Recent content by NWTrailRunner

It is possible to remove the thermostat housing and keep the thermostat untouched. So you could totally do this yourself after you get it back from the shop. The only reason its easier to have them do it is because you'll have to partially drain the coolant to pull the thermostat housing apart...

Also be prepared to inspect and replace parts as you go that might be on their way out. The fan bracket for example. Better to replace it while the part is out. Also, I mainly followed the videos by OTRAMM to do the job which has a list of parts: Toyota 4.7 Timing belt replacement This guy's...

+1 for the Timing Belt Change, unless you DIY it like I did, shops will charge 1000-1800 for that job. Also check rust on the circular cross member right behind the top of the rear shocks. I found some crud in there on mine about 2" in, so it might be easily missed. (wetter climate than Reno...

If some of these bolt heads end up being too rounded, I can recommend the Topec bolt extractor set on Amazon. Pretty good range of sizes and they bite the bolt heads pretty well. But they only bite in the counter clockwise direction for removal, so won't help with rocking them back and forth...

Glad to hear you got it out! I thought I might have done that with a broken off pieces of an allen wrench while trying to pry off the cam seals during a TB job. I believe those openings are where the coolant gets pushed through from the water pump, which means anything would have to go through...

Since this is primarily for off road and not a daily driver, I'd go with the V8. All things being equal that is. To me it has a stellar reliability reputation, and the power/torque certainly can't hurt when off roading. I'm not an off road expert, so I don't know how much the extra weight will...

This happened to my wife recently while she was with my son who randomly asked to open it. Luckily it wasn't raining (WA state) and my wife was able to fiddle with the mechanism enough to get it closed. This is a good reminder for me to see if there is a breaker I can pull out to prevent any...

Change it after, some people go way over the 90k life and there belt looks good. I just did a full timing belt change at 130K. Bought my 2003 used last year and there was no evidence if it was changed before (sticker with date/miles). The belt looked great except for the threads coming out at...

Congrats on your new rig! I'm also in the Seattle area and a few months ago I got myself a 2003 V8 4WD Sport Edition. (my 1st 4Runner) Mine has the plastic body cladding which I'm still deciding if I like or not. My running boards were rusting bad, so that was the first thing to go. This week...

Did you find the Rear Bilstein B12 1.8" to match well with the shocks? Did you end up level? I just picked up a set from someone's 2018 Tacoma Off Road today and now need to get a set of rear coils to make sure I don't come out nose high. Thanks!