Looks to be Weber swapped. I would love to have this as a test mule for my 2.3 ford engines.
Looks to be Weber swapped. I would love to have this as a test mule for my 2.3 ford engines.
akylekoz said:
Looks to be Weber swapped. I would love to have this as a test mule for my 2.3 ford engines.
doesn't look too rusty (especially for Michigan!), but if you're going to look at it, I'd definteily take a look at the rear wheel arches, front valance, and the rockers (which are obviously rusty). If it's not too bad, that's a fairly reasonable price I would think. And where's the rear bumper?
Another cold-ass day, a few other little things until I can put the engine back together.
So I do have a 5lb propane tank to take for longer trips, but sometimes it's just more convenient to have a 1lb if I just want to make some hot water or something small and don't want to hook up the larger tank. I don't like having 1lb cans just stuffed in wherever they fit, and came across this double-can 3D printed "rack" for them (on Amazon, but independent seller). It was pretty inexpensive so figured I'd give it a try, and it came in today. Overall, nice quality, great fit and a nice design
I mounted it up on the little swing-out door (where my Jetboil now lives) for easy access just high enough to get my footlocker out beneath it. So, it's pretty much out of the way, does the job, and uses space that nothing else really uses anyhow.
==
On the kitchen end of things, I ordered a Kelty kitchen bag that seemed to be the size, setup I wanted, and it came in today too. There are some cheaper knockoff one on Amazon, but this one seems to be built pretty well and has a lifetime warranty on it I think, and looks pretty nice.
It folds out so it can hang off a rack or whatever when cooking
I think it'll work great, but then I got distracted by my really annoying coffee box, which is totally inconvenient and I have to unload half of it to get to stuff I need.
Hey, let's see how the coffee stuff fits into the Kelty bag....
hmm...that actually works really well and makes all the coffee stuff easily accessible. So yeah, I'm gonna use it for that and order the other (slightly smaller) Kelty kitchen bag as well. I think the coffee stuff will actually fit in the smaller one and I'll use this one for cooking stuff. Or vice versa, TBD.
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
It probably won't happen, but I feel like if I showed up with some cash he would let it go cheap. FBMP add is over a year old, he clearly has other priorities and a SWMBO. I however have the same affliction.
So, my stuff from RockAuto came in so time to get the engine back together. Immediate problem.
They sent the wrong gasket kit for the IM. The part number is actually correct for this vehicle, so Fel-Pro is probabaly in the wrong here, not RA. Luckily, the old one was still in good shape so I just put a bit of RTV red on it and re-used it. Anyhow, got everything assembled, including new plugs, new wires, new PCV (while I was in there), all back together, then went to start it up, expecting it to just come to life and.....it didn't. Cranked, and cranked, I could hear it trying to fire. Eventually it fired up and......was misfiring badly. Like, barely staying running. WTF.....
Turned it off, checked the order of the plug wires (correct), checked that they were seated well (yes), triple-checked everything else was hooked back up...no dice. Then I pulled the plugs to check if I was getting ignition/combustion.
Hmm.....three of the six look like nothing is happening......no fuel. They were all sparking when tested. So now I think i got half a batch of bad new injectors, but that seems extremely unlikely. So maybe I broke some of the old wires in the harness while taking stuff apart? Either way, I have to take the IM and everything apart again to do that, grr. First I figure I'll check the plug for the one injector I can actually get to that wasn't firing....... now keep in mind, I cleaned up all the injector plugs/contacts and may have made an error regarding use of dielectric grease. I use that stuff on all the connectors on the 1985 rally car (e30) but those are tight German connectors. So I'm thinking maybe these not-German old mitusbishi connectors aren't as snug, and aren't wiping the grease when plugged. So I clean that one plug out well, and then use a little pick to bend in the contact surfaces for a tighter fit. I plug it back in and try the car. It stumbles to life again, still misfiring, but definitely LESS misfiring (like, 2 cylinders instead of 3). So that seemed like the solution. Took everything apart, pulled all the connectors, and cleaned/re-bent them like the other one. Plug it all back in, put it all back together, and after a few cranks it fires right up again. So that did the trick.
Now, that was last night. This morning I decided to test if it was starting quickly - since all this was due to perceived leaky injector or whatever. The answer is NO. I had to crank it for about 5-10 seconds before it came to life, which seems a lot like what the problem was previously. So I'm at a bit of a loss here now. Everything in the fuel system is new. New coil, plugs, wires. Did a smoke test and no vac leak. The only thing I haven't replaced is the little "ignitor" ....so maybe that's the culprit? THough again, engine runs perfectly once started. So may have to trouble shoot some more.
Oh....and while doing the rear plug on the driver's side, I leaned into the brake master reservoir (36 years old...) and it literally cracked across half of it...
Love that brittle plastic. Guess better to do it here than on the trail, so I have a new one on the way.
- also, my second Kelty kitchen bag came in. This one is the "not Deluxe" one which is only 10 bucks less. It's not as nice, and definitely not as large (which I'm surprised at, a bit), but should be fine for my limited cooking utensils, plates, etc.
It actually fits better in my cooking footlocker anyhow. The coffee one will live outside the box for quicker access :)
....and just a quick follow-up to that last post...., the new brake master/reservoir arrived. It's identical to the old one so that's good, because it meant I didn't change the master itself since no air got into the system, I just changed out the reservoir itself. So, I think the rig should be back in action now.
irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:So, my stuff from RockAuto came in so time to get the engine back together. Immediate problem.
If you flip that end for end and turn it over it looks like it should fit.
Hard to tell over the internet though.
Toyman! said:irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:So, my stuff from RockAuto came in so time to get the engine back together. Immediate problem.
If you flip that end for end and turn it over it looks like it should fit.
Hard to tell over the internet though.
lol- I took the pic this way to be dramatic, but I did try it other ways. It *almost* fit but the bolt holes were off by enough that I didn't want to try it (especialy on a metal gasket). I should have taken a pic overlaid with the old gasket. Trust me, it was driving me crazy because I was like "this looks like it should fit!!!"
Either way, the old one works fine, no leaks, so probably just as well to get my $16 back....
--
With it down in the teens-20s today, the Raider was REALLY hard to start. Like, took a good 30 seconds of cranking. Once started, ran fine, and started up instantly after I was in the store for 15 minutes. Clearly it's not about an issue in the fuel/ignition hardware at this point, and the most likely culprit is the system that tells the ECU the coolant temperature when cold so it can change the fuel map. Oddly, this is the same sensor that had the broken wire on it that I fixed a few posts up. Maybe it's been broken for a while but it didn't matter until it started actually getting cold out. But fixing the wire didn't do anything, so there are three things in the system that could be the issue: the ECU, the sensor, or the wiring itself. The wiring is a tough one so not starting there. I have a spare ECU, so plugged that in and it made no difference....so ruled out. I'm searching for the spare sensor I have (or will order one today if I can't find it), and will try that. If not, then will start tracing wires......
so, replaced the coolant temp sensor: no change
swapped out my spare ECU: no change
tested the wiring from the coolant sensor to the ECU: good continuity from what I can tell.
tried with various things unplugged to try to limp mode it (MAF, IACV, temp sensor): nope
removed and cleaned IACV: no change
removed and cleaned MAF: no change
replaced MAF with a new one: no change
checked more plugs, examined more wires: nothing noticeable of concern
at this point the only actual components left that I could possibly replace are the ignitor and the crank position sensor - and I can't see how either of those would work or not work depending on engine temperature or ambient temperature (independent of some other issue).
So it's probably down to a bad wire or something at this point. The next test may be to run a separate pair of wires directly from the sensor to the ECU pinouts and see if that helps. Otherwise, I'm pretty juch out of ideas and may just have to deal with long cranking times when it's cold - since it always starts eventually, and then runs fine until being shutdown overnight again. That's annoying AF but not the end of the world, as I'm pretty much over throwing more money at the problem.
On the upside, have a trip planned for a few days with some friends later in the month so it'll be nice to get back out into the woods and do some camping.
today figured maybe I'd splice in a few extra grounds to various things with the idea that maybe a bad ground is causing stuff. Plan was to start with the coolant temp sensor, but got distracted as I noticed (again) that my thermostat housing was wet around the base. I've noticed this before but wrote it off to water from rain/snow or whatever, and snugged the (loose) bolts down thinking that would take care of it, but still leaking. So I pulled it off and immediately noticed the housing was cracked partly by one of the bolts. I thought about just JB welding it but housings are dirt-cheap (like $12) so just ordered a new one (and gasket/thermostat). A little part of me thinks "well, that leak is right next to the coolant temp sensor so maybe that was affecting something" but that seems highly wishful thinking lol.....
So so far I've not managed to fix the original issue, but had to replace the brake MC and the thermo housing (and alot of other things that didn't need replacing). So yeah, not exactly what I had hoped for lol.
well, not much real news on the hard start. Still doing it and I'm mostly out of ideas for the moment and have other things to do. It always starts eventually so I'm not losing sleep over it. This weekend heading out camping into western MD (which will be chilly) so doing some quick projects to address some minor things. It's been cold and snowy recently so biting into my project time...
Unsure how much snow we'll get this week, but the camping area could be snowy (old or new) and need to bring a snow shovel. This is a small rig and not a ton of room left inside as you well know. so stole some shovel mounts off my Sequoia and put them up top
So that should be fine. I also decided i'll probably sleep IN the rig this time rather than snowy/muddy ground so flipped the front seat around in advance for my platform (since no riders are expected)
Last time I just rested the front end of the platform on the back ledge and put some sweatshrits under it as base, but want to improve that a bit. So on the back end I added a couple pegs to stop it from sliding forward off the lip of the rear section
And built a basic front frame to hold it at the right level. Janky, but it works
So, that should be better...
Then loaded up most of my gear in case the weather sucks later this week (it will...). This little thing is getting a bit snug for sure...
Yesterday was a federal holiday and reasonably not-frigid, and sunny. In the winter with the low sun I get terrible glare off the hood (made worse by a 30+ year old windshield with lots of rock chips) so decided to sand it down and paint the center section with some satin bedliner to reduce reflections, which was pretty easy.
Came out pretty good and hides most of the dents and big scrapes on this beat-up old hood. I only had enough in the can to do the center section but may do the outsides as well at some point since the paint there is pretty awful.
This weekend I headed out with my old college roomie and a couple of his friends to Green Ridge State Forest in MD/PA for some cold-weather camping. He's from Montana, an experienced camper, but is just starting to build his Tacoma to do anything really "offroady" so Green Ridge is good since it's pretty easy trails/roads that any stock truck/SUV can do without issue. Jim and Amanda decided to come along, and then Andy (who leads a lot of our trips) jumped in for Saturday/Sunday since he lives an hour away and loves to be a tour guide.
The weekend forecast was single-digit night temps, so decided I'd sleep inside the truck just to keep things easy. And of course had to bring more stuff (heater, more heavy clothes, etc) so it go pretty snug inside the Raider on the way out (granted, I could pack the sleeping bag in the compression bag, but why bother)
Met up with the group at the site - a large open site right next to 15-mile creek, which was frozen over pretty good. Friday night was super-windy too, so that was quite chilly with the temps already in the 20s...while eeryone set up.
Got to use the new grille (which is awesome), as everyone made some dinner and lots of hot drinks
Yeah, I'm so gourmet...
Got a good fire going and everyone hunkered down with whisky etc....
I'll note that Jeff brought his "hot tent" which would turn out to be very useful for a quick warm-up (and very good for him since I got food poisoning on Friday night and had a rough time - but not as rough as if he were in the single-digit temps!)
Anyhow, eventually everyone hit the sack. I got my warmed nalgene bottle of water (mostly for coffee in the morning), and put the buddy heater on for about 10 minutes to warm things up before getting into the sleeping bag (Marmot Never Summer, in case you care).
So as noted, temps outside got down to about 7 degrees that night. This is the coldest I've ever camped, and a few things made for a crappy night:
1. I slept with my head toward the rear of the truck as I've done before, but I didn't level it as well as I thought, and my head was slightly downhill I think. Plus a slight lean toward the side I like to sleep toward, made me feel like I was going to fall out of bed. Need to do better next time.
2. The Never Summer bag is warm AF, no issue there, other than I wish the zippers went further down to make it easier to get into. In fact, I ended up ditching my thermals by later in the night and was just in shorts and a t-shirt (and socks and a hat), but I was getting a 7-degree breeze on my neck so eventually dug out my hoodie from my bag while freezing, so that sucked. The bag was at the front driver's seat and hard to access inside when sleeping the other way. There's not a ton of space to sit up/turn around.
3. Something else I'm forgetting. Whatever, moving on....
In the morning my thermometer had the car inside temp at 30 degrees (which I find hard to believe, since just sticking my head out of the bag felt like the coldest I'd ever been, even as someone who has skied all over the world....) but eventually rolled out of there, heated up any clothes that weren't in the footwell of my sleeping bag, and got up to make some coffee and eggs (which were cold practically as soon as I put them on the plate lol)
Andy showed up an hour later and eventually we all rolled out so Andy could give the "tour" of Green Ridge to some of the new guys (I've been on the "tour"). Nothing too tough, the roads were largely dry with a few sections of residual snow, but it's nice to cruise around and see some scenery. A few frozen streams, nothing particularly deep. We did laugh as I went right over one without breaking the ice and then Andy's big GMC smashed right through haha..
At one point near the top of the part was a pretty good incline up to the overlook, covered in ice. Most of the bigger rigs had to get a good running start at it to get up - and the Lexus LX570 (driven by an Aussie overlander) actually didn't make it the first time and slid all the way back down with brakes locked (we expected that might happen, so it was a straight shot back to the gravel). The Raider has zero issue going up....almost did it in 2WD actually but needed to go 4WD to make it.
It never looks steep or slippery in pics, but trust me
Then a bit more scenic stuff, the spots everyone stops at....
Plus the old railway tunnel, which is pretty spooky
Headed back to camp on normal semi-maintained roads, I ran over a small tree branch that had fallen...nothing very big, and everyone else had already driven over it. The kind of thing you see 100 times on the trail every time out and never think about......And then...my clutch immediately went to the floor. WTF. Look under the truck and i see brake fluid all dumped on the ground/skidplate. And there's this fking piece of the dead branch sticking out from the (literally) 3" gap between the skidplate and the frame rail.
So now I'm looking up and I think it's somehow snagged/broken the clutch hardline, which would be a major issue, but as it turns out it somehow hooked the clutch soft line to the slave cylinder and pulled it just right so that it yanked the banjo bolt loose half a turn,which apparently was enough to spray out the fluid.
Seriously, I could run over that branch 1000 times and never have it do that again, just an unlucky thing. Luckily, I had brake fluid with me so tightened the bolt up and bled it lying in the dirt and getting brake fluid sprayed on me, and all was fine.
Swung by a brewery for a beer and some food and then back to camp again to hang out.
And I burned that damn stick, which somehow rode all the way back sitting on my rear swing-out where it was in the prior pic lol...
Anyhow, bedtime came earlier that night and this time I leveled the rig better, and slept facing the other direction, and put my hoodie on. And overall slept pretty well and wasn't cold except whenever I stuck my head or arm out of the bag, so that was good. Convincing myself to actually get OUT of the bag in the morning took some motivaton thought, lol...
Anyhow, Andy was already up with his electric coffee maker. He has a 2000W Jackery and was running a heated blanket all night in his rig with it, and uses it for coffee rather than propane.
Except the blanket on for 8 hours got him too low to finish his brew so he had to pour-over anyhow ahha
So yeah, we had some coffee, cooked some breakfast, and all headed home (Andy and I went to check out a couple other out-of-the-way campsites for future reference). All in all a good time, but one of the coldest times I can remember as well. Some more lessons learned on the camping side of things, but pretty pleased with the truck setup overall. Just a few minor tweaks to make this time around.
On the way home at a gas station a guy came up and was like "hey, I follow your build on Overland Bound forum" and he has a very overland-y Titan Diesel that apparently goes all over the place, so that was pretty fun. Small world.
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