Tom W

Good post and highlight the part about holding the throttle open makes a big difference.

Not sure if this applies to yours but mine the blower runs first for a min or more then the burner lights something about a sail switch that has to sense air flow, I hardly ever use it uses to much gas and battery plus very noisy.

Good point about the air bags raising the rear confusing the valve

Even the latest and greatest, needs a little more info on the AC

I have a 9000 BTU roof unit and it barely does the job upper nineties and 100

Bon Ami I heard that story years ago, and tried it, you will be putting more than rings in it, it will mess up everything. You may have heard of dusting a eng Air filter with a hole in it in a dirty environment or not seated properly, Thats what happens with Bon Ami.

Sounds like you are on the right track, I added a vacume gauge and tack, sometimes it could be the fan clutch or locking torque converter giving one the fell of something changing. I had the heads off and wouldn't wish that on anyone with the eng in the veh. How did you get several shims out with out removing the cams, my experience was if a shim was removed it couldn't be rotated without the the cam hitting the side of the bucket without the shim in?, I had one tight and used plate glass and valve grinding compound to take it down, toyota price is $13 for one shim. Whats BTW? Tom

Derek up north, mentioned the CCW rotation wouldn't that be fun driving 1low gear all day or driving backwards with 4 gears

I've done mine and the info I got was its a non interference, But if it breaks and your about 4000rpm who knows what could happen. I did the crank and cam seals & water pump same time.

Their's nothing different about doing the adj just need a tool to compress the buckets or lifters to remove the shim if they were to tight it would be a thinner shim The tool is not expensive can be found on line. There is a couple hrs labor the remove the stuff on top to get to the valve covers.The shims are pricy from Toyota most of them will be in spec's anyway,when a shim is removed don't turn eng over the Cam will hit the side of the bucket.

You need a digital volt meter, so you know what's going on, the converter mine has a adjustment for the charging rate but yours shouldn't have changed are all the cells topped out with water sometimes cells with low water will cause over a charging condition. Yours should have a solinod to allow the alternator to charge it with Eng running. Volt meter!!!!!! it doesn't have to be a expensive one.

Just get a after market from auto parts store, that's what I did, I was wondering is it in over drive or not? is it the fan clutch making the extra noise? or the lockup converter locked or not now I know and on grades how much am I winding it up.

Just another thought we had a older ford with computer controlled carb & distributor would have been $$$ to fix, used a older point type distributor,coil,balast resister,and a bypass around the resister for starting and carb , it ran better then I had for years.

If these are the type that have pull rings to open them,take the rings off and push the valve out thru the bottom and replace the O rings.

A lot better having a little valve noise then too tight.Too tight will burn valves.

I done them on the v6 I thought it was a pita getting the crossover tube between the exhaust manifolds is a matter of some luck and skinned knuckles if you can't get it off in the veh the eng would have to be slid forward or removed and their is a bunch of stuff to come off the top, unless it would be possible to remove both Hds at the same time, anyone that says this is a piece of cake let them do it.

As I remember I took the pull rings off and they slide out the bottom a lot easier than finding something that has to be re-plumed, I think I found the o rings at a fuel inj repair place,use a caliber to measure them some are close and won't work. I had a similar problem with the shower valves and did something similar. A side note mine has 4 drain valves the other two look like a three way valve and also drain out the bottom.

I have the same unit had the same problem with the valves took them apart and replaced the O ring's which were a little hard to find. The original valves don't seem to be available.

Their is a lot of labor for this job,the lifters usually don't need replacement their not hydraulic they have a shim for adjustment usually when they do the heads in a machine shop they cut the ends of the stems to match the old shims which don't wear much they are very hard metal. There will be other things that show up exhaust manifolds warp and can be machined not to costly, the timing belt has to be removed might as well replace it if there's some mileage on it, if its original its over due anyway. Piston rings on this eng if it hasn't been run hot are probably still ok. Some of the v6's had a head gasket problem so get quality gaskets Toyota says that the head bolts don't need to be replaced when reinstalling heads but probably is a good thing to do, they use degrees to torque them it would be a lot of torque.

It's possible the plastic bushing low cost and easy fix could be the problem, there are several small pieces when you pull the shift lever out to check it.I'd sure look at this before looking for a trans.

Mine's a 92 it does have a cold start Injector if it was leaking all the time it would be rich, but I would think it would be a little hard starting when it is warm ie like a choke being closed to much.I took out the injector's and had them cleaned the cold start injector was plugged and not working & it was starting ok with out it, but I wasn't starting it in extremely cold weather.I would try to find out why the check eng light came on Sometimes a partly clogged converter will cause this,checking with a temp gun the temp going into the converter will be lower. Downstream about 100deg hotter a least the first converter since their are 2 in line this can be checked at idle.

Mine has 2 catalytic converters in line also and a lot more miles, the check eng light sounds like somethings going on, the list is long, Air filter Plugs, plugs wires the cold start injector maybe leaking dragging brakes trans not going into OD, Compression should be checked. If your sure about the gas mileage that is a indicator, and the rich smell. Mine the gas mileage varies a lot sometimes under 12 and close to 15 sometimes but averaged out 13.75

Mine's a 92 averaged out 13.75 Use the OD as much as possible and drive about 60 mph, you didn't mention how many miles on the unit, Converter??

I would have 2nd thoughts about removing the AC Rv's don't have a lot of insulation if your parked in the sun on a hot day you will need it.

If it is a valve noise there simple enough to check, of course taking all the stuff off the top of the eng is time comsuming just to get to the valve covers, they use shims for adjustment. If yours is getting normal gas mileage 12 to 14mpg I would think its not a serious problem. If you plan on doing this you could order a tool to compress the lifter so the shim can be removed & replaced.