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Okay, so I finally got my truck down from San Jose to Los Angeles. I picked it up from a guy for $200.00. The truck had a blown head gasket.

It is a 91 4x4 3.0 V6 5sp 4door.

So after evaluating the condition of the truck I decided to rebuild the motor or put in a rebuilt motor. I called Toyota and unfortunately they had done the recall back in 97 for the head gaskets.

I researched around a bit and to have an engine rebuilt at a shop would have been about $1,300.00. A rebuilt motor was about $1,500 and a head gasket job was around $1,000. I looked and looked and found one on craigslist for $900 which a guy had had rebuilt and not put in his truck before selling the rig so I picked it up.

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Here is the truck before I got it. Paint is faded, but body is fairly straight. After receiving the truck I found that it is smoking out the side between the head and the block.

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Here are some pics of the engine that I found on CL. Looked good and for the price was unbeatable.

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This was the first evening of working on the truck. Got all pumps and hoses removed and pretty much ready to pull the engine tomorrow.

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So Sunday afternoon we hit it again and got the motor pulled, fairly seamless just had to get the trans up high enough.

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So Monday we got the engine bay de-greased and pressure washed out.

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The flywheel was dropped off at lunch for resurfacing and picked up on the way home from work. We set the new pilot bearing, resurfaced flywheel, new clutch and pressure plate and a new throw out bearing.

On the rebuilt motor it had a new water pump and timing belt assembly including the tensioner (which BTW was the only I found difference between my 91 motor and this 95, but did not create any problems with fitting the p/s pump or a/c).

The oil pump, valve covers, fan clutch, pullys, intake plenum, exhaust manifold, crossover pipe etc were all taken off the old engine. (I am sure this has come up 1,000 times on this forum but I will bring it up again, what the hell was Toyota thinking with this cross over pipe????)

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So Tuesday evening the engine went in. We had the trans jacked up too high at first which created problems, lowered it down a little and it slid right in. Took about 15 mins from the time we got the engine hoisted over the engine bay to get it seated.

Bolted it up and got the A/C and P/S pumps installed.

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So this was probably the hardest day of the whole project. Figuring out where everything goes, and how to get to the bolts that Toyota so kindly places around the engine. Pretty much everything went back in other than the air cleaner, radiator, fan and belts.

Autozone gave me the wrong belt twice for the power steering and for the A/C.

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Okay, so Thursday evening the belts went on, radiator, fan, air cleaner and the few random hoses that were left.

Ensured there was oil and coolant and went to fire up.... turn the key.... click!!!

After about 20 mins we realized that the started relay wire was not hooked up to the starter (not the power cable). The only problem was that it was so wrapped up at the top of the engine we had to remove items, added about an hour to this.


Okay, again. Turn the key... and it cranks!!! Okay, so we have compression, but the engine is not starting, my friend was convinced that the fuel pump was turning on and we spent the next 30mins trying to figure that out, before loosening the banjo bolt on the cold start injector and getting sprayed. So there was fuel pressure.

Last item on this list is obviously spark. Turn the dist. cap 180 and it started right up

Due to the previous BHG the exhaust was full of coolant, took about an hour between starting up and driving before it finally cleared up and stopped smoking and steaming.

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So I took the car to work on Friday (its only about 8 miles) to test it out and encountered a few problems, remember I picked this up for $200 blind and have no idea the condition of the truck, other than what I can see.

Problems:

1: Fuel smell in cabin. After digging in a little more I found the fuel actually dripping down the back of the motor and down the bell housing

2. Throttle gets stuck, I noticed when I slow down to a light, I am idling at over 2k, unless I tap the gas pedal and then it goes back to normal.

3. Clutch is out of whack, you have to have your foot to the floor to even shift, to much free play and it is grinding in to reverse. Probably was not as evident before as there was far less meat on the clutch and pressure plate.

I guess it's not too bad considering I practically got it for free. I tested the 4WD, seems to work great, 4H, 4L both work, neutral does what it supposed to.

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So nothing got done yesterday. Today I decided to fix the fuel leak. Spent a long time looking around the intake plenum for the leak with a mirror etc. I finally found it by pressurizing the fuel system and sticking my fingers under it. It was one of the o-rings on the injectors. Took the plenum off and got a new o-ring set.

Put everything back together and re-pressurized, it leaked again but this time from the banjo bolt washers (the little copper buggers). Toyota was closed and no one had these, I had to re-finish the washers (don't try this if you expect it to last). Sanded them down flat to remove the ridges and polished them up. Re-installed and they actually worked great.

I already know that I have to service the injectors and replace these washers which will be coming up in the next week or two.

On the clutch, I replaced the slave cylinder and bled the lines, this helped and it is much easier to shift, but it is still grinding in to reverse. If anyone has any input - please let me know, I am kind of lost on this part.

On the throttle, it is the cable on the actual throttle mechanism that is creating the problem. I used silicone and ran it through the throttle cable which helped but it still does it sometimes.

Anyways. Preparing for the next projects which are:

1. Fix fuel system, properly and have injectors rebuilt.

2. Fix clutch properly.

3. Fix throttle system properly.

4. Replace head lights (I picked these up, just have to install).

5. Replace windshield.


From what I have seen so far the above will make this a road worthy and smog passable car. From there I can start working on making a crawler out of it.

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Okay so today I took the truck to work again. The fuel leak seems to be fixed which is good, however a new problem sprouted, the power steering pump is now leaking, and pretty bad. Its all over the front side of the engine bay, on the under side of the upper radiator hose, even over to the alternator. When I bought the truck there was (no exaggeration) about 5-6-inches of play in the power steering belt. Needless to say there was no real power steering. Now that I have the new belt on and it works, its leaking. Anyways, this is a problem for another day.

I need help and advice on the clutch system. When we swapped the engine a new throw out bearing, clutch disc, pressure plate and pilot bearing were used, and the fly wheel was resurfaced. After all was said and done, the clutch is not working properly. It engages fine but doesn't disengage properly, hard to get it to 1st and engages within 1/2 inch from the floor. It also grind in to reverse.

Here is what I have done to try and solve this problem, and in the sequence:

1. Bled lines.
2. New slave cylinder
3. Bled lines
4. New master cylinder
5. Bled lines
6. Adjusted the clutch pedal, pretty much to the max.

It still doesn't dis engage properly. The only thing that I can see that is wrong is the slave cylinder rod does not touch the clutch fork so there is about 1/4-inch of movement from the s/c before it starts moving the clutch fork. Any ideas?? I'm lost

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So today I found out we had been bleeding the clutch wrong, feel free to laugh. When we were bleeding the clutch we were pressing the clutch pedal and then opening the bleed valve, then closing the bleed vale and depressing the clutch.

Apparently this only bleeds the slave cylinder, the proper way to do it is to open the bleed valve first, then press the clutch, close the bleed valve and depress the clutch. We got a large amount of air out doing it this way and thoroughly bled the system.

Clutch now works perfectly, doesn't grind in to reverse and there is no pressure getting it in to first or the other gears.

Next project is probably going to be the power steering pump which is shot.

Am I doing something wrong on this forum? No one has responded to any of my posts?? If I am, don't blame me it's my culture.

westjohns yota

no haha your doing it right, when posting pics make a photobucket then just copy the img code onto your thread, that way everything is bigger so we can see, wish i could find a 5 speed 4 runner for 200 bucks! great work so far! what are your ;plans for it eventually?

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I actually work for a cash for cars company, people call us when their car breaks down on the side of the road in BFE and they cant afford to tow it, and if they don't handle it the city will impound it and bill them. This guy said he wanted $300 for it, my company couldn't take it as it was too old. I said great, I'll send you $200 and I will pick it up. I never even met the guy and I live 300 miles away. I just have the connections for the tow I just made sure the tow truck driver loaded the truck before sending him money through paypal.

Eventually I want to make a crawler out of it. Been looking around, so far the only things I know I want are a little bit of a lift to fit some bigger tires, straight axle swap and lockers. Maybe even a diesel, but I will kill this motor first and that probably wont happen for a while.

Besides, while I keep dreaming about what I want, I need to fix the truck. The previous owner obviously was clueless on the subject of maintenance, everyday I get another little surprise that he didn't fix. But, for $200 I really can't complain.

I just got home from picking up another car with my friend (and mechanic) that helped me on the motor replacement. It was a 97 Jeep Cherokee I6. It is a 2WD, but supposedly by next week it will be a 4WD. This one was for him, he got it for like $600 with a lightly blown head gasket. The truck was in incredibly good condition for the age.

DannySea

Where did you get the rebuilt motor and how much was it?

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I got lucky on the motor. I found a guy on Craigslist that bought it for his truck and sold the truck before he could put it in. I paid $875 for it.

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After helping me install the new engine in my truck, my mechanic went and found himself a 4runner, same model but a 93 and this one has a seized engine. I think he picked it up for $700. The truck only has 150,000 on it (ha, you couldn't say that with a Chrysler) and is in incredibly good condition, no rips in the seats and only one small dent. Its also a 5sp 4x4 3zve. I'll post some pics of his project if I can.

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So I figured I'd post an update. Haven't in a few weeks. Here is what I have done:

1. Installed new sunroof assembly, had remove head liner and all that, new one works great. And now I can take it to a car wash and not worry about the coming rains.

2. Removed all the body moldings that the previous owner had used as sliders and ruined. Looks much cleaner.

3. Lubricated throttle cable as it keeps getting stuck. Worked for a day and now its getting stuck again. The plastic coating on the wire is frayed so its time for a new one.

4. Washed the truck, big achievement! I think I liked it better dirty, covered all the imperfections.

5. Installed the new starter, the last one was getting stuck and my only saving grace was that I live on a hill. However the parking lot at work is dead flat, so got stuck a few times. Anyone who has done this would probably laugh but the starter is an absolute complete PITA, until you realise that there is a removable panel in the wheel well.

6. Stripped the entire interior, down to the metal. Only thing I put back in was the drivers seat so far. Plan to run all the wiring for my stereo, Dynomat the floors, install new carpet underlay and if I can't get the existing carpet clean enough I will buy new ones (any advice on where to get these would be great, I know there are many out there).

7. For some reason the P/O had put a brand new tire on the spare steelie (the other 3 wheels are the nice alloy SR5 wheels) so I had a local tire shop change these out, then took some heavy degreaser to the wheels as they had not been cleaned since the truck rolled out of the dealership 21 years ago.

Next up is probably a new windshield (got a quote for $80 from one of my companies vendors). Then work on the interior.