Odyssey 4x4

I had this exact issue, I figured out it was a failed charcoal vapor canister under the hood. There's a vent line that goes from the fuel tank to the vapor canister. The vapor canister has an internal valve controller by engine vacuum. It decides when to vent fuel vapor from the tank to atmosphere or to engine intake depending on temp and throttle conditions. There is a vacuum line going to the vapor canister coming from the "bimetal vacuum switching valve" that's location on the rear side of your intake manifold between the manifold and the firewall. It is a line with 2 blue (very fragile) plastic nipples coming off. This is the vacuum switch that controls the valve inside of the vapor canister. If I remember correctly, the vapor canister has a hose coming from the fuel tank, a hose that vents to "atmosphere", mine runs into the frame rail, a hose that runs to the engine intake, and the vacuum lines that control the valve. The valve in my vapor canister has rusted and seized shut, not allowing the tank vapor pressure to release and giving the conditions you described, over pressurizing the tank. You can no longer get a 3vze specific replacement canister. You can either find one at a junk yard in unknown condition, or find another works canister from a different vehicle. I went the second route and it seems to be working.

we are at the time of year with deathly heat and humidity for the first part of the day, followed by torrential downpour, and then more humidity. I don't even have time to let caulk properly cure!

no kidding, this is somewhat of our time off from camping. It’s just too hot. Even if we go somewhere with full hookups it still leaves a scorching hot day for things like hiking or paddle boarding and the dogs still struggle, it can quickly become dangerous outdoors this time of year in Florida. I was doing some work on the rv yesterday on the interior and was definitely thankful for the ac unit then!

unfortunately haven’t gotten to it yet. I agree that the 120v units are likely built much better, although my unit lost a start capacitor in its first year, it happens. My current unit is a dometic penguin ii 13.5btu. It freezes the heck out of the rv, but it also pulls upwards of 160 amps dc, the 12v unit pulls 55 amps on max and doesn’t require the inverter to be on. My dometic will cool from 95 to 75 within an easy hour, I don’t expect the 12v unit to be able to do this. To be fair, the 12v is a 10k btu compared to the 13.5, it’s a risk i’m willing to take. I’d rather be able to run the unit for an extended longer period of time off of my battery bank rather than instantaneous freezing like the dometic. The dometic is also extremely loud, i’ve benched tested the 12v and it’s definitely much quieter. Another complaint with the dometic is that it blows 90% of its air right into the back window of the rv, it’s really a poor design if you’re putting the unit anywhere other than the front of the rig. I will say that I am going to hold onto my 120v ac unit just in case I am totally 100% unsatisfied with the 12v unit. I will hopefully be getting to it within the next few weeks but life likes to throw other things in the way!

That is awesome, congrats. Also, impressive job on the timing belt, I think I did mine in two days and took my time just to be safe. We of course did the water pump and everything else with it that the job allows. The valve adjustment on the other hand may have been 3 or 4 haha. My rig is also titled as a 90 but on the 89 chassis. In what area will you be camp hosting? That has always looked like a decent gig. Also, sweet black toyota!

I thought it could be neat to start a new thread of everyone's rigs with some pics? If that has already been done or if this is in the wrong spot, feel free to let me know, anyways... What a journey this build was, I can't even guess the thousands of hours of work put into it by my dad and I. It often felt like it would never be done, like the idea of camping in it one day would was just a fantasy. I am happy to say we have been using it for 3-4 years now and thousands of miles of travel. It was well worth all of the work, although there will always be work to be done on rigs like these. The rig has performed fantastically as has all of the components of the build. And finally, here is a sneak preview of my dad's fully custom build he is just about finished with. It's such a neat unique build and rig, I cannot wait to share it!

The unit includes 6 gauge wires with a 14 foot run which looks to be adequate for my layout. It would have been nice to be able to use my preexisting 120v wiring.

well i have not yet installed the 12v ac unit, but I should be able to get it in by the end of this weekend. I have however accidentally ordered an additional 400 watts of solar after having a drink or two, I tend to buy myself gifts after a good IPA (or two). So this will put me at 900 watts of solar once installed. I will still be testing this system with the current 12v unit and 400ah of battery/ 500 watts of solar within a week or two. By my math, once I have 900 watts of solar I should be capable of putting out enough current to run the ac and STILL be charging the batteries when in good sunny conditions, should not be too difficult in Florida. To be continued…

Ive been curious of that myself. If it something like a 14/2 romex I do not think it would be adequate. Especially considering voltage drop depending on the length of your run. The included power wire included with my 10k btu 12v unit is 6 gauge, much larger than the romex.

This 12v unit has the power supply come out on the “roof side” of the unit. When I built the roof I ran my 120v cables in the roof framing to the unit location inside of the coach. For the 12v unit, the power supply comes out in the form of the 2 12v wires, I believe they’re 6 gauge, maybe 8. I have a spot where my solar wires go through a “gland” in the roof down straight into the power closet and connect to a big bus bar (with appropriate fuses of course). I’ll do the same with the AC wires and a second gland. I believe the units wires are 14’, I hope that’s enough, it will be close. If not, maybe i’ll open it up and swap out for a bigger gauge wire to make the run and reduce resistance. I have some other electrical work to do in the closet that i’ve been putting off so this is going to be a decent project. I’ll be wiring in a permanent 12v step up power supply for my starlink dish with an on/off switch as well as taking a look at my solar setup again. I’m currently maxed out on my charge controller at 500 watts and will need to redo the system to get to my goal of 900 mounted roof watts.

funny idea but it would look bonkers on the roof backwards!

Yup, had I known that basically all of the air moves out of the back of the unit I would not have used it in my build. I suppose it should have been obvious because of the direction that the fan motor spins and it then had to force air basically backwards and all the way through the plastic plenum to get out of the front of the unit. I even tried closing all vents except the front to get as much forward air flow as possible, unfortunately this restricts too much air flow and causes the coil to freeze over. I considered installing a 12V fan in the rear of the RV to blow more cool air forward, I think that would help a bit. I will definitely do a decibel meter test before removing the dometic, as well as a cooling test and of course power draw comparison. I set the 12V unit on the bench yesterday and did a quick bench test and was surprised with the airflow. It felt like plenty of cool air movement. My ultimate goal is to end up with 900 watts of solar on the roof (currently at 500) and be able to run the AC unit basically all day to keep the edge off in the camper, and of course a cool nights sleep.

Well in an attempt to have something to talk about beside the scammers and spammers, I figured it was a good time to start this thread. When i built the Odyssey I installed a brand new Dometic Penguin II 13,500 AC unit. I also installed a Micro Air easy start into the unit to make the start up power surge easier on my battery bank / generator. I have 400 amps of lifepo4 batteries. If my battery bank is at 100% I can run the AC off of battery power for about 3 hours, or of course I can run my generator and run the AC off of that. I am in Florida and the unit is powerful enough to drop the interior temp from 100 F to 75 F within about an hour. The problem is that this AC unit is LOUD on the interior, like have to raise your voice to have an conversation loud. It is also a massive power hog, it pulls about 155 amps DC once you account for inverter inefficient loss. Also, the AC unit is in the rear of the rv and blows 90% of the air backwards to the rear window. This means if you are sleeping in the front bunk, you get little to no cold air. SO, long story short we are going to do an experiment. I have obtained an OutEquip 12V 10,000 BTU AC unit. According to their specs, it pulls 21-58 amps DC, this is in comparison to my Penguin pulling around 155 amps!!! What a massive difference. The question is whether or not the 12v unit can cool anywhere near the cooling power of the Dometic unit, especially in the Florida heat and humidity. The next part of this experiment is removing the 120V unit off of the roof, and temporarily wiring in the 12V unit to decide if I am satisfied enough with the unit to cut holes through my roof for the power wires. We will then see how it does on a 24 hour run and what my battery bank can do it addition to my 500 watts of solar. To be continued...

cant wait to see this forum clean and usable again

It is a shame seeing what’s happening to the site.