First post here, couldn't find help elsewhere. Anyhow, I visually inspected this 4runner quite thoroughly and test drove it for 45 minutes before I bought it. I took timing cover off, belt is new, pulley and tensioner are new, water pump used but still good looking. All gears shift smooth, 4wd shifts well, oil a bit dark but at correct level, antifreeze also a bit dark, but not cloudy or milky looking. No gunk under the oil cap. No cuts or rips in any if the wires or lines.

I drive it home to Bakersfield, California from Los Angeles, California. Half-way there, it starts sounding like dog ˟˟˟˟, like a rough idling lawnmower. I lose power, so I pull to side of interstate 5 with hazards on, get out and look under hood. All looked as it should be. Exhaust looked and smelled normal coming from exhaust pipe. I look under engine, there's oil sprayed everywhere and about a half cup on the ground. I THINK the oil was coming from the front crank seal/main seal/whatever ya wanna call it. Got it towed home for $300 from a friend with a car trailer.

Once home, took timing cover off thinking and hoping it was the timing belt that broke. Nope, still good and hydraulic tensioner still good and strong, no give. Belt tight, cranked it with a breaker bar, timing marks line up. Take distributor cap off, clean and dry like new. Take the 2 spark plugs out from front and middle on passenger side, dry but dirty and rusty/corroded looking, 1 is pointed rather sharp, the other flat as it should be. All the plug wires were on all the way.

Any ideas?? I'll post pics in a bit. This is my only means of transportation right now and I need to go to work this coming Sunday night.

 

Yep. Start with the plugs, check for vacuum leaks, continue from there.

 

Oil is supposed to stay inside the engine. If you got a half-cup of oil on the ground in the time it took you to look, you're leaking pretty fast. Which means you may have run out of oil pressure, and that could cause a lot of internal damage.

Have you checked the oil level? If low, before I spent too much time on the subtleties of ignition timing and mixture, I'd remove the plugs and carefully turn the engine over with a wrench. You'll be pushing against the valve springs, but if you feel anything "crunchy" or sticky, you may need to look more closely.

As far as Sunday night is concerned, Uber may be in your future.

 

If you took the timing cover off, I assume you put in a new seal?

 

Whelp I got it figured out. My buddy jose and I started working our way down with flashlights and an inspection camera from his work. Looks like I have a broken connecting rod on the passenger side and it started pecking it's way thru the block, much like a bird in an eggshell as far as transportation, I got Honda shadow motorcycle but mannnnn it's cold as heck going to work!! And gotta figure out how to strap a bucket of tools to the bike lol

Been searching last night for engines, probably guna read a couple hours a day on those 3.4 swaps, that sounds like a good plan. Thank you guys for the info and ideas

 

I don't know about the 3.0 in particular, but MY trucks have both had the front main seal/oil pump seal fail several times now. Exactly the same symptoms.
Pretty easy to replace the two seals. The front main and the oil pump. If they've not been changed, either in a long time, or ever, you can bet they're pretty worn out after all this time!
Hardest part is breaking the bolt on the crank shaft that holds the harmonic balancer/pulley assembly on. Actually, the really hard part is putting it back on once you're done replacing the two seals. Not easy to keep the engine from turning as you try to get the bolt to spec torque. There are a few threads in this forum about how to do that. Very detailed and easy to follow. You can manufacture the special tool that allows you to do the torqueing of the bolt pretty easily, not counting the difficulty in getting a bolt to 165 ft/lbs, I think it's supposed to be.

Something to check while the front main seal is off the crank shaft is to see if it has a groove worn in the crank where the seal rides. If it's bad enough, the seal may not seal well, and thus leak a bit. There are front main seals that fit right into the oil pump like they should, but they seat onto the crank in a slightly different position. Makes the seal like new. They are as readily available as the OEM version. As I mentioned, the two seals are very easy to replace. Hardest part is to hold the oil pump seal in place while you place the oil pump in place to bolt it down. A little dab of heavy grease in the corners and on the straight parts, just in a few spots, will hold the seal in nicely while you seat the oil pump. Kinda nifty trick.

Have fun!
Pat☺

 

There's yer problem, lady!

Good luck. There's a forum here https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f160/ devoted to the 3.4 swap. You can study-up before making your decision.

 

Dude, that sucks.

I've seen way too many of the 3.slow engines having issues over the years compared to the 22RE of the same vintage.

Wouldn't it make sense to get a lowish miles 3.0 used and put in some new, upgraded head gaskets? Freshen it up and then call it good? The replacement engine will probably outlive the rest of the rig, considering the age.

 

Thanks for the write-up Pat! I've done the front crank seal before on my old 86 pick-up with 22r, made a tool out of 2" angle iron, cut a radius to clear the main bolt, drilled 2 holes for the smaller bolts. Its about 5ft long lol I use a tiedown to hold it from the end, other end of tiedown goes down to driveside wheel. I miss that old truck, converted to propane then sold it in mexico for a lot more than I paid for it!

As far as dropping in a newer 3vze, I think it'll have the same head gasket and overheating issues. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they have pretty small oil passages or something like that and the block and heads are different materials making it cool unevenly? Idk. Up in the air til I get enough $$$ to swap. I don't exactly have some of the useful tools that'd help in a swap, like engine hoist, auto jack, long ass extensions for my ratchets. I mostly do work at the yard at my work, got biggg jacks for my semi and my co-workers semis. Access to a broderson ic20 carrydeck crane.

Oh! And yesssss I've been reading the 3.4 swap section a bit, mostly been watching YouTube videos on the matter. Really I don't wanna throw a whole Lotta money at it, I like the 99 4runners the most, followed by the landcruisers. Not much into 4wheeling, I got this so I can drive home on the weekends and put my kayak on top, go fish and camp in the 4runner. My commute to work is about 140 - 160 miles each way, depending on traffic and which highway I take. I show a pic of my truck and a screenshot of the ad from when I bought the 4runner. Cheers

Here's the ad. The guy put 1997. It's clearly a 95. Door and hood stickers verify.

 

Also, here's a couple pics from the night it broke down and one of what I drive daily...

 

You'd have thunk that would have made a bit of unusual racket, pecking it's way thru the block?

 

Don't fall for that silliness. If the 3VZE was such a compromised engine, would there be a very active forum filled with aficionados of 25 to 30 year old trucks?

Replacing an engine is not trivial, particularly for someone working in a borrowed lot. Swapping in a 5VZE is an even bigger job. Unless you really love your current truck, you'll almost always be better off just buying a good-running truck that already has what you want.