2003 Toxic Tacoma

[Fred]

I'm fine with that and would easily drive the distance to camp out

Only under FreeEMS power, or it doesn't count! ;-)

[DeuceEFI]

I have a pair of FreeEMS vehicles we can DRIVE

And plenty of places to camp.
Mid to late May usually has nice weather.
And as and added bonus Memorial Day weekend is the Indy 500.

[ToxicGumbo]

I've spent a good deal of time under my truck lately (in a non-sexual way) and noticed a couple things:

1. Snow and snow-control solutions suck. I went from humid/rainy/tropical south Louisiana to the mid-US and in just two months of snowy weather I'm seeing rust forming on the frame & bar bumper and blanketing the front suspension.
2. Toyota sucks.*
3. I suck for not noticing either earlier.

*Toyota's flanged O2 sensor is a one-piece unit. I had thought the flange was a second piece that the sensor bolts into. Wrong.

So I ordered an adapter from MandrelBendingSolutions to take advantage of what's already prepared.

Also noticed a burst balljoint sack and leaking rack & pinion seal.


-Jeff

Edit: Corrected the vendor name

[Fred]

1) it's not the snow, it's the salt! :-) you basically need to wash/rinse it off every time you drive it, then keep it somewhere warm/dry until next time. Or replace cars 10 yearly.
2) Lies, damn lies.
3) Even bigger lies! Damn big lies! :-p

Nice product, deserves a picture, so here it is:



Take care of the burst ball sack, I hear that can be painful.

Fred.

[ToxicGumbo]

With the "Daily Drivers on FreeEMS" keeping me awake at night and along with some friendly encouragement, I decided to dust off my transmission manual and take another look at rewiring it for manualized control.

Even though I didn't see it last time, this time I did: the A43D isn't electronically controlled. It's entirely operated by throttle position and a governor. The only electric components are:

• The park/neutral switch for restricted start and for indicating the selected mode (i.e. P,R,N,D,2,L)
• VSS for the odometer
• An overdrive solenoid controlled by a push switch on the shifter handle

Since only the VSS interfaces with the ECU, a dedicated controller isn't required for this automatic transmission to operate normally. This suggests that a large number of older, non-electronic, automatic transmissions should operate just fine with FreeEMS, though torque convertor lock-up might be handled differently.

With this revelation, I ordered another O2 adapter plate from Mandrel Bending Solutions to plug the second O2 sensor location and started running the wideband and SLC gauge wiring through the firewall. Tonight, I threw together an improvised gauge mount with parts from Home Depot:





I'll probably be even less enamored with it in the daylight, but not terrible for under $10 in a small country town. This was made from a 2 inch PVC end cap with a hole drilled in the back and fitting with a grommet, a #5 electrical conduit clamp, and a chopped and bent angle bracket.

The wiring for operation still needs to be run and I want to inspect the tach signal to see if the console gauge is usable. I bought that gauge cluster intentionally for the tach and it was incredibly difficult to find for a 4-cylinder Taco with an automatic.


-Jeff

[ToxicGumbo]

Also picked up this copycat ELM 327 OBD-II diagnostics-to-USB adapter for $10:



"Supports all OBDII protocols"

We'll see if it's of the same quality as what I built in the previous post.


-Jeff


Edit: Spelling

Edit: Doublechecked my dusty PLX Kiwi WiFi II and it turns out it works after all (I thought I fried it long ago while testing CAN tricks with a TA board). Also played with the above ELM cable under Win 7 and it's operating correctly, though not a lot of decent OSS software out there on the desktop level. Regardless, this now gives me two ways to play with OBD-II & CAN, something I'd love to see as a module for Jaguar boards and plugin for FreeEMS.

[Fred]

Clever idea using PVC like that! And f-ing fantastic to see progress! :-)

[ToxicGumbo]

Tonight I'm going to pressure test an Evo intercooler I bought some time ago. It had* an oil patch covering the center fins and, since there's no reason for that to be there, I'm suspicious that it's leaking and that the original owner heavily oiled his intake filter.

* - I say "had" because I threw it in the bathtub a couple days ago and Simple Greened the hell out of it.

For pressure testing, I went to the now-familiar plumbing aisle at Home Despot and bought a 2in rubber end cap with clamp, a 2in rubber coupling pipe with clamps on either end, and a 2in end cap (like the one used above to hold the AFR gauge) to bolt an air nozzle through. The plan is to pressure the unit to about 15 PSI and check for any obvious leaks by sound and feel. I also have some UV stuff, a dry cigar in a box, a cheap inline gauge, etc. if need be.

Speaking of cheap gauges, please welcome the Equus Performance boost/vac gauge from O'Reilly Auto Parts to my assortment of cheap crap being put to actual use:



"Includes four mood changing colors..."

This gauge will be installed on the top of my A-pillar handle solely for a general idea of what's going on as systems are built up. Eventually, it would be nice to have a device on/in-dash either with a fullscreen EMStudio gauge display or something app-like on an old jailbroken iPhone or Android device which shows stats. For now, this will at least have power and tubing run to the correct spot should a better gauge become available.

Edit: Here it is installed:



Despite poor reviews, I'm getting a steady needle, the kit was fairly "complete" with regards to parts, and it's reading about 20 inHg vacuum. The only downsides are the bulb (as opposed to LED or backlight) and poor calibration...but that's what you get on the cheap.

Edit 2: Here are both gauges lit up, the Equus tied into an unused dash button socket for variable brightness and the SLC gauge (temporarily fused to 12V) at half-brightness due to 12V headlight/dashlight detect:



Compare the stock dash brightness though between photos and look at the Equus. If I left the dash light at the same level, that Equus gauge would be like a flashlight in the fact. Way too bright. Might throw a resistor in there.

-Jeff

[Fred]

Oil in an intercooler usually comes from the turbo seals ;-) However it could have just been spilled on there post removal? Testing will do no harm, though, unless a cap blows off :-D Wear safety googles... and sunscreen.

[ToxicGumbo]

Testing will do no harm, though, unless a cap blows off

Good call as one nearly did and needed to be seated further in.

The compressor didn't even register 1 PSI, so I'm not sure what actually trickled in (cheap imported junk). Nevertheless, what made it in stayed in, so I'm satisfied enough to use it. All the lower mounting tabs are cracked off, which sucks, but I have two main mount points and can brace the bottom with something improvised. Here are a few photos:







-Jeff