As mentioned, my nephews' 1st car. Non turbo '7MGE' 3.0l straight six, 24 valve, five speed, no ABS, with their fancy 'TEMS' adjustable suspension. Dark cherry almost black repaint in fair to almost good condition, power sunroof, 119k or thereabouts, cleanity-cleancleanclean rust wise. That means no rust btw 
Runs good, feels tight, firm clutch, good brakes, minor clunk in rearend probably a strut bushing my take. It's RWD with independent rear suspension. All in all an excellent first car, even if I'd prefer domestic as in panther.
I did some research on this as in a lot and ended up suggesting we retorque the head. Apparently the original head gasket was asbestos, when Toyota changed it they missed that the new material needed higher torque to NOT blow out. Factory was 58 ft/lbs, most suggestions were around 72-78.
So we did that (1st time I've ever used a torque wrench), changed most hoses, replaced the valve cover gaskets/grommets/bolts, cleaned and checked out a lot. Turns out you need to pull the throttle body and extension to the intake manifold to change wires and plugs, if I knew that I would've had new wires and plugs
As the wires were obviously changed recently I thought that would be a job for another day. Ah well. Had NKG 'R' plugs in it with a weird white corrosion/buildup on the outside of the outer electrode or whatever you call it, the part that bends to gap. Otherwise they looked OK. The gap on all of them was well over .06, should be .044, cleaned and regapped. Also there is a sensor that bolts into the intake manifold, it was filthy, cleaned it up too (anyone know what it is?). Anyway it runs better. Plugs, sensor or both. New wires and plugs soon. The cams were clean. I suspect this car was someones' baby.
There's a valley cover over the spark plugs. It's a fairly strange setup. There are large allen plugs that hold down the cover, that also double as stops for holes into the oil channels between cams. Odd methinks. Then on the bottom of the valley there are more of the same plugs that apparently go into the coolant channels. And they all leak so you get coolant and oil around the plugs. RTV'd the oil plugs but the coolants were too tight for me to use my (too small) standard allen wrench.
Nice feeling when what you do ends up needing done Ran out of time, so the timing belt/water pump change got booted a week or two. Then trans and diff oil.
I hate to admit it but this era of Toyotas were very well built and it does show. It seems like a quality engine. And it is fun to drive.
Pete
Runs good, feels tight, firm clutch, good brakes, minor clunk in rearend probably a strut bushing my take. It's RWD with independent rear suspension. All in all an excellent first car, even if I'd prefer domestic as in panther.
I did some research on this as in a lot and ended up suggesting we retorque the head. Apparently the original head gasket was asbestos, when Toyota changed it they missed that the new material needed higher torque to NOT blow out. Factory was 58 ft/lbs, most suggestions were around 72-78.
So we did that (1st time I've ever used a torque wrench), changed most hoses, replaced the valve cover gaskets/grommets/bolts, cleaned and checked out a lot. Turns out you need to pull the throttle body and extension to the intake manifold to change wires and plugs, if I knew that I would've had new wires and plugs
As the wires were obviously changed recently I thought that would be a job for another day. Ah well. Had NKG 'R' plugs in it with a weird white corrosion/buildup on the outside of the outer electrode or whatever you call it, the part that bends to gap. Otherwise they looked OK. The gap on all of them was well over .06, should be .044, cleaned and regapped. Also there is a sensor that bolts into the intake manifold, it was filthy, cleaned it up too (anyone know what it is?). Anyway it runs better. Plugs, sensor or both. New wires and plugs soon. The cams were clean. I suspect this car was someones' baby.There's a valley cover over the spark plugs. It's a fairly strange setup. There are large allen plugs that hold down the cover, that also double as stops for holes into the oil channels between cams. Odd methinks. Then on the bottom of the valley there are more of the same plugs that apparently go into the coolant channels. And they all leak so you get coolant and oil around the plugs. RTV'd the oil plugs but the coolants were too tight for me to use my (too small) standard allen wrench.
Nice feeling when what you do ends up needing done
Ran out of time, so the timing belt/water pump change got booted a week or two. Then trans and diff oil.I hate to admit it but this era of Toyotas were very well built and it does show. It seems like a quality engine. And it is fun to drive.
Pete
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