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I spent Saturday hanging with my niece and nephew. Sunday, I got the front bumper on the '86 removed, bored out a few of the holes to align it properly (mocked it up on the '89, and the '86 had been in a front end collision, so a lot of things didn't line up correctly). It's back mounted permanently with the red tow hooks underneath, and the grill and side lights are in (will have to come out to put the winch in later). I went by a local place in Garland called "4Runner House" to try and pick up a set of grey bucket seats, but he had sold them the day before so I'm still on the hunt for a set of good seats. However, he did have the passenger side wing window I needed (PO had replaced it with plexiglass), and a set of grey carpet for pretty cheap. I took the carpet down to the car wash after scrubbing it, and just blasted away until it came out looking almost new. It's still hanging over the fence drying and should get put in this week. Also, since I was already swapping out the wing window, I decided to remove the rest of the windows and take them down to be tinted (local guy said he'd do it for $100 if I brought the loose panels of glass in and he didn't have to crawl into the car). Hoping to get that done today. I may head back to 4Runner House and see if he has any windshields and grey seat belt sets (forgot to ask late Friday right before they closed). Also removed the top to get the rollbar back in, got everything buttoned up and ready for the windows to be installed along with the rest of the interior. Once I get the seatbelts, and the carpet dries out, I should be able to reinstall everything but the front seats, and top of the dash (will have to come out of the '89).
On a side note, I couldn't pass up Masterpull's Black November deal on their superline and picked up 150' of the 5/16" for the 8274 for 30% off and free shipping (Saved ~$170+shipping). Basically that made the much higher quality "Superline" the same price as their basic synthetic Amsteel blue but with a higher rating and thinner diameter so I can get more line on the same spool. With the motor / contactor and other upgrades to that winch along with completely rebuilding it and replacing all of the seals, that Superline synthetic MasterPull winch line is really going to be the icing on the cak. e 21,000+ pound rating, and 150' seems like a mile when you're comparing it to other winches and lengths they can hold.
So it seems as though the last month and a half I've had something going on every weekend, whether it was planned or not. Family stuff, out of town for the holidays, gas lines breaks and an emergency repair at a friends house, all kinds of stuff. I've been doing what I can here and there on nights I get home at a decent hour, but that's usually in the dark and not overly productive. I did manage to get 90% of the windows back in the '86 and only have the driver's side sliding window that still needs to be rebuilt. I have to admit, it looks even meaner with some limo black on it and state legal up front - Those guys at the tint place did a bang up job for what little I paid them, and there's really no way they could have tinted the sliding windows without them being out of the rig. I've also got the seatbelts and carpet that need to go in, and can get the rest of the interior panels installed and pretty much everything but the front seats (still need to find a good set) and dash (will come out of the '89 when I swap it out).
So finally a weekend to work on MY rig. Got the motor pulled Saturday, and it dropped from 73 down to 20 degrees in a matter of hours when the cold front blew in. I haven't been able to fully set up the rebuilt LCE motor because I was missing a few parts that were on the other engine (Distributor drive gear, ARP head studs, etc.) So Once I got it pulled, I yanked the head and stole the parts I needed. Managed to get everything set up, but want to make absolute certain everything is dialed in and still needed to degree the camshaft, set the valves, etc. and it was getting cold, so I cleaned up and pulled the LCE motor back in the house to do the final adjustments where it was a little warmer. Hopefully working on it after work this week I can get it fully dialed in, degreed, adjusted, and finished up so that sometime over the Christmas weekend I can put it back in. I'm double and triple checking everything and re-reading the manual and other instructions as I go, so hopefully there aren't any issues.
Merry Christmas to everyone! Hopefully Santa leaves you some Toyota Goodies under the tree.
Lots of family / out of town time this past week, but I did manage to get a few minor things done. Found Top Dead Center (exactly) on the motor, and managed to get the camshaft degreed within a half of a degree from what the manufacturer had said it should be (I came up with 105.5 degree centerline on the intake lobe while the cam card said it's 106 degrees). Motor is fully built up, timing correct, everything ready to go. I even tapped 1/8" NPT on the forward valve cover boss (hose leading to the intake that's not the PCV hose) and added a barbed fitting so I can use standard stock hose for it.
I got everything ready to go in and decided it was a bit too late in the day to try and pull off an install, and got lazy and took the rest of the day off.
Another long weekend this weekend and we'll see what I can get finished.
Aaarg! I had my VC off today and forgot to tap that darn vent go figure.
The existing hole in my Valve Cover (LCE one) was perfect for 1/8" NPT (didn't require any drilling). I picked up a brass multi-barbed fitting that was for 1/4" ID tubing and had the 1/8" NPT on the other end at Auto Zone for like $2 and figured it'd be easier to do it that way than to try and buy the factory hose (also cut off 2 of the barbs to make it shorter - you can still easily get a clamp on it, but won't need a ton of excess hose to make the 90 degree bend) . Didn't bind or anything and very little if any aluminum that didn't stick in the tap (if you wanted to try and do it with the Valve cover on the actual motor I don't think you'd have any problems with the aluminum shavings getting into the motor). I've changed out several hoses and fittings (namely the entire fuel system) to be able to use standard stock tubing found at any parts stores versus paying though the nose at the stealership for some specialized hose. Saw this one, and decided to do it as well. Still really happy with "altering" the heater hose that goes behind the head and into the intake by adding in a little "flex" as shown below......probably the 2nd best mod next to replacing the fuel lines with barbed fittings.
Last edited by joelsmithdesigns; 12-27-2016 at 02:56 PM.
Darkfairytales on here has helped me a few times while putting my motor together. Hes always been an advocate of leaving the pipe unbolted from the back of the head altogether. I didnt believe him that it was such a PITA until he had to force the pipe into the lower intake because it was just a skoche off(I couldnt get it). I should have listened to him. Although, I think your idea of cutting and flaring the line is better.
Darkfairytales on here has helped me a few times while putting my motor together. Hes always been an advocate of leaving the pipe unbolted from the back of the head altogether. I didnt believe him that it was such a PITA until he had to force the pipe into the lower intake because it was just a skoche off(I couldnt get it). I should have listened to him. Although, I think your idea of cutting and flaring the line is better.
I've had this (or a/) motor in and out of this thing 7 times so far. I was helping greylikethecolor with an intake leak and saw the PO had put a little flex in that rear heater hose and man did it make things much easier, so the last time I had it out I bought a flare tool and fixed all further issues with flex.
I've just about decided that if this go around doesn't work out, I'm either sending the motor off our just buying a crate one. I'm a patient man, but I'm just about at the end of my rope with this and need a running driving vehicle as this is supposed to be my daily. We'll see, said the blind man to the deaf woman.
Was on my way home (in my dad's farm truck T-100 with 3.4L 5VZ-FE motor) last Friday looking forward to yet another long holiday weekend wide open to work on the 4Runner. Started hearing a loud popping noise anytime I pressed the gas or put the motor under load. Coasted it over into a residential neighborhood to see what was going on. Popped the hood with it still idling (no popping noise at idle), and couldn't see much. Sounded like it had a bit of an exhaust leak, but that wouldn't be robbing power and making the vehicle feel like it was missing or had incorrect timing. Grabbed the throttle cable and revved the motor to see the #1 cylinder coil jiggling and then got an up close and personal view of what that popping noise was......a backfire (or front-fire?). Didn't have any tools on me and was only 5 miles or so away from the office, so I had it towed back there to take a more in-depth look at it. Took the #1 coil off and there is the issue. Totally melted, the boot was just blown up, and the spark plug was still barely attached to the boot insert, but free-floating around in the tube. So....I walked to the store to get a new coil/boot/spark plug. Returned to find out that when the original spark plug came loose, it must have blown it out of the head because all of the threads in the aluminum were stripped out and the new plug wouldn't even remotely thread back in. Here's what the coil, plug, and boot looked like when I pulled it out.
By this time, it was getting dark, and I was already going to be late for my Brother's Birthday, so luckily my GF ran me the 40 min drive home (5 hours after I originally left work) and I was able to have a little cake and sleep on it.
With the T-100 40 min away, the long weekend, and being stuck without a vehicle, I decided to try and get the rebuilt LCE motor back into the 4Runner and see if I couldn't get it running. Here's a shot of the barbed fitting I tapped into the valve cover last week.
And the top 2 barbs cut off to make an easier 90 degree bend....
Motor going back in...
And that was about enough for that day. Got the rest of the intake and accessories bolted up and started filling her with fluids. Noticed, not one, but two leaks. That little rascal heater hose that bolts to the bottom of the intake under the temp sensor was in slightly crooked (despite my modified "Flex" pipe.....I didn't get the pipe seated properly before running the bolts down) and the heater hose pipe coming from the back of the Timing cover under the intake was also leaking. Backed out the first, cleaned it off, a little silicone, and made sure it seated before bolting it down. Pulled the second off and noticed that the flange for the pipe was actually bowed and was what was probably causing the leak (you can see the bowed flange below on the right versus the straight one on the left).
Luckily I had a spare, so I swapped them out and boom. No Leaks.
Got everything else ready to go and fired her up. Extremely poor. The timing is off by a bunch, I'm 180 degrees out of TDC, or something else is going on, because it's running extremely rough and won't idle properly. Tried jumping a cog in both directions on the dizzy, and still nothing. Pulled the valve cover on and off about 10 times adjusting it, and finally got it to idle a bit, but it wasn't running smooth. Tried taking it for a test run and made it a few blocks, but keeps wanting to die, no power or intermittent power, and a little bit of smoke (I'm guessing from the burned oil still in the system). Worked on it for about 3 hours and couldn't get it running. By that time, It was getting dark, so I decided to take the train back down close to work and crash at my GF's house and have her take me into work in the morning.
Needless to say, long train ride and night to think about things and I'm just frustrated and exhausted with all of it and the only thing bringing me comfort is the fact that YotaTech foresaw incidents like this and included emojis I can use.
Possible issues with the 4Runner:
180 degrees out of timing (at TDC on exhaust stroke when #4 should be firing instead of #1)
Misfiring - spark plugs shot, plugs out of order, ???
Poor ground?
Vacuum leak / hoses not hooked up correctly?
I did bring some tools in to work today and plan on trying to oversize tap the spark plug hole in the T-100 and use a "Time-Cert" or "Heli-coil" insert to see if that helps fix the truck. I also want to pull the cover to the timing belt off and hand turn it to TDC to see if everything is in alignment (shown below). I've heard those belts can jump a cog and throw the timing off, creating too much pressure build up in a cylinder and sending the plug flying. Whatever caused it, If it had popped on the Driver's side (even cylinders without the coil bolted down over the top) I might have a hole in the hood, but instead of mighty mouse flying out, it would have been an NGK iridium spark plug!
You ever think about putting lawnmower tires on the engine stand to help it roll around better? Couldn't be that hard
Genius! Should put some tubeless boggers on the engine hoist as well......it's a heck of a lot easier to move the hoist and get the engine / trans lined up as it is to move the truck around!
When I did my timing chain like 20 years ago we mistakingly put the distributor in 180* off because we were turning the motor over to make sure the timing links were correct. I don't think it ran, so we just changed the order on the cap. It ran, but poorly. Next day we put the distributor in correctly and all was good.
That's what I'm hoping. Obviously the smoke is from the rings not being seated yet, but the extremely rough idle seems (to me anyway) like the timing is out, probably 180. You do end up hand cranking the motor dozens of times, and I'm sure somewhere along the way I just wasn't paying close enough attention to intake vs exhaust stroke and got it in there backwards.....or at least that's what I'm hoping. Won't really be able to work on it until this weekend.
I'm not even going to get into the T-100 issues unless I'm able to fix it today.
So trying to fix the T-100's 5VZ-FE was a last ditch effort to keep that truck running long enough to get it back to my dad while still giving me some wheels in the mean time. However, I'm in the parking lot of an industrial complex with very limited tools and no real ride to pop over to the parts store, so I had to improvise a little. Walked a couple of miles to the parts store to see what type of taps and inserts they had to try and re-tap this spark plug hole in the head. They They had two different kits for the 14 x 1.25MM spark plugs. The first was a Heli-Coil tap set that had a standard 3/8" square drive and used spring style inserts with a 90 degree bend at the end. Basically, you tap larger threads and then thread a spring style insert in with their special tool and have to break off and / or clip the 90 degree drive tang off when you're done. Here's a shot of the spring style kit.
And here's a picture of what the other "Time Sert" kit looked like. I quickly noticed that with a 3/4" drive on the top of that particular tap, there'd be no way I could get a socket over the top of it and fit it down into the recessed tube of the valve cover, However, I much preferred the Time Sert style inserts that had diamond teeth at the top and were a full sleeve (not a spring). I also realized that they sold multi-packs of just the full sleeve inserts and decided to get the heli-coil kit, but use the sleeve inserts instead of the springs. Here's the other kit with the 3/4" drive on the top of the tap (versus the 3/8" square end on the above which is more standard for taps and dies sets).
Used some extensions in reverse and duct taped them to the square head of the tap so I'd be able to remove it when finished. Obviously you can't attach a ratchet or anything to the end as it's backwards, so I threw on a dog bone and another extension and basically bound it up as the torque handle. No Red Cup Grease at the office? How about some peanut butter?.....it's sticky, oil based, and would catch 90% of the aluminum shavings coming out right? You can also see the multipack of sleeve inserts I got to use instead of the springs.
Choosy Moms Choose JIF.
Got the head tapped and was ready to put the insert in, but couldn't get it to start. Tried everything I could until I finally gave up and went and grabbed a micrometer. Turns out, although OEM is the brand that makes both kits, the tap for the helicoil was smaller OD than the OD of the sleeve inserts. GRRRRRRRRRR.......Back to the store, luckily they swapped the kits out for 0$ (didn't even ask why the tap set smelled like middle school lunch). Got the Oversized 3/4" drive tap shown below.
That wasn't going to work, so I needed to get it down to a size I could actually use in a socket that fits inside the tube going to the spark plug. Whipped out the grinder and took it down until the grinding marks started touching the shaft. Common sense would say this is 14MM, and it was.
Tapped the hole wider with the new tap (much easier with the extensions running the correct direction and being able to use a ratchet to drive it. Went 1/4 way down...... pulled it out and cleaned off the tap, went 1/2 way.....did it again, 3/4.....cleaned it again, and finally tapped all the way through. Thought a shaving or two might have fallen into the cylinder, so I grabbed a short length of vacuum hose that would fit down into the spark plug hole and duct taped it to a funnel. Ran an extension cord out and used a shop vac to suck out anything else that may have gotten into the cylinder. Here's the hose I used.
Taped to the funnel.
All Clean and ready to install the Time Sert.
I put the insert on the spark plug and added a little bit of JB Weld to the threads. Got the threads started by hand and could feel it start tightening up. Backed out the spark plug to take a look down the tube. Went ahead and tightened it down the rest of the way when........Ding!
Apparently the spark plug had bound when trying to thread it back into the sleeve insert and instead of threading the spark plug in, I had pushed the insert all the way into the cylinder which was the ding I heard of it falling once pushed all the way through and hitting the top of the piston.
SOOOOOooooooo.......to retrieve it would mean removing the head. I know it's not an impossible task, but the motor has 240K on the tach, and even IF I spend the time to pull the head, re-do the timing belt, get the insert in, or use a different head, it may or may not fix the issue that blew the spark plug out in the first place. Believe it or not JDM (Japanese Domestic Motors Corp) is just down the street from where I work and where the truck is parked and I took a walk down there to see if they have any 5VZ-FE's. They do, they're relatively cheap, and come with all of the accessories. They also gave me the name of a guy that'll pull the old one and drop the new one in with new timing belt, water pump, etc for $500. Very seriously considering just doing that as it would make more sense. However, this is my dad's farm truck, and it might not even be worth dropping the $$$ on it to get it back up and running (body has dings, paint is shot, interior looks like someone lost a game of Jumanji in it).
I just want to encourage you to hang in there. This stuff can really suck, especially when you are left with zero function vehicles. Keep fighting the good fight my friend!
I would recommend fixing the T100 but that's just me. Feels like throwing money at something that isn't worth it, but anything else you pick up cheap to replace it or whatever will have its own problems and need its own work done. JMO but....
Keep at it on the LCE engine I'm sure you can get it running!
Brother, id say that if you didnt have bad luck, you wouldnt have any luck at all. Just remember that you got a crap load of people who check in on you and your adventures and eagerly await the day when you can say youve beat the beast. You got this, dont be discouraged!
Well After much though and trying to come up with the best scenario for me, I've pretty much decided what I'm going to do.
I hate having to borrow things whether it's tools, a lawnmower, car, etc. If I ever do have to borrow something, I always try to give it back better than I got it - kind of one of my core principals and the way I expect things to be taken care of and returned if I loan something out. Sometimes that's just a full tank of gas, a new blade on the lawnmower or saw, case of beer for whatever else. Considering I've probably put more miles on the T100 than my dad has at this point, it only makes sense to go over the top and return it with a new motor. I'm renting a car for the weekend and possibly all of next week or however long it takes for the guy to get the truck back up and running and I'll figure out a way to get the money to do what all I need to do (I've got the Warn 8274 up for sale as well as some other stuff).
Main goal is to get wheels. I'm going to spend a couple of hours this weekend trying to get the '89 LCE motor running right, but if I can't, I may shift efforts over to getting the '86 Black Beauty kicking (not tagged, inspected, and a ways away from being drivable....but that may be less effort than figuring out what is wrong with the '89).
After I get a working vehicle, I'll deal with the '89. There's a local engine builder that's pretty reputable in town, so I'm planning on talking with him this weekend. My last ditch effort would be to pull the motor again and just send it in to LCE with the wiring harness, all the accessories, and ECU and have them go through the thing, get it running and send it back to me (That would seriously hurt the pocketbook).
Played with the timing some this weekend. Tried to reverse it 180, jump a cog on the dizzy one way, and then jump it a cog the other direction. Pulled it 180 again (way it was originally) and that's the only spot I can even get it to start up and idle, but cant get it running smoothly. Might ask around and see if there's a better mechanic in town than the guys I took it to last time.....I'm just at a loss for what could be wrong with it.
I may even try to pull the intake and slap on those dual side draft webbers (change out fuel pump an regulator and find a vacuum advance distributor) just to see if it'll run without all the electrical.
Who knows. Still rocking the rental due back tomorrow and will probably have to add on at least a week to have wheels in the meantime.
11-21-2016, 08:58 AM
