Great to know thank you! Bearing is definitely gone, found the lever though, TBD on if its worth using or replacing and i'll scope the shifter seats while i am at it.

Anyone know what kind of springs these are? trying to figure out what lift is on it.


Front end is currently spaced

Thinking an upgrade will be in order once its running.

off topic but i am a little sad at the thought of saying goodbye to my bugaru this weekend Selling it will fund a lot of fun stuff for the 4Runner but its still a little sad.
I think if i dig into the 4Runner i'll get over it pretty quickly

You'll regret it if you do that! Just keep it. It'll all work out
Look around those rear coils more. There is probably markings on them somewhere. SAW coils are the only silver coils I've seen, but I can't confirm those are SAW(Sway-A-Way).

We'll see, i'm chompin at the bit to make this 4runner go sooner so the bug might sell to fund an expedited build.

In more relevant news, We got to work on the 96!
Took an inventory of sorts and pulled off the steps as well as the fender "flares"


tore the front end down, needs an AC condenser, headlight brackets and turn signals but the grille might be salvageable and the front rebar wasn't too bad from the shop's bender. bumper is gone though but all the more reason to build a steel one


T-belt and water pump are new which is nice, brake system is intact and untouched aside from clutch.

• Valve covers are seeping so i will be doing those gaskets before reassembling, should i venture into intake manifold gasket as well? looks ok currently though the ports could use a cleaning.

• The side motor mounts are supporting everything currently but i was surprised at how much the motor can rock without the trans in. Is this normal? I didn't see another mount but there could be a place for one where the AC compressor sits next to the crossmember. Just talking out loud here, going to look it up as well.

TIA

oh this is gonna be a good one. i cant wait. to see the build up.

Hey there buddy, great score and nice project

Check out this thread for maintenance, etc 3rd Gen 4Runner Buyer's Guide

Eibach paints their springs grey, look for the Eibach logo on them. If want do tackle suspension as a project in it's entirety, check out this thread here 3rd Gen 4Runner Lift Information and FAQ's

Keep your build thread updated and put a link to it in your signature

Thank you for the links and will do!

Time for an update... not the one i was hoping to have.

Got all my seals for the valve covers so saturday the wife and I decided to dig in and get it done. Unfortunately once getting the first cover off i knew we were in deeper than expected. sludge city in the heads so now we're going to be pulling those off


I spent a couple hours scoopin poop and got it cleaned up pretty well but still think i want to pull them and have a machine shop deep clean the heads.


Wasn't able to get the oil pan off due to the front diff but i stuck my phone in the sliver of space once i unsealed it and saw that the pickup looks pretty good.


New plan is to borrow a hoist, pull the motor out, build a quick engine stand with some lumber i have, pull the heads off and take them to a machine shop, clean the oil passages the best i can and with the pan off, get any more i can see from underneath. If its worse that expected, i think i can get the motor they pulled out to swap this one in so that might help, or hell, at least the heads.

Not the best start but hey, the deeper i go, the less i have to worry about in the long run. this is a great example of why you can never really trust the "low-mile used motors" but oh well. i wish they had just left the motor in with the bad headgasket, at least we knew the only real issue there.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated

Update: After talking with a friend with some room in his shop and more expertise than myself, I think we're going all the way!
Gonna take it down to the block, have everything cleaned then start over with new bearings and seals everywhere. Definitely not what i was expecting to do but i plan on driving the wheels off this thing so i might as well do it right and build it brand new. its a bit daunting but i've always wanted to build one from the ground up and heres my chance.
This build just got a lot longer and more interesting.

Finally have the free space in the shop for the motor!
Picked up the original(claimed to have bad head gasket) to take to the shop and begin the teardown.

If the head(s) are warped i'll use the sludgefactory heads as i'm getting everything cleaned anyhow. Plan is to make a fresh motor between the 2 of them and get her going asap. definitely didn't see this coming but i'll be much happier with a fresh motor and knowing its all done than waiting for a brick of sludge to break off, clog the pick-up and have to do this when i least expect it.
LET TEARDOWN BEGIN

update:
heyhey!! look what i found, a sludge-free high-mile head



Hoping to get this thing apart tomorrow and get moving on it.

Lots of progress!
just keeping track of it on here so don't mind a lot of me posting


If you look closely you can see the port that saw coolant from the HG leak



Even talked the wife into helping me teardown the motor.


and now we're ready for the machine shop!

block, pistons, heads, crank and cams all going to get hot tanked and we'll see where we stand after. if the head(s) are warped i might use the sludge heads or just see the shops recommendations. seemed ok when i put a straight edge on them but the gasket was trashed on that side and actually blew the metal gasket ring into the cooling jacket.

Update: found an awesome machine shop in South Dallas, called around and wasn't loving a lot of places but these guys were great and have done a ton of 5VZs before.
Dropped everything off to get going

Still waiting on everything from the machine shop but i did pick up a new set of shoes for the 4R last night.
A friend hooked me up big time on em and i wasn't a huge fan of the 17s so i'll be selling them to get new tires for these. I know they're a bit plain and simple but i like this look a whole lot.


Update: heads and block needed decking, cylinders are getting bored, new pistons, full valve job... this thing is going to be brand friggin new

Got everything back from the machine shop!
Decked, bored, honed and ready for reassembly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

them heads look tasty....SLAP EM IN!!! I wanna hear it purr.

how much did it run you to get it all machined? I'm thinking maybe some time down the line I might rebuild my entire engine if it ever came to it.

Damn that looks so pretty. Looking forward to seeing more of the build!

didn't realize the block would need decking and boring so i was expecting a lot once i heard that news but with that + everything hot tanked(including valve covers and rear plate), 2 decked heads, 2 full valve jobs, new pistons, rings and bearings, and a polished crank i came out to a little over a grand with tax and cc fee. i was pleasantly surprised with the amount with as much as they did.

Great progress so far. Engines builds are always fun!