Big Bessie's build thread - kcdehart - Page 2 - Toyota 4Runner Forum

phatcheeks · 11-02-2021, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcdehart

She sat in the shop for a month, but the headgasket is DONE. Along with timing components, a valve adjustment, and a new oil pump. The end cost?? A lot. Significantly more than I posted earlier

BUT it's starting up great now (no misfires, no water noise), I got a little over 18mpg on a highway trip yesterday (I was sitting at around 13-14 before), and the engine is *so* smooth. Not a single tick.

Here are some pics of the parts the shop gave me back. The timing bits weren't bad, but the oil pump *really* needed replacing. Check out that play at 200k miles (click the last image, it's a vid).

Well at least now you pretty much have a brand new engine. I wonder if that would of been a better option? just installing a newer motor or rebuilt one.
Glad you were able to get it fixed though.

kcdehart · 11-02-2021, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatcheeks

Well at least now you pretty much have a brand new engine. I wonder if that would of been a better option? just installing a newer motor or rebuilt one.
Glad you were able to get it fixed though.

I considered it. With a new engine, though, I'd have still wanted to replace the headgasket, timing, and oil pump - just so I wouldn't have to do this job again in who knows how many miles. The parts cost of those was the majority of the extra I ended up spending since all the labor was basically being done anyways with the headgasket replacement.

At this point, I'm just planning to keep this thing for a *very* long time.

aemravan · 11-02-2021, 04:14 PM

Unless you're throwing in a new motor I'm with you.. plenty of parts to replace anyhow before it goes back in so might as well work with what you have

kcdehart · 11-02-2021, 04:27 PM

For what it's worth, the shop told me the leakdown came back perfect on my heads. So unless something is screwy on the bottom end, this engine should be good to go for a long time.

kcdehart · 12-21-2021, 10:31 AM

Found out that the valve cover was leaking *bad* after getting it back from the shop. Took it back to em and they said it was warped/wanted me to pay for new OEM parts ($390). Bought one off of eBay for $50 and did the job myself. Found that the term 'warp' wasn't quite accurate...

Reached back out to them and ended up getting a nice refund to cover the parts cost and my time spent. Still frustrating, cuz it makes me question the rest of the work that they did...

aemravan · 12-21-2021, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcdehart

Found out that the valve cover was leaking *bad* after getting it back from the shop. Took it back to em and they said it was warped/wanted me to pay for new OEM parts ($390). Bought one off of eBay for $50 and did the job myself. Found that the term 'warp' wasn't quite accurate...

Reached back out to them and ended up getting a nice refund to cover the parts cost and my time spent. Still frustrating, cuz it makes me question the rest of the work that they did...

clearly they followed the torque sequence and definitely did not exceed the Ugga Dugga's specified in the manual.. but on a serious note, stuff like that pisses me off coming from a "shop". This is the sort of thing you expect to do yourself with minimal knowledge of how this should be done but anybody that charges money for repair services should know exactly how to avoid this. Or at least be stand-up about it and say "we messed up" instead of saying it was warped lol.

kcdehart · 12-21-2021, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aemravan

clearly they followed the torque sequence and definitely did not exceed the Ugga Dugga's specified in the manual.. but on a serious note, stuff like that pisses me off coming from a "shop". This is the sort of thing you expect to do yourself with minimal knowledge of how this should be done but anybody that charges money for repair services should know exactly how to avoid this. Or at least be stand-up about it and say "we messed up" instead of saying it was warped lol.

I actually think it might've happened when they were prying the valve cover off. He'd told me that they really had to pry at it, and you can see a little marring on the bolt hole in one of those pics. That honestly bothers me more, cuz then they'd have known they were putting on a bad cover, rather than just over torqueing it on final assembly.

kcdehart · 12-27-2021, 01:30 AM

Took the old girl out a few weekend ago and got up into the mountains exploring a bit. The trail I took was a *lot* easier than last time (a few years ago), thanks to current mods

As penance, I spent 8ish hours detailing today

Not my favorite job in the world, but I sure do love the results.

The paint had a lot of mud baked into it that wouldn't come out. A claybar took care of it! It's really hard to see in these pics, but you can see it in some of them:

And here's the end result:

kcdehart · 01-10-2022, 10:31 AM

So much for my polish job

Got a dumping of 11" of wet snow last Monday and got to go explore/get gas for the generator/pull an old lady out of the ditch. The Geolandars did GREAT and didn't have me worried once. I was super impressed and had fun just plowing through the deep stuff when I needed to get around things

Little glimpse of what a 2-lane (with double yellow), paved road looked like...TONS of trees down all over the place.

Eyassine · 02-01-2022, 06:33 PM

Did you have to change the upper control arms?

kcdehart · 02-07-2022, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eyassine

Did you have to change the upper control arms?

Yeah, after being lifted for 5k miles or so, I found that my OEM upper control arms were *dead*. They'd worn notches into the balljoint carriers from being extended to their limits so often. I went to SPC UCAs.

kcdehart · 03-18-2023, 01:10 PM

My most recent addition

TrueNorth Fab front bumper that my buddy welded together. I then filled most seams with body filler to try to prevent rusting, and painted it with black appliance paint. Unfortunately we made the mistake of not test-fitting before doing final welds, so the wings aren't the same height - which will bug me for eternity. But oh well. I'm happy with it overall, and it should do its job just fine.

I've also swapped out my crappy LED pods for Lasfit flood ditch lights, and with the new bumper replaced the OEM fog lights with Lasfit fogs. *Very* happy with these! The fogs have a great cutoff and put out a loooot of light.

I also have an Ascend Overland rear bumper sitting in the house, but as the 4Runner is my daily till I get my Rolla GR, it's on hold. I'd rather not cut into the rear frame of my only vehicle