My trucks have been so reliable and I am pretty good with the search function so Ive never needed to create an account or post until now. Good thing I guess…

The 3VZE in my 95 finally blew last week. My lady called me and said there was a HUGE white cloud of smoke following her home after dropping our daughter off at school. Has only been pulled around the side of the house since then, and sure enough, it's puking red out of the tailpipe pretty badly.

I will likely be saving the cash for a 3.4 swap in the next year or so, but MIGHT do the HG and possibly put this motor in my 91 at some point, so I'd like to hear tips for best storage to hopefully save the lower half. I also have a bad block that I got for cheap from a lady that wasn't so good about getting the oil changed, so I have some spare parts for the 3VZE too.

In the meantime, onto my question - do I park, drain the coolant and leave it empty, or refill with distilled water or? I just changed the oil and tuned it up with new plugs/wires and air filter to pass IM.

Should I squirt some oil down the spark plug holes and crank it over (by hand?) to wet and lube the cylinder walls to help prevent rust?

There is no coolant in the oil so I am hoping that it just blew the gasket back by the crossover in a water jacket but I won't know until I pull it sometime in the next year when I find a 3.4 donor.

Any help or tips appreciated and I'll surely be reading up over the next year or so on the 3.4 swap because I love this truck. It's my 4th 4Runner, my first was the 86 showroom model 22TRE with the digital dash and power everything. I'd love to find another one day and restore it. Miss that truck for sure.