The 3.0 is an entirely different engine. It was OK for it's time. If you are thinking of the problem it had with leaking head gaskets, that wasn't an unusual problem for engines built in the late 80s through the 90s. I think all the car manufacturers had problems with leaking head gaskets at some point, and the 4.0 had the problem in the mid-90s. I think it was caused by phasing out asbestos and hotter engine temperatures.
Making a claim against Japanese 4 cylinders is vague. Overall, I think most of them were very reliable.
I don't have any problems with any of the Cologne V6 engines. They were all solid. The only real issues I can think of was up to the 2.8, the original timing gear set that was passed down from the v4 had a cam gear that where the gears were made of some plastic-type material that would fatigue by about 60K miles. Supposedly, the V4 and the V6 were among the first engines that were mass-produced, so my thinking is that the pressed on plastic gear thing was the fastest means of producing the cam gear at the time, and 60K miles were high-mileage in that era. The North American version of the 2.8 had a common issue with the exhaust valve seats cracking due to a hot spot on the head, but I never heard of an outright failure from this. The crack just showed up but didn't get any worse at some point. Some of the 4.0s had an issue with the timing chain guides, but a revision was done to correct that problem. I've had a lot of fun with these engines over the years. I've rebuilt or worked on every version except the 2.9L (I never owned one). I also rebuilt a 2.3L version of it. I knew someone years ago who liked to use both the V4 and the V6 in kit cars and helped him pull several V4s out of Sonetts in Pick'n'Pull and rebuilt them. The V4 was identical to the V6 in those years, with the only difference being the number of cylinders and piston diameters. Most of the other parts were interchangeable with the V6 up to the 2.6L version.
Your youtube link is unavailable.
I wasnt so much calling out the reliabilty of the foreign 4 bangers...because back when these things were new no one really gave two thoughts to it as they rolled it off the lot.
I was more talking about power, which woulda and coulda been a selling point for the truck.
Say what you want about the 2.9 (or 2.8 for that matter), but next to a 20/22R or whatever nissan was running the little colonges were pretty damn gutsy. Even the 2.0/2.3L limas were pretty damn weak next to the 2.8/2.9.
The 2.0 made what? 78hp/98ftlbs?
The 2.3 made what? 88hp/110ftlbs?
The 2.8 beats the 2.0 by 42hp and 52ftlbs and the 2.3 by 32hp and 40ftlbs.
The 2.9 smacks everything beating the 2.0 by 62hp and 72ftlbs, the 2.3 by 52hp and 60ftlbs, and the 2.8 by 20 hp and 20ftlbs.
Im not sure what nissan/yota had back then for power, but i highly doubt they even beat the limas.
The 3.0 beats the 2.9 for reliabilty (although in my findings ive never really had any serious issues with the 2.9), but alot of people have, but alot of people also had 3.0 issues.
If you drive two similar trucks with the 2.9 and 3.0 youll see what im saying about power. I think the 3.0 has the advantage once you get up in the higher revvs and speeds, but 1st thru 3rd i will almost stake anything that 2.9 is gonna embarass it.