I figured out what has been making the nasty smell when the AC was on. There was a mouse nest and a family of dead mice expired on the passenger side of the cooling unit. Who knows how long they were there. The remains were very dry and were easy to vacuum out. The was a fair amount of mouse turds, too. I don't know what they were eating, or when the moved in.

To clean this out properly requires removing the cooling unit. I would like to clean out the urine leftovers. This means evacuating the R134a and undoing hoses. What a bummer.

I removed the cruise control and few other bits and pieces. Nothing else new to report.

 

Oh yuck Mice love to eat wires, so look around carefully for bear wiring.

 

The pictures didn't come out well enough to show anything useful. The gap between the fan and the cooling unit was barely wide enough to fit in a 3/4" tube taped to the vacuum hose. I busted up the bodies and turds in the process of getting them out. I was very careful to not damage the fins on the cooling unit. I would have taken more pictures if I realized that the first ones were useless.

I looked around very carefully for any bare wires or other signs of damage. I didn't find anything. It wonder when they moved in, and when they died. I have been around this 4runner since it was bought. I got it at about 24K miles.

 

I am planning to replace a tired 3vze in a 91 4Runner with a used/rebuilt unit for my son as a first car/truck and I am not planning to do the 3.4 conversion. From what I have read, the replacement is fairly straight forward with some preplanning, so I do have a couple of questions. Are there any special tools that are recommended for this work? I have a downloaded Service Manual for a 95 4Runner. Is this good enough? Any other helpful suggestions.

 

I'd recommend an engine hoist, tranny jack, and about 2-3 feet of 1/2 drive extensions with a swivel or 2.

 

you will want to retire that vacuum asap! all that mouse stuff you removed can be very hazardous to your health. any cleaning material you use to tidy up inside the cab should be discarded as well. please use gloves and mask and wash your hands and arms thoroughly when you are done.

those little buggers can get into places you wouldnt think possible!

lee

 

I have gone through, and overhauled, several 3.0's. First of all, its a 186 cubic inch, or so, engine. Not enough motor for a heavy 4runner. Toyota really screwed up by not making the 24 valve Camry engine the standard 3.0 platform and to add insult to injury, the dam thing won't cross over.

The bottom end design is marginal. The long oil pump pickup is a bad idea. Let the engine sit for a period of time and you have a short dry start. The crank common main girdle is another weak design. Tolerance stacks and thermal strains can be bad for the main bearings.

Putting aluminum heads on an iron block is bad. Yeah, saves weight but too many complications which are now haunting the 3.0.

The heads are of poor design. Thin wall castings and small valves.

The top end ancillary items are put in the worst places possible, in the friggin back of the motor and under the intake.

The exhaust design is criminal. I hope the fool that approved that jumped off a bridge.

The A340H transmission is the most expensive and complex mess I have ever seen for a transfer case design. The transmission itself is OK and is a very common Aisin platform with decent reliability. Here's where they got one right. Whoever designed the automatic transfer case on the second generations should have been the next in line to jump off the bridge.

I like my 2000 Tacoma. I hated my 88 V6, head gasket puking, truck.

Its my understanding Toyota is still suffering from head gasket problems but its kept very quiet. I suggest they hire a few Honda power train engineers.

So, rant is over. You can fix the 3.0 and it may be OK if you use ARP head studs and NOT use head bolts. Not sure which head gasket is the best. The last engine I fixed, I had two 0.030" solid copper gaskets CNC'ed and installed them with a little gasket sealer. The engine now has over 18,000 miles and is running well. I junked the stupid cross-over rear exhaust which overheats #6 and burns the valves and ran duals to the CAT. I had the mains aligned bored and man was it screwed up. The machinist was surprised at the amount of material that was removed during the machining. The heads were die checked for cracks, and sho nuff, one was bad. Cracked on the read side of #4, close to #6 where the heat accumulates.

Hope the above rant will help you make some decisions.

My $0.02 and experiences

 

hey, does anyone have link to 90 pick up FSM i cant seem to find it. I would like to see what is says about pulling a 3VZ-E.

 

http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/index.html

scroll down a little it covers 89-95

 

I just dove into it. I unplugged everything that went from the body to the motor! simple as that! take off your intake plentum. remove injectors wires, remove wires down to the trans, unbolt the trans, slide it back, undo motor mounts, pop it straight up with your hood removed it took me all of 4 to 5 hours...

 

it's not that hard if you know how to do it... the first time it took me forever but now that i have done it 4 times i'm frailly good at it. the hardest part usually is getting the exhaust bolts free (if you want to save the exhaust). I can easily do it in 5 hours. I start by draining all the fluids. remove the air intake. then remove intake plentum.. and remove all the wiring harness. remove radiator and fan. then I usually remove the vacuum stuff on the passenger side but that is optional. remove p/s and ac and starter. leave all 3 in the car. remove all the hoses and pipes. unbolt the exhaust. remove hood. unbolt the trans. unbolt motor mounts and you are home free. you can mix up the order a bit but this is what i usually do. just remember not to put it back in. the 3 slow is one of the worst engines ever. i'm putting one in my dad's truck that doesn't have a motor soon just because it only has a few thousand miles on it and runes great. i'm replacing it with a Mercedes diesel in mine. yee haw

 

this post has helped me tremendously but i need help getting the starter off without breaking my arm from reaching around everything
and do u have to remove the starter to get the motor out

 

I have removed everything else previously mentioned.... I also have to replace a ported vacuum switch that is right behind the passenger side fuel rail. can anyone help me find this part asap and do i really need this to work properly... I was thinking of just plugging a double sided male vacuum hose connector, wil this work?

 

use a very long extension to get onto the bottom bolt. The end of the extension should come out somewhere under the AC towards the front of the vehicle. You might find a swivel helpful too. the top one is doable from the wheel well.

 

the vacuum switch is extremely expensive and if you don't feel like replacing it just vent the charcoal canister directly into the throttle body. I haven't had any adverse effects doing this. and just plug the hole. all that switch does is limit when the canister can vent. it's useless but some stupid regulation probably made that switch mandatory.

 

@ nathanmyers....so I can just connect the 2 hoses together and have no problem thanks.... the guy at autozone said this was because they had emission standards to adhere to but he didn't know if i could just bypass it and still be ok... he also said that I would have a check engine light come on if I did this

 

and thanks for the help on the starter im taking it now and it seems like i will get it out this time easier then i thought

 

Yea... just connect the two hoses and you will be great. you will not have a check engine light come on because the engine has no Idea that it was bypassed. and The starter really is a lot easier to get out with that method. good luck.

 

got it.... thanks and u saved me a whole lot of drama with that vacuum switch.... heck ya i love this site

 

Without the TVV (Thermal Vacuum Valve) the truck will run poorly when cold. If you can get around that, more power to you.

The part is about $43 online; I paid about $65 at the dealer before I learned of YotaTech. If you think that $43 is "extremely expensive" you may be able to get by without it. (You do need to connect through the vacuum line as described; otherwise fuel will start dripping out of the canister.)

Oh, and by the way, be careful about the advice you get from "the guy at autozone."