Booosted Supra

I just want to get this out of the way before I post, please be respectful and no 3.0 bashing, I am very aware of the 3.4 swap, I work for Toyota I know I know I know.

With that said, I am actually very pleased with my 3.slow so far. I have had the truck 6 years and have put over 100k on it. The V06 recall was done late 98 on the truck. Here are my dilema and questions.

I have ton hours and hours of research on here and found a lot of helpful threads and even dug up one warning about cheap HG from ebay and other manufactors which has made my mind to go with the Rock gasket kid. I know the TIS network and hard copy manuals do now call to replace the head bolts unless they do NOT torque up. I am replacing anyway because they are only $37.00 dollars and it is a good piece of mind, not to mention I do disagree with re-using TTY bolts. I am an automotive technician for Lexus and I see HG failures come in time to time and I have done plenty. Here in the shop we usually check for cracks, check guides/seats(call for a new head if needed) clean, lap in valves, check clearences etc etc, we check the head for straightness and the decks but for the most part not as precise as actually milling the heads. I have personally never seen a HG failure return. I keep hearing nightmares on here and from others about not milling the heads and slapping them on then boom hg failure 3-5k down the rd, there are plenty of threads here on that matter. I have been quoted $250.00 per head to totally over haul them. At work I just hear I'm stupid and thinking to much into the matter(which in my gut I disagree with). I hear this because the bottom end of the motor has 197xxx on it and ticking, and apparently "its a waste of time". Now to what lead me to the BHG assumptions.

The truck showed ZERO signs of a BHG, no washed out cylinders, no smoke out the exhaust, no water in the oil pan, no water in the over flow, it drove great. The reason I came to this assumption is because I was actually ripping the motor down to replace bypass pipe #1 becasue it sprung a leak. While I was taking hoses out I had discovered a decent amount of white/oil kind of like hot chocolate foam(definately oil). I drained the anti-freeze and it was just rusty looking being Toyota Red on top of that. Oil very clean, no smoke out the exhaust or driveabiltiy problems, I even drive the truck 60 miles a day. Compression test was done as soon as I seen that since the timing and heads were still on the truck, they read 120,120,100(90 on one try),120,115,140... BUT the engine was stone cold so I know everything wasn't exspanded and sealing to its fullest capabilities.

If it wasn't for the water leak I was originally replacing I would have never known it had oil in some of the lines. I did see one blocked port on the head so that will definately be squared away. I contacted my buddy who I bought the truck from 6 years prior and he said the transmition cooler in the radiator rusted through, so I'm thinking maybe the oil residue is left over from that disaster because it has since then even had a new transmition put into it last year(the original trans was def damaged it just lasted a long time and still went like a champ) Any rate thoughs of you who know me know I have A LOT of money tied up into my rig, I'm not really interested in the 3.4 and would like to get more life out of my 3.0... Can I get some advice? Everyone keeps telling me different things and its begining to become very nerve wrecking between reading horror stories and the guys who I know are great technicians here at work. Thanks in advance, very sorry for the long post, like I said I did do my research prior

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

My buddy has a 94 4Runner mint. Blew the HG so he put about $1500 in a 3.4 swap doing the work himself as he is a Toyota tech.

I just don't see the logic of spending money on polishing a turd when you can spend a little more or even the same for something much better.

:wabbit2:

Booosted Supra

I see where your coming from but you have to remember, this motor and my last truck have done me no wrong I actually think they are decent motors. I have personally had to do more 22re and 5vze failures then 3vze. Time is also a major concern

vital22re

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like youve already made up your mind and answered you own question. Good luck with the rebuild

vasinvictor

iTrader: (3)

The 3vze is an outstanding motor. The motor is not much fun to work on, but thankfully it doesn't have to be worked on much. Is it worth it to swap a 3.4? That depends on what you use it for. I personally don't need to go fast, or get better gas mileage- not saying both wouldn't be nice, but just not important. I'll take reliability and practicality any day. If it does indeed cost the same money and you have the knowhow, go fer it, because that's practical. For someone like me? Nope.

Booosted Supra

Agreed, I dont think its bad to work on though. I want to suck all the life out of the motor that I can. I'm going to dissemble the heads tomorrow and go from there, I'll probably work on them myself. I'm going with one of my many Supra motors laying around before I ever 3.4 swap

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

you have your mind set, rebuild...

Haddonfield NJ--isn't that the setting for Michael Myers and Halloween

Booosted Supra

Yeah I been thinking about it all day, I just needed to vent haha, since the motor is getting pretty old and tired I think I'm going to save the big money spending and just disassemble the heads throw clean them real good, check them real close for cracks things of that nature and just lap the valves back in, check the guides and throw some rock gaskets on it and new bolts, I really don't see it being a problem at all, there were zero signs of an ACTUAL BHG, I'm thinking the oil/foam is left over oil residue from when the tranny cooler/radiator rotted out and mixed years ago. No cylinders were washed out, no smoke, no water in the oil no oil in the water just a real nasty rust/toyota red coolant color... anyway thanks OCD... Halloween is actually BASED on the Haddonfield NJ town and where it was originally supposed to be shot but one thing after another it ended up going to Illinois