thegipper
New member
97 auto SR5 208k miles
Since inheriting my 4R from my brother, the one thing that I have been most confident in was the motor. It has already ran very well in 8 months since I've had it.
Just for shits and giggles, and since I have replaced and fixed up so many other things on this rig, I figured why not change my spark plugs and pcv valve.
My brother never changed either of them and he bought it with 160k miles.
I purchased an OEM PCV valve and new grommet from my local stealership. I bought 6 new NGK dual electrode spark plugs (whatever the correct ones are) and dove in.
The spark plugs, in all honesty, were WAY easier to install then I thought they would be. I've worked on other vehicles that were definitely much harder than the 5ZE-FE. The plugs I removed were all Denso, so I think they were changed at some point. They didn't look terrible but were anything but new. Cylinder #5 spark plug had oil all over it, the rest were clean. This is also the approximate area where my VC is leaking, probably from the half moons/cam seals. That's next on the list.
Next up was the pcv valve. I let it warm up for a good 20 minutes then shut it down. I unplugged the vacuum hose (cracked, fixed with electrical tape) and yanked it off with a pliers. Piece of cake. Removing the grommet was another story. It broke off into a million pieces but no big deal, fished them all out with needle nose pliers.
I installed the new grommet and PCV valve and fired it up.
WTH, holy shit. This engine sounds like it is brand new. Now again, it always ran perfect and to me, sounded excellent but now it sounds even better. It runs so smooth and quiet, its hard to believe.
My 3GR-FE in my Camry and Highlander (both very low miles running true full synthetic oil) are substantially louder. Now they both run very well too but this 4 runner continues to amaze me.
Here's to another 100k+ miles!:trophy:
Since inheriting my 4R from my brother, the one thing that I have been most confident in was the motor. It has already ran very well in 8 months since I've had it.
Just for shits and giggles, and since I have replaced and fixed up so many other things on this rig, I figured why not change my spark plugs and pcv valve.
My brother never changed either of them and he bought it with 160k miles.
I purchased an OEM PCV valve and new grommet from my local stealership. I bought 6 new NGK dual electrode spark plugs (whatever the correct ones are) and dove in.
The spark plugs, in all honesty, were WAY easier to install then I thought they would be. I've worked on other vehicles that were definitely much harder than the 5ZE-FE. The plugs I removed were all Denso, so I think they were changed at some point. They didn't look terrible but were anything but new. Cylinder #5 spark plug had oil all over it, the rest were clean. This is also the approximate area where my VC is leaking, probably from the half moons/cam seals. That's next on the list.
Next up was the pcv valve. I let it warm up for a good 20 minutes then shut it down. I unplugged the vacuum hose (cracked, fixed with electrical tape) and yanked it off with a pliers. Piece of cake. Removing the grommet was another story. It broke off into a million pieces but no big deal, fished them all out with needle nose pliers.
I installed the new grommet and PCV valve and fired it up.
WTH, holy shit. This engine sounds like it is brand new. Now again, it always ran perfect and to me, sounded excellent but now it sounds even better. It runs so smooth and quiet, its hard to believe.
My 3GR-FE in my Camry and Highlander (both very low miles running true full synthetic oil) are substantially louder. Now they both run very well too but this 4 runner continues to amaze me.
Here's to another 100k+ miles!:trophy:
