The "don't make it a project" truck

Made more minor progress: Got the exhaust hooked up and some of the hoses installed. All of the wiring that doesn't connect to something on the upper intake is hooked up. The belt is on. The only reason I didn't put the upper intake on tonight is that I found a bad O-ring on the water pump bypass, so I couldn't install it, and it needs to go in before the intake. But digging through my box of parts for this project, I just now found a new one. With luck, in the morning I'll get the bypass and upper intake installed, then finish up the wiring harness.

The list:

• Wiring
• Vacuum lines
• Upper intake
• Coil pack
• Spark plug wires
• Radiator
• Fan wiring
• Hoses
• Fluids
• Bumper
• Grille

The engine is very nearly complete.

Got the upper intake and coil pack installed. Ran the spark plug wires. Really all that's left on the engine itself are one electrical connector and some vacuum lines. But I can't figure out where they go, so I need to do some research.

About that list:

• Wiring
• Vacuum lines
• Radiator
• Fan wiring
• Hoses
• Fluids
• Bumper
• Grille

Figured out the last electrical connector, though the remaining vacuum & coolant lines remain a mystery. I may need to go to the junkyard this weekend just to look at similar trucks and take pictures of the stuff I can't figure out.

Added the oil. It's not leaking yet, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

A friend came by today and helped me get the electric fans hooked up. Got the radiator in, and for a while I thought I hit another roadblock: The trans line fittings in the new radiator are smaller than the ones in my old radiator. Thought I might have to get some adapters, but I was able to swap the fittings from my old radiator to the new one.

The only thing preventing me from starting the engine is that I'm not 100% certain whether one hose on the intake is vacuum or coolant. Once I'm certain on that, I should be able to fire the truck.

Correction: There is also a monstrous coolant leak keeping me from starting the car. Looks to be at the thermostat housing, but I'm not positive. berkeley it for the day.

It lives!

The coolant hose situation (there are a ton of them) was baffling. The internet and the service manual were no help. After weeks of not being able to figure it out, I finally said berkeley it and drove the 2.5 hours to the Nashville junkyard because their site showed another truck just like this one. Drove up there today, took notes, drew pictures, picked up some other stuff while I was there and drove back. Rested for a bit until it cooled off, then hooked up all the lines, topped off the coolant and turned the key.

It cranked for several seconds, sputtered once, then came to life. Ticked for a bit, smoked or a bit, then that stopped. Let it run long enough to make sure the fans would come on--they did. No warning lights, no bad noises. There's some sort of coolant leak on the passenger side at the rear of the engine, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm happy that's the only problem.

It's been a long day, but it's been a good day.

Hooray! Great feeling for sure! 

This morning I reinstalled the header panel, grille and bumper. So after everything, from the outside, it looks as if nothing's changed since January.

But today I started the truck again and drove it around the yard a bit. Nothing big, just making sure it can move, steer, etc. No problems so far.

The next step is to get the truck smog tested so I can get it titled and tagged (annoying that I couldn't even get a title until I get it smogged, but whatever).

Over the past couple weeks I've made a few small drives to the gas station, around the block, etc. just to feel everything out. Today was my first real trip in the truck, about 70 miles round trip to get it smogged, tagged, titled, and then to work and back. I was completely paranoid that:

• I'd watch the oil pressure gauge drop to zero again.
• The check engine light would come on 3 seconds before the smog test (automatic fail).
• Or that without a tag, I'd get pulled over on the way to the emissions station.

None of that happened. Everything went well, and when I got home I changed the oil because my last major fear was that I screwed something up and I'd have a nice, frothy milkshake in the oil pan. But the oil looks good. I'm sure I'll be watching the gauges like a hawk and listening for funny engine noises for a while, but I think it's time to say that this is now less project and more truck, and it's time to do some truck stuff.

Fix that coolant leak in the back of the engine?

Jerry From LA said:

Fix that coolant leak in the back of the engine?

 

Yes--I had forgotten to tighten the clamp on one of the hoses that runs to the heated PCV valve.

I feel as if I've done a fair amount of work to this truck, but it hasn't really looked that way from the outside. Today, this happened:

For a while now I knew I was probably going to add a camper shell. This one is an older Leer I found on CL. I think it was made for a Supercab, not a regular cab (the shape of the rear of hte roof is different). This gives me some secure, waterproof storage for larger items and gives me a little more versatility. The color obviously doesn't match, and it's not in perfect shape, but for the price I can't complain.

Nice truck 

more pics of mr2 please 

This is the only pic I can find:

It's just a factory-stock 93 non-turbo hardtop. Nothing special.

In reply to Will :

Beauty! All MR2 are special to me. I have a 93 Turquoise I bought new and I have a 94 Emerald Green I picked up few months back (46k miles 1 owner)

I had planned on getting a camper shell, but I hadn't planned on getting one yesterday--which meant I had to take it off to get a few other things done.

First: finally got around to installing my sliding rear window.

This took longer than I expected. I'd removed the necessary interior panels quite a while ago, but the old window sealant was like tar. Took a lot of effort to break its seal without breaking the glass. And rear window leaks are extremely common on these trucks, so cleaning the leftover gunk also took quite a bit of time.

Anyway, this meant I could finally reassemble the interior.

Pay no attention to the dome light dangling from the ceiling. An attempt to run power to the Navigator sun visors is going poorly (in that they don't work, and now neither do the dome light or radio).

Got the wiring issue figured out thanks to some folks on one of the F-150 forums. Dome light works, radio works, sun visor lights work, Homelink system is getting power but needs to be programmed.

If everything goes according to plan I should have another update tomorrow.

When I bought the truck, it had a drop-in bedliner in pretty lousy condition. It was bad enough that I cut it up with a Sawzall and threw the pieces in the trash. But I didn't want a bare bed, and I saw mixed reviews of the DIY roll-in stuff, so today I got a spray-in liner done.

I opted for a Bullet Liner, which wasn't cheap but came with a lifetime warranty. Looks pretty good to me, too.

In reply to Will :

HOw expensive was the liner?

My 04 Tacoma has the OEM plastic liner. If it gets damaged, I am thinking of doing something like yours.

$525 before tax.

Also, I was able to program the Homelink last night, so that might make this the most high-tech vehicle I own.

I've had my eye on some bed storage boxes for a while now, but I didn't want something that took away from usable bed space. Amazon got me with their Black Friday deals.

These swing cases fit behind the wheel wells, so they only take up space that isn't really useful anyway. They lock and swing out for easy access.

Time for a minor update. The truck has been great so far except that the starter died a couple weekends back. $115 for a new one and it seems to be doing fine.

Used the truck yesterday to take one of my cats to the vet. We've had some really heavy rain lately, and part of the road was under about 8" of water. Don't think my MR2 could have made it. I may have yelled "TRUCK STUUUUFF" as I shot plumes of water 10 feet in the air. 

I like to know what my cars weigh. Even though it doesn't really matter with this one, I was curious. My scales have a 1500 pound limit per pad, and I thought the front end might actually exceed that.

It's heavier than I thought it would be, but not as nose-heavy as I thought it would be, especially for a 4x4. Of course, the camper shell is probably the reason. That thing is crazy heavy.

Sold the truck's original rear window today for $40.

Since the moment I bought it, this truck has had a weird oscillation in the rear when braking from about 45-30 mph. I figured it's probably the drums being out of round, but shocks seemed like a decent bet, too.

With no service records at all, I'm inclined to assume that basically everything on this truck that I haven't already replaced is worn out. So I figured "what the heck" and "while I'm at it" and placed a couple big orders for suspension parts.

First to arrive were the rear shocks, which is fine, since they're probably the easiest thing to install.

Before: 

Well, E36 M3. Blurry picture, but you get the idea. Those are Motorcraft shocks, and they're probably not the originals, but they compressed pretty easily by hand. Might be hard to tell from that picture, but there's a big twist in the tailpipe by the passenger side shock.

And it's pretty clear that shock was rubbing on the tailpipe for some time. The first picture shows a decent-sized dent, too. And this shock was considerably softer than the one on the driver side.

Unrelated: Oh hi, nest of some sort in the frame above the spare tire. Wonder if you're related to the large, dead mouse I found near this end of the truck today.

I chose Bilstein 5100 series. This truck probably doesn't deserve anything this fancy, but I've always had good luck with Bilsteins.

Back together. Hardest part was accessing the top bolt for each shock. Sure is nice being able to work on something without having to jack it up in the air.

This is actually more clearance than the old shock had. For now, I'm just going to keep an ear/eye out for rubbing and cut the pipe off with a Sawzall if need be until I can fix it right.

Anyway, if I get the rest of the parts in by this weekend, we'll see how much ambition I can work up for the front suspension.

Will said:

I've had my eye on some bed storage boxes for a while now, but I didn't want something that took away from usable bed space. Amazon got me with their Black Friday deals.

These swing cases fit behind the wheel wells, so they only take up space that isn't really useful anyway. They lock and swing out for easy access.

 

Based on this recommendation I picked these up for my new ford, man are they handy! Keep up the good work.

edit: also, you didn’t show it but they lift right off the hinge so if you are tying down a car you can swing it out, lift it off the pivot and carry it to where you are working. Sweet