Probably needs a tune up and a new battery. wont hurt to have both so you can run your winch!

 

I agree with the tuneup part. The battery is fine, the reason the 4runner died when you were over here was because the positive terminal was completely broke in half. Fixed and works great now.

 

Spark Plugs, battery maybe a new fuel filter? how it always works fix one vehicle the other starts to break lol

 

Definitely think it's the spark plugs, or the MAF sensor.

Since I am gonna be replacing my spark plugs anyway, I'm gonna try tackling the valve cover gaskets at the same time. Time permitting, I'm going to take my whole front end apart and replace my leaky oil pan at the same time, now that I know I need a 12 mm allen wrench to get the diff off.

I've heard on the 3.4's the valve cover bolts can loosen over time, causing oil to leak out. So today I went out and tightened them, and all of them were super loose. Some so loose it took almost 6 turns on the wrench before they even began to tighten down. The FSM specifies to torque the valve cover bolts to 52 ft. lbs, I just tightened them down pretty snug by hand. As I was tightening down the bolt just below the oil fill, the valve cover cracked, completely isolating the bolted portion from the rest of the valve cover. As of now it hasn't leaked through the crack as far as I can tell, but I'm really determined to order my gasket kit soon and fix the crack before it becomes a big problem.

Crack is just to the right of the bolt, you can see it in the clean portion of the valve cover.



Just a pic of how bad my valve covers leak.

 

Yeah. The 3.0 v6 had leaky valve cover gaskets as well... but when my top end blew, they got replaced and never leaked since! You'll be surprised how much healthier your rig runs when you VC's dont leak. you'll definitely notice

But hey, Since you're gonna be doing the VCs might as well do something nice, yeah?

These would make your engine bay look sexy.
http://www.lceperformance.com/5VZ-Re...-p/1024132.htm

 

Those are nice, but not $350 nice! I might do something with mine when I have them off. I'd just be happy polishing the stock ones up so they look as clean as they did when they were new. I'm tired of seeing it that dirty.

 

U could probably find a powder coater and het it done for 100 or so

 

That is one totally sick rig!

 

Thanks!

 

So over the last few days I've been tearing into the 4runner, I've replaced the leaky valve cover gaskets, old spark plugs as well as the leaky oil pan. I'm happy to say I am all caught up on my maintenance.

The valve cover gaskets wern't too hard to replace, just lots of steps and lots of hoses to keep track of.

I've never seen such clean valves during a valve cover change, usually there is at least a little carbon and sludge buildup, but there was absolutely zero on mine. Even after 240k miles, she looks like new.



The oil pan replacement was not at all like the valve cover gaskets, it was a complete pain in the ass. Trying to wrestle that greasy front diff out was a nightmare, it took me over 3 hours.

Covered in a half inch of grease and grime



Cleaned up a little



No gunk above the oil pan either



I had the genius idea of replacing the gear oil in the diff before I mounted it back up, so I had to deal with over a quart of gear oil pouring all over my face while I mounted it back up, I'll have to fill it up all over again tomorrow. I'm just glad it's done!!

In less than a month I'll be leaving California, maybe for good, for at least the next 3 or 4 months. I'm hoping in the end I'll have a new job in a new state. For the trip I bought a completely awesome addition for the 4runner that will make the whole trip way better. I should have it by the end of next week!

 

Damn! you have been busy. Your motor is extremely clean inside for 200,000ish miles

Where are you moving too?

 

Yeah I was pretty stoked to see it that clean, for some reason I half expected to see a ton of sludge.

I'm not sure, I'm gonna do some job hunting while I'm out. Hopefully I'll get one in Utah, Colorado or Wyoming

 

Yesterday I drove to Santa Cruz to pick up my new Tepui Kukenam rooftop tent. I'm pretty stoked on it, now I won't have to worry about where to sleep on my upcoming trip.

It's mounted to Defender rack mounts, which makes it sit really close to the roof as you can see, which is nice.









Here are the mounts. Others have said only 4 will do the job, But obviously they must weigh 100 pounds because the mounts don't like my 185 pound self. I'm ordering 6 more, so there will be 3 more on each side before I actually try to stay overnight in it.





So far I'm really happy with it, I don't even know it's up there on the highway except for my gas mileage going down a bit.

 

I need to catch to catch some of your ambition and get some maintenance done on mine, my valve covers are leaking and need some attention. The roof top tent is a very nice addition. Hope all is going well for ya.

 

Looks good how many mounts does the mfg suggest

 

thats looks great, dude. you gonna test it out at surf n turf?

 

Well it's built to be mounted to crossbars, and usually it mounts only in 4 places. I have heard of people doing it this way instead with only 4 mounts, so I figured it would work fine. Definitely not though! A few more mounts should fix it no problem.

Surf n Turf will probably be one of my first times using it, I'm sure I'll have to stay in it here though because I will be too anxious to wait that long lol

 

It really isn't very hard, and it feels so nice afterwards to know you did it all yourself. All is great, hope its going well for you too!

 

New mounts on! 4 on each side instead of 2, no sign of bending yet.



Slept in the tent last night for the first time, once the sheets and comforters are in there it's gonna beat the heck out of my double bed in the house!

 

sweet set up. now you can go anywhere and have a place to sleep. i mean i comfy place to sleep.