Hello, my name is Miguel and this will be my build out thread...

I have owned many Toyota trucks and cant stop loving them. Here is a small history of what ive owned:

I started off with a 1988 Toyota 4Runner (white) with the 3VZE engine in it, 4x4, Auto. Loved the truck, specially the rear roll down window. I was younger then and my sister needed a reliable vehicle for the family, so I sold it to her.

I then acquired the most beautiful truck i've had thus far... A 1994 Toy Pickup ExtCab with the 22R-E engine, 4x4 with MANUAL tranny and only 89K on it!!! I loved this truck, it was the Toyota green with immaculate paint and beautiful dress-up accessories. It had the GoRhyno round nerf bars for steps and also had the bars on the back (looked like roll-cage but wasnt..) of the truck which had 4 HELLA lights mounted to them which were extremely bright and awesome for outdoors at night. To add to this, it also had the ROCKER PANELS all around the truck which I thought made it look very sexy. Anyways, one day my sister was driving it and the clutch malfunctioned, my dad and I dropped the transmission and changed the clutch, it had a hole punched through it... Guess all that driving takes a toll on your parts... jejeje. My dad loved this truck and took it back to Texas with him. It was later sold to someone in Colorado... (This truck is what I would love to have again...)

Because I needed a truck after my dad took the '94, I purchased a '02 TUNDRA Ext Cab V8, 4x4, Auto. Did a lift kit on it and added the biggest oversized (but stock fitting) tires which the "book" allowed on my truck (so to not have too much problems). My dad always wanted a truck like this and got it in return he brought me my old 4Runner (which I had priorly sold to my sister).

So back to the '89 4Runner, now in my possession a second time... I liked this truck but over time the thermostat broke and other issues arose due to the truck overheating causing multiple issues with the engine. The truck still ran, granted, without much power anymore. My dad loved this 4Runner and decided he wanted to fix it so... He came from Texas to TN and picked it up. He drove it all the way back with no issues, just had to take the thermostat off just in case. He had to fix quite a bit but eventually, fixed it and sold it for a profit.

Since getting rid of the 4Runner left me without a truck, I decided it was time to give the full 4-door experience a try... I found a RED 2001 TACOMA DOUBLE-CAB V6, 4X4, AUTO. If anything I can say is wow, once you have a DOUBLECAB you definately feel as though the "Ext-Cab" truck is sooo small. Anyways, due to money issues at the time, I had to get rid of this truck as well and sold it here in TN. All I had done to it was a small lift and tires. I have found that Toyotas dont need much to be off-road worthy.

ANYWAYS...

This brings me to 3 years ago. I went back to Texas to visit my family and my dad had for me a 1989 Toyota Pickup SR5 with the 3VZE engine, 4X4, MANUAL tranny with 117k original miles!!! I love this truck but upon bringing it back to TN, the headgasket blew. The missus had an issue with me fixing things at the house (I had recently re-built a 7MGE for a Supra and she hated everything about the build, mainly, my mess... jejeje) and I was prohibited from working on vehicles at home. One of my best friends knew a guy who worked on vehicles and I decided I would have him fix the headgasket. For the last 3 years my truck has sat at this *** persons garage. I was not able to get in touch with him, find him, anything. My friend and I even went to look for him at his house and he was nowhere to be found (my friend felt really bad this was happening but it was not his fault)... For the last 3 years I have been fighting to get my truck back, I finally, got it back. The repairs were crap, the truck did not run anymore. I was returned a truck with more issues now than what it had when the headgasket blew. The only thing I can say is at least the guy DID afaik send the heads to be machined because otherwise, it is my belief I would have even bigger problems with the engine than I do now. Paid $500 for the heads to be machined and the truck to have been "stored" for all that time. I did not want to loose the truck again so I forked over the cash and got my baby back home.

AND... THATS THE STORY OF MY TOYOTA TRUCKS... HERE BEGINS THE LAYOUT OF THE PLANS FOR MY TRUCK....

1.) Get engine running. (DONE)

2.) Get truck through emmisions testing and registered to be a daily driver.(DONE... SORT OF)

3.) Body armor, currently, it has a fake add-on grille in the front with added headlight protectors (custom made for it) but I doubt it is actually protecting anything from a real collision. No sliders, I have to get the front belly skidplate again.

4.) The truck is slouched at the rear so the front torsion bars were loosened to level the truck. For the time being, I would like to get a ZUK mod in the back and just some spacers in the front so to not have to tighten the torsion bar thus keeping my articulation in the front and resistance in the rear (for hauling/lifting/carrying).

5.) Some tinkering...
a.) I would like to do the EGR bypass deal but am not sure since there are emmisions here in TN which would fail if this was done.

b.) Would love to add a snorkel kit to it... just in case, I dont want a "cold air intake" on it as I've read many people saying no gain is to be had with this mod.

c.) New headers. I have someone here in TN that says he can custom make some for me which will go down each side instead of wrapping behind the engine.

d.) With the new headers, its only logical to get the new exhaust pipes all the way through (with CAT due to emmisions) since I've read this does make a difference.

e.) I've been interested in seeing what difference it makes to add bigger injectors to my build and maybe gain some more muscle from the 3VZE.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by. I will be updating this thread with what ive done so far. I have already replaced a few things on the truck so I will be uploading the photos when I get home tonight and a quick explanation of each thing.

So far, ive replaced the FUEL PUMP, CORRECTED TIMING, FIXED LEAK FROM DRIVERSIDE HEAD REAR and best of all, GOT TRUCK RUNNING!!

 

The information I received from the guy tinkering with my truck is that the COIL ($65 at parts store) was bad as there was no spark at the distributor and he asked me to get one prior to returning my truck as he thought that was the issue, it was not.

He then told me it was the igniter that was out and needed to be replaced, upon looking for this I found it was almost $300 for a new one!!! That is an expensive part for a "possibly." Either way, this is when I got my truck back as communications with the guy started up again and I did not want to loose my truck.

I found the igniter on Ebay for $50 bucks and promptly ordered it. Of course, this was not the issue and I was happy to not have wasted the $300 on a new innecessary part.

THERE WERE NO CODES TO GO TO AND NO INFORMATION TO FOLLOW AS THERE WAS NO SPARK... After checking some things, my dad told me to check the fuel pump just in case... and of course, it was bad...

 

Tested the fuel pump by un-tightening the banjo bolt for the fuel rail and sure enough, no pressure. Surprisingly enough, the FUEL FILTER was still good so I put it back on (I know, I should have replaced it from the get-go but I was just trying to ge the truck started).

I spoke to my friend Sam and he told me it would be easier to pop off the bed than it would be to drop the tank... My dad on the other hand, told me the oposite. I came to this site and guess what? It was thesame thing, some people saying lift the bed while others said drop the tank... I lifted the bed and replaced the fuel pump easily...

STILL... TRUCK DID NOT START!!! I made sure there was fuel everywhere it needed to go to. Still had the issue with no spark.

 

Still trying to find where the issue was with the no-spark situation and my dad suggested to check the timing. I put cyl#1 to the top and checked... Sure enough, timing was off by a few teeth. I was not certain this would cause the truck to not spark but, since it needed to be done, I went ahead and set the timing correctly taking the oportunity to check everything out including the water pump. Everything was good, I lined everything up and put it back together...

Again, no spark coming from the coil. By this time I had checked all fuses and electrical circuitry I was able to with no luck. I pulled the distributor out and began to clean it, noticed the rotor button was a little dirty so I got some sand paper and cleaned it. I did thesame for the CAP and the distributor itself.

STILL... NO SPARK!!!

Also... from sitting forever, you can see all the rust buildup on the return housing... had to flush and flush and flush some more... jejeje

 

I was now getting frustrated that my truck was not throwing a spark and running out of options quick... I decided to re-check my work for the timing belt, this time meticulously going through everything ensuring nothing was out of place...

THEN I FOUND A WIRE PINCHED AND CRACKED WHERE THE INTAKE MANIFOLD MEETS THE PLENUM...

I did not think anything much about this wire but decided, since I saw it, fix it... Had to take the intake manifold off to get to the pinch and noticed the manifold screws were loose and barely holding it in place. I patched the wire and made sure there was no chance of pinching anything else, also took a look around to make sure there was nothing else wrong... Well, found there were a few screws loose here and there so I made sure to tighten them. I also found one of the return hoses from the bottom of the manifold was completely cracked... how can someone put that back on an engine? Well... Thats what I get for not working on it on my own...

Anyways, went to the autoparts and got a suitable replacement hose and put the truck back together... I had taken the Dizzy out again just to give it one last look... I put it back on the truck... I re-attached the battery cable... Cranked the truck and...

IT TURNED ON!!! OMG! THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING AS I HAD BEEN DREAMING OF... Well, sort-of... But its RUNNING!!!

(Picture of wire and how I wrapped the wires after...)

 

I was so happy to have the truck running I immediately began getting it ready to take it to emissions, of course the 1st go round it failed miserably. I decided it was time to replace the distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs and wires to make sure all the fuel was being burned correctly. Once these parts were replaced and I felt comfortable with the way the truck was running, I took it back to emissions. The truck passed with golden colors, I was finally able to use my truck as my daily driver once again.

Of course that could be the end of it, but since it's me it wasn't. I drove it to work my 1st day and when I parked I noticed a small puddle of oil under the truck. I don't like to use sealant or anything like that to clear up issues with the engine so I was stuck trying to find out where the oil leak came from. After looking up some information and speaking to my dad and my friend I concluded there is only one place really that the oil could be coming from... The valve covers.

I went to the auto parts place to order a new valve cover gasket kit and began taking my intake manifold back off. The leak was coming from the driver side and not the passenger so I focused mainly on that side of the engine. Of course, I thought I found my problem so I immediately replaced the gasket, put the engine back together and took it for a spin again. Unfortunately for me the oil leak was still there, replacing the gasket actually made it worse.

When I spoke to some people they said this could only be a bad job by me and that I needed to make sure that the seals were seated correctly... So I had no choice and took it apart again, making sure the seals seated correctly in the valve cover. Put it back together again and went for a test drive once more... Again, oil was leaking heavily but I could not locate where it was coming from. Spent days trying to figure it out with no success...

Finally, I went to buy a mirror (should have had one from the beginning... jejeje) from the autoparts place to inspect where the leak was coming from as I was not able to locate it and found my problem... Behind the engine there is a CAM CAP for each CAM and the driverside one was leaking. I had to take off the rear-most knuckle from the CAM to get the CAP off and...

Here is where I found another problem from the guy working on my truck... When I extracted one of the bolts that holds the CAM in place, part of the thread from the head came with it.
I had a nice coil of aluminum at the bottom of it that came out with the screw... I also noticed there was black stuff at the end and realized he used some gasket maker to ensure the bolt did not fall out...

I was livid to say the least!!! But that would have to wait for a tap and dye...

I tried to find this part (the CAM CAP) but was not able to as it is a hard part to find, everyone referred me to order from TOYOTA but that was going to take weeks to get back here. I found Nashville Engine Supply Warehouse and was able to get the part ordered and delivered next day for 11 dollars total. AWESOME!!!

Got my part and was able to replace the bad one. I also re-tightened the screw which went to the partially stripped head and it held... mostly. Lucky for me, the valve cover actually makes pressure on this last knuckle so between the semi-tight screw and the valve cover, my issue sealed itself... jejeje

Anyways, I finally got it all back together and voila! Most of the oil leak is gone. I have found a new leak but its from the carter and I can fix that easily... Will do when I do a bit of suspension work so I can take the oil pan out and thoroughly clean it as it should be, there is only a few drops coming from it so im not too worried... But on to the next issue...

(VICTOR REINZ PART #B45855...)

 

Now that the truck was... ROAD WORTHY... I took it down the interstate to get a good test in it... I found the exhaust was too loud and even had a moment of panic when the cabin of the truck began producing smoke!!! I immediately pulled over and shut the truck down... I checked and upon opening the hood, some smoke came out but I was not able to see what had occured. Devastated, I went back home slowly as it was not overheating but I had seen the smoke which was NOT comforting...

I checked everything on the truck to make sure I did not "FRY" anything... I saw no damage anywhere and was not sure what had occured. I dont use a thermostat at this time because I am still testing and dont want anything to restrict the fluid flow... So that was not the problem.

Since my initial complaint was the exhaust I began to think there must be a leak somewhere which caused the amounts of smoke to come out, I began from the tail pipe end and followed the exhaust making sure there were no cracks which could cause a leak and a bad sound. When I got to the flange, I found out of the three screws that should be there, there was only 1 nut and it was not even tightened, it was just placed there... to look pretty I guess... I went ahead and tightened that nut and, since I did not have the others, found some around my garage and... "made them work" sealing my leak and the sound + smoke did not re-appear.

During the drive on the interstate, my check engine light came on... Was it there before? I am not sure since I was too busy trying to prevent a fire (Only you can prevent forest fires... - Smoky the Bear... jejeje) and did not notice it.

So... Now to my next issue... jejeje

(I have no pictures of the exhaust missing screws... I will post a picture with the screws on however)

 

The CEL had been on possibly before taking it to the interstate but I had not noticed it... I went ahead and put two small nails at the end of a wire and went ahead and pulled my engine codes...

For those wondering how to pull your codes...
Here is a link.

I found my code as 52 - KNOCK SENSOR!!!

Due to the smoke and odor of the exhaust, I had not noticed a fuel smell coming from the engine... I was too worried about all the other things that were going wrong. When I turned the truck on for a while during testing for the engine code, I left it running to warm up and then took it for a drive, upon my return, there was a strong fuel smell from the driverside of the engine... I dont want to drive the truck this way so, being that my code has to do with the KNOCK sensor, I found the engine will change the timing and even run RICH if necessary to try to fix/right itself. I have ordered the KNOCK SENSOR PIGTAIL as it seems that is what usually causes these issues on these trucks and it will be what I am replacing next.

Currently, my remaining issues are:

1.) KNOCK SENSOR
2.) FUEL LEAK/STRONG SMELL (May get fixed with KNOCK sensor)
3.) HIGH IDLE (Again, may be due to the KNOCK issue)
4.) DASHPOT - This one had the boot extra brittle and when I touched it it crumpled apart. I know it's not "necessary" but I dont want my truck jerking when I need to decelerate so... I need it...
5.) PCV - I replaced this one with one from the 7MGE engine from the SUPRA as it was still new, it was a tight fit but it fit... I may re-replace it as it might just be too tall and causing the tube to bend restricting the airflow... not sure though, will find out soon.
6.) HEATER CORE - As you will assume by now, bad... jejeje

I am going to the junk yard tomorrow and pick up my DASHPOT along with possibly another throttle body just in case the one I have is bad or is going out.

I LEAVE YOU WITH PICTURES OF IT TWO DAYS AGO AFTER A WASH.

 

Changed the lights to an h4 conversion kit. Still waiting for my new rear lights and clear bumper lights.

Ohhhh... And did I mention it has a factory installed SUNROOF? jejeje

 

What do you mean by 'reserved' in your posts?

Also, what turned out to be the issue? Sounds like you have a nice rig, sucks about the mechanic that had it for 3 years though.

 

In the middle of me typing my reply you must have updated your thread, glad to hear you got it running!

 

Thanks, I think the issue was the wire... There is still more that I've done and need to do. The reason for those "reserved" threads is I have done some things to it and wanted to keep the thread in line with what has been done so I "reserved" a post for each issue I've found. I will be posting some pictures when I get home as its a secure network at my job.

 

Ok, so im headed to the junk yard today to get some parts... Ive categorized what I want and what I need to get...

NEED -

P/S Vacuum sensor
Throttle Body with Dashpot and TPS
PCV hose - just in case
EXHAUST nuts and bolts to replace my made-up ones
Intake Manifold Round valve... don't know what its called but its a vacuum valve and the 3rd prong broke during one of my attempts to fix this truck.

WANTS INCLUDE:

METAL CLIP for radiator shroud
CHROME METALS for windshield since its cracked I would like to replace but I cannot find these cheap anywhere...
ENGINE FUSE cover since mine is barely legible
VALVE COVER screw as I found one almost broken and need to replace it
RADIATOR screws because I am missing one
ANTENNAE for the radio as it appears I don't have one anymore...
FUSES / RELAYS because you simply cannot have enough of these... jejeje
HEATER core hose from engine to firewall. I have one to bypass the HC but want the correct one as I will be replacing the HC later this year.

Anyways... That is my list of items for today... Anyone care to add to the list? Anything I might be missing or forgetting?


There is also a plug between the battery and the PS pump that I am not sure what goes plugged into that since there is absolutely nothing there on my truck. I have looked to see if I could find the other side of the plug... It might have been an optional item... Hopefully I see something that will answer that question for me...

 

So... I went to 3 different Auto Salvage Yards here and what I found was surprising...


NO ONE WOULD SELL ME ANY PARTS FOR THE ENGINE!!!


Aparently, since these trucks are in such high demand around here (and many other places) I am not allowed to go to the yard and take parts... I can buy the engine or the whole truck... WOW. I went to different places and two said the same, another said they don't even have them because they have people that have them "on order" so the moment they get a TOYOTA its already sold. The other places and went to and called said they can sell it in pieces but when I asked for the DASHPOT I was offered the whole intake manifold with TB and DASHPOT... EXPENSIVE for some reason...


After wasting my whole morning looking around for parts I decided to go to the autoparts store... That was also pointless as the PS Pressure Switch is not available anywhere... When I took the PLENUM off I broke the TVV and was not able to find any of these parts... TOYOTA only... I did not want to waste the day so when I got home I took off the plenum and began to clean it...


THAT THING WAS DIRTY!!!


I encourage anyone: If you are going to be going this far in, go ahead and clean it out. It visually makes a difference and I'm sure this will make a difference in performance. I will be doing this to the intake manifold today as well. I also received my new KNOCK pigtail yesterday and went ahead and slapped it on.


I leave with pictures of the plenum and pigtails... jejeje

 

 

You can get upgraded 4-hole injectors from Flamethrower for $135 + shipping. Comes with new o-rings and plenum gaskets. Go on ebay and search flamethrower injectors 3vze.

 

I realized that once I was looking at the threads and saw he is offering some to test them out. I sent him a PM but I did not realize he has them at such a low price. I can afford 150, I can't afford 750+. I looked at a rebuild kit but this is definitely something I can do. I'm waiting on his PM but his injectors are what I'm going with either way

 

I think that he is done with the free test ones but I could be wrong. I was just looking and he has remaned ones for $75. I bought his upgraded 4 hole ones for my 22re and they work great. He calibrates them before he sells them. Also very speedy shipping.

 

I'm looking and can't find his injectors for the 3vze... I find him on eBay but as far as injectors go I find "Injectordyne" and "ozzydebear" and others but don't see his. I'm still looking as I need these bad...

 

Sorry. You're right. Those were injectodyne I was looking at.