Toyota 3.0

Tobers

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Location
durham
ok so I have heard some bad things about the 3.0 V6... what are the problems and is it really that bad, also from personal experience what's the gas milage like?

thanks
 
The motor suffered from headgasket issues. As if it has been changed before. Mind you this doesnt happen to everyone. I had a 3.0 with over 236K and it ran fine. If the truck has a manual tranny it is a bit more bearable. But the engine is slow, not real quick. A bit quicker than the 4cyl. That auto will make it even slower. The gas milage is not the greatest, about 17-19, I got abotu 19-20, but i drove slow and had a manual. There is alot of disdain for it, but i have had good luck with mine and didnt mind it being slow. I even towed my jeep to campouts with it in Florida, but that was flatland. Many will tell you to swap out to a later v6, which is fine, but if the motor works keep it till it dies, then swap.
 
X2 on the headgasket issues. They also have problems with the way overpriced/problematic fan bracket/timing cover. The mounts to the timing cover on the 3.0. The bearing that allows it turn is not replacable. You have to replace the whole cover. It runs around $400.00. I personally hate the 3.0. My friends toyota has been through 3 of them now. If he was not still in Ca. it would already have a 4.3 chevy or a late model yota motor in it.
 
They pretty much suck all the way around. They are full of problems. Head gaskets as said before were a big problem and sometimes after they were changed you could never get it to run right again. The motor is full of vacuum lines that crack and break if you try to do any repair at all to the engine. The gas mileage sucks, they're noisy and make no power. BUT, you either get one that has no problems or one that is ful of them, there seems to be no in between. I would take a 22re over that motor any day of the week.
 
What are you doing? Buying a motor, or a rig with it? IF it is a rig, check out the motor like any other used vehicle. If it is just a motor and you want to swap it in, in place of a 22re, then just hold out for a 3.4
 
no I'm looking to buy a 1st gen 4runner, it just seems there are a lot of good deals on the V6 models
 
IF you can get it cheap enough i wouldnt worry so much. daily driver? weekend warrior? Most of those trucks are a v6. just ask alot of questions about the motor and if it had timing belt mainenanct. And i forget what year the headgasket issues were fixed. There was a recall from Toyota about the headgasket. If i remember it was the torque specs on the head bolts. For the early ones they were not tightened tight enough.
 
Tobers said:
so there is no redeeming quality... not even sort of worth dealing with
Click to expand...

You get a really sweet chrome V6 badge for your grill.:flipoff2:

Seriously, save yourself some major frustration and look elsewhere. I am literally dealing with a motor issue after every run. The motor just can't take the abuse of rock crawling.
 
I am one of the people that have never had a single problem with my 3.0. I have 180K miles, 80K of them being very hard miles, literally I have tried to blow it up almost everytime i take it out, I have towed with, sand wheeling, crawling, mud bogging, pulled with it and I can say for a fact it has spent a lot of its life above redline. It has never left me on the side of the road, it has never even had one single problem, seriously not once, nothing. I havent even had to replace the alternator or starter. If I didnt see all the internet threads about how terrible the 3.0 is, I would have never known. As far as performance, its quick, with normal tire size/gears its faster than my 1500. I cant say enough about how good a 3.0 is... but facing reality most people say they suck.
 
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