Tippy the Family Heirloom [93 Trooper LS]

[sno]

Edit: So now that the temperature is closer to -20 than -30, there is no more coolant splashup happening. Seems to be something that only happens in extreme cold and something that iirc sort of happened last winter as well. My oil cooler lines hose clamps were slightly loose so i tightened those down as well

Coolant leak from somewhere, can't figure out where. I think I did a poor application of silicone when I installed my new water pump and it may be leaking now. Anyone whose dealt with a water pump leak on a 3.2 does it splash and spray up all over the engine bay from the fan or just drip out the bottom? It seems to be leaking intermittently and not when pressurized , this morning the engine bay looked like itd had a bottle of mountain dew exploded in it but after cleaning up the mess, getting it hot again and driving it for longer there was no coolant splashup. Spend a good 30 mins looking everywhere so see if I can find the source of the leak, and the only place that coolant is forming new drips (very slowly) after I wipe them off is the front lip of the oil pan thats under the timing covers

[sno]

My Accord will be coming out of winter storage soon, so Tippy can rest and I can work on her for the first half of this summer. Then I've got another wheeling trip planned and a long winter season of daily driving after that!

Parts ordered

Rockauto order due to arrive tomorrow:
DENSO 2100414 Alternator
GATES 348419 Power Steering Pump Seal Kit
GATES K040378 Premium alternator belt
GATES 363040 Power Steering Pressure Hose
NATIONAL 710168 Wheel Seal
NATIONAL HK3016 Knuckle bearing
TIMKEN NP654538 Wheel bearing
TIMKEN NP177400 Wheel bearing
AISIN FHG001 manual locking hubs (X2) [actually had these since Christmas but unable to install due to axle spline damage]

Amayama (OEM) should arrive around end of April:
Isuzu 8971097660 - CV BOOT KIT, INNER
Isuzu 8971097650 - CV BOOT KIT, OUTER
Isuzu 8972391560 - POWER STEERING SUCTION HOSE
Isuzu 8944594652 - BALL JOINT, LOWER
Isuzu 8980365950 - KNUCKLE SEAL
Isuzu 8970325080 - THERMOSTAT
Isuzu 8944077180 - KNUCKLE BEARING THRUST WASHER
Isuzu 9095714140 - DRAIN PLUG CRUSH WASHER (X3)
Isuzu 9095613380 - COOLANT PIPE O-RING (upper)
Isuzu 1096231300 - COOLANT PIPE O-RING (lower)
Aisin 43531-60010 - FREEWHEEL HUB COVER GASKET (X2)
Aisin 43532-60010 - FREEWHEEL HUB ORING (X2)
Isuzu 8972402750 - LOCKING HUB BODY TO WHEEL HUB GASKET (X2)
Isuzu 9091800280 - MANUAL HUB 26MM SNAP RING (X4)
Isuzu 8943829060 - FUEL TANK SEAL
Isuzu 8944539370 - G80 FRICTION DISC PACK
Isuzu 8960142340 - TRANS PAN GASKET
Isuzu 8978074840 - HEADLIGHT WIPER INSERTS (X2)
Isuzu 8971150900 - AC SWITCH BULB

New To-Do List:

1. Reseal the power steering pump and replace the pressure line: The fluid leak must be addressed before I install my new alternator
   
   
2. Replace the alternator with Denso OEM reman unit
   
   
3. Replace battery cables with new 6 or 4 gauge cable
   
   
4. Wire brush and dielectric grease all grounding points
   
   
5. Passenger side front end service 2.0:
   
   • Lower ball joint replace with OEM (AcDelco 'advantage" ball joint boots ripped after 1 year)
   • Address the source of the 4wd scream from steering knuckle - likely knuckle bearing going out due to damaged knuckle seal!
   • Replace the knuckle seal with OEM
   • Replace knuckle bearing/thrust washer
   • Replace wheel bearings and races
   • Replace CV axle with a re-booted junkyard OEM axle, using the OEM outer+inner boot kit (replacement req'd to install manual hubs due to destroyed large circlip groove)
   
   
6. Install the new manual hubs
   
   
7. Replace the thermostat with new OEM as preventive maintenance
   
   
8. Door latch: rear left door latch does not work from the inside. Linkage disconnected somewhere?
   
   
9. Lock actuator: rear left door lock actuator does not raise or lower with the other 4 doors. Broken solenoid, or just a snapped linkage?
   
   
10. Brake band adjust: a transmission maintenance item that I have not done yet. Will be performed alongside another filter change and drain and fill. May need to take the exhaust down for this one

[93trooperpooper]

on the non-working door lock, its most likely a broken door lock actuator motor arm...complete replacement of door lock module will be required....good luck on finding a good used one....
i replaced 2 failed rear door lock actuators, with $20 units from princess auto- can be had for $ 12 on sale....a few extra mounting holes drilled, custom bent linkage, wiring and done! power door locks fixed !

and thats a pretty impressive list of parts for good repair job !

[sno]

on the non-working door lock, its most likely a broken door lock actuator motor arm...complete replacement of door lock module will be required....good luck on finding a good used one....
i replaced 2 failed rear door lock actuators, with $20 units from princess auto- can be had for $ 12 on sale....a few extra mounting holes drilled, custom bent linkage, wiring and done! power door locks fixed !

and thats a pretty impressive list of parts for good repair job !

Thanks! I will certainly give that a try. I'm glad I didn't get the OEM actuator, $250

[sno]

Paid for an hour of diagnostics at a shop that has done some great diagnostic work on my moms 4runner before. They said that the cooling system held pressure for a full hour, but there is coolant residue below the timing cover so they suspect a water pump leak is occurring only in extreme cold.
I really wish I had ordered one of the mahle/felpro water pump gaskets which are beaded, rather than using the crappy paper one that came with the ACDelco water pump.

As for the squealing noise in 4wd, they said they couldn't really hear anything, but it is definitely still making the noise. So idk, still guessing it's the knuckle bearing but I guess we'll see when I have it all apart this summer.

Half my rockauto order including the alternator has been stuck in a Memphis FedEx warehouse for about 5 days now. Southern US has bigger problms than courier services right now, so ill just be patient for the weather to clear up!
Also ordered 4x Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 - P245/40R19 for my Honda accord as the original Michelin 19" tires are at the Treadwear markers now

[sno]

Left the trooper idling for 10 minutes with the heater off, and when I came back the temp gauge was the nearest to red ive ever seen it.

I felt the thermostat housing, and the area in front of the thermostat (rad side) was lukewarm, while the area behind the thermostat (engine side) was burning hot. My new OEM thermostat won't be here for a couple months, so I will grab one from lordco to use short term as well as bleed the system in case the guys who did the pressure test left an air bubble in there

[sno]

Updates on the running "hot" issue:

Tested the thermostat in a pot of hot water, using two thermometers for accuracy. The original OEM thermstat opened both sooner and wider than the new aftermarket. Reinstalled the old tstat

Bled the cooling system of air on a steep uphill, and confirmed that the 1.5 year-old fan clutch is still operating perfectly well

Next, bought an infrared temp gun and measured it while the temp gauge was showing above 2/3 (this is as hot as I could get it today, other times it has come 3/4 up the gauge or more when the heater is left off):


Temperature of tstat housing "before" the thermostat: 67F



Temperature of stat housing "after" the thermostat: 132F



Coolant outlet pipe 176.5F:



Heater lines, heater core closed: 198F:


Not pictured - Front of engine block and oil filter: 180F, Transmission pan: 105F

These infrared temps show an engine which is perfectly within operating temps and a thermostat mostly shut... while the gauge indicates an engine which is exceeding its cooling capacity and thermostat ideally open
So why would the gauge just recently begin hitting these highs that it never used to, all last summer with the heater off and the ac on and running the same temp sender that I am now, it always stayed in its normal position, just a tad under the middle.....

Is the new temp sender (Standard Motor Products premium line) gone failty and showing it as hotter than it actually is?
Water pump, radiator, fan clutch are all less than 2 years old and less than 15000 miles
Maybe I should remove the thermostat temporarily and re-measure temps?
Curious if the heater lines should be ~20 degrees hotter than the main engine outlet to the rad as shown? Perhaps while the hcore and tstat are closed those heater lines do actually indicate the "real" temp, and the sender is correct in its reading

[sno]

So, almost certain now that this is due to the coolant temp sensor having changed its sensitivity somehow. Drove her hard today then let her idle with the heater off to see how high I could get the temp gauge. Eventually, I was able to get it to creep up near red again (definitely not on the red, just much closer than I'm used to seeing it). Got out the infrared temp gun, and everything was at a perfect operating temp - coolant outlet 185F, before thermostat 100F, after thermostat 170F, oil filter 200F, engine block 205F.

I am 100% certain tippy is not overheating, and she's not even running hot. Must be the temp sensor giving me the runaround. Anyone else dealt with an issue like this where the "calibration" of the temp gauge seems to have changed? Because I now have a temp gauge that is riding well past the middle when the engine is at normal operating temp

Just out of curiosity, also scanned the temps of several other things today after a good hour long highway run. Immediately after stopping, checked the diff pumpkin which was at 100F. Transfer case was 183F.
Then, checked transmission fluid temps. Outlet line = 145F, after the oil-to-air cooler w/ pusher fan running = 80F, return line after radiator heat exchanger = 120F, pan = 100F (temps all measured on clean metal)
Hubs had a difference in temps, with the left side around 80F and the right at 70F.
Ambient temps today were 6C/43F