Toyota – Not Your Average Engineer

January 9, 2022September 30, 2023

Replacing the Timing Chain on a 22RE in a Toyota 4runner

After the issues of the last year, it was time for my Toyota 4runner to receive a new timing chain. I’m pretty sure the old timing chain had skipped a tooth on the sprocket when the transfer case adapter decided to self-destruct. The timing chain job on a 22RE motor is fairly straightforward although having a built 4runner with a big front bumper makes it challenging to access everything easily. Next time, I’ll be tempted to yank the whole engine out to do the job rather than deal with it in the truck.

The job went pretty well at first but it’s exhausting having to stand up on the bumper and do other feats of agility to access all of the bolts.

It’s a job for another day to finish up the last details on this timing chain replacement.

June 13, 2019December 12, 2021

Laying down sound deadening material

I laid down some sound deadening material from Noico in the truck recently. The cabs on these old 4runners are pretty noisy when the trucks are stock but when it’s built like mine is, there is a ton of road noise. While I originally had wanted to put down Dynamat, this Noico stuff worked just as well as Dynamat does. Interestingly, Noico is made in Russia. I have no idea how Russia is cost competitive with China but evidently it is.

Looking into the rear passenger area. I’m planning to build a storage system in the cargo area so I have not lined that area with sound deadening material.

Front passenger side. Hopefully this will help with some of the heat we get through the floorboards, too.

We took the truck for a spin around the area and found that road noise has been cut by about 30%. The next step is to put the sound deadening material in the door panels. Then I’ll consider doing the roof and maybe the hood. The firewall will have to wait until I have a good reason to take out the dash.

December 23, 2018December 12, 2021

Bald Mountain in the Snow With Dmitri

Snow Wheeling in the Central California Sierra Nevada

Over the long holiday weekend, I took Dmitri up on Bald Mountain outside of Shaver Lake, California to go play in the snow. While the steepest parts of the route were clear of snow, there were several feet of the white stuff to play in on several tree-covered sections of trail. Here are a few photos of our fun.

Dmitri and I traded time in the drivers seat on our way up the mountain. On the flats, there was about 2-3 feet of snow. As long as we stayed in the ruts, we did fine. If we got off into the heavy, deep, and uncompacted snow, it became much more challenging.

We had to stop off at the Hollywood Hills area to take some photos on the poser rock.

Hanging out on the poser rock. The Central Valley was completely shrouded in low clouds and fog. We could see the coast mountains in the distance.

Driving around on Bald Mountain is so much fun any time of the year. In the snow, it’s a great game of figure-out-where-the-trail-goes. There are a lot of different tracks bashed in the snow going in all different directions.

The old fire lookout is on top of Bald Mountain in the background.

Looking out from the lookout tower on top of Bald Mountain.

My little 4runner did a great job getting up the mountain. We saw a few other old 4runners and Toyota Pickups on the trail. There was a SxS and one or two Jeeps as well. It was a pretty quiet day all things considered.

My 4runner and someone else’s 4runner. Our two runners looked pretty good together.

An interesting note: this is the first time I’ve used the new WordPress Gutenberg editor. I’m still on the fence about how it works. Uploading multiple images is now more complex and annoying. But these blocks are pretty nice.