4Runner 22RE 1988 buying advice please!

[SomeDay]

Hi everyone!

Please, help! :help::help::help::help:

After searching for months, we found the T4R we wanted. We inspected it, the engine sounds good, but we're not experts in 22RE, besides that we saw 'white 'smoke' from the exhaust all the time when we tested it. Please, help us with your knowledge, watch the next videos of the engine running and the fumes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y8VTsdsND0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy2joIXaca0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9cwZwdAexo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fdaeQhReSk


Do you recommend us go for it? :help:


Besides that, under it was leaking oil in everywhere, please, see the photos:

 

[fourwd1]

White smoke is an indication of burning coolant, which could mean a bad head gasket, or even a cracked head.
Look at the oil and coolant to see if there are signs of the 2 mixing.

How many miles on it?
The noise could be Timing Chain rattle, valves, both.
The TC is good for 100K or so, when was the TC last changed?
Valves adjusted?

 

[KidVermicious]

I didn't watch all the videos, is there something special in any of them?

I watched a bit of the first and last ones. I don't hear any timing chain slap, that's a good sign. I do hear valves, that's common on the 22RE and they're pretty easy to adjust. It's definitely running rough, that plus "white smoke" could mean head gasket trouble. Or it might just mean the truck has been sitting a while and there's a lot of moisture in the oil to burn off (I see cobwebs, never a good sign). The oil leaks underneath could be a lot of things - front main seal, rear main seal, valve cover are the main culprits.

If that were a truck I was looking at, I'd start with a compression test, and look at the oil and coolant. If you saw signs of a bad head gasket and wanted to know for sure, you could do a block test. But honestly, any of those signs are good enough to tell a purchaser to walk (or drastically lower your offer), and if the rest of the truck is too good to walk then a possible bad head gasket shouldn't scare you off anyway.

As far as the oil leak goes, reach down behind the top of the motor and feel the bell housing - if there's oil there, you've got a valve cover leak, easy stuff to fix, do it at the same time you lash the valves. Reach underneath the front of the motor for oil underneath the crank pulley - oil there means a bad front main, a little more involved but easily fixable in a couple hours with basic tools. If the front of the motor and the top of the bellhousing are clean then it's probably a rear main leak, which is more problematic and involves pulling the motor or dropping the transmission to fix. That all assumes the leak is motor oil - could be ATF too.

Honestly, that truck looks rode hard and put away wet. Nothing to be scared of, and if you really like it and you're ready to invest some time and money to bring it back to good shape, go for it. These trucks are easy to work on. But if you're not interesting in putting in wrench time, probably best to keep looking because otherwise you'll end up putting your mechanic's kid through college.

 

[SomeDay]

Thanks a lot for your quick answer.

The coolant container was half full.
The odonmeter says 150000km/95000miles.
No serious rust, only in the fenders, but nothing serious.
I say the service documentation, but they only have the date when they did it, not details about what they did/replace/repair, it's waste of papers.

I don't have more info, the owner doesn't speak English and he's going to find somebody who does to talk to me. By the way, English's not my native language, sorry for that.

I'm not in USA, get parts for the 22RE's not easy here, so bring a new engine can cost me more than the engine itself.

 

[SomeDay]

The 4Runner's out of the road since 2013, that's what the owner says. So it was sitting for a while, can explain partly the white smoke. I hope.

The body looks good, except for 2 rusty spots. The dashboard's cracked in 2 different places. But that's not a problem.

My plan's to bring it to its former glory, do it myself.

I know it's hard to diagnose a vehicle based on photos and videos, so I appreciate it a lot your time to answer my questions, guys.

Hope everything goes good.

 

[Thefishguy77]

Look at the oil and coolant. Make sure the oil doesn't look like a chocolate milkshake. Also look under the oil cap. Make sure there is not a white coating in there. Look at the coolant after it it topped up and check for an oil sheen.

When your buying a rig of this age you will have to put some time and money in to it how handy are you? If you have the time, space and ability then buy all means it would probably be a good project. But most people generally put about $1000 in to a 30ish year old rig. Sometimes more sometimes less.

Good luck hope this helps

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[UnderFire]

If I was buying any 22RE powered Toyota at this point. I would have to be prepared to put a fresh engine in. Pretty much all of them I see for sale around here, are beaten, leaky and noisy. They are cheap and reliable, which means that people buy them and generally take less than stellar care of them. Based on how much grime is under that thing, I'm thinking that's probably the case here.

If you can work on stuff, great, the 22RE is insanely simple and easy to work on. If not, run away, they are past their prime, you probably won't find a 22RE that will require no work though.

 

[goatfarmer]

White smoke is an indication of burning coolant, which could mean a bad head gasket, or even a cracked head.
Look at the oil and coolant to see if there are signs of the 2 mixing.

How many miles on it?
The noise could be Timing Chain rattle, valves, both.
The TC is good for 100K or so, when was the TC last changed?
Valves adjusted?

Have similar issue; suspect the head gasket was bad; no coolant in oil, no coolant leaks however did find I had to top off on regular basis. The last stage before the head gasket gave out was serious bellowing of white smoke out the exhaust, at that point lucking engine light did not come on.

Suggest take to shop for diagnosis, not familiar with the 22re, on my 3.0 did not feel I have the experience to attempt disassemble and repair. Currently faced with dilemma, have the shop repair or rebuild, cost approximately same, or swap for created rebuilt long block for about the same cost. Currently waiting for shop foreman to provide options, minimum quote of options running approx. 32k?

 

[SomeDay]

Look at the oil and coolant. Make sure the oil doesn't look like a chocolate milkshake. Also look under the oil cap. Make sure there is not a white coating in there. Look at the coolant after it it topped up and check for an oil sheen.

When your buying a rig of this age you will have to put some time and money in to it how handy are you? If you have the time, space and ability then buy all means it would probably be a good project. But most people generally put about $1000 in to a 30ish year old rig. Sometimes more sometimes less.

Good luck hope this helps

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks a lot for your advice.

I'm handy with tools, I have a garage to work, I'm not in a rush, I can invest time in a hobby, and I have a budget of $5000 to make this vehicle reliable again. It's not enough probably, the owner's asking $6000 for it, I think it's a lot for its condition.

The big problem's in this part of the world the 22R's not a common engine, Toyota sold mostly diesel engines and 3Y and 4Y petrol versions here, in Europe.

 

[SomeDay]

If I was buying any 22RE powered Toyota at this point. I would have to be prepared to put a fresh engine in. Pretty much all of them I see for sale around here, are beaten, leaky and noisy. They are cheap and reliable, which means that people buy them and generally take less than stellar care of them. Based on how much grime is under that thing, I'm thinking that's probably the case here.

If you can work on stuff, great, the 22RE is insanely simple and easy to work on. If not, run away, they are past their prime, you probably won't find a 22RE that will require no work though.

That was exactly my plan, buy a new engine in 22RE Performance, but they don't send their motors out of USA, they can deliver it to the port, and I have to arrange a company to bring it. That costs more than $2000. By the way, bring a vehicle overseas costs me $2000, so it's cheaper to bring the whole vehicle than the engine.

Thank you for your advice!

 

[SomeDay]

Have similar issue; suspect the head gasket was bad; no coolant in oil, no coolant leaks however did find I had to top off on regular basis. The last stage before the head gasket gave out was serious bellowing of white smoke out the exhaust, at that point lucking engine light did not come on.

Suggest take to shop for diagnosis, not familiar with the 22re, on my 3.0 did not feel I have the experience to attempt disassemble and repair. Currently faced with dilemma, have the shop repair or rebuild, cost approximately same, or swap for created rebuilt long block for about the same cost. Currently waiting for shop foreman to provide options, minimum quote of options running approx. 32k?

Thank you for sharing your experience.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for a 22RE Performance rebuild engine, to swap directly, they're pretty close to you, and those guys do good stuff, sadly there is a whole ocean between them and me.

 

[SomeDay]

White smoke is an indication of burning coolant, which could mean a bad head gasket, or even a cracked head.
Look at the oil and coolant to see if there are signs of the 2 mixing.

How many miles on it?
The noise could be Timing Chain rattle, valves, both.
The TC is good for 100K or so, when was the TC last changed?
Valves adjusted?

Thanks a lot for your quick answer.

The coolant container was half full.
The odonmeter says 150000km/95000miles.
No serious rust, only in the fenders, but nothing serious.
I say the service documentation, but they only have the date when they did it, not details about what they did/replace/repair, it's waste of papers.

I don't have more info, the owner doesn't speak English and he's going to find somebody who does to talk to me. By the way, English's not my native language, sorry for that.

I'm not in USA, get parts for the 22RE's not easy here, so bring a new engine can cost me more than the engine itself.

 

[SomeDay]

I didn't watch all the videos, is there something special in any of them?

I watched a bit of the first and last ones. I don't hear any timing chain slap, that's a good sign. I do hear valves, that's common on the 22RE and they're pretty easy to adjust. It's definitely running rough, that plus "white smoke" could mean head gasket trouble. Or it might just mean the truck has been sitting a while and there's a lot of moisture in the oil to burn off (I see cobwebs, never a good sign). The oil leaks underneath could be a lot of things - front main seal, rear main seal, valve cover are the main culprits.

If that were a truck I was looking at, I'd start with a compression test, and look at the oil and coolant. If you saw signs of a bad head gasket and wanted to know for sure, you could do a block test. But honestly, any of those signs are good enough to tell a purchaser to walk (or drastically lower your offer), and if the rest of the truck is too good to walk then a possible bad head gasket shouldn't scare you off anyway.

As far as the oil leak goes, reach down behind the top of the motor and feel the bell housing - if there's oil there, you've got a valve cover leak, easy stuff to fix, do it at the same time you lash the valves. Reach underneath the front of the motor for oil underneath the crank pulley - oil there means a bad front main, a little more involved but easily fixable in a couple hours with basic tools. If the front of the motor and the top of the bellhousing are clean then it's probably a rear main leak, which is more problematic and involves pulling the motor or dropping the transmission to fix. That all assumes the leak is motor oil - could be ATF too.

Honestly, that truck looks rode hard and put away wet. Nothing to be scared of, and if you really like it and you're ready to invest some time and money to bring it back to good shape, go for it. These trucks are easy to work on. But if you're not interesting in putting in wrench time, probably best to keep looking because otherwise you'll end up putting your mechanic's kid through college.

The 4Runner's out of the road since 2013, that's what the owner says. So it was sitting for a while, can explain partly the white smoke. I hope.

The body looks good, except for 2 rusty spots. The dashboard's cracked in 2 different places. But that's not a problem.

My plan's to bring it to its former glory, do it myself.

I know it's hard to diagnose a vehicle based on photos and videos, so I appreciate it a lot your time to answer my questions, guys.

Hope everything goes good.

 

[SomeDay]

Guys, I do appreciate your time reading my post, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Thank you again!

 

[KidVermicious]

My plan's to bring it to its former glory, do it myself..

Then if the price is right, go for it. You didn't say where you're at, but these motors are easy to work on, even rebuild, and assuming your block is sound you'll saving money shipping rebuild parts over shipping a whole crate motor. Good luck!

 

[SomeDay]

Then if the price is right, go for it. You didn't say where you're at, but these motors are easy to work on, even rebuild, and assuming your block is sound you'll saving money shipping rebuild parts over shipping a whole crate motor. Good luck!

I'm between Belgium and The Netherlands, North West Europe.
The price's very high for its condition, the value of that 4runner can't be more than $3000, $3500 top. The money the owner asks's a lot, maybe we can reach a common point, we'll see.

This forum's a very valuable source of info, I'll pay back with my future rebuild thread, first I need to get that 4runner, I hope that.
Thank you!

 

[SomeDay]

Advice please:
Look at the the red frame in the photo, it looks like a crack, I didn't see that the day I went to check the 4Runner. Can you identify the problem? Do you think it's a serious thing? Do you know which can be the reason for that crack?
I'm going for it next Monday, I hope.
Thank you for your time reading this.