thewanderlustking

Toyota told me that, so are they wrong... ??? And if you also pull up Toyota's official recall campaign, it clearly states 8 years from time of first use or 100k miles. But I also know that others have gotten Toyota to do it much more recently. Hence why I said: (I misspelled campaign lol...) The head gaskets all fail, almost every single last one, at the very same point. Back side of the head where the crossover pipe goes by. It is a very well documented issue, head over to any of the off-road Toyota forums and it is easy to find. Keeping the cooling system functioning well helps, and most don't delver any further into it. The heat shielding Toyota used back there is also a big help. And some go and wrap the exhaust crossover back there also. The actual issue is the exhaust being too hot and cooking the head gasket. Yes, keeping the engine running cool helps a lot. Why? A hot engine runs leaner, leaner exhaust is hotter, hotter exhaust cooks that head gasket. Then you add in the EGR system and you add another layer of oops to the problem. It also isn't that the head gaskets were actually defective. It is a poor head design, specifically poor cooling in the back. Another reason why improving the cooling system actually helps with this, and overheating it can cause a premature failure. Hence why some engines needed MULTIPLE repairs, and some never needed any. This was from one of Toyota's internal campaign documents, and I have seen this referenced in some of the head gasket manufactures docs. Toyota solved this by changing the head gasket properties and completely redesigning the head gasket. They went from a partially mollebeyum coated gasket to a full coated one, and drastically increased the bore rings. Yay, I actually found a copy of that campaign note! Another factor I have yet to see mentioned, is an old or damaged catalytic converter. A clogged catalytic can/will also increase exhaust temperature, cook the manifold and crossover pipe, and overheat that corner of the head. I am not trying to argue, but these things are not usually black and white and because of that I am VERY careful with the words I use. I rarely speak in absolutes, so please be careful before you come back telling me I am wrong. I also know that people tend to skim through my more detailed descriptions, so I try to simplify and frequently that leaves bits of information out. There is also a huge difference between a campaign and a recall. Campains have an expiration. But in my own experience of working at a dealership, the service advisor can choose to honor an expired campaign. Recalls are different and have no expiration if they are safety, compliance, or emissions related. The 3VZE head gasket issue here, was a campaign and NOT a recall. Lets get back to the statement I made though, "You can always try." I am not sure how many of you own new Toyotas and have had experience dealing with them. Toyota is NOT your "normal" company satisfied with an "average" customer experience. They strive to be the best and and seriously care about their reputation and the customer experience. They go an extra 100 miles for their customers, not just 1. I had a weird issue and needed a special Toyota ABS diagnostics tool for my 1994 4Runner. This tool hasn't been made in well over 20yrs... I went to my local dealership parts department and explained the problem. Cost wasn't even an issue, I needed the tool. Another parts advisor overheard this and thought he knew where one might be. A few phone calls and a day later they handed me the special tool ON LOAN. It had been hand delivered from across the state! Yeah, it helped that I personally knew the parts guy, and had worked with him and the parts manager before, so perhaps they assumed some risk for this others might not have, and they knew I actually knew how to use said tool. But the other store had no such relationship with me and still went out of their way to get it to us. Toyota knows it is cultivating a relationship like this that pays off and generates customers for life. And it does. Last weekend we bought a brand new 4Runner with only 2 miles on it off the showroom floor! So with that said if there is any way they can get away with honoring the campaign, if the right people are involved there is a better than average chance they will do so. But technically, it is long since expired and they don't HAVE to do so. This can be seen and proven

I think the question being asked is if Toyota would still honor the warranty/recall repair. The camping was quietly ended around 2004, but you can always try. I wouldn't worry about it too much though. Both the brakes and the head gaskets are not critical concerns, just something to read up on. Take care not to overheat the engine. I run Toyota coolant and add in a thing of Redline Water Wetter to mine. Overkill? Yes. But it makes me feel better and the Water Wetter does give me about 10-15 degrees more cooling. My old Mini Cruiser also ran, well runs Toyota red coolant and it never gave me or its current owner any issues. I think it is actually showing up later this weekend lol! The pictures of it look very promising! I can't really see anything of concern. Just look over the front section VERY closely in person. 17k seems a pretty reasonable price. Have the owner show you everything is working, and how to operate it all. You might ask he has the fridge going too prior so you can verify it gets cold. Here is a link to some further details on the recall.

Well we have been looking for a while now, and actually went RV shopping today. We found a Winnie we lREALLY liked on a 2007 dodge/mercedes chassis. But it was $50k. We liked it enough that we seriously considered getting it on the spot. We refuse to do such a large purchase impulsively though, and spent the rest of the day looking at options and REALLY talking about it. As we really seriously looked at the options, she mentioned a couple times that we probably should have just farmed out the repairs on the roof/interior of our old Mini Cruiser. 10-12k there would have been manageable. But we didn't and I think there are some better layouts in some of the other options. We are both leaning heavily towards a 13' Scamp. There are a good handful close enough and in a price range we can manage. She also loved the 18' Sunrader's we looked at online and if we found the right one at the right price would be willing to stretch to that. Scamps though are pretty awesome and very few negatives to owning one. I am still concerned with towing one with my 1994 4Runner, and I have never towed before either. That would be a slight learning curve. The 4Runner needs a front end rebuild, swaybars replaced (currently have, but not installed), and shocks upgraded. The anemic 3.0 engine is also a concern, but some of that issue was recently fixed with replacing the ECU. It still needs a bit more power unleashed though. The conclusion we both came to was any overloading type of setup contained in the 4Runner itself, was unlikely to be comfortable enough for us. Still a possibility since essentially free and already on hand... A small class C like the Dodge j23 would be ideal for longer trips, but very hard to justify the price if not used constantly. But a Scamp hits somewhere in the middle and if it only got used a couple times a year, would still be worth it. And a Scamp is much less of a long term commitment. I say it counts as a "Toyota RV" if towed with the 4Runner and Heritage style stickers are made up for it. Anyways the plan is to move forward with a refresh on the 4Runner suspension so towing with it becomes an option. My buddy has a pop-up camper we might take for a weekend to try towing and camping in it out. It is likely light enough I could try it out before the suspension refresh.

Maybe the axles can handle the single wheel, maybe not. I will leave that to Fred and Linda to tell you. What I can tell you about those footie wheels though is from personal experience working on them. They ABSOLUTELY SUCK to put tires on. You are VERY unlikely to find any shop in your travels with a tire guy who has done even one set, let alone is actually experienced at doing them. In my 30 years of doing tires, I have only done one set and I remember them like it was yesterday they were SO BAD. And then after all that, we had no way to balance them, and we had more options than most tires shops do as we also did agricultural and truck tires also. In other words if you have a blowout, good luck finding a shop that can change them. ANY shop experienced enough to have seen another set, will also likely tell you to go pound sand lol. And if they realize what they are, will refuse on principal of safety alone. Now the foolie setup I worked on was a single wheel that had two tires mounted on it. I am not sure if they all were this same configuration, or if some were setup like a dually with one wheel flipped backwards? Whatever the case, running those wheels adds in too many additional issues on top of the safety ones. These days anyone coming across a set is likely to be curious enough to look it up, will quickly figure out what they are, find the axle recall information, and refuse to touch them.

It will be 8x1.25 and however long you need it to be. I would go with grade 8 or better. Standard hardware store fare, car parts store, or a local specialty bolt shop like Fastenall will have it on the shelf. Nothing about it is special. Unless you get the old broken off bolt out of the hole cleanly though, a simpler path might be to just drill it out (or punch it out with an air hammer) and go bigger with a through bolt and nut. But because the bolt broke off, you may be able to grab the backside with vise grips and continue working it out through. There is a fair chance the bolt isn't tight in the hole, unless it broke trying to take it out. Soak it over a couple days with PB Blaster if it doesn't spin easily. If you are going to try heat, you need a GOOD source of it, not a little butane torch but like an oxy/accetaline setup. You would need to get the swaybar and bracket out of the way and try heat the surrounding area, not directly the bolt itself. Heating expands metal and you want to loosen the bolt. If this came into the shop, that would be my approach. See if enough of the bolt sticks out and try to get something on it. Try some heat, try again. Soaking it with good penetrating oil between steps. But I would quickly resort to blowing out the bolt and welded nut with an air hammer and then using a through bolt and nut. When working on stuff like this (in general), I can't stress the importance enough of using the right tools. Don't use steady force with a long ratchet trying to break it free. Either an air impact gun hitting rappidly and fast, or a quality electric impact will actually get out most bolts that would break when done by hand. If something is stuck, soak with penetrant, and short hits with the gun. Sitting on a tight bolt for long bursts, will heat it up until it breaks. I have a small Milwauke M12 1/2" impact gun that was able to take apart every single thing I tried on my Mini Cruiser including a full front end swap.

This question has gone unanswered for a bit as there is such a broad range that it is kinda hard for a simple "here is a list" kinda deal. First off good luck finding 4Runners of that vintage cheaply. But good news is the desirable ones are all 4wd and you need 2wd. A google search does bring up a LOT of information. Just look for anything fitting the criteria, and not for RV specific. You have a 1982 or 1983 2wd Toyota Pickup. If you are looking for a little extra power, consider exhaust and header upgrades before transmission swap. I (personally) wouldn't bother with the swap, unless you have a failed 4spd.

Hello Dayman! Welcome to the forum! Lots of questions, where to start lol... Toyota RV's are very reliable, with a few small catches. Both the 4cly and 6cyl models are considered underpowered. The 22RE 4cly gets an even worse rap on this than the 6cyl. But when I was done with it my 2RE powered '86 Mini Cruiser actually had more get up and go than my '93 6cyl 4Runner has. YMMV lol. In fairness I did a couple serious upgrades to the Mini Cruiser to get it there. 1) Upgraded exhaust including headers. Not hard, but not a quick/cheap buy 1 simple/full kit to do it type of job. 2) Rear end gear ratio swap. WAY cheaper than the exhaust, sorta. Parts were only $250 for this. But I am a mechanic and have access to a full shop. A coworker did the actual teardown on the pumpkin and rebuild after I pulled it out. Surprisingly this job was WAY easier than the exhaust. But if you can't DIY this one and had to pay to have the removal and rebuild done, it would easily be 5-7hrs of labor time. I bring this up as you mention "mountains" and should be aware of this. Plenty of our members here though have driven them everywhere. But power and brakes are more of a concern in that situation. Toyotas 3VZE 3.0 6cyl engine had longstanding recalls for blowing head gaskets. On the heavier RV's, this is even more common than on the regular trucks. Usually if the real ha been done, regular maintenance will go a LONG way to preventing further issues. I would not consider head gaskets on the 3.0 to be a DIY driveway job even for more advanced DIY type people. I would do it in mine, but I sure wouldn't be excited to do so... The 22RE 2.4 4cly engines are probably the most bulletproof engine Toyota has made. We do still see incidents on here of them popping head gaskets. But I think this is more a case of poor maintenance and older vehicles. These get worked HARD driving around with a house on top of them. I wouldn't flinch doing a head gasket on one of these in an Autozone or Walmart parking lot though. Autozone would be preferable, shorter walking distance to get supplies LOL! The drivetrain and rest of the platform are pretty simple, and reliable Toyota. You are talking about older vehicles, so pretty normal maintenance and nothing really stands out here other than avoiding the earlier axle issues (before 1985-ish). Oh one thing, Toyota used a proportioning valve for the rear brakes that can add in some shenanigans. There is a LOT of information in this forum on those though. The rest of the "house" stuff is basic RV, and pretty generic. Essentially all older RV's of this era used crappy power converters. If you leave them plugged into shore power, they overcharge and cook your house battery(s). Winter camping. Many of these have a built in furnace that runs on LPG. Never used mine, no clue on how good they work. A Mr Buddy heater though will solve any issues you have there if the Toy doesn't have one, or if it doesn't work well enough. Thats probably a try it out and see kinda deal. All RV's essentially have the same issues and solutions as far as this goes. Yes, there are PLENTY of awesome small RV' out there to pick from. In fact the wife and I went RV shopping today and fell in love with a Winnie on a Dodge/Mercedes 23j platform. But if your budget is less than 17k, that essentially knocks everything off your possible list except these Toyotas, and utter piles of garbage. The 2006 Winnie was $50k... And that's not a crazy premium dealer price for one either. There are a lot of Ford platform RVs out there that could come in close to your target. More power, WAY MORE gas guzzling. Most of the older ones run the V10. Pretty reliable overall, but known for injector and coil issues. And unless you are a very skilled DIY who loves to suffer, this is not an easy job to tackle. As a Mechanic, I DREAD working on these engines. It is also extremely common for these to need front end work. Even at lower mileages. Some have a weird twin beans suspension on the front that is prone to tire wear. Nothing can be done other than rotating tires regularly, and replacing them. If any RV on a Ford platform doesn't drive straight and smoothly down the road, walk away. I would not even consider one of these unless it came across my path at a very good price. The reason why these Toyota have near a cult like following though, is their reliability and ease to work on, ESPECIALLY when compared to other RVs of the '90's and '00's. I wouldn't flinch at getting one from the '80's either. Think about the fact that mot of these are 30-40 years old. And there are still plenty of them out there to pick from! They survive. $17k for one with only 39k on it could be a pretty fair price. Depending on how well repairs were done and how decent the rest of the house is. If you want a way better deal, be prepared to get your hands dirty and have some DIY projects to tackle.

The correct tool is out there for dirt cheap. https://www.ebay.com/itm/174403066935 I love your DIY solution though! Lol I was digging through bins today looking for other parts and found mine in a box with two extra brand new axle gaskets. I will probably scan one to get slightly better fitting file to cut out. My Lucky Charms cereal box gasket I made on the Cricut is still holding up perfectly! EDIT: I saw the 75mm vs 70mm... I don't remember if I ever pulled it out and actually tried it on the Mini Cruiser. I think I had verified the gaskets were the same but I am also pretty sure the tool came well after I had put it all back together. I could send the tool off with Viktor to check when he comes by later today if somebody really wants to know lol.

A bump for "this project isn't completely dead yet" updates! As many know, my 22RE powered Mini Cruiser was passed on to my best friend Viktor. I actually went and got a 1994 4Runner and have been living with it, and more importantly daily driving it for almost a year now! But the Mini Cruiser only lives a few miles from me, and most of the parts for the conversion are actually sitting on my dining room table right now. I just went hunting through the garage and boxes and boxes of parts to make a pile of goodies. I found two extra MegaSquirt ECUs I can choose from for this. A couple weeks ago I had my first ever REAL issue with the 4Runner. (I am not counting the leaking radiator I had to replace, it was 30 years old and gets a freebie there lol!) Fuel economy on it has always been a very steady but bad 10.5mpg. A few weeks ago it starter feeling low(er) on power and it had dropped to 8.5mpg. Then over lunch one day, it died on me. Lots of shenanigans followed. Diagnosing it WAS NOT FUN. We were able to use a scan tool and actually get the codes out on the ECU and look at data PIDS. So slow they were essentially useless. Oddly, I couldn't get the blink code check method to work on this original ECU... It sent us on a wild goose chase with bogus codes. It went downhill from there with hours spent hunting with an oscilloscope, issues found, ecu replaced, and then suddenly truck is running fine on either ECU... Anyways this has all led me to sitting here at the dining room table with the FSM, the electrical FSM, my diagrams for the Mini Cruiser, and making up new diagrams for the 4Runner. The management for the 3VZE is VERY similar to the 22RE, just adding in a few more silly layers of over complication. Enough so that there are no documented conversions, and only a few "I know a guy that did it" references... My application adds in the complexity of the 4x4 system being integrated into the transmission and engine controller also. So while I will be able to make significant improvements to power and economy, it is unlikely to be a simple or cheap blueprint to follow. Ironically though it looks like the ECU for the 22RE and 3VZE will be identical other than programming... The pinout wiring is different, but since I am not using PNP units, that's taken care of in the breakout box wiring anyways.

On the automatic trucks the ones that came with the Turbo 22RE were a bit beefier, I imagine the same will be true on the manual ones. This is a slightly obscure question, but I bet there is a chart/lost around somewhere. Google this: 1983 Toyota pickup 4spd to 5spd swap (No sarcasm or snarky meant by that lol)

i simply zipped mine down with a small 3/8" impact and then probably hand tightened/checked them. 20-30 ft lbs is about right. It isn't a super critical number. Now you didn't specify, but I believe you are referring to the outer pumpkin nuts? The internal specs are VERY critical, don't guess on those. If you need internal specs and can't find them, hit us back up with year, model etc and I will see if I can log into Allldata or Identafix from home. If you just swapped the whole pumpkin assembly, then you shouldn't have messed with anything critical for torque specs.

NO you should not run a vehicle long term with just water, but for testing and getting it down the road, just water is fine. It is also more "environmentally responsible" if you don't have other ways of looking for a coolant leak (like the specialized tools used by mechanics and avid DIYers). But even if you just use water and don't do a complete drain and refill later, you can correct the levels with a partial drain, a simple (and cheap) hydrometer, and concentrated coolant. And as Linda said between the lines, the hose that came off in the picture above is a vacuums hose anyways. It is frustrating for us too... A lot is lost in translation with words and pictures that many of us I am sure could figure out with half an hour spent on the truck and either have it running, or have a solid answer/direction to go in. My advice would be to tie the bullet and pay for a second professional opinion. You are here posting, so I would assume you don't have a personal mechanic friend/relitive you could get either FaceTime or realtime help with. A mobile mechanic would be a pretty feasible option. Old vehicles usually have a tipping point where you finally get the critical systems all sorted out and if it is a quality built/maintained vehicle you are good once you get pass that. If you have an older vehicle that hasn't been maintained well, then unless you can learn to do it, you will quickly go broke. Toyotas and especially the 22RE are well built and robust though. Even poorly maintained, it shouldn't take too much to get it back into reliable shape. As for the current situation you are in and the potentially unscrupulous mechanic, it is hard to say for sure since we aren't there, but yeah some things just aren't adding up and it does look pretty suspicious from this side of the story. Simply put I have seen PLENTY of cars and trucks with blown head gaskets and one thing is common, I have never once in 30+ years seen a blown head gasket cause one to not run AT ALL. Is it possible? Sure, but the amount of catastrophic damage that needs to occur quickly is pretty impressive, and would also come with some impressive noises. I see no signs of coolant that a blown hose would leave everywhere. So unless you had clouds of vapor that you know was hot coolant, I would be checking other things for the issue. I think it is much more likely your fuel pump died. But this is speculation and simple tests could quickly determine this, or narrow it down to something else.

Linda, is it my imagination or is her ignitor module on the coil unplugged??? I can't make things out too well over there... Jane, define "engine won't start" for us. Does it spin/crank over normally, but just not catch and fire? Does it try to sputter and fire at all?

The 22RE though can be greatly upgraded in performance with a rear end gear change, header, and exhaust upgrades. My Mini Cruiser with the 22RE was significantly more peppy than my 4Runner is with the 3.0 3VZE. Although I went through all that because the 22RE was pretty bad out of the box.... I am not tempted enough to repeat that on the 4Runner yet.

First off the best thing about owing one of thee little Toyota Motorhomes, is all of you guys and gals here! Linda especially has probably rolled here eyes at possibly more than once, yet still gives awesome help and rarely beats me up too badly! LOL! And I defiantly deserve any grief she may have given me! -=wink=- Linda really hit one home though. I had too many projects, and too many unrealized ideas on the Mini Cruiser. For me, it eventually became too much. The mechanicals, I enjoyed. But rebuilding the interior and restoring the damaged roof correctly was just too much and it became more of a chore than a joy. It taught me a lot though, and I absolutely fell in love with Toyotas! Getting an older 4x4 became my dream. Last year Hurricane Ian really changed my perspective and priorities. I knew after that, I HAD to have a 4x4. I had been looking for a while, but until I decided I was done with the Mini Cruiser, nothing really happened. Then it all fell together and I managed to pick up a 1994 4Runner last December (2022). I literally drove the Mini Cruiser over to my best friends house, and we left from there to go pick up the 4Runner and bring it home. It was clean, and CHEAP. So of course it came with some issues. Some of the odder ones I even solved with some help on here! But mechanicals I can manage even on a bad day. Like today I discovered the storm had done some whacky stuff the the electrical system. As tired as I was after work, I enjoy it enough that I was able to force myself to go work on it. And got everything sorted out pretty quickly. Anyways, enough waffling about on that, moving to something else... The "wanderlust" is still there and I do miss the "RV" aspect of the Mini Cruiser. The wife wants to get another RV, or some other contained "camping" option. She wants brand new, but might be convinced with a squeaky clean used example. I've also tried to impress on her that brand new is almost as bad as Vintage in the RV world. The ownership experience of the Mini Cruiser taught me enough that I am pretty comfortable looking at another used RV and intelligently picking out/finding its flaws. I also work on lots of trucks and more than a few RV's all day long. I don't do a whole lot on the house side of things, but the chassis and mechanicals are easy. I see three paths in front of me. Most important factor though is I don't want a big set of burdensome projects to tackle with any of these. 1) Overland the 4Runner. It is already more than halfway there. SUPER comfortable road trip vehicle, other than being SLOW. Like seriously, the 4cyl Mini Cruiser had more power!!! Granted, I put the work in to get it that way... I'm sure I can get the 4Runner performance up a bit with minimal work too. It already has been outfitted with bigger KO2 trail tires, a snorkel, and a SLEW of other parts that make it a pretty capable trail/offroad truck. I am not sold on doing a rooftop tent though... Too much weight up high, and not easily removable. I can do a simple removable bed/platform and it looks like I can actually fit a Full size mattress back there. This doesn't leave any real space for anything else though. If it was just me, a smaller mattress and a slide out kitchen setup would fit nicely. I don't have any ideas that would make it self contained and comfortable, without the rooftop tent. And first and foremost this is now my daily driver, no point in carrying around a bunch of extra weight unless it is being used. 2) A camping trailer of some sort. There are a few options out there. The 4Runner supposedly can tow 3500lbs with a 200lb tongue weight. Not sure I believe that, but whatever lol. Light weight is going to be key and the lower I can keep it, the better. Plenty of pop up trailers at almost nothing prices. Some even free. While a project for sure at the lower end, probably small enough to be manageable. But a pop up isn't much more than a tent with a camp kitchen in it. A 13' Scamp is a VERY interesting choice, and they can be ordered brand new. I LOVE how they look. And with the bathroom option they are almost livable longer than a weekend. The 16' Scamps I would even consider long term usable. The Scamps are essentially the Sunraders of the trailer world with there one piece fiberglass shells. At only 1500lbs, the 13' might be comfortable to tow with the 1993. The 16' is 1900lbs dry. The 13' is a little more realistic to tow though I suspect. Three are other options in this category. Some of the "canned ham" trailers are extra nice. One of those could even be built from scratch. I think that falls into the "too big of a project" category though. I would rather get on the waiting list and pay for a Scamp. 3) Prices are coming back down to more reasonable amounts for our favorite Toyota RV's. I think the RV boom created by the pandemic is finally tapering off to more sane levels. I found a Dolphin for $10k that looks like it is nice enough to not be too big a project. I also found a nice Sunrader for $30k. I don't know what realistic prices for other RVs were in B.P. days. But they are currently kinda stupid. I am not seeing a lot of options below my ideal limit of $30k that I would really consider. And anything above about $5k would probably need to be financed. I really want s fiberglass type of option, like a Sunrader. Anything else would HAVE to be clean and leak free, and I am not sure there is a Dolphin, Winnie, Mini Cruiser, etc that can live up to that. I think I am leaning the most towards something in the option 2 range. Like a brand new option like the Scamp 13" that I can finance and do payments on. For the right price I would pick up an older Castia or similar, even if it needed a little work. If a Toyota Sunrader came along cheap, I would snap it up1 If I could figure out a plan that didn't involve selling the 4Runner to get it...

THAT WOULD BE AWESOME! I would love to see that!

This popped back in my lists to respond to and I wanted to add a caution to the "removing the camshaft" method mentioned. Ignoring the other extra effort doing that causes, it puts our wonderfull Japanese pot metal at risk... One of the ONLY complaints I have about Toyotas is the aluminum they used is either crap to start with, or very well fatigued by now. I have been wrenching for years and can't remember the last time I personally stripped out engine or transmission bolts, before this 4Runner. I have easily made up a decade of really good luck on this thing. Every job done on it with bolts going into aluminum bits, something seems to strip out... I had to do a valve cover gasket on mine as oil was pouring out of the back cam plug. The last moron in had stripped both the rear cam caps bolts. And just left them in there like that lol. Anyways I would do whatever possible to take less risk, and not pull the camshafts haha!

Oh and this is not just an old Toyota RV issue. It is ALL DUALLY setups. I had one today that really annoyed me to the point, their inside wheels didn't get checked. Oh I might need to correct a statement I made above... Not sure and not going to reread it all to figure out my exact context... So our Toyota RV wheels do have at least two different size holes for stems, and I have seen both on one truck before. Even still, most tire shops have a valve like the one above, though maybe short and straight, that will cover both the small and the normal size with a simple gasket change. As for my equalizer setup contraption, I will say they have been WELL tested out now with zero real issues. Initially we did have problems with the inertia loosening them up. Solved with a brace to an axle seal nut and figuring out the way to place them so the inertia effects them the least. A catastrophic failure of a tire would be heard, and the multiple valve cores prevent the second tire from going instantly flat. It would take a couple minutes to loose the air. The TPMS monitor is set to go off at 1-2 psi below operating pressures, so it would scream at anyone who didn't hear a tire pop. A slow leak, same thing. Both tires would go down slowly yes, but that is also what prevents one from overheating and a catastrophic failure there. Anyways my best friend now has the Mini Cruiser and he is a bit more paranoid about "sketchy things" and he LOVES the equalizer and TPMS setup! He has been putting some miles on it. Linda, As for a proper restoration thread, or at least a serious update on the engine mods, these things may still happen! It didn't move very far away, just across town. And Viktor plans on still going forward with the engine management conversion. I have all the parts sitting here and collected for him.

Extensions do increase the chance of leaks, sure. But at each joint they usually have an extra valve core. if they are properly secured so they can't move about, they won't leak. Anyone in an older RV out on the road, needs to have a TPMS monitoring system anyways. There are SO SO many options out there and most of them can be had and installed easily for under $100 so there is no excuse. My setup was $30 on eBay. I spent more on the extensions and my tire equalizer valves, but lets not talk about that... I am not sure who taught me this trick, but when I was struggling to get all mine tight somebody recommended to use a bar of soap to lube/seal the extensions.

I am 199% with Linda on this! You DO NOT need to "pull apart" an engine to figure out if it has a blown head gasket. That is utter BS. And $200 is also not really a "pulling apart" the engine labor price either.... If he actualy does take your engine apart for $200, I PROMISE you he has no plans on putting it back together without adding a zero to that! Or he will be all "Oh hey its only this "$300 additional part" and smile as he replaces your alternator belt... This guy is being cagey/shady for sure. Most shops will charge an hour diagnostic, that is fair. But any real mechanic can not only do a a quick basics check, fuel, spark, air to narrow down why it quit, but if they can't get it running, can at least check a few other things and give a very solid idea of head gasket blown or not. Check your belts like Linda said. Without the mechanics help, you can do this! If the belt is gone and you can, replace it. Before you even bother though, try cranking it over. If it does't fire up and run and sounds like the battery is weak, charge it up. If it sounds like uneven chugging or really fast spinning without the normal even chugging, STOP. If it fires up and runs, though probably not well, turn it back off. Important, without a belt it will rapidly overheat. You only want to run it for 30-60 seconds tops. If it runs and sounds rough, get a belt on it if it was missing. If it sounds smooth, then you are likely out of the woods for any serious damage. Again, do not run it long. Next check the cooling system, is it low? Fill up if so. Just use water for now. If it pours out of somewhere, replace the house or whatever it is pouring out of. Once the cooling system is buttoned up, you can run the truck and heat it up. Before you do this part, get a block tester kit from AutoZone (or whatever parts store you want). Autozone will do a tool rental with a deposit, but will possibly make you buy the fluid. $20. It is an easy test to do, a couple Youtube videos and you will be a pro. Except for replacing actual parts like hoses, a radiator, water pump, etc, all the above is easily less than an hour of work for any reasonably skilled tech. At the shop if the truck isn't running, I would also do a couple more quick things to narrow down why. Push the shrader valve on the fuel pressure rail and see if there is fuel spray. Actualy the 22RE might not have a shrader, but you could crack loose the line to the cold start injector too. Seriously I can't stress enough that while this isn't necessarily easy for somebody with zero mechanical background, it is also easy enough that without that background in a couple hours, and some Youtube videos you can narrow it down to a very solid answer of yes or no to the head gasket. and if no, you can probably already have it fixed.

Funny, as I am writing this another devastating hurricane (Idalia) has just passed up by. It missed us directly, but we still saw cat 1 conditions. I actually use T-Mobile myself and usually just tether to my phone. I never properly got around the issue of the connection quitting on a long post writeup, but playing Pandora in another window was a workable "bodge" to prevent the connection dropping. This is just a "home remedy" though. On the road I found a different approach that works WAY better. I put an Eonon headhunit with Android 11 in my 1994 4Runner. This automatically and wirelessly connects to my phone and activates CarPlay. This keeps the connection activated. I also have a wired connection that will keep the phone charging. GPS and live traffic work awesome under this setup. Now the hurricane didn't do any real damage here so I wasn't under the conditions I was last time with almost every road being impassable.... This solution doesn't solve the working remotely setup though, that would be more like the "home remedy" above. But yes, TMobile seems to do pretty decent. I can't say on the Zoom calls though. I also want to say that a tethered Android headunit and just relying on it for GPS and navigation is a BAD IDEA. NOTHING replaces having a dedicated Garmin. And there are some awesome ones out there now for off-road navigation too. Pricey and pointless for anyone sticking to the roads. Still lots of places in the mid West and also out West where there is no cell service. Garmin's can be had cheaply enough there is no excuse for not having one as a backup in the globvebox!

Well it is far from "worthless" but I defiantly get how frustrating the stacking up of repairs can be... I gave up on mine for the opposite reason. The mechanicals don't scare me in the slightest, but the interior repairs had just become WAY too much. 1987 Dolphin, so I believe it should have the 22RE 4cyl in it? If it is the 4cyl, I would step out on a limb and say that doing a head gasket on it is DIY-able for somebody with fair mechanical ability. Myself, I could have the head off of a 22RE in under an hour. With some planning and Youtube study/guidance, I think most people that know what end of the wrench to use, could feasibly do this job over a weekend. The parts kit to do this job isn't very expensive either. Prices and quality vary, but you can get everything needed of decent quality for around $500 online. If you go lower quality, you can get down to about $150. BUT dump the head gasket and spend extra on a high quality one. Now the 6cyl is a different story.... Vacuum lines alone, it isn't an easy one to tackle for a seasoned DIY-er. Somebody with maybe better than average DIY experience could still pull it off. But you are way more likely to come into problems not so easily solved. Simply doing valve cover gaskets on my 4Runner became a nightmare. Whoever had been in there last, and I believe it was actually a professional shop, stripped out camshaft bolts. But lets start at the beginning. First which one do you have? Then what actually happened? Describe the events around this "failure." Have you overheated it before? Head-gaskets RARELY just fail without some warning or provocation on Toyotas. Although on our heavily overloaded beasts, it takes much less... Still it is almost always going to overheat a bit, loose coolant, start running rough, etc before it "just suddenly stops." Also under most circumstances, a blown head gasket will not just suddenly stop an engine. Unless catastrophic damage occurred. And that type of damage usually comes with some pretty horrendous noises. If it just stopped quietly and won't restart, it is much more likely a simple issue like a failed fuel pump, or possibly an ignition sensor came unplugged/failed. If this diagnoses was given over the phone by symptoms you described... Don't give it too much stock. But it sounds like a mechanic physically looked at it... A very solid answer of yes or no to the head gasket can be given in about 30 minutes. Where it gets foggy, is how much damage was done if the head gasket did actually blow. This is where most shops are going to play it safe and recommend a full engine replacement instead of just a head gasket. To to the job "100% correct" with minimal liability, pulling the engine out, and resurfacing the head and the block are required. It is way less effort, and frequently less in labor, to just replace the whole engine. This is where the INSANE difference between DIY and having a shop do it really starts to make much more sense to take the DIY approach. And at least on the 4cyl, the blocks don't seem to commonly have warping issues. You are pretty safe pulling the head, cleaning, replacing and leaving the bottom half in place. And if no matter what the answers are, you are done with the stress and want to sell it, then post some pictures up here for us too! Prices seem to be going back to more "normal" levels (unfortunately for sellers). But these Toyota motorhomes hit an odd niche. Size wise they are small, but well appointed and self contained. They can actually be gotten cheaper than a lot of travel trailers. In fact there is a highly sought after Sunrader on craigslist right now for $29k!

Alright the transfer case fluid is separate from the transmission. Odd that they use Dextron ATF II in the automatic version and a different transfer case oil in the manual one... There is a drain and a fill level on the back side. When I get it back up, I will take pictures.

On the A304H transfer case, does it refill via the transmission dipstick? It "seems" like it does as the fluid level dropped down SIGNIFICANTLY after engaging the 4x4... But no point in taking a risk. If not I need to figure out how to check and adjust the level. Probably do a drain and refill. I know it takes the same ATF fluid on on the Auto as does the transmission.

X10! While not CSF, Roundforge is a very good resource for Toyotas though and all things off-road. A lot of that does translate over to our trucks too. Tough call. Linda points out the discrepancy between the sizes, core widths. Myself, I wouldn't think twice about giving it a shot, but I have lots of experience stuffing things in where they don't go... Most of the time moving interfering parts isn't a big deal. I haven't played with any 83 or earlier trucks though and am not sure about what changes from the 83 to the 84 chassis. To be safe, order from Amazon or a local parts house that will let you return it for free. If I am putting a radiator in, or working with coolers and the like, and don't know how much fitting work is needed, I protect the core. Cut out and tape cardboard to the core so you don't damage the fins or leave marks on them during install. I haven't looked for pre 84 stuff, but there are a lot of other options out there too, cheaper ones than CSF. But if the bolt issue is daunting, chances are pretty high that the cheaper options will have even more fitment issues to work out. A core with change from 14' to 20' is a HUGE UPGRADE, IF you can get it ti fit in there...