Topic: Toyota Engine Discusion and POLL

[weirdtimes_7]

This is something i want to start, a discusion on what ya'lls favorite engine for the Toyota is. I am a newbe at this who four wheeling community, i'm not saying that i haven'ty four wheeled before, but i am new to the modification and suspension side of things.

So here is my question to start the whole thing off: WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE THE 3.0L TOYOTA ENGINE??? What is so bad about it?? Please tell me, i really want to know...

And thank you for your opinions and veiw's, along with your participation....

military_stang

[S-M-R-T]

I like the 3.4 myself. Powerful, reliable, and easier to work on. The 22re is popular cause they are common and easy to work on.  Not much in the power dept though. 

There is nothing wrong with the 3.0 per say.  It is more like there isn't much right about it.  The engine is not gutless but isn't a powerhouse either, especially for its size.  It isn't anything special in the fuel economy area either.  For me the biggest downside is that it is a pregnant dog to work on for the most part.  They got a bad rap for the head gasket thing but I hear far more 22re head gasket stories then I do 3.0 stories.  One thing I will say about it is that it revs smooth.  If you break traction the 3.0 will rev from 2500-6000rpm in the blink of an eye.  Just don't expect to see any more power to come out when it does.  I am not so dissapointed by the 3.0 that I am in a hurry to get rid of it, however I don't like it enough to spend a dime on it if anything major goes wrong.  I will be getting something else to replace it.

 

[boggerunner]

hey where is the 7mge, or 2jze? or even the 1ktze?

[BUDDERS]

Personally I dislike the 3.0 because they are hard to work on.  I guess I am just burned out on doing headgaskes on them.  Durring the week before thanksgiving we had 5 of them torn down in the shop for various reasons (headgaskets, rod through the side of block, valve jobs, cracked heads) and that was what we saw from those in 1 week at the Toyota dealer I work for. 

I'm in the middle of the longest 3rz conversion myself, mainly because of my budget.  If I had the dough though, I would have gone with a 1uz-fe v8 from a lexus with a auto trans.  I love those engines!  I used to work for lexus and saw very few problems with those.  I don't think I have ever seen a bottom end blow up on one - they have 6 bolt mains, aluminum block, DOHC with multi-valve heads.  In fact,  I don't even recall having to pull the heads off of one.   

[BLACKDOG]

There is nothing wrong with the 3.0 per say.  It is more like there isn't much right about it. 
 

This pretty much sums it up.  They're overweight, underpowered, had some head problems,and are one of toyota's if not toyota's worst motor.  However, seeing as toyota's worst motor still gets 200-300K before dropping dead is a testament to toyota quality.  I've gone through 3 motors in 2 years, I'm still on the third, and its got 220K on it now.  Other two crapped out at about 185K (cracked block on #1, blown heads on #2) 

They are a PITA to work on, but I've got a 3: body lift, so that really helps.  Not sure if I could work on it without it.  My g/f's brother has the same truck but w/o the body lift, and when he did his heads, it took some creative positioning to get everything back in.


I've discovered that headwise, they're easier to replace than to do the heads