Hungary Bill wrote: Might weld a tab to the back bumper (smittybuilt tube bumper). Let me see what I have laying around as far as thicker steel goes... Do you think the rear mount would be too low for a 4' antenna though?

Meh CB is pretty much poop anyway IMO, for trail comms your likely fine. I may have a 5' whip in my garage still your welcome to if you want it. It wont radiate as evenly, but you notice I dont think

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

Nice! But bummer about the antenna though. No matter what happens this'll be a temp install. Someday I'll scrounge enough pennies together for a trail gear front bumper and just weld the tab there (should be high enough, etc)

In reply to Java230:

Ha! well, better than nothin I guess I'll probably just stick with the 4-footer for now. That way when it breaks the mount and drags on the trail I wont feel near as bad Thanks though!

good times

Hungary Bill wrote: Someday I'll scrounge enough pennies together for a ARB front bumper and just weld the tab there (should be high enough, etc)

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

HA! If you're buyin, I'm flyin Those puppies are expensive!

To make up for the lost time yesterday, I woke up at 2:30 today Oddly enough, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to get out of bed...

We start very much where we left off yesterday:

lots of swearing ensued.

The Alarm Chevy was running a bit behind, but made his pass at about 5:05.

This is about when I should pack up all my tools and start getting ready for work

But man, I'm so close I cant bear to give up now!

4:15 is usually when I'm turning the key to start my morning commute, but I'm just a few hoses and a shroud away from adding fluids

Man, am I movin. It's getting harder for me to snap pictures but by 4:20am the beast is assembled

One last look over. Everything looks good. Timing is shot from the hip, and by 4:25 we have ignition!!!!

So I shut it down, go back inside, pack my lunch, wash the grease off my hands, grab a timing gun (to be completed at lunch), and double-time it back outside.

Get the truck out of the garage, and completely forgot my light I left under there. oops

(hey, at least I know I have that much clearance)

I let it run for a minute, and everything's looking pretty solid (no leaks) so I decide it's time to take her to work! (sea trials!)

Good times

The run to work is pretty uneventful. Aside from forgetting the light under there, the truck seems to be running pretty smooth. No ticking from the timing chain (just a little from the valves). She pulls nice and steady, which must mean my timing marks were super accurate and all is looking pretty decent.

Until that 13mm wrench I left on my air cleaner box falls off on a busy road.

I left it on there when I went inside to pack my lunch because I figured I'd be shooting the timing before I left. I changed my mind mid-stream and look what happens.

I pulled a U-turn and did a slow pass, but didn't see anything. Ah well. When you rush, that's what you get.

The rest of the drive goes well. By the time I'm halfway to work I can smell a little oil cooking. It's not strong so I figure it's just my greasy hand prints all over everything.

There's a wait at the gate, and my coolant temp ticks up to 230deg I get it through the gate and see a little steam, but it's all down hill from here so I shut it off and coast. The temp falls to about 220 by the time I reach my parking spot. I figure that means my coolant must have been a bit low still (bubble?)

But she made it! And I was STILL 5-minutes early to the morning meeting. That's progress

After the AM meeting I make a tactical swing by the truck. It is low on coolant. about 3/4 of a gallon. I see evidence of a little leak at the lower radiator hose, so I tighten that about 1/2 turn. No big deal there.

Under the truck a puddle is starting to form:

(the old/big oil spot is from my 4x4 project )

I initially think it's the oil pump and my heart begins to sink. The leak isn't the worst I've ignored but it is a bit alarming (and might be an issue on the weekends run). As I look at my available wrench schedule VS time I need to do an oil pump o-ring I'm kind of realizing that this might be a show stopper for the rig...

But then I start tracing the leak "up"

I only had about 5-minutes to be doom-and-gloom before my next meeting, so I hoof it back to the office and sit (not really listening) and it dawns on me. That dang oil bolt on top of the timing cover (the one under the nose of the cam sprocket). It HAS to be that.

Since I checked for leaks after about 5-minutes of running, if it was the oil pump (big work) then it would have revealed itself then. There's not much else to leak from in that area on the timing cover, so it pretty much HAS to be coming from that headgasket/oil bolt area up top. It's not pressurized or anything but a puddle of oil does collect there...

That's kind of a relief. I figure that bolt hole must have some fod in it that gave me a false torque. Tomorrow morning I'll dig in the area and see what I can seal

After that, it's just the CB and a full size spare. The oil change and valve adjustment can wait! (unless I get lucky)

Good times

Hopefully that bolt just needs a little snugging.

I have faith (and my denial is strong. She's gonna make this one if it kills me)

Speaking of denial. I decided base traffic was a bit too busy to be poking around under my hood with a timing gun (they kind of frown on people who work on their cars in the parking lots here). So I decided to sneak a CB antenna install under the cover of my cargo area.

I ran the cable as far aft as I could but it looks like I should have sprung for the 18ft cable. I had to bend the plate up a bit to clear that coax connection and it's just like Java said. As the antenna moves the plate bends with it (pretty easily). It's almost like another spring (except I think the antenna spring is stronger than my steel )

I'm going to put this in to the "if I can get to it" bin, but I'm thinking this is going to find it's way to the front of the truck very soon. I just get the feeling that connection is going to rub on my new paint the whole run. I'm not above a good rub, but I can't think of a good excuse for running something I know is going to needlessly cause damage.

Good times

After the CB it only took me 2-minutes to slap in that 15-amp fues and put the dash back together

yeah, but do all the pixels work?

Almost there.

On the "must do before the run" list, we still have:

• full size spare tire swap

• oil leak

• re-locate antenna (I have my doubts about the quality of the ground with the way I have this mounted too...)

On the "want to do" list, we have:

• oil change

• ignition timing

• Valve adjustment

• Rocker panel rock chip protection

Looks like I'll be waking up early tomorrow

Good times

Just drill the damn 1/2" hole in the bumper already.

Ok.

If I have to.

I guess...

3 GRM'ers and this happens....

sweetchiliheat

Thanks for the fun day Bill!

Man, that really was a nice Sunday drive. We gotta do that more often

Sorry for the backlog, but here's what you guys missed:

Got home Friday and no one was at the house. I had another meeting at 3:30 (the meetings will continue until morale improves) so I used the 10-minutes I had before i had to log in to pop that valve cover off:

That there bolt is the suspected leak point.

Saturday was another 2:30am day and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw all the oil had leaked out Man was I happy it was something simple

Since it's my first run with the overlanding group, I'm not taking any chances. 3-washers and some black RTV goop. Wet install the bolt, and BAM!

We have clearance Clarence

After that, it was just stabbing the dizzy back in, shooting the timing, and Robert's your father's brother

I found some scrap to mount the CB antenna in the form of an old engine accessory bracket. Oddly enough it came out of the 'Runner's engine bay when I bought it. I saw it there doing nothing so I took it out and put it in the corner of the garage.

Still reluctant to drill holes in my new truck I found a button head screw in the front bumper that was willing to give up it's spot for the new bracket

Oh, and the kid came out to help!

(that's about 5:00 if you're keeping track of time )

he helped me install the bracket by holding the top bolt while I turned the bottom nut.

After that, it was just a matter of getting that new spare stuffed under this beast

Which brings us up to here!

Hoo-dawgies!

(more pictures to follow)

Alright, sorry for the delay. here we go!

^GRM kiddos there

^one wrong turn and five maps are featured in this picture

^ stopped for lunch

And on until we hit pavement again

The pictures really don't do this trip justice. The whole drive was just a nice backroad trip with some really cool people. The GRM kids took to each other right away and Java's daughter shared her walkie talkies with Little Mrs. Mezzanine, and Little Mr. Hungary. They had a hoot talking back and forth (knock-knock jokes and all)

The group was nice and acoomodating of the fact I had no idea what I was doing and even let me back in the lead when I led them down a path that got real narrow REAL quick (forcing all 12 of us to turn around to get back to where we SHOULD be).

The weather was perfect, and I tell ya there wasn't a bad view to be had.

I really cant wait to do this again.

Oh.

If you hear us talk about "Pacific Northwest Pin-Striping" this is what we're talking about:

Very good times

It was a lot of fun Bill, glad the kiddos got along so well, that worked out nice!

Looks like the vinyl decal hold up good to the pinstripes! This is why I don't wash my truck, hides all the stripes....

In reply to java230:

I'm keeping those on there until our next outing. I may wash it before hand just to keep tabs on what's new and what's old but I'm liking the war paint. (oddly enough, the pin-stripes didn't hurt as much as I thought they would :P )

I meant to ask you before we parted ways though, where did you get that compass rose decal you have on your hood? I liked it, but didn't see it in the NWOL store...

Bill it was an Amazon special. Vinyl cut as "wall art"

Long weekend.

Friday I decided to try to yank on a stump that I'd been digging around for a while

It didn't work, but it was fun

On Sunday Mrs. Hungary needed a quiet house to study so I took the kiddos out on a quick outing to the mountains. It was raining and we didn't get out of the truck, but it was still better than a bad day at work.

There were a few good/steep climbs but we didn't find any snow. I did some googling and found out I was on FS7250. All the roads off of that one dead end, but it looks like it might be worth exploring again on a nicer day.

Good times

Stump pullin' 22r Power!

Man, I forgot you lived up near Seattle, I should have hit you up when I was stuck up near Burlington.

Love the 4-Runner. Looks just like a friends dads one from when I was a kid.

Crankwalk: Hey, it pulled it! It just didn't pull it out

SBF: Aw man, I'm up near that area all the time! It's about an hour and a half from my house but I have family up that way.

Christmas tree hunting in the PNW

Originally I was going to run with our overland group later in December, but the timing of the trip just didn't work out with other things we had planned. Since we had a free day this Sunday, we got together with Landon and Adam (from our last camping trip) and went out tree hunting.

We were looking for a living room piece, and Landon just needed a small tree for his room.

The way it works is, you go to a ranger station and pay $10. They give you a permit with some maps of potential tree hunting areas, and then there are just a few regulations (under 12ft, stay in the forest, stay off private property, etc)but otherwise you're left to your own devices

In all fairness, that tree looked much smaller in the forest

The adventure was great though, we did some good walking, good driving, hung out with cool people, and met some cool people. There were two jeeps following me for a while and I caught them on the CB. They were both pretty cool guys and it was nice having a few other rigs with us. We eventually took different turn offs but in doing so we came to the conclusion that the three of us were the only people up as far as we were So that was kind of cool. (the lower portions of this run were PACKED with people. Some of them shiny and happy)

We were all completely exhausted by the time we got back, I think we were in bed by 7pm and completely out not much after. Definitely something I'm putting in the "do again next year" bin.

Good times

Glad to see you got a bit of snow!