New to me 1985 4runner

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Got the head off

I removed the head today and have a few pictures.

I couldn't see where the gasket blew out. On other cars it has always been more apparent. There also seemed to be a lot of rtv gooped up on the block and gasket, like the head was done before but was coated with rtv gasket maker.

The cylinders on the block looked smooth. There were no scratches or pitting and no ridge at the top of the cylinder.

Any thoughts?

The driver's side timing chain guide had a lot of wiggle in it. Is this common?

Thanks again for any help.

On a side note, has anyone ever removed the body on one of these 1st generation 4runners? I have it parked at a friends house and he has a tractor that we could lift with to get to the frame to clean it up a bit.
IMG_0819.webp
IMG_0820.webp
IMG_0821.webp
 
These motors are pretty stout. I've had blown head gaskets, drowned engine, broken chain, etc and still had a strong motor after fixing the symptoms. My current motor has about 210k very hard miles and still has a lot of pep (for a 4-banger)!

You might be ok with just a head gasket replacement. I would drive it for now and keep an eye out for a good deal on a 22re from someone you can trust. I got mine from a rolled '94 with a bent frame and replaced all of the seals before inserting. Old motor was still good minus a bad ring and numerous broken bolts in the block. I lost 2 timing chains on the old motor and didn't bend 1 valve. I guess you can't have bad luck all of the time.
 
Just an update

Just an update on my motor situation.

After removing the head and being confused because the gasket didn't look blown, I had the machine shop clean dn pressure test it. Head turned out to be cracked.

Instead of rebuilding the block since I knew I had good compression, I just ordered a new head. In case anyone was shopping around as much as I did, I ended up buying new head/cam from Johnson's Quality Machines. Came out to just over $300 with new head/cam and head bolts including shipping. Quality was very good and customer service was excellent. Bought the oil/water pumps and timing components from Mizumo Auto and again was very pleased with the quality of the parts and the price was very reasonable.

Hopefully I'll borrow a timing light tomorrow so I set the timing and break in the cam.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I can't wait to get this truck on the trails!
 
Back
Top Bottom