95 4runner v6 low cylinder pressure
 

Hey Folks,
New to the site and it's great! I've got a 95 4runner v6 and it's been a good one. Got it at 48,000 and now has 180000. I have spent maybe $3000 including 2 sets of tires to keep it going for the last 3 years. Prior to that not much other than an ac cpmpressor. Anyhow it has been a dog for months. I changed the plugs and wires and no change. Took it in and it has 40 lbs in the #6 cylinder. When I saw that he said he'd have to dig in deeper to really know. We didn't test the rest of the motor but pulled the plug wires. All would bog it down save #3. So it runs like crap and drinks gas and idles like heck. Should I get another motor? Theres some oil use and leaks but everything else is fine other than a rough idle and a dead spot between 1500-2000 rpm.

my mechanic said go trade it in or spend $4000 on a new motor. Plus a few times the trans was in neutral though I had it in drive. I put it in 4wd and it worked fine. I could hear the tranny shifting into drive but it was still like it was in 4wd neutral. But, this truck has no 4wd neutral gear. So I don't wanna put ina new motor if the whole one piece ADD transmisiion and transfer case goes out next!

Trade it in or fix the motor?

And it needs tires,cv axles, a windshield and the key is so worn I can't open the doors................. But I love the truck and put almost 1000 mi a month on it.

Any thoughts
?

What about the almost dead cylinder? it has noticeable miss, shudder and hesattation. Should I try the head gasket recall?

have the dealer run the vin & see if the recall is till open.check the valve adjustment-sounds like its trying to burn a valve-valve adjustment might buy ya some time to start saving.i'm going thru the same right now.adjusted valves after having 60psi.drove it another 1000 miles before it laid down.gettin ready to pull er out & rebuild.its got 303000 miles on it so i guess thats not to bad-good luck

Your '95 is almost certainly not included in the HG recall. The #6 cylinder is a problem prone area. The poor design of the OEM exhaust cross-over tends to really heat things up in the #6 area. Bent valves and blown head gaskets are common. I suspect your problem is one or the other. If you are fairly handy with a wrench, you can do a HG repair for about 300 bucks. If you have to pay someone to do it, expect to pay around 1000-1500.

See I thought it was a head gasket. Then again last Jan I had a timing belt, belts, wp, pulleys, valve cover gaskets, power steering pump, and pcv done. It was running rough and thought head gasket was gone. After all of the above it ran great until thanksgiving. BTW, since I have put alomost 4000 mi on her. I guess it could blow at any moment?

Thanks for all the input. After thinking it over I suppose the valve(s) are burned. The truck always had a ping to it even with high octane(though not as bad). A friend said to decarb it and change the head gasket but I think it's shot. I mean low cylinder pressure is low pressure in the cylinder not the head right? My wife drove it for a while and I always told her to run high test thinking this would happen at some point. I'm thinking off teading it for a newer 4runner 2000 and up. But I may trade it in on a new Jeep wrangler and sell my Jeep cj as well. I dunno, moves like this are always a dilemma.

My 95 was covered under the recall. was done when i got it.
Won't hurt or cost anything to have Toyotaa
run your vin#
Here's the number I called and the recall #
toyota case line is 1 800 331 4331
V06 Recall
Good luck

I'll try it out for sure...thanks...