Snow’s 2001 Sport Edition (Sly) Build

[solsnowbarger]

01/18/21 - With the onset of a few briefly pleasant afternoons, I took care of a few maintenance items. My main goal though, was installing my Christmas present!

My girl was kind enough to gift me the Ultimate High-Lift hoodstrut kit from [MENTION=198376]4Runner4Leon[/MENTION] and Spiker Engineering.

I cannot say enough good things about this product. The packaging and materials used in the struts themselves were top shelf, and all appear to have the highest production quality. More than that, the struts came with incredibly detailed instructions, including glossy full color photos showing every step of the installation process.

On top of that, there are guides and how-to videos linked from his website. Installation was a breeze, and I cannot be happier with this new addition.

01/30 - I had been blissfully driving around all day, and had just returned from the Horrible Freight with supplies for another project, when I went outside and Sly wouldn’t start.

I had left him sitting for 3 hours, and when I turned the key I’d hear a loud click, and every light would turn off. Opening the doors turned on the interior lights still, but they were dim and flickering.

I first looked at the connections to the battery, and they seemed mildly corroded but nothing terrible. I tried jumping it, to no avail, and left it till the morning.

In the daylight, I again looked at the connections, and decided to clean them up as much as I could as then reattach. Voila, Sly started right up. I drove around town briefly, and didn’t notice any problems.

Once at work, however, I noted a very low idle when stopped at a light or backing up, around 500 rpm with the engine stuttering. I noticed similar symptoms in reverse. My scan gauge would show 14.1 volts while driving, but only 13 or 12 something while idling. Fearing the alternator was bad, I did the barest amount of research, and picked up a group 24f EverStart Maxx from Walmart. It’s not the best battery, but has all the right stats, and has a 3 year no questions asked replacement policy.

After installing, I noticed nothing at first. Driving to work this morning, though, I did see some low voltage and low idles, again around 500 rpm.

Having driven since then, the issue hasn’t reappeared. My hope is that the ECU was still relearning, and the drastic cold might contributed. My system is 100% factory, so only time will tell.


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[solsnowbarger]

02/01 - Having bought my rtt literally months ago, you’d think I’d have tried it out. You’d think wrong. It’s been crappy and raining and freezing literally every weekend since I bought the thing.

I did, however, install my defender mounts. I love the quality, but I’m not a huge fan of how they look on their own.

I don’t intend to have my tent up there full time, and I regret the lose of my factory look. I’m almost considering getting some thin metal stock, powder coating it, and using it as almost bars across the defender mounts. TBD.

02/13 - Its been miserably cold and snowy here, as it has in most places these last few weeks, but there were a few breaks. I took the time to finally install my new amber fog lights. One of the housings had been destroyed since I bought the vehicle, and I replaced it with a depo one from Amazon. I was impressed by the quality, and we’ll see how time treats it. Unfortunately, I found that the wiring from the vehicle to the old fog had been damaged, so I had to cut it before the connection to the fog light. I went back to my parts car, which was an SR5 without fogs. However, the SR5 still had the appropriate wires, and I stole both of those, and connected it to my wiring harness on Sly using these little guys.

I know soldering is still the best option, but given the space, and the fact that I was lying in snow to do this, these did the job perfectly. I went out and got a horrible freight heat gun, and these went on easy. For those unfamiliar, these butt joints are pretty much heat shrink with water proof bits on the far sides, the colored parts, and a small of amount of low temp solder in the middle. You simply twist your two wires together, slide this over, and slowly heat the hole thing until the solder has melted and the heat shrink is secure.

Afterwards, I took a celebratory romp in the snow and tried my best to get stuck in the back country roads.

*Side note: I sure am glad I changed out my battery before all this crap. Hope you all weathered your storms as well as we did.


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[solsnowbarger]

06/05 - Hey all! Long time no write, but just wanted to check in and keel my maintenance log updated.

After winter finally let go, my work stepped up, and consequently I have done nothing to the 4runner except drive it.

Back in mid-March, I finally tired of the oily heads, and took the time to replace my valve cover gaskets and associated pieces. It was a time consuming process, it’d been a number of years since I did it on my last vehicle, and I took my sweet time.

Inside the heads looked pretty sweet to me, and was a relief.

While I was in that far I also replaced my injectors. There was no indication that anything was wrong, but I had a set left over from an older 4runner, and had them remanufactured at a local place near me. If you happen to live in the Wichita, KS area, Advanced Injector in Valley Center has been great to deal with. I took a set there 6 years ago, and the gentleman I dealt with was just as friendly this time.

At the same time, I changed my oil, but didn’t note the mileage.

In April, we finally had a chance to take the RTT out for a spin.

It was an absolute joy to sleep in, but I NEED to find a better way to take it off the truck come next Winter.

Since that local trip, we’ve done very little camping, but I hope to take care of that soon. In the meantime, the 4Runner’s REAL natural element is the drive-in. Wichita is home to one of the nicest drive ins I’ve ever seen, and is one of my favorite places to take my son and/or girlfriend [emoji57]

Coming back from the drive in at 130 in the morning, it began pouring rain, and reminded me how crappy stock headlights are. I’d been looking at them forever, so the next day I took advantage of BX_Built’s Memorial Day sale, and ordered a set of their basic chrome projectors. I can’t wait to see what they look like on the truck, and I can’t wait to, well, see!

(Also, full synthetic oil change today, 170,100 miles.)


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