crasster

I just wanted to give an update since I have not been on here for a while. I had our 1987 Dolphin with a 22-RE pretty much rebuilt on the inside and a lot of the guts on the engine replaced. We had a sluggish problem that we could not figure out for the life of us. We decided just to make local trips and remain sluggish. I am positive this rig was doing something wrong. I know they are slow, but often it would have major trouble doing 45 on the highway. Anyway, we were driving out in Ft. Worth and saw an large new RV store. We were just peeking and not serious, mainly because it was attached to camping world store. We just went out and the first thing we saw was a smaller KZ travel trailer with bunk beds and the like. It was their last 2011 before they got their 2012, and the dealer completely slashed the price from $15,000 (which they typically go for in that model) to $9500. We just peeked inside and saw a teeny cosmetic issue and suddenly a dealer appeared behind us and said "I'll knock off $500 for that". So now the price was $9500. I said "well I'm was just out looking, nothing serious, and besides we have a Class C RV". I described it an on the spot he offered me $5500 for the Class C. WOW. I told him that we would probably do it, but give us a couple hours to think about it. I went home, pulled the spark plugs and they were DRIPPING with OIL. Not rust, but OIL. Put them back in, started it up, and white smoke. I'm pretty sure the rings were shot. It would explain the sluggishness and the oil. Anyway we called the dealer and said "OK". Driving the rig up there my wife following behind, she said there was a good amount of white smoke coming out the back of the pipe. I could not get over 45 mph on flat ground in non-wind. We arrived at the parking lot. The dealer went out to inspect our RV. Walked back in and said "OK". We cut him a check for about $4500 (after all the taxes and stuff) and signed the title over for the Toyota. WOW what a deal on that trade in..... PHEW. Anyway, I wanted to sincerely THANK everybody here for all the help. It was a wonderful experience to spend all that time with the kids. In the end, I think the rings were fried and it would have been a lot of money and headache to fix it. We have a nice new KZ travel trailer now. My hope is one day they start producing the Toyota RV's again and I'll be back here to hit it up. Loved it, but we had to get what works. Anyway for now audios, and if I ever run into any Toyota RV people out there I'll ask them if they visited the forum. If they have, I'll buy the beer. ;o) Take Care. -Chris R.

Okay I will check the temp sensor and download the manual. Thanks so much. I'll let ya know how it turns out.

Has a new muffler, new cat, and new air filter that fits well.

I honestly can say guys I've been through it with this 87 Dolphin with a 22RE. I think many of my running symptoms have been a combination of many things. I do believe this RV was neglected for some time, and is just now about to stretch its fenders once more. My other thread, the transmission problem was a kickdown cable that was not at the right adjustment that I feel like a dunce for not measuring it from the rubber boot near the Throttle body. I believe this next issue will be (hopefully) simple. I'm thinking possibly 02 sensor or a combo of a couple things. Symptoms: Runs rough on start up. Does not like to be cold. If I put it in Reverse in about 10 seconds of cold start, it will stall. If I put it in Reverse in about 30 seconds of cold start, it will go into gear and run very choppy. Low RPMS. If I give it gas it will back up. If I warm it up and give it a little gas for a minute from a cold start, the chop is way less and I don't worry about it stalling backing it out of the driveway. I put it in D, still slightly choppy. Then I drive it down the street for 1/4 mile and all seems fine driving. I get to a stop sign the chop is 50% less, but noticeable. If I drive it another 1/3 mile to the next stop sign, chop is gone. So OBVIOUSLY it likes being warm. After it is warm it drives really good. I go 55-60, no problems. Cruising along... regretting cussing at this RV & making friends with it again. Then I decide to test it a bit. I turn down a side street with a 30mph limit. I take it up a fairly steep grade hill for about 1/4th of a mile. It's out of OD the entire time. Truck slows down going up as expected. I have to floor it, tranny kicks down nice, and I make it up this hill at about 20mph floored for the last 100 yards. Never really going below 20mph or above once it slows to it as expected. I do a U-Turn, drive down the hill to get back on the highway. THIS IS WHEN THE PROBLEM HAPPENS I get on the highway and the engine seems very weak. It sounds a bit different too almost like if somebody wrapped several bed comforters around the motor. I give it some gas and it accelerates weakly, but is not working nearly as well as it was after I backed it out of my driveway and all the way to the hill which is about 3 miles off. It's just weak. Shifts are there & kickdown works, revs seem there but weaker, but there is a "muffled cotton like underwater" sound that seems to dilute the normal sound of the engine revs and is especially apparent when I floor it. The only things I can think of are: 02 sensor Overheating tranny? I do have a cooler arriving in the mail soon - a nice large one. (it has a stock cooler) EGR All of the major tune up stuff is already changed. Oil is good, Tranny fluid is good. Hopefully this will be my last issue. We are all ready to use this thing! As always thanks in advance!

Tranny problem is FIXED! I didn't realize you measured the kick down cable FROM the rubber boot on near the Throttle body. Now it kicks down every time! I have one other problem, but I'm going to start a new thread because obviously I've had a couple of problems working together to make a confusing sandwich. I feel like a complete doof for overlooking that cable measurement Maineah. It kicks down every time now, gears shift smooth, so all is good in transmission land. Thanks for your help on this one guys!

Okay it's kind of like this, WHEN this problemt happens and I start cruising at 30mph, if I floor it, it will not rev up and down shift into a lower gear. I manually put it into 2 or L, and floor it, it will down shift. Sometimes after bringing it back from 2 or L, back into D, if I floor it it will down shift, but other times not. I have my Haynes book, I'm going to seriously check out the kick down cable. Never adjusted one before but will try. It's strange because sometimes it works perfect. GRR. If the tranny cable doesn't do it I may have to haul it up to a tranny shop for their take. May be worth the diagnose fee at least.

Well.. I have bad news. Problem is still there. ug. It seemed fine the other day then I took it out again. Seems to work better when I'm just driving alone rather than if my family goes with me. Wife & 5 kids probably weigh a grand total of 300 pounds - MOST OF THAT BEING THE KIDS DEAR. LOL. I'll throw out one more list of the symptoms that hopefully would trigger some ideas: SYMPTOMS: A) Feels very weak at higher speeds. Have to floor it to go up hills. Sometimes if I floor it, the tranny doesn't seem to down kick. C) Sometimes when I floor it the tranny does down kick, but its weak. D) Sometimes when I floor it the tranny does downkick, but it's weak, then I let up on the pedal and floor it again. It down kicks, but sounds weaker than before. Each time I let it up it kind of sounds even weaker. E) At low speeds it most often seems to do okay, but often won't down kick at lower speeds and feels weak as well. F) No bump shifts G) When I first start driving, all the gears seem to shift very smooth and right H) Nothing in tranny fluid seems to indicate a problem. Pink and smells good. What I have done that I thought could be relevant to fix this problem: New Fuel Pump New Fuel Filter New PVC New Catalytic Converter Valve adjustment New Spark plugs New Coil New Rotor New Cap New Spark plug wires New Oil New Oil Filter I've also took off the TPS (throttle position sensor) and applied a tat of WD-40 to it because it was barely seeming hesitant. Now it's "snapping" back into place when I manipulate it. Other things I've done: Starter New Battery Things I'm wondering if could be the problem: Air Flow Meter (AFM) - Could this cause my symptoms? I'd rather not mess with it if it couldn't because they are $$. Bad injectors - How could I test and could this cause my problem? Bad transmission - Since they are complicated. Fluid smells & looks good. Smooth shifting when shifts. I DO HAVE A LARGE TRANNY COOLER coming in the mail as I type this. The heat may be the issue? Things I don't think is the problem: I don't think its the fuel pump or filter because both are new, of course I'm willing to try a pressure test (need to buy a gauge). Valves - I think I have them adjusted right. Sounds good with mild clicks. Noticed a power increase with them. Anyway, I'm stumped and I hope the tranny cooler fixes this. Somehow I doubt it will but I guess I never know. The oddest thing is symptom "D". I let off the pedal and floor it again and it sounds weaker than when I let up. Could this be the Air Flow Meter? May just be a bad tranny... I have no idea. Thanks!

Would you suggest I make it "in place of" the stock cooler, or piggy back the coolers? I think I found some room on the other side of the radiator that I could mount a rather large Hayden cooler. I was thinking the 403 to 405. I'll try the vac on the egr and see if that clears up the hesitation. It's not bad at all really, it's probably me just driving newer Toyota vehicles and feeling picky. Perhaps .5 to .8 of a second worth of "farts" LOL when pushing the gas at a stop. Gets right on with it after. I'm just glad it seems to be driving better, that the cylinders have good compression, re-checked the plugs and they were dry. It was really getting a bad gut on it. Wow those catalytic converters are kind of tough to diagnose because the symptoms feel like other stuff. The weather is great and we have some anxious kids and some very scared marshmallows (and beer).

I think the new CAT fixed it! Feels a lot stronger in lower gears. I can definitely tell the difference. This is how it is on the highway. Going up some smaller Texas hills it has to kick down once to "maintain speed" of 55, but probably drops down to about 52-53. Going down hills I know I could get it past 65 but I didn't have the nerve LOL. (Same grade just going down) On straight flat roads I can go 55 with no complaints in slight head wind. All of this in OD. Left it ON the entire time. Hesitation from stops feels better, not perfect, but better. (Probably good considering this is a 1987) The slightly rough idle on cold start seems to go away faster. I drove it this way for about 25 miles. I'm keeping em crossed the problem doesn't come back! This thing has a "stock" transmission cooler that is external of the radiator. Looks to be about the same age as the RV. It's kind of small, perhaps around 6 X 10 inches. Is that enough or would it be wise to go with a Hayden or bigger one?

Well the screen is right near each opening on the cat. Perhaps 2 inches below the mounts. It's looks like a bunch of tiny squares. Its it supposed to look like a honeycomb (hexagons) or squares? Thanks

Yeah 22re 1987 Dolphin

Okay on another thread I'm talking about a possible catalytic converter that I'm possibly having trouble with. Now I made an ever weirder discovery. The opening hole on the catalytic converter is 2". It "looks" like the pipe is 2" coming out of the exhaust manifold after the O2 sensor. After the catalytic converter, it looks as though the pipe "flares down" to 1.75". If I cut out all the pipe after the converter (it's pretty bad rusty pipe anyway) and installed 2" pipe, could that possibly give me more HP? (I found a new "universal" catalytic converter 2" weld on for $50 with shipping probably would be worth it) (the muffler is 2" with "flare up & flare down" connectors"). Just wondering if it would be significant HP, or pretty redundant. Thanks

Yeah, what it looks like when looking through it is just a tiny "speck" of light is coming through. It's like if there was an opening on the other side the size of a pea or pencil eraser. This is holding it up to the sun light or using a flashlight on the other side. If I try to shine a flashlight into it to see the honey come area, there are "screens" on each side of the cat. I can't see in it at all. If I'm supposed to be able to see right through it, would it be basically like looking through a hole? Like should I be able to see the whole diameter of the hole on the other side? Because it's NOT even close to that - just a pencil eraser sized "peak hole". On starting it it does seem smoother, but of course the vibrations from the loud pipe it was kind of hard to tell. Heh, but it did sound like a 4 cylinder muscle car.

Okay I pulled the catalytic converter off and held it up to the sun light to look through it, and I could see light, but it was about the size of an eraser on a common school pencil or a pea. Am I supposed to be able to see through it all the way? I have no experience looking at these. Thanks!

That's what I was kind of wondering... Unfortunately don't have a vacuum gauge. LOL, taking off the cat that's gonna be LOUD. Heh, cops kind of strict around here. I suppose I could try to rig up a test pipe of some kind, like a pass through. Would taking out the 02 sensor help much for a test? I could always go buy a vacuum gauge, (Does anybody know if Harbor freight sell them?)... I'd hate to just throw the part at it. $100 with free ship isn't bad, but still it's $100. I'm almost sure this is the original 1987 cat. Already replaced the muffler that was like a metal swiss cheese.