infiltrator

well, for the idle, you should take it to a tune up shop and have them do a computerized test on it. i am taking mine to a little mom/pop, and they will do it if you buy something, or have something done to your car FOR FREE! ! so its like im going to take it there, have them do the damn spark plugs for me (getting platinum baby!) and then, if you spend over 70 bucks, they will change your oil and give you a free napa gold filter, (i wanna provide oil b/c i wont let any "generic" be put in my runner, or when i do that, i think ill either do the synthetic, the blend, or the dino


thats where ill make up my mind... probably by next paycheck lol!

infiltrator

well, also, say i dont use it in the crankcase, will i be okay then?

infiltrator

man, i am at work, and i see some drops of stuff under my truck right now.. my dad told me i had a powersteering leak on the truck too.... i cant tell if its oil or power fluids, powersteering is red right?

MMA_Alex

on these trucks they use powersteering fluid, where as the red stuff would be atf. powersteering fluid looks similar to oil.

SEAIRESCUE

I would spend a few hours tightening all the oil pan and valve cover bolts with just a good one hand snug. Those bolts easily strip. Leaks generally come from valve covers, oil pan, real seal and front seal. Then there's the automatic transmission and the "o" ring on the PS reservoir. If one of those is the problem, you can tighten or replace as necessary. Then car wash the bottom and see if leak went away. If it did, go synthetic. Its never too late.

My $0.02

MMA_Alex

just keep an eye on the oil level. as long as the crankcase stays full you wont do any damage, no matter how much you have to top it off.

did you switch to synth?

I wouldn't recommend the semi-synth stuff because its a maximum of 30% synthetic, and the rest is dino, but they still charge an arm and a leg for it.

cubuff4runner

I switched to synthetic about 4 years ago on a high mileage vehicle that I had and within 500 miles of the oil change it started to smoke and I could never get it to stop. I say once you switch it there is no going back the synthetic cleans some of the deposits out.

Blurr

a buddy of mine works for an oil distributor and sells me 5-gal buckets of 76 full synthetic motor oil for $27.

TC4RNR

Seaform and Syth. Oil both "clean" your motor by removing carbon deposit. well it's true some carbon deposit works as sealant to prevent oil burning, so do you want to do them separately, just to be on the safe side?

i'm not trying to be an expert here but some simple logic. do the Seaform first get the carbon out, yet still fill it with conventional oil, if everything is fine the next oil change you get the full synthetic oil in. if it smokes after the seaform, you'd better stay away from the full synthetic stuff.

rather be safe than sorry.

infiltrator

yeah, i agree, so its cool to use in the crankcase?

ill try one thing and if im good, go on to the next, untill i fail lol!

if not, what dino oils do you guys recommend???

i head castrol gtx high mileage is good and thats what i use. ive heard of penzoil and royal something? i use 20w50 because im a freeway driver and its hottt out here.

stormin94

Castrol GTX is all I use in my 3.0. Seems to work good, no leaks......yet

infiltrator

hmmm, yeah ive used castrol for a longgg time, except once when i was very very tight on cash and had to get the cheap stuff (i really regret it i wish i would rather have drove over my 3000 and got the better oil later..)

should be fixin to do seafoam in the next id say 2 weeks.

but before then, i wanna find out how to change my spark plugs, i have no idea how...

stormin94

It's REAL simple. Just get the proper spark plug wrench and remove the spark plug wires(make sure you remember which ones go where) and take the old ones out, put the new ones in. Just use the wrench to get them loose, then use your fingers to ge them the rest of the way. Same goes for putting the new ones in. Tighten only a FEW pounds, just slightly harder than you could get it with your fingers, and be careful not to strip the plug. If it doesn't want to go, back it out and try it again.

infiltrator

alrighty, sounds simple enough, i should definately disconnect the battery right, just in case (your probably laughing at me huh.. lol)
i know it needs it, but i dont get how they get damaged after you do seafoam...

a wrench huh just like maybe a cresent wrench, or do i need the ones that only fit one size?
ill check out that manual again too.

RustBucket

iTrader: (1)

amsoil sells a 16-oz bottle of cleaner that you put in your old oil with a new standard filter, idle for 15 minutes, then change oil and filter to amsoil stuff. Supposed to clean all the crud off of everything before the clean snyth goes in.

stormin94

Yer gonna need a SPARK PLUG socket. I think they come in two standard sizes. I'm not sure what size the Yota's are, but its probably one of the bigger ones.

jcfb

I am definitely going to go ahead and recommend Seafoam. After reading a few of the recent threads and searching around on the forum for some old ones, I decided to do it tonight.

I LOVE SEAFOAM! I have a 22R/e and I poured 1/3 of the can in through the brake booster line. Poured it in really slow, chugged, puffed smoke, and shuttered. The fumes were HORRIBLE! I shut the truck off, let it sit for 20 minutes, and started it back up. Smoky smoky! Let it sit in the drive and smoke for a while, then I drove it around my neighborhood. My neighbors love me, I'm sure

Anyways, the truck idles a lot better and feels a little peppier. It definitely goes through the RPMs a little smoother. My truck has a flowmaster 40 and a stock cat. It is fairly quiet, but I almost forgot it was running when I jumped out to take pictures of the smoke

infiltrator

wow, nice nice! i need to check on a belt for my girlfriends car, and ill go ask if they have that wrench there. maybe pep boys would be the wrong place to get it though, but hey i dont have much time, i wanna get this going already! lol, if its 10-maybe even 20 bucks ill probably just do the damn thing..

hmm ill get back to you guys with more questions about spark plugs soon hehe.

oh yeah, i read the 400 post thing about seafoam when i was bored at school lol. i hear its the stuff man!!! lol.

ozziesironmanoffroad

the socket is only a few bucks. if i hadnt lost the key to my tool box today in the garage today, id go look for the size for ya. just be sure to get a socket wrench and extension too. remember: a spark plug socket is a socket with rubber in it to protect the spark plug. i refuse to put seafoam in my truck cuz it already smokes a little bit... speaking of which i need to light one.. back. ok, back to seafoam. my truck smokes a bit, which i think may be due to the PCV valve and valve covers, but still. i dont want that thing billowin blue smoke out and have someone report me. (yeah, here in nevada we have a number u call with the license plate of a car that smokes a lot, and they make you go and get it checked and everything

infiltrator

yeah, well southern cali cant be much better. im going to do it at my work at night (the parking lot is really dark, but you can see some stuff, and no ones there when i close at night.

i think nighttime would be the perfect time to do that.

well i dont know, i clean my engine ALOT. i have a pretty much a bucket of degreaser, and i spray it on i'd say once every couple months. its nice to have an engine that is clean.

oh, another question too, i wanna clean the bottom of my truck (the grease and such..) and i was gonna take it to one of those power spray car washes.

is it bad if i spray from the bottom up to the trucks engine?