Motor prejudice

[JeffX]

I've always liked the 22re and 3.4l V6 in Toyota trucks. I also like the Nissan VG and VQ engines. However, I've always disliked the 3.0l (PU/4runner) because it doesn't seem to last.

I see plenty of people on this forum using the 3.0l engine, including performance mods. Am I misinformed? Is this engine good?

[Brody]

I've always liked the 22re and 3.4l V6 in Toyota trucks. I also like the Nissan VG and VQ engines. However, I've always disliked the 3.0l (PU/4runner) because it doesn't seem to last.

I see plenty of people on this forum using the 3.0l engine, including performance mods. Am I misinformed? Is this engine good?

Well, it kinda depends on who you talk to. The 3.0L (in Yota parlance called 3.Slow, Paperweight and other complimentary names) got a bad rep for blowing head gaskets. It is also built like most other Yota (or Nissan, or Isuzu, or Mitsubishi) engines with a really tight bottom end that will go 250k miles and more. I have had two of them and had no issues with them.

The things that I dislike (excluding Under Dog Racing, LC, etc) is that about the only things you can do to them for performance gains are an after market air intake and a better exhaust system with free flow mufflers and CATs. These will get you a seat of the pants power boost and gain one gear going up hills....but there it stops...unless you want to drop $4k on a rebuild/power/performance build. There is pretty much nothing else you can do...At that point, you may as well throw in a injected 350, 5.0 Ford, 283 stroker, 4.3 Vortex, 3.4L Yota, 4.7 Yota...yeah....on and on...

Neither Toyota nor TRD offer any real bolt on systems like a turbo or supercharger, though URD and LC and maybe one of the other Yota race people do....but again, why bother? For the money spent on this, you can do a super upgrade to a bigger engine with a better power curve that responds well to upgrades.

Central Foreign Auto Parts, who handle a lot of Toyotas, always are running sales on the 3.0L engines, selling them for $300-400 bucks. Steve Brownell, a friend of mine that works down there, says that they get a mess of these engines and can hardly give them away. Their usual price on an engine is around $1500...

[Haku]

Its one of the worse engines that Toyota have made. That said, a bad engine for Toyota seems to be the normal engine for a lot of other companies. Plenty of people get very high mileage out of them with no problems. That said, bigger engine then the 22re for barely any power gained, so I'd choose a 22re over it too. Definitely not an engine I would swap into a rig. I agree with Brody on that one.

JH

[Volcom]

3VZ (aka 3.0) is a decent motor. Low HP for being a 3 liter motor and gets horrible fuel mileage. They take up a crap-ton of room under the hood with tons of vacuum lines. 22RE's are pretty much rock solid but low on HP and is a low rev'ing engine. 5VZ (aka 3.4 L) make decent HP (190) and like to rev better than both. When I can afford it, I'm planning on swapping to the 5VZ over my freshly rebuilt (3000 miles maybe) 22RE. It just doesn't cut moving my 39.5" Iroks down the road. I know it's alot to ask for a small motor.

The bonus about the 22RE is the fuel mileage while on the trail. When I was in Moab 3 years ago with the rest of my group running 4.0's in Jeeps, I used half of the fuel they would use. If we ran a trail & they used a 1/4 tank, I went through an 1/8th.