Um, yeah....I'd say so.

You're not sucking any oil through crankcase breathers are you?

 

Nope; the smoking is very intermittent. As a last ditch effort, I used some Bar's HG repair and it promptly clogged the crap out of my radiator...

But no more recurrences of the mysterious smoke...so I'll get the radiator hot-tanked & call it good for now.

 

Dude, if I was doing that it would be smoking like a train~

That HG repair clogged every damn passageway in the radiator; it's fine until you get it up to highway speed then it goes QUICKLY into the red. Scared the beejeezus outta me Friday!

 

UPDATE: Still losing coolant somewhere, I bought a petcock to replace the leaking one on my old radiator, but doesn't seem to account for the amount of coolant I'm losing.

But it runs fine & stays cool as long as I keep the radiator topped off. No more smoke; oil is golden honey color. I run it til it dies, or until I get that totaled SC-400 w/1UZ engine & do the ultimate swap.....

 

I was literally looking through my subsriptions yesterday and was gonna ask how you were making out with this thing, but then I got distracted by the 22RE oil cap removed thread. But now I know it runs, so thats a good thing haha.

1UZ swap = bad ass. Your truck is in nice shape, it would be worth it to swap if your 3.0 ever "gives up the ghost."

 

I've figured it would run me around $5-6k to do the 1UZ swap. That's a lot to drop on a 15-year-old truck w/228,000 miles on the clock....

 

well, as you may know, these trucks to an enthusiast is not subject to the questions of practicality. And, price is not an object haha, at least within your budget

 

 

Just read through this and was wondering about your head bolt tensioning. Not sure what the assembly lube friction of coefficient is compared to engine oil, but the guy at my machine shop specifically told me to NOT use any kind of synthetic oil on the bolts, just regular engine oil. He said the synthetic oil was much more slippery than the regular oil, causing much higher clamping pressure for a given torque value than what you should have. Hope it works out for you in any case and that you can chase down your smoke problem.

Edit: not that my comment really helps now that you have it up and running, just wanted to share the info...

 

I just now saw this thread.... What is it with the 3.0 blowing through HG's EVEN after the recall? - (Now I need to go back through and read your thread)

 

I never had the block or heads resurfaced (they checked out way below spec for warpage)....I attribute it to that. She seems to be running GREAT now!

 

Glad to see your trucks running good.

$5-$6k is a bit much for 1uz swap. can be done for alot less , just started mine and am doing ok money wise. I have eveything except the exhaust but that wont be much. This is for the automatic using the lexus auto, I guess the manual would be different.I did buy some items I will not need but they will be sold.

1992 ls 400 clean title,reg til 2010 ,running and no dents $1100
inchworm adapter $750
gear case $100
sc manifolds ,xtra starter ,block $100
tundra manifolds (in the Mail) $50
steel for mounts $50
so far $2150

sold $600 in parts from ls 400
engine from 4runner $750
trans from 4runner $300
sold rebuilt block and full gasket set $800
compressor from 4runner $40
$2490

still have the car and selling parts evey couple days on craigs,still have some parts from 4runner I will sell.

used relays ,fuses ,wire from ls and 4runner.
REally not trying to start an argument here just saying.

Good Luck when you do decide to start it.

 

gotta get one mid 1990 or older, those asbestos head gaskets really hold up! I sold an engine from the parts runner in my signature with the asbestos head gaskets, it had ~215k miles when I sold it. The guy that has it now put on another 30k, all original haha. My truck has 205k on the original gaskets as well. It was the mid 1990 model year that they switched head gasket material due to the explosion of asbestos law suits at the time, or so I heard...

 

TNRabbit - At this point in your experience, what would you recommend to someone in a similar situation? When your 3.0 blew it's first HG would you attempt to rebuild it, swap it for another motor, or go for a rebuilt 3.0 with a warranty? Thanks for sharing your experience, it's much appreciated.

 

So do the tundra manifolds fit??

I can't wait till I can start planning my 1uz swap

 

Knowing what I know now, I wish I'd done the 3.4 swap. I'd LOVE to do a 1UZ swap but that's not in the cards. If anything further happens, I'll probably part this truck out & just buy a Tundra...

 

I know that feeling TNR, but when we thought Troy's HG was gone a few weeks ago we just did NOT have the $$ to do the 3.4 swap. It is so frustrating because in the long run it is so much better to just go for the 3.4... but if you really look at all the things you need to do the 3.4 it can get pretty expensive (over $2,500) and that is with doing a lot of stuff yourself.

 

Well, at any rate, she's running well right now since I put the new radiator in. I've driven the hell out of it in the past couple of weeks with zero issues~

 

A little bit off topic here, but if you do a good rebuild of your 3.0, I think that you might have a lot more miles left in that engine than if you swap in a used 3.4. Or what do you think? Yeah, you get more power and all that, but how long will your 3.4 last if it is just a used engine? Just wondering if anyone has considered this when doing the 3.4 swap?

 

well as Jasper advertises, "You already own a Junkyard Engine." I agree with your logic lol