Jerry Forrester

Things I learned while doing a Head Gasket replacement on my 1994 Toyota PU 22R-E engine.

When it came time to replace the head gasket on my 1994 Toyota PU with a 22R-E engine I couldn’t find a good guide. The Chilton Repair manual is good, but it leaves a lot of stuff out.

I am writing this step by step guide after the fact. Hoping it will save someone from the mistakes I made during the teardown.

My truck is a five speed without cruise control. Your vehicle may have different accessories but you should find these instructions helpful.

This truck had new timing chain, sprockets, chain guides and oil pump installed 30,000 miles ago, so the timing cover did not need to come off.

If any of you experienced guys and gals see something I left out, or got out of sequence, let me know either by PM or through the forum and I will edit it.



1. Using your favorite engine cleaner/degreaser, clean the engine compartment. Including underside of hood, both inner fenders, firewall and engine.
2. Drain the coolant from the radiator and the block and do not reinstall the block drain plug at this time.
3. Remove the battery, battery hold down and plastic tray.
4. Clean and paint the area where battery was with semi-gloss black paint.
5. Clean and paint the battery hold down with semi-gloss black paint.
6. Buy a head gasket (valve grind) set.
7. Paint both sides of the head gasket with silver paint.

Underneath The Truck.

8. Drain the engine oil.
9. Remove the starter, fuel filter, fuel filter bracket and oil pressure sender.
10. Unbolt the clamp that holds the header pipe to the bell housing bracket and slide clamp off the bracket leaving the clamp loosely hanging on the exhaust pipe .
11. Remove the 180 degree hose from the intake and water pump.
12. Remove the small by-pass hose.
13. Remove the nuts that hold the heater hose pipe the intake.
14. Remove the bolts that hold the PAIR pipe to the intake.

On Top Of The Engine.

15. Remove the oil dipstick.
16. Remove the pipes that cross from the air cleaner to the air plenum.
17. Disconnect the throttle cable and housing and lay it on the driver side inner fender.
18. Remove the upper radiator hose and the thermostat housing.
19. Cut the tape holding the ECM wiring harness to the plastic mount on the heater control valve and remove the 3 heater hoses and heater control valve.
20. Remove the exhaust manifold shield.
21. Remove PAIR manifold.
22. Unbolt the exhaust manifold from the head and pull it away from the head.
23. Relieve the tension on the power steering belt.
24. Remove the 4 bolts that attach the power steering pump to the head.
25. Remove the 2 bolts that hold the heater water pipe and the PAIR pipe to the back of the head.
26. Remove the spark plugs.
27. Mark the distributor to head joint with a center punch so when you reinstall the distributor you can place it back in the same exact spot.
28. Disconnect the distributor power feed, remove the distributor and lay it on the driver side inner fender.
29. Disconnect the two vacuum hoses from the power steering pump and lay them over on top of the plenum.
30. Remove the brake booster vacuum hose.
31. Remove the PCV hose.
32. Remove the valve cover breather hose.
33. Remove the two bolts and one nut that holds the EGR valve to the head and the two bolts that holds it to the plenum and pull it away from the head.
34. Remove the four valve cover nuts and screw the four rubber/steel washer/seal from the valve cover mounting studs, remove the valve cover.
35. Turn the engine to TDC so that both valves on number one cylinder are closed and note which two valves are open. Turn engine 180 degrees.
36. Completely back off the adjustment of the two valves you noted in the previous step.
37. Turn the engine 180 degrees to TDC #1 cylinder, compression stroke.
38. Use three zip ties and tie the timing chain to the cam sprocket at 10, 12 and 2 O’clock.
39. Remove the distributor drive gear from the camshaft.
40. Remove the cam sprocket from the cam and let it rest down on the guides.
41. Disconnect the wiring harness from the ECM and ignition module on the driver side inner fender, cut the tape that holds the wiring harness to the last three plastic mounts and lay it over on the passenger side inner fender.
42. Disconnect the fuel supply line from the plenum. There are two washers on this banjo fitting, don’t lose them, they don’t come in the gasket set, I reused my old ones.
43. Unbolt the plenum from the intake. Remove the bolt from the brace bolted to the bottom of the plenum.
43a. Unbolt the bracket that holds the VSV's ftom the valve cover.
44. Unbolt the intake from the head, this has to be done from above and below the engine. There’s one allen head bolt, it takes a 6MM 3/8th inch drive allen.
45. Pull the intake manifold from the head and tie it away from the head. I used a bungee hooked to the intake and stretched over the passenger fender to the wheel well lip.
46. Remove the head bolts per the instruction in the repair manual.
47. Remove the head and rocker assembly.
48. Retrieve the heater and the PAIR pipes from the back of the engine.
49. Using high pressure water, flush the block’s water jacket through the holes in the top of the block. Don’t worry about getting water on top of the pistons and in the crank case, we’re going to flush the crank case later, besides it already had water in the crank case, that’s why we’re doing the HG job.
50. Dry the water off the top of the pistons.
51. Remove plate off back of head.
52. Remove the rocker assembly from the head.
53. Have the head resurfaced.
54. Clean all gasket surfaces.
55. The heater pipe that connects to the bottom of the intake manifold doesn't take a gasket. It takes an o-ring and it does not come in the Fel-Pro gasket set.
56. Clean all parts, nuts, bolts and washers including the head and block. Pay particular attention to the head bolt holes in the head and get all the carbon out of them.

Underneath The Truck Again.

57. Support the truck on jack stands so that it leans a little to the passenger side.
58. Remove the oil drain plug using a pan to catch the water you got in the crank case when you flushed the water jacket.



59. Pour one gallon of kerosene down the timing chain housing.
60. Clean the head bolt holes in the block
61. Using a clean head bolt, make sure you can screw the head bolt all the way to the bottom of the hole with your fingers. If you can’t, you don’t have the threads clean enough.
62. Using engine assembly lube, coat the cam lobes, rockers, and shaft, turning the cam as needed to coat all the lobes all the way around. You may want to remove the cam journal caps and coat the journals, I didn’t.
63. Turn the cam so that both valves on #1 cylinder are closed. This puts the cam sprocket dowel pin at 12 o’clock.
64. Using the new head gasket, install the head and rocker assembly using the repair manual torqueing procedure.
65. Lay the heater and PAIR pipes down behind the back of the head.
66. Using a new gasket, bolt the exhaust manifold back onto the head.
67. Using new gaskets, bolt the PAIR manifold back onto the exhaust manifold.
68. Bolt the exhaust manifold shield back in place.
69. Using a new gasket, bolt the intake manifold back onto the head.
70. Using a new gasket, bolt the plenum back onto the intake manifold.
71. Reattach the brace to the bottom of the plenum.
72. Using two new gaskets, reinstall the EGR valve.

Underneath The Truck Again.

73. Install the oil pan drain plug.
74. Using a new o-ring, attach the heater pipe to the bottom of the intake.
75. Using a new gasket, bolt the PAIR pipe to the bottom of the intake.
76. Install a new 180 degree water hose on the bottom of the intake and water pump.
77. Install a new by-pass hose.
78. Install the fuel filter mounting bracket.
79. Install a new fuel filter with the four new washers for the banjo fittings.
80. Install the new oil filter.
81. Install the oil pressure sending unit.
82. Reattach the header pipe clamp onto the bell housing bracket.

On Top Of The Engine Again.

83. Bolt the heater and PAIR pipe mount brackets to the back of the head.
84. Hook the ECM and ignition module wiring harness back up.
85. While pulling up on the cam gear, using a lug wrench/tire iron push the cam chain tensioner back and put the sprocket onto the cam.
86. Install the distributor drive gear.
87. Reattach the power steering pump to the head.
88. Tighten the power steering belt.
89. Take the cap off the distributor and start the distributor into the distributor hole. Set the rotor to the twelve o’clock position, push the distributor the rest of the way in. The rotor button should now be pointing to the ten o’clock position.
90. Set the distributor so that the marks you made with a center punch line up.
91. Tighten the distributor down.
92. Reconnect the distributor electrical connection.
93. Install the oil dipstick.
94. Remove the zip ties from the timing chain and sprocket.
95. Adjust the valves according to the repair manual.
96. Pour four and one half quarts of your favorite engine oil all over the rocker assembly and timing chain and gears and down into the crank case.
97. Using a new gasket and new valve cover retaining stud seals, install the valve cover.
98. Install three new heater hoses and the heater valve.
99. Use zip ties to attach the ECM wiring harness to the four plastic mounts, two to each mount.
100. Reattach throttle cable and housing.
101. Install the power brake booster vacuum hose.
102. Install the PCV hose.
103. Install the valve cover breather hose.
104. Reattach the two vacuum hoses to the power steering pump.
105. Install the block’s coolant drain plug.
106. Install the battery.
107. Disconnect the coil wire from the coil.
108. Sit in the driver’s seat and using the starter, spin the engine until the oil pressure light goes out.
109. Reconnect the coil wire to the coil.
110. Install the new spark plugs. Do not forget the anti-seize.
111. Using a new gasket and thermostat, install the thermostat housing and upper radiator hose.
112. Fill the radiator with straight water.
113. Start the engine.
114. Finish filling the radiator with straight water.
115. Check for water, gas and/oil leaks.
116. Check and set the timing according to the repair manual.
117. Let the engine cool, then drain the water from the radiator and the block.
118. Install the block drain plug using Teflon tape.
119. Close the radiator drain valve.
120. Fill the radiator with a 50-50 mix of water and anti-freeze.
121. Start the engine and finish filling the radiator with the 50-50 mix.
122. Test drive the truck and recheck for water, oil and/or gas leaks.
123. Have a cool beverage. You earned it.