Friday, November 26, 2010

H.E.L.P.S.,Chicago area Addictions in house recovery,Angelo Valdes founder

Praise God for people like Angelo Valdes for doing the good work of Christ Jesus!
May we all open our hearts and lives to those in need.
Elgin's officials aught to be ashamed for there actions against the HELPS homeless shelter.  We need to vote people like them out of office: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/130953/city_officials_in_elgin_illinois_sued.html?cat=17
For those in the Chicagoland and suburban area, I want to make you aware of a wonderful program for older teens and young adults and adults battling alcohol and drug addiction. H.E.L.P.S. Ministry which stands for (Help, Encouragement, Love,Prayer that leads to Salvation) is a Christian in house affordable program in St. Charles on Iowa Avenue- Kane County Illinois. The Director is Angelo Valdes of St. Charles, Illinois a former addict who over 15 years ago overcame his addiction through prayer and the help of God. Now He has dedicated his life to help those in addictions and their families. The most caring man and lovely family and ministry that truly care and love those who come under their care. The Valdes take in those open to addressing their addictions and have a Christian based focus and structured program including counseling, household chores, bible reading, prayer, serving the homeless . My relative was in this program for 8 mos after using hard drugs and is a transformed person. They also run a Sunday afternoon church service, a midweek service, a homeless shelter in Elgin IL and a transitional house for men who have left addictions and need some structure and accountability as they return to the working world.
I can't say enough things about what a wonderful program this is and its success rate is much higher than state run programs. Many changed lives observed here! 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-25/news/ct-met-homeless-advocate-1126-20101124_1_homeless-shelter-mobile-shelter-addiction

Monday, November 22, 2010

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Work on the 2001 Toyota Tacoma Limited double cag 4x4 going well

The truck is over 10 years old now, so I thought I'd do some maintenance and extras to spice it up a bit. I've had the truck for about 6 years, and have only done the deck plate mod, gray wire mod and had to change the master brake cylinder at about 90k miles. Next step I'd like to put some decent suspension on it with about a 2" lift, probably OME stuff and Alcan rear leafs.


This past weekend I installed the URD 7th injector system with calibrator, 2.2" s/c pulley, and mounted a ScanGauge II.

Weekend before that I did a timing belt change, water-pump, thermostat, URD crank pulley, etc. and Flex-a-Lite fan (need to rewire this and change the control box location).

Weekend before that I installed a used TRD supercharger I got locally from an add off Craigslist. During this week I put a roof rack on the ARE cap that my brother (thanks Jason) gave me from his old full size Yukon. Did some cutting and mounted it on the cap with some stainless hardware.

Two weeks before that I needed new tires so I decided to get new rims too. Went with Method Racing rims and BFG Mud Terrains.

Two weeks before that I found a used matching ARE cap on Craigslist for $275, so I took my carpenter cap off and put on the ARE.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Toyota Tacoma timing belt replacement instructions - 5VZ-FE V6 motor

Since my truck is 10 years old (2001 Tacoma dc limited v6 4x4), I've wanted to do some maintenance on it.  It currently has about 106,000 miles on it.  I just installed new rims (Method Racing wheels) and tires (BFG Mud Terrains) on it at 103,000.  Just before I put the rims on, I found a ARE bed cap on Craigslist for $275 that matched my truck so I couldn't pass that up.  The truck looks pretty good and is running great.

I also found a TRD Supercharger on Craigslist for a good price and I installed that last week.  The install went relatively smooth and the truck performs rather well now.  I also ordered the URD 7th injector kit, URD crank pulley and a URD 2.2" supercharger pulley, but I haven't had the time to install that stuff yet.  I also have a Flex-a-Lite fan that I may install in place of the OE fan.  By reducing unnecessary power consumption, and reducing the rotational mass of the engine assembly we can fee up more power that can be used to propel the vehicle and increase the overall performance.

This weekend I'm going to attempt to change the timing belt, crank pulley, thermostat, water pump, etc.  I have some seemingly good instructions from others that have done the job, along with the factory service manual.
Here are the instructions I'll be using for the timing belt:
http://www.toy4x4.net/timing_belt/index.htm
http://4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/timing_belt/
http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/2003/index.html
http://www.lieblweb.com/waterpump.html

Fan install references:
http://www.tacomaterritory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165032
http://www.gadgetonline.com/Fan.htm