I pulled heads with the engine in the cars..

I do understand the need for more tools though.


For the transmission, transfer cases, gas tank and differential removal. I use an hydraulic table. Those work great for those applications.

At least you have a plan. :]

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My weapons for battle have been assembled!

Hopefully will have it pulled by Tuesday. I imagine I will only have enough time today to get everything disconnected from the engine.

Monday I'll have the engine hooked up to the hoist and Tuesday the engine will be pulled

Never pulled an engine before. And I am doing it on my own in an apartment garage lol

I am gunna turn the truck around where the front of the truck goes into the garage first. I'll hoist the engine out and drop it on a stand. I am gunna try and push the truck back into the garage if I have enough room. If not, I'll have to roll the truck out the garage and push it into a parking spot right in front of the garage.


If I have till the truck outside I'm gunna have to stop the engine thing for a bit and make sure I have everything covered that is exposed from the outside element's. I don't want yard guys blowing grass into or water getting into places it shouldn't be.


Gonna go buy a cheap plastic table to lay important parts down. And snag some old shoe boxes to mark bolts

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I go grab a box of gallon and sandwich sized zip loc's. use a sharpie to label the bags and put the nuts bolts/parts that fit into those bags. then you can just toss them into a big box/bin or something. works well with limited space.

I also have a clip board and make notes on parts to order and replace.

I have pulled 5x of these engines in the last 2 years

@sleepydad , yes that is the plan! I had to do the same thing when I was doing a head gasket job on my father-in-laws Ford 302. There are more ho(s)e's in that engine bay than a run-down titty bar.


I got my pricing together for the gaskets and bolts. The Toyota overhaul gasket is 372, and the head bolts are 100 from dealership.

I am also going to consider repairing that cylinder 1 which has been tapped out already by someone. The timesert kit for it is like 300 bucks Or maybe I just leave it alone....it bugs me i have to thread the insert onto the spark plug....a timesert stays in the head and doesn't come out.

When I factor all that stuff in together, it gets dangerously close to where it makes more sense to just search for a good donor engine (which i found) and dropping that in instead.

But that overhaul kit includes everything from exhaust manifold gaskets, up to the throttle body gasket. I just did the valve covers, and im gunna reuse all that stuff, but ill replace all the gaskets again, from the valve covers up.

Gunna have to look at the cost of piecing it all together.

Well I decided to get a donor engine. Came out of a 1999 SR5. The seller wrecked it, had 144k miles on it and he gave me the service records for it too.

Prepping the new engine now. I have to swap power steering, and alternator brackets.

The alternator took a good hit. One of the bolts holding the alternator bracket to the engine sheared off in the head. It broke clean with the boss. So I'm gunna have to dive into my bag of tricks to get it out.

I start working 13 hour shifts tomorrow for the next 3 months 7 days a week and work during holidays too. So my time is up I'll make slow progress here and there for awhile.

Im looking to the day I can get this puppy up and running again I'm gunna do everything I can to the engine while it's out.

I want to thank everyone for the help and advice in the threads I've been blowing up recently. Now I got my donor engine. My life is content lol

Stay tuned folks more to come. The 4runner will live on!

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2 engine stands. You dont mess around

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Running back to harbor freight to get a 2 ton hoist and a corded impact gun. I cant break the crank bolt lose, Im picking the engine up with my breaker bar lol

Friday I am getting about 800 dollars worth of parts from dealership. new master cylinder, new engine, and transmission mount, rear main seal, going to do the timing belt as well, re doing the valve covers, going to reseal my oil pan., oil cooler o-rings and gaskets.

Full steam ahead.

I am going to hop into the engine bay today and do some house keeping. I reckon in about 2 weeks it will all be done.

Engine Swap Update #2: Valve coverz 4 dayz, and timing woes

Did my valve covers, swapped everything over the only thing I reused was the rubber gasket and the half moons, I opted for new grommets.
This was the second time I did this in a month other than cleaning the half moons the second part was torquing the sixteen bolts on the valve covers lol steeping them up in torque sequence from 45-50-55. It takes time.
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First time doing a timing belt job on this Engine and I'm glad it was done outside the Engine bay.

I'm not sure how anyone can follow it per the manual because it just didn't work for me. I lined the cams up with their marks and crankshaft was set on Cylinder 1 TDC.

Everytime I would try and get the belt on there enough tension to turn both cams. And then I had to reset. Eventually I got it and there was slack between the water pump and the crankshaft gear.

So I would put the tensioner in and sure as shit the tensioner would then take the slack out of the belt and spin the cam gears but the crankshaft stayed put.

And after all that crap I still went ahead and tried to see where my timing was and every time it would end up being 1 mark behind where it should be.

I legit did the same process about ten times thinking I was crazy. There was no way I could change the outcome of this if I do the same thing over and over again.I eventually I said screw this crap I advanced the timing on the cam gears by the amount it was retarding it self.

it kept on retarding itself by 1 tooth on each cam.

So I advanced the timing by 1 tooth before I sent the tension on the belt and sure as shit it worked like a champ.

And I will say when ever I advanced it 1 tooth before putting in the hydraulic tensioner, the belt was sllack between the crankshaft gear and the passenger cam gear

Whenever I was doing it per the FSM it was the opposite way around, the belt was slack between the driver side cam and the crankshaft gear. And that crank shaft dot was one tooth BEHIND where it was marked on the COG

So because I advanced the timing by 1 tooth on each gear i was able to get the belt to slip over on the dot of the crankshaft gear, and the slack was taken up by the tensioner properly, but it did still turn the cams by 1 one tooth! But that's exactly what I wanted.

So by the time the tensioner was torqued ( I still haven't pulled the pin at this point) the cams retarded themselves by 1 tooth and after that my timing was dead set on.

I turned the crank 6 times for a total of 3 cam revolutions, and my timing was dead nutz. Pulled the pin and that is all she wrote.

It was pain in the ass to get that point. A couple of hours at least but i know 110% my timing is dead on.
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I'm still waiting on 1 engine mount to come in. Tomorrow I will do my oil cooler fittings, gunna go to hardware store today and buy some 1/2" NPT to barb adapters (hopefully that is right size) to bench bleed new master cylinder

I am reconsidering whether or not if I should do my oil pan and rear main seal. I got the parts for everything. But there are two things holding me back which are apart of me being lazy and because there is no real disadvantage of me doing these repairs when the engine is in the truck.

I have a 4x2. And I wouldn't changing the rear main out whenever the time comes because it will give me an excuse to buy a nice transmission jack which i will need for other projects unrelated to the 4runner. And the oil pan on the truck is no rear hassle for me.

The only way I could consider doing the oil pan now is if I had the muscle to turn this engine over smoothly but I know that's not possible this ***** will turn over fast and abruptly lol I guess i would leave it the way it is and still install it

Oh and another thing, for installing the crankshaft front seal, if you have the rear axle bearing puller tool this little piece works as a great deal driver with a nice lip to tap in.

Also notice the new crank bolt has some thread locker on it maybe? Interesting to say the least

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Too late now, but I'll give some timing belt pointers for anyone who finds themselves struggling as well:

1) Leave idler pulley bolt a little loose. A LITTLE loose. It allows for a tiny amount of slop between the cams and every millimeter helps sometimes. (Giggity)

2) fully install tensioner PIVOT (Allen) bolt. But do not fully install tensioner PISTON. Leave those 2 vertical 12mm headed bolts a few threads loose so the tensioner pulley can rest all the way down onto the oil pump body. If you fully install the piston, it prohibits maximum articulation.

3) new belt should have marks, if not, Mark old belt before removal. Then, install on crank sprocket, and wedge something to hold bottom of belt on sprocket. Work your way around counter clockwise, aligning all the marks on the belt to the locations on the remaining sprockets.

4) with all marks of belt aligned, tighten idler pulley from step 1, tensioner bolts from step 2. with crank bolt installed, barely rotate crank like 2 degrees clockwise, just enough to remove all slack. Then pull the pin and rotate engine twice to confirm.

Also, never expect belt marks to line back it. They won't. Sprocket marks, yes. Belt marks, no.

Good job figuring it out. Wise move doing it outside of the vehicle. Done a bunch inside trucks. Worst ones are the transverse (sideways) engines in vans/cars. 3.3's have a super crazy procedure including reverse rotating engine to not contact valves. It gets nuts real fast.

I'd be tempted to say you might as well back hydrualic tensioner all the off until it is not pressing against No. 1 pulley at all

I tell you what if I did this in the engine I would remove the AC compressor and bungie cord it and then remove the compressor bracket to get full view of that tensioner.

I think making sure the tensioner is all the way out is 100% needed. You might be able finagle it on but yeah I had mine off completely. Put the belt on, then tightened the bolts snug not to spec made sure the cams were in the right spot,

Then I torqued it spec and that's when it walked back right to where the timing marks were.

Thanks for taking on to my comments though! Here's to helping the lost soul that stumbled on this thread for timing belt stuff after they rifled through everything else! Lol


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Its practice getting those timing belts on as they just fit. The loose tensioner with the load pin locked is the key. Once its started and on the right teeth. You are good to go.

Excellent progres.

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Engine Swap Update #3:


Got the second engine mount on. I swapped over the spark plugs and I got the sheared bolt out from the alternator bracket

I used a MAP torch (I think that's what it's called) and I took @brillo_76 advice and got transfer punch set from HF: Transfer Punch Set - 28 Piece

I heated up the bolt for about 30 seconds then I got a small punch with a small hammer and it came out with zero problems.

So now I got my old alternator bracket and alternator on.

Currently degreasing the engine bay with a water based degreaser safe on all surfaces. It basically just loosens up the dirt and you can let it sit there and it won't stain anything.

Still need to replace oil cooler fittings and I'm going to drop the oil pan tomorrow and reseal it.

After that I'll swap my brake booster for an OEM one then I'll swap the related gaskets as well. And I'm gunna bench bleed the new master cylinder I got.

The threads on the master cylinder are 1/4inch NPT thread for anyone needing the Barb fittings. to be transparent I got 1/4 NPT thread with 1/8inch barb

I also recommend this thread chaser kit: Amazon.com: Lang Tools 2584 15-Piece Metric Thread Restorer Set: Automotive

It has every common bolt on the Engine and I haven't found a bolt that doesn't work. And I've gone through and cleaned every single bolt that has come of the engine and chased every hole.

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Good job. I used tap and die sets for years as they are required in the rust belt.

Glad you didn't have to drill and ez out or retap. Those transfer punches are very handy. I mostly have to grind the bolt smooth and use the correct center punch to mark where to drill the center of the bolt.

Be glad your in a rust free area. As lots of times I have to do that to change a fender etc. Pa chrome as I call it is really a pain in rear.

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MAP gas is always on hand at my garage.


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Engine Swap Update #4: Degreasing Engine Bay

Speaking of rust Free....had to use my hands and some CRC water based degreaser....I got alot of.

No access to a water hose or nothing. All my detailing stuff is at home

Overall it's a million times better pretty sure I have couple of pounds of bull crap on the frame.


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