Do these things fail often? I've never heard of anyone having any issues, but I'm in the middle of a head gasket job and debating on replacing. $88 bucks from engnbldr, less on ebay.

Anybody?

 

replace is now, get it from Ted @ engnbldr

 

I shouldn't be a cheapskate, $88 bucks from Ted and I'm buying gaskets and bolts from him anyway.

You know anything about the timing kits on ebay? Water pump, idler, tensioner, T belt for $86 bucks?

 

Mine checked out o.k. when I did my rebuild @ 224,000 miles. It was still within std. clearance specs all around, so I just put it back on. I didn't even bother checking the water pump. It's still not leaking anything out the weep hole, so untill it does, why bother? BTW, I am the ULTIMATE cheapskate. I don't replace nothin' I can still use, most of the time that is. Sometimes "shiny new" gets the best of me, but not often.

Here's the FSM pages on oil pump inspection.
http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...118oilpump.pdf

 

I've bought my last old Toyota, I'm going to be buried in this one, so I might as well replace it all.

Opinion on ebay parts? Am I rolling the dice?

 

I didn't change mine 9 years ago when I did my gaskets at 218k. Now at 286k and I still have a ton of oil pressure. The OEM is a killer pump - at 200k miles it will probably still be WAY better than a (IMO crummy) Rock pump. If you're going to replace, use an OEM, but I wouldn't bother.

 

Shoot! My truck's full of ebay parts. Beware of the upside down head gaskets(see my thread on that) and EXEDY clutch discs(see my thread on that too). Those are the only 2 parts I've bought off ebay that I regretted. I do try and buy name brand stuff on ebay atleast, when my budget permits. But as was the case with the upside down head gasket fiasco, I needed the cheapest head gasket(upper engine gasket) set/kit I could find. All of which worked out fine except those.

 

If it ain't broke don't fix it. I think I'd rather have the old Toyota oil pump in there if it was still functioning properly than a cheap aftermarket one. Unless you really want to replace it, then go for it. I have had quite a few of these trucks, both 3VZE and 22RE's and never had an oil pump fail on me. just my 2 cents.

 

Interesting i belong to the replace it while I am in there group.

I replaced several oil pumps on 22re engines with the engine builder ones over the last ten years .

As far as Ebay things I did get burned once on a harmonic balancer they forgot to do one of the machine operations and it pulled against the oil pump housing.

Which lead me to think the engine seized doing all the things one would do at that point till I pulled the balancer off and could spin the engine almost by hand.

 

Speaking of upside down gaskets, it seems that the prvious owner of my 4runner may have fallen victim to this vile scheme as well. Theres a thick greyish graphite looking film on the block, also the gaskets are labeled "R' and "L". The driverside gasket had the "L" stamp. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most parts side designations oriented as if you were standing in front of the vehicle look at the motor? Whatever the case, I'm ordering my gasket set and bolts from engnbldr and the timing kit from Ebay. A water pump, idler, tensioner and belt for $150 seems pretty reasonable.