Babypig

Are there any differences between a 95 v6 and a 90 v6? Does anyone know and can they tell me what they are? please.

Blair

I do know that the oil cooler is different after '90.
Pre '91 it was removable and there is a gasket and seal. That's all I can confirm.

Glenn

Some stuff with the timing belt tensioner is different.

934rnr

Yes that is correct the older 88-92 3VZE's had a spring tensioner that has a pin pressed into the water pump and a bracket hangs from it for the pulley also it has a another arm that gets bolted to the center of the block that the tension spring attaches to also the heads are different lacking any drilled holes for a hydralic tesnioner arm.
They have the fake water pump bracket with no hole for a hydralic tensioner.
The 93-95 3VZE heads changed they have a area that is milled and has a 10MM 1.25 thread pitch hole for the hydralic tensioner arm that is bolted to the head. The fake water pump bracket has a hole for the hydralic tensioner and one of the bracket holes are beveled a little to go over the stud for it that is on the engine.

banoobee17

i also noticed on the back 5 temperature sensors that some blocks have more sensor like one or two cause my wire harness dont have an extra cable to connect to it so its been bugging me.

DRD

I see this is an old thread, but my info might be useful for reference to someone else later on.

I am currently swapping a 3.0 from a 90 to a 95 (Head gasket blown in 95), and I have noticed a few differences that have been mentioned here, and some that have not.

In the 90 engine the timing tensioner is a spring-type, so the engine has a different tensioner idler, which means everything around it is slightly different.Also the water outlet that hooks onto the upper upper radiator hose (and into the number 2 idler) has two outlets on the '90 machine (a "T" shape - one rad hose and another smaller hose that goes into the intake hoses somewhere), and only one on the 95 machine only has the one outlet that goes to the upper radiator hose.

I am keeping the 95 intake, so I had to change that water outlet to the 95 style. I checked the engine, it looks the same up front there, so I think the redesign is only in the mess of hoses attached to the intake.

Oil cooler looks the same on both of my engines.

Valve cover on the passenger (right) side (the one under the intake) is squared off level with the intake on the 95. In the 90 it looks pretty much the same as the left one (although of course the right one has the PCV valve on it, and the left one has the filler cap).

That is all I can think of right now. One other point is that the power steering lines are different. The 90 machine has a weird pump that looks like it manages the ABS or something that runs from the power steering fluid, so the lines go through that and are different. The 95 machine keeps the two systems separate (looks like the machine for the ABS is electric) - I am just guessing what that machine is, I don't really know - but it is another difference between the two.

DRD

I just swapped the '90 motor into the '95 runner today. I kept the 95 electronics and intake. There were a few surprises:

Some things have different types of plugs, and some peripheral bits are different - I will give them to you here in the order I discovered them:

1> the knock sensor (I think that is what it is - the cord comes up between the injectors). The 90 machine has a coaxial cord as well (95 is not). I pulled the pins out of the 95, and took the plug off the 90 wire harness, and inserted the pins in there so it would connect. I have no idea if this is a good idea or not. I didn't run any engine codes yet to see.

2> the alternator has a different plug. So I switched back to the 95 alternator.

3> the rotor and distributor is different. So I pulled the whole rotor/distributor out of the head and replaced it with the 95 one. Seems to work fine.

4> the oil pressure sensor has a different plug as well. I swapped back to the '95 oil pressure sensor.

5> the vacuum tube at the top of the throttle body that runs down on the fuel distribution crossover piece under the intake is different. The 95 one is longer (and needs to be)

That is all I can remember. The 4runner started up this evening after the swap. Sounds pretty good. Noisy MAF, though.

MaK92-4RnR

theres actually a lot of other differences... I compared a 92 to a 95.

the differences:

The cruise control on a 95 is on the passenger side instead of the driver side on the 92.

the fuse block/panel is spun around on the 95 and its horizontal on the passenger side, rather than vertical on the 92.

the timing set up is different on a 95 than a 92.

the air condition valves on a 95 are upgraded rather than on a 92...

the 95 had 2 o2 sensors.

im sure there are a few others.

DRD

After the swap I had two error codes in succession. The first was a code 51. I replaced the TPS. Then I got a code 52. I think the first was a mis-code of some sort (don't know if this happens or not), but the code 52 was right on. To fix the code 52 I had to swap the plug prongs (left to right, and right to left) of the wire harness that connects to the knock sensor pigtail.

If anyone ever tries this again - if you dismantle the 95 square knock sensor plug from the wiring harness and rewire it into the 90 round plug so the 95 wiring harness fits into the 90 engine - be sure that the brass (darker) prong goes to the left side of the knock sensor pigtail when the locking clip is facing upwards. The silver prong goes to the right side.

Once I had done it this way, the code 51 disappeared, and my power was restored.

I now see the swap as successful!