robwormald

Hi all, long time reader, first time caller.

I recently picked up my first Toyota pickup, a gorgeous 1986 SR5 XtraCab w/ the 22RTEC motor. Zero rust, it's a true California truck and even has the blue plates to match! My only complaint is the auto transmission, but might rectify that one day. Some pictures:





It sat non-operational from 2015-2020, so since purchasing it I've dealt with a variety of minor issues from old hoses drying out, dead sensors, etc. Most recently I've replaced basically all the intake piping - I scored an additional 22RTEC motor on craigslist and have been pulling the hard-to-find intake parts with either OEM where possible or high quality aftermarket where I can't get an original part. When I purchased it, the charge pipe from the turbo to the throttle body was an aftermarket set, and the various couplers started to fail or come apart as it finally started to build a little boost. Without thinking too much about it, I purchased an OEM charge pipe and was dismayed to find out the turbo side of the pipe had a flanged connection that didn't match the turbo, which had a non-flanged outlet.... uh-oh.

I assume that (like most 22RTEs) the OEM CT20 blew up at some point, and it was replaced with an aftermarket unit. There's a home-fabbed adapter from the OEM exhaust manifold to the turbo, so it's clearly not an OEM part, nor is it a CT20. I ordered a compatible set of couplers, cut the flange off the OEM charge pipe and hooked it up. For a couple of drives, it ran absolutely beautifully, but I didn't really push it at all. It did stumble once or twice at higher revs but I don't daily drive it so didn't give it a huge amount of thought.

The other day, I was troubleshooting a starting issue and wanted to pull the diagnostic codes to see if I could get any clues. I suddenly realized I'd never seen the check engine light come on, even on startup. Assuming the bulb was dead, I ordered a replacement and pulled the cluster, only to find there was no bulb in the check engine socket at all. Double uh-oh. Replaced the bulb, was able to pull the codes and fixed my starting issue.

This week, I was driving the truck and gave it a little more beans that normal coming up my hill. The truck did the same stumble as the turbo spooled up and the check engine light flashed, and went out once I backed off the throttle. When I got home, I pulled the codes and the only reported code was 14 - overboost warning.

I've checked the wastegate hose and actuator - it seems it's working (various yt threads have mentioned the hose leaking or getting plugged, preventing the wastegate from working) - my working assumption is whatever the aftermarket turbo is, it's pulling too much air and overwhelming the AFM. As far as I can tell, nobody's messed with the AFM so it's likely had this issue since the turbo was replaced, the CEL was pulled to mask the issues, and the previous owner just drove around it. I've added a (cheapo) boost / vacuum gauge and it seems to hit around 10psi before the CEL light flashes and the truck stumbles - I believe it's hitting the fuel cutoff.

I haven't identified what the current turbocharger is, and frankly now I have bad vibes about the whole existing setup, and it explains why none of my OEM intake parts seemed to fit in the engine bay properly.

My understanding is that the factory ECU, AFM and injectors are pretty limited, and it seems like a Bad Idea to run a large(r) turbo when everything seems to be operating close to the limit already. This seemingly leaves me two options:
- find a replacement CT20 and basically run as stock as possible. I don't plan to resell the truck so I'm loathed to spend a bunch of change on something that's not optimal, but it would simplify maintenance...
- go all-out with aftermarket ECU, which gives me a huge range of choices on hardware, and allows for proper tuning, wideband AFR, MAP sensors, etc.

I don't have an *unlimited* budget, but the truck is in such great shape otherwise that it's worth spending the money to get it right. I'd rather purchase a kit that's set up to work together, but I'm comfortable doing wiring / installation / flashing. I *don't* have a dyno in my garage though, so my concern is getting from my house to somewhere to get the tune/map it'll presumably need, and I want it to be reliable enough that I'm not constantly tweaking it... and I live in California, so maybe this whole idea is not-smoggable.

At this point, I'm looking for some advice as to what the best solution is for this over the long term. I'll likely send the spare 22RTEC motor I have to 22RE Performance for a full stage 2.5 rebuild, and swap to manual at the same time (anybody got an R151F they want to sell?), so that might be the time to get crazier, so maybe there's an interim solution I'm missing (without junkyard diving for the next month...)

Apologies for the looooong first post!

Co_94_PU

iTrader: (-1)

Turn off OD before you mash the pedal to passing speed...

You could​​​​​ tweak the vafm spring and not hit the fuel cut.. Fwiw the last time I tried that it didn't hit fuel cut and lifted the head off the block at I dunno off hand 20psi (shrug check 36522 thread).

ira88 has an rf151 and BH for sale on the forsale section, shipping from MD.

Still kind of want that BH..

robwormald

I messaged them, thanks for the lead 👍

the wastegate on the current turbo starts to crack around 15psi and is fully open by 20psi - I think if I start to mess with the AFM it’ll start breaking stuff...

Spoke with LCE Engineering today and sounds like their Low Boost pro kit is what I’m looking for - anyone running the same?

Co_94_PU

iTrader: (-1)

Fixing the preload on your waste gate seems like a good start, costs you not much more than time?