Have you gotten enough seat time with new 5th gear to determine if juice is worth the squeeze?

Inquiring minds wana know.

If I were doing more interstate driving I would definitely keep the 5th gear ratio. I went to Little Rock and back last weekend (roughly 150 miles round trip) and averaged 22.0 mpg while doing 70-80 mph. Most of my driving is in the 40-50 mph range and the new 5th gear ratio is useless in that mph range with my current tire size and differential gear ratio (4.10). I think the 5th gear swap is really for people running larger tires and deeper gears that want to lower their highway rpm’s in 5th gear. 33’s/4.88 or 35’s/5.29 would be the minimum I would recommend for the 5th gear swap.

Here’s a couple pics of the display (hopefully). The photos make it seem about 50 percent brighter than what it really is.

I like that thermometer. I hope I can make something to make it fix by my rear view like the newer tacumas and 4 runners.

Great Job @badluck .

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That's how it goes sometimes with Mod's now you know. Hwy mpg's are nice, you going 33's or 35's.
Doubt you have a problem flipping it if you choose.

I’m staying with stock gearing and 265/70R17’s for a while. Fixing my house is my main priority for the foreseeable future. I’ve got something in the works to hopefully rectify the situation.

I feel for you fixing-up a house in this market daammn. Was fortunate in finishing my project now in 20.

I’ve been chasing oil leaks since I bought this 4Runner at the end of 2021. I’ve done valve cover gaskets/half moons/cam plugs, replaced the rear main seal during a transmission/flywheel/clutch replacement, and resealed the oil pan. Thoroughly cleaned the engine after each repair, but the oil leak persists. I finally had some time to do another thorough engine degreasing and added oil dye to make sure if I missed anything during clean up that a new leak would be more obvious.

Anyways, I’ve finally narrowed down the location of my engine oil leak. I’ll attach some photos of it but for context it’s the passenger side of the engine block starting about 1/2” below the mating surface for the cylinder head and about 1” from the rear of the engine. I’m 99 percent sure my engine block is cracked. I can clean it off, start the engine, and watch it get wet with engine oil again.





I used an inspection mirror and borescope and verified it’s not coming from the head gasket or the back of the passenger head or block

No way a cracked block?

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Good discovery work now you know, I'm sure it not what you wanted to find.

A little high heat jb wled and it'll be like new!

That really sucks though.

I might give it a shot, but I’ve never had any luck trying to fix cracked blocks. Even tried welding a cracked block on a friend’s Jeep 4.0L one time and it just recracked in the same spot a few months later. It’s just free rust proofing at this point lol I doubt I’ll do anything until it’s time to do a timing belt or head gasket.

Not really what I wanted or thought I would find, but at least I finally found it.

It sure looks that way. I saw a few posts on Tacoma world last night when I was looking for better photos of that side that had cracked 5VZ blocks.

I'm sorry to hear this bro. So, with you mentioning that you're probably not doing anything until a timing belt job or a head gasket job comes up, do you still plan to daily drive this thing? Also just curious, are you having to add oil in between oil changes? If so, approximately how much would you say?

I'm with @Twisted Sid was first thought, add if possible dental burr to crack V it out.

This worst case scenario for cast iron repair.

You can actually weld cast iron. The issue is you have to get it glowing red hot before hand.

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