What have you done to your 1st gen Tundra today?

Y'all'd've known if'n'ye grew up roun'cheer

 

Yano, I kinda thought it was a regional thing, but I try to learn what I can! TNX!

 

Yanto?

 

Wisconsonish ..."You Know?"

 

Dang, that's where my OEM then parts store sway bar links snapped. With mine, I noticed that the top bolt on the SuspensionMaxx do seem to work their way lose and need to be revisited.

I actually lost the lower nut on my passenger side link in October and removed it all together. Have been meaning to remove my driver's too, but I'm still not sure if I am set on running sway bar-less all the time.

Also, what's going on with your rear bump stop and why's it angled like that?

 

Yanto
Do you want to? Texas? From my grandpa.
Geetyet- did you eat yet? Texas? From my grandpa

 

Dude no sway bars on DC!!!! I love the way it rides, haha other than on the freeway

 

If'n'ye hang roun-uh-while,... I might be able to learn y'all yuppies some country slang. Yall every had fiddlers deep fried-n-fluffy?

Ahem, most of what I learned in Hopkinsville is not... public posting... appropriate...

I speak many unofficial tongues.

 

See here it's like this: Dj-wana or y'wana and its the same for djeetet

 

Your OE links snapped like mine? Wow, I rocked OE for Maybe a year or less with my current lift, never any issues. Just got some Rockauto replacements for the meantime while I try to warranty these Maxx ones.

Oh that rear bump stop lol. I upgraded last year to these Energy ones and I'm pretty sure that side cross threaded a bit, even though I screwed it on straight. Anyways a few drives later or maybe months. I went under and checked and it bent slightly. I figured some tough roads or hard bumps on the road. Little by little it's twisted more. I'm ready for some new beefier ones, maybe Timbren or something else.

 

ICTLWI

 

And is that a fat spacer it's hanging from?

 

Yes, my OEM were fine for years all until I first lifted the truck. It was probably the lift combined with offroading. The parts store links that I replaced them with snapped almost right away. I have a theory on the links that the top nut could have worked its way loose and cooked the bushing, which causes the top part of the link to have more play than it should. The play causes the sway bar to pull on the upper nut as the weight of the truck shifts with the suspension and corning. The sway bar is moving too much and the bushing isn't able to do its job and properly dampen. Ultimately it sheers the link in half.

That's funny about the bumpstops though, it just looks so odd! Timbren's bumpstops are nice though, that's what I run.

 

Put this on a few weeks ago and forgot to post it. Husky brand. Link. For anyone that wants a second front tow hook and doesn't want to spend the money on the shackle mount style (Don't recall who makes them). You will have to buy the longer bolts for them as well. P/N 90119-A0029

Way ahead of ya. Already ordered.

Was debating on new regulator and just swapping the motor but figured there would be some way or reason that it wouldn't swap over easy as I'm not certain what's in it is OEM

This regulator is my last big thing on my to do list before the topper goes on and my list of stuff to do before our trip is pretty well done.

 

Trying to capture perfect Stoich while at idle lol.

 

Good news, odd news, and bad news for today. Tag to @txagg because because.

Good news is I got my valve cover gaskets, spark plug tube gaskets and new vc bolts done today.

Odd news is, I can tell someone has been in here before. Valve cover bolts had no washer grommet on them (surprised nobody called that out in previous pics), and there were two colors of FIPG inside, white and black. Valve cover gasket was actually not rock hard, but the spark plug tube gaskets were hard as a rock.

Bad news is two-fold.

One, I let everything cure up, drove it 10ft into the garage about 4-5 hours later, and I found oil on the dipstick arm, which could be old, or it could be that my damn cam shaft seal on driver side is actually leaking, which would really f'n suck ass.

Two, I'm really not happy with the condition I found the driver side head and valve cover, @txagg it's even worse than yours. I can't remember the last time I saw so much amassed carbon deposit on something with so few miles. @empty_lord what's your take on this? Typical for low-mile short trip vehicle, or maybe a port/passage blocked? I'm sure the PCV valve was working when I swapped it a few weeks back.

I have clear service records showing original owner constantly took it to the same Jiffy Lube type place, I suppose it's possible the place was ripping the guy off and not doing anything, and this is cooked old oil I'll never get rid of, but ... man.

Driver side:




And passenger side:

 

normal for low mile short trips where people still go 5k mile on oil changes. if you do alot of short trips it needs to be done by time or 3k miles. the oil breaks down WAY quicker when its a bunch of short trips

 

Oh, and anyway, had I known I'd be up against this I'd have just bought new valve covers, honestly, or some that'd been run thru a parts washer.

That said, I finished the job, what I slated for 2ish hours tops was more like 4ish. Cleaned up as best I could with the time I had. And have some advice after the proof to anyone doing this, specifically for the spark plug tube gaskets.

Driver side after cleanup and tube gaskets, plus a thorough blow-out:


Passenger side after same, was low on time or I'd have de-varnished more:



And the tip for anyone doing the tube gaskets ... The outer ring of the gasket is metal-reinforced. I pried the inner ring out thinking that was it. Let's just say, if you're not seeing straight up metal, you're not there yet.

1st one I was here and I finally realized, oh crap, there's more to pry out as you see ...



This is what it looks like when complete.



Once I figured that out, I got a smaller flat blade driver to wedge the outer ring enough for a larger blade driver to bend it into a heart-shape and remove. Of course, open the tabs first with lineman's pliers, but ...

This is what you really want to see, not what's showing in my 1st pic.

 

Anything a guy can do to help gradually break down that mess without breaking chunks free that could plug up the pickup tube on the bottom end ?

 

a hot tank wash for the valve cover makes quick work of that crud. as for the stuff in the engine some engien flush and a few shorter interval oil changes will clean it up enough. wont be perfect. but to get perfect your pulling the engine or head

 

Thanks for the input. Sadly, don't have a parts washer anymore, had to rely on other methods.

Looks like I've got a couple of liqui-molly engine flushes in my future

 

its honestly not that bad. i wouldnt worry too much. do it once or twice and be happy

 

With how inexpensive the LM products are and how effective they've been for me in similar varnishing situations for 150k+ engines I've had, I think I'm just going to start using them every oil change day, starting soon, and I'll stick w/regular dino plus yearly and/or 2.5-3k change interval.

I'm kinda at a place in life where I just won't be putting the mileage on this truck it needs to stay gasket-happy and varn-free, so ... it's good I sprung a leak and it forced me to peer inside. I really didn't expect to see this. But life has been turned on its head the last couple of years, and I've never been this stationary for so long.

 

The real bad news, is you beat me to completing the repair. Doesn't look gummed up or anything under there at all, just well seasoned. Short trips are killer on cars, try and run her for a good hour at temp a couple of times a month going forward. Glad you got her buttoned up today!

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if your throttle body has quite a bit of carbon build up as well, like others have suggested take the truck on a long drive once in a while. Let the beast run.

 

LMAO. I read that in my best Ginger Billy voice. Bwahahahahahaha
https://youtu.be/RSFbWObcT4A

 

This is just the first time he has cracked open a valve cover. I would imagine you could eat off his TB, and shotgun a beer through his air intake tube. @shifty` is an OCD neat freak, and probably has not slept right after seeing that mess inside his engine.

 

Agreed. Probably broke out in hives right now

I'm kinda scared to pop a VC off of crackie only because think about a farm truck. If it truly came from a real farm, and they used it for fence work a lot... crank, pull up about 30 feet, shut down, tend to ya fences, crank, pull up about 30 feet....

Kinda glad I have such a long commute after seeing what short trips will do. Weird. I don't think I'd feel right if I had to drive less than an hour to get anywhere of Note, or service (Lowes, Harbus freightimus, etc.)

 

Had a chance to clean it out when I popped off my intake to do the serp belt. Clean as a whistle.

 

I did some Google fu, and the consensus is to use oven cleaner to get that garbage cleaned up. 15 minutes to get it all apart and the covers off, then 3 hours of cleaning.