Gatorgrl's Grand Gen2 4Runner makeover

Yep, we hand lapped it first but the erosion was too deep. Sending it to the machine shop and will likely hand lap it again when it returns. Here's a few pics of the erosion AFTER the lapping.

 

Fun photos, thanks! Just curious- how do they go about charging you for all the take-off parts, nuts and bolts, etc?

 

They don't usually. We make sure we pick up something big, like the fan and the rear wiper assembly. The relays and hardware are in the bottom of the toolbox. They just charge us for the big items.

 

You're awesome for posting this!!!! Thanks!!!!!!

 

Wow that corrosion on the block is quite extreme, what excellent snap shots they are, great detail! I did not have that happen on my acquired 4Runner. Do you know the history on the anti freeze that was used on your rig, Gator Girl? I am running O'Reilly green pre-mixed with Distilled Water on my rebuild. When I had my block decked it was about .010" to get rid of the machined in scallop marks as I could not get them lapped out of the surface. The MLS gaskets are relatively thicker than the composites and I doubt the MLS will significantly compress much being that the inner layers are steel sheets. So any fear of smashing the pistons into the quench surface of the head is nill! Although I hope the clearance is such that if another NTK spark plugs insulator decides to go for an E-ticket ride in the combustion chamber, that it will get smashed up enough to go through the CAT, LOL.

 

No clue on its coolant history. This is the main reason I wanted the entire block removed and gone over. Not a fan of mechanical unknowns. We are considering putting the headers previously mentions on as I would like to do away with that dreaded crossmember exhaust. We are just hoping the decking doesn't affect the timing overall.

 

A little more CR will not hurt anything if the decking is extream to get the surface to clean up. Aside from this, the best advise I have on setting the timing is to remove the dowel pins from the cam shafts and loosely set the screws so the pulleys can rotate on the camshafts while you set up the timing belts indexing and tension. As the distributor will be adjusted to get the crank triggering corrected the adjustment sweep of the distributor may end up close to the end of the slot given the belts take up with a heavily decked block. But I know after I did mine with the thicker MLS gaskets the OEM distributor is slap dab in the middle of the slot with the marks lining up perfectly on the castings when the timing is 10 degrees BTDC. But I have been running mine at 14-15 as the ECM seems to knock it back down a couple when I pull the jumper. Jury still out performance vs MPG.

 

Ok the block came back from the machine shop today and looks fantastic! We re-assembled the bottom of the engine today.


The newly decked block...no more erosion!



The camshaft was cleaned, lubed and properly torqued.



And I cleaned and properly lubed all the pistons and carefully returned them to their proper cylinders.
She rotates as smooth as silk now.

 

Found a nice surprise yesterday while we were finishing assembly of the short block. We in fact do have a vacuum actuator on the front drive axle so we don't have to put manual locking hubs on it after all to tow it. Looking for a Remco disconnect for the rear now.
Also found out eBay sent me the wrong a/c compressor so I am waiting for the correct one to reach me , along with the headers that should be here by the end of the week, then it's time to finish my Runner!

 

On the headers, if they are Doug Thorley with all the smog fittings here is what I had to do to get mine to work. Take a set of the OEM multilayer flange gaskets and cut them up into three parts so they are discrete for each port. This makes it easier for the spark plugs to be installed and removed and I get a metal to metal seal that allows the joining of the header to the head to be more robust. The headers are much further away from the heads so I figure the ignition wires are not getting backed like the OEM manifolds tend to do. Remove the studs from the heads and use the supplied machine screws with the installation kit, put never seize on the threads. A 15 mm box end ratcheting spanner is a god-send in getting these tight! The U-bolts that came with, I never used and ended up finally welding 2-1/2" band clamp turbo flanges onto the headers to join with the cross over pipe and y-collector pipes. Best to weld the turbo flange adapters complete to the pipes after tacking with everything more or less in place and then removing from engine and weld things compete on the bench with the header assembly out of the 4Runner. I welded the crossover pipe and Y-pipe collector solid after positioning with CAT in place to Cat-back tail pipe. I cut the OEM bung for the O2 and welded into the y-pipe just before the CAT. I used a third 2-1/2 Turbo Flange band clamp to join the collector to the CAT which is a 2-1/2 FlowMaster unit with CARB compliant serial number etc. This was the only way I could keep the exhaust system air tight and not have the O2 sensor get false readings. I tried the sheet metal clamps and even with muffler glue and high temp silicone they would leak after a couple of tankfulls. The OEM exhaust is quite robust in being leak free and this is important for the ECM when it runs in closed loop after the engine reaches temperature. As the O2 is giving the ECM input to keep the mixture correct when you are cruising. I had a fuel pressure regulator vac line problem, a brand new NTK O2 that didn't work, a brand new set of four hole injectors and this exhaust modification, which took a tone of time to sort out with what was the problem with poor acceleration and awful mileage when it was in closed loop running. With Cooper Discoverer 31X10.50-R15's and OEM gearing I get anywhere from 175 to 240 miles from a tank full with the CAT removed. I need to validate the odometer to see how off it is as the speedo seems to be about 5 MPH in error when north of 40 MPH compared to GPS.

 

Yep, removing the CAT was the very first thing we did. Not necessary here is Florida with that year of truck, thankfully. Looks like we will have to fabricate some sort of heat shield for the new passenger down tube of the header. (Of course they will be fully wrapped.) Looks like it will sit very close to some wire bundles and cables. Will know more once they get here Friday. We are doing away with the dreaded crossover.

 

Well I hit my favorite pick and pull and scored some more goodies, like the piece that holds the thermostats and connects to the water jacket. Toyota doesn't make or carry them any more, so now I have a spare! Also got a handful of relays, cause I just can't help myself.
Now here's the days progress:



The block went back home today.



And here's a view of the newly cleaned and re-vamped engine bottom, from the bottom. She certainly cleans up well.



We also re-routed the new starter's wire to underneath the starter, so it will not interfere with the new headers, once they finally arrive.

 

Well as luck would have it, I accidentally found another broken item. I took the front bumper off, simply so I could repaint the frame underneath because it was not evenly painted....messed with my OCD , so off it came and I discovered the a/c compressor resister was broken and no longer attached....might explain why it had no a/c . So off to the junkyard again and luckily found 2 so we hijacked them both! Hubby worked on fixing the leaking transfer case and found out the last monkey that messed with it didn't even use a gasket under the plate and put the wrong bolts in the top. They bottomed out and never got tight, so it leaked gear oil all over the place. So all issues again were addressed and fixed. We ended the day with opening up the passenger front axel. Too be continued tomorrow. Headers still haven't arrived.

 

I really like hearing about your adventure. I wish I had a shop and could try cool things like this.

 

Yes, I am very fortunate in that we have a shop at our disposal, for now, and my husband was a Toyota mechanic before he began his career in law enforcement. All my life I have wanted a mechanical mentor, who knew I would be lucky enough to not only find one, but marry him too?

I was the little girl that loved to take her toys apart and see how they worked. I quickly became the "fix it" person in our female dominated family. I just love working with my hands. It brings me peace.

 

Ok, so here is what we accomplished yesterday:
We un-bagged the reconditioned heads. They sure came out nice.


Then I carefully torqued them down per specs 33 lbs + 90 degree turn.



And the heads are in!



And to my surprise, the new headers were sitting on my doorstep when I finally got home. I had to work today so we will tackle them this weekend.
Stay tuned for updates....lol

 

Oh almost forgot my carefully coppered new head gaskets that went on first. Old school trick.

 

Hmm, those are not MLS head gaskets! Fair enough just be paying particular attention to the pair of blind water galleries which are located about #1 and #6 toward the outside ends of the heads at those cylinder locations. These two cylinders have the same short distance to the cylinders head gasket compression ring. The failure mode on my engine was at 232K miles and was the blistering of the FeldPro gasket material in part due to the compression set in setting the head bolts to proper tension. This pair of coolant galleries are only in the head or the block and thus one sided across the gasket (I can't remember which but think it was the block) and ends with the gasket being pushed into the open gallery to the point were, with enough thermal cycles, the coolant was able to erode the gasket material away at the surface and then all the way to the compression ring until it lost the material inside the "U" shape of the ring and it collapsed loosing the sealing pressure needed to function as needed. With it in this state it started passing combustion gasses and coolant till the corrosion in the metal was a large enough opening to allow the engine to overheat and pass coolant into the EGR when in my case the #1 cylinder let go.

If I was going to use composites I would be inclined to relieve the opposite surface on the head or block so that the compression set across the gaskets are evened out where this blind one sided pair of ports are located in the engine. My thinking with using the MLS gaskets is that being that they are multiple layers of steel sheet this is not going to be an issue and with the lapped surfaces and the steel layers being what they are the thermal barrier that is a composite head gasket is less with an MLS one. Therefore, the ability for the cast iron block and the aluminum heads to seek a more even thermal gradient across this joint is hopefully better. Applaud for the Permatex Copper coat on the composites. This is a definite step in the right direction along with the graphite that is embedded into the composites to help with thermal normalization.

Certainly in plane with the gasket there will be movement between the Iron block and the aluminum heads as the CTE's for these materials differ by 11 PPM/C° or 6 PPM/F°. So with the MLS most if not all of the movement will occur between the head and the top surface of the MLS gaskets black coating. Assuming the head is about 18 inches in length from one end to the other and from an assembly temperature of 68° F to a thermostat driven operating temperature at 195° F the difference in length over the 18 inches is: (195-68 °F) x 6.0 EE-6/F° x 18" = .014" when at temperature. Plug in any distance across the head/block you like for the 18" and you can see how much relative movement the head gasket joint has to bear in dealing with thermally induced shifting of the respective surfaces. So in the case of the gasket across the bore (3.44") which is about 3.50 inches in the gasket we are seeing only .003" which it not much. But this movement happens each time the car is driven and then parked. Enter in an uneven heated area of the engine and this expansion gradient can be localized and add to the likely hood of elevated temps with which the head gasket must bear additional movement i.e. the OEM wrap around exhaust manifold heat soaks # 3 and #6 on the back of the of the engine. From what I have read and come to understand about the 3VZ-E this might be a contributor to its perceived head gasket unreliability.

Aha but I have made the jump to DT headers and am CATless at the moment with spirited runs to work that are well north of 80 MPH over the 14 mile commute that is when traffic will allow and am averaging almost 200 miles on a tank full of regular grade fuel. What is more the electric fan only turns on when the traffic light is exceptionally long and traffic is not moving. So, the truck seems to run cooler without back pressure from the CAT and can with just the right amount heat load and throttle position back fire on over run which is a fun challenge to try and make it do! Your going to like what it does in getting from 3K-5K RPM with your headers!

 

Wow, what a write up!
What I can tell you is if we had not already bought the $490 full gasket set from Toyota and the $300 knock sensor , we might have sprung for the MLS gaskets, but since we had new composite gaskets as part of the set, seemed unnecessary to buy even more gaskets.

Had to send eBay a nasty gram today as the second a/c compressor finally arrived and is wrong...again! Worse is I paid for a new OEM Denso compressor and they clearly sent me a dirty used one with the wrong pulley.

Tomorrow is Header day!

 

So it appears I have a lil relay hoarding problem .



Anyone know of any support groups?

 

Ok, here's our header progress for the day.



Not bad for $183 on Amazon.



Test fit of the passenger side header. Some lines need to be moved and a heat shield needs to be created.



This pipe also had to be adjusted so it cleared the new starter.



Passenger side all heat wrapped!


And the new heat shield mock up in progress.

We also fixed our original a/c compressor. Apparently the electromagnet grounded itself and fried the magnet. Cleaned it and replaced it with a new electromagnet, and she is good as new!

Have had enough fun today. Will be back at it all day tomorrow. Stay tuned!

 

Link to the headers? Great build!!!

 

Clean ride. Your having to much fun with this. I wish I had a garage like yours to work in. I’m in for the finish.

 

Just curious why you chose heat wrap, and not a ceramic heat coating? Great work by the way.

 

https://www.amazon.com/4Runner-Pick...5------------&vehicleName=1991+Toyota+4Runner

 

Why do it, when you can over do it? He is also fabricating a heat shield for the passanger side, which is why it hasn't been installed yet. He is worried about all that heat affecting all those lines that run very close to the new exhaust. Toyota run hotter so he is being extra cautious. As I have stated on other boards, we are not building this for the track or any car shows, we are building this for longevity and dependability since it will be our only means of transportation when we hit the road fulltime in our bus for a year or two.

 

Plus ceramic coating takes weeks, is expensive, can crack and fall off and honestly doesn't do as good a job at the heat tape..IMO. All his race cars have heat tape on their exhaust..end to end...so there must be something to it. Also I can do the taping, I don't have to send it out to be done. We have only a few weeks left before I retire and we hit the road so this needs to be completed asap.

 

Thanks, I've been looking at those but the quality is hard to tell from the ad but they look great in your pictures. I just did the egr delete and new exhaust but that crossover has got to go. How much wrap did that take?

 

Ok, it took about 50 ft of heat wrap. He is still fabricating the added heat shield for the passenger side. Here are some closer pictures of the headers for you.


And we also discovered the a/c line runs way too close to the header.



So out came the header and additional heat wrap was added to that particular spot. We also removed the rubber from the a/c line and wrapped it with heat wrap. We are also going to move the O2 sensor port as it is in a bad spot at the O2 sensor won't reach. We have not reinstalled the pass side yet as he is still busy making the heat shield. I was busy re-installing the fuel injectors and managed to break not one, but two studs! UGH! Now I have to wait on hardware.