1992 4-Runner

[addicted56]

Well I have taken another step in the WRONG direction by aquiring another Project.

There has been an 1992 Toyota 4-Runner here at Group for the past 2 years that I have been here. About a year ago one of the tires went flat, which prompted me to futher investegate. After aquiring the vehicle information I called the MP's and they were able to provide me with the name of the owner. After about 2 months I finally recieved and e-mail back from the owner. It took me another 3 months to finally get him to meet and then after 3 weeks I finally struck a deal. So for 475 dollars I picked up my NEW PROJECT.

The thinking behind this was NOT that I wanted another project (Far from it). What I wanted was a way to get my wife involved, and considering the comfort, safety, economy, and reliability of my FJ40 I decided this would be a great cheap vehicle for her. Not to mention it would be great for the trips any further than Uwharrie that would need to be towed. Plus they are really comfortable to sleep in. I ran it by her and for the first time she Agreed it was a good idea. I used to have one exactly like it in College and she loved the thing...I think nastalgia had more to do with her decision than anything.

So why so cheap. Well I had to talk him down 53% but it has some major problems. #1: The engine is shot. Has a crack in one of the cylinders. Toyota was doing the work for him tore it down and he decided just to abandon the thing. Since that time as it has been sitting about 4 years I think. It has developed a slight bit of dry rot on all tires and blown the front left tire. He says the rear window did not work properly but that is a common and easy fix. Otherwise everything apperently works. It is a 5 speed with the 3.Slow Liter engine. I found one up in Winston for 600 bucks that was rebuilt 25K ago and complete. So if all goes well this weekend (I bet it will take me longer than that) I am going to be at the autoskills lab on post and I will have a complete running 4 runner by Monday. I have a feeling though that it won't be ready until Tuesday as I will have to come in the evenings to finish it up.

But I figure I can put a small lift on it later next month 1" body lift with a 2" coil and BJ lift. Find some good used AT's around 33"s and my wife will have one hell of an off road vehicle that she could actually comfortably enjoy on the road.

And for those wondering I plan on keeping the FJ at least for now. If all goes well and I can get it titled, registered, and complete I may be bringing this to Uwhare in a couple of weekends.

[addicted56]

A Few more.

Ohh and I found the jack and the proper tools hiding under the junk.

You can tell the spare has been sitting there awhile. I brought the tire home and it inflated and held air. We will see for how long. As far as the battery it is shot. It took a jolt from jumpers but only up to 10 volts and won't take a charge from my charger.

It looks like th paint will clean up nice as well. Besides a bit of rust (surface) on the chrome by the rear wheel wells there is not a dent or scratch on the thing.

[southerncruiser62]

Well done, good find. If you find any issues with the trans or transfer let me know, I have a 5 speed V6 out of a 92 sitting in my basement.

[Flinny]

Nice..body is in great shape!

[addicted56]

If anyone is bored this weekend I will be in the Autoskills lab on post from 9-5 Saturday and Sunday. Still trying to sucker some freinds in but none of them are morning people (And all in the army go figure).

[krzyabncanuck]

I had also seen that thing sitting there for a long time. Glad someone finally saved it.

[addicted56]

Originally Posted by krzyabncanuck

I had also seen that thing sitting there for a long time. Glad someone finally saved it.

How long have you been retired? Or how long since you seen it last...the registration expired over 4 years ago so at minimum that long if not longer.

Had great fun this weekend working on it. I'll make an update in the next couple days...

BASICALLY: Day #1: Easy and great progress. Day #2: What a headache. We will see what Day #3 Brings..hopefully enough progress to get me finished by #4 but I doubt it, and the shop is closed Wednesday and Thursday. Got a total of 11 hour into it so far. bout half of those by myself.

[jfz80]

cool deal, might be able to help you w/ the body lift

[addicted56]

Originally Posted by jfz80

cool deal, might be able to help you w/ the body lift

Awesome If this thing ever actually RUNS I'll take you up on that pledge.

Day #3: It was very productive. My not so buddy bailed on me so I finished getting the egine in bymeself. If I was able to get off work at a reasonable time today I would get really close but I have to make up for leaving at 2 yesterday.

Ohh well that is what the weekends are for.

[addicted56]

Day # Gazillion:

Unable to get it to start. I am not getting fuel. It is down to either the Opening Circuit Relay or the fuel pump. I am getting a new relay tomorrow (if they are not 110 bucks as stated by another person) or I'll be getting a new fuel pump and filter. Only problem is I will have to drag it home to do that as I can't do fuel related stuff in the garage.

This is KILLING ME. I could have been done Friday around 4 in the afternoon if I could just get some fuel.

[strong_toy]

Originally Posted by addicted56

so I finished getting the egine in bymeself.

So how did you deal with the engine? Did you swap it out or did you pull it to replace the head(s)?

[addicted56]

There is a thread on Yotatech of my rebuild. I did not take a single picture though. I was so busy rushing to get it done I never busted it out. Might have made for some good pictures but ohh well. I learn from my mistakes I guess.

But Basically I did a complete engine swap. I piced up a rebuilt (not so well in all aspects) and swapped it in. Suppossedly ran 3 weeks ago. 25K on the rebuilt. Got it all in really quick. Just ran into time issues with work and the shop being closed and then the fuel issue of it not starting.

You can read the copy paste below of my adventures today. i thought it was an opening circuit relay turns out ("i hope") to be the actual fuel pump. If all goes well tomorrow and I can get it registered I will be brigning it on the trails Friday.

Well,

The epic journey is over at least at the Autoskills shop. I cleaned up all of my engine parts and old block from the table and loaded it in my truck. I then towed my truck back to the parking lot of which I got it.

BUT DO NOT DISPAIR!!! I'm not giving up. I actually had some pretty good timing today. When I went to clean up and tow it back to where I could work on it there was a freindly guy there with a huge solid axles 90 4 runner that had a 93 V6 in it. He let me swap in my relay in his truck and his truck started up just fine. So it wasn't that.

I also went and check all of my vacume hoses really quick. It looks as though I did it correctly.

Lastly I told him I had one wire I could not figure out where it went on the harness. He popped his hood and he actually had two of them. One of them happened to be the same wire. He said he had no idea what it went to. I'm guessing that you may be right about the ADD becuase he obviously didn't have it. I will look later.

I went to Advanced Auto and picked up a new fuel pump for 138 and a new fuel filter for 15. I figured way better than the 308 they were asking at the dealer. And I never thought to ask before but I was in uniform and they gave me a 10% discount...SWEET. I'm bringing some old carpet with me and my tools and I'm going to swap it out during lunch and if not done by then after work. Hopefully at that point I have a GO. If not I have no idea what to do next.

I figure the fuel pump is a fairly likely culprit though. It has been sitting in some old varnished fuel for 4-5 years.

Question #1: I don't have to take any fuel lines off or drain the tank to drop it do I?? I think I may have already asked this question but wanted to be sure. It will not be condusive to doing any of that in the parking lot.

Thanks again and HOPEFULLY I will have a Update tomorrow.

[little_joe]

There is a schrader valve on the fuel rail on the top end of the engine. I can't remember the spec, but at least you can check to see if you are getting fuel there. Try to turn it over, then check for fuel in the rail.

I assume you've checked the other common items such as getting spark, resistance at the fuel pump, fuel filter, injectors. The fuel filter can be fun to change on the 3.Slo. Mine was somewhat easy to change.......

[addicted56]

Another pissy day.

Replaced the fuel pump. Old fuel pump did not work at first when I connected power to it but eventually did after I wacked it on my tail gate. It was covered in old varnished fuel. So 140 bucks wasted on a fuel pump.

Stuck it and still nothing. Primed it with 12v battery and jumpers then noticed a leak. fixed the leak *had to be in the hardest to get to spot* and primed again. It started and then died. Still nothing on the fuel pump.

If you are interested you can read more on a thread on Yota tech. I would copy paste it but their website appears to be down right now.

[addicted56]

Yep,

It is official. I'm selling all of my rigs minus my 56 that I started 2 years ago and am just going to finish it. Heck that thing is pissing me off too so I think I'm going to sell that as well and just hide in a damn hole.

I HATE ALL THING AUTOMOTIVE

[strong_toy]

Jason,

I understand your frustration with the 4runner engine, but hopefully you don't plan to throw in the towel. Probably not a bad idea to at least scale back the number of your projects.

Where did the 4runner engine come from? Seems that they should cut you a better deal since they sold you a lemon engine.

Since you are also on Yotatech you obviously know that the headgaskets were a common problem with those years. Toyota did have a huge service campaign to replace them. It is an extreme long shot (especially since it's a swap), but with a VIN (hopefully on the engine), maybe you can get some relief from the Toyota dealer in Fayetteville.

On the bright side, the head gasket(s) can be replaced. I never had to touch the head gasket in my 4runner, but I bet one of the other club members has...

[little_joe]

I'll give you $476 for the 4R. And you can throw in the 40 too. Then your frustration will subside.




Just trying to help a brother out!

[worldcruiser]

I would not call myself patient when it comes to work on cars, I am also sort of burned out about all things automotive, good thing my wife is not. I have found that in frustation times if you just take some time off and then come back out of the sudden things that I did not know how to fix before somehow become easier and finally get resolved. Scaling down on projects is definetly good. I am doing that right now. I had decided to sell three vehicles. One is gone, another hopefully be picked up today and I think someone is interested in the last one.

If your truck cranked and slowly died is probably fuel delivery. Make sure you are getting constant flow in different spots starting from the pump up to the injectors. I am sure you will find out it was something simple.

[addicted56]

Usually I don't mind so much if I don't have a lot of expectaion to drive them imediately. But this project was a bit different. Was suppossed to be an in and out type of deal.

I will see what I can do about the engine. You never know. They may do a head gasket. It would save me 14-16 hours of labor to replace it and about 250 in parts. That is not the big issue though. I still don't have power to my darn fuel pump.

[strong_toy]

I can understand what you mean about in and out type of project, and I know this is hindsight, but I wouldn't consider an engine swap on a vehicle that has sketchy past to be a piece of cake. I would chalk this up as a learning experience, but keep moving forward.

I agree with Juan that you should step back, assess the situation, maybe give it a rest for a bit, and then attack it when you aren't under a time crunch. I'm impressed that you were able to swap the engine and get as far as you have with the truck in such a short amount of time.

Anyway, you should still come out either Friday night or early Saturday morning to URE to participate in the ride, meeting, lunch, etc. There should be enough open seats in trucks for you and your wife to ride with one of us. Then she can see how nice it is to wheel in an 80 or 100 and then you'll really be cooking...

[addicted56]

I have not updated this in awhile. I finally got it running right yesterday after work. I've been gone a lot and had not had time to work on it.

The problem with not getting power to the fuel pump turned out to be the way the 6 CD Changer was wired into the back. Without it plugged in I could not get power back there. It was a pleasent surprise when I found that out by accident. I'm glad the guy actually brought it to me. Once I had that problem fixed then I had the blown head gasket problem. Turns out it wasn't blown. I actually have no idea what the problem was. I ran it a bit and it started to over heat becuase there wasn't enough coolant in it and it was steaming more than you could imagine. I screwed around with it some more and then I came back after a week turned it on and it just stopped. So that was a relief. Not a puff of steam since.

Then it would not run right. I took off every single vaccume line and of course it was the very last one I tried that was causing the problem. I just left it off becuase it doesn't seem to be currently hurting anything. Was loping around 300 RPM at idle and it idles perfectly.

Had an over heating problem but I cranked on the heater and finally an air bubble let go and I filled it back up and has done just fine. My modified oil pick up tube is doing well and I have full oil pressure as well.

So I'm back on a high again and the 4-runner will be at the next event. I really do have an addiction.

[strong_toy]

Is it really idling perfectly at 300 rpm? I thought those engines should be about 650 rpm. You should be able to adjust the idle up with the set screw on the throttle body.

What vacuum hose did you leave disconnected? It might not immediately hurt something, but is probably causing the low idle. It could also affect your emissions and check engine light.

Anyway, glad to hear that the runner is operational.

BTW, if you'd like a spare 5spd and transfer case, Greg has one he is trying to give away from his pickup diesel conversion.

[addicted56]

Originally Posted by strong_toy

Is it really idling perfectly at 300 rpm? I thought those engines should be about 650 rpm. You should be able to adjust the idle up with the set screw on the throttle body.

What vacuum hose did you leave disconnected? It might not immediately hurt something, but is probably causing the low idle. It could also affect your emissions and check engine light.

Anyway, glad to hear that the runner is operational.

BTW, if you'd like a spare 5spd and transfer case, Greg has one he is trying to give away from his pickup diesel conversion.

I see now that did not come out right. It WAS idleing around 300 RPM and very rough at that. Then I disconnected one of the lines and it it then idled at around 1100. Then I adjusted the nuts on the throttle body and got it down to around 900 or so.

Now I just have to get it registered. Going to try in NC for the first time Friday. We will see how that goes.

[strong_toy]

Depending on the idle, timing, and status of ECU codes, I wouldn't be surprised if you have an issue with the EGR. I had this issue with my 3vze 4runner and with my 80. This could cause the idle to run low and rough like that because it is dumping exhaust gas into the intake at idle. In that case, disconnecting the egr will cause the idle to jump up and the engine will run much better.

In a nut shell, I would recommend checking the EGR vacuum modulator and the EGR VSV. I have had problems with those parts failing. If they are bad you can either replace or bypass. Either way, I would recommend troubleshooting why the engine runs better without the hose connected. Something is either plumbed wrong, or failed.

On the bright side, I guess you don't have to worry about emissions inspection on a 1992... But, I think you would want it to run as well and efficiently as possible. Bring it to the next meeting/outing and we can take a look at it.

[addicted56]

I wouldn't be surprised if that was it. I will have to pull out some diagrams and see what that vacumme line leads to.

I'm glad it doesn't have to pass emissions. I'm going to go to the DMV today to see what I can get done and then if I can in fact get a title and registrations since I'm an out of state resident and have an out of state drivers liscence I might be able to get it on the road by Friday.