Fixing my Toyota 2TR – FE

The 2TR – FE engine (petrol) is universally recognized as the most reliable workhorse in the Toyota stable. It may not be the most elegant and refine engine. Neither is it fuel saving either….it’s actually a 2.7 liter gas guzzler that was originally made for the American market where gasoline used to be dirt cheap and no one really cared abt running cost unlike the Americans these days…… The reason why I need to work on this car at a very surgical level that is the equivalent of heartsugery is because I need to remove certain plastic components which originally featured in the 2005 engine design. Many of these plastic parts seem to be a great idea when they were first used by car manufacturers. Ironically it was great car companies like Mercedes and BMW that started the trend of replacing alloy die casted parts with plastic. The problem with plastic in the engine bay is that it degrades with age and when it disintegrates usually its sudden, unexpected and catastrophic…that’s why they need to be all changed out.

The car I drive was born 15 years ago. It’s a 4×4 Toyota Fortuner. Fortunately it doesn’t have alot of experimental plastic in the engine bay. As the Toyota engineers were rightly skeptical. Above on the right is a fucking plastic coolant bypass pipe. It’s abt 99% degraded to failure, caught it just in the nick of time and replaced it with a steel version that should last forever. I still need to purge the car from the curse of plastics. So far I am still able to run her fast and furious… Wish me luck. Tomorrow is a full work day in the plantation.

Merry Christmas.

sdr