Meanwhile, Back In Jim's Garage.....

We have progress on the cleaning project. The right front corner of the engine bay is about as clean as I'm going to get it without expending significantly more time, and making significantly more MESS in the process.

 Further cleaning of the engine bay goes on hold after the air cleaner/AFM bracket and rubber air coupling get cleaned up and reinstalled.

These bits are a bit dirty.....

One of the numerous semi-flexible (30 years ago...) molded rubber air couplings in the air intake ducting. These are one of the many unobtainium parts for this car. Somebody, somewhere, might have a new set of them, or some of them, but these have been out of stock for many years. I was fortunate to be able to get a complete set of these in excellent condition from a friend in the PNW.  Stuff like this lasts forever up there because of the climate, while it dry rots, bakes out, and cooks off down in SoCal, where this car came from.

 This is the outlet of the air cleaner housing, it's 80mm in diameter, the same as the inlet on the AFM. The rubber air coupling connects the air cleaner outlet to the Air Flow Meter (AFM), and needs a really good scrubbing. It doesn't appear to be cracked at all, but I'm going to order an 80mm 45* bend silicone hose and see if I can trim it to fit.

 And the backside (bottom side) of the bracket showing 33 years of road dust and dirt caked on. These parts have been cleaning up very nicely using my Secret Sauce Spray formula on the "dry" dirt, and Good Old Gunk on a shop towel for the "wet" looking stuff. After they're clean, I wipe them down with "303 Protectant" to try and preserve what's left of the original finishes. You want "patina"? Yup we got it!

And I pulled "Timing Cover Number 3" to get a quick look at the cam belt and tensioner.

It's pretty clean in there for 168,000 miles. The timing belt and tensioner are "Unkowns" on the maintenance list and have to be cleared eventually, but I wanted to pull the cover to clean it, it's only 5 bolts, and it was off the car in ten minutes.



This car has the "Round Tooth" belt and pulleys, a Toyota refinement leading to quieter operation, and longer belt life.

The tensioner is the puller under the belt on the right side of the picture, and I think it's getting to be and end-of-life item, as I see little flecks of distinctly shiny, metallic looking "stuff", and I've seen it before when bearings like that first begin to fail.

The inside of the cover was pretty clean, but again, I have no idea if/when this was ever off the engine.

It's much easier to get glop like this stuff off when the part is off the car and on the bench, then it is to clean it on the car.

Anywhoo....As soon as this stuff is cleaned up and back on the car, I'm going to get back on the paint. I'll have all upcoming winter to do more cleaning, clear items from the maintenance punch list, and get the new carpet installed, but I want to get the paint cleaned and sealed before I take the car out again. I can do a 'quickie' wipe down of the rims and tires, vacuum out the interior, clean the glass, and roll if the paint is cleaned and sealed.