Random minor maintenance stuff.

[IdahoDoug]

So, the Van has been running kinda marginally at times and smelling like oil. Took a look around the engine bay and found a few hard and slightly cracking vacuum lines. One was on the PCV valve, so I pulled it and cleaned it with brake cleaner. Then the oil filler cap seal had hardened and slightly cracked. NAPA had a generic one for $6 but I didn't like the look - preferring the stock black knurled one. So I pulled the nice seal off the new one and swapped it onto the stock cap. Voila - nice tight seal. NAPA also had a radiator cap - my seal was developing cracks. $5.

I also pulled the fuel filter as I have run a strong solution of SeaFoam cleaner in the fuel, hoping the occasional puff of smoke on startup was from crud in the valve stem seals. It took that down to a once a week puff which must be whatever seal/valve stem still has a bit of crud on it. The fuel filter looked like hell and the fuel that came out of the end was discolored and had grains of something in it. Glad I changed it.

Then I put new plug wires on and checked the timing. The combination of all these things lead to a smoother idle, and more power. It must have been starved for fuel under higher loads. This should help the fuel pump live a longer and cooler life as well.

So, she is running really nicely now. I'm going to pull the valve cover perhaps this weekend and check the "jet valve" clearances per the manual. My cover is leaking oil and I'm sure the gasket is hard as a rock. The NAPA one was $19 and includes the grommets and half moon thing. I'm also looking forward to a dry engine and no oil burning smell from the constant dripping. While the intake rubber tubes are off for this, I will also clean the throttle body as well as possible, and got a $4 can of throttle body cleaner that's safe for the sensors if I spray them as well.

I've been getting 20.5MPG really consistently lately.

Also, I checked the front wheel bearings and they've been recently repacked. The brakes looked like new rotors as well and pads and rear brake shoes and drums also looked new. One stud on each rear wheel was broken off. NAPA sold them for $2. Literally took me 5 minutes each to change. Just pound the broken bit in and it falls to the ground. Stick a new one in, flip a lug nut backwards and put a few washers on the new stud before the lug nut. Tighten and it will pull the new stud right into the hub.

Planning to bleed the brakes this weekend as well. Weird how there is no bleeder on the left rear. Instead there is one on the axle mounted load proportioning valve that changes rear brake power based on load.

Getting close to having this Van ready for summer road trips.

[IdahoDoug]

So, I managed to replace the valve cover gasket, clean the throttle valve, and found some corroded connections. The process is actually not bad - about 2 hours total. There are a half dozen wire connectors to separate atop the valve cover, and I used a bungee cord to hold them back with the mesh on the driver's seat back to anchor. One connector in particular was full of a hard light green crud and there's no way the connection was good. I had to literally scrape the male prongs with a needle, small screwdriver, and contact cleaner before I saw copper. Now I have a high idle (1200) as a result, and I think someone reset the idle with these poor connections producing a low idle. Now I have to correct that.

The old gasket was probably original -hard like plastic and broke in several pieces as I removed it. The new one fit very nicely.

The throttle valve was pretty black. I bent an old toothbrush using the stove burner for heat. Shaped it to better clean. Then used a half dozen paper towels soaked in throttle body cleaner. Focused on the sealing surface and the edge of the valve itself.

Then, I adjusted the rear hatch stoppers. It bothered me that I could slam it fairly hard and it did not latch. Now it closes with a satisfying thump.

I also planned on adjusting the engine's jet valves once in the valve cover, but what's this? Don't have them. So the engine was replaced with a newer 4G64 rather than the G64B the van came with. I will be asking some questions about this engine. It sure feels peppy for the rated output, so I'm thinking the 4G64 must put out more power than stock. The engine starts instantly now. Must have been some vacuum leaks and other little changes as well.

[Mazdax605]

These vans never had the jet valves.

[IdahoDoug]

Really? My factory service manual for 88 says it does. Could it be the jet valves were eliminated after 87/88 models along with the different impedance injectors and such that changed? The manual goes into some detail about this feature. I suspect the early model vans had them and they were eliminated.

[originalkwyjibo]

My '88 has the G64B which has auxiliary valves but my '90 has the 4G64 without them. My understanding is that the G64B was the designation for the US emission version with auxiliary valves. The vin plate under the passenger side carpet access flap specifies which engine it came with.

[IdahoDoug]

That sounds like what is going on here. Anybody know what the engine came from? On its plate is "4G64 and the serial number "MA7759".

I am also wondering about the fuel injectors because I read somewhere the 87/88 years had a different fuel injector and the newer 89/90 had a more mainstream low impedence injector, etc. I ask because I just dropped the injectors off at Mr. Injector for service. Thanks for any info you can provide as I'm guessing my 88 factory manual may now be incorrect for a few things like ignition timing, type of spark plug, etc. One thing is the oil level sensor is not on the side of the oil pan. Does it have one?

[originalkwyjibo]

Are you referring to the plate on the van or does yours have one on the engine also? While my '90 came with a 4G64 from the factory, the actual engine is from a '90 or '91 truck. For what it's worth, when I first got the '90 it had a faulty injector and I swapped it with one from my '88 with no issues. I'll have to take a look at them to check colors and also my oil pan and get back to you on that. I know my '88 has the oil level sensor but I'm not sure about the '90. The light was always on in both of them anyways.

Yokohama is the one who has posted regarding injectors here:
http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.ph ... nce#p78326
http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.ph ... nce#p79552
http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.ph ... nce#p79796
http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ce#p113892
http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ce#p125161
http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ce#p125495

You can also find a 1993 4G64 manual here:
http://www.delica.ca/manuals/4570538-Mi ... Engine.pdf

[IdahoDoug]

That engine and serial number are off the block itself. It does not match the serial number sequence it should have according to the factory manual, but that's to be expected - looks not to be the original engine. Will check on your links. My oil level light is on no matter what level the oil is. So, knowing it was a swapped in engine and it did not have the obvious 1988 oil sensor on the side of the oil pan, I figured whomever installed it did not have any place to connect the oil level wiring. Thus the light. So, I'd love to find out this engine has an oil level sensor I can replace and then hook up correctly. In the mean time, I pulled the wire that sends power to the dash light off the oil level relay in the shifter trim. It's easy to get to if you guys want clarification - 15 minutes tops to turn that frickin' light off.

[originalkwyjibo]

Thanks for the tip on the oil light power wire. I looked at my injectors and oil pan the other day and the injectors look the same although I re-read one of Yokohama's posts and realized he was referring to mid 90's Eclipse and Galants as having "blue top" injectors. Both my vans have the level sensors as well but have the light on pretty much always. This is a common problem with the Toyota Vans as well. Toyota even added an oil temp sensor in addition to the level float which also triggers the same light. I poked around the web a little in regards to your engine serial number and found this: http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin/sh ... d+markings FWIW, there site lists the 4G64 in vans from 6/88 on(Although there are some random discrepancies in there listings.)so depending on the build date maybe you aren't supposed to have the G64B. Be sure and check the ID plate on the passenger side wheel well to see for certain which engine you are supposed to have. It's attached to the vertical portion of the passenger wheel well under the carpet flap and is easily visible when you lift the right side engine cover. On a side note I realized my cargo van is a '90 not '89 as I posted so I have corrected my posts and profile accordingly. Don't know what I was thinking, November 1989 is a 1990 MY. I must have seen the 1989 build date when I bought it several years ago and it just stuck in my head.

[IdahoDoug]

Thanks, will check that link and see what it tells me. My plate in front of the passenger seat I think indicates I should have a G64B, not the 4G64 in her. I will double check that.

So a little drama played out with the fuel injectors. One of the injectors was well below the others, indicating an internal problem he could not repair. Rather than having one poor one after all the trouble, I got on Rock Auto and ordered a new injector for the newer 4G64 from the mid 90s (I think 1996 Eclipse 2.4). Overnight shipping. It arrived and we opened the package and it was the newer high impedance one. Mine are low impedance. So again with the overnight and all and today we opened it and it is correct. It was for a 1988 Van Wagon this time. So just a data point for others. It came in slightly lower than the other 3 on flow, so he repeatedly cleaned it until it came up a few ML's in flow and balanced. I think they are all in the low 70s if I recall - have the paperwork.

So I happily came home and installed them. Never have fuel injectors been this easy to install. I must say I absolutely LOVE working on this engine layout. I currently have the driver's seat out and that longitudinal brace with the parking brake slid aside and you can get to EVERYTHING. I will never hesitate to pull the seat and this brace again. I fought to get the distributor cap, rotor and new wires on when I should have spent the 10 minutes doing this. I am also pulling the old thermostat (found a 180 degree in there - supposed to be 195), and I found the temp sender wire just bare copper twisted around the spade. I'm sure that was an intermittent connection. It now has a female connector on it.

So I also did a much better job of cleaning the throttle body now that it's loose for the injector service. Now all I have to do is put the throttle body back on, hook up the half dozen electrical connections, hook up the air intake tube, and put the driver's seat and brace back in. It's killing me to knock off work, but we are Adventists and I enjoy honoring the Sabbath until sunset tomorrow. Then Sunday I have a race, and it will be fully Sunday afternoon before I get to finish this and take it for a spin with the new shocks, and all these changes. I bet I am 90 minutes from turning the key. I also repainted the hubcaps a fresh silver (NAPA wheel silver paint looks factory) and picked up some matte black 3M wrap film to reproduce the side moldings. Someone removed the 3" wide moldings and there is an unfaded stripe. This was $21 and enough to reproduce the visual effect of the moldings until I decide if I want to put actual moldings on ($10 a foot! yeesh). I may also add some black window surrounds if I have time - will give it an updated look and nice contrast with the white.

Then I bought a buffer and solutions to bring a shine out of the paint, and next week we are lending this Van to relatives from Denmark. They will be arriving to spend 5 weeks touring here in the US and Canada. I expect them to put a couple thousand miles on it. That's been the whole rush to get this Van 100% reliable. I don't want to lend out our beautifully restored VW Vanagon, so when I got it I thought it perfect to lend out. Then my anally retentive side kicked in and its now a virtually complete mechanical restoration on a pretty cool looking vehicle. I'm hooked! Heh.

EDIT - hmm, the factory manual says that should be a 190 degree thermostat. I will see if they have one, but NAPA's system said 195.

[IdahoDoug]

So, the Van is off in Seattle on loan for a month. At the last minute, it puked up a new NAPA starter. While being aligned at the dealership, they went to park it after finishing the work and the starter stuck on and nearly caught fire. It ran for 10 minutes smoking until it siezed up. NAPA gave me a new one, and it has run perfect ever since. I finished prepping the Van by changing to 20/50 oil and it reduced the slight startup smoke, and the oil consumption by 80%. Its Castrol GTX non synthetic if anybody cares. The change was quite immediate - no smoke the first morning startup. Full disclosure - I was using a quart of Marvel to kinda clean things up a bit so that may have been responsible for the smoking.

I'm not happy with the new shocks. They don't seem to have enough damping to handle this pogo stick of a vehicle. I will contact Rock Auto and see if I can swap them for better ones. I should have known base components wouldn't be a good idea. I also installed Cadillac horns from a u pull adventure but did not have time to rewire for them. The stock horns are a "ground to honk" type and the new ones are not. Will work on that when i get the Van back.

Then the spark plug wires started wiggling off the cap. I used duct tape to make a harness of sorts to hold them on and am hoping for the best. I will take these to NAPA where I got both the cap and new wires and see if they have something that fits better. It's the rubber boots - loose on the cap.