My wife and I bought a new 4Runner in 1992, and it has been a great vehicle. It was a daily driver until 2009 when we bought a Highlander Hybrid. Over the past 20 years it has had only 1 major problem. When we bought it in 1992 in Wyoming, the dealer had installed a block heater (it gets very cold there). In 2005, my wife was driving it and the clamp that holds the block heater in had corroded away over the years and block heater fell out of the block. The 4Runner over heated and died on my wife. Amazingly enough, when the engine cooled off, it started right up. I put in a new freeze plug, but it now had a head gasket leak the would slowly blow the water out of the coolant system as you drove. I carried a jug of water with me for a few years and replaced the engine with a rebuilt one in 2007. The 4Runner was at 188k miles then. The rebuilt 22RE got a LCE cam, bored out throttle body, header and exhaust. It runs great and sounds great now.
I've just replaced the parking brake and will post an installation guide. This is a big omission from the Toyota Repair Manual. The next mod will be OME rear springs to put the rear end back in place.
I've attached two photos. One from March of 1993 driving it over Elephant Hill in Canyonlands National Park. It was stock and new then. I only barely touched the tail pipe once, otherwise I drove cleanly. The biggest challenge was coming back out up a 40 degree ramp. The 22RE didn't have enough torque and I killed just below the top of the ramp. I had to back down try again and used up a little clutch to keep the RPMs up. The second photo is from this past Labor Day weekend in Utah's San Rafael Swell. 12 years of salty winters in Maryland and now 5 in Utah are starting to rust away the body.
I've just replaced the parking brake and will post an installation guide. This is a big omission from the Toyota Repair Manual. The next mod will be OME rear springs to put the rear end back in place.
I've attached two photos. One from March of 1993 driving it over Elephant Hill in Canyonlands National Park. It was stock and new then. I only barely touched the tail pipe once, otherwise I drove cleanly. The biggest challenge was coming back out up a 40 degree ramp. The 22RE didn't have enough torque and I killed just below the top of the ramp. I had to back down try again and used up a little clutch to keep the RPMs up. The second photo is from this past Labor Day weekend in Utah's San Rafael Swell. 12 years of salty winters in Maryland and now 5 in Utah are starting to rust away the body.
