Raleightaco's 3rd gen 4runner Build.

coming together nicely! No more oversleeping in the back of the 4Runner!

 

True that! I will not be missing any more breakfast. I will have a place to store all my camping gear though!

 

Ok so a rundown of today's events.....

4runner overheated on the way back from uwharrie today at about 55-60mph. Opened my torque app and engine coolant temp was reading 240. Pulled over to cool down.

Checked the coolant level and the reservoir was empty. Did notice shining a flashlight down in the resorvoir there was some light colored powder looking substance in the corner kinda caked up.(may not matter but I'm going to give all the details I can think of)

Podunk gas station had coolant so I bought and filled the reservoir. Turned car back on and coolant was boiling or looked like it was and was coming out the reservoir cap.

Turned car off and cooled down to 210 or so upon next startup. Decided to limp 9 miles into next town so it could safely be left overnight. Driving 45-50mph the temp was 208-215 so I went ahead and kept going. Drove it all the way home with the same temp range never changing.

a little backstory of possibly unrelated issue. For the past two weeks I have been fighting some kind of fuel relatedd issue. Got codes p0300 and today p0305 which is system to lean and misfire cylinder 5. Before I got a random cylinder misfire code and just occasional misfire upon cold start. Today cold start misfire continued and went away in 30 seconds but then after leaving uwharrie happened everytime I stopped at idle until I got back on the throttle.

Maybe the two are unrelated maybe not.

@Blkvoodoo @Sandman614

 

This is the 4 runner sorting at idle this morning. Maybe 1/4in of coolant in bottom of reservoir.

 

Change your settings to Fahrenheit/miles/us gallons

 

what he said, its Sunday, my heads hurts trying to make the conversion.....

next step given the 240° temp, compression test and coolant system pressure test. ( in the past I've known that if the gauge is what tipped you off, there is likely already damage, the gauge tends to read slow )

the P0300 random misfire may be a symptom of an already leaking head gasket(s), just wasn't bad enough to show its ugly head, may not have been a fuel issue, may also be a result of a stopped up converter ( slow coolant leak or fuel issue can either melt them down or cause them to clog, a clogged converter can cause blown head gasket.

P0305 is misfire #5 cyl ( you knew this ) right rear cylinder, which is a likely place for the head gasket to fail ( mine failed on #6, left rear cyl )
given you're driving a '97, it likely still has the graphite composite head gaskets, which tend to fail at higher mileage, newer version had the MLS ( Multi Layer Steel ) which are far superior.

the next, as mentioned above is to compression check and verify, then tear down and see how bad the damage is. 3.4 heads DO NOT like to get hot, they tend to crack between the valve seats.

I've got the diag tools ( compression tester and pressure set for cooling system ) message me if you want to go further

 

I already changed the Fahrenheit its just not showing up on that chart.

 

Yeah I've checked the convertor and it's not clogged as far as I can tell by banging on it.

Everything your saying is on point with my research that I did last night. By the end of my research I figured the head gasket was shot. I'm wondering how bad I hurt it driving it back at 210 degrees.

What is optimal running temp?

If I could get it to you and run a compression test to verify that would be awesome. I did watch a 36 minute youtube video where a guy used a harbor freight tester and tore the motor down last night. That pretty much certifies me to fuck shit up lol

 

operating temp is 180°-200° being the high.

given where you live, you'll likely not want to tear it down there, they'll probably haul it and you out of there

the reality is, the damage is done, can it get worse ?, yeah, but odds are you're looking worse case already ( heads ) you won't know 100% for certain the condition of the heads until they are pulled and sent to machine shop for cleaning and pressure testing.

Quite honestly I got lucky as hell I caught my blown head gasket the way I did, just routine weekly check of vehicle and found coolant low. I was expecting the worst when I pulled it down. No cracks, just a blown gasket. I believe I caught it just in time, by shear stroke of luck. Still very leery of the heads just because of the miles.

just a quick check on www.car-part.com , there are loads of 3.4s out there in the 1000-1500 range, thats cheaper than heads and the gasket set required, labor isn't all that different.

Gasket sets fromFel-Pro and Victor were in the $400+ range when I did mine, I ended up using DNJ from RockAuto, I was pretty happy with the product. The prices seem to have come down since, but DNJ is still cheaper for the MLS head gaskets

I told Tim last night if you need to leave it sit somewhere, you can leave it here, I'm in BFE.

I can come out there with test stuff if you want.

 

all banging on the converter does is tell you if the brick inside is loose or not,

if its clogged up or melted ( clogged ) it just restricts the exhaust flow out putting pressure on the head gaskets and causing other drivability concerns

the only test for that is to check back pressure at the up stream O2 sensor

 

Hope you get this sorted out, hate to hear that. Thanks for the spot this weekend btw!

 

Not a problem man. I'm not that good of a spotter.lol my wife said those jeep guys were talking mad shit about you even trying that. I lol'd

 

Fuel pressure testing port is complete

 

Might as well get the small problems out of the way first lol

 

190 - -
190 - -
120 - -
Pass - Front - Driver

Here's what cylinder #5 sparkplug looked like.

 

dam dude, bet it runs better with fresh ones

 

Would run better with fresh head gaskets..

 

was that your truck's plugs or Jon's?

 

Jons. Found that when we went chasing the misfire and overheat.