Tacoma exhuast manifold cracks

[Joebackydmech]

Hi, I have a 1996 tacoma 2.7 L with 120k miles on it, its had the oil changed every 5 k miles or more. I noticed engine noise when the motor first starts, I removed the heat shield in front of the manifold and noticed several cracks. The Engine is only 1/2 through is life cycle. From looking at other reports online, I see this is a common problem. I'm considering a new '05 tacoma, but with the problems I've had with my '96, I wonder is toyota can make a reliable product? Mt truck is vodoo to work on. Its obvious they designed things in a way to increase mechanics shop time. I've always been able to fix my own cars. I decided to adjust the valves, after 1 hour of working on it and removing all the hoses and crap, I was able to get the valve cover off, them come to find out you need a special tool and shims to adjust the lash, I mesured all my clearances and have some intakes that are running at .006 clearance, the exhaust are all at least .010". I called a local mechanic and he wants $350 to do the job, he was very honest and told me when he worked at the toyota dealership in the past, they only changed 1 shim for every 1000 they measured, he said if its not missing and it runs ok, don't worry about it, he said with the # of miles on your car, the lash will not change more then .002" in the next 50k miles. So I think the next thing for me to do is to get a new manifold even though I think its a toyota defect.

[superjoe83]

Originally Posted by Joebackydmech

Hi, I have a 1996 tacoma 2.7 L with 120k miles on it, its had the oil changed every 5 k miles or more. I noticed engine noise when the motor first starts, I removed the heat shield in front of the manifold and noticed several cracks. The Engine is only 1/2 through is life cycle. From looking at other reports online, I see this is a common problem. I'm considering a new '05 tacoma, but with the problems I've had with my '96, I wonder is toyota can make a reliable product? Mt truck is vodoo to work on. Its obvious they designed things in a way to increase mechanics shop time. I've always been able to fix my own cars. I decided to adjust the valves, after 1 hour of working on it and removing all the hoses and crap, I was able to get the valve cover off, them come to find out you need a special tool and shims to adjust the lash, I mesured all my clearances and have some intakes that are running at .006 clearance, the exhaust are all at least .010". I called a local mechanic and he wants $350 to do the job, he was very honest and told me when he worked at the toyota dealership in the past, they only changed 1 shim for every 1000 they measured, he said if its not missing and it runs ok, don't worry about it, he said with the # of miles on your car, the lash will not change more then .002" in the next 50k miles. So I think the next thing for me to do is to get a new manifold even though I think its a toyota defect.

FYI, Toyota changed the 2.7 exhaust manifold in 00-01 to a tubular header like manifold, so the cracking problem is fixed

[Joebackydmech]

Originally Posted by superjoe83

FYI, Toyota changed the 2.7 exhaust manifold in 00-01 to a tubular header like manifold, so the cracking problem is fixed

Hey Thanks, I checked out and '05 at Thomason Toyota in Gladstone, I noticed they fixed the problem, I didn't know it went as far back as '00, glad they figured that out, we hope? I'm waiting for some more factory incentives to kick in to get at least 4k off of MSRP