1996 Toyota 4runner 4wd 2.7l auto

[Falcon75]

Needs some advice here, flying back to the Maritimes in about three weeks to pick up the above vehicle from a friends sister who does not drive it anymore. I believe its the base model with the auto transmission and 2.7L engine. It has been sitting for about a year in the fathers driveway and ran well when it was put away. It has about 225000km on the dial.

My questions are should I replace the rad? I believe its the original that came with the vehicle? And if so what kind of RAD since there are a few to choose from? The Toyota stealership want close to 400 dollars for a replacement Rad. I see them online for about 150 dollars?

Next question, I plan on doing a mini tune up on it as my son and I will be driving it back to Saskatchewan. Plugs,wires,cap and rotor, change the oil, and air filter, probably the tranny fluid as well. Check the diffs to make sure all is well there. The brakes will be checked, any other suggestions?

She does not know about the service history of the vehicle since here soon to be ex husband took car of all that.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards Bruce

 

[clown baby]

rockauto

 

[Mc1337sauce]

Get a Koyo rad. I replaced my radiator fairly recently with an OEM Toyota one, and lo and behold, it is made in Mexico instead of Japan. If I had known that I would not have spent the extra cash on the Genuine Toyota one.

As far as extra maintenance items are concerned, consider changing the fuel filter (huge PITA on the 2.7L 3RZ, but if it has never been changed before, it must be done). I think you have everything else covered.

 

[davidch]

If I convert your odometer to a number Americans can understand, I get 139,500 miles. I have some lengthy experience with that engine: my '02 Tacoma 2WD with the 2.4 2RZ engine and an '00 4Runner with the 2.7 3RZ engine. The Tacoma I've had since new; it now has 135,000 miles. The 4Runner I bought used in '03 with about 60,000 on it; now it has 190,000.

In both engines, the valves had correct clearances at 90,000 miles and had never to that distance been re-shimmed. At 120,000 miles on both engines, some of the exhaust valves had tightened up, in a few cases to .005". Minimum clearance is supposed to be .010". In all cases, the inlet valves were OK, and to this day I have never needed to change a shim on an inlet valve.

It is my belief that Toyota used slightly lesser quality valves in its 4-cylinder engines as opposed to the 6-cylinder 5VZ-FE. This forum, and others, have many tales of the 5VZ-FE with 200,000 miles and no valve adjustments. I have personally checked 2 of these engines, one at 175k, the other at 220k, and found that to be the case. The V6 valves are top notch.

My point: on a high mileage (or kilometerage) 4-cylinder, either the 2.4 or 2.7 (same engine, valve-train wise) I would get the valves adjusted. Particularly before a long trip.

If you've not confident to re-shim the valves yourself, you can at least check the valve clearances with ordinary tools and a set of feeler gauges.

These engines are known to sometimes burn exhaust valves. I believe frequent adjustment, starting above 100,000 miles, and then every 25-30 thousand, would greatly extend the life of these particular engines.

 

[ConstantFix]

I used to live in regina there budy and moved to california. Ive got 404xxx km on my original rad.