Hello YotaTech, new member and this is my build I recently did. This is my first Toyota I have ever owned and have had a lot of fun with it since day one, as well I have stalked this forum since even before I bought it to know what I was in for as well as help with stuff. I first was wanting to get a pickup but they go for a lot more around here and my buddy gave some good reasons why to get a runner. I talked the owner down to $1,250 from $1,900 which I will explain later in regards to my build budget.

I knew the owner had already had a local shop do the headgaskets on it because they blew but he was still having overheating issues. The body, interior and mainly frame are impeccable in my opinion as well good toyota buddies opinion. There are only a few small surface rust spots on the body as well just slight surface on the frame in some spots.

Well I drove it home having to stop a couple times because it was overheating. I immediately did a tune-up, T-Belt, as well all cooling components which were radiator, WP, Fan Clutch, Fan Shroud, Thermo, and all hoses. Well to sum it up it still overheated and I took the thermo out (yes I know thats bad but I already had other plans) and drove it every once and awhile for things like replace my fence and stuff only.

Well I originally had a $5K budget for the whole thing that my wife gave me but that will change a little since I went with a new motor. I decided to rebuild a 3.0 because a swap would definitely blow the budget as well I believe the 3.0 is a simple and dog of a motor and I wanted OBDI so I can delete stuff as well I though it would be out of the norm and fun to do. Also I didnt want to throw a lot of money at a 3.4 with 100K miles or more at least and not know how it was taken care of versus rebuilding and having a motor with 0 miles that I can baby from day one.

Here is my price breakdown:

Runner $1,250
New Engine $220
Machine Work $619
Rebuild Kit $358
Exhaust $600
New Parts/Lubes $360
Lift Kit $400
Wheels Tires $1,427

Total $5,234

Future Parts

Rock Sliders $178
F/R Tube Bumpers $750

Grand Total $6,162

So as you can see I blew the budget with the new motor mainly but hey I got a brand new motor with 0 miles. I did not include the tool cost since this is my first motor build, because I will use those tools when I fully rebuild my STI.

I have about 1k miles on the motor and wow it is completely different. I personally think it has decent power for what it is, nothing compared to my Subie though but I love it.

Well enough blabbing heres some photos.

 

Day she came home.
.
First tune-up


Pulled my build motor from yard.


Fabbing passenger mani on driver side. Sneak of crossover delete.

 

Practice weld. First time in over 7 yrs and I was just using a cheap flux wire mig.

 

Found out that #6 spun a bearing.
Walls were decent but I went .20 over anyway to have a fresh surface

 

Did the head build myself, just had the shop clean and deck them.




Some comparisons of before and after cleaning.

 

Some before and after valve lapping pics.




Heads assembled

 

Oh before I assembled the heads I gasket matched and polished the runners.


Didnt take all the sharpie off cause it would have left the walls to thin on the plenum to manifold

Shavings

Hum....

 

What do you think on paint choice??

All the intakes were within spec but all the exhaust had new shims put in.


Here you can see the exhaust manifold well.

 

Old motor ready to be pulled

Old motor out pulled solo. Called a buddy putting the new one in cause it was hard to line up by myself.

Dirty

Clean

Clean Parts. I just powerwashed and that was it. Didnt really care for paint since its a offroad rig and they dont salt here, besides they werent rusty.

 

New heart going in the body haha



I hard wired in the Flamethrower clips and re-taped the harness

You can kinda see the new left bank exhaust manifold flange


These plugs seem to work really well

 

This was before the new motor when I installed the lift and sized up my buddies 33s from his CJ restoration.


Went bumperless until I get the 4xinnovations rear.

Did the ADD delete

Also ISR mod and since I deleted the EGR and PAIR I only need one hose flange and welded it in versus a threaded pipe fitting. Got the 3in 45 degree pipe for $10 off of craigslist which was a score.

 

Well I got it turned over so i had it towed to the exhaust shop where I had a custom y-pipe made as well getting a new O2 bung, cat, muffler and all new pipe.

Well she ran but the first start of the day would always blow bluish smoke until the exhaust heated up. If left idling it wouldnt go away. Well i talked with Engbldr(who is awesome to talk with) and my machine shop guy and the thought either valves guides and seals or the rings havent set yet. On top of this I was literally having gas drips out of the tailpipe.

I then went into diagnosing stuff VAFM, TPS, fuel pressure. All checked out fine, even though I re-ohm the TPS and swapped the two I had out a couple times, as well the throttle bodies. I literally had the cog turned two full rotations and it still ran rich. I could never get a consistent idle and the only way it ran was if the timing was at 25or more. Well I read how the timing being off a tooth could result similar symptoms.

Cams were dead on


But the Crank was off one


Thankfully its a non-interference motor. I believe it happened cause I put the motor in without the hydraulic tensioner because I broke a flange on the fan idler pulley and had one on order but didnt want to sit around.

Well that sorta helped but timing was still real advanced and I could not get a consistent idle. Also I was only getting 80 miles to a tank after two tanks. Random stalls and a lot of fuel smell while driving.

I then chased the fuel pressure regulator since I had puffs of black smoke under acceleration and slow start-ups. Well no change.

I then had two things I thought: fuel pump or a new TPS. A couple days prior I thought of ditching the flamethrowers and going stock. Well after talking with a couple friend and a fellow yota guy they agreed go stock on the injectors. Well I had to go to pull-a-part and find some good pigtails since I only had three and order some more gaskets from the dealer.

Factory pigtails re-wired in


Well as soon as I started it up it blowed some greyish smoke but went away after 5 seconds and had no bluish smoke like before. Also the idle was amazingly smooth. Well i drove it to get gas cause I didnt fill it after the last 80 mile trip and the first stop sign I thought it died because it was idling so smooth. Well filled it up and ran some errands. After 25 mile the fuel needle had barely moved. Well i have since taken on a trip and trail and the injectors were definitely the cause of the problem. I have gotten 200 miles a tank which was un-adjusted from the tires.

 

Before an after wheels/tires

 

Took it to Medano Pass yesterday but the trail was closed 9 miles in. Still had fun though.

 

I will post some better pics of what I did to delete the crossover. Just need to take them first. Other that that she is running like a top now.

Also I didnt post any pics of what I did on the lift since this is a very common lift. I did however do something different which I havent seen in regards to the rear brakes that I can take pics of if anyone wants.

Other than that let me know what you think.

 

Might just be my connection, but I can't load the pics.

 

Looks good!! Cool to see you could find a good 3.0. Just out of question where did you get the 3.0 from? I think i might have seen you driving around. Any ways looks good and i like the like green. if you are close we defenatily need to go wheeling.

Jake,

 

Looks good man. I rebuilt the top end of my 3.0 when I first got it, too. Ran pretty good compared to most peoples' reviews, I thought, but I still ended up blowing a head gasket(not the engines fault, more the cooling system's or mine) and swapping a 3.4 in. Let's see that unconventional suspension mod, though. I need ideas since mine needs some servicing.

 

I pulled the motor from u-pull and pay off of 85 down in fountain colorado. I live at the southern end of the springs technically security.

 

Long day at work as well the weather was really cold here. Ill take some pictures of it tomorrow hopefully before I get my wisdom teeth pulled Wednesday and Im high on drugs for a couple days. Also Ill take some pics of what I had done for my crossover delete to show some better clarity instead of the vague response I talked about it.