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Nasty's Trooper Project

19K views 76 replies 11 participants last post by  bradzuzu 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
It's been a long time since I did anything aside from lurk or respond to threads. So I thought I'd start another to document the rebuild of my engine and any eventual projects I come up with.

Last fall I decided to do a fluid flush on my 4l30. Unfortunately all the crap floating in the fluid was the acting friction material and the since the new fluid was.....well new, 50 miles later I had 1st, sometimes 2nd, 3rd rarely and 4th came and went as it pleased. During the trans swap my buddy pointed out he could turn my engine over with one hand using the flex plate. A quick compression check showed 4, 5 & 6 had 120 PSI or less. At least I now knew why my throttle pedal only increased the noise coming from the engine but didn't give me anymore power. I didn't bother with the other 3 cylinders because the FSM states that any cylinder below 128 PSI requires an engine tear down.

Since I still drive my Trooper on the rare occasion I decided to just buy a junk yard engine. My mechanic tossed a started on it and did a quick compression check. Cylinders 1 ,2 & 3 had 30-80 PSI. I had several very colorful words to say. It came with a warranty and I probably should have taken it back but it only cost me $200 including the gas to go pick it up. So I set about ordering all the parts needed for a rebuild. Most of the parts came from eBay. I'm still debating on whether to use the HG that came in the eBay gasket kit or pick up a set from Fel-Pro.

Just so everyone knows these engines are heavy. My neighbor helped me unload my JY engine from the back of my Trooper and hang it on the engine stand. It only took the two of us but it was a retarded idea to have it loaded in the back of my Trooper and then have 2 guys pick up a fully dressed engine. My wife got a very good laugh watching us struggle with the stupid thing

Once the engine was hung it only took my 2 hours to strip the intake, exhaust, fuel and ignition system off. It would have gone a lot quicker if I hadn't take a few pictures and didn't have to dig around my shed to find tools. I still need to find the right socket to get the harmonic balancer off but I ran out of time before heading to work. I didn't take any pictures of the engine hanging on the stand but I did take some of the intake and exhaust ports.

This is one port on each side of the Lower Intake Manifold. The screw driver is 2.5mm at the tip. The port mating surfaces are mismatched so badly the screw driver tip only covers half the area. Each port looked the same.
Top of Lower Intake Manifold
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Bottom of Lower Intake Manifold
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Here is a couple shots showing all the ports have the same mismatch.
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#53 ·
Me too. Strangely enough, was thinking about this yesterday.
 
#54 ·
Haven't even pulled the heads yet. I've had so much going on this truck has been the last thing on my mind. Hopefully I'll have a free weekend to tear into it.
 
#57 · (Edited by Moderator)
Finally had some free time and this project is back in the works. I change jobs about 3 months ago and wasn't able to bring my Trooper home so it sat at my buddies shop 80 miles away. Anyways it's at my house now after I towed it back with my 91 Trooper which my wife has named Thomas.

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Wasn't a fast trip but Thomas towed my Trooper and a Mercedes SL500 80 miles without any issues.

Took a couple hours to get everything off and the driver side head removed. Passenger side will be coming off too after I finish the driver side. Long story short the bolts weren't tight because I had too much oil on them. The head gasket never seal correctly so the water jacket around the cylinders was just dumping straight in. I've spent the last 2 hours running a bolt in and out of the holes to clean them. Once all the holes are cleaned out I'll be reinstalling the head for the third time now.
 

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#58 ·
Ok at this point both heads have been removed, everything cleaned and the heads reinstalled. I'm not entirely sure about the head bolt torque. My shop manual says 47 lb/ft but I remember there being a torque sequence starting low, going to a higher number and finishing with like a 60* turn. I emailed Jerry asking if the book is right.

So until I get an email I'm kind of stuck. The engine is timed correctly but I have to take the tensioner to work so I can compress it. My vise is still in storage. Once I know the right head torque I can button up the heads, route the harness, install the fuel rail and intake manifold. All in all I have about an hour of work left.

Once the engine is all together l'll pressure check the cooling system. Hopefully it goes correctly this time.

So checklist is as follows right now

1. Finish engine(see above for what's left)
2. Pressure check cooling system
3. Make sure all fluids are topped off
4. Start it
5. Take it to closest exhaust shop to have downpipes made
6. Get it inspected and registered
7. Drink a cold one

If the cooling system doesn't pressure check I'll jump to step 7 and then proceed to get what I want off it before it goes to the yard.
 
#59 · (Edited by Moderator)
Just in case anyone care these are the gaskets I pulled out. They look damn near brand new. It's quite obvious they were never crushed correctly to seal everything up. Probably could have reused them but I they'd Already had fluid force past them. The kit I purchase is made by Beck Arnley. Have to say this is a really nice kit. Most of the gaskets are a rubberized material instead of paper. Forget what I paid but it was less then $200 shipped from Rock Auto.

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#60 ·
FWIW, my factory manual for the 6VD1 says 21 ft/lb initial, 47 final, no additional angle.
 
#61 ·
Thanks. Jerry got back to me and said the same thing. Guess up until 96/97 the manuals said 47 with no initial but the dealership always did an initial. I'll finish the engine up tonight and hopefully pressure check it.
 
#62 ·
Well the Isuzu gods have seen fit to spare my Trooper. Picked up a pressure tester and it held pressure. There were a couple small leaks and the stupid tester had few as well. Either way I can cross this off the list. Now I just need to call around for prices on my exhaust. Hopefully I can find a shop that won't rape me on the price.
 
#63 ·
Finally got everything together......kind of. Exhaust still needs to be finished up, couple leaks to clear up and I need to figure out a PCV valve. It runs though and hasn't thrown a cam position code. Hopefully I can get the last couple things buttoned up in the next couple weeks and start driving it. I'll post a video once I upload it to the computer.
 
#64 ·
I can't imagine how relieved you were that the heads weren't bad.

Congrats! Good job trailblazing a new type of mod for the 96-97 Trooper!
 
#65 ·
I did have some questions about the cam position sensor, though.

How did you go about determining where exactly the sensor would be held?

1) Imagining the cam pulley as a 360 degree circle, did you fab/shape the bar stock so that the sensor would be held at EXACTLY the same angle (e.g. 38 degrees from driver-side horizontal) as it had been by the 96-97 TC?

2) Clearance-wise, is the sensor happy enough if it's within a few cm of the magnet as it passes by, or must the EXACT same gap exist between them as was produced by the 96-97 TC?

I get the feeling I'm overthinking things again, but i don't know enough about OBD2 or the functionality of this sensor to make any sort of confident judgements myself.
 
#66 ·
The sensor is just a pulse generator. When the cam magnet passes by it creates/sends a pulse to the ECU. I'm sure there's a very specific position it's supposed to be in that takes a lot of math to figure out. Since I know there's a fairly wide margin of error in manufacturing tolerances I just took an educated guess.

Basically I turned the old engine over until the magnet was centered in the sensor hole then figured out which piston was at TDC. Went to the new engine set timing then turned it over until the same cylinder was at TDC. From there I made a bracket that placed the cam magnet roughly centered in the sensor hole.

Right now the engine starts and runs with zero codes. if I let it run long enough it will set o2 codes because there's nothing connecting the manifolds to the exhaust. Hopefully I can get the exhaust sorted in a week or two and from there actually road test it.
 
#67 ·
Great info, thanks a bunch for laying out all out. More than ever I'm looking forward to continuing with my Trooper.

And once again, congrats on everything coming together.
 
#69 ·
Finally getting things done on this !! That sucks about the oil, strange because I oiled/greased up my head bolts too ...

Hope she's on the road soon !!
 
#70 ·
So over 3 years after I started this project the Trooper finally took its maiden voyage today. Drove it to the exhaust shop and dropped it off. Hopefully it's done tomorrow and I can actually drive it instead of baby it.
 
#71 ·
Bet that felt good! Hopefully smooth sailing to the finish (knock on wood!)
 
#72 ·
Yeah that's what I'm hoping. Cleared the codes when I picked it up. So far no codes have popped up which amazes me since I eyeballed the cam sensor bracket. Now I just need some time at work to do the alignment, tighten the belts and connect the PCV hoses.
 
#73 ·
You sure this is not a twilight zone episode ?? I mean it's been like forever , it's good to hear good news though dude !!
 
#74 ·
After driving my Trooper for a few weeks I figure it's time for a bit of an update.

First I forgot how much I missed driving this thing. After driving my BMW for a couple years with stiff suspension it's nice to have something with lots of wheel travel.

Second I'm hugely disappointed with the power. It is pulls wel, a lot better then it did stock, but it's still feels way under powered. If I had to do it over again I'd probably opt for a 4.8/5.3 v8 and a 4l80 transmission. I'm sure a portion of my disappointment resides in the engine still being broken in but I doubt I'm going to pick up much more power.

Third my mileage has gone down a pretty good amount. When I first bought this Trooper I averaged 13 in town. As of yesterday when I filled up I'm getting 10mpg city. Haven't taken it on any trips yet to see what it does on the highway. Again this is probably due in part to not being broken in but I doubt it's going to come up a lot.

My biggest gripe has absolutely nothing to do with my engine. I put it on the alignment rack at work since it's way off and found that Firestone decided to torque the upper control arm bolts to some retard level. I had a 1/2" breaker bar with a 2' extension contected to an impact style swivel socket. I snapped the end of the extension off and broke the swivel socket. All tools where Snap On and Mac so quality wasn't the issue. Now I have to source bolts and the nut plate because I'm gonna have to cut that crap off. I'm more then a little pissed especially since the caster is way off and I can't fix it without lossening those bolts.
 
#75 ·
I was getting 9.5 MPG after my 3.5 install. After the break in and two more oil changes (almost 7000 miles), I've finally managed to get 15 MPG again. I suppose that's as good as it's gonna get.
 
#76 ·
You get 15mpg in town?
 
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