I called a good friend of mine who is a mechanic for ford (heh) and asked him about replacing the head gasket in the 4runner and he told me I might as well just get a new motor if the gasket has been replaced before and is having problems again.
It's a 1993 so it's a 3.0... Should I just put another 3.0 in it since it's just a run around vehicle?? And anyone know how much the 3.0s usually go for or where i can find some??

Toyota stuff is RARE around here... it sucks..

 

There are usually plenty of used 3.0 engines form the Japanese engine places.

Over in Japan they are only allowed to rack up so many miles on an engine, then it must be replaced.
These engines get shipped over to the states here.
These places also do the install for you.

They are often listed in the Little Nickel want ads, and the yellow pages.

A few have had their head gaskets replaced twice from Toyota.
The corporate # is floating around here somewhere.
I also have it on my website on my links page.
1 800 331 4331

Try calling them and explaining to them that the first gasket failed, and you have heard of some getting it repaired again.

It's worth a try.

 

These engines aren't cheap, usually over $3000. If I were in the market for a rebuilt long block, and didn't want to go through a local builder, I would order one from Power Pro Automotive . THis is a link to their toyota page, and I think the part number you need is 833c, scroll down a ways, almost at the bottom.

This company has a decent reputation. I know a couple of guys who have purchased Ford v-8s from them and had great results. Its actually a pretty cool set-up. They send you the new engine in a two-piece plastic case and then you ship the old one back to them in the case, its pretty neat...

Hope this helps.

 

$3,000 for just a motor?? Damn I'm glad I chose the Del Sol as being my car.. glad 4runner is still classified as my dads lol

 

And that's just for a nothing special setup. For my still not that special 22re I wound up with well over $5k under the hood and surrounding areas by the time I was done.
LC Engineering EFI Pro motor (all those buzz words included: ported, polished, blueprinted, balanced, oversize pistons, oversize valves, double roller timing chain and gears, hard anodized oil pump...yada yada yada), LC Pro Distributor, all new balanced injectors, big bore throttle body, K&N filter charger kit, reprogrammed ECU, bigger radiator, 30lb flywheel, heavy duty clutch and pressure plate. And of course you have to do the headers thing and new cat and muffler, 2 1/4" exhaust. I mean afterall, while you have it all out you should put all new back in right?
What was I thinking?! Apparently I was suffering from "more money than brains" syndrome at the time. But, oh, I do like that VROOM sound!

 

LMFAO!!
Yea the 4runner is just a winter ride.. money goes to the hon-duh

 

So how many horses did you squeeze out of it with all those mods? 160 or so?

Warren

 

160hp would be nice, but this is the regular crank version at 135hp. The stroker version they advertise at 147hp. I thought about getting it, but $600 more for 12hp sounded pretty pricey plus I didn't care for negative valve clearance. Negative in that the pistons actually have to be notched to clear the valves. I figured one little hiccup and there goes the motor. If you are willing to have to change a bunch of bracketry, pumps and injectors then can get over 200hp out of that little motor. Not for me though. I just wanted enough to turn the tires over some in mud and sand.
I only have 31x10.50 Goodyear MTRs on it and with that motor and the 30lb flywheel it has plenty torque for what little I do.
It actually almost got me in trouble a while back. I was at the top of a little canyon and decided to go right when I should have gone left. I got into somewhat deep drifted sand and started to sink in and power out so I stuck my foot in it. I wound up digging a nice hole and covered the ledge behind me in a stylized sand castle.

 

Very cool. I'm going tomorrow to look at a Trekker for sale(Toyota 4Runner precursor) and it has the same motor. Nice to know what you can do with them. I know they're highly modifiable!

Later,

Warren

 

There have been a few of the Trekkers around here in the past. I've never stopped to really look hard at one, but they seemed a little odd to me. I think all they did was cutout the back of the cab and front of the bed on an '83 and sort of just gasketed them together.
Wouldn't they would have the 20r with carb? I don't think EFI came out till late '84 or '85. Not really sure though, I'm no expert
I did have an '83 Toy 4x4 long bed and I can tell you one thing right off, get that Trekker out on the highway and listen to the transmission up front. They had weak bearings around the input shaft and I understand the only way to replace them is to completely disassemble the transmission. Pretty expensive. I got to pondering what it would like to own a CJ-5 right around the time mine started heading south. Big mistake! I sold the CJ after about 6 months and starting looking for another Toy. I've had this 4Runner ever since!

 

Love those 1st Gen 'runners!

The Trekker was fiberglass from the cab back with an open back cab. They made them from 81 to 83 and put a rear seat in them. Winnebago made the fibreglass part (canopy and box). Engine should be a 22R. No 22RE out at the time...

Thanks for the tip on the tranny. I'll check out that 5 speed.

It's funny how your first impressions stick with you and really determine whether you like something or not. I'll be your glad you went back to Toyota though.


Regards,

Warren

 

Why spend money on another engine which might have the same potential problem. Your friend should tear down the engine to the block and check the deck clearance on the block to see if its out of spec, send the heads to machine shop to check heads for warpage, leaks, cracks etc. If the engine is cleaned properly and put back together properly it will be fine for a long time. Another option is putting in the much cleaner, powerful, and efficient 3.4L V6 like I am doing, but that requires a TON of work.