Honestly, I only planned to replace the timing belt, water pump and valve covers, but just getting to all of that was sort of a pain. It didn't seem like a ton of more work to go ahead and pull the heads. When I bought the truck I was told it had a HG leak. After pulling the heads, I'm more than 99% sure it didn't. But the heads are off, so might as well bring them to the machine shop.

The clutch throwout bearing was making some noise and I've had it shudder a few times while engaging the clutch. I figured I'd go ahead and do that too since the hard-to-get-to bolts were so accessible. Speaking of which, I need to do something with the starter. I've read some threads about replacing the brushes, or something, right? I sure as hell don't want to have to take it out ever again... err... back to the search engine..

The Moogs were no good? Crap, that delays my plans for fixing my sag.

wait what... cumbustion test? lol

Makes sense on the engine. I just wanted to remind you that these things are pretty darn solid. But when you're most of the way there, it is nice to be able to take care of a couple of those "might need replaced" things if you can.

On the starter, it took me a while, but it wasn't that huge of a deal. Wasn't it something like 4-8 bolts, with the trick being having some long extensions on the ratchet, like 18" or maybe more, and pulling it out through the wheel well. I mined all of our ratchet sets to get that setup, but then it worked fine. Redoing it in the afternoon (didn't put in something….I forget what) went quick.

I put in a new or remanufactured one, though someone in the know might have just replaced some leeds and brushes.

the Moogs are great. I did use the 1.25" spacer and it makes it a little higher than stock. Gives it a nice slight rake.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/li...FYZi7Aod_wMAlg

Other news, I totally did a dumb thing. I watched this video:
Toyota Pickup Clutch Replacement Part 2 of 3 - YouTube

Which is a pretty good set videos for a clutch replacement. However, I thought that that was how to replace the rear main seal on my 3vze... WRONG!!

Needless to say, the seal plate does not come out as easily on the 3.0 as it does on the 22r. So now I need to drop the pan. Which means I'm going to pull the bottom end out and put it on an engine stand, so I can flip it over and not make a total mess of it. Might as well do the oil pump while I'm there. And clean the crap out of that dirty a$$ engine. Hell, might as well paint it while I'm there. I have a can of ford blue engine paint, would it be offensive if the lower end turned blue?

The question: Should I get oil pan gaskets, or just use black RTV?

I was actually more laughing at the spelling of combustion because I have a dirty mind, but yes I'm familiar with that leakage tester.

I used Toyota seal packing rtv for my oil pan gasket. I don't recall if there was a gasket available or not. if it's cork...forget it.

3VZE also uses a girdle style of main bearing cap too. watch out for where the shims go.

edit: it also doesn't help that it's shaped like a penis.

also why not, might as well repaint it right? here's mine just after rebuilding.

I do get a little excited when working on the 4runner, but not that excited!

How do the procomp es9000 shocks ride?