toyota 4 runners

I have alot of experience with the 3.0 3VZ-E, it was in my '88 4runner, this truck and engine went through hell with me, it had 234,532 miles wen i got it, i put it through many mudholes that fullsize trucks with V8's couldnt get thru, this truck wouldnt get stuck unless the frame got bottemed out, alot of the mudholes were with slick tires, its been up many hillclimbs and has played on many mountains, this is the toughest V6 that i know of but on the other hand and prolly why every1 says to stay away from them, they are a bitch to work on, the engine is STUFFED under the hood and to fix 1 minor problem u have to take like 3 other parts off to get to wat u need to fix. I love this truck to death, alot of fun offroad memorys really fun just a pain in the ass to work on. i dont think ill ever get another 1 of the 3.0 3VZ-E v6's in a toyota, they to much to work on wen sumtin goes wrong, id still to the 2.4 22RE or just drop a 350 Chevy engine in it!!

Justin, I just wrote this on our blog: http://www.cargurus.com/blog/2011/07/15/driving-from-puerto-escondido-to-oaxaca-150-miles-in-12-hours and I'll give your URL to my friend George to contact you. Maybe you have some ideas for him. Thanks! --jgoods

the V6 is just such a pain to work on. You can tear into a 22re in minutes if you ever need to.

Torque specifications were the issue in the 3.0 they had a Hot spot in the motor and that hot spot caused the most expansion and contraction of the head and its spits out the head gasket first from the under torque that Toyota specifies! Usually #5 cylinder head location! So head work was a main issue , causing overheating to blown engine head gasket! 3.4 engine was a better design! But as my wife believes its hit or miss in terms of mechanical woes! If this helped mark my useful link! Or respond i will reply back Toyota had issues with Head gaskets in the late 80's. ALL their engines had problems and most are traced back to too low of torque value on the bolts they are using. In the case of the people tested the head bolts and found that 72lbft of torque is more appropriate then the 56lbft that is spec.The bolts were still streaching and loosing torque. I have turned head bolts at 56lbft on 7M with only about 50k on the motor.

I have two 4Runners with V8’s. As you probably know by now, the V8‘s are "bulletproof". One has 280,000 mile and the other 170,000. Both start effortlessly and run like the day I got them (I am first owner on both). Replaced timing belts around 150,000 miles and radiator at 225,000. Never felt that the V6 had enough guts to go that long and far, just compare the stress on the 6 vs 8.