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Just bought my friend's 98 TRD Tacoma. 5spd, 3.4L.

I'm replacing the shocks, spark plugs and wires, valve cover gaskets, cam gaskets, intake plenum gasket, egr valve & grommet, and lower ball joints.

Truck has 189,000. Any advice on what to look closely for on these? I'm not new to Toyota's, but they've all been 20R/22R(E). So this will be a new thing for me.

If there's anything on this engine to watch out for, especially at this mileage, let me know!

habanero

Timing belt/ water pump already done? Non-interference engine.

Seems you've covered the lower ball joints and no milkshake because 5spd...

Make sure rear dif breather is free, not crudded up or rusted closed.

I'm more a 4Runner kinda girl....not real sure on those open-butt things. Looks real good and 5 speed always a plus!

83

Thanks. Timing belt is due. At least in the next 15-20,000 miles. Still deciding if I'm going to do it myself.

I'll check the breather.

habanero

I don't find the timing belt job to be bad at all. The worst for me is breaking the crankshaft bolt loose, getting that pulley off is annoying, and then tightening it to 217 ft lbs. I plead the girl muscle defense. There are some great write-ups on how to do the timing belt on the 3.4 that may help you decide yay or nay.

Tie rods are...? Rubber stuff will eventually need attention. On 4Runners it's front lower control arm bushings and rack and pinion bushings especially. Maybe clean the iac in the throttle body as maintenance, and the maf.

Our 3.4 with 200,000 and the other with 278,000 have both been reliable as all get-out. Typical maintenance and some extra things on the higher mileage one, like power steering pump and rack and pinion and radiator, but nothing internal on either engine. Hey, the 96 will be 20 in two months! It's allowed to get a new this or that every now and again.

Keep the rust off and treat it well, there's no reason to not expect another 100,000+ miles from it if it's in good shape now.

Speaking of rust....was this one of the Tacos of frame rust recall fame?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

this truck did fall in the range of the frame recall, but if it is showing typical frame rust it should be fine.
http://blog.caranddriver.com/690000-...nd-brake-line/

looks like a good score

83

Thanks again. I had read a little on the throttle body cleaning, and that'll be on this. Thanks for the reminder.

My last truck was a 78, so I'm definitely used to old rubber and that sort of thing. I expect this to have less maintenance, but yeah, I still expect some maintenance.

Yep, this one falls under the frame recall. There is some very very light spotting rust on the underside, but nothing like "rot". It was in Utah its first 3 years, Montana since.

My friend did very good at babying it and keeping up with maintenance. He then sold it to another friend of mine about 4 years ago, and that friend...well, he didn't abuse it but maintenance slacked, and it was used for some serious dump runs, but hey, it's a truck.

So, some rust specks, leaky valve covers, busted shocks. Timing belt due. I can handle that.

Yeah I did the oil pump on a couple of my R-series trucks, and that crank bolt is tough! Long breaker bar...

habanero

Very long breaker bar! Looks like you're on top of things and have a good plan on a good truck.

On those valve covers check the torque on the bolts....have seen many leaky 3.4 valve covers with loose bolts....

83

Yeah I read something on that, too I tightened them down yesterday, and was really surprised at how loose some of them were. I'll clean them up today and see if they start leaking again.

Thanks!

vasinvictor

iTrader: (3)

I always use a long bar and bump the starter to break crank bolt loose. It works flawlessly. tightening down with a speed should be easy. Put it in 5th gear with ebrake on and it will hold fine. The autos are harder to torque- need a tool for that.

83

Yeah the starter bump method scares me. Obviously it works great for people, but I've always been able to break them free with a long bar, so that's what I go with. Less chance of death

No one will see me where I'm living now, but it's fun to be out in the street or driveway, in the engine with a 4 ft breaker bar just cranking on it with all I've got in full view of the neighbors...

I think whether tightening down the valve cover bolts stops the leaks there or not...I may still do the gaskets. I already ordered the stuff, and it should be a good introduction to this engine for me. I can already tell it's going to be a lot more involved than a 20R...I coud have that valve cover off in 5 minutes. Oh well.

And a shout out to Toyota of Dallas! I ordered the parts from them, and of course didn't think through my order. I'm used to just one head. After placing my order, a woman called me and asked if I'd need two of all the gaskets I ordered, and also whether I needed the PCV valve grommet (which I gave up searching for since it wasn't listed under that name, and figured I'd buy at my local dealership), etc. Very cool.

83

Any other maintenance stuff? The kinds of things you've run into along the way. Things that would cause me to be stuck on the side of the road (uncommon with Toyotas).

I'm specifically thinking of the fuel pump, or anything like that. Anyone have one go out, or have some idea of when people start noticing them fail? Or do they just go forever, so far?

I'm completely ignorant of stuff like mass airflow sensors, etc...And basically anything to do with emissions

Pipsisiwah

I just finished doing my water pump. I used a new OTC 4754 Pulley Holder that I no longer need. $45 gets it to you.

theskeezix@hotmail.com

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Well, I'm just updating myself. I've been able to be out & about in the truck, including a foot of fresh snow on the miles and miles of dirt road I live on...

So far I've put on new shocks (Bilstein 5100s), lower balljoints, front brake pads, radiator and hoses, thermostat, air & fuel filter, trailer hitch & wiring, new tranny & t-case oil...soon to replace front and rear diff oil as well as cleaning out all the breathers, and while I was doing the radiator, I noticed the drive belts don't look so good, so they're next. I have all the parts for valve cover gaskets including cam seals and spark plugs & wires, but that's going to wait for warmer weather.

Whew. A lot of work so far. But I'm building a good maintenance baseline, and taking care of a lot of unknowns.

-Oh and I also added a bent shifter extension to kind of make a short-throw shifter, a TRD leather shift knob, and a Marlin Crawler shifter seat and socket...

Was hoping to gloat about it earning its keep by hauling an elk back home, but I ended up getting one just hiking in the back yard, so I didn't even need the truck...Oh well

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

That is the kind of Elk Hunting I like !!

83

Yeah. Only problem was that I was still probably 3 miles from the house. A long hike, dragging elk parts behind me in pretty deep snow, through sagebrush. All worth it, but man that was an exhausting day. I got one quarter out in a pack, then got the rest wrapped up in a tarp and dragged it behind me on the next trip. I got that to within a mile and couldn't do it anymore. Went back to the house and grabbed a four wheeler and drug it out the rest of the way. I don't think people will be able to tell where my tracks were by spring...other than some broken sagebrush and a little damage to some stream banks where I had to cross a couple times...It'll all heal!

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

That is where horses come in handy .

Takes a good one not to be freaked out by all the smell of blood.

Packed lots of Elk out back in the day

In my youth me and another guy loaded a cow moose into the back of a pickup

Only about 800 pounds

83

Yeah I ran into some guys during bow season who had mules. That would be nice.

Moose! That's crazy. My friend got one a few years ago. He's still giving out moose burger to this day...think he's getting kinda sick of it

My elk was small enough that had it been on different terrain, close to my truck, I could have probably worked it into the bed. As it was, I could only drag the whole thing downhill through snow. And even then, anytime it hit sagebrush, it took all the strength I have to get it moving again. And we have a lot of sagebrush...

Yeah moose are huge. My friend's was a bull and the photo of him sitting next to the head is crazy. There were three elk in the group I could see, and once I got close enough to take a shot, I could only see two, just standing there staring at me. I shot the smaller of the two, on purpose. A guy only needs so much meat...

Anyway! Truck. Marlin seat and socket got delivered today. I have a half hour drive to the mailbox so I'll make it out there later in the week. That drive will also be what I use to warm up the front and rear diffs so I can change their fluid. Maybe saturday...

Then I'm done until warmer weather.

Matt93eg

It is for sure a lot harder to get to most things than the 4 cylinders but the compromise is more power. At least it is not nearly as bad as working on V6s and V8s stuffed into most domestic vehicles and the spark plugs are easy to change on the 3.4.

I did not know the Valve Cover bolts tend to get loose, since my valve cover gaskets are weeping(mostly on back side), I will check the bolts just to be on the safe side. I was planning on doing the gaskets soon and checking valve clearance while in there since she is knocking on the door of 275K miles.

83

Yeah. I didn't really want the power...but won't lie...it's pretty nice.

My valve cover bolts were finger tight. I've only put a couple thousand miles on it, but I cleaned up the covers as well as I could, and I haven't noticed any more oil coming out.

I'm still going to do the valve covers, becasue I bought the parts, and because I don't like looking at an oily engine. But I think the issue with mine was just loose bolts.

Funny thing with this truck...it's the newest, nicest vehicle I've ever owned. But it's the dirtiest. I guess I've always ended up getting vehicles that where really old and needed a good amout of work. So things get fixed...and cleaned. So I'm actually used to a nice clean engine and trasmission. This one is just starting to have leaks pop up here and there, and has a lot of dirt and oil on things. It's kind of annoying...

So if nothing else, I'll do the valve covers because that's the only way to get in there and clean everything up.

83

Well, having some fun lately...

Everything in compounded by the fact that I'm working in the cold and often laying in the snow while I'm doing this stuff, but...

I managed to strip the drain plug on the front diff. Why Toyota decided to make that a hex, I have no idea. I bought the next size up and I'll manage to get it off. Fill bolt was no problem, for whatever reason.

Struggled for quite a while trying to get the shift "collar" thing back on after replacing the shift socket and seat. Turns out, in my truck anyway, the original seat was a two-part gasket. There was the seat (still in good condition and pliable), and under it, a flat washer-style rubber gasket. I didn't notice that second gasket and no matter what I did I could not get that shift collar back on.

Once I noticed the gasket and pulled it out...collar moved right into place.

I'm guessing I won't notice a huge difference since my original seat was in good shape and honestly, the shifting didn't feel sloppy. I just figured I might as well upgrade while I was doing a bunch of work anyways. We'll see.