3.0 Rebuild

Going to rebuild the 3.0 in my 1995 4runner and have been looking for a rebuild kit. I am seeing prices range from $250.00 to $700.00. Does anyone have a recommendation? Are the cheaper ones junk kits? Should I stay with OEM kits?



1995 4Runner 31" tires Automatic Trans

 

Always OEM if you are wanting to do the job right.

https://209yota1.com/

 

Keep in mind the rebuild kit will only provide the parts. Does the crankshaft need to be ground? Cylinders worn out and need to be bored oversize? The heads will need a valve job.
You might be time and money ahead to look a rebuild long block rather than trying to find shops to do the machine work for you. The long block will have a lot of new parts, all of the machine work is done and they usually come with a warranty.
Just a thought.

 

That is exactly the route I took with Yota1. Made things easy.

 

LCE Performance has some good stuff too if you haven’t looked there already.

 

Thanks for the info, greatly appreciated. I am planning on new pistons and having all the machine work done. I do have a good machine shop here in Arizona where I live. I have been looking at purchasing a short or long block but don't really know the best place to buy one and what will the shipping cost be to send the core back. Can't be cheap to ship a motor. I will check out LCE and Yota1.

Thanks again.

 

LCE is down in Havasu too so depending on where you are they are local Arizona to you.

 

Gotcha. I'm in central AZ. Havasu is only about an hour half away. Thanks.

 

I used yota shop with the Japanese kit and head studs. They pissed me off by sending the wrong size pistons and delaying my build. Didn’t seem to bother them too much. I always go oem on oil pumps and water pumps. I had to toss the stock Toyota gasket and use gasket maker for the water pump because it wouldn’t stop leaking.

 

That's interesting. Sorry to hear you had that much trouble. Thanks for the info.

 

Get the engine rebuild kit with Green Lee MLS head gaskets and ARP head studs from LC-Engineering. Use Loctite 515 on all the lap joints like were the oil pump housing, water pump and rear main seal housings join the block. Don't use the paper gaskets. Also use it on the water pipe that is under the intake manifold near the water pump but is part of the blocks casting in addition to the o-ring . Use it on the oil cooler housing and the idler pulley casting that is between the cams but screws into the intake manifold. After the block is machined for MLS head gaskets (you have to request this) and the pistons are hung and ready to be installed hand lap the decks with a cast iron drill press tool rest using figure 8 motion with emery paper bonded to the tool rest with spray adhesive and lots of WD-40. The webs between the cylinders will not clean up initially until you remove enough material to undo the deflection from the fly cutter that was used to deck the block. Lap the heads as well with at least three different grits starting at 320 then 400 to 600 and/or ending with 1000 grit paper. The heads will be like a mirror and the machining marks in the block will be removed as will the depression in the surfaces between the cylinders.

Boring, decking and honing with new pistons/rings hung on the rods and the crank reground with new main bearings and big end journals was just over $900 for my engine. Make sure they don't replace the sleeves in the block which align the position of the heads when they are set onto the head gaskets. If they do you can't lap the decked surfaces on the block. When you do the CAMs use 515 for setting the bearing caps at the ends of the heads and right stuff gasket maker on those leak prone caps that seal the end of the cams at the firewall. Silicon valve cover gaskets and use Halomar gasket maker for the plenum to intake and TB to Plenum as well as at the corners were the valve cover gaskets have a sharp corner to deal with near the bearing caps. I used Halomar on the intake manifold gasket were the water passages travel from the head to the manifold as an added precaution.

One tip is when using the Loctite 515 the surfaces have to be flat and clean so that the lap joint when fitted together will allow the gasket maker to become anaerobic and this allows it to cure and seal. To get this to happen I would hand lap some of the components on the tool rest from the drill press and or use a mill bastard flat file to make sure any burs or dings around the surfaces edges were knocked down and made to be flat. Liberal amounts of CRC brake cleaner or B-12 Chemtool or an equivalent work a charm in preparing the surfaces for the sealant.

Oil pan and windage tray panel use Right-Stuff gasket maker and get a torque wrench for bicycle maintenance that will allow you to properly tighten M6 machine screws. All the bracketry for the engine accessories need to have Loctite 242 (blue) thread locker applied to the fasteners. And use a torque wrench on everything.

 

That's great information. Thank you very much. You should do a video. I am familiar with Loctite 515, I will use it.

Thanks again for the detailed description.