dennis...

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I have been noticing that the engine missing intermittenly. That could be from low compression in one of the cylinder, as you have mentioned. I have not check the compression yet. I should do that first thing. I was also surprised by the oil consumtion of the engine. I had to add a quart of oil for every 400-500 hundred miles. There's no oil leak. How can a 86,000 miles engine burn that much of oil? I don't think a normal engine would burn that much, would it? In the very near future, Am I looking at a complete rebuilt engine here?

Thanks

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Garagetuner1,

What dates were you in YellowStone this year? I left IN on 7/19 and was in YellowStone

on 7/21 to 7/26, we stayed at the Fishing Bride campground in the park.

The oil consumption does sound high. I owned a 1986 Toyota pickup truck and put 205,000

on it and did not have to add any oil between 5,000 mile oil changes. Also, on my Yellowstone

trip (4,000 miles) I added a half quart near the end of my trip, but that was after a few

10% grades in NE Wyoming and 3,000 miles of use. (1990 Toyota Odyssey V6)

If you have a bad valve seal on one or more of your valves, you could be leaking the oil there

and causing the valve to burn / carbon up, causing a compression leak. Pull your spark plugs

and check for carbon fouling and while ALL the plugs are out do a compression test. If your

compression is down, squirt some oil in the cylinder and immedidately do the compression test

again, if the compression goes up, you have bad rings (the oil will seal the rings for a few seconds),

if the compression stays the same, you have a bad valve.

The odds are that a valve seal will go before the rings since they are rubber and 22 years old,

and if the motorhome in the past sat 11 months of the year, the rubber valve seals can

easily get dried out.

If you do not have a compression tester, any Sears or auto part store should have a decent one

in the $30 to $50 range.

Dennis...

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Hello,

I was just at Yellowstone in the past week (Thursday and Friday). What a trip though, I knew my Rv couldn't go fast, so I took my time and enjoy two days around the Yellowstone; we were at the Grand Tetan before that and Rocky Mountain National park as well as many other parks before that on the way from Ohio. We had a grand time.

The toughest test for the Toyota Mirage was when we passed Denver on I-70, at Idaho Spring I decided to take Route 40 over the Berthoud Pass and into Winterland heading toward the Rocky Mountain National Park and I was thinking that it was a short cut. Over the pass before Winterland, the elevation reach over 11,000ft.

Tell you what....do not go there!!!

Some of the turn I could only manage 20 MPH and my wife was scream you're going too fast. I had to frequently stop and let people passed by me. Just over the mountain, that was the longest 50 miles that I have ever driven in my entire life.

On the other hand, the little RV passed it's toughest test and it didn't leave us stranded on the side of the mountain.

I do have quite a few tools to do the work on the engine and some basic knowledge of mechanics. For now I'm just trying to recover from the 4000 miles trip I just made. Next month, I'm already planning a trip to the Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. I will try as much as I can to get this little RV to run better so the trip will be less ordeal. There's a lot of mountains to climb in Oregon. I am very much open to all suggestions and ideas of improving the perfomance on my RV.

Thanks to all who have left the comments and suggest for me. You guys got me into thinking lots of ways to get myself into trouble with my....you know who (he! he! he!)

Best Regards,

Samay

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Check to see where your low compression is coming from before starting any work. Find your low compression cylinder and put in some oil through the plug hole. If the compression comes back up you have a rings issue if the compression stays down you have a valves issue.

This will tell you where you need to make your repair. Nothing worse than fixing a problem and finding out after spending a lot of time, money, and effort that you sort of misses where it was and fixed something that was just fine.

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Another small thing to try is to up the octane. Try a tank full of 91 to 93 octane and see if that

helps any.

Sounds like you are heading back out West in October, but if your plans do not work out,

I am trying to get a last minute end of the season Mid-West Toy-In going for October.

Dennis...

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My goal is to take care of this engine issues so I can head out at the end of October toward mountains of Oregon to see Diamond Peak mountain and to explore Williamette and Deschutte National forest and eventually end up in Crater Lake area.

Thank you kindly everyone for every bits of informations shared. Any new ideas is welcome anytime.

Will keep you guys posted with new pictures after the trip. I hope things will work out as plan.

Regards,

Garagetuner1

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Hello, nice Toyota, I like it!!!

The power issue that you have is that you have a 4 cylinder engine. Do you have the 22R with

a carb? There probably is not much you can do to improve the HP more than it had when new,

but probably the first thing you should do is be sure it is in top running condition. Even though

it ran well for you overall, it still might need a good tune-up (new plugs, wires, cap, ect), new

fuel filter, carb cleaning, and a new air filter (a dirty one can rob up of up to 20% mpg and HP).

Also, if you have any exhaust issues (slight hole in the muffer or leakage around the manifold),

you are loosing some power.

I would not expect more than 60mph for cruising.

I have the 22R 4 cyl engine with a carb and 4 speed on my 6500 lb, 21 ft Sunrader. The engine has over 90K miles on it, does not use a drop of oil, and has never been worked on except for new plugs. I normally cruise about 65 to 70 mph on level ground and 50 mph going through the Smoky Mtns.

The attached picture shows what the little engine can do on level ground. Of course I didn't keep it there very long as I was worried more about safety than engine destruction. I actually still had pedal but was too chicken to push it any further. On scenic roads I usually cruise about 50-55 mph to admire the scenery.

Allen

PS......there were no passengers in the vehicle or I would have gotten an earful.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hello Garagetuner nice camper!

I'm a fellow Mirage owner and I can relate to lack of power. I have just come to take it slow 55-60max... well i try to get it going faster if I see a hill coming. I have taken it on a 8000mile trip across the country. The tranny gave me problems outside Moab UT where I had it towed for a tranny flush. I then headed home adding fluid twice a tank. I was laughing at your post because I took her over I-70 going 20mph if that. I had lots of mad people behind me going up hills. I since got the tranny fixed. I will try to post picts if interested its an 85 small body without the back No side vent either.

These are some of the repairs that I have had done.

Replaced engine shortly after getting it. 22RE

Gas Tank

Leaf Springs

Shocks

propane tank

brakes

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Now, if I can only do something with that performance....any suggestions???

Before I bought my V6, I drove a 4 cyl. The 22r engine is a solid 4 cyl - I had one in a toyota Corolla many years ago. I was skeptical that it could pull a camper without the issues you described. One test drive is all it took to convince me to only look at 6 cyls.

If I had a 4cyl, I would tune it up (plugs, maybe plug wires, distributer cap, etc), make sure the exhaust system is not clogged. I can not remember if that engine has adjustable valves but if it does I would make sure they are adjusted correctly. The airfilter and pvc need to be working good too.

After that, the only way to soup up that engine involves headers, etc maybe a supercharger, both of which I would not mess with. If a good tune up does not make the little engine perform then you have 2 choices - live with it or get rid of it.

Edited by DanAatTheCape
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I have been noticing that the engine missing intermittenly. That could be from low compression in one of the cylinder, as you have mentioned. I have not check the compression yet. I should do that first thing. I was also surprised by the oil consumtion of the engine. I had to add a quart of oil for every 400-500 hundred miles. There's no oil leak. How can a 86,000 miles engine burn that much of oil? I don't think a normal engine would burn that much, would it? In the very near future, Am I looking at a complete rebuilt engine here?

Thanks

That oil consumption is way too high. If it is not pouring out on the ground, then it could be burning off by getting into the compression chamber via valves and/or the rings.

A spark plug check and compression check sounds like a way to go to me. A fouled plug is a good indicator of where to look. A missing engine could be a bad plug wire but that high oil usuage is a big read flag.

Also check your PCV - a clogged PCV can force blowby gases to push oil to places yo do not want it. It is easy & cheap to check anyway.

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