Paulsky

I'm am doing my head gasket for the first time (btw these forums are great info) and have been discussing over beers the feasibility of changing my aluminum 22re to a iron one of the same configuration (can't remember the exact engine classifier - 22 r maybe - it's from an early 80's 4 runner). Is this advisable? If so, are there any cautions, considerations, etc? The reason for this would be to have similar metals that expand at similar rates and hopefully the gasket will survive for the remaining life span of the truck...or this is the theory at least Engine has 320, 000 km on it.

Also, would I be an idiot to not do a complete valve job, beyond superficial cleaning? I mean is it necessary? Or in other words, do you guys make jokes about people who replace head gaskets without doing valve jobs?

Also, I am noting a pinkish white film on all of my valve heads (combustion side) except for one. Could this indicate coolant leak? Spark plugs had the same color. There is also a buildup of friable white crud on top of my number 3 piston. I'm guessing that this is a sign of mineral or water related crud. The Number 6 head bolt was real real really (I mean real) seized up and hard to turn out of there. Thought it was cross threaded at first but we're thinking that it's been exposed to water/heat and that's why it was fairly seized (thanks for not snapping - yeah )

One last thing...not horribly important but there is a wire on my intake manifold side, going into the engine block. It has a nut encircling it. I've managed to pull my intake manifold enough aside to remove the head but the wire is in the way and I can't pull it out of the engine compartment completely. Is this the knock sensor or any idea what it is? I don't know if I need to take it off but inspecting the manifold would be a lot easier if I could figure how it comes out. I can't pull it out. It just stares back at me with this defiant look. I think its mocking me.

Anyhow, thanks for reading and any insight, useful rants that stay somewhat on topic, bitting sarcasm that overcoats a gem of wisdom, etc, would be most appreciated. Cheers!

CoedNaked

If you got 320,000 km's on your truck (200,000 miles) and it's your first time opening it up, that's pretty decent. You might want to, at this stage, consider rebuilding the entire engine though "while you're down there," and a valve job in my opinion is something that you might as well do while you're in there as well just so it's down only once, not a bunch of times should something happen down the road. I have never personally heard of anyone trying to source a cast iron head for these trucks. Maybe they are out there, but not from what I've seen. The people to talk to would be LC Engineering as they specialize in these engines.

Personally I think you should just get a quality rebuild done using OEM parts and keep maintaining it to the tits. Many may comment that you might want to consider a few performance parts to add while you're in there and I agree with them if you can spare the cash.

My opinions of course.

MMA_Alex

Might as well do the whole rebuild while you're in there unless you're only looking to get another 50-100k miles.

head swap info

Paulsky

Thanks for the info. I don't want to compromise fuel economy much but any performance upgrade suggestions would be welcome.