Hasbeen

I am going to start with the engine, move onto the tranny and axels, then suspension for starters. I don't really have a deadline, its going to depend on cash flow and the wifey's tolerance. I've never done anything like this but I've always loved toyotas and know my way around a wrench a bit. What concerns me is my lack of knowedge and experience with cars.

I've been reading yotatech for months now while I was deciding on which truck to buy. I was thinking that posting pics during the project would be an excellent way for me to keep track of my progress, that and I can use the pics as a reference for reassembly. I've got a FSM, but I gotta say the build up post's on this forum combined with the feedback from members has been far more beneficial and reassuring.

Any advice, or criticisms would be welcomed openly as I truly value feedback. More importantly feel free to laugh at my mistakes as I am sure there will be many.

Before I laid my hands on her.


Power stearing, alternator, and distributor off.


Intake off.


Exhaust off, most hoses disconnected. This is where I am at now. I wanted to take the valve cover off to check it out.


So I am nearly ready to yank it out. I need to use the starter trick to get the main pulley off, then she'll be just about ready. I think I am going to have to rent a cherry picker. Going to call Orientengine tomorrow.

drew303

you can get cherrypickers from equipment rental places for like $15 a day if that.

fyi

That engine bay is to damn clean =P goodluck

slacker

iTrader: (1)

a helpfull hint on installation ..

unplug the harness at the computer (pass kick panel) and pull the harness out threw the firewall .. then you could have pulled the engine as 1 piece .


on install , you can build the engine complete , and just drop it back in .

hope that helps .

EvaMonky

Wow that is a clean engine bay.

Good luck with all that!!

You can see my engine buildup and replacement here.. http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t91/Z0RACK25s_Baby/

Who knows you might see something that helps you? You'll noticed I didn't replace my A/C pump... that's gonna be an air compressor soon .

I would love to see more pics of the rest of the truck too.

Hasbeen

School started today but luckily I managed to wake up at a decent hour so I had time to go rent a puller and yank out the engine. Things went aswell as I can expect I suppose, though the top 2 tranny bolts were a little frustrating. I kept thinking about how much easier it would have been if I could have a pal holding my socket on the bolts while I turn the ratchet and extensions from below. Socket would come off or the swivel would buckle or I would bust a knuckle when it slipped.

With school now though things will slow down, I know, they aren't really plugging along as it stands But that'll give me time to order good parts clean up the engine bay(maybe it's not as clean as the pics look?) paint some stuff, and things like that.

A couple pics, I am thinking doing the throw out bearing would be smart, prolly clutch too.


Outski's


I'll try to get some more when I roll it out to clean some stuff.

Hasbeen

Been a minute... 351 pages of a calc book in 8 total school days can set a fella back. Anyhow, got the new motor from Orientengine. Very clean and well put together from what I could tell. Been cleaning stuff up and swapping it over to the new engine. Some pics of where I am at now:

New motor, damn it looks good


Knowles Pulling the water pump off the old motor(even keeping track of where the bolts go with his cardboard). Thanks man!


Lower intake on, most brackets and such(grease is blurring the pic).

Hasbeen

I had a couple questions though... As far as torqing goes, I am reading my FSM and it appears that the new head on this thing is not approving of the factory torque values. I have chased all my bolts and the threads in the head feel clean as a whistle when I am feeding the chased bolts in. But I pulled the threads out of one of the lower intake manifold holes while trying to torque it to the FSM value of 14 ft. lbs.(a Heli coli fixed this).

Do you guys just get the bolts that feed into the head good and tight? I am 95 percent certain that my torque wrenches are calibrated(I have two and both do this). I am having the same issue with the new exhaust posts I am installing. The FSM says 33 ft. lbs. but anymore than about 23 and it feels like the threads are giving out.

Other than that this has been smooth sailing. I have a new clutch kit(Aisin), fuel filter, and oil filter, been cleaning as much up as I can but anything else I should do while this beast is out? Thanks for any help.

DaveInDenver

I felt the same things when I assembled my engine, I think I know what you mean. The exhaust nuts I have never taken to the full torque and end up at about 25 ft-lb like you. You are crushing the gasket, so some of that squishy feeling I think comes from that. But I do a lower torque, drive the truck for a while and recheck all the nuts. I find that the exhaust side tends to need a re-torque anyway and so I'll run them all to about 20 or 25 ft-lb initially and then about 500 miles later I'll hit them all at 25 to 30 ft-lb and that has been good for me. The other bolts into the head I did to the factory spec minus 20% because I used anti seize on them all. I use a 3/8" micro torque wrench that reads in inch pounds (it does 25 to 250 inch pounds, so roughly 2 to 20 ft-lb) . If you are using a regular torque (something like 10 to 80 ft lb) wrench it's possible that you have a lot of error at 14 ft-lb, since this would be at the very lower limit. I didn't feel that the actual torque isn't as important as having even torque, particularly on manifolds. If the bolts are unevenly torqued, then the mating surfaces may not sit flat. But the actual torque on the bolt doesn't matter much, it just needs to be enough to hold things tight and not back out. So 10 or 12 or 16 or whatever, just make them all the same. You can do them by feel, too. Your arm is actually pretty accurate at these lower torques. If you use the same socket wrench and snug them all so that they feel about the same, you might be surprised at how close you are. Plus you can get a better feel for how the bolt is tightening down and will avoid stripping the threads or breaking a bolt.

Good work otherwise! Smart move on the clutch, doing it now is a lot less work than in a year or something. Take the time to clean the firewall and bellhousing, paint stuff that needs it. Mostly I think you've got it covered. I had the radiator gone through, cleaned and painted.

People gave me the same advice as slacker, to pull the engine harness at the ECU and yank the whole thing. This makes sense, but I found on putting the engine back in that having it full assembled was more a pain. It wants to tip to the intake side with all the intake stuff installed. So I would next time leave the big plenum off (the part that says EFI) and if you do that, rewiring the engine isn't hard. I would definitely plumb the fuel and coolant as much as possible on the engine stand and make final connections to the radiator and fuel tank line at the end. But as long as everything is labeled and you have photos to reference, installation isn't hard. See if you can rope in a friend to help, it'll make getting the transmission stabbed into the engine easier with extra hands.

Hasbeen

Motor is installed!



And a pic of the truck as someone had asked for one:

Hasbeen

Re-installing wasn't horribly difficult but it did have its challenges. I bought a brand new bottle of locktite for my flywheel. Hadn't used it yet so I opened it up only to find it completely F'ing empty!!! Brand new still in the box, that didn't look damaged what so ever. Oh man was I bent! I had to drive 30 minutes to a 24 hour walmart to get more(shouldn't have started so late).

I could have done better with my labeling of some of the wire connectors but things kind of seemed to want to go to their home.

So currently she's running, albeit not very well. I managed to get the timing fairly close from the get go as it fired up almost directly. It runs good enough to not require baby sitting, but it's fairly rough and sounds like its missing. I haven't had a chance yet but I am going to have to start going through the FSM trouble shooting guides looking at emissions and ignition stuff.

It's in there, I am happy, but now I am going to need to start digging into stuff I don't really understand. I was irrationally expecting it to kind of bolt in and run well, I know... dumb. I guess I am overly optimistic.

mehret

You should always expect to encounter problems. I used to have the same mentality; that everything would work upon first try. After several experiences, I finally came to the realization that nothing ever goes as planned and to always expect the worse. All you can do is chalk it up as a learning experience and move on.

navyredneck

Beautiful truck. Where did you get the engine from?

Having an extended cab must be really, really nice...

Hasbeen

Thanks bro. The engine is from orient engines.

Hope I'll have a little time tonight to look at it.

Hasbeen

Well I jumped the E1 to TE1 terminals and set the timing to 5 BTDC. After pulling the jumper she climbed back up and now is actually running pretty dang good. Took her for a little spin and it got up and went as best as could be expected.

Its still running slightly rough and vibrates a bit. A couple things I have noticed, its got an exhaust leak somewhere between the manifold and the cat. The cat it self looks like its been put through hell. So I just ordered a header from LCE, and I am going to probably take that and a new cat to a shop and have them bend me up a new 2.25" system once it arrives, the muffler looks fairly new.

How much would an exhaust leak in that area disrupt a smooth idle? I just hope I am on the right track here. I want her to purr