My 1992 Chevrolet/Isuzu Trooper Build in Chile S.A.

[EricMcGrew]

Thanks Tin! I'll be looking for the pics.

As for the oil... No, I haven't found the source for sure. However, I did finally get the intake, intercooler, and breather hose off to give them a look at. Everything tells me that the turbo seals are fine. No lateral play, and the any oil in the turbo inlet. Definitely nothing puddled up on the intake side of the turbo. A light film, that's it.

Still, the ground under the Trooper is even more stained than ever. WHAT IS GOING ON?????? I feel like I'm chasing my tail here... AWWW....!! SO VERY FRUSTRATED! I did some vid that I'll edit and put up. I don't see any blow by smoke coming out of the valve cover with the oil filler cap off, and the trooper running at temp. There is quite a bit of air surging out of the filler hole though.

There is definately oil coming from some where. My whole block, lower a-arms, and even back to the Tranny are saturated with oil. So much so that it has drips, just sitting there waiting to drip. I don't get it. Oh well... Maybe one day I'll figure it out.

Good thing is, my turbo is still completely clean from where I cleaned it up the other day. No new oil on anything that I can see. So, it looks like the heat shield and turbo saturation problem was just the loose hose clamps. Plus, the oil inside, even though more than I thought should be there, seems to be on par with what everyone is telling me.

I'll post the vids When I've gotten them ready.

Thanks for your help Tin!

 

[Patrollife]

Awesome vid man! You are one lucky dude to have those drives at your fingertips! Hope u figure out the leak issue soon!

 

[EricMcGrew]

Awesome vid man! You are one lucky dude to have those drives at your fingertips! Hope u figure out the leak issue soon!

Thanks! But, your not doing to bad yourself, for beautiful places to see. Yesterday we went to the Argintinan/Chilean boarder. THere is a national park there that has come nice water falls. The trails were REALLY easy, so it was a nice, first day out, in quite some time. For hiking that is. I'll put up a vid soon.

I'm really digging your instagram feed as well! Thanks for posting your user name.

 

[Patrollife]

No worries! The good thing is, if you or I ever pass through either countries at least we'll have trail buddies in mind. I'm hoping that after my post in Guatemala I will be able to get assigned to, say, El Salvador, Nicaragua or Colombia and take an overland to either of those countries. But truthfully, my bucket list overland is to hit every country in Africa. One day.

 

[EricMcGrew]

Ok, so I'm finally going to get back onto some of the mods/repairs that I've made to the trooper in the past. After the suspension/hub upgrades where done, my friend and I attacked them poor engine installation the previous owner had done. At the same time, we went ahead and did some preventative maintenance at the same time. Since it was some time ago, I'll let the video I made back then tell the story.

Sorry, the video is all in vertical format. It was one of my first videos with the iphone.

 

[tin]

Hi Eric,

I'm sorry I haven't posted any pics yet. Just got super busy and it went on the back burner. I will try to take so today though.

Good to hear your turbo is ok. Air turbulence in the crank case is normal, there are a lot of moving parts after all. The crank case vent just acts as a way to prevent pressure buildup, as well as get rid of some water vapor.

I totally feel your frustration with the leak! But when you say leaking, how much oil do you lose per oil change? If you have "sweating" from somewhere then the issue is much less serious. Was the vehicle sitting for a long time without being driven? The seals could be dry. Sometimes they re-hydrate with time. Trying to run a slightly thicker oil might help as well. I hada leaking rear main seal that has reduced to a very minor sweat with time as the seal is dried out. I run a 15W40 Shell Rotella and am very happy with it in our climate (Calgary).

Excuse me if I'm going over stuff you already know/do, but it's important to make sure How often do you change oil and oil filter? With a oil cooled turbo on a diesel you must do changes every 5000km religiously. With water cooled turbo you could go a few hundred over. Because the oil has to cool a turbo that is glowing red cast iron, it's lubricating qualities deteriorate very quickly. It may even coke up in the turbo housing if you don't idle to cool down the turbo after driving. It's important that the filter you are using has a bypass valve, as oil in a diesel absorbs a lot more soot than in a gas engine and the filter must be able to cope with this as well as have a backup bypass in case it gets full and restricts flow and builds oil pressure.

Again, please disregard if you're doing these things already, just trying to get the basics out of the way... So in terms of finding the leak, I would try to see how high the oil appears on the engine. For example, if you see oil as high as the valve cover then check that out, fix it if needed and move lower. The next would be the head gasket, then sump. While doing this also check each oil hose as well as the crankshaft seals. Usually I wipe everything clean and check for leaks every drive. If you have oil everywhere, perhaps it's dripping on a CV shaft and the shaft is flinging the oil. Do you have an oil pressure gauge fitted? How is the pressure?

Good luck!

 

[EricMcGrew]

Hi Eric,

I'm sorry I haven't posted any pics yet. Just got super busy and it went on the back burner. I will try to take so today though.

Good to hear your turbo is ok. Air turbulence in the crank case is normal, there are a lot of moving parts after all. The crank case vent just acts as a way to prevent pressure buildup, as well as get rid of some water vapor.

I totally feel your frustration with the leak! But when you say leaking, how much oil do you lose per oil change? If you have "sweating" from somewhere then the issue is much less serious. Was the vehicle sitting for a long time without being driven? The seals could be dry. Sometimes they re-hydrate with time. Trying to run a slightly thicker oil might help as well. I hada leaking rear main seal that has reduced to a very minor sweat with time as the seal is dried out. I run a 15W40 Shell Rotella and am very happy with it in our climate (Calgary).

Excuse me if I'm going over stuff you already know/do, but it's important to make sure How often do you change oil and oil filter? With a oil cooled turbo on a diesel you must do changes every 5000km religiously. With water cooled turbo you could go a few hundred over. Because the oil has to cool a turbo that is glowing red cast iron, it's lubricating qualities deteriorate very quickly. It may even coke up in the turbo housing if you don't idle to cool down the turbo after driving. It's important that the filter you are using has a bypass valve, as oil in a diesel absorbs a lot more soot than in a gas engine and the filter must be able to cope with this as well as have a backup bypass in case it gets full and restricts flow and builds oil pressure.

Again, please disregard if you're doing these things already, just trying to get the basics out of the way... So in terms of finding the leak, I would try to see how high the oil appears on the engine. For example, if you see oil as high as the valve cover then check that out, fix it if needed and move lower. The next would be the head gasket, then sump. While doing this also check each oil hose as well as the crankshaft seals. Usually I wipe everything clean and check for leaks every drive. If you have oil everywhere, perhaps it's dripping on a CV shaft and the shaft is flinging the oil. Do you have an oil pressure gauge fitted? How is the pressure?

Good luck!

Thanks Tin. I understand completely! I've been swamped with getting my life in order and trying to get the Daihatsu on the axle before the fall/winter rains set in. So, unfortunately, the Trooper has been heavily neglected. On top of that, there is a debate in my head over if I should put the Trooper up for sale or not. I'm just not sure for now though. If it was better supported, then I wouldn't even think about selling it. Here in Chile though, it's not easy to find the parts that I need.

On a good note though, I did find out what's causing, at least a decent portion of my oil leakage (it seems, I haven't had time to deal with it yet). It seems that the turbo oil feed banjo bolt/seal is leaking. Therefore the oil is coming out from below the head of the bolt, and running down the side of the turbo casting, then down to the block/exhaust. I'm making sure that I have enough oil in the system, but I have to take the bolt out of the turbo and take it to a turbo shop to get a new one. Looks as though someone had tried to tighten the bolt with a hammer and vise grips. So, two sides of the head are non existant. Not exactly ideal.

I've just got to get this Daihatsu dialed in. Just trying to get the pivot brackets for the leafs in the right places and fab up the appropriate bracing. Once it's drivable legally, then I'll take the Trooper off the road for a few weeks. Hopefully, that comes soon.

 

[EricMcGrew]

So, I've been crazy busy lately, and I've been trying to keep up a simple exercise routine. Not the easiest thing. I don't know why. Plus, that CRAZY DAIHATSU has been one new design challenge after another. So, honestly, the Trooper has been WAAAAYYYY back on the priority burner. Unfortunately though, that can't stay that way. I've got to get the oil changed, and I've also got to address a few maintenance issues that are on the verges of becoming something more than maintenance. So, I'll be trying to get to thoses soon.

As for the Trooper, after I had done the Motor re-install, not much else happened with it. I started some custom rock sliders, which I still haven't installed, and I build a new, custom DIY rear bumper. That is installed.

My goal for the rear bumper was to keep it relatively light, but at the same time, strong enough for hi-lift use, and light bashing. So, I fabbed the bumper up with .120" sqr and rect. tubing, and capped the ends with some .090" sheet. Then I painted it with some Sherwin Williams spray can bed liner. Here are some vids of all this work.


Here the vids I have on making the Rock sliders.




Here's a vid on my rear bumper I made. You can find out more on this project over at www.beginnersfab.com

 

[EricMcGrew]

Nothing super special, but I did get a bit done on the Trooper today. While it's not fun to have a volcano go off behind your house and force you into a friends place, it is nice to know you can't work on more obligitory projects. For this reason, the Trooper is getting some attention. Here's what I did today...

I changed the oil and filter, air filter, repaired my turn signal mounting bracket (plastic mounting tab had broken off), Changed the head light bulbs, diagnosed a lightng short, Changed the auxiliary belts (after one had broke in the volcano ash drive), and fixed (at least it seams) the turbo oil feed line leak.

I also found that my crank shaft seal is leaking, and needs to be replaced. I just did that when I re-installed the Diesel around a year ago. ARRGGG! Plus, I soon hope to be cleaning repacking, and changing the CV axle's and boots. Plus, it should be getting waxed and buffed soon too. All in all, a good day.

Sorry, no new photos today!

 

[EricMcGrew]

So, as I mentioned, I got a bit done on the Trooper. I hope to get even more done soon!

 

[EricMcGrew]

Still working on the Trooper slowly, but surely... I had to put my, unfinnished and rusted out, roof rack back on. Still, I think I'll be able to get it finished up fairly soon. Plus, I've started the next portion of Side-step/Rock-slider work on the Trooper. Here's some details.

 

[Patrollife]

What did you do with the Daihatsu during the volcano eruption?


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[EricMcGrew]

It's just sitting in the back yard. Hoping the Volcano doesn't wipe it away. At least we still haven't gotten much ash. The probability of the volcano erupting on our side is minimal, but it's always possible. Let's hope not.

 

[Patrollife]

We've had some ash fall here in Xela. Stuff is nasty on vehicles. Nothing like you guys had. Glad to hear the Daihatsu is still around. And, yes, let's hope Mother Nature doesn't create her own firework show.


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[Patrollife]

Cool lil rear bumper vid, too


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