offthepath
Adventurer
Wow. That's pretty respectable. What's your plan to address the butterfly valves?
"Yoshi" - 2005 Limited Build & Adventure Thread
- Thread starter SONICMASD
- Start date
Wow. That's pretty respectable. What's your plan to address the butterfly valves?
SONICMASD
Adventurer
Going to order a new surge tank when the time comes. Going to fix the front spring situation and finish some other mods first and try and hold off on the surge tank for another year or so until I get to 180k when I plan on doing some other engine work anyways.
SONICMASD
Adventurer
2/22/20: Time to check another mod off the list.
Dust Mitigation - Have you noticed how much dustier the cabin of a Gen3 gets than other vehicles? It's really something that has jumped out at me and so today I knocked out mod 2 of 2 to try and solve this issue.
To review, the first thing I did is install a Cabin Air Filter to stop the dust from coming in through the climate control vents.
Mod 2 is to address the dust that comes in from the rear of the vehicle. The Gen3 has cabin pressure equalization vents in the rear of the body. They are basically two flaps, made of thin rubber, that when you close a door or have the A/C or fan on they open up and allow air to escape from the inside of the body so that the pressure inside the cabin is not higher making it harder to open or close doors. The problem is that these vents let in a ton of dust when you're rolling down a dirt road with your A/C on because they will be open.
I followed this write up from 2012 (hint, hint, forum search is really useful): https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/dusted-cabin.77863/
Just to add some of my own thoughts and pics:
I started with the Passenger side which is easier. Remove the tail light, remove the 2 10mm bumper bolts inside the tail light cavity, remove the 2 bumper plastic push clips nearest to the tail light (hidden by the rear door when closed), and remove the closest 12mm bolt holding the bumper on (removing these things lets you tug on the bumper and it moves/flexes out a little bit to make getting the vent out a little easier), pop out the vent, remove it from underneath the bumper, clean dust/dirt off vent, cut out filter material and tape it over the inside, reinstall.
The Driver side is basically the same but because of the resonator I couldn't get the vent out the bottom. So I removed the bumper reflector and slid it out through that opening instead.
View With Tail Light Removed (look at all the dust build up above and on the louvers):
The Vent:
View with the vent removed, maybe in the future I will explore simply jamming a ball of filter material into this hole instead of taking the time to tape on perfect squares on the vent. I wonder if they even make filtration material that is loose like cotton candy that you can just stuff in there?
Here are the filters I used, only $5. You only need 2 but you can always use the rest in your home's air registers or save them because you'll obvioulsy want to change them out eventually (I'll shoot for once a year).
I wanted to make sure they would stay in place so I splurged on the expensive tape and gave Gorilla a try. It was good, but I wish it was just a little bit tackier (could have been because I was doing the job in near freezing temps). The game plan:
1/2 way there on the Passenger side vent:
All Done:
Be sure not to impede the vent's 4 side clips with tape:
For those of you without rear bumpers or custom bumpers, probably even more important to take care of this mod:
Final Thoughts - Once summer comes I'll be able to see if I notice any difference in the amount of dust in the cabin. I figured this mod was worth a shot since it was only like $12 (with plenty of filters and tape left over) and I found some good reviews on it on the Aussie forums and those dudes have real dust to deal with.
Some people taped the louvers shut altogether but there were mixed reviews after that point as to whether it had negative effects on closing doors, the climate circulation, etc. so I didn't want to risk it and figured this would be the safer option even though I'll have to do this again periodically as the filter becomes dirty/clogged.
Dust Mitigation - Have you noticed how much dustier the cabin of a Gen3 gets than other vehicles? It's really something that has jumped out at me and so today I knocked out mod 2 of 2 to try and solve this issue.
To review, the first thing I did is install a Cabin Air Filter to stop the dust from coming in through the climate control vents.
Mod 2 is to address the dust that comes in from the rear of the vehicle. The Gen3 has cabin pressure equalization vents in the rear of the body. They are basically two flaps, made of thin rubber, that when you close a door or have the A/C or fan on they open up and allow air to escape from the inside of the body so that the pressure inside the cabin is not higher making it harder to open or close doors. The problem is that these vents let in a ton of dust when you're rolling down a dirt road with your A/C on because they will be open.
I followed this write up from 2012 (hint, hint, forum search is really useful): https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/dusted-cabin.77863/
Just to add some of my own thoughts and pics:
I started with the Passenger side which is easier. Remove the tail light, remove the 2 10mm bumper bolts inside the tail light cavity, remove the 2 bumper plastic push clips nearest to the tail light (hidden by the rear door when closed), and remove the closest 12mm bolt holding the bumper on (removing these things lets you tug on the bumper and it moves/flexes out a little bit to make getting the vent out a little easier), pop out the vent, remove it from underneath the bumper, clean dust/dirt off vent, cut out filter material and tape it over the inside, reinstall.
The Driver side is basically the same but because of the resonator I couldn't get the vent out the bottom. So I removed the bumper reflector and slid it out through that opening instead.
View With Tail Light Removed (look at all the dust build up above and on the louvers):
The Vent:
View with the vent removed, maybe in the future I will explore simply jamming a ball of filter material into this hole instead of taking the time to tape on perfect squares on the vent. I wonder if they even make filtration material that is loose like cotton candy that you can just stuff in there?
Here are the filters I used, only $5. You only need 2 but you can always use the rest in your home's air registers or save them because you'll obvioulsy want to change them out eventually (I'll shoot for once a year).
I wanted to make sure they would stay in place so I splurged on the expensive tape and gave Gorilla a try. It was good, but I wish it was just a little bit tackier (could have been because I was doing the job in near freezing temps). The game plan:
1/2 way there on the Passenger side vent:
All Done:
Be sure not to impede the vent's 4 side clips with tape:
For those of you without rear bumpers or custom bumpers, probably even more important to take care of this mod:
Final Thoughts - Once summer comes I'll be able to see if I notice any difference in the amount of dust in the cabin. I figured this mod was worth a shot since it was only like $12 (with plenty of filters and tape left over) and I found some good reviews on it on the Aussie forums and those dudes have real dust to deal with.
Some people taped the louvers shut altogether but there were mixed reviews after that point as to whether it had negative effects on closing doors, the climate circulation, etc. so I didn't want to risk it and figured this would be the safer option even though I'll have to do this again periodically as the filter becomes dirty/clogged.
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Inyo_man
Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.
Well done!
I've enjoyed this mod now for many years, and it has made a huge difference when driving in very dusty conditions.
I normally clean/change the filters when I service the air filter. The last pressure vent that is left are the vents under the door jabs...
(IIRC there are pressure vents under the bottom door jam. Removing the plastic "step" strip allows access to these vents.)
Who doesn't dig affordable, practical mods?
Cheers
I've enjoyed this mod now for many years, and it has made a huge difference when driving in very dusty conditions.
I normally clean/change the filters when I service the air filter. The last pressure vent that is left are the vents under the door jabs...
(IIRC there are pressure vents under the bottom door jam. Removing the plastic "step" strip allows access to these vents.)
Who doesn't dig affordable, practical mods?
Cheers
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SONICMASD
Adventurer
oh wow, I didn’t know there were more vents. Are they under the 2nd row or 1st row, or both, door jamb bottom trim plates?
offthepath
Adventurer
How well does this mount work when off road? Will it move around or the phone fall out when on rough roads?
SONICMASD
Adventurer
The phone will definitely be shaking up and down a few millimeters but I haven't taken it offroad yet so I don't know if it will actually fall off. I'll post back when I test it.
SONICMASD
Adventurer
2/21/20: Every time I saw the ARB logo on Yoshi it would bring back horrible memories of the bumper mount installation and their insanely frustrating instruction manual. I had to do something.
Much better...even if I was never even that into Mario Bros. video games as a kid.
Much better...even if I was never even that into Mario Bros. video games as a kid.
SONICMASD
Adventurer
2/26/20: I live in deer and elk country so I installed this animal warning siren type thingy on the front of Yoshi today. It allegedly emits an ultrasonic noise as air pushes through the hole in the center to scare away animals from the roadside.
Who knows if it actually works? The theory makes sense, it has great reviews, and at $8 I think it's worth a shot. I mounted it using a 1" square of 3M Dual Lock.
Who knows if it actually works? The theory makes sense, it has great reviews, and at $8 I think it's worth a shot. I mounted it using a 1" square of 3M Dual Lock.
Denis 19853001
New member
How it works?
ohiolion97
New member
Thank you so much for all of your write-ups! I just bought a GenIII last week and you have been very helpful in make up my mind of where to go with this build. Great work!
SONICMASD
Adventurer
Thanks for the feedback and for reading along and welcome to the community!
SONICMASD
Adventurer
I know I have not posted in a loooong time. My last update on this build thread was on 2/26/20 and I launched LusoOverland.com on 3/1/20 so that explains my absence as work has been super busy. But in a good way, you guys have been keeping me busy with orders and I certainly appreciate it.
Let's get back to the story of Yoshi.
6/19/20: I made a mistake when ordering the Lovells EHD front springs, a mistake that the Lovell's engineers also did not catch - The EHD springs are for Diesel Pajeros only and if you put them on a petrol Montero like me it's very difficult to get them into spec. Even with the ARB bumper, 3 skids, rock sliders, and winch I was still 130lbs shy of the minimum weight needed on the front end for these springs to be in their load range. The ride was extremely harsh, the lift was way too high, and the overall performance of the truck both on and offroad suffered as a result. On the plus side, it was almost impossible to bottom out the shocks no matter how hard I hit a bump or hole. It also explains why my truck rode soooo much better whenever my big 300lb brother in law would sit shotgun.
Now that I'm a Lovells Springs dealer, I finally got around to switching out the EHD front coils for HD ones. I also took the opportunity to put on a pair of PolyTuff poly lower coil spring pads because the pads take a lot of abuse from the HD springs and added weight. I filmed the entire process in case anyone wants to do their own lift/strut assembly: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17872947343748613/
The difference is amazing. The truck now drives soo much better, it's faster, brakes faster, handles better, and actually performs offroad like it is supposed to. Gen3s are fickle beasts and there is such a thing as too much lift on these trucks...and it does not take much. 2" is about as high as you want to go in the front. You can go a little higher if you have racing coilovers (like King Shocks) or if you have a subframe drop, but on just a standard coil spring lift going about 2" is the max before the lift starts creating more problems than advantages.
Firstly, the stress you'll be putting on CVs and steering components is greatly increased. Staying below 2" and the angles are totally fine and shouldn't affect longevity much at all.
To complicate matters, my front end was not just too high but oversprung as well. For someone with the correct load spec'd springs in the front but then more than 2" of lift with the addition of spacers for example, this wouldn't be as big of an issue. Assuming of course that their rear end was just as high as the front or higher. But for me, I was oversprung on the front and these EHD coils were causing my front to sit 1" higher than the rear.
Which you can see here:
This caused a lot of problems outside of a harsh ride- from reduced braking effectiveness, slower acceleration, and most noticeable - terrible traction. With the front not having enough weight on it, the traction control would kick in all the time offroad even over the slightest obstacle or undulation. I noticed that my traction control was kicking in a lot more frequently in Yoshi than on my previous Gen3 but didn't really give it much thought until I went winter wheeling in the snow and mud and got stuck for my first time ever! The mud was deep and soft and I picked a terrible line but still, I had my rear locker on and should have made it. It was shortly after this that I realized I was basically driving around in 2wheel drive as the front wheels were not making significant enough contact with the ground and were not helping much. You can even see in these photos how high my front wheels are above the ground while my back wheels dug deep into it:
The truck drives so much better now with the HD springs and traction offroad is back to the way it should be. The traction control doesn't kick in unless I'm really getting after it.
So in the end, I went down from a 2.8" lift to 1.4" lift by switching out the incorrect springs. The only negative is that now I can get the front driver side wheel to hit the inner wheel liner if I hit a bump/divot with force and cause it to go full compression. This is not possible when going slow up a ramp as the passenger side will just lift off the ground, but when you hit something with speed it forces the tire up fast and hard enough to hit the inner wheel well/fender liner at the very top well before the lower arm bump stops hit the frame.
You can see the tire rub marks and how it removed the push clip in the fender liner hole here in this terrible photo I took with a potato:
It's a very minor issue, waaaaay less annoying than being oversprung, but one that I'll be fixing soon. It is only happening on the driver's side even though both sides have the same lift height measurement, I think this is because of the extra weight of driver and battery on the left side that causes more force to come down on that side; but either way, I'll be lifting both sides equally but not past 2" this time. I'm at 1.4" of lift and am pretty sure that another .25" or possibly .5" at the most will sort it out. I tend to subscribe to the school of thought that you only want as much lift as it takes to clear the tire size you want to run, especially on a Gen3 that already has gobs of ground clearance. Oh and the reason I'm only getting 1.4" of lift out of the Lovells 1.5-2" lift kit is because the HD springs are rated for up to 250lbs maximum constant weight and I'm a little over that with 275lbs of added constant weight (the ARB bumper alone is 110lbs!).
Let's get back to the story of Yoshi.
6/19/20: I made a mistake when ordering the Lovells EHD front springs, a mistake that the Lovell's engineers also did not catch - The EHD springs are for Diesel Pajeros only and if you put them on a petrol Montero like me it's very difficult to get them into spec. Even with the ARB bumper, 3 skids, rock sliders, and winch I was still 130lbs shy of the minimum weight needed on the front end for these springs to be in their load range. The ride was extremely harsh, the lift was way too high, and the overall performance of the truck both on and offroad suffered as a result. On the plus side, it was almost impossible to bottom out the shocks no matter how hard I hit a bump or hole. It also explains why my truck rode soooo much better whenever my big 300lb brother in law would sit shotgun.
Now that I'm a Lovells Springs dealer, I finally got around to switching out the EHD front coils for HD ones. I also took the opportunity to put on a pair of PolyTuff poly lower coil spring pads because the pads take a lot of abuse from the HD springs and added weight. I filmed the entire process in case anyone wants to do their own lift/strut assembly: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17872947343748613/
The difference is amazing. The truck now drives soo much better, it's faster, brakes faster, handles better, and actually performs offroad like it is supposed to. Gen3s are fickle beasts and there is such a thing as too much lift on these trucks...and it does not take much. 2" is about as high as you want to go in the front. You can go a little higher if you have racing coilovers (like King Shocks) or if you have a subframe drop, but on just a standard coil spring lift going about 2" is the max before the lift starts creating more problems than advantages.
Firstly, the stress you'll be putting on CVs and steering components is greatly increased. Staying below 2" and the angles are totally fine and shouldn't affect longevity much at all.
To complicate matters, my front end was not just too high but oversprung as well. For someone with the correct load spec'd springs in the front but then more than 2" of lift with the addition of spacers for example, this wouldn't be as big of an issue. Assuming of course that their rear end was just as high as the front or higher. But for me, I was oversprung on the front and these EHD coils were causing my front to sit 1" higher than the rear.
Which you can see here:
This caused a lot of problems outside of a harsh ride- from reduced braking effectiveness, slower acceleration, and most noticeable - terrible traction. With the front not having enough weight on it, the traction control would kick in all the time offroad even over the slightest obstacle or undulation. I noticed that my traction control was kicking in a lot more frequently in Yoshi than on my previous Gen3 but didn't really give it much thought until I went winter wheeling in the snow and mud and got stuck for my first time ever! The mud was deep and soft and I picked a terrible line but still, I had my rear locker on and should have made it. It was shortly after this that I realized I was basically driving around in 2wheel drive as the front wheels were not making significant enough contact with the ground and were not helping much. You can even see in these photos how high my front wheels are above the ground while my back wheels dug deep into it:
The truck drives so much better now with the HD springs and traction offroad is back to the way it should be. The traction control doesn't kick in unless I'm really getting after it.
So in the end, I went down from a 2.8" lift to 1.4" lift by switching out the incorrect springs. The only negative is that now I can get the front driver side wheel to hit the inner wheel liner if I hit a bump/divot with force and cause it to go full compression. This is not possible when going slow up a ramp as the passenger side will just lift off the ground, but when you hit something with speed it forces the tire up fast and hard enough to hit the inner wheel well/fender liner at the very top well before the lower arm bump stops hit the frame.
You can see the tire rub marks and how it removed the push clip in the fender liner hole here in this terrible photo I took with a potato:
It's a very minor issue, waaaaay less annoying than being oversprung, but one that I'll be fixing soon. It is only happening on the driver's side even though both sides have the same lift height measurement, I think this is because of the extra weight of driver and battery on the left side that causes more force to come down on that side; but either way, I'll be lifting both sides equally but not past 2" this time. I'm at 1.4" of lift and am pretty sure that another .25" or possibly .5" at the most will sort it out. I tend to subscribe to the school of thought that you only want as much lift as it takes to clear the tire size you want to run, especially on a Gen3 that already has gobs of ground clearance. Oh and the reason I'm only getting 1.4" of lift out of the Lovells 1.5-2" lift kit is because the HD springs are rated for up to 250lbs maximum constant weight and I'm a little over that with 275lbs of added constant weight (the ARB bumper alone is 110lbs!).
B-Line Performance
Member
Great build and detailed walk through! Love seeing it all come together! 
