Another First-Gen Resurrection!

Hi all,

Just another long time lurker here on these forums, now finally in my long time goal truck, 4x4 5-Speed V6 xtra cab first gen.

Auto technician by day… everything else by night.




I’ve been watching the auctions for a while and this one came up local with 178k miles. Front end damage, runs and drives and pictures look decent so I jumped on it with fingers crossed the frame is solid… Which it wasn’t completely solid but, good enough to save with some Safe-T caps.


As soon as the truck arrived, we assessed the damage and sent a collision link to herb chambers Toyota of auburn and within a week every piece came in.


Valve covers were pouring oil onto the manifolds so the gaskets were in order. While I’m in there I figured I should do the belt and related parts seeing the last one was done at 80k according to the plastic cover. When I pulled the covers I ran into huge carbon build up on the cams and under the valve covers.





Has anybody seen anything this bad? My and my dad have been bouncing ideas the last week of the best resolution besides a full engine tear down/rebuild. I’m afraid if I dislodge these pieces they can get lodged somewhere they don’t belong or change the characteristics of how the car of currently running (fine with no CEL lights.)

I stopped at this point and am coming off building my old weekend swapped car, so I’m trying to avoid this full tear down. Same time I don’t want to put these brand new OEM parts on an engine that’s on its way out. Any ideas are appreciated

Regardless, the goal is to be registered, insured and on the road daily by 5/15

Greetings to all! Scared to think of how far I will take this long time coming goal, but I will log as much as I can like I did with all my projects.

 

That's perhaps the scungiest 5VZ I've ever seen, that person forgot their oil changes often. Doesn't appeared to have hurt it though. My VG30 was dirty similarly and it survived. I still ended up cleaning and rebuilding it though.



Cleaned up like new after a trip through the jetwash

 

@Speedytech7 I’m trying to avoid this route but I can’t think of another reliable solution. Looks like I’m going to have to dig up the complete engine rebuild process on this platform and weigh my options..

 

You could probably hand clean the heads but the other internals would be tough without disassembly and a jet-washing/hot tanking.

 

Subb'd. I love a good first gen rebuild.

 

I'm excited for this as well. That is a pretty filthy 5VZ. I can't even imagine dude. Maybe clean the top end the best you can and start running some high detergent synthetics, changing frequently if you don't plan to do a full tear down and rebuild. That would be the route I'd take given the circumstances. But if you have the time, the means, the resources and ability, like the mechanical know how, I say go for it. Tear it apart and make it like new.

 

Not trying to criticize OP, but why'd you go with an auction vehicle and not just spring for a cleaner, better maintained example? Seems like any savings on the purchase price are going to be sunk right back into this engine. Good luck with the resurrection process nonetheless

 

That poor engine. I don't even know how that happens.

 

Lack of regular oil changes and using conventional oil...

 

Not on any Toyota I've ever seen. I did see a 350 gm engine, that we removed the valve covers from. It was a solid block of crude formed exactly in the shape of the valve cover. I informed the owner to get rid of that car tomorrow if not sooner.

Now for this Tacoma engine, the previous owner that did this should be flogged. Good luck with whatever direction you decide on.

 

dude wrecked his truck for insurance cause he never changed the oil. Then an auction house sold it.
when I popped the cover on my 2.7 it had some carbon build up. Nothing like that.
I cleaned mine out best I could w/ a vac and some ATF mixed 10/30w @1/3 ratio.

 

I'd like to see some before pictures, but from this photo, it looks like you did an excellent job of cleaning things up!

 

I had just started to pick the large chunks out and thought I should get a pic of it. So this is in the process of cleaning. I didn't scrap but lightly w/ the vac attachment and use a turkey baster w/ the cleaning mix. Check my buckets since it's right there. Topped it off with some ATF after I put the new gasket (the reason it came off) then let the engine idle for 5 min and change the oil. After a week I did the same and then drove it 1500 miles to CO and did it again. ATF has a higher detergent rate and wont harm the engine.
Winter is over and it's time to change the fluids again. ATF will be added before the change and I'll drive it around the block a few times then dump it hot.
The block will still have a lacquered finish but by now I'm sure most of the carbon is gone. Learned this from a shop teach back in HS days. Do it to every car I've owned even my RX-7 13b.

My phone doesn't live in my back pocket so I forget to take pics. I may get a before or during or just the after. Plz forgive me

 

Man card should be yanked cause they wasn’t raised right to let one of Toyota’s finest get in that condition.

 

You could maybe get away with a light hand cleaning on the top end (make sure to plug any holes, vacumn as much as possible) and then "Gentle" cleaning and more frequent then normal oil changes using chemicals. I've used LiquiMolly engine flush with excellent results on my 3.4L, so much so that I use their products on everything i own with a motor now. Verified by pulling valve covers, even the aluminum head bronze coloration (from oil cycles) changed from darker to much lighter. Problem is thats just the top end, the bottom end probably looks just as bad.