The Corona Wagon - Just another 2.3 Sami

[Joe_the_ice_man]

Rust repair is the bane of my existence, fortunately bedliner covers a multitude of sins.

I have enough rust fixed that the body can be attached, which means that I can focus on making it drive, stop and steer.

I still haven't quite figured out what to do with the rad, but the little abomination is coming together slowly.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

The steering is hooked up now. It will have to change from what I have, I'm sure the pitman arm will not clear the leaf at full compression, full lock to the left. The WJ box apparently goes further one direction than the other, I might see about turning the pitman arm on the shaft if that's possible. The angles look OK at best. I might be able to do something to use this box, but I dont have my heart set on it, big thing is that it can be steered to move around the yard now.

A proper high steer set up with a sidekick box would be the ideal solution, but people wanted more than I had into this rig for just a box last time I looked into it.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

I am gonna at least try to use a high pressure pump from an 89 F150, so I can realistically use the samurai tank for the time being until I can build a fuel cell. I will run it off a "surge tank" under the hood that will be supplied by a lift pump from the main tank. This setup will make me *less* likely to wreck a fuel pump by running it dry at angle with low fuel levels should I make such a mistake. It will also make things even more crowded under the hood, which is perfect...

[Joe_the_ice_man]

Used the Trail Tough transmission output bushing. It's just an aluminum bushing with brass race and oil passages inside. Lubed it up with auto trans assembly lube and gently tapped it in with a mallet. The instructions say to remove the rear cover and use a press, but it tapped in relatively easy for a press fit.

[pointsnorth]

there was a mecedes steering arm that guys used to use to convert to high steer

[Joe_the_ice_man]

I know, I can't find any at the wreckers near here. I look about once a month.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

Back from a long hiatus.

We have fire.



Had time and shop space that overlapped long enough to get the stupid thing to run. Didn't screw with it enough to get it to idle down past 1600 RPM. Will fight with that once I have a rad and accessory belt on it. Might even sort itself out if there were a few more things hooked up. If not, my OBD2 port is wired in, so I should be able to figure out why it won't behave.

Intermediate driveshaft is shortened. Trail Tough has hidden the instructions for install of the tail shaft bushing under the listing for the whole kit. The intermediate driveshaft needs to be modified to account for the extra length of the auto trans. I had to cut it down to the point where the yokes are touching inside the tube, as well as shortening the slip yoke and taking off the first 1/2 inch of splines inside.
https://trailtough.com/product/automati ... rsion-kit/

Pics to follow when I get it back inside for accessory belt install.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Sounds like it's running pretty smooth, even if it's at 1600rpm.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

Got some ghetto fab radiation happening.

Plumbed a rad from some forklift in there. No idea why we had it, but the only issue was the lower hose was on the wrong side.

Took a couple 90s to make it work, but it's in there.

Also had to fab a thermostat housing so the lower hose wouldn't interfere with the power steering box.

It's just a piece of plate steel and some 1 1/4 header pipe. It did require that I used the flange off the old thermostat housing as a spacer. I should have JB welded them together, but I took a chance on gasket maker and I regret it.

If you used 1 3/4 header pipe it would probably clear the thermostat, 1 1/4 is the size of all the rad hoses on the 2.3 and the forklift rad though, so I did what I could.


I will have more lines crossing over the front of the engine for the power steering, so I will probably get one of them abrasion socks that Princess Auto carrys to tie them all neatly together.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

Was able to give little Sami a bit more love over the past few weekends, updated shot of the engine bay.

Built brake lines, added an expansion tank, and just a hose away from hooking up power steering. Also hooked up the heater core and started putting the dash together.

This is the mess of wires required to make a 2.3 run. I used TDavis's wiring instructions from Pirate to get close, but this is an auto, so I'm sure it will take some more tweaking.

NOTE: His list of wires is more than what you need for it to run. I tried it with nothing plugged into the dash today and it was sitting there purring like a kitten. I also hooked an OBD2 scanner to the port and found my MIL codes were only for 2 EVAP systems, it may be possible to rig this up with a functional check engine light.

I also shortened the rear driveshaft 1 1/2 inch.

Ignore any questionable fuel system components those are *probably* temporary.

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Ignore any questionable fuel system components those are *probably* temporary.

Temporary as in they're staying like that until it doesn't work.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

So, good news and bad news from the week.

Good
-Power steering works, just needs some more fluid. Probably gonna drill out the pump for a bit more volume when I take it off.
-Coolant system doesnt have any external leaks, air also travels up and burps out of the expansion tank I added.
-Cylinders 1 and 4 have good compression.

Bad
-The head is warped. It spat, sputtered and stalled when I put the rad caps on. Cylinder 3 blows bubbles when doing a compression test. 2 and 3 are not happy compression wise. I tried ignoring all the signs my head was not right, but ignoring it did not make it any less not right.

[arse_sidewards]

Time to get out the sandpaper and surface plate.

[Joe_the_ice_man]

Temporary as in they're staying like that until it doesn't work.

We'll see. I thought ahead and used the cheap zip ties so it would fail sooner

[Joe_the_ice_man]

Time to get out the sandpaper and surface plate.

If I had a way of doing that to cam journals, that would have been my first choice, unfortunately I dont. If anyone has some knowledge to share, I'm all ears.

Apparently you can straighten them with heat, shims and clamps. I may try doing that once I've got the head switched out, just so I have a spare, it's not worth driving to the far end of Edmonton for a $10 core anyway.