mink

Overheating, blowing white smoke, and no heat. Gurgling in the heater core. Losing coolant.

It's either a blown head gasket or a timing chain guide gone bad. Either way, it doesn't matter. It's rebuild time. 237,520 miles to be reborn.

Background -
I got this truck from my Uncle for $600 in 2006 I believe. It didn't run at the time. I would go in the same cycle of EGR valve, fuel pump, EFI relay troubleshooting due to the symptoms for about 4 years off and on.

In 2010 I bought a new ECU and put that in. The truck had probably sat for 6 years at this point. Truck started up and ran great. I was amazed.

After 6 years it needed a number of fixes. I put on new brakes all the way around. Replaced every fluid I could think of. Threw on some new BFG 31x10.5x15 tires. Bought a new LCE header, magnaflow cat and had a new exhaust put on at the muffler shop.

The plan -
I bought this truck for my wife originally. This is her dream truck she wanted when she was in high school. This is going to be her new daily driver.

I plan on making it a Little Effin Monster.

- Pull motor, begin rebuild
- New 22re performance head from putneys
- Reman rocker assembly
- Bring the short block, crank, flywheel to local machine shop for tanking/decking/balancing, after integrity is confirmed.
- New pistons and rings - once bore needs are confirmed
- New radiator
- New t-case - the current one has a crack near the fill plug with some JB weld on it
- All new silicon hoses
- New alternator, preferably high output in case a winch is added, you know, for daily driving
- New starter
- New or maybe re-upholstered seats (actually, the interior needs some sprucing up - more thought to come here)
- New clutch (maybe slave cylinder/master cylinder)
- New fuel filter
- Big 3 wire upgrade
- Would like to get an sr5 gauge cluster

Essentially, I am trying to replace all the pieces that make sense while I have the motor out.

If anyone has advice on what to replace/investigate in this rebuild process, let me know.

This is the first time I have tried to do anything even close to this. I have some really great friends who can advise me with the rebuild, and they have some serious chops. I just went to costco and bought a crap-ton of zip loc bags, sharpies, and some duct tape. I plan on labeling everything with painters tape and zip loc bags, and as I pull pieces off, I will duct tape the appropriate bags to the piece they came out of.

I also bought a Sony AS15 camera to video the process. Also will be fun to throw it on the truck during the "daily driving" performed on weekends.

I have a couple of projects going on at the same time, so we will see how fast this actually progresses. The sooner I get this done, and the sooner I get to go purchase a new toy for myself - a newish FJ Cruiser.

Attaching a picture of how she sits now. I will have to figure out how to link pictures in the near future

mink

Current status - 7/3/2013

Wife is fed up with not having 4runner in nice weather. Work has been crazy busy, but apparently that is no longer an excuse. Wrench time beginning this week.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

Great looking little runner. Having the wifey invloved makes it alot easier when needing to buy parts and the time to spend doing it will make it alot easier for you as well. These are some great little trucks to work on and easy to work on. On my 88 Runner build below, I try to show alot of the common fixes that comes with these trucks that might help you out.

Seeing that this is a first time for you on something this big, some things that I have learned that make building these trucks alot easier is to store the parts in tote bins. I put the block with crankshaft and pistons in one tote bin. The head and valve cover assembly in to its own tote bin and then a third tote bin is for the intake system. This keeps all of the parts that go together and keeps from losing nuts and bolts.

As far as bagging all of the nuts and bolts, from my experiecen, put them back into their respective spots. It makes reassembly so much easier and quicker and keeps them from getting lost. I still have to bag a few, but not nearly as many as I used to and can usually have it down to 3 or 4 bags unless a part is at the machine shop.

Looking forward to your build and welcome to YotaTech. I think you will really like this site and there is a ton of information on here and people are always willing to help get you out of any binds you might get into.

mink

Thanks Terry - I have been reading up on your threads. I have been a site member for almost 8 years. Not a lot of contributions, but definitely a lot of reading.

Good advice on the totes. I looked at my tools today, and I think I am going to have to get a complete metric combination wrench set (I am missing a few) and a flex head socket wrench. I am sure there are plenty of other tools I am going to need along the way. Everyone here seems to already have every tool you would find in a shop.

Another thing to add to my parts list is the OEM gasket kit.

I set aside $3000 for this rebuild/restore. I am fairly confident that should cover this phase, but I have a feeling that this project is going to open up a whole new world of work I am willing to take on. I was looking at sliders this morning on the computer, and the wife walks up and says "Are we going to get some of those? They look nice."

Also, I might consider an Engnbldr head over the Putney's head. I am just really impressed at the in depth material on Putney's site. They have very good marketing for the target audience.

Co_94_PU

iTrader: (-1)

Don't feel bad about your tools, most would laugh at what I'm working with. Wobble extensions are something you "can never have to many of", and I don't have a single one anymore. You'll get by for most things, and just grind some knuckles for the rest.

Here is Philbert's photo howto very helpful.

mink

Getting ready for the first phase - engine rebuild. Wrench time starting this week.