wojos 88 runner

[doctorwojo]

New to the forum, i know i should be in the new members area but i figured who would care anyhow. Anyways new 4 runner owner and i figured i would start off with a bang. pictures to follow when i get my lazy butt up in the morning. I picked up this runner from a buddy of mine that i went to school with and about 5 years ago the engine started knocking so he parked it had it towed to the mechanic and was told it was something in the lower end and it was kaput. fast forward 5 years later and bam i somehow talked him in to selling me the yota. so last weekend i poured some atf in the cylinders, cleaned the plugs, drained the old fuel and filled with new and gave her a go. started right up like a champ with that huge cloud of white smoke and i let her idle for a hour or so. i had good oil pressure, wasnt overheating and i heard the knock. it wasn't obnoxious so i took her around the block. other than the flat spots on the tires and the brakes needing attention she ran well. wonderful i thought it might not be the end of the world and so on. yesterday when i got home i decided i wanted to pull plugs and try and see where the sound was coming from, then i was going to do a compression check to see if i had poor compression. well after a few minutes of pulling plugs starting and turning off, i heard a few pings and she siezed up like my wife when she aint open for business. well crap im about to pull this engine.

so that wonderful story leads to my questions, concerns and so on


i am going to pull the 3.0 out, i have a company in south carolina that is going to rebuild the motor for me and send it back to me. it will take 15 days give or take. in that time i want to clean up and perhaps re route a few things and over all make any sort of improvements i can while the engine is out.

now i have spent a week or two lurking around on here checking out the forums and threads and there are hundreds of great ideas and modifications that people have done. new to the toyota what are a few ideas for things to do and or replace while the engine is out and also what should be replaced on the non moving assembly of the engine before i put all the fun parts back on and drop her in?

thanks in advance i can say i have had a blast checking everyones trucks out.

 

[541joseph]

Get headers before you put it back in. It's worth it. I started a thread 3.0 why that bad rap and the most common cons are explained in it. If you want to rebuild to last get headers.

 

[doctorwojo]

thank you sir, i also saw on here somewhere that someone moved the fuel filter up into the engine bay, didnt know if that was a good idea and seeing how the fuel lines are steel or whatever material i am curious if changing them to a flexible line wouldnt be a bad idea. the idea is not to go crazy but if it helps out in the long run and makes life easier down the road id like to do it. thanks again.

 

[541joseph]

By flexible do you mean rubber?

 

[doctorwojo]

yeah i guess, i wish i could remember who did it on here ill have to start digging and maybe find out who it was, i think it was another 1st generation.

 

[541joseph]

Typically you cannot find rubber hose that is capable of handling the psi efi pump put out

 

[doctorwojo]

then that trumps that idea, i just spent a hour reading svdudes build thread, im not nearly as handy but i think i found my "bible" of sorts to follow on certain things. should be able to piss the wife off though. im very good at that.

 

[SV_Dude]

I think it was [MENTION=49649]KidVermicious[/MENTION] that moved the fuel filter to the inside of the fender.

 

[KidVermicious]

I think it was [MENTION=49649]KidVermicious[/MENTION] that moved the fuel filter to the inside of the fender.

Not my idea though, I think I stole it from somebody on Yotatech.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/classic-t4rs/126682-kidvs-1985-4runner-3.html#post1228462

There's no performance or reliability advantage to relocating it, I just didn't have a good time getting at it underneath the intake plenum and didn't want to put it back.

And isn't the 3.0 fuel filter down on the frame rail?

 

[doctorwojo]

Yeah it's under the passenger seat in the frame rail. I may have just had too much caffeine and jumped the gun. I'm going to hopefully begin tearing down more this afternoon and working on the small stuff that I can't mess up and hopefully be ready to yank her out sometime soon. I'll have a picture up this afternoon when I get to the house. I figure if I do all the small things now and get them out of the way so I can just bolt up and be ready to go once I get the motor back. Thanks for the advice guys.

 

[crash813]

welcome.....

The 3.0's fuel filter is on the passenger frame about where the transfer case support comes across. Not sure I would recommend moving it into the engine compartment as the 3.o's produce so much heat under there. Its easy enough to change, just use flare wrenches so you don't strip the soft connecting nuts.

Headers for the 3.0 are pricey. Easiest solution is to replace the passenger side header with a drivers side flipped and get a shop to custom the downpipe and Y. The reason is its that passenger side wrap around exhuast that is thought to lead to all the head gasket failures that these are known for.

Another thought you might want to look into instead of sending off to get the 3.0 rebuilt is to swap the later 3.4 in there. Lots of rights ups in here and yotatech on it, is rather simple and has alot of advantages.

Other than that, look around, ask questions and enjoy!

 

[doctorwojo]

ok heres what im working with, unfortunately for me its pouring rain here so no fun today. but anyways here she is