pawelnator

Well, a while ago I saw a bumper sticker that read "if it ain't broke then fix it until it is." I should have taken those words to heart.

I just (almost) completed my Toyota rebuild/upgrade. I have a 1985 Toyota Pickup with a 22R. Below I'll try to highlight what I did to the pickup.

These are the modifications I performed to the engine:

Weber 32/36
Offenhauser dual plane intake
Doug Thorley header
Engnbldr 261 cam
Full desmog of engine

Besides this I went to crossover steering, added power steering and did the following:

Replaced head gasket
New head bolts installed
Replaced valve stem seals
New piston rings
Changed timing chain
New water pump
New oil pump
New rod and main bearings

When I had my head removed I had it resurfaced and had the valves checked. All looked good. I checked compression before taking things apart and was above 155psi in all cylinders. All my gaskets were from Engnbldr, I used Sealed Power rings and Clevite bearings

So end of last week I finally started up the vehicle. I probably had the engine running for about an hour total, and drove it about 2 miles around the block. I smelled my exhaust and it had a tinge of sweetness to it, so I was pretty worried. I also have a slight knock coming from the block, I hope it is a rod bearing I perhaps didn't torque down, but I still need to trouble shoot this, so I can report on this later...hopefully not piston slap.

My main concern is that I've now re-torn the engine apart as I was pretty sure it was the head gasket. I checked compression before doing this and cylinder 2 was at 140psi dry, 152psi oiled, while all other cylinders were above 160psi. My oil was slightly milky in color when I drained it. When I removed my header there was moisture in the cylinder 2 port.

However, upon inspecting the head gasket I couldn't see any evidence of a leak anywhere on the gasket or block and head surfaces. So it led me to wonder if there was any other culprits. Or perhaps in such a short period of time (~1 hr of the engine running) the gasket would degrade to show leaks?

I debated the intake manifold and if a leak between the ports could be causing coolant to be sucked into the cylinder, but then I think my compression should still be good...? Maybe someone can correct me if my understanding of this is incorrect.

Are there any other possibilties? I thought maybe an internal leak in the front cover, but then I'd expect all my cylinders to be plagued by coolant.

Also when first having the engine running I had exhaust shooting out a bolt hole by the header. The (crap design) gasket with the Doug Thorley header does not have a middle section, and there are three holes there for bolts. I assumed since there was no gasket that I would be alright putting only bolts in the outer two of these holes and left the middle empty. It looks like it must open to the exhaust ports for cylinders 2 and/or 3, or perhaps this might point to some problem with my head as I shouldn't have exhaust there? I plan to cut a piece of gasket place it between the header and head when I put the thing together.

Unfortunately I'm back at work for the week, and my truck is sitting 100 miles away. I'll be back to work on it this weekend. I removed the head with the intake manifold attached and don't think it is leaking, but if someone thinks it could be the culprit then I'll pull it apart too. I have ordered a new Toyota OEM head gasket and hope that I just had bad luck with the previous one. Any input if you have insight into an other causes that could lead to these symptoms would be very, very appreciated.

Thank you everyone!!!

j3h

When my head gasket went out, I had actually happened to check the oil just before I drove for about a half hour and white smoke started to appear while I was out. Checked it when I parked and it was milkshake. The oil looked fine before I left, no bubbles or anything so in my experience, yes its possible for it to happen that quickly. When I pulled my head off, a couple of the coolant ports in it were pitted out and larger than they were supposed to be, so it was obviously a problem that had been building up. I would look over your head and make sure all of the openings look like they should. Its possible whoever resurfaced your head may not have fixed those ports or missed something small. And this is probably preaching to the choir, but obviously making sure you torque the head bolts to spec. I assume your motor was fine before the rebuild and you weren't seeing water in the oil so definitely check over everything you touched, torque spec and gasket wise. Since cylinder 2 is the lowest compression wise, it doesn't surprise me that you are only seeing the moisture in the corresponding section of the header. I just wouldn't rule out any possibilities due to that.

pawelnator

Thanks for the reply. I looked over my head and block ports and the head looks great. The block has one coolant passage that has a little erosion but it seems very small, about 1 mm from the original outline, for about 3 mm of length.

The thing that does perhaps worry me is that I have lots of little dimples in my block. This is different than what I have seen on most posts that people call pitting. This is not from erosion (I believe) but actually the markings from the old head gasket. Basically a pattern from the cross pattern present in the head gasket. However, around the cylinders and ports where these is the solid metal on the gasket, this pattern is not evident. I'm debating trying JB weld to fix the one port and all these "dimples." The internet posts I've read about JB welding blocks basically all seem positive, but seem to be used for more serious issues. Oh well, I'd rather not have to pull the thing apart again.

I haven't worked on the engine as much as I had hoped this last week. For anyone who might be looking for a new/better gasket for the Dough Thorley header (i bought the 550y-c) I purchased this:


The original gasket has the heat shield metal triangle which you could modify, but I felt like I had to cut a lot of it to get rid of the metal in a way that would allow for even pressure when clamped. This gasket fit the flange perfectly, although the first one was damaged in shipping (bent) so I'm getting a replacement. Looks like it should work perfectly.

I'll update when I get something more done...