Yesterday I basked in the glow of bringing my little Isuzu Trooper back to life. If you had come by for a visit you would have thought I was bathing in grease.
Twice yesterday I cleaned the grease off my arms and face. In my prime, as a mechanic, I considered getting dirty while working on cars a sign of the non-professional. Oh well what can I say, I'm not a professional anymore. I worked in nice clean dealership shops with painted floors with stripes to designate my work bay from the next mechanic's bay. Besides, I didn't work on 25 year old nasty diesel engines which had oil leaks and if I did I always pressured washed the engine before I worked on it. Too bad, so sad, I didn't think of washing the Trooper the last time I had it in town. Sure, I wish I had thought of it.
Anyway, I am done cleaning parts, and compressed air was the culprit. The turbocharger was mounted on the exhaust manifold and the oil leak in the vacuum pump was dealt with before I decided to break for lunch. I know I said I was going to take a break from baking cookies, but there it was, cookies on my mind as I used mineral oil to loosen the black diesel grease from my skin. I don't know why, but I needed to get all the grease off so I could make cookies. Some sort of spiritual motivation overcame me, I could get the grease off, and if I couldn't, I didn't need any cookies.
I'm here to tell you, mineral oil is the ticket to removing grease from the skin. Nell says it is because like substances cut like substances, or something like that. Use clean oil to remove oil based grease, dirt and all. I don't know, but it works. Then I came in and scared myself by looking in the mirror at how much blow-back dirt hit me in the face, glad I remembered to wear safety glasses.
Yesterday I basked in the glow of bringing my little Isuzu Trooper back to life. If you had come by for a visit you would have thought I was bathing in grease.
Twice yesterday I cleaned the grease off my arms and face. In my prime, as a mechanic, I considered getting dirty while working on cars a sign of the non-professional. Oh well what can I say, I'm not a professional anymore. I worked in nice clean dealership shops with painted floors with stripes to designate my work bay from the next mechanic's bay. Besides, I didn't work on 25 year old nasty diesel engines which had oil leaks and if I did I always pressured washed the engine before I worked on it. Too bad, so sad, I didn't think of washing the Trooper the last time I had it in town. Sure, I wish I had thought of it.
Anyway, I am done cleaning parts, and compressed air was the culprit. The turbocharger was mounted on the exhaust manifold and the oil leak in the vacuum pump was dealt with before I decided to break for lunch. I know I said I was going to take a break from baking cookies, but there it was, cookies on my mind as I used mineral oil to loosen the black diesel grease from my skin. I don't know why, but I needed to get all the grease off so I could make cookies. Some sort of spiritual motivation overcame me, I could get the grease off, and if I couldn't, I didn't need any cookies.
I'm here to tell you, mineral oil is the ticket to removing grease from the skin. Nell says it is because like substances cut like substances, or something like that. Use clean oil to remove oil based grease, dirt and all. I don't know, but it works. Then I came in and scared myself by looking in the mirror at how much blow-back dirt hit me in the face, glad I remembered to wear safety glasses.
Anywho, I began mixing up batter for my now famous cookies. Pecans are the base nut, Austin and Amelia got several pounds of pecans from somewhere and I am all to happy to make cookies with them. This is the forth batch of pecan honey cookies. This time I spiced them up with dried currants and dried cranberries. Boy howdy! What more can I say? Nothing like giving easy access to my substance of choice for abuse. So anyway, yeah I a happy camper, got my cookies, got the black crap off my face didn't even hurt myself working in the shop all day, life is good.
So, break time was over and the gasket maker glue I used to beef up the seals in the vacuum pump was probably dry enough to reassemble and reinstall the pump on the engine, or so I hoped, because I am understandably anxious to install the turbo and start my beloved Trooper. I had spent a good part of the morning getting the shop organized. I went down to the old shop and gathered up the pieces of the White Trooper's busted combo alternator vacuum pump. Remember that fiasco? Subject: BMN Blue Monday - booze & auto mechanic don't mix well from Monday June 18th 2007 See: http://outfitnm.com/2009/08/20/bmn-glor ... from-ashes
Yeah man, just over two years ago I busted the crap out of the alternator in my Trooper, drunk and getting drunker. I searched and found that story, I'll post it for you below. Nothing like looking back on one of those life lessons to make me feel better about a job done right today. Anyway, two trips later I had most of the pieces transported from the old shop to the new shop. I was looking at the old vacuum pump wondering which way a particular part was positioned, the five books I have were of no help. I quickly deduced that I better pull the pump off the alternator which thankfully I could do while the alternator was still mounted in place now that the turbo was out of the way.
Yeah so that whole portion of the rebuild went just fine and while I waited for the goo to dry enough so it wouldn't spew out when I pressed the pump back together, I worked on the turbo. There were several issues I needed to deal with and not the least was reassembling the intake and exhaust manifolds which have been apart in the shop since May. I usually do a good job of securing nuts and bolts so I can find the right ones to put back. But this is the forth time I have taken this turbo out and put it back in. I had to locate four new nuts for the exhaust manifold, not bad, I cracked a beer and started digging through a tray of nuts and bolts, by the end of the beer I found all four replacements.
Sorry I don't mean to sound like an idiot (again), the first time I took the turbo out to get to the bolts on the starter, if you can believe the engineers would build something that way. While I had the turbo out I decided to fix it by swapping the turbo from the White Trooper (might have been a good plan, who knows now,) but that turbo blew big time about a year later. Then I put the original back in, and that turbo blew several months afterward, sigh. Then I found out core parts for Isuzu turbos were very hard to find. So you see why I thought I may have to let go of my beloved Trooper.
I know I ought to take some pictures of this project, nevertheless I didn't. I'm of the mind at this point who cares about the exact details and procedures of replacing a turbo on what may be the last of its kind? 1986 turbo diesel Trooper. After a fine lunch of garden salad and cookies I went back to the grease pile and began reinstalling the turbo. Today I will connect the exhaust pipe after I reroute a oil line which got bent squishing the turbo in and out.
Anywho, I began mixing up batter for my now famous cookies. Pecans are the base nut, Austin and Amelia got several pounds of pecans from somewhere and I am all to happy to make cookies with them. This is the forth batch of pecan honey cookies. This time I spiced them up with dried currants and dried cranberries. Boy howdy! What more can I say? Nothing like giving easy access to my substance of choice for abuse. So anyway, yeah I a happy camper, got my cookies, got the black crap off my face didn't even hurt myself working in the shop all day, life is good.
So, break time was over and the gasket maker glue I used to beef up the seals in the vacuum pump was probably dry enough to reassemble and reinstall the pump on the engine, or so I hoped, because I am understandably anxious to install the turbo and start my beloved Trooper. I had spent a good part of the morning getting the shop organized. I went down to the old shop and gathered up the pieces of the White Trooper's busted combo alternator vacuum pump. Remember that fiasco? Subject: BMN Blue Monday - booze & auto mechanic don't mix well from Monday June 18th 2007 See: http://outfitnm.com/2009/08/20/bmn-glor ... from-ashes
Yeah man, just over two years ago I busted the crap out of the alternator in my Trooper, drunk and getting drunker. I searched and found that story, I'll post it for you below. Nothing like looking back on one of those life lessons to make me feel better about a job done right today. Anyway, two trips later I had most of the pieces transported from the old shop to the new shop. I was looking at the old vacuum pump wondering which way a particular part was positioned, the five books I have were of no help. I quickly deduced that I better pull the pump off the alternator which thankfully I could do while the alternator was still mounted in place now that the turbo was out of the way.
Yeah so that whole portion of the rebuild went just fine and while I waited for the goo to dry enough so it wouldn't spew out when I pressed the pump back together
Next day the story continues...
Everything worked out great, I am so happy to report.
Here are some pictures :lol:
Above it the rebuilt turbo done by Reed at http://supernaturalturbo.com/ he said he found more parts for rebuilding these turbochargers, so if you have a need email Reed
Another hoodless shot :)
All washed up and ready for work 
Not the Trooper's best side, showing a couple of rust spots. If I ever get much more motivated I'll swap this engine into my other 1867 Trooper td with a perfect body.
Finally, a shot of my little Trooper sitting in front of the Axial Flux Wind Turbine 8)
The back door is open because my Rottweiler got up in the truck as soon as I opened it up. I think he was as anxious as me to get the Trooper rolling again. :roll:
He looked at me with an expression which I interpreted as, "Okay, you are done, now let's get this show on the road!"
--------------------
Brian Rodgers
Internet traffic relayed through DIY solar powered WiFi tower.
www.outfitnm.com
81 Peugeot 505s turbo diesel
2-86 Isuzu Trooper turbo diesels (1 good 1 bad)
1800 gallons biodiesel since 2005
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