PitbullRescuer
New member
This is my 4th 3rd Gen, I currently own 3 of them. I decided to name this one Tyrone.
Specs:
'97 SR5
4x4
5 Speed
3.4 V6
221,000 miles
2" spacer lift
285/75/16 MT's
Rust Free
I bought this one from another forum member who had the top radiator hose blow off and got the engine real hot. He sold it to me with a cracked head.
Went down to Richmond, VA to pick it up this past Tuesday. I hooked the battery back up, hit the key, it started right up, idled well and was making plenty of power.
Drug it home on a U-Hual car dolly with one of my other 3rd Gens.
Got it home, re-installed the driveshaft (figured it was safest to drag it without it hooked up.) Backed it off the dolly, slapped a license plate on it and drove it around. It ran pretty good. Clutch master cylinder is weak, hopefully just needs a bleed, might need to be replaced. Drove it around some more, it started getting real hot, real fast. Pulled over, shut it off, and let it sit for about an hour. Fired it back up, drove it home and parked it.
Next day, took it to the self serve car wash, cleaned up the mess from when the radiator hose blew off on the PO.
Used some Purple Power and a pressure washer.
Thursday evening into Friday, I took some time to compression test it and then do a leak down test. Compression Test Results:
Dry Test
#1-145 psi
#2-140 psi
#3-130 psi
#4-130 psi
#5-140 psi
#6-131 psi
Not great but not bad for 221,000 miles. Decided to add a little oil into each cylinder and re-test it. (I used a bit too much oil.)
Wet Test
#1-220 psi
#2-195 psi
#3-216 psi
#4-198 psi
#5-220 psi
#6-195 psi
Next, I went to Harbor Freight and bought a Leak Down Tester. What a piece of sh*t, the fittings were leaking when I took it out of the box. But, it did the job. I didn't pull the timing cover so I had to guess at TDC. I stuck an extension down each cylinder and then turned the crank until I got to what I marked as the highest point on the extension. Not exactly scientific but it worked.
Highest Leak Down # was 22%, lowest was 18%. Considering they probably weren't exactly TDC, I'm happy.
These numbers, combined with how well it runs, leads me to highly doubt it has a cracked head. This is further supported by the fact that there is no mixing of oil and coolant. The coolant however, was a mess. The best comparison I can give you guys is that it looked like baby sh*t. So I flushed it and here's what came out.
I pulled the thermostat out, popped a new one in. I also pulled the lines to the heater core and flushed that out real good. At this point it was 9:30 so I called it a night and drank some beer.
Got up this morning, picked up two gallons of coolant and two gallons of distilled water. Filled it, let it run, filled it some more and then went for a drive. I was about for about 30 minutes in traffic, never went past halfway on the temp gauge.
I does have a miss in it but there is a visible exhaust leak too. There's a nut missing where the Y pipe hooks into the cat pipe. It also has a check engine light which I'll have to go get read. But all in all, I think I got a solid little beast to start with here.
Specs:
'97 SR5
4x4
5 Speed
3.4 V6
221,000 miles
2" spacer lift
285/75/16 MT's
Rust Free
I bought this one from another forum member who had the top radiator hose blow off and got the engine real hot. He sold it to me with a cracked head.
Went down to Richmond, VA to pick it up this past Tuesday. I hooked the battery back up, hit the key, it started right up, idled well and was making plenty of power.
Drug it home on a U-Hual car dolly with one of my other 3rd Gens.
Got it home, re-installed the driveshaft (figured it was safest to drag it without it hooked up.) Backed it off the dolly, slapped a license plate on it and drove it around. It ran pretty good. Clutch master cylinder is weak, hopefully just needs a bleed, might need to be replaced. Drove it around some more, it started getting real hot, real fast. Pulled over, shut it off, and let it sit for about an hour. Fired it back up, drove it home and parked it.
Next day, took it to the self serve car wash, cleaned up the mess from when the radiator hose blew off on the PO.
Used some Purple Power and a pressure washer.
Thursday evening into Friday, I took some time to compression test it and then do a leak down test. Compression Test Results:
Dry Test
#1-145 psi
#2-140 psi
#3-130 psi
#4-130 psi
#5-140 psi
#6-131 psi
Not great but not bad for 221,000 miles. Decided to add a little oil into each cylinder and re-test it. (I used a bit too much oil.)
Wet Test
#1-220 psi
#2-195 psi
#3-216 psi
#4-198 psi
#5-220 psi
#6-195 psi
Next, I went to Harbor Freight and bought a Leak Down Tester. What a piece of sh*t, the fittings were leaking when I took it out of the box. But, it did the job. I didn't pull the timing cover so I had to guess at TDC. I stuck an extension down each cylinder and then turned the crank until I got to what I marked as the highest point on the extension. Not exactly scientific but it worked.
Highest Leak Down # was 22%, lowest was 18%. Considering they probably weren't exactly TDC, I'm happy.
These numbers, combined with how well it runs, leads me to highly doubt it has a cracked head. This is further supported by the fact that there is no mixing of oil and coolant. The coolant however, was a mess. The best comparison I can give you guys is that it looked like baby sh*t. So I flushed it and here's what came out.
I pulled the thermostat out, popped a new one in. I also pulled the lines to the heater core and flushed that out real good. At this point it was 9:30 so I called it a night and drank some beer.
Got up this morning, picked up two gallons of coolant and two gallons of distilled water. Filled it, let it run, filled it some more and then went for a drive. I was about for about 30 minutes in traffic, never went past halfway on the temp gauge.
I does have a miss in it but there is a visible exhaust leak too. There's a nut missing where the Y pipe hooks into the cat pipe. It also has a check engine light which I'll have to go get read. But all in all, I think I got a solid little beast to start with here.
