addicted56

Great Start and thanks for posting the pics and sequence. I'm the sort that usually yanks things off and figure I will remember later where they go. This time though I'm going to take my time and label and take pictures of everything.

zlathim

Yea, labelling things does help. You may have noticed some blue tape on a few of the connectors in the photos. I also try to return fasteners to their respective holes after I remove something. Trying to sort through a coffee can full of bolts to find the right one sucks! Another trick is to punch holes through the sides of a cardboard box and insert the loose bolts; then you can write on the box as to where things go, make notes, etc.

addicted56

Good hint on the Cardboard. I have not heard that one before. I have thrown things in Zip lock bags before and labled them (have not put that engine and truck back together though so we will see how well it works.)

addicted56

So are you done yet?

The guy with the 4-runner couldn't find the key so I'm delayed until Monday.

Darn it all.

zlathim

Bummer that the dude forgot the keys! It sounds like you will be in business soon though...

No, it seems I may have been over-optimistic about getting it done over the weekend. Sorry about the lack of updates, I have been up to my elbows in grease and grime since Sat morning. I have pics, but they are on my camera at home. I will post them in the next day or two. First I gotta get this thing buttoned up!

Saturday my buddy and I finished disconnecting stuff and got the old engine pulled. Then I had to swap over the pilot bearing, clutch and flywheel, exhaust (different egr set-up on new engine), intake assy, and install a new timing belt. I also had to swap some of the coolant temp sensors on the rear of the block.

After we pulled the engine, and I mean right after we got it out of the engine bay, the engine hoist took a dump on us. One minute it is working fine, the next minute it won't go up. So we had to run down to harbor freight and grab a replacement jack for the hoist. No big deal, it just cost us some time.

Sunday we installed the new engine and started hooking stuff up. I got pretty much everything hooked up and plumbed/wired except for the following:

starter- need to take it to Autozone and get it tested before installing, will do today after work.

last two PITA bellhousing bolts- I just didn't feel like messing with them yesterday!

finish plumbing the vac lines- I got good pics, and I am confident that it will not be a problem, but I need to print some of the pics so I can refer to them as I hook stuff up.

Then the fan, radiator, hood, and airbox assy will go in. That should do it, but I still need to put oil and coolant in it.

All in all, nothing was terribly difficult, and the job has gone fairly smoothly. I just didn't get it done.

I'll upload some photos when I get a chance. Sorry about the delay in the update.

addicted56

Dang,

I was really pulling for you this weekend. I've really only got a Friday night and a short weekend as they are only open from 9-4 on the weekends to use the shop. That doesn't leave a lot of time.

So I am still not sure what year this Runner is nor the year the engine is. There shouldn't be any problems though should there? I thought they were all very close to the same.

Bummer about the lift. I've had a jack do that to me before. Spit out all of the fluiod out the seal. Given I was lifting more than it was rated for so I can't blame it to much.

Looking forward to seeing it done here. You will get in that thing and it will crank right up the first try. I can feel it

zlathim

I'm certainly no expert with these things, but there was some difference between the way things were set up on the two engines. The basic long block is identical, just some of the stuff bolted on was a bit different, and that cost me some time. You may end up in a similar situation, but maybe not.

As far as time goes- I worked alone on thursday for approx 1.5 hours. Saturday me and my buddy worked for approx 10 hours, then we worked for about 5 hours yesterday. So we have spent about 16 or 17 hours total, and that is after deducting the time we spent going after the new hoist ram and chow runs. I am hoping to get it buttoned up today, we should only need 2 or 3 more hours. So probably 20 hours total with two guys working.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I am hoping she fires right up on the first try too! Time will tell, but I'm confident that all of the work we have done so far has been done right.

I will get some pics up this evening if possible, if not I will have some up tomorrow.

I am going to turn right around and do it all over again on an identical pickup when this one is done. You may be wondering where all these pickups that I don't own are coming from. An acquaintance of mine owns a used car lot, and I do a lot of work for him. He really likes Toyota pickups, so I see a few of them from time to time.

zlathim

Here is how I labelled my vac lines. I just put a number on each one before disassembly, then took a bunch of pictures:

zlathim

Here's some more photos, as promised:

You pretty much have to remove the upper plenum of the intake in order to get all of the wiring harness disconnected:



Here's my buddy Nick doing what he does best:



Here is the engine coming out:



Here's where the hoist took a crap on us:



I had to take over the wife's bay to swap parts and whatnot:



I had a broken thermo/vac switch for the purge canister. Instead of holding up the show until I could get a new one from the dealer, I cut the nipple off of another unused vac switch and superglued it to the broken one. Ghetto, I know, but it will work:



That's about it for the pics that I took, now I need to go out and finsh this thing up. Updates later...

zlathim

Update-

I got every thing buttoned up on this thing earlier. I grounded the coil wire & spun the engine over with the starter to build oil pressure, all is well. Hooked coil back up and crank it over....boom, off to the races-she pretty much starts right up. After a few seconds of erratic idle, feathering the throttle to keep it running, it smooths out and idles normally and has decent throttle response, not bad for the timing being set only by ear at this point.

Then I notice something seems a little amiss- thick white exhaust and coolant running out of the tailpipe

Obviously has a blown head gasket. So much for being "tested"!

Tomorrow we get to see how the warranty holds up. The owner paid $50 extra for a labor warranty, so we will have to see how much and what kind of proof the company that sold the engine needs in order to honor the warranty.

Here's the puddle of coolant at the end of the exhaust pipe. The engine is not running in this pic, or you wouldn't see anything but a white plume.

addicted56

Holy Cow,

I've never seen it so bad it actually ran out the tail pipe. I helped my buddy replace an engine in an early 90's mercedes and luckily the owner he was doing it for bought the insurance as well. We went thru 2 bad engines and the 3rd was crap as well but good enough to drive off on. I'm sure that company lost an arm and a leg on that one.

They deserve it though. Most of those places are run by dirt bags and they should know better about the engines they are selling.

I feel bad for th owner. Now he has to wait a lot longer. Well I guess he is a dealer so he doesn't care to much but still. If that happened to me, heads would be rolling.

mt_goat

Wow... that's really bad. I'm surprised it didn't hydro-lock it with coolant.

zlathim

I am very curious to see how this all plays out with the warranty. The customer had the engine shipped directly to my house, so I got all of the paperwork with it. I read through the warranty stuff last night, and it seems that he bought a labor warranty for $45, but it only covers up to $300 in labor. Hell, I total underestimated the book hours (I charged just over 11 hours, but AllData says 17 hours I found out this morning) and the labor bill was $450. So he is not even close to being covered.

What I would like to see is this: Engine supplier sends us a head gasket set, and a pair of KNOWN GOOD heads ( I have no way of knowing at this point if they are cracked from being overheated) + the $300 labor warranty. If we can get that, I will bite the bullet and get this thing finished. It will be a loss on my end, as AllData shows 12 hours for just the headgasket (both banks) job. If we can swing this, my customer will be happy, I will be satisfied and all is well with the world. I think that getting the engine supplier to buy off on this deal may be easier said than done, but I don't really know because I have never dealt with them directly. My customer has purchased several engines from them, so maybe that will help. Time will tell.

So, in hashing this all out with the customer last night on the phone I had to tell him " I know you don't want to hear this right now, but I need to invoice you and get paid for my labor and the few parts I had to buy." he says no problem, I will bring you a check tomorrow. I'm gonna take care of him, but I can't wait until this all shakes out to get paid. Crumby deal, but business is business. If I didn't need the money I wouldn't be doing it.

zlathim

You and me both!

zlathim

addicted- Did you get possession of the 4Runner yet?

addicted56

No!!!!

The guy is killing me. He is the type that doesn't seem to be be to motivated to do anything. I guess it has been there 3 years and it hasn't been towed so he is not worreid (I COULD TAKE CARE OF THAT)....but I'm not that kida of person either. It would kill me to see it sit there and rot away. He said himself he doesn't want to deal with and I'm sure he knows (as do I) you can't rebuild one of these for the same amount of money you can just go out and buy one....well for the most part..but if you had to pay someone else(which he would) he coudln't.

Anyway I'm just getting a bit anxious about it. I only have 3 days to get the truck then drive up get the engine and get all of the paper work off back to Oregon to get it registered and titled so when I'm done working on it this weekend (If I can even line up any help now) I can drive it home.

As far as your engine sounds like you are working for a pretty good guy and I'm guessing if he buys a lot of engines from him he will honor the contract. But 300 labor costs. That is rediclous.

zlathim

Dang! I hate it when some lazy a$$ kills an otherwise perfect plan! I am pulling for you to make it happen though

BTW- Where are you located? I'm in Boise.

zlathim

Well, I found out what the engine supplier needs for proof.
First and foremost he requires the numbers off the heat witness tabs epoxyed to the rear of the cylinder head. I couldn't really read it very well with my little mirror, so I sent him a pic of both of them to prove they are not melted or gone.



They require a block test to determine the presence of exhaust gasses in the cooling system. To be honest with you, I'm not a real big fan of the test, but it is quick and dirty. I got the tester and fluid from Autozone and this is what it looked like after two minutes:


The engine builder also mentioned that if the old engine had blown a head gasket, we might still be seeing residual coolant in the pipes and muffler burning. Uhm, no. I sent this picture to them:



So the engine supplier sees these pics and agrees that it has a blown head gasket. They are paying the $300 labor warranty as spelled out in the agreement, and they are sending me a head gasket set. They are not sending me new head bolts. I'm not happy about that one little bit, but it is what it is. I take the cylinder heads to the machine shop and get them checked. If they are bad the supplier sends me a set of heads.

I told my customer that I would do him a solid and do the labor for the $300. He has been staedy work for me for about a year now, and pays on pick-up EVERY TIME so it's all good. He's bringing me the next project tomorrow to do my initial diagnosis. It will likely need an engine too. He has mentioed buying a re-man long block next time.

addicted56

What a crock.

300 for labor. How about you sell me a good product instead. People just suck I guess.

I'm currently on Ft. Bragg in NC but I'm a native of Coos Bay Oregon and will be heading back to the great state when I'm done with my stint.

zlathim

Oh, OK. I know you mentioned Oregon earlier in this thread. I thought if you were somewhere in eastern Oregon I could give you a hand with your swap.

Any news from the dipstick 4runner guy? Are you holding off on getting the engine until the runner is officially yours?