MontanaChinook

Just google 3.0 and head gasket problems. It's been explained completely to death. All Toyotas that I know of (which is all the R series, and the first couple V6 models at least) have iron blocks, aluminum heads. Which is pretty much standard to Japanese vehicles so far as I can tell. There are pros and cons to owning the 3.0. Well maintained and with the factory head gasket fix, they can be good engines. It's just that for not all that much more power, you get worse gas mileage and much higher repair fees. Things like a valve adjustment would cost $100 for an R series motor. It easily gets over $400 for the 3.0. There has also been a ton of discussion on this site about the pros and cons of the 3.0, and the "recall".

Yeah that's a big list. But totally normal for a camper/vehicle this old. Even if you pay to have all this fixed, if you're going to full time out of your camper, you'll start learning how all this stuff works. Especially if you run into other full timers. Things will go wrong on the road. That much is guaranteed. I lived in mine March-October last year, but my systems are all a lot less complicated than yours. I gutted and rebuilt mine, so I knew everything pretty well, and had replaced or tested every system in it before I left on my trip. It's going back on the road in late March, but I probably won't live in it quite like I did last year. Hoping for a seasonal job with housing this summer. We'll see. Good luck with everything and let us know if you have questions! Once it's up to the condition you're comfortable with, as far as living out of it, post questions here if something needs to be fixed. If you're willing to have a try at it, we can probably walk you through most repairs, and save you a TON of money.

It is. I re-tightened it last summer, about a year after putting a new belt on.

Alrighty. Thanks. It'll be a bit since the head is at the machine shop right now, but it'll all be put back together mid-March, so not too long from now.

Yeah there's some serious splicing (and not too pretty looking) on those wires going into the isolator. That's part of the reason for my question. Thanks.

So simply put one lead on the positive post of the battery, and the other on the negative? I guess my question is as much about the actual process than just which component to test. I own a multimeter but have yet to use it. I can find instructions on how to use it all over the internet. Just wanted to know where to actually place the leads to test. Sounds like the battery terminals are where I test. I'm more concerned about voltage drop in the wires between the alternator and battery than I am the actual alternator output, but I guess first I'll see if the battery is being held at the right voltage. If it is, then it doesn't matter. If it's not, then it's time to find out if it's the alternator that's the problem, or the wiring, correct? Thanks.

If I wanted, for the sake of curiosity, to check what my alternator is actually putting into my battery, how would I perform that test? I'm only just starting to understand enough about electrical systems to feel that I want to know these things... I have a brand new coach battery, and I'm just curious to know how efficiently my truck is going to charge it, so it doesn't die an early death. So this is not so much an alternator output test, but a test to see how much of that charge is actually getting to my battery, through whatever wiring nightmare might connect them.

Pretty sure this is the place I stayed. Just on the west side of the park, very close to the entrance. It was cheap, host was nice. It was pretty much empty when I was there. As far as camping along the northern and southern routes from east to west and west to east...no, I don't have experience. I'm going to be crossing from MN to UT then MT in about a month, and I'm just planning to get west as fast as possible. Plenty of camping all over Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, though.

This is where I'd go, if it were me. Sorry to hear about the troubles.

Only all the breweries in Bend, if you're into that kind of thing North Cascades are awesome but probably a bit out of your way.

I am curious to know, of the people who cold-weather camp, and typically use their cab-over sleeping area, if it's warmer. My cab-over is useless for sleeping an adult, so I have no idea. In my camper, the cabover is mostly hanging out over the cab, rather than on top of the roof of the cab. So it's just cold air under there. That's my thinking. But if it's insulated and you aren't getting all your heat stolen from underneath you, then yeah, the pocket of warmer air up there would make it a better place to sleep.

Oooooh...Crazy. Ok. Well, there goes that idea. I guess maybe the problem is on his end, then. I didn't mean to imply you can't fix it, Linda. Well...I guess I did, but only because of some past conversations where I got the impression that you admins only have a little more control over things than the rest of us, and Greg is only one with any real programming power or ability to fix stuff.

Let us know how you end up doing. Fred is totally right and I wish I hadn't forgotten that. But what I was absolutely sure to do as it got towards fall last year was: Have curtains on every window, and close them at night. Hang a curtain (anything will work, but obviously some things insulate better than others) between the cab and coach. And...that's really it. Isolating the sleeping area as much as possible will keep all that heat in and cold out. You would not believe how much colder the cab will be than the coach when you throw that blanket back in the morning. Just find some way to drape it over there. I don't know the other, bigger rvs, but I'm guessing that if the cabover isn't super insulated, it's probably not the best place to sleep in cold weather. Use whatever other bed set up the thing has.

I think this one goes higher up the pay scale

First post on this page (4)? "thank you all for you're support and advice..corbin as always you are real in detail with your responses i appreciate that ..i have been doing some slow progress on the sunrader and its coming along it did put down a new floor and secured it in just some screws more along the side would secure real well and some screws just didnt want to grip on to anything also used liquid nails then switched to 3 x loctite i saw it does better results and i want to confirm that indeed it does. i also made new framing around the windows and stained the wood with deck sealant for water protection if any were to seep through i will take more photos of the progress and will try to post them up ...thanks again for the encouraging words everyone<3. Edited by 82rader, 13 February 2015 - 05:11 PM."

And it depends on whether you're a warm sleeper or not. I know people here have way more hardcore stories, but I was living out of my camper March-October last year. I spent plenty of nights out in the teens. My camper is smaller, but just being "indoors" when it's in the teens, you're gaining...what? At least 10 degrees, I'd say. So that bumps you into the 20s. I've spent many nights camping and backpacking in a tent when it was in the 30s, and a few times 20s. Your camper, with you in it and a pilot light or two, will most likely not drop out of the 30s. A good sleeping bag will be plenty. If there are curtains it will help. In my camper, I just slept in the bed with sheets and a large down comforter. That's it. Plenty warm. What I do is only run the heat when I'm up. So a cycle or two through the heater a little before bed, then shut it off. Flip the heat back on first thing when I get out of bed in the morning. Or flip it on and jump back in bed for a little while it warms up But it depends on how much you want to rough it. If your battery isn't in good shape, one night might be all the life it has to run the heater fan. If it's in good shape, you'll be fine, since it'll recharge every day while you drive. But the heater won't run if the battery is too low.

Yeah somebody who knows the inner workings of the site needs to check out your profile. I notice in your first post of this page, it shows that you edited your post. One thing I've noticed about this forum is that you can edit your post anytime you want, and it won't show that you edited it. If you look around, you'll see that no one else has posts that say "Edited by whatevermembername, 13 February 2015 - 05:11 PM." Something is messed up with your account, and I'm sure it's why you can't upload photos.

Yeah, fun wiring! I did a gauge swap, once, that seemed very complicated at the time. It was nothing compare to what you've got going on.

Yes, thanks Fred. I know I confused things by talking about all the repairs I'm doing. I only mentioned the oil pump and head to say "I'm doing a bunch of stuff to my engine. So while I'm there I was thinking of doing this, too". My oil pan leaks a little, so I figured I'd take care of it. But if it means hoisting the engine and taking apart steering and suspension parts, I'll probably just do the head and oil pump and leave the oil pan alone.

Ok, thanks. I know my suspension is different than the later models, since I have coil-over springs on front, so I just wondered if maybe something was different enough that I could get away with removing less...I found the later model method and watched a video. Just couldn't find anything for the pre-79 with different front parts. With the temps right now, if it still involved a hoist and removing some steering/suspension stuff, I'll probably just skip it. It never leaked bad enough to drip. It's just that my oil pump started leaking, so I'm working on it. If I'm going to fix that leak, I figured why not take care of them all and clean it all back up in there. But it's not a big deal. Head is coming off because it might need a rebuild, or at least some attention. I started burning a bit of oil over the summer. Not enough to be a problem but enough to send big plumes of smoke out the tailpipe here and there. Just like with the leaking oil pump leaving oil drips on the road and peoples driveways...I don't like either. I'm ok with old beater vehicles, but not ones that are really noisy or leaving oil on the ground or putting plumes of smoke out. I'm just starting to get serious about hitting the road again next month, so I'm starting to take care of the issues that started to come up last summer. Thanks for the help.

That's my experience. But yeah, I'm talking about 5 or 6 trucks and maybe 8 starters. Not working in a rebuild shop and seeing tons of them come through and what the process is.

I'm having a very hard time finding any info on this. With 79+, I've seen what the process is. On a pre-79, anyone have experience replacing the gasket? I'm going to have the head off anyway, and I was hoping I could get away with just loosening or removing the engine mount bolts and jacking it up a bit. But I'm not sure if I'll get enough clearance to clear whatever needs clearing to get the pan out. I have the 20R FSM for the engine, but since it's specifically engine and no other parts, it doesn't say anything about what needs to happen to actually get the oil pan out. It just assumes the engine is out of the truck, or something.

In that shop, or all shops? Either way, you know better than me. I just know any reman'd starter I bought for a 20 year old vehicle, replacing the original, would be replaced again at some point during the time I owned the truck. Usually 5 years or so.

It's definitely possible for the original belt to go that far. You know the suggested service intervals are going to call for replacing it well before there's any chance of it breaking.

My Chinook appears to have an original starter and alternator. At night when the lights are on, the charge light is just very dimly lit. But so dim I wonder if it's actually light leaking in from other instrument cluster illumination, and not the actual charge light lighting up. Either way...seems to be doing good! Once you start replacing them, though, it's a regular thing. We've gotten into this in other threads, but the remans are just not as good, mostly because they don't "rebuild" anything. The just test a couple parts, replace what doesn't pass the test, clean it up and ship it out. Luckily they're both easy to replace (on R-series engines). But that doesn't mean they always go out at convenient times...