that is true...

 

yeah that all sounds good. I'm thinking about ditching the whole machine shop idea now as well. where would one find something straight enough to lie on the mating surface to test it out?

 

lots of home fix it stores that will have straight edge metals.....I used a construction square that I had laying around

 

Hmm, I got a long t-square for cutting drywall i don't know though I think I'll see if I can bring it to a foundry or a machine shop or I'd be willing to bet that an automotive mechanics shop would have a table to test and see if the t-square is true or not. Cool thanks for the idea.

 

Well, I did a compression check over the weekend. The results were far better than I had expected. Cylinders #1-#4 were all at 170psi. #5 was 165psi and #6 was at 168psi. All spark plugs looked pretty good except #6 which was a little white. The previous owner had installed Bosch platinum spark plugs. I replaced those with the factory recommended NGK's. I also found a vacuum leak in my ISR mod. This saturday I'm gonna go to the salvage yard to get the intake hose piece I need to return the intake to stock. I think I'm gonna put her back on the road for now and keep an eye on things. Delaying the inevitable, I'm sure, but I'll just have to watch and see.

 

T4L: You probably already know but just keep on peeking at the oil via the dipstick. If you pull out the dipstick and see milk chocolate it is time to park it, and that is no joke. The first Runner I had to work with was a '90 3vze that was ran until the oil pretty much lost all viscosity (got thinned out by coolant) and a rod bearing got ate up, and then you only got a full rebuild or engine swap to choose from. Though I do know of some folks who dare to change out rod bearings from underneath the vehicle with the oil pan removed, too hard to do with 4wd though.

 

Yeah, I'm a little obsessive about checking the oil. I'll be watching.

 

So I am finally mustering up the mental strength to get back on the head gasket horse. Assembly started last weekend and immediately came to a hault (lets just say that the phrase "head bolt set" is deceiving). For anyone out there doing this make sure and get two head bolt sets. I cleaned the heads with a method that has worked for me before which is getting as much off as i can with brake cleaner and a fewbrass wire brushes. Then whatever's left can be scpraped off if with a blade. I got a good staight edge and tested the mating sufaces and all i can say is wow. I realized that I spoke wrong earlier, it can't be .03 of a tollerance. That sliver of the feeler gauge was way too thick, but with a .003 sliver the heads and the block tested true. Then I took it a step further and tested it with .0015 (the smallest guage) and it still didn't slip past the straight edge. Work will start back up again this weekend and I'll devote some time to post pictures of any other problem that I had that might not have been addressed for the sake of the greater 3vze conscience.

 

that sounds great please keep updating as you go along to keep this thread as informational as possible....the 3vze needs it

 

any updates?....how's it going with the head gasket replacement?

 

I sold and replaced. Just didn't have it in me. Sorry fellas.

 

yeah definitely much has been done I devoted much of my two days I had off with just pure wrenching. Both the heads back on much of everthing I did is already on the thread but I did find it interesting that an open ended wrench did about 90% of the crossover pipe bolt tightening



I did the other side the same way but I told my self that I would never speak of it again.
I also got both heads complete, the intake manifold on and then got hung up on the injectors. I had a couple of those plastic tips that you find covering the stem of the injector get brittle and brake apart. after finding out that toyota only sells the injector I said the hell with it and installed them as is, but luckily today a found a business called austin injector performance and they have em so I'll take the injectors back out and have them slap that piece back on there. Luckily I didn't put the intake chamber on so very little backtracking is necessary. A word of warning I guess to any who sees this is to check your injectors when you take them out during disassembly so that you can take care of what ever you need right away and not have it hold you up during reassembly, but yeah with any luck the injector thing will take like an hour and I be able to start back up assembly this weekend. Just like with everything else I guess you just got to keep trucking along.

 

Good job! I've done two Hg replacements in the 9 years I've owned my 4 runner.
And thats not including the recall which was done before I bought it. Both times it was the same exact spot that failed on the gasket.

The second time went a lot quicker

 

Great Job!!...this is the injector tip that was on my #6 cracked into

 

i know what you mean about the tips, i just said the hell with replacing mine.. the yota dealer told me i had to buy new injectors.. "i was like what ever".... i just bought the thick rubber o-rings 14.59 for 4 o-rings "what a rip off..."

truck started on first crank.

 

you can buy rebuilt injectors from most auto parts stores...the one I bought was $54.00

 

The local shop here in austin literally sold them to me for $0.75 each and they just pop on. I left the shop spending $5 for 6 of 'em. So they are out there somewhere.

 

a few of those and send them to WITCH HUNTER and you saved a bunch of $$$$

 

Yeah these guys even do rebuilds as well so when next time I break into it (which'll be soon to adjust the valve clearance) I'll probably drop it off at this local store.
There was also a couple things that I need clarification on just to make sure just so that I can remain confident to move on but first I have to give a big
to buckz for his write-up on the timing belt. helped out allot one question though . If I had a timing belt that didn't have a directional arrow on it does that mean that it can be put on either way? The match points match up on the camshaft and crankshaft pulleys either way but has anyone else ran into this that you know of or is it even an issue?

 

Thanks....and you can buy a a timing belt without markings, really don't need them as long as the timing marks line up as described in the FSM....BUT...if you have to remove the timing belt to replace a part that the belt runs on then you will have to align all the timing marks again and then mark the belt in all locations described in the FSM so you can reinstall it back correctly(I think that's correct)