yotayamin

Hey Yota fans,

School's out in a month and I'll need a really cheap car. My friend's got a '95 4Runner and he knows how to work on it, and said he'd give me advice. So I got a really cheap '95 4Runner SR5 Limited off CL, only $1000, because it's got a blown head gasket!

It's in pretty good shape aside from the gasket problem, a few cosmetic problems. The last owner got it from her aunty, who was the original owner, and drove it while she was in school, so it's only got 153k miles on it. She'd just replaced the radiator and catalytic converter, and when the gasket broke and Midas told her $1800+ to fix, she decided to get a brand new Corolla instead. (Leased, $1k down, $173/month, poor Toyota....)

I charged the battery and the truck starts. There's no coolant in the oil, but huge clouds of sweet-smelling steam out the exhaust. The trucks going to sit for about 5 weeks until the semester's over, then I'll try to fix the gasket. Hope I can get help here when me and my friend get stuck!


Here're the cosmetic problems:

• Rust over the right rear wheel well
• Tiny spot of rust on the top of the tail gate near the glass
• A tear and worn leather on the driver's seat
• The front bumper is bashed in; last owner says nothing else got hurt
• Otherwise, very nice!

Here're the good:

• Sunroof!!! I went and just sat in the car with the sunroof open for a while, it's so nice!
• Leather! Maybe I can fix the hole?
• Keyless entry! My friend's 4Runner doesn't have this.
• Hitch! I can put my bike on the back!
• 4x4! My friend says this is cool.

Ok, now for the pics!

Here's me on my new baby








Rust over wheel



The thingy on the left side is missing pieces:


Rust on the tail gate


Tears in the leather


Something wrong here, too



So, did I get a good deal? The owner said about 20 people emailed about it. I see there's lots of info about replacing the broken gasket here. How about the rust and the leather, can I fix that easily and cheaply? I don't have much money, but my friend thinks I can fix the gasket for $200. He thinks a pro has to do the leather and the body work, but that would cost a lot, I bet. If I could do it for $500 I'd think about it.

Tell me what you think!

pruney81

The head gasket is probably going to be a little more than $200, you're probably going to want to replace the timing belt and water pump while you're in there. Also, the idler pulley, new head bolts and the heads might need to be machined depending on their condition. I wouldn't worry about the rust, that's nothing compared to the rust we get out here on the east coast.

Check out engnbldr for your gaskets and head bolts:
http://www.engnbldr.com/toyota_30_v6.htm

yotayamin

Hi pruney81, thanks! Maybe I need the full gasket set ($129), timing belt ($45), and head bolt set ($49), total $223.

I read some of the build-up threads, and some say replace the water pump, some say no? Why doesn't engnbldr.com sell the pulley and pump?

I forgot the bumper pic:

pruney81

You can probably get a decent pump and pulley locally. I would replace the water pump because it is such a big job to get in there again if it breaks down the line. It's easier just to replace it while you are in there, as the pump runs off the timing belt I believe. Toyota does have a head gasket recall on those motor's but I know that most of the 95's weren't covered for some stupid reason. It wouldn't hurt to call Toyota and check though.

You can get a remanned AISIN water pump for around $75 that's probably the way I'd go if it was mine.

toyota4x4907

mmmm...Limited..

pruney81

I had a 95 Limited a few years back, it was nice, until the head gaskets blew then I was kind over it. I don't know why Toyota covered most 3.0's until the second half of 95 when they all clearly are plagued by the head gasket problems.

bshinn

Looks almost identical to mine, with the exception of the leather & roof.

Plan on the cost of the truck to do the gaskets, if the heads are not warped. While you're in there, replace all the coolant hoses, (they're not cheap), you don't want one to pop, & take the heads out again. Do the belt, tensioner, water pump, pcv, vacuum lines, plugs/wires, & anything else you have to take off to do the heads. You don't want to do this twice.

Just did mine, & it took about a week to get it apart, get the heads rebuilt, & get it back together. This thing is a pig, but now runs like a top, you'll be happy in the end.

buckz6319

maybe this will help you
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...askets-199830/

michalik_piotr

Get everything replaced that needs to be done when you're in there by a pro with a warranty, maybe parts plus labor will keep you under $1k (make sure you get a full tune up and all fluids changed, brakes inspected etc.). Don't worry bout the seats and rust. Keep it stock and enjoy the hell out of it. If you do any camping, have dogs, surfing, bikeing, etc you'll love it. Then when you graduate get a 3rd or 4th gen

yotayamin

Hey Yota fans,

Well, I can't wait to get my baby on the road, and my friend (he's betelnut here on the forums) and I had some free time today and more tomorrow, so we started taking it apart. Got about 6 hours in it now, here's the report.

Started by building buckz's cam tool:

I gotta say this thing worked great, and on the crank, too (my crank pulley has spots where this can grab). Mine's slightly different: my metal was total 3' long, and I used 3/8" bolts, but otherwise the same.

Here's how progress went:

• Removed oil pan guard
• Drained coolant
• Removed fan shroud, radiator and hoses
• Removed air intake hose
• Removed about a million cables, wires and hoses, made lots of labels and pics
• Removed battery
• Removed fan and belts
• Removed engine wiring harness
• Removed timing belt cover, power steering bracket, fan bracket
• Removed crank pulley bolt (need to get a pulley puller)
• Removed camshaft pulleys and timing belt tensioners
• Removed rear timing belt cover
• Removed distributor
• Removed one fuel rail (see question below)

Here's what it looks like now:


Doesn't look that different, but my friend says we did a lot, and we have a big pile of parts. I learned a lot, that's for sure! I knew what some of those things were, but now I know all of them (see if I remember tomorrow!). And so tired!

So, here's the question that we're stuck with now:

That thing on the end of the fuel rail won't come off. It's supposed to unscrew, right? Is that some kind of pressure regulator? I'm such a newbie.

Anyway, maybe it'll rain tomorrow, but if it's not bad, we'll try to finish getting the heads off.

Couple more problems:

Both the water pump and the fan bracket feel very slightly loose. My friend doesn't know if it's normal or not. If you grab them and wiggle, you can feel very small movement side to side. Should I replace them, or is that ok? The movement is very small, but you can definitely feel it.

So far here's the list of parts:

• Head gasket kit and head bolts (from engnbldr, thanks pruney!)
• Timing belt kit (w/tensioners)
• 3 belts
• Lower fan shroud (my friend says it's missing)
• Lower radiator hose is all swollen, and a couple of other broken hoses
• Top alternator bolt was all rounded off
• Fan bracket?
• Water pump?
• Fuel injector connector snaps broke when removing, replace?
• Fuel rail "banjo bolt" (who makes up these names?) washers
• PCV valve (thanks bshinn!)
• Misc other stuff that the previous mechanic messed up

Ok, that's it for now, I'll update again tomorrow. Thanks for all the great ideas! I'm gonna sleep good tonight, I can tell.

n2o302

I'm currently doing a headgasket rebuild on mine right now along with timing belt, don't bother with the local reman parts like autozone comparing them to the OEM stuff from toyota is a night and day difference. So I went with the original parts like the waterpump, idler water bypass pulley and timing belt tensioner pulley from toyota. You can spin the pullies on the oem stuff and you wouldn't hearing the bearings spinning at all as compared to the stuff that is remanufactured. I was always trained when working on cars to do it right once and you'll never have to see it again. In some cars it easy to replace certain parts but in the case of this 4runner I hate having to mess with it so cause there is just a lot of bs just to remove a certain part. Oh yeah while you have it out make sure to replace the knock sensor and the wire.

yotayamin

Oh yeah, n2o302, knock sensor, forgot about that! I'll definitely shop the OEM stuff.

Anyone got an idea about how to pull the piece off the end of the fuel rail?

graduatedpine

I can't wait to see how this one progresses, great find!!

yotayamin

Ok, new problem, after 3 hours of wrenching. The fuel rail thingy came out with a bigger wrench and more force. That's called the 'fuel pressure dampner', by the way.

New problem is that the two headbolts on the right, rear cylinder, outside ones, the heads rounded when we were trying to undo them.



Guess I'll search the forums, and if nothing turns up, we'll drill them out. Problem is the PAIR valve is right there, and my friend said that when he was replacing his exhaust manifold gaskets last time, getting that thing out is tough 'coz you have to loosen up the A/C, and that takes a lot of other finagling.

Oh, I'm so sad right now, these are the last two bolts and the heads are off!

yotaman85

that sucks, good luck.

yotayamin

Hey, yotaman, thanks.

Well, made two fruitless trips to Sears to get bolt outs and some other thing, neither came anywhere close to getting the kind of grip needed.

So, we got the PAIR valve out (as my friend said, we had to move the A/C to get to the bottom bolt), and now we're drilling out the bolts. I really need a bigger drill bit, so I can't finish today. Lots of school work, so I'll have to get back to it next week.

This sucks so hard, so close, but so far!

yotayamin

Just remembered, we found some funny things today. The last owner had a bottle of oil in the trunk, and we figured that that and the oil-covered engine meant that the thing had a leak.

Well, turns out that the camshaft oil seals on BOTH sides had completely popped out, and the valve covers had no sealant on the corners, like the FSM says should be there. The thing must've leaked like a politician to the press.

yotayamin

Hi Yota fans, school's out and I'm working on this again. I've been checking the head myself (don't want to pay the machine shop), and it's pretty much done: cleaned up, magnafluxed, cams + bearings measured, valve stems + guides measured, lifters + bores measured, valves lapped, etc. The head's in good enough shape, and any problems aren't things that the machine shop will fix anyway.

Question: the FSM says intake valve guide seals are gray, exhaust are brown. The Toyota seals I got are the same color, but some are deeper than others. Can anyone tell me which are which? Here's a pic.

betelnut

Deep ones are the intake seals.

yotayamin

I've got the shortblock on an engine hoist (decided to replace the rear seal while it was nearby), couple of jacks under the transmission, two big bars to wrestle the engine around, and a wrench on the crank to make sure the splines line up. But it won't mate completely with the transmission! Any tricks to getting the 3VZE torque converter to slide all the way in?

Two problems:
- The engine goes all the way but about 1/2 inch, just enough that I can't get a bolt in.
- The transmission seems to be listing to one side! <Edit: fixed, put a jack under the rt side of transfer case>

Is this supposed to be this hard, or is there something wrong here? Visual inspection seems ok.

It is hot in Texas. Aaaahhhrrggghhhh!