Please excuse me if this has been discussed before. I've searched around and not found any info on this topic.

Also, please excuse my _extreme_ ineptitude when it comes to autos. I'm a tech guy who appreciates (though, does not possess) automotive knowledge.

I have a 1997 4Runner, 3.4L manual transmission. I've cracked the head cylinder. My mechanic tells me the crack is on the left hand side. He was able to find a right hand side replacement part and assures me that left and right are all the same.

The mechanic I'm using comes highly recommended by all my auto-lovin' friends. This is why I'm trusting, but verifying. Is he right?

Thanks in advance!

 

Yes. The cyl heads are the same. Just as long as the shim buckets and cam caps are in their original spots

 

Left and right bare castings are the exact same. Toyota did that on purpose, mainly so instead of making 200,000 left and 200,000 right heads (just a guess on the numbers) the could make 400,000 of the exact same head, thus saving on tooling and a number of other costs.

Obviously you will have the spin them 180 degrees when switching from left to right, but all you will have to do is switch the cams and viola its the same.

 

You guys are awesome! Thanks for helping out this Yota n00b.

You have any Mac problems, let me know! That's something I do know a lot about.