I know it’s been minute since I updated this — our summer got really busy.
But I still have it and it’s still running good. I’ve got about 1200 miles on it since releasing the collapsed lifter. I do notice a very slight tick at times and a slight shudder at idle in gear. But I think it just needs a bit more driving with some good fuel and oil to clean it up. It’s definitely better than it was early on. We used it as a people shuttle this past weekend for my sisters wedding. It cleaned up real nice.
A couple weeks back I got all the fluids changed (trans/filter, f/r diffs, Tcase, power steering, bled brakes) and changed front struts and rear shocks. Trans fluid was pretty dark and decent amount of clutch material on the magnet but no metal flakes that I could see. As far as I know the trans is all original with 185k miles. I’m a bit concerned about it but it shifts fine and feels ok, just hear a lot about the crappy torque converter and how they programmed the lockup TCC. So I programmed tcm with the TCC lockup removed in 1-4 and set slip to 0 in 5th and 6th. so far seems fine. shifting is still good. a bit more rpm’s between shifts but it helps the engine feel like it has more consistent acceleration vs the stock programming. i’ll keep driving it.
My DZLburb popped a power steering line the other day so this has become my daily driver for now — I was just searching for pricing to see what they were selling for and then the power steering pumps out all the fluid in the street so maybe this is God’s way of telling me to not sell it yet? haha. oh well. Changed the oil about 2k miles ago (running Valvoline Restore & Protect 5w-30) hoping this will help clean up the last bit of whatever’s in there. still has a bit of a flutter at idle occasionally but seems a bit better lately. I'll probably change the oil in the next 500 miles and keep driving it for now. It’s been a great people mover which has been most of my driving duties as of late.