Fuel pump of woe

During the summer, when I wasn't cutting firewood or working on the WellWell device, I was applying my wrench to the Passodeo. It just wasn't running right. Potential culprits included a few five dollar parts, so I replaced those first. Sure enough, testing the throttle position sensor did reveal a bit of jumpiness, but the overall situation did not improve.

Being a 20+ year old car, the next most likely culprit would be the fuel pump. A 15 dollar part, ok. The shop manual tells me that there are just 10 bolts to remove to do the job. Easy-peasy, right? Again, the manual writers omitted the first step, 1) Remove body from frame.

A few choice words and a lot of pressure washing later the bolts were located and removed. It may sound easy, but there was so little clearance, I could only move the wrench one ratchet click at a time, by my fingertips only. Parts ordered, parts received, bolt threads cleaned, reassemble!

There are three hoses from the tank, fuel out, fuel return and a tank vent. Be sure to mark their connections on the fixed endpoints before dissambly. The return and vent happen to be the same size on the Passodeo and I managed to swap these lines. Oops. The result was fuel dribbling from the vent port at the rear of the car. Opening the gas cap relieved the pressure enough to stop that. More troubleshooting needed.

Just to be certain that I would re-connect the right line to the right port, I disconnected the vent line at the purge solenoid/valve at the intake manifold to blow air through the line. No flow? WTF? Is there another valve somewhere? No, following the rubber hose to the steel tubing to the rubber hose at the far end revealed nothing interestng. A quick puff of air on the removed rubber hose was rewarded with a shower of charcaol granules. The hose was completely plugged. Checking at the other end revealed the same problem. Oh, no is the steel line also plugged? It sure was. Repair, replace, or bypass? It is a pipe, a small one, but still a pipe. I crafted a drain snake from a speedometer cable that I had not yet installed in a friend's car and a length of plastic drip-irrigation tubing. It took a couple of hours, but that line is flowing freely now! The vent valve and its' filter were plugged with granules, too. Better check the purge valve, that I replaced a few weeks ago. A few more chunks fell out of that.I can only wonder how much made it in to the intake, and then through the valves. Time will tell, I guess.

Terms and Conditions?

I read them. I'm paying the price.

When I was shopping for a new phone, only de-Googled models were on the list. The one I chose claimed full T-Mo compatibility, but after the episode with my previous phone, I was dubious. According to the T&C, returning the phone would be at my expense, shipping it to an address in Canada. Well, ok. Buy now.

It arrived, from France, days ahead of the replacement SIM I ordered from my carrier. After two weeks of online support chats with the carrier, I gave up on the phone. It just would not work on the network. (T-Mo band 12 seems to require some sort of special VoLTE white-listing, which I suspect that this phone didn't have.)

I filed the paper work required by the vendor and shipped it off to the address specified. The shipping charge set me back $130. But this is what I agreed to, right? After a week, or so, in customs it it is out for delivery. It was refused! This was also about the time a shipping label arrived from the vendor. Huh? The phone sat on the shipper's truck for another week before the return to sender caught up to it. Then another week in customs, and finally the phone is back at the shipper's office here. It will be another $150 to take possession of the phone from the shipping company? What!!! At least they didn't manage to crush the phone in transit.

Slapped their label on it and off it goes. Nearly three months later, still no refund.

Notes on replacing a 6VD1 SOHC with a 6VE1 DOHC

This is a work in progress, and will look like one for some time to come. The vehicle in question is a '96 Honda Passport (also known as the Isuzu Rodeo).

For reasons unknown, the Passodeo decided to eat a spark plug one morning. Ceramics and machined moving steel are a bad mix, great clouds of billowing smoke ensued.

Why a 6VE1? This area's rebuild shops had at least a 2 month lead time, if they were even willing to even specify one. A rebuilt 6VD1, on reasonable terms, could not be located. A used JDM 6VE1 popped right up. Days of rummaging forums later, the 6VE1 was ordered.

Comparing the two engines, the 6VE1 looks to be a better laid out engine. Some bolted on pieces were integrated in to the block casting and coolant ports were relocated to require fewer rubber-metal interconnections.

Step 1: remove body (Looking back, this could be the better choice.)
alt. Step 1: Remove most things other than the body. We went as far as unbolting and moving the front axle.

Take note that Isuzu uses a 'forward pull' clutch. If you haven't encountered one, read up about them before beginning.

Intake Manifold: Using the 6VE1 intake, with 6VD1 injectors stuffed in to it for compatibility with the existing electronics. A bit of grinder work on the manifold helped the fit. At present, the intake control valve is not connected, so the high RPM performance may be a bit less than optimal. It turned out that there was an air leak in the cobbled together intake that caused a check-engine code, or two. Sealing the joints with silicone tape partially cleared up a few of them. Someday, we will have to install a customized intake system.

Exhaust manifolds: 6VE1 bolted right up to the stock exhaust system

Bell housing: Mated up after relocating some guide pins. Only a small sheet metal cover remains to be fabricated.

Throttle: Mounted the 6VD1 cable actuated body on an aluminum adaptor plate. I'll upload an openscad file. Attaching the intake to the air filter box, took a bit of hacking and hacksawing.

Engine oil dipstick: Checking the oil level may require a contortionist's assistance. 

Since 6VD1 accessories are on separate belts and the 6VE1 uses a single serpentine belt, some re-rigging had to be done. Mostly, we just swapped the pulleys.

The radiator fan was destroyed while the engine was in the warehouse. The conversion to a serpentine drive causes the fan to rotate in the opposite direction, so a replacement was needed.

Pwr. Steering: The ECU is expecting a signal from the power steering pump. If we get a check engine code, we'll go back and swap the pumps.

Wire Stretching: Sensors were re-arranged and a larger intake manifold means that there are a lot of wires to be moved, cut and spliced. The cam sensor could not be transferred from the older engine, so the new sensor's plug was spliced in to the harness.

Crankshaft sensor: This was the part that prevented immediate success. Could be that it was damaged or wired differently, but the sensor from the 6VD1 dropped right in. The car started up on the second try.

MAP sensor: Another sensor that needed to be spliced in. In testing, it appears to use the voltages for power and signal. However, the red wire is not +5V from the ECU.

The result: There are a few check engine codes to sort out, but it is running quite smoothly and has very good performance.

Ordering replacement parts in the future will be amusing. Should I order both '98 Trooper and '96 Passport parts, then return the one that does not look right? (This just happened with a potentially faulty MAP sensor.)