93 degrees today and the highest I saw was 192. I think I'm actually fairly happy where I am right now.

 

Sold the stock motor today... kinda bittersweet to see it go, but very nice to have the space back in the garage. It will go to a good home though, sold it to someone that will be rebuilding it.

 

So the swap has been running fine without any trouble... until yesterday morning...

I was pretty much daring the gods while I was on the freeway with good power, good coolant temperature etc. Then suddenly a flapping noise started, which I thought was just a exhaust leak, I figured I'd keep driving and fix it when I got back.

Then I started smelling gas, so I pulled over and killed it. Went around to the front and lifted the hood. Took a look around and didn't see anything until...

I realized that the front most driver's side spark plug has appeared to left the building... ie gone, it's sitting somewhere on the highway...

Of course I started thinking worse case scenario, that I stripped the head somehow...

So I had it towed back home. I had a set of new dual tipped spark plugs that I never swapped in because I thought the motor was running so well. So before rushing off to work I took an extension and slowly hand turned the spark plug into the well. And to my relief it appeared that there was threads still in the head.

Well the motor throwing out a spark plug is a good sign that it wants a tune up so I went ahead and changed all the spark plugs today.

Before doing so I looked up the torque rate for the plugs, about 13.9 ft lbs. At that point I realized I don't think I ever looked up that value while assembling the motor....

So what happened was while I had the motor on the stand I was finishing up the valve cover gasket, but I did not want to leave the motor open, so I just hand tightened the spark plugs to keep the motor sealed...I don't think I ever went back to torque these...

In hindsight it was lucky i did this as the roof in the garage fell in, and basically landed on the motor a day after NOT finishing the valve cover gasket.

While changing the spark plugs NONE of them were more than hand tight except one. I didn't even need to use a ratchet to loosen them except for one. I'm actually quite lucky that the motor didn't eject more spark plugs than just that one.

Ah the small things...

Torqued everything up and took it around the block. Much more torque and power with everything torqued correctly.

 

LOL. oh if I only had the time and space to post all the dumb things that I have done..........

Glad there was no damage

Still kind of strange that the plug could work its way out with the wire attached?? It seems the wire would keep it from spinning that much. I dont know......

 

Glad that's all it was. At least it wasn't the oil drain plug Your transmission seem to be holding up to the power? I don't image you are terribly rough on it though.

 

I doubt I tightened any of these plugs more than just snug hand tight. It's the small things that you never think about. I think I double/triple checked anything that had anything to do with fluids, but it's the little things that end up stranding you.

The transmission has been fine thus far. While I don't drive it all that hard, my wife runs it through the ringer at times. I did notices that the shifts tended to be slightly soft, and when I checked the transmission cable that it didn't quite get to the adjustment point that it should. I bent the throttle bracket slightly to get it there, and it does feel like the transmission is shifting a lot more positive now.

My wife had been complaining that the power from this swap wasn't as impressive as she expected from the older 3.0. I thought she was crazy but then she's the one that learned how to drive on that motor, if anyone should be able to feel the difference she would. I think I might have just been happy to get the 4runner running again and didn't notice.

But effectively I was creating a much more difficult spark path for the spark to ignite the mixture, and I was creating a slightly larger combustion chamber. Again it's the little things...

 

It's funny you say that. I don't feel like it is that big a gain in power either. Hopefully more reliable long term. Then again I don't drive it very hard.

 

I know one thing, the spark plugs took me a lot less time than they took on the only 3.0. That and I do know that I can break the speed limit with this motor and pass other cars, so if anything I know I had trouble with the old 3.0 doing those things.

For us it might be that the auto is soaking up a lot more power, either that or we just don't drive them as hard...

 

Some information I've stumbled across that I thought might not be a bad idea to put down somewhere.

all from oreily's
mbh 20820 radiator hose
gat k040410 micro v belt
gat k040405 micro v belt

 

What transfer case and adapter did you use?

 

So here's a update/bump from the past.

The 4runner has been running normally, boringly reliable actually. I normally drove it maybe once a weekish, but not a whole lot. The decision to move across country from Oklahoma to Arizona had been a thought for several years, and as time came closer the 4runner became a bit of a question. We could come up with 4 options: 1. junk it, 2. sell it, 3. send it, 4. drive it.

1. junk it, honestly a painful thought with all the work that had been put into it. And it ran fine, AC worked etc.
2. sell it, had no idea what to ask for it, and even with as reliable as it had been I worried that I was going to sell it to someone only for it to develop into a basketcase. Carmax gave me a HUGE offer of $200.00. So this idea kinda got canned as well.
3. send it, hard to justify sending a vehicle that carmax said was only work $200.00 the shipping cost would have cost more than the car.

so we're left with....

4. drive it, kinda terrifying at first, but yet, the swap has been 100% reliable since the spark plug incident and that was completely my fault. Still the motor that was swapped in was only about 100k miles when swapped in, and the transmission was rebuilt within a few years when the swap occurred. That left everything else, which was pushing almost 27 years old. I had swapped in 4.10 diffs in the hopes for better gas mileage so this might be a good test.

So I made a list of maintenance items that I wanted to be completed before the trip. Not in order, just based on memory.
1. Brake fluid and brake health check
Front pads had a good amount of meat left, and rotors looked sufficient. I'll admit I did not measure rotor thickness, I figured there was enough to the naked eye then there should be enough for the trip. Once in Arizona I'd recheck. The rear brakes....did I mention that I hate drum brakes. There's nothing distinctly wrong with them, just that getting the drum off every time is such a pain.The driver side rear came off easily enough and had a good amount of meat on the shoes. The passenger side I had to resort to putting bolts into the drum to force it off. Good amount of meat on the passenger side as well. Honestly, I know that rear disc conversions aren't a huge step up in performance, but I'm almost considering it just for the easy of maintenance in the future. Brake fluid replaced and all corners bleed including the booster.

Pro tip-easiest way to get off rear drums in the future, take it to a brake place that advertises free brake checks and ask them to take a look at the rear's only.

2. Transmission fluid check
Checked while warm and running, just at the bottom of the hot mark, added a little just to get to top mark.

3. Oil change
This was kinda comical as all my specialty tools including a filter wrench were already gone. and my 10 pack of drain plug gaskets.

4. Power steering fluid check
Just a small amount to bring up to full.

5. Engine coolant check
Looked nice and clear, I did add a little to the overflow tank as a precaution.

6. Running lights check
1 tail light was out and replaced.

7. Differential fluid check
Dirty but full. Fluid was drained and changed around the time of the swap.

So being a 2nd gen the 4runner has a rear sagging issue. It wasn't until the week before we were set to leave that I decided I wanted to do something about it Since most of my tools were on their way to Arizona I decided to try the easiest way with air bags. Unfortunately the air bags wouldn't fit without removing the springs, and if I'm going to be removing the springs anyways....so I went ahead and ordered moog cc255 springs and the rear lift kit spacers. Did I mention that they arrived the day before we were to leave?

Getting the springs in wasn't really that difficult, but I will say spring compressors will help you get them in easier. I did have to undo the endlinks for the rear sway bar and the bottom mount for the shocks but other than that it wasn't that involved.

My main two concerns leaving for the trip was going to be the cooling system and the transmission.

So with all that drama out of the way, the trip? no drama at all. 1000+ miles and not a hiccup. Well ok one hiccup in that the instrument panel light burned out on the first night, but it has been flickering daring me to change it. Again kinda my fault. I even had a big toolbox full of tools had I packed just in case of some breakdown. But absolutely nothing happened. Coolant temperatures maxed at 194.8 during the day, but at night I don't think I ever saw above 185. I would have liked to have a transmission temperature gauge but even then the transmission did not have any problems. I did bypass the stock cooler and put in the largest transmission cooler I found from a local parts store several years back, and it seems to have done it's job well.

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised as the transmission was rebuilt about a year before the engine swap happened and the engine was out of a T100 that had 98kish miles. But still somewhat astonished how drama free it was.

Now the gas mileage, the gas mileage for this swap has always been kinda poor, but I attributed that to mostly cityish driving. However, on this trip I think the highest I ended up seeing was 15 mpg and that was all highway. I don't think I'm dragging a brake pad, but I'll have to start there and move my up to fuel problems. Perhaps borescope the cylinders and see if one is cleaner than the others. I've read online some people mentioning the fuel filter, and I'm fairly certain that it's never been changed, but I can't wrap my head around a partially clogged fuel filter worsening fuel mileage, wouldn't it make it better? The only other culprits would be a bad MAF, or maybe a stuck injector?

 

Nice swap thread/build! Only for the patient and persevering!

Fuel filter are like most other filters, they too require replacement.

MAF. See if cleaning it first helps before replacing. Can save a couple hundred possibly.

A few have preached about using fuel system cleaners in the tank on a periodic basis. I used one treatment after fixing my 3.4 stripped plug threads / head repair. Cheap option before going with injector replacements. But at the runner's age and mileage, probably.

6 pages of reading and where's the pics? My eyeballs need some illustrations! Please

Glad you kept it going! Hope for many more.

 

Thank you, will take a look at that. I honestly thought about replacing the fuel filter when I did the swap, but never got around to it. That and I didn't have flare nut wrenchs at the time, now I do after bleeding the brakes. After that I'll clean the MAF and maybe run some fuel cleaner as you mentioned. If that doesn't help I'll have to dig more. I had thought about replacing the o2 sensor, but I distinctly remember replacing that after the swap, so I'd be surprised if that was the issue. Worst case scenario I have a wideband sensor that I can always place in the exhaust from my turbo days to see what the actual A/F is.

 

MAF cleaned, honestly was pretty dirty.

Also replaced the fuel filter. Looking at it, I'm going to bet that it's original, all 300k and 28 years old. You definitely want flare nut wrenches. On a 1991 the fuel filter is in a very awkward place. The rear nut isn't too bad, but the front is. I found that taking the bracket off made it a lot easier. I then put the flare wrench on the rear fitting rather than the front, and used a flare nut wrench on the front nut. PB blaster made a significant difference as well. Lost a good amount of fuel. On the 1991 the passenger rear seat is over the fuel pump/tank. If you remove the three screw panel you'll have access to the fuel pump connector, disconnect this and run the engine till it dies. The fuel line itself won't be under so much pressure, but I probably still lost maybe a cup or two of gas. Be careful, do this work out in the driveway rather than in the garage near the water heater pilot. I also had a fire extinguisher nearby.

Feels a bit more peppy, and idles smoother. Time will tell if the gas mileage has gotten better. I have noticed on the ultra gauge that the long term fuel correct has zeroed or just slightly minus, versus being -3ish from before.

 

I wouldn't bother. Go to www.raptorengines.com and get a high output 3.0 with a seven year warranty! Best solution for the 3.slow and only $1995.

 

Motors been in for about 6 years now. But thanks for stopping by.

 

So I've had a small leak of coolant near the rear of the engine, where the coolant hoses come out from the engine and go into the heater core and also the rear heater core. That and I realized that I haven't even changed the coolant for 9 years. Upper radiator hose feels crunchy, so it's likely time to overhaul this, that and I can put back the stock Toyota thermostat with the jiggler at the 6 o'clock instead of the napa thermostat that I drilled 2 holes in. I have Toyota coolant sitting in storage so I've been dragging my feet, but I'm realizing that saving 30 bucks in coolant will seem very stupid if I end up getting a major leak and losing a head gasket.

So here we go.

00272-1LLAC-01
2 gallons of concentrated red Toyota coolant. Make sure they give you the non diluted one, the parts counter mistakenly tried to give me the pre diluted one, and if you do the math it's significantly more expensive. I'll save you the trouble of looking it up, coolant capacity is roughly 10 quarts.

90916-03075
Stock Toyota thermostat, I'm going with the stock thermostat that came with the T100 5vz-fe motor.

16325-62010
Thermostat gasket.

Drained the radiator and pulled the two radiator hoses off. There is significant build up at the upper radiator hose, not a ton at the lower radiator hose, but some at the thermostat. Again likely past time to do this.

The rats nest of heater hoses exiting the engine and then going to the HVAC control valve and heater core was a bit more of challenge but my neighbor introduced me to hose picks, and why I have never learned about these. The hoses at the heater core are very likely 30+ years old so taking them off was scary until I got the hose picks and a razor blade. Very happy that Toyota went with brass fitting instead of plastic as they'd likely just snap off.

I think I'm going to just delete rear heater. It's never been used since I went through the trouble of finding the metal fitting that had them but at this point it's just another failure point. I was going to cap them off, but my neighbor believes it might be better to just run a look from one of the metal fittings to another. This 4runner mostly just sits at this point, and we use it to move stuff or make runs to the hardware store. Also living in Arizona, now cuts down on the heater use significantly at this point.

Cleaned up the aluminum upper radiator hose at the engine with some CLR and red 3m pad, did the same for the upper radiator and lower radiator, did the same for the metal pipes for the heater core.

About to go outside and play with the heater hose I spent some time at advanced auto finding. Here's a tip, call around and find out where the hub stores are or the warehouse is in your area. When you find that store go there with the heater hose you need to match up since you weren't wise enough to write everything down when you did the swap 9 years ago.

I'll put down the heater hose I end up using, but if you're doing this swap it's not likely to be 100%, you'll likely still have to find some hose that'll fit.

 

Ok so hoses...
Gates 20820 upper radiator hose
Dayco 87605 hose from rear engine block to u turn metal piece, also part of this was cut to go between u turn metal piece and HVAC control valve
Dayco 86801 rear heater delete loop
Dayco 87634 hose from rear of engine block to 90 degree metal piece to heater core
Dayco C71765 lower radiator hose
Dayco 88355 half of this was used to go from the 90 degree metal piece to heater core, other half was from the HVAC control valve to heater core
87240-89124 OEM Toyota HVAC control valve (one of the inlets didn't have a barb)

 

Did a thermocure flush for the heck of it, after swapping back the old thermostat. The first few rinses were completely black, it's a bit misleading as the chelating action of thermocure turns things black. It took 4 rinses to get it to be clearer and I did a total of 8 rinses to get it see through. The yellow color remained, and after a call to thermocure/evaporust they told me this was normal. I got 1 gallon of concentrated red toyota coolant in with 1 gallon of distilled water. Drove around a bit yesterday and saw 188.4 with some brief stops into the low 190s. Will be interesting to see what comes in the summer. Speaking of summer, my HVAC fan doesn't respond so that will likely be the next thing to dive into.

I've also developed a low rpm misfire, and managed to shift the exhaust when doing some driving around and testing the throttle. I've ordered some spark plug wires and plugs. Hopefully it's not the coils, but even then it's not terribly expensive.

In the back of my head there's also the timing belt. I swapped it when the motor was swapped...in 2012, so 9 years ago. Not many miles have been put on this motor, so I think I'm going to pull the cover off and take a peak.

 

Low end misfire was the spark plug wires, now replaced with NGK wires. Also swapped spark plugs, it looks like one of the spark plug wires may have been bad for a while as there is a bit of discoloration on the driver rear plug. Otherwise, the plugs look reasonable.

PCV also swapped along with the gasket. The gasket was what I was worried the most about since most people say it falls apart. Toyota appears to have realized this and there is a baffle built in just below the pcv valve. A small piece made it down into the baffle, but was easily taken back out with some needlenose pliers.

I also took the upper cover off and took a look at the timing belt, it honestly looks almost the same as when I put it in, no cracks that I can see, no rubbing etc. At this point I'm going to leave well enough alone, of course this is a non interference motor and that's helping me a bit as well.

Finished that and now onto why my blower isn't running. I believe I have it narrowed down to the hvac relay, so I'll need to grab one.