Shoprat

I found out the Load Sensing Proportioning valve was leaking. The fluid was going in the boot on the valve. Then when the boot couldn't hold anymore fluid, it would seep down the link rod to the rear axle. It never showed a leak this way as the rod is also black. Does anyone know of a good place to order a new valve that is cheaper than the dealership ?

Howdy Glg ! Welcome, Sir. I would check out the thread called, " Put the sawzall down " a few lines down. This will probably give you some idea of what is involved. I would rap all over the roof with the butt end of a screwdriver and listen to the sound. A good solid rap is what you want to hear. A soggy sounding thud is NOT what you want to hear. As I said , check out the thread below and this will give you some idea

: Ok, guess it's time for another update. If ya hate these things, let me know, I 'll stop ! Took the hood over to the body shop to have a hood scoop installed. The tube from the turbo to the intake manifold hit it, and the harmonics of the unit made it sound as though a Cessna 180 was taking off--- continiuosly. The hood scoop will cover the hole cut in the hood to clear the tube plus I'm having the bodyman cut out the open areas in the hood between re-inforceing ribs under the scoop to allow more cool air into the engine compartment. The cool air will hopefully lower the the intake air temp to a more resonable 125-135 degree F.charge temp resulting in a more dense air charge. Also found a place here in the great North that has a chassis dyno so I can set this unit up to the max horse power available from the unit. 85 bucks an hour, pricey, but I won't have to watch out for Kids- Kattle - and Koon dogs while I dial the fuel management in. And it's only 40 miles away ! Only detriment I can forsee is that this unit height clearance won't go through the door! The brake system is still being worked on by yours truly. I don't know if I had mentioned this before, but I got ready to go to Tenn. , and the brake pedal went slowly to the floor when I stopped for a light going to the gas station . So, decided to go through the brake system for peace of mind as I hammer this moddy through the mountains of Maine and Tenn. in the future. I installed another master cylinder to replace the one I replaced last year and the system still slowly leaked off pressure. Clenching my anger down , I checked the master cylinder out and no fluid on the backside in the booster. But- brake fluid level was dropping only one other thing can cause this slow leak at moderate pressure with no drop at hard pedal- rear wheel cylinders or front caliper seals leaking. I decided ,because that I hadn't pulled the duals and really checked the rear brakes , to check these first. The linings and hardware didn't look too bad , but when I popped a outside seal on the wheel cylinder, the nastiest brown/black snot greeted me. At that point, I decided to replace all the wheel cylinders, linings, drums, hardware in the rear. I know that a lot of people will fault me for this decision, saying this dude has more money than brains, but this system is twenty years old ! My bazoo, and my wifes' bazoo, is being shoved down the road at 55 plus miles per hour. We do mountain travel, or hope too. Going down a mountain and the brake pedal slams the floor when needed, and a couple hundred dollars don't seem so important ! Well, everything in the rear is now new. Before this process with the rear brakes, I had replaced the front rotors with slotted ones,and also replaced the front pads with a semi-racing compound. When I saw the crap in the rear wheel cylinders, I also decided to replace the front calipers with new rebuilts. Snot rear- snot front. As I said , money or bazoos ? I opted for peace of mind and safety. While I'm in there, I'm replacing the rubber hoses to the calipers. Enough on this subject. So- when I'm done with this brake upgrade this week end, I will be left with the only thing left to replace in the brake system being the booster unit. I have reached the point where a " What the Ding-dong " attitude towards the check book and retirement fund total is becoming common place. Am I wrong with this assessment, who knows. Guys at work and other places think I'm nuts ! But I check in at some other sites on the Internet that hold my interest, and saw a fellow that put 7,000 dollars into a motorcycle engine modification. Maybe I'm not so nuts after all. :

Why do I get the feeling I'm being ignored ? Hey Guys, beiing married, my poor ego can't stand this ! Now I'm distressed and it's all you guy'ses fault. Geez, make a brilliant post on the cutting edge of technology any what do you get in return ?

Ya know, I just had a thought. These larger alternators suck up a lot of power when charging. These 4 cylinder engines don't need any more power suckers than what is neccessary. I think you would almost be better off if you ran the generator to charge the house battery as you were going down the road. Any thoughts on this?

Howdy Pickle. Back in the day when I was a car mechanic, we figuired a charging system should run beyween 13.8 and 14.2 volts at about 1500 r.p.m. An alternator should put out about 40 % in amps of your total battery bank amp rating. For example, your starting battery is 100 amp/hour. Your house battery is 150 amp/hour. These added together equals is 250 amp/hour. 40 % of 250 amps= 100 amps. You need a 100 amp alternator to easily handle the load. Hope this helps.

Take it from a six footer, if ya have roof air, glue a folded towel on the inside lower edges of the unit- you'll need the cushion. Learn to walk with your head bowed. This is on a Sunrader also. Sit a lot.

Thanks for the kind words , Nolan. Sorry this reply took so long to get here, but I have been running around like a one legged man in a buttt kicking contest lately, so here are the latest tales of woe ! We got his motorhome so we could take it South to the Smokies every year. The trip was scheduled for the first two weeks in May. I was bustin' my a--- cough -back to get the turbo upgrade done in time for the trip. Didn't happen ! The mounting all the goodies and getting them to work half way efficently ran into the first week of my vacation. I finally got it so it would go down the road somewhat well and figured I could dial it in on the road to the Smokies, this was Friday night All the parts didn't fall off , so I was driving it to the gas station to top off the tank to start the trip a week late on Saturday morning. I stopped at the traffic light, and while I was waiting for the light to change, I noticed that my foot and brake pedal was dropping slowly to the floor . I let up and stomped the pedal ! The dropping stopped, then I released some of the pressure and the pedal started dropping again. Master cylinder took a s---, oops, was bad ! I had replaced it last year ! It just crapped out. So, me an momma transferred some stuff to the pickup and went in that. I was pis--- , ooops, highly dissappointed. So--- all the horsies in the world won't do ya much good if they don't WHOA ! I ordered a new master cylinder when I got back from the trip last Saturday. I also ordered slotted rotors and high performance pads for the front brakes. Just to be contrary, I ordered a steel hood scoop to add above the turbo so the pressure pipe doesn't hit the hood and cause the Toy to sound like a Cessna getting readfy for take off. I get the urge sometimes to go out and throw a single fingered salute toward the Toy. I feel much better now that I have vented--- anyhow, Nolan, as far as detonation is conscerned, the SDS system uses a knock sensor so I can program how sensitive I want it to be and how much to retard the timing when it detects a " Knock Event". The SDS system rocks. I will now go and curl up into a fetal ball.

Howdy Dave. Since this post was posted I decided to do the dirty and go the turbo route ! I also added a few other goodies to sweeten the result. So far this Toy has about 5 grand worth of goodies that didn't come stock. I listed a lot of them and some of the upgrades in the engine and drivetrain classification below. I worked on Fords in a few dealerships back in the day, and I agree with you on the 351 Cleveland. But the 351 won't hold the 390s' athletic supporter ( sorry ladies ). I am still in awe of the 428 CJ. Ahhhhhh yes, tire smoke and the sound of a big honkin' 4bbl dissappearin' in the distance- those were the days !

Sorry I didn't get back to you Guys sooner, but the excrement that life throws at you got in the way. So, here goes ! The LC Engineering Upgrade is a complete HP output undertaking. When I get the whle thing done , I will give a dollar total, but right now it looks like about a 5 grand project. As an ol' " Keep it Cheap " type dude, I am appalled at the money I am throwing at this thing ! But, man , are the results worth it to me. So, each little problem that rises its' ugly head , I will try to report on, and if'en any of ya have questions, I'll try to answer from a moaning bill payer viewpoint ! As I have said, this is a total HP output upgrade. The turbo is just the foundation of the new Trump Towers ol' Shoprat will be herdin' down the road. The SDS ignition and Fuel Management System completes the package and is the most mind boggleing. The SDS system directions must be followed in the order given in the instructions . I tried to bypass them-- don't do this- it leads to frustration and heartbreak- I know. SDS -- Oh MAN- THE POWER IT GIVES YOU --OhOh- sorry for shouting. This system allows you to program all the ignition timing and fuel injector pulse times for start up temps, engine load during vacuum and boost, and any other parameter you can think of. At every 250 R.P.M. step. YOU program this thing- not an engineer in an Ivory tower someplace. You can input the Injector Pulse width to suit your cold start problems, for just about every cold engine temp. I got a Fuel/Mixture ratio guage to tell me if I am running rich/lean at a given engine rpm going down the road, I can record this , and re-adjust it with the programmer, and then re-check the mixture a little later. It takes time, and some mental effort, but by Gadfrey, you can tune your engine to YOU ! But, back to the Turbo. This unit must be set to the boost output you want. I opted for the low boost unit. The wastegate that controlls boost like a pressure relief valve came with the pressure spring installed that puts the pressure at the advertised boost. To controll boost, they give you a pressure controll knob. This knob control fools the Turbo so that it will put out twice the spring pressure. I wanted to hold my boost to about 7 psi. They installed a 7 psi spring- my boost controll then raised it to 14 psi, WAY over what I wanted. I then had to pull the wastegate and installed a Green colored spring giving 3 1/2 psi, dropping the boost to the safe, non-hairy chested psi I felt safe with. To all you H/P at any price afficianados, I don't want to try to chase my crankshaft down the road when I don't have to. Hey- wimp at any price, that's my motto. But, to the chase. I have not gotten this unit dialled in to the max yet, but from the totally non-scientific road test data I have accumulated so far, the boost upgrade is a success. To whit- going down the road and coming to a hill, before I would have to keep shoving down on the accelerator pedal to mantain speed or to even just not loose a lot of speed. With it is as it is now, if I shove down on the pedal, I will gain speed ! Yes, you 4 cylinder fans, I will gain speed ! I am pleased with the results so far. I admit, it takes work, it takes time, it takes a lotta bucks, but what does peace of mind give you back? And, you know what? Stock sucks !

Howdy folks. It's 3 am here and I can't sleep so I'll somewhat bring ya'll up to speed on the LC Engineering turbo upgrade I'm involved in. It's much more involved than I thought. The stock column shifter ear hit the down pipe on the turbo header and so rather than get medieval with a hammer on the pipe, I decided to install a floor shifter instead and get rid of the columnshift all to gether. This meant that I had to fabricate a bracket on the tranny to hold the shift cable. The wastegate also took up the same space as the power steering lines, cruise control head, and the lower radiator hose. I was able to move the power steering lines by re-bending the brackets that positioned the lines. The old vacuum cruise control head had to go because there was no room elsewhere in the engine compartement, so I removed the whole thing and am going with a more recent electronic control instead.. The new lower radiator hose I will have to fabricate or use a flex-to-fit if the flex type doesn't put too much strain on the lower radiator pipe. The downpipe of the turbo is 2 1/4". I decided that downsizing the exhaust system to the existing 1 3/4" was silly. Ya can't get air in if it can't get out, so I'm going 2 1/4" all the way out. Cat and all. I had to fabricate a pipe to mate up to the downpipes' 2 1/4" 3 bolt header type fitting. This pipe also was made to accept the oxygen sensor. The exhaust now comes out right above the left torsion bar. I will have to gently move the motorhome to an exhaust installer and have a pipe fabricated to sort of twist around the torsion bar so it will mate up to the cat and muffler. I want to bring the exhaust out the side in front of the left rear wheel so there are a few bends as possible to restict the exhaust flow. I am also going with the SDS fuel and ignition programmable controller. I have replaced the fuel injectors with a larger size, and am now replacing the wiring and sensor system to bring this vehicle into this century. I have pulled and will not re-use the old ignition system, the E.G.R.valve system, and several water temp sensors that control vacuum and electrical circuits that are no longer needed. As an aside, when I pulled the radiator to gain access to the harmonic balancer to install the ignition trigger magnets, the radiator mounting bracket was pulled loose from the bottom of the radiator on both sides, and the lower fins in the drivers side of the radiator had turned to green gunge. Green radiators are soon failed radiators. So, a new ones going in. Also when I was under the vehicle, I noticed that the rear tranny mount was looking kind of old around the edges, so I'm going to replace that also. I have noticed a rather cyclic vibration at highway speeds that wasn't corrected by a wheel balance job. Hopefully, replacing the over the hill mount will take care of this. Jeez. This ran longer than expected. Sorry.

Well-- I did it. I got the L-C Engineering turbo upgrade along with a few more attached goodies that sounded like a good idea. I sweated all over my debit card big-time. There goes a very healthy chunk of the ol' retirement fund. The unit will come in about three weeks. I know you are all interested in how much this cost--4700 dollars- there, now you can all say some jerks have more money than brains. Money buys happiness and comfort. I am at an age where comfort rules and hard work can roll in dog stools . I will sit in my 21 foot motorhome, feeling comfortable and superior as I tool down the road, and call out to my lifetime companion to increase the boost as I need to climb a grade, surprise a 45 foot diesel pusher, or just feel froggy. I can't stop grinning ! I haven't felt this happy since I came across a BMW in Pennsylvania that thought he could blow that stinkin' ol' Dodge pickup off the road where it deserved to be. That ol' Dodge pickup had a 400 c.i. engine under the hood going through a 2.91 axle ratio rear end. It could bury the speedometer before it would shift out of passing gear. I, as an ol' man, remember, and grin till the corners of my mouth hit my ears. Horse power is addictive ! L-C engineering has told me that at a 5 pound boost with my rig, 150 horse power is practical. At 7 pounds of boost, 170 horsepower is practical. My engine stock is 116 hp. A 40 hp boost is not to be laughed at. No power increase is to be laughed at, ask the turd that was driving the BMW.

Well Guys. Afer thinking and thinking and going around and around, I have decided to do the dirty and get the upgrade. I may be a victim of my wishfull thinking, but I now really want to do this upgrade with all new parts. Rest assured that if I blow this engine up, I will never tell anyone. Seriously, I thank you all for the time you took to advise me, but something says to me- do it. Would any of you be interested in updates as I do this?

Yessir. The swap part was exciting to me. To get a bundle of horses by JUST changing engines - WOW ! But the reliablity thing is what you live with afterward. After the swap I did it seemed like I was always having to tweak this, tweak that, adjust this and that at the same time. It can wear on you if the vehicle is a daily driver. For something to go over rocks, race track, or dragstrip, tweaking is a blast. It is a choice to tweak or not to tweak. A daily driver is different. It has to get from point A to point B. A motorhome is just like a daily driver. It must get from point A to point B without breakdowns. Who wants to have their engine quit or break when you're on a camp trail 20 miles from town? Or on an expressway 60 miles from town. And the town mechanic never saw a Toyota motorhome. I could be called fearfull I guess, but if I can avoid this scenario by giving up another 30 h/p potential, I will do this. If I can avoid breakdowns by putting on new expensive components in place of used components of unknown quality, I will do this. I really value a vehicle I can trust. Turn the key and go- and go till I turn the key off. It quits when I decide it quits. Quitting when it decides to upsets me.

The Sunrader is a nice rig. Course, I'm biased. As to the engine swap in a motorhome, I am wondering if you could get clearance to pull the engine with a cherry picker seeing as how the house entends over the engine compartment. Or do you pull the grill, radiator support, etc.-etc. and pull it out that way ?We used to do this on a lot of vans and ambulances. Yep. I could probably really boost this bugger up and jump up the ponies. I amazed at the strength of this engine, but I would hate to give up reliability and longetivity, so I just want to gain enough power to at least beat a bycycle going up hill. Performance vehicles are in my past now. I enjoyed the heck out of them. Now I'm old and boring. And I like it that way. High speed makes me nervous. So I say to you, friend, go for it. I'll cackle in your tire smoke and remember when !

Wow ! You can do an engine swap in two days in a motor home. Wish I had your expertise an energy. And as far as the head gasket goes, I had thought about lowering the compression ratio by this method. Then I saw the website for L-C Engineering, looks like I won't have to lower the compression ratio. This appeals to me because there will be no power drop when I don't use the turbo. I get 18 m.p.g. with this rig as is. If I lower the comp. ratio , I will have to use more gas. In my needs, the present engine is fine when I'm just sloping along at 55 mph. I just want the turbo to help me make it up hills. The rest of the time it will probably be set at the lowest possible boost. I ain't lookin to burn the duals for a quarter mile. Also, the swapping the micro processor and wiring from another vehicle doesn't appeal to me. You have to remove two and install one with all the accompianing wiring, right. . So, I am lucky enough to have a few bucks to do another way of powering up. I won't have to get another vehicle to remove the engine, or look for and buy a used engine to install in the receptive vehicle. Or , if I want reliability, buy a rebuilt engine. I checked on this option where I worked. At my cost, the 3.4 ran 3500 bucks. Then I have to buy all the processor and wiring new, or rip used stuff out of an existing vehicle. Then hope it works. Nahhh. Don't think so. With the complete new turbo kit unit, I just R and R parts. I can do that.Tell ya what, check out the link I provided above, then let me know what you think if you could afford it.

Will do Greg. But I also have to say that I asked theguy at L-C Engineering if the 22re would hold up to the gaff at 4 -5 pounds. He assured me it would, but I haven't bought the unit yet . I will check with these guys for more input The link is here http://www.toyotacatalog.net/m1webgear/Pro...PartRevisionID=. As you can see- it says 22re. But I will check further on this.

An engine swap--okay. I have considered this in my 86 Sunrader. I decided not to do so ! First you have to change engines, then change all the side items and hope they work ! Sorry- I've done engine swaps and they hold no appeal for me. Sooo- I explored other options. I finally decided on putting a turbo on my 22RE. Some will shake their heads. Some will show a single finger salute and -- aww whatever. Here is my thinking . . A swappable engine with warrenty will cost approx. 3500 dollars to give you a feeling of confidence. Then, to make it run with dependibility, you will have to change all sensors, the micro-processor, wiring , and diverse other items to feel confident. Do you have this knowlege? Hope so ! By the time you are done, you will have approximately 4000 - 5000 dollars invested. Sorry- thats the way it is ! This to gain up to maybe 100 horsepower all day long ! Don't forget the days and days of shoe-horning ths into the receptive vehicle. I , after much research, have decided to just hang on a turbo charger from L-C Engineering. People have warned me againis this. I have decided to either be an example of stupidity, or a really smart dude ! Consider--- the engine stays in place. Next, you take off existing components and just hang the new ones in their place. L-C supplies the computer, wiring, etc-etc. With instructions. Sounds good, don't it ? A low boost unit ( i.e. 4-6 psi) will allow you to use the present engine for many miles. A stock 22re delivers 116 hp. This L-C unit , at 5 psi., will deliver 160 hp. When you enable the maximum boost, 7 p.s.i., you will get approxiamately 200 hp. for a very short time. For this h/p boost, without going through the process of decideing which engine mounts,how to accomplish a tranny match up, drive shaft mods if any on and on and on, you will give approximately the same amount of money with a lot less hassle ! I decided to do so. I figure maybe 2 weeks , working when I can , to get 2 times the usable horse power. Wadda ya think ?

Okay Musicman- does your toy have an automatic transmission ? Could be the trans isn't shifting through all the gears. Could be if it's a three speed it may be staying in second. The lack of power while it is sucking gas still triggers a plugged exhaust reponse from me. Tell ya what, just to eliminate the cat , disconnect the exhaust pipe in front of the cat and test drive it. See if there's any difference. If you have more power,then the cat is plugged. Have it tuned up by all means. Won't hurt, and it should be done sometime. Another thought, could be water in the gas, or bad gas. If it wasn't driven for a long while the gas could lose octane. The airflow sensor could be bad also. Now I'm getting into the tech stuff, I have run into automotive computers going nutso in my previous life as a GM mechanic. I would check with a Toyota dealer if one is available in your area. The dealerships can be pricey, but in time saved it my be worth the money. Good luck to you on your quest,Sir. Let me know what you find.

Ok- here goes- more knowlegeable people jump on anything you see here ! No power- this is a regular topic on any Toyota camper web site that I've run across. A few camper/motorhome manufactures built heavy motorhome bodies on a Toyota pickup chassis. Way to heavy motorhome bodies for the running gear. Trouble is, the size of the motorhome is so seductive that we fall in love when we see it, and never consider practicality of the combination. Your complaint is " power". Maybe I should capitalize that word--"POWER". Slow going uphill power ! Lets address this conception.. You gotta 4 cylinder powerplant--2.5 liter. 116 hp if running well. This pulls a vehicle weighing 5-6 thousand pounds ! Most people are more used to a vehicle ratio of 10 pounds/ hp ! To give you some idea, a motorhome weighing 5500 pounds requires 550 hp to match the performance of the typical sporty butt hauler. This equals 5 times the power to weight ratio of what you have available . So- lets get realistic ! From what you describe, your vehicle seems rather anemic. Check out the exhaust to make sure it's open and will let out the hp required- i.e. no plugged muffler or catalitic converter. If it can't get out, it can't get in. Next- check out the air filter to make sure it isn't clogged- if it can't get in, it won't need to get out ! Check the spark plugs . Make sure -- aw oooo. I give deep breath- hmmm- have a mechanic ya trust check out the vehicle. These Toys' aren't the most chest-beating vehicles around. I have heard them described as being able to watch bicycles pass you uphill. Harhar. Ok- back to reality from a side road.! You can wheel this vehicle around in town with very little trouble. I have measured it lenghtwise as two feet longer than my fullsize pickup. It looks cool. For two people it is the right size. At a campsite, it will fit most campsites no problem. Ya don't need to have a " TOAD". so, the problem isn't camping, it's travelling- right? Right ! so- lets look at travelling. Enjoy it ! These vehicles give you plenty of time to do that. Enjoy the moment ! Ok- now we come to the fear factor. You, or your travelling partner, gets the screaming willies of being too slow ! These are the choices available. Wank the present configuration to maximum thru tune-up and knowlegeable expertise . We've done that. Grasp more horses from the engine- expensive. Or- once these options have been used- bow your head, pull to the slow lane, and grin at the single finger salutes proffered by the uncouth motoring public. Be assured- when youn get to that campsite ( hopefully a TOY-IN ), other mobile road blocks will be there to commisserate and laugh-smile-sing songs and make the road just another place to get from here to there.

Hi all. Just wanted to let everyone here know about a great business that will go the extra mile for ya. If ya ever want to install a rear view camera system in your toy, give Tim at RVCAMS.COM a shout. I thought I had a problem with the system he sold me, but it turned out to be a charging problem in my toy. He went way above and beyond to help me find the problem ! This is real customer support.

Weeeeeeellll, ok. Sounds like a turbo is not the way to go. I don't want to pound the engine to death.Thought I had it made.Rats ! Here's another thought . if I use my auto trans like a stick, drop it into second and wind the engine at the peak of the power curve, would this work ok. Seems like it would to me. What is the peak torque rpm and redline on these engines? Maybe I'll check out the engine swap option. Anyone heard how the Ford 302 does in these things ?