3.0 adding Turbo?

Anyone have any experience with adding a turbo to the dogged 3.0L?
Would it be better to add a turbo or replace it with a 3.4L?

Not looking to make a racer out of it, just want to boost it a bit so it can make it around a corner without being afraid I will be hit by the car behind me because my pull has disappeared.

 

Or should I try adding a cold air intake and clearing the exhaust to the R&Red 3.0L?

 

I have a cold air intake and exhaust on my 3.0 92 pickup. I rebuilt it about 10k ago did the exhaust cross over delete and ARP head studs as well. Intake and exhaust didnt really add much power wise but I'm sure it helps the 3.0 breathe. I have heard of people turboing them but never seen one. A buddy has a 3.0 with high compression pistons and head work done and it gets it! I have a rebuilt Chevy 4.3 I will be swapping when this 3.0 gives up the ghost. Without doing motor work regearing may be another option. Before my SAS I was running 4.56 gears with 35s and I could pull 5th on the freeway no problem. Most big inclines I'd have to downshift.

 

Thanks. This thing as it is right now is unsafely slow...IMO. There is absolutely no pull in the lower RPM's...like 1st or 2nd and IF you can get it up to 3500 then and only then will you feel a bit of pull, like it is finally breathing. We are removing the CAT today and will see if that affects it any. It will go into the shop probably next week to have the engine removed, freshened and resealed. I am thinking maybe the injectors are clogged or maybe the distributor is not set right after the PO did the timing belt? I know what a slow engine feels like and I am telling you this engine is not only slow but it is not acting right.

Oh and I live in SWFL...all flatland...no inclines and it is struggling from a stop.

 

As for a 3.4 swap it's an awesome motor. I've had 3 vehicles with the 3.4 and loved every single one. There is a shop local to me called toyonlyswaps and they specialize in 3.4 swaps. You should checkout their website they're out of Creswell Oregon.

 

Definitely sounds like something is wrong with that motor. I bought my pickup beat to crap with almost 300k on it. It was tired to say the least, but had power to keep up with traffic.

 

I would check for vacuum leaks as well. 3.0 do not like them one bit.

 

Yep, he just found a small vacuum leak and said he is fixing it. He also cut out the super hot CAT before it caused a fire. He's knocking off the end caps to the aftermarket wheels to see if we have locking hubs. Hopefully we do because we want to use it to tow behind our bus.

 

I cored the cat on my pickup and will be doing it my third gen when I have time. We don't have emissions in Eugene. It's pretty much the best part about living in this town hahaha.

 

Well compression test showed a dead #3 cylinder. So now we need to decide our best course of action.

1. Fix the original 207,000 3.0 and keep rolling
or
2. Find a decent 3.4 and go thru the swap?

 

I would price out both and weigh pros and cons of each. How much did you pay for the 4runner if you don't mind my asking? Have you checked out toyonlyswaps yet?

 

Dont waste your money on a cai

 

I would keep the 3.0 for ease of fit. Check out this long block. https://spprecision.com/products/toyota-3vze-30-long-block-crate-engine-sale.html

 

I'm with dark Knight. The 3.0s are decent motors once some changes are made. I recommend ARP head studs and getting rid of the exhaust crossover if you do rebuild/put a remanned motor in. I haven't priced a 3.4 swap in awhile but I would think it prolly costs double what getting the 3.0 back going would be. After rebuilding mine I am more than happy with it. Plenty of power and it's reliable. I have had zero issues with it and I am not very nice to it either.

 

Thanks guys. We pulled the engine today. The cylinders are fine and move easily. The heads are the issue. Will likely get new heads instead of having these remanded. We have also decided to keep the 3.0. We realize she will not be a street racer and that is fine with us. We have the 80 Camaro I built for that. Glad we pulled the engine. Found the head gasket already starting to fail as well as one of the small water lines in the back of the plenum was failing and we never would have known. The valves were also leaking. The engine was out of time. They replaced the timing belt 3,000 miles ago but it was a bit out of time by like 3 teeth. The distributor was not seated correctly either and one of the spark plug wires was shorting out against the EGR. So cylinder #3 was not firing and it was out of time, no wonder she ran like warm dog shit. I can't wait to get her all rebuilt! We decided to replace the ac compressor and the starter while we have the engine out, just out of preventative maintenance and they are a bear to get to otherwise. Would rather do this in a shop with a lift than on the side of the road someplace. I just love working on my rides.
Maybe I missed my calling?

 

Hey Fourtoad, I also have a 06/91 build date 4Runner in which I just went through and rebuilt the 3VZE engine over the last several months. The #1 cylinder failed with a Feld-Pro head gasket on one of the blind water galleries at the head and blew the compression ring out into the cylinder on the way past Castaic Lake this last summer two months after I had acquired it with 233K miles on the odo. So, I bored and decked the block with DNG pistons, MLS head gaskets (hand lapped the heads and deck on the block for the MLS gaskets) , ARP studded the block for the heads and I sprung for the rather expensive DT header and went with a nice big 2-1/2 inch FlowMaster CARB compliant CAT that feeds into an OEM sized Bosal Cat back muffler and tail pipe assembly. I put the four hole injectors into the fuel rail and did a lot of hand porting and matching of the heads, plenum and intake to get the flow nice. OEM air intake still in place with a new pipe to the TB. The bugger in all this was realizing that the steel segment of the vacuum line for my fuel pressure regulator was plugged and the blasted rail was at 45 to 50 psi all the time. I just about ruined the new CAT in part because an $18 NTK O2 sensor was doing nothing. No code, no closed loop correction and awful fuel economy like 135 miles on a tank full even with the regulator fixed. I put the Denso O2 back in that came with the truck and all was magic in how it would still accelerate after it warmed up with closed loop running. Also sealing up the Doug Thorley with 2-1/2" turbo flanges and welding up the cross over joint and the two-into-one collector joints removed the air leaks in the exhaust that I think did not help the O2 read things correctly. I also reclaimed the OEM O2 bung from the OEM pipe and welded that into the Thorley with the Denso O2 sensor in place the running is great and can get 200 miles out of a tank with mixed driving, 240 with mostly Freeway. To save the CAT I made up a test pipe and running that makes a huge difference in both sound and in the seat of the pants performance. It will get up to 90 MPH easily and that is without WOT as it accelerates with what seems like very little pressing of the accelerator as compared to when I have the CAT in place. LC Engineering's header and a cold air intake is on a YouTube Clip and the gain was 20% without the CAT and I believe it, taking into account a dyno vs real world of course. One other thing I did was a Zirgo 16" fan on a custom fabricated shroud that is apart of an nice thick 2 row aluminum, $200 eBay radiator. It is powered through a Deral relay and thermal switch/sensor with a 176°F setting. Seems to only come on in traffic and can't hear the darn engine when it idles and the fan is not running with the windows up! Also last week replaced the blue NGK ignition wire with Denso OEM replacements as the NGK's came with and were showing over 2K ohms just for the coil wire which is the shortest of the lot. Also had replaced the distributor with an O'Reilly unit and with about 4 tank fulls the dist-cap cracked so I returned it and will run the OEM dist that came with vehicle. I get some electrical noise at times and cannot seem to figure out what is causing it as it is intermittent and seems to go away after a thermal load has been applied to the drive train for some period of time or after a warm restart once I have stopped at a store.

I do so concur with the joy in working on my own rides as well.
Cheerio,
ATGP

 

Thanks for your write up. Gives us a few more things to look at. Didn't realize you could get MLS head gaskets for that engine. Also liked your idea about he cooling fan. I do know when we took the apparently new CAT off the truck, it was glowing hot. Too much fuel I suspect.
As luck would have it, we came across another 3.0 at the junkyard and are if we really want a spare engine for our Runner.