Bobby's Silver 2000 T4R

[FunBobby]

2000 TOYOTA 4RUNNER 4x4 LIMITED EDITION
MILLENNIUM SILVER
3.4L V6 5VZ-lFE
4-Speed A340F Automatic Transmission
4X4 W/ Multimode
4.30:1 Differential Gears w/ E-locker

Hi,
I'm pretty sure I never introduced myself here; I'm way more active on the 3rd Gen Mafia Facebook group. Anyway, I purchased my 4Runner in October 2017 after trading in my Touareg TDi due to the emissions scandal. I wanted a reliable weekend warrior I could use to go hiking, exploring, and could take me to work in the snow since I also got a G37S at the same time. I work in the lab of an independent tire test center and working on getting in to Pharm school right now so life is busy.
I haven't done much mod wise, but do have all the parts for a 3" lift in my shop (including LBJs) and unwelded front bumper from Brandon in Canada to build. I've only put 3k miles on it in the past 18 months or so, but I have been catching up on maintenance. So far I've changed the oil/filter, air filter, and fuel filter. I've done the "grey wire mod" for my rear diff, and cleaned out the blower motor. I plan on doing plugs and wires along with a valve cover job this Spring, along with changing the diff fluids, and trans fluid.


UPGRADES & MODIFICATIONS (Planned)

Suspension:
Front: Toytec/Eibach Complete Front Coilovers - 3" Lift
New LBJs
Rear: LC Coils w/ Tokico blacks

Wheels & Tires:
-17" Tundra wheels


Electrical Modifications:
-Disabled Daytime Running Lights
-"Grey wire" mod


Interior Upgrades:
-Black Husky mats

Stereo/CB/ HAM:


Exterior Upgrades:

-SRQ Fabrication Ditch Light Brackets
-CaliRaised Side Shooters
-Rigid Spot Pods
-Philips White Vision bulbs in headlights

**Armor**
4X Innovations DOM Sliders
Coastal Offroad Aluminum Front Bumper

Dirty by Bobby Bryan, on Flickr
Just Washed by Bobby Bryan, on Flickr
North of Blackfork Mt. by Bobby Bryan, on Flickr

 

[FunBobby]

Lighting

I plan on posting all my lighting upgrades here; I already replaced whatever bulbs the prior owner had with Philips White Visions and have a set of Rigid spots in box waiting on me to finish my front bumper. I plan on posting before/after/comparisons along the way.
Here's the bulbs I used by Bobby Bryan, on Flickr

 

[FunBobby]

When I first got it, I noticed how loud the fan was on high, I foud this whne i pulled it out. Took this out, blew the blades off with compressed air, and relubed the bearing with 3-in-one oil, now I can carry on a conversation in peace.
Found the Noise by Bobby Bryan, on Flickr


Here are the LC coils I picked up locally for $20
LC Coils by Bobby Bryan, on Flickr


This is what my throttle body looked like when I pulled it to clean, I was trying to fix my hard hot starts, no luck there yet.
Throttle Body by Bobby Bryan, on Flickr

 

[onemanarmy]

checked spark plugs and fuel pressure?

 

[nosirra]

MAF cleaner

Almost every 3rd Gen will benefit from cleaning the Mass Air Flow sensor. Search and read up on it before you do it. Use the correct cleaner and don’t touch it. It will definitely help with warm start issues.

 

[FunBobby]

checked spark plugs and fuel pressure?

I haven't checked either, I have plugs and wires ready to go on, but I'm waiting to install them concurrently with the valve cover I'm going to have to do.

Almost every 3rd Gen will benefit from cleaning the Mass Air Flow sensor. Search and read up on it before you do it. Use the correct cleaner and don’t touch it. It will definitely help with warm start issues.

I cleaned it when I cleaned the throttle body and upper intake, no affect noticed.

 

[FunBobby]

Picked up a set of black Husky liners today from the same local guy I got my Tundra wheels.
I also appear to have fixed my warm start issue, though I'm not sure what it was. I ran two tanks back-to-back of BG K44 and my starting issues have vanished, I'm not sure if an injector was getting hung or what but I haven't had any troubles since about halfway through the second tank.

 

[FunBobby]

P0304

Went out driving back roads for an hour or so today just because it's been a week or so since I've driven the her. When I was almost back home I felt/heard an obvious change in the idle, I flipped the ECT on and gave it the old Italian tune up to pop the CEL; P0304, Misfire in cylinder #4. It was almost time to pick up the kids from school and start shuttling them around so all I really had time to do was pull the plug. It's not a dual-electrode, but it is a NGK iridium, not sure what kind of miles or on it and I planned on swapping them out with the correct ones when I change my valve cover gaskets this spring. I'm not good at reading plugs, does this one seem adnormal in any way to you?

 

[Yoter]

The plugs look like they are on their last legs, time for new ones for sure. Autozone has good prices on the plugs and amazon has good deals on wires.
What year Touareg did you have? Was it a V10?

 

[FunBobby]

The plugs look like they are on their last legs, time for new ones for sure. Autozone has good prices on the plugs and amazon has good deals on wires.
What year Touareg did you have? Was it a V10?

2010, it was the 3.0 V6, I loved it but the money the offered was way more than it was worth or ever would be worth again.

 

[Yoter]

2010, it was the 3.0 V6, I loved it but the money the offered was way more than it was worth or ever would be worth again.

Glad they bought you out, I had a V10 (don't think they were ever included in the recall) but one of the turbos went bad from oil starvation, estimates were over 10k! The engine has to come out to get to the turbos!
It was a freight train when it ran but I couldn't afford the repairs, someone saved it though its still running around my town.

 

[FunBobby]

P0304

Slowly working on this P0304 code.
So far, I picked up an OEM spark plug and swapped it out for the one on cylinder #4, no affect noticed.
If it was the coil, I would assume that cylinder #1 would be misfiring too since they use the same coil. Right?
It could be the wires, I plan on swapping those around in the next couple of days. But I'm really thinking it's the injector. That could be causing my hot start issues and bad fuel mileage (14 mpg, stock everything) too.

 

[T4topher]

Slowly working on this P0304 code.
So far, I picked up an OEM spark plug and swapped it out for the one on cylinder #4, no affect noticed.
If it was the coil, I would assume that cylinder #1 would be misfiring too since they use the same coil. Right?
It could be the wires, I plan on swapping those around in the next couple of days. But I'm really thinking it's the injector. That could be causing my hot start issues and bad fuel mileage (14 mpg, stock everything) too.

You can swap the coil packs to test them as well. I just got an injector rebuild kit off eBay for 22$, haven’t done the work yet though. Also a few places online you can get cleaned/rebuilt/balanced injectors it’s a bit more $ though..

 

[FunBobby]

You can swap the coil packs to test them as well. I just got an injector rebuild kit off eBay for 22$, haven’t done the work yet though. Also a few places online you can get cleaned/rebuilt/balanced injectors it’s a bit more $ though..

I'll try and swap the coils around tomorrow; if there's no change in cylinder I'll probably send some injectors to Witchhunter for a servicing.

20190206 Update: Swapped front and rear coil pack drove around block, and still getting P0304.

 

[FunBobby]

Hey guys,
I need your advice on fuel injector resistance. The FSM says 13.8 ohms at 68F, and the Haynes manual says 13.4-14.2 ohms; at room temp all mine are 16 ohms. I'm trying to decide if I should send all of mine to be rebuilt considering the out of spec resistance, but I've seen several people on YotaTech say they're good up to 18 ohms. I'm really just looking for advice on whether to rebuild or try something else, and I don't even know who to tag to ask here maybe [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] and [MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION]

The injector that was giving me problems appears to be clogged, a friend and I hooked a piece of fuel line filled with carb cleaner to the inlet side and tried to force it through with a air compressor while he actuated the injector with a 9V battery, only drips came out, while a known good injector shot it out when we tried the same thing. All injectors sounded the same when fired via 9V and all the ohms are the same.

 

[phattyduck]

Hey guys,
I need your advice on fuel injector resistance. The FSM says 13.8 ohms at 68F, and the Haynes manual says 13.4-14.2 ohms; at room temp all mine are 16 ohms.

The injector that was giving me problems appears to be clogged

Sounds like a mechanical problem, not an electrical problem. The higher reading you are getting is probably the extra resistance of your test leads/setup, coupled with using a cheap meter. They are all matched, so you are good there.

Get those injectors cleaned and flow tested by any one of the services out there (no personal experience, otherwise I'd suggest one).

-Charlie

 

[FunBobby]

Update

Slight update. I brought my injectors up to my brothers job (he's an EE) and used another meter there, all tested within spec and we figured my Fluke i out of calibration. I sent the injectors off to a rebuild shop in CO that promises to spend the most time of anyone working on your injectors (review to follow later) and apparently that's true because the guy has had them almost two weeks. hwell:

Since, I knew it was going to be a little bit before I could get it running again and I was already at the valve cover I decided to go ahead and take care of my leaking gaskets.

Ordered the kit from PartsGeek and got good service (I read a lot of bad reviews on them after I ordered) & picked up the FIPG/PCV from my local dealer as they were close enough in price to Camelback to be cheaper without shipping. I didn't take any pictures while in progress as my hands were dirty, and everyone has seen pictures like them multiple times. Engine was really clean, so I guess the PO did one thing right and I can go back to using regular synthetic, I had been using a HDO mixed with MMO to clean it up because I suspected it to be sludgy based on all the other "maintenance" I'd found. The job required way less FIPG than I thought, so I hope I used enough.
After I did the valve covers I replaced all the plugs and wires too, I used the NGK double platinums with their blue wires; I might replace the coil boots before I get everything back together, I'm still not sure it's necessary.
Anyway, that's where I'm at with this whole thing. Here's a current shot with the fresh valve covers:

 

[FunBobby]

FIS Review and Follow Up

Hey Guys,
I finally got my rebuilt fuel injectors installed and so far (Done about 20 miles of driving) no misfire, so I think that may have solved my issue. As I stated earlier, I got them rebuilt by a shop out of Denver call Fuel Injection Specialists, though I personally think the shop is one guy named Chuck. Chuck is friendly enough and seems knowledgeable, and always either answered or called back promptly. I choose this particular shop over all the other's because he promised to send before/after pictures of your injectors and he performed his tests at room temp and also heated up to normal operating temp, this was the only shop I saw that did either of these things. The cheapest rebuilders I found ran around $17/injector and the most expensive was about $23/injector, FIS was $20/injector, so about average. Their website is older and kinda sketchy looking, but after calling I decided to take a chance on them.

Here's a brief timeline:
3/1 - Called, talked to Chuck, we decided it could be my fuel injectors, but he wasn't 100%, he told me to try a few things before I wasted my money, these were things I'd already tried though (plugs, moving coils, etc)
3/4 - Shipped injectors
3/7 - He received them via USPS tracking
3/12 - I called to check on my injectors, he admitted that he had them but hadn't even opened the box because he was behind at the shop
3/13 - Bomb Cyclone hits Denver
3/14 - Chuck calls to tell me he's done with my injectors, but didn't find anything wrong with them, after hearing of my hard hot starts we decide that he's going to hold on to them a little longer and preform a longer hotter leak down test
3/19 - Chuck calls to tell me that he's ran all the test he can and still can't find anything wrong with them, he asks me to call and get with him once I install weather they work or not​

So, I got my injectors in and Chuck also included an extra rebuilt injector with harness (He had mentioned my harness/connector could be bad) for only a few dollars more, cool guy. You'll notice there's only 5 originals and 2 extra in the picture, I had broke the pintle cap on one injector upon removal and Chuck didn't have any extras so instead he cleaned it and rebuilt one he had on hand to replace it.

And here's two pages out of the huge packet of pictures he sent me, as you'll see my injectors do appear to have been fine, but somehow this still fixed my misfire.

 

[FunBobby]

Small update

The 4Runner has been running great since all the work the other week.
I'm trying to speed up a few little to do's on it since I want to take in a fly fishing trip in the Ozarks in mid-July. First on the list are the DOM sliders I bought in 4X Innovations black Friday sell last Nov.

Here's a small collage of the progress made on those:

I removed the side steps and brought everything over to my families shop, my brother ad I welded them all up, and then I put on two coats of red oxide primer followed by two coats of Hammerite paint; that stuff is thick, but should be extremely durable.

I'm currently waiting a few days for the paint to cure before we weld them to the frame. After that I want to do a cooling system and transmission flush, with a (OE) radiator replacement at the same time. Then hopefully, I'll have time to install the lift I've had in my shop for a year.

 

[FunBobby]

Trying to get everything done I need for this trip and as always life finds ways to keep me away.

I did replace the rear wiper though, and converted to arm to standard J-hook from whatever Toyota had stock, everyone should do this...