thewanderlustking

Thank you Linda! I will pull the trigger on that and I found the operation manual too if I get to a point where I feel like I can save this! I did find an epic repair/service manual for it. I do need to verify that it is the 6727 model, but that seems pretty likely to be the case.

I don't WANT to change it but I have had a bad roof leak for a while now and need to replace the gasket and see if there are any other repairs I need to make to the roof itself. I have made a couple kinda successful reseal-up jobs, but they are not lasting. Currently the interior roof isn't the greatest, but I want to get that cleaned up and sorted out, and need to fix this roof leak first. The unit on my roof has been glued and screwed down to the point of ridiculousness (it can be seen in the video I took last year above). I have tried 3-4 times to get this thing off my roof safely without any success. I suspect when I take the kid gloves off, damage is going to be done. The chance of it coming of without damage I feel is pretty low. I have broken a couple knives trying to cut it like WME suggested. Whatever it is glued on with is almost as hard as the aluminum square tubes it is glued to. A sawzall wasn't controllable enough. I have a Dremel Vibratory/oscillating saw that I am hoping will do the trick. I have looked a few times and only found the 3 bolts. They are in a kinda delta configuration though so that might be all there is. I think I actually tried to get the upper cover off and found it was also glued... -=sighs=- Alright it is what it is. I am going to go get the tools I need for tomorrow out there and try to at least get the lower portion off. Some idiot put some sort of indestructible steel (feels like steel anyways obviously not lol) mdf board up UNDERNEATH that instead of taking an extra ten minutes and taking the lower portion off. SO that's going to cost some time, but hopefully less than I am wasting typing this out hahaha... Let me try to go make some actually progress on this instead of letting it win and get underneath my skin...

I still haven't found a plate on this thing with an "exact" model number... (I also don't have the top removed though, as that is glued in....) Well the top "cover" comes off easily, but this is the additional generic cover over top of the unit, and not the top cover allowing you to see the naked guts. I have a paper schematic plate that says "For 6727A, 6750B, 6770A Series..." and the lower cover says Mach Series. So I guess it is a 6700 Mach Series AC unit or something akin to that. I think I am looking for a 6000 Series installation guide. I found the 6700 Series Service Manual on the Bryant RV site and some installation manuals elsewhere for Airxcel. So far no hits on the 6000 or 6700 series. I have a buddy coming by tomorrow to assist in tackling this, it is going to come out one way or another. I am at the point where I just need it done and if it does get damaged beyond repair, I am going to probably put a roof vent in temporarily until I can decide un an upgraded AC unit that can hopefully suit my needs a little better. I really want something that can be fired up and ran off of a 12v system. They are out there and while not cheap, at this point what is another $1500 lol?

Layout Brochures! While there aren't specific user manuals, there are tons of layout brochures out there on the various Toyhome makes and models. At the moment I don't have any of these ready at hand, but I know at least a couple members here have collected a bunch of these. Again, please post up anything like this you have and I will add them here.

Digital vs Paper... This is a debate I even argue with myself over. Personally, I hate reading digital manuals while working on a car/truck/RV. Maybe that's just because I grew up with physical paper manuals and reading actual paper books... Old and cranky in my ways perhaps. The Toyota FSM for example is over 1000 pages, and I can't pick up a digital copy and quickly thumb to where I need to be. But I also hate getting my expensive shop manuals dirty... At work my normal workflow is to look up whatever I need on the computer (I have access to most of the digital repair sites, Alldata, Identafix, Mitchell, etc) and then simply print out the relevant pages. Most don't have this luxury. But a digital copy of whatever manual you might need, and a printer is almost as good. Out on the road though traveling with a two volume Toyota FSM, all the brochures and user manuals for every appliance is simply foolish when you can store them in digital format on a tablet, ereader, or computer. If I pop a head gasket 2k from home, I will happily manage with a tablet and the Toyota FSM in the parking lot of Autozone. In a scenario like that having the right information in a less than ideal format, is still coming out way ahead. So for me digital wins out on the road, but at home or the shop I am going to resort to a physical copy anytime I can. I posted up a thread going into setting up a digital library over here: Creating a compact and portable ereader library using Calibre! Out on the road, a digital library option also gives you "room" to carry a lot of other books you wouldn't want to weigh down the RV with. These Toyotas need all the help they can get!

For the house and various appliances, check here: Linda's post from another thread. This is a good source that didn't force me to solve multiple captchas and then not actually give me anything useful... I hate those, they promise to have ANY random file or manual you are looking for and then force you to download software and yeah... So far on the Bryantrv site I have been able to find, look at, and download anything needed for the appliances in the house. These days just about any job you want to do, you can find at least a few videos on Youtube of how to approach it. This especially goes for specific Toyota mechanical repairs, but also TONS of generic videos on RV "house" repairs. And some targeted ones, depending on what Toyota RV you happen to have. As I said in another thread, this is a much easier resource to utilize frequently than a paper repair manual. Or a digital copy of that. Where paper or digital manuals excel at is in things like torque specification charts, fluid capacities, and general appliance operation procedures. For instance say I don't actually know how to safely fire up my water heater, the appliance manual for that will tell me this. RV's do have some odd little things you have to do.

I see what you are saying on the edge of that roof, I can't say if that is normal or not but would probably lean towards a no. Take a little;e time to go watch the Sunrader build series on the youtube channel Bound for Nowhere The EXTENSIVELY documented their ground up rebuild. If anyone has some good video and pictures of that, it will be them!

I hadn't thought of that, and Amazon makes it SUPER EASY to return stuff too.

The front is dependent on the year of your "pickup." You can find everything on RockAuto, but it does take some study of that list in the thread above and some time carefully vetting the parts. On Rock Auto they will call it the 1-tom chassis, and motorhome kinda interchangeably. A local parts house, Like Advanced Auto, can also order you the right parts. Hopefully. Don't call on the phone, go in person with that parts list. The good news about this is if you end up with the wrong parts, it is much easier to exchange them. The bad news is, it will usually cost a little more. Probably well worth the additional cost though. You will get a warranty on most things this way. And again, swapping out wrong parts will be much easier. For the main brake bits, drums, shoes, and wheel cylinders, the chances of getting the wrong parts on the first try are actually pretty high. Where I order my stuff online is on the higher dollar parts. Like a master cylinder. I got one I "might use someday" for like $50 from Rock Auto. But that same part local was $200. And I was picking it up as a "maybe I need this"... $50 is worth it, $200, not so much.

-=under construction=- If I can hunt down any more factory manuals, I will post them up here! I am hoping to at least find a later manual with the 3.0 in it. If anyone has one, please message me or post it up below and I will add it here. There have been at least a couple online Toyota FSM posted up. At the moment I can't find any that aren't overloaded with adds and pop ups, but if any do come up I will add them here! Again please message me or post up any of these found!

Let's start a library collection! Seems that one of the more common questions on here is "Where do I find XYZ manual?" First off there is no "factory Service manual" for an Ithica, Dolphin, Mini Cruiser, Warrior, etc, etc. They are all built on a Toyota chassis (mostly if not all on the Toyota 1-ton chassis). So if you need a manual on doing a tune up, brakes, an engine swap, or any other "Toyota mechanical info" then you are simply looking for the Toyota FSM. These can be found on eBay, but usually not cheaply. Also don't look for the year of your RV, but for the year of the chassis it is built on. My 1986 Mini Cruiser for instance is built on a 1985 Toyota Pickup chassis. A year difference is fairly common. I haven't gotten enough FSM manuals into my hands to verify this next detail, but Toyota seems to have released different manuals for every year instead of a couple across the board like basically every other publisher has done. So if you buy a 1991 FSM, it might not cover a 1985. For some things it won't matter. But if you are buying a manual, get the closest to what you actually have. Things like electrical diagrams will be different. Call your local car parts store! The Chilton or Haynes manual you need just might be sitting on the shelf! These are still in print for our trucks. These are not as thorough as the FSM, but combined with Google and Youtube, they will help you get the job done. Below is the 1985 FSM in digital format. Here is also a link to it on my Google Drive where it can be opened without downloading it. It is a pretty big PDF file at 40+MB! 535663319_1985ToyotaRepairManual.pdf

This will get pretty close on a 1987, 1985 Factory Service Manual

Why am I not surprised? Meh... For giggles, I specifically went hunting on ebay for my 1986 Mini Cruiser. Chassis is a 1985. I found one, not horribly expensive either at $70. It is a one volume deal. All the later ones seem to be two volumes... Pretty tempted to pull the trigger on that, but realistically I don't need it at the moment. A paper copy in hand though is much easier to utilize than a digital copy. But there is something to be said for the lack of weight a digital copy on a laptop/tablet/ereader takes up in an RV out on the road. In fact I think I am going to go hunting for digital copies of all the repair manuals for the Toyota and appliance service manuals and try to put together a library of everything! I actually have a really nice Barnes and Noble "Nook" branded Lenovo M10 tablet I bough just because I knew it was a branded Lenovo, and got it for half the price of a normal M10. Might as well use it for what it is! Sidetrack: This got me thinking about a really cool tool/software I use to manage my e-library. I posted it up in the communications and electronics forum here: Creating a compact and portable ereader library using Calibre!

The question of service manuals comes up fairly often. I won't go into finding those here as there are plenty of threads on here already about that. But I realized that I do have an interesting solution that most people may not know about. There is an AWESOME and free open source software out there called Calibre for ebook management. Calibre can be found here. The software initially came out in October of 2006. I was a very early adopter too. I had purchased one of the early Sony readers, I think it was the PRS 500, and found that they were not cross platform friendly. I think I could only buy books from Sony in fact. The very first ebook I ever purchased was not ironically, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts. I also remembered just how MASSIVE of a headache it was to get it paid for and then downloaded. I don't think that e-reader had wireless. I paid for a couple more books I think, but the process was just too much back then. In my search to find a solution that would allow me to download books for free from anywhere (The Pirate Bay was alive and kicking at this time), I found Calibre. Initially it was just to get free content, but I quickly discovered it was MUCH MORE useful. First off it is a REALLY good way to organize a big library of random stuff, and rotate it in and out as you want to read certain things. The older readers were pretty limited in space, so this was actually a really important feature. These older readers can also still be found on eBay for some pretty reasonable prices. For traveling, this is a much better option than a higher profile tablet or laptop. Also the e-ink readers can be used for long periods of time between charges. Even the early ones were not power hungry. Next, it allows you to convert certain formats into other ones. In the earlier days this was a lot more important than it is now. Today it probably is at least mostly non-issue if any at all. If you are motivated enough and poke about some, you can also setup devices not necessarily ereader centric, with an actual ereader library. The most valuable feature of this free software though is this, it keeps old devices relevant and usable! My last Sony reader finally died a few years ago. It had LONG since become unable to connect with the (now closed) Sony store. I have a few more readers purchased since then that for whatever reason will no longer to connect to their original stores to allow me to purchase new content for them. But I can easily manage them and move content, free or purchased, on and off of them. And store that content offline on a laptop (or desktop). Myself, I prefer e-ink readers. They feel the most like a real book. They are gentle on my eyes, and there are now backlighted ones out there. I LOVE my Book Glowlight. But the e-ink readers do fall short in one regard, if you are using them to display picture heavy content, like owners manuals or magazines. None of my e-ink readers have been able to handle PDF file formats well, the most common format things like manuals and instructions are found in. Devices like the Nook Color can deal with this really well. The wife has a Nook Color that is now obsolete and won't connect to the internet/wifi anymore. I can still utilize it though using Calibre! Recently the wife bought a new e-ink reader as she never used her old Color Nook. It was too much like a tablet, and she would use it more for browsing, than reading. This is the same problem I have with tablet based readers or trying to read a book on my laptop. Too many distractions. I want to pick up a book to get lost in it and focus on that. Anyways when she bought that I was looking at the other options and Barnes and Noble had a Nook 10" HD color designed by Lenovo. A quick bit of in store research found out that it is simply a branded Lenovo M10 tablet, without any hardware differences between them. I needed an Android tablet anyways, and this has AWESOME specs! And it was on sale, so it was half the price of buying a Lenovo M10. Here is where it gets even cooler though. Tonight I discovered that the Calibre software is now available for Android and IOS devices!!! As of yet I am not sure what exactly this means. I can download whatever I want from the library on my laptop to my Lenovo "Nook" tablet. But I suspect it might give me the added ability to possibly store the whole library on my Lenovo Nook, to transfer as I want to my Nook Glowlight e-ink reader! I am going to play with these devices over the next few days and see if that is the case, it would be SUPER cool! I can pop a big enough micro SD card into the Lenovo, to store a SERIOUSLY large library on it. Relevance to the Toy home and RV life? Well I have done a lot of "wandering" and traveling over my life and LOVE to read. I used to have a MASSIVE library of books, but they were obviously impractical to pick more than one, maybe two books to take on backpacking adventures. When I started traveling more by car, this became less of a problem, but moving hundreds of books was a MASSIVE headache each time I moved. E-readers and digital music solved those issues for me. (I had 3-4 thousand CD's at one point, those were HEAVY to move...) And I am sure more of us on here feel the same way and already have e-readers. But I also suspect many of us don't have a good way to organize not only our book collection onto our readers and tablets, but even more importantly having access to all the repair manuals one could possibly need while out on the road. Thinking about this actually gets me excited to go and try and track down some of my other books and resources I keep on hand at home, but are way too big to bring out on the road. Like the SAS Survival Handbook. Wow, I found that in about ten seconds! I have a few other really big survival volumes sitting on my shelf that wouldn't be worth the weight to take in paper format, but are WELL worth having on hand if they don't cost me space or weight. Anyways Calibre is such a crazy awesome tool that if it ever did somehow become a paid software (It never will), I would happily pay for it. Over the years, I have actually made a few donations to the project. Anyways big sidetrack here from what I was working on, but I thought it might be a helpful tool for others to utilize too!

Okay I ordered a "Pace Setter 86-2800 TFX Performance Kat-Back Exhaust Systems Stock Exit Location" from Amazon. The exhaust Linda posted up was actually BETTER in most regards. The pictures were perfect! I wanted the catalytic converter that comes with it too. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any reference anywhere as to what size tubing it came with. I think it is a Walker exhaust, so it was likely only the 1 3/4" tubing. This Pace Setter was the cheapest one I was able to verify had a 2 1/4 primary size. One resource claimed it was 2 1/2. So we shall see when it arrives. The front half is 2 1/4 inner diameter in the main tubes. That 2 1/2 size is probably the outside measurement. As I kinda suspected though, none of the 2.4L exhausts seemed to be available in the larger sizes. The 86-2800 is for a 3.0L 6cly engine. Since this is behind the cat, it will (hopefully) hook up the same way and shouldn't matter. I want the extra flow, but not at the cost of it being crazy loud. I think this will be a perfect compromise. I have been taking pictures as I go along. Hopefully the back half goes on without too much fuss. I suspect I will have a gap to fill between the front and the back. Hopefully not, or it is just the length of a catalytic converter. I rarely get that lucky though haha! Anyways I will likely add the pictures to one of my appropriate threads, or possibly even do a separate write up on it. I really didn't expect such a research project to find a simple "bolt on" upgraded exhaust. I really hope it fits okay... It doesn't have all the bends the Mac/Walker(?) exhaust Linda posted up does. It will be here Tuesday or Wednesday, so I will know soon enough!

I tried the link above for the Toyota specific FSM (Factory Service Manual) and mostly struck out. The info is there, probably, but you have to solve captchas and go through hoops to get it and a couple windows open up trying to get you to download shady software that you don't need. After the third cpattcha and try to reload the page again... I moved on. It looked like it was all online HTML and couldn't be downloaded anyways. There are a ton of safer places online where most of this information could be found anyways. LCEngineering for instance has an awesome archive of articles on various things. I am pretty sure I have stumbled across several repair PDF guides posted up on places like the yotatech forums. Although a quick look brings me to a very similar online Toyota FSM full of adds and pop up crap trying to install software... Whatever the case for "free" information access online the yotatech forum is a VERY good resource and I highly recommend making an account there. Your best online resource for how to do any specific repair job on your yota, is simply Youtube. This is usually a much clearer easier to understand resource than a paper repair manual. Or converted paper manuals posted online. If you do go on eBay a quick look actually found some new and cheap Haynes repair manuals. Only $30. But as I said in the post above, these manuals are still available new at your local parts store. Where these excel at is in charts with torque specifications, fluid capacities, and things like that. Stuff usually not mentioned in "how to videos" on youtube. Where Haynes and Chilton manuals seem to fail at, is things like wiring diagrams. I think I have a haynes and find it usable for this, but just barely. Now the holy grail for Toyota Repair manuals is most likely the actual Factory Service Manual. These are red and black. These do get expensive. Amazon has a set for $287. I do see them all over ebay though for roughly $140-170 a set. Be careful though as it looks like these are for specific years and not all trucks up to that point. Figure out what year chassis you actualy have before springing for one of these sets. I haven't had one in hand to give an opinion on it, but usually with things like this you do get what you pay for. I also stumbled across one Manual for Toyota pickups from Bentley publishing. These are the go to manuals for German cars and are AWESOME. For Volkswagen (for instance) they are as good as the actual factory service manuals, and for older cars were actually THE factory service manual complete with instructions on factory service tools to use. 1) In summary, for the Toyota chassis and cab you can probably find a manual cheaply on a local car parts house shelf. Or they can order it. The prices locally, are cheaper than online. 2) For most basic (and even advanced) repairs though, youtube is your best resource. I know there is a PDF out there online of the FSM. In fact I am pretty sure I downloaded it to one of my computers. I am just not finding it right now without the online rigamarole trying to download sketchy software and answering captchas. 3) For obscure and specific technical questions RV related, ask here. For Toyota chassis related, ask here AND setup an account on Yotatech.com. Linda (or somebody else on here) will answer MUCH quicker than on Yotatech though... It is EXTREMELY RARE for me to post up a question here that isn't answered within 24hrs. Usually, it is within only a few hours. 4) If I were rebuilding my Toyota 22RE engine, I would spring for the information in a Factory Service Manual, without hesitation. (I probably will get one sometime in the near future just to have it on hand.) 5) And the BryantRV website Linda put up above is a VERY GOOD resource I have used for appliance and RV specific manuals before. I did get one "install this software" pop up on it, but I was able to kill that and actually get to the information without any more hassle. Anyways I came on here today for a quick bit of research and found it on the BryantRV site Linda posted. I forgot about that one and need to save it in my favorites/reading list.

Wow well Autozone actually DOES still sell the repair manuals new and I just called our local one and they have it on the shelf for $19.99. Was like $24 with tax. I didn't bother to ask if it was chitons or haynes though. One company I believe bought out the other. I spent about an hour looking for other resources and writing up a longer response, but these are readily and easily available for new. As useless as they usually are for me, I will probably go grab one as my old copy is brown from age lol! Sorry Linda, not trying to always be contrary lol! I actually told the wife the other day that the parts store didn't have an obscure manual for our 944, and was surprised when she asked and they DID have it! Oops. I also didn't call our local store first on this one, and again was surprised when they had it on the shelf.

Thank you Linda! I was afraid of that and had come to the same conclusion. Alright cool, I am on the right track! I am in the opposite of Cali, Florida. We have no emissions here... Yeppers, that was why I am thinking that this exhaust is intended as a cat delete. The second sensor location... While probably not a normal approach and defiantly not necessary in my state, I am probably going to put a cat back on here. Currently there isn't one. I actually used to be an emissions inspector. I can tell the difference in smell from a catalytic scrubbed vehicle, to one that is missing/gutted. Especially older vehicles. With the MegaSquirt, I can tune it to get the cat to light up and do its job effectively. The truck is actually running pretty spot on for its mixture, but it still has that "unscrubbed" old vehicle exhaust stink to it. That smell bothers me... And it gives the wife something to grumble about. Again not necessary, but it is more "responsible" especially since I have the tools and ability to tune this system to do so. What I am unsure about on the MegaSquirt, is just how it actually utilizes the second 02 sensor input. I think it might actually be smart enough to utilize the second sensor to adjust the long term fuel trim... Anyways geeking out loud on that lol. Just more tools to squeak out maybe another .5 mpg, or more if I get lucky! I haven't done any heavy tuning on an MS3 system for a LONG time. This is going to be a lot of fun and learning some features I haven't utilized before. A friend and I are actually doing something similar to his Miata (actualy what started this quest off for mine). He turbocharged it and we stuck a MegaSquirt MS3Pro into it for tuning. It has power for days! But our main focus is actually trying to see how crazy we can get on the fuel economy. He has already seen a couple more MPG on the new setup over the before turbo stock setup. His results though are unlikely to be the night and day results we expect on my Toyota setup. We are moving a couple decades ahead in technology for the Toyota, but probably moving BACK 5-10yrs on the Miata lol....

It took way too long to even think up an appropriate title for this, and I probably failed lol... Close enough I guess. Alright before my question, here is what I have so far. I purchased a "JY Performance SS Long tube header manifold for 90-94 toyota 4runner/pickup 2wd 22r-e". This is probably the same generic brand in every ebay auction, and probably the amazon ones too. Fit my 1986 22re fine. While not the simplest install, it was only as difficult as any normal header install would be, and they usually suck. I have seen mention that the header needs a pipe clearance/massaged with a hammer to clear the swayer. I did not find this to be the case, but I had to lower the sway bar and a cross brace to slip it in. It also was a SUPER TIGHT fit to slide onto the studs. I had to persuade it a bit... Pros: 1) The price was right! It only cost me $116 shipped!!! 2) I had no serious issues installing it, there were some minor ones though... 3) 2 1/4 pipe (I believe, need to measure to be sure) should flow much better than stock, but hopefully not be obnoxiously loud. Cons: 1) CRAPPY exhaust manifold gasket included. It didn't have the heat shield. And no egr/air injection port cover gaskets. 2) For that matter, no block off plates either... So I had to purchase a gasket set, got lucky and it was on a local store shelf and I got it at a discounted $35!!! 3) No mounting hardware, yeah price reflects that but I would have probably paid a little more for it. 4) Front Oxygen sensor mount location puts the OEM sensor into the steering shaft or frame rail... Oops. There is a rear location too though. 5) Cat forward... And this is my problem! This exhaust might actually mean to replace the cat with the included straight pipe with the second sensor location. Still I need to find an appropriate rear half, ideally without spending a fortune at some exhaust shop. Most aren't interested in even lifting this up or want over a grand. There are plenty of rear exhaust systems out there like the Walker one for $150-200 shipped. A price I can work with. The problem is, I am not sure what to actually order?! There seems to be almost nothing for the 2wd models. But past the cat, does it even matter if it is 2wd vs 4wd? I can't really see any difference in the pictures of the various exhaust systems. All seem to loop over the axle and drop out right behind the drivers rear tire. I have seen different mounts, but that is an easy fix with hardware already on hand. My wheelbase is 138" too. I can't find ANYTHING for this long wheelbase. Most seem to be 121". But I suspect the only difference between 138" and 121" is the long straight run. And that is EASILY extended. In fact as I mentioned it looks like this system actually does away with the catalytic converter. If I installed one, the heat shield would be a little too far forward and the second sensor in front of the converter. The 1986 Toyota stock ecu doesn't use a second o2 sensor, and I am not sure if the MegaSquirt has any software parameters to make use of a second after catalytic sensor. I can see a second one, but I have never looked further into that... Anyways, I am sorta planning on adding in a cat to help scrub the exhaust smell out. And it is more environmentally responsible anyways. Anyways looking for general advice or confirmation if a 121" wheelbase rear exhaust for say a 4wd truck can (or can't) be used on the earlier 2wd like our RVs. Or just ignoring the wheelbase all together. Really some of these say that have a 102" wheelbase, the front and rear wheels would practically be touching each other... I am not convinced the lengths correlate to actual wheelbases... I am finding references to at least 4 different ones when looking at the exhausts. I am probably going to end up grabbing something off of Amazon due to cost, and ease of returning if it doesn't fit, or can't be made to. I figured I would ask here though since I know I am not the first one here to replace their exhaust, and upgrade it. A lot of the options online aren't telling me what the tube sizing is either. It "seems" that the 6cly used bigger tube size. So looks like I might actually get 2.25" if I say it is a 6cly.... Sidenote: I wish this exhaust had mounts to reattach the outside heat shield to it. But most people probably won't reuse the factory shield, and I can easily enough reattach it with exhaust zip-ties. I might actually use header wrap on it anyways too.

Let me add something else to this. Be realistic and get GOOD information. We can be keyboard mechanics all day long, BUT none of us are there with you looking at it. So if you aren't sure of exactly what is going on, get a real live technician hands on diagnostic with your truck. From what you are describing, I would check fuel pressure, check timing, and do a block test. Fuel pressure and block test are pretty easy and you could do them yourself even in an Autozone parking lot. The timing, yeah with the right timing light and knowing the goofy procedure. I doubt I would even bother to carry a timing light in my toolkit though... I have 25yrs plus wrenching, but if this were my truck I wouldn't be driving it any further until I knew what exactly was wrong. And I also wouldn't hesitate to ask a coworker, or another professional, what was wrong. Sometimes it is just another set of eyes that aren't yours, looking it over. And away from home, it is scary. I was at a training conference and had taken my old 1977 Rabbit. I knew it inside and out as I had built it from a bare shell. About 30 miles from my destination I started hearing a bad knocking noise. Pulled over, lifted up wheels one at a time with a jack, nothing. Go drive some more and the noise had gone away. But stats back up after 5-10 more miles. This process is repeated a couple times. I am not sure what it is. Car gets hot, knocks. Sounds like a wheel is about to fall off. I look up the nearest Firestone (I worked for Brifgestome Americas at the time) and called them and limped it there. It was an axle. Simple and quick. But had that axle gone on the road, I would have ben stranded without the right tools to do it.

Taking weight out will help, not hurt. If it’s having issues with LESS weight, something has been hurt. I have loaded up my car enough that I had to loose a sewing machine (an proper antique Singer with treadle table) and a couple boxes of cds. Then the car felt fine. Do a fuel pressure and volume test and see what your actual numbers are. If you don’t have the tools, buy them. A $50 basic fuel pressure kit from the parts store should be enough. Some will loan it out too. Or even pay a shop the $99 diagnostic fee to do it. Detonation left unsolved will unecessarily destroy a perfectly fine engine. It can take a head gasket out at best. Or it can burn holes through pistons. I get it you are not near home base, but figure out what is going on so you can have an idea how to most safely get it home. Not sure what your interior layout is. But my fuel pump is right underneath my dinette table. I spent a couple hours measuring and remeasuring, then drilled a six inch hole through my floor right over top of the gas tank sender/fuel pump assembly. I was able to do my fuel pump without dropping the tank. I used a marine deck access cover afterwards, $15. The hole saw was stupid expensive though… Leys say it is detonation. Well pushing it with any weight (even empty it’s still a heavy beast) through the mountains could pop a head gasket. Detonation and blown head gasket could quickly become a much more serious stuck on side of the road issue. If it could have been prevented with a fuel pump replacement and possibly retiming the engine….

LC Engineering has a well known history of being the go to shop for Toyota crawlers and performance. Very very well known in the Toyota 4x4 community. Google should spit out plenty of hits on them.

This thread is going sideways…. There is ZERO reason to even talk about motor swapping, if cannante doesn’t even have a blown jug. Vehicles with blown motors usually don’t start up and run nicely otherwise. The first thing to do is to verify what kind of “knock” the engine even has. cannante, if the noise is subtle, as by your comments it probably is, let’s start by trying to figure out what it actually is before jumping to conclusions and spending 5-15k on a motor swap you might not even need! The simplest path is to have a reputable shop look at it and diagnose it. But, if it is rod knock then driving the vehicle does more damage. If the noise is subtle and not crazy loud, then there is a fair likelihood the motor can be salvaged. I have replaced rod bearings on several engines with them still in the vehicle. Rod knock: If the knocking occurs at a stop with the truck in neutral or park while lightly reving the engine, it is rod knock. This will usually happen the loudest at the peak where you let off and the engine for a moment is unloaded. This is gentle reving mind you. Detonation knock: This is usually a much quieter noise than rod knock but in the right circumstances can sound identical. This won’t occur with the truck stationary in neutral and gently reving it up/down. This occurs while driving it under load. If it rattles a little when slightly tipping the throttle in while cruising on the highway, mild detonation. If it sounds like marbles in a coffee can during a specific rpm band while accelerating only, severe knock. This is a quick and abridged version and maybe not a 100% perfect description, but it will get you much closer. Let’s start with figuring out what this noise is first and if it can be fixed before we worry about swapping the engine….

You are not even on the same page. It is VERY EASY to find rebuilt Toyota 22R and 22RE engines manufactured by professional rebuilding companies. Not some wanker sitting in their home garage claiming that a tune up is a rebuilt engine. Those people aren’t intelligent enough to arrange shipment for an engine and a core online. You can go on eBay and find a handful of options and every single one has a detailed description of what was done. No none of these professionals are going to give you receipts for the parts. Be real. cannante, low fuel pressure from a bad fuel pump could potentially cause engine knock/ping/detonation. This is vastly different from rod knock caused by bad engine bearings. But it can actually sound about the same. Or close enough for the untrained ear. This is especially true when it isn’t super loud. The rebuilt engines by reputable rebuilders are Toyota motors that have been given new life. They should be as reliable as the original ones, as long as decent quality parts were used. Your engine could also be rebuilt again. Just because it was rebuilt before doesn’t mean it can’t be agin. But it would be simpler to use it for a core and get a reman engine. This is assuming yours is even damaged….

First off I wouldn’t bother with an “engine or oil flush” as I haven’t seen a single shop in 25 years that still has one of the actual machines to do it. There might still be one out there somewhere, but they went away for a reason. A simple cleaner, like BG sells, and an oil change are more than enough. And even this is probably too much. A little oil on the air filter really isn’t even an issue UNLESS it is getting sucked into the engine airstream and causing pinking or detonation. Engines are designed to handle some, hence the design of the PCV system. A new pcv valve also doesn’t mean it is good. Test it. Verify. It’s a cheaply made and very basic part. You can do a head gasket test super easily yourself. Autozone has a block test kit. It’s $30 or a free rental. They might charge you for a bottle of test fluid. Very easy to do. Watch a few videos. Since a head gasket has recently been done, this would be a good idea to do just to verify. But before you chase potentially imaginary issues, is the engine even running poorly??? If not, leave it alone! At most, do your block test for some extra piece of mind. If you want to be paranoid, setup an inspection interval. Maybe every 1000 miles check or even change the air filter. Take a picture of the filter and your odometer. This would be a simple way to see if it gets worse.