off topic question- toyota

[towtruckerfour]

Hey guys is anyone on here familiar with toyotas at all? My son has a 91 toyota truck with a v6 3.0 . It's making a knocking noise as if a lifter or valve has gone bad. I also ran a compression test and 4 of the cylinders had 135 lbs and 2 had 95 lbs. The weird thing is the 2 cylinders that read 95 are at opposite corners of the motor. Is there any tests I can do to confirm a bad lifter or valve? I also noticed white smoke coming out of the tailpipe. Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

[Dragon]

White smoke in tailpipe cracked head or bad head gasket. 135 to 95 compression is outside of limits and 101 should be the lowest. Worse problems than the noise. Are you sure it is pushrod motor? What is the engine designation off the Tag or the Valve cover like 22R 30R 2TC and so on.

[heep70]

The 3.0 I here are junk.

Goto the forums in http://board.marlincrawler.com/ or Ask a dude named Crash on http://www.nw-wheelers.com/forum/index.php.

[towtruckerfour]

Thanks dragon and heep70. That was what I was thinking but thought I would get someone elses opinion. I took a look and could not find anything on the valve covers and the sticker on the hood was not much help. I don't even know where to find out if this is a pushrod motor. My son is going to check on some sites he goes to. I'm more of a backyard mechanic, I can do the older motors like in the bumps but don't know about this one. Are they hard to tear down? Thanks again for the input

[Dragon]

It is an overhead cam motor and uses two different types of cam followers. A rocker type or a cup type.

[DuckRyder]

I know a guy who has bought 2 4-runners with bad 3.0s, and put junk yard motors in both of them and sold them at a profit, even after paying 1200-1500 for the motor.

Sounds like a pattern to me...

[towtruckerfour]

Thanks for the help guys. Toyotas are not my thing. My son has read that the 3.4 bolts up the same and is a better motor. I guess there is some wiring changes to do though. God I love our bumps. At least there is room to work in there in our trucks.

[390F100]

The 3.0 i believe is the older version of the 3.4, yes the 3.4 is darn near bullet proof and is a great powerplant. the 3.o engine code is a 3vz-e I believe but dont quote me on that, and dang near every toyota engine is great but it's all in how it has been taken care of. My 5sfe engine in my 01 camry looks brand new internally with 190k on it, but I have done exceptional maintenance on it too. In my opinion, if the 3.0 is knocking and blowing white smoke and the 3.4 is a "direct swap" do it!!! As you can see i'm a fan of toyota it's all I own other than my bikes..

390

[TheMadScientist]

3.0 3vz engines are famous for head gaskets going bad. Probably got antifreeze in the oil pan and washed out the bearings, causing the knocking sound. I have a pile of those 3.0s that all knock that I've replaced out of other peoples toyotas. If you ask me the 3.4L 5vz is a way better engine and will bolt into your truck if you use the 3vz motor mounts. And a litle bit of electrical wiring. I'm known as the toyota god around here and have owned about a hundred different trucks and 4runners.

[Lar4t9r]

I have a 1988 4runner, owned since new and it has 200,000 miles on the clock. The 3vze engine blew a head gasket in 1996, had to have the engine rebuilt. Didn't think about a recall at the time and my mechanic didn't mention it either. Several months after the rebuild, found out about factory recall for the head gaskets, but they wouldn't reimburse me. Said I should have brought to the dealer. My point is, except for the head gasket, it's been a good engine, but I don't beat the crap out of it.

[willowbilly3]

All of those V6s were back multiuple times on recalls for heads/head gaskets. You might want to check with you local dealer and see if yours is eligible still. Might be too late. Toyota also has campaigns which are like a recall except they don't notify anyone, they just do the fix if it comes in.
Have your vin ready and call them, might be worth the effort.