Keeping your truck in top shape is not that hard, but it takes a little time. We decided that if we were going to keep cruising the back alleys and terrorizing the high-profile streets of Los Angeles in our free farm truck we needed to do some basic maintenance. Plus it's common knowledge that when you drive a high-performance vehicle like the Clampster, you quickly attract the attention of members of the opposite sex. Now considering this, plus the fact that we have an image to uphold, we didn't want to get stranded somewhere for something silly like having no oil in the engine. Tune-up time it was.
As we were making a list of what we needed to do to get another 195,000 miles out of our rusted '86 Toyota, a fellow editor asked, "Does a normal tune-up really give you any more power?" "Well, sure it does," we thought, and we'll prove it by heading to a local dyno before and after the tune-up. To make the job quicker and keep our landlady from giving us another lecture--"No more oil spills in driveway, bad, bad very bad!"--we decided to take it to the experts at Pep Boys. Considering that these guys change more oil in a week than we will do in our entire life, they are qualified as experts. Plus, this way we could make a few garage guys famous.
To see what power gains we would get with a normal tune-up we headed first for a dyno. The guys at Street Rod magazine have a dyno in their shop that they happily let us use for this test. The initial 88.1 hp from Clampy's tired 22RE four-cylinder wasn't scary, but pulling our rusted truck into a shop full of beautifully built street rods sure was. We still have nightmares of Clampy launching off the dyno and destroying some sweet ride owned by that bearded guy from ZZ Top. It was just a bad dream. It didn't happen.
We were surprised at what happened in our dyno test. The massive power gains were not there, but when you consider what all we did you will easily see why. If anything, the simple fact that the Pep Boys did their job exactly right was what gave us lower power readings, but the benefits of a longer-lasting rig were worth the power loss. Follow along and we'll explain.
Did We Make Power?
So did we see amazing power gains? Well not exactly. Upon returning to the dyno our max horsepower dropped from 88.1 to 83.6 and max torque dipped from 118.5 to 111.9 lb-ft. How could this be? Well our theories ranged from excess drag caused by filling up the tranny, transfer case, and rear axle to specified levels to the clean fuel filter causing the engine to run too rich. Both were a little farfetched. What we finally did was reset the timing to 8 degrees before top dead center instead of the manufacturer's recommended 5 degrees and did a retest. This indeed got the power back to pre-tune-up levels of 88.1. Now the reason the manufacturer recommends a certain timing is to get the best emissions for the vehicle, and since we didn't test that, we can't say whether it was affected or not. We can say, however, that the 4.5hp loss was never noticed in the driver seat. In fact at some points we thought we had gained power. The verdict: A basic tune-up did not give us more power, but it may have given us better emissions, and it will definitely keep Clampy on the street and trail a bit longer. Thanks Pep Boys for a job well done. Now do you think a 195,000 mile motor will survive nitrous? Hmmm.
After the dyno testing we headed to a local Pep Boys and asked for the works. What we wanted was everything they would do in a general maintenance job to keep an old truck alive and running: the basic tune-up and fluid check. Our ASE certified mechanic, Angel Martinez, had his go-for guy rounding up all of our new lube and parts while he removed the old spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, and rotor. | 
The new plug wires were also from BWD, and they easily snapped into place. They go by the Super Mag name, and they come with a limited lifetime warrantee. We hoped that with the NASCAR logo in the corner we would soon be careening around L.A. with excessive horsepower. We're still hoping. |  |
Our old engine belts were cracked and rotten, not to mention that they had a tendency to squeal like a pig on very cold days. We usually wear underwear and always considered using the elastic wasteband as an emergency replacement should a belt ever break. Now that we have a new set of Dayco Dynaflex alternator, fan, and power steering belts we can leave the old tighty whities at home. | 
The old plugs didn't look in really bad shape, but we know that it's been over 10,000 miles since they were replaced. Martinez installed a standard set of NGK plugs and replaced the ignition rotor with one from BWD as well. | 
We have only looked at the distributor cap on Clampy once and that was to blast it with some WD-40 after a particularly fast water crossing. The replacement BWD cap, along with all the parts, was not a high-performance piece. Only the best basic parts for the Clampster. |
While Clampy was up on the lift, Martinez drained the engine oil and checked the brakes. Our brakes always seemed to work just fine, and the inspection revealed that they still had some life left in them, so for now they were left alone. | 
Replacing the fuel filter is something usually overlooked until your rig won't start. We replaced the old one with one from Purolator. On Clampy it was easier to access it while up on the lift, through the wheelwell, with the tire and wheel removed. | 
While it was up in the air, we also checked the ball joints in the front IFS. This revealed two lower ball joints as being almost shot. This will be addressed in the future by either swapping in a solid axle, replacing all the joints in the current front end, or rendering the truck useless after we blow the engine up with the use of nitrous. You'll have to wait and see. |
We had been hearing gear whine from the tranny for a while, but hadn't taken the time to check the gear lube levels. With the transmission, transfer case, and rear axle low about a quart each, it was no wonder. We could see where the rear transfer-case output seal may be leaking, and we'll address that in the future. With Clampy back on the ground, Martinez replaced the oil filter and starting filling the engine back up. We decided to try Valvoline's Max Life 10W-40 engine oil. It's recommended for vehicles over 150,000 miles and we're 45,000 past that. | 
Our old air filter was kinda dirty, kinda really dirty. We replaced it with a new Purolater air filter. Quick, easy, done. | 
The positive crankcase verticulation (PCV) valve is a one-way line restrictor that takes gases from the crankcase and redirects them to get burned in the engine. Clampy's PCV valve seemed fine, but we replaced it with a new one for good measure. Then we checked the engine's timing. This was set at 8 degrees before top dead center and the manufacturer's suggested setting was 5 degrees. |
Finally Martinez did an entire coolant flush. This was done by hooking up a flushing machine in line between the engine coolant return and the radiator. Then as the engine pumped the old coolant out, new fluid replaced it into the radiator. | | |