...and an electric dog polisher.

I'm really enjoying your reports! Great project!

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Wanted to give you guys an update. Mostly because I know you'll be stuffed with turkey tommorow and poking around the board for a laugh.

You'll get it....what a week I've had.

I'll spare you some of the details, and get right to the fun stuff.

If you've been following this thread, you know I grenaded the original motor for the Toyota and put a spare motor in. One of the reasons I didn't use that second motor initially was that it had a fair amount of blowby. I didn't realize how much until this week, which was a 1300 mile trek heavily loaded.

Sunday before I left I though "I should solve my oil leak problem before I go" so I slapped some RTV around the missing bit of oil pan gasket. On my last long trek, it seemed a 1" chunk of the oil pan gasket was pushed out - I assumed I had cocked the rubber gasket on installation and it simply fell out. The engine was leaking oil right at that point, but it wasn't too bad so I figured I'd RTV patch it and be on my merry way.

Oh boy. 100 miles in at 4am I noticed the oil pressure was dropping. Hmmm...that's odd. Down to 30 at highway speed, hmmm down to 25....HEY down to 15! It was down to 10 by the time I got it pulled of the road. Turns out that the engine had blown the ENTIRE oil pan gasket out, all the way around, and was leaking all around the block! It also blew out the ENTIRE valve cover gasket and oil was leaking there too. I added 4 qts, started it and most of that puked right out of the bottom of the block in short order. It oiled the back bumper of the truck!

What the F? I haven't done a compression test yet but I'm guessing either ALL of the cylinders are low (worn rings) or I'll find one that has collapsed it's rings putting a lot of exhaust into the crankcase. Enough to pressurize it past where the PCV and breather can handle it, and pushing the oil out of the pan gasket. That's a lot of blowby! By patching that missing bit of gasket the day before, I had made the problem worse.

But what to do? I could turn around and limp home, but then I don't get my cargo delivered and I don't get paid, and without a backup vehicle I'd have to rent something, which I'd have to pay for, which I don't have till I get this load through. Dang. I made a command decision......press on.

I enjoy a no-tools, no-parts fix as much as the next guy. I ran with the oil fill cap off and the breather off. There was also a leftover fitting in the side of the oil pan where the turbo used to return it's oil. I ran with that open too. Even with this much venting, the engine still lost 1qt every 100 miles and puffs of exhaust and oil film were burping out of the oil cap hole. I know this because the turbo assembly left a big 12" hole in the hood right over the valve cover, so I could WATCH it come out of the valve cover while driving. Looked like a continuous nitrous purge. But the oil pressure was fine, the truck was running okay.

Drove it from 4am till around 10 pm like that, then stopped and slept for a while. Mileage was bad, 13s and 14s but I chalk that up to the very high winds and lots of hills in Kentucky and Tennessee. The bigger problem was the rain - the oil spray would film the window, the rain and wipers would opaque it. But I got good at wiping it down while driving.

Next morning started driving again and it was okay. Pulling into my first stop and it just dies. Won't hold an idle. I went through it and I'm guessing either the carb's idle circuit went out, or more likely it sprung a vacuume leak at the manifold. It would start right up and run if you kept your foot in it above 1500 rpm or so. My intake gasket is new, and maybe I overtorqued or undertorqued the nuts when I installed it. I could get the engine to respond a little by shooting starting fluid at the gasket. With the throttle blocked open at around 1500 it would surge up and then down by itself and stumble while doing it. Sounds like a vacumme leak to me.

But what to do? By this time, I'm 600 miles from home and a tow is out of the question. Time for another no-tools, no-parts fix. I set the idle screw at 2000 and away we go. 17 hours later I'm home and eating a bagel.

Stop and go traffic was a bear though. Luckily I only hit that in Indy, Dayton, Columbus, and a few other construction zones in between. People look at you funny when you are stalling it out in traffic, shooting vapor out the hole in the hood the entire time. But get this - on the way back....high 19s for mileage. Huh? Again, I chalk it up to the wind which was now at my back the whole time.

After the turkey day, I'll do a compression check and see what's up, and I'll take the manifold off and see if it's the gasket. We'll know more then, but I'm assuming the rings are shot. I have a plan to permanently plumb the oil pan to the PCV port on the carb, and I think that might keep the problem in check. I have no intention of pulling that engine again and doing the pan gasket now that the weather is cold. It'll have to just "do" till spring.

So there you have it, so far 4 trips on the Slantota, and 2 of them have been nailbiters and hail mary's. Fun stuff.

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1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

you da man Kip!!

i admire your never say die spirit and have really enjoyed reading your ongoing saga

please keep us posted

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Aspenized

some coke cola on windshield will cut oil film ...but will also eat paint if left on it

I have only gotten this far in this thread, and am eager to finish it, but on this point above, when traveling below 55 mph the air separates and flows around the vehicle. Above 55 and the air is pushed ahead of it.

Sam

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The oil blow by topic reminded me of a 1980 Diesel Rabbit that I had and would have just as soon not remembered. Motor had a hose running from the top of the valve cover to the clean side of the air intake filter housing. When it got around a 100K miles on it, and when running highway speeds the blow by through that hose got so bad the car would run up to 80MPH with out having ones foot on the throttle. Only way to stop was to gently turn the key off, being careful to not lock the steering wheel. That would drop the idle circuit out of the injection pump and kill the engine. I rigged up a gallon size plastic container under the hood. Put a baffle in it, ran the hose from the valve cover to the side of the plastic jug, ran a second hose from the other side of the baffle and top of the container back to the air cleaner, connected a drain hose from the bottom of the container to a T I set into the dip stick tube.. Worked fine.

DadTruck,
That's essentially what I plan to do - vent the oil pan to the intake, and if forced to, vent the valve cover to the atmosphere.

I'm eager to do the compression test. If I have 1 bad cylinder, then I would feel okay about these stopgap solutions. But if all 6 are bad, then I get into a situation where I'm losing money through bad fuel mileage and oil usage, so the longer I wait to replace the engine the more money I lose.

I do know one thing though - I am LOATHE to pull the engine again in the wintertime. I think I've had it in and out of the truck 16 times so far over the project. Yes, I can remove it in 2 hours and install it in 3 hours, but that's when it's above freezing.

The last factor is the spare engine I have - it's an unknown quantity. It did run okay the last time it was in a car - 3 years ago. Since then, it's sat outside and I've robbed quite a few parts from it. If I need to use it, I think it would be best to have it rebuilt and then install it, which runs into time and money.

So I'm rooting for fixing the vacumme leak, venting the crankcase, and hoping the current engine holds together till spring. It made it 600 miles in it's current state, no reason to think it won't make it for a while.

Something else has been nagging me - the fuel ecomony. The figures I'm generating tell me that the FE is at the mercy of the wind, which tells me that the truck is underpowered. At 62mph, on flat ground with no winds moderately loaded, it's making 7-10 inchese of vacuume, which seems a little low, which tells me that my foot is in it too far. That could be due to the low compression, but it means that my engine build may have to include more power instead of more FE like I planned. Hard to say. If the truck is underpowered, it will always get bad mileage, period.

Monday it's going to be in the low 50s, so I should be able to make some progress on the thing.

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

Fellas - the Slantota is finally dead. As decent as it was, I'm giving up on it and scrapping it. With about 320k on the truck, and maybe 15-20k on the slant engine and trans, the rear end ate it's pinion seal. To pull the pinion and replace the seal, you need to pop both axles out. I can't get the rusty hunk of crap apart, so I went and got a complete rear axle assembly from another toyota truck. Turns out the dually axle I had was "special", so the other one doesn't quite fit. The sway bar won't attach, the driveshaft will need to be longer, and I need different shock plates and new ubolts to make it work. Too much hassle.

To replace it for my business, I stumbled on an 87 Chevy G20 van with only 86k on it for $1100. It runs PERFECT, even the air conditioner works. It's almost rust free. It's already got a 5000lb hitch. Done deal. The way I see it, there's about $500 worth of aluminum in the Toyota cargo box, and another couple hundred in scrap iron in the chassis and body. I'm keeping the slant and 833OD, and they can go back in the Valiant where they came from, along with the turbo.

Overall - a fun yet frustrating project. I hate to give up on anything, but it's time to move on. Here's what I learned:

1. Hydraulic clutches are great, provided you can just buy parts off the shelf. Finding the HTOB and making my own lines and fittings (which leaked a lot) was a major PITA. Go mechanical if you can.

2. Fabbing the motor mounts and other minor stuff was relatively easy. The mounts were simple and worked great. A welder would have made it easier, but even without - not too bad. Makes me think I can put any engine in any car.

3. What roached the rear and and did a number on the trans was bad ujoints in the driveshaft. I will NEVER again hesitate to replace loose ujoints, even if I have to pay someone to do it.

4. Toyotas trucks are over-rated. They are fine in-and-of themselves, but there's no advantage to a mini sized pickup when you can have the full sized one for the same price. Even with the slant, the rig got about the same MPG as a good running 1500, D150 or F150. Why dick around?

5. Most cops are asleep! I never, not once, got pulled over in the Slantota even though there's a giant hole in the hood, and the radiator is hanging out over the front bumper with Home Depot plumbing coming out of it. Maybe cops go after people with money, maybe they don't care about hillbilly trucks, maybe I just got lucky. If I were a cop, I'd have pulled me over on sight.

It's a shame - I had hoped to build this Toyota into the world's most fuel efficient 1 ton and keep it for 30 years. I'm over it.
Kip-on-Truckin'

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1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

so
if you had put new universal's @ 1st it would still be on the road?

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

I couldn’t have said it better; amen brother.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

I guess those of us who followed this saga over the last 3½ years, would have loved to see more Slantota adventures, but alas...

R.I.P. Slantota.

Good luck on your new projects.

(a turbo Valiant you say? pics too? )

Olaf.

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Aspenized

USA,
Definitly it would still be on the road had the ujoints not trashed the pig. As I say, the rear had a total of 320k on it, but it was working fine. Still is, except the pinion is flopping around and will lock the rear wheels up.

Olfa - As to pics of the completed turbo Valiant wagon, I'll be working on that over the winter (indoors!) and will post pics when it's all done. Email me at kipswork@aol.com and I'll send you some pics of the turbo motor now if you like.

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

The pre-Tacoma Toyota four cylinder trucks are okay within their limits. The current 2.7 four cylinder motor has a longer stroke ( 4.13" ) than a 225. I don't know the reputation of the 2.7, the 22RE are durable motors. A VW TDI swap is somewhat popular in the older Toyota trucks. As a whole the compact truck market has strunk as Ford, GM and Dodge strive to keep Tundra from getting a major market share, and thus far they have succeeded. Entry level full size trucks are often priced less than the compact trucks. However the Nissan and Toyota compact trucks are about all that are left in the compact segment.

Tim,
Very true. I keep current on the news from Detroit, and this year is the last year for the Ranger - a chassis which dates from the late 80s. They sell 70,000 of them a year, but it's still not profitable because there's only one plant that makes them and that's all they make.

That mini-truck segment was HUGE in the 90s, but it's been pretty much gobbled up by SUVs and full sized trucks. The truth is that the public has spoken, and they don't want small trucks anymore, along with station wagons and hatchbacks.

Enthusiasts cry foul, we want mini trucks - but go prove it to yourself. Price a Tacoma against any full sized truck, and you'll end up buying the full sized. Add 4x4 to the mix and mini-trucks are stupid expensive. Weigh the 4x4 against all the 4x4 SUVs, and it's easy to see why nobody buys small trucks.

Back in the day, the mini Toyota was a great vehicle, and it still is...sort of. Price a Tacoma against a new ecoboost F150. The F150 has 420ft/lbs, gets 21mpg, hauls tons more (literally), and is pretty much better in every metric vs price. The Toyota isn't a bad product, it's just outclassed. Except in one area which is resale value, where the Toyota holds it's value great. But Americans don't give a crap about resale and we never have.

_________________
1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)