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Oh and the bad cylinder #2 has 20psi. They didn't perform a wet compression test either which sucks. But anyway I just ordered heads. Gunna throw them on and see what happens. My temp tag is up by the end of march so its kinda a race against time now but I can always get an extra 'day tag' to drive it to the mechanic and get it smogged. If the bottom end turns up being toast I'll probably drive it off a cliff or sell it for a dollar lol
Hmm that's the front cylinder on the passenger side it didn't have low compression. But this bad head gasket can definitely indicate to me why the oil was slightly milky.
And I just did another test I found online and poured some water in the combustion chamber on the head and it leaks out from the exhaust valve and comes out of the exhaust manifold hole on the low compression cylinder. So I feel a lot better now about my bottom block. And even if it does go out I'll just get a bottom end later on and put these heads on it or maybe a reman or even 3.4 swap.
I'm curious why there are chips out of the cam shaft lobes and the distributor camshaft cap. Also one intake valve is slightly open. I figure its just the way the camshaft is turned?
And the plugs inside the head are on only one head. That's weird considering the stock ones have the plugs on the inside on both heads.
The first pic. They have a allen wrench hex on them. I still have my old distributor camshaft cap that might be in better condition maybe I can use with no problems? And my cams are in better condition but I assume these new ones were machined and the valves adjusted with those so I can't switch mine out.
Don't worry about the chips. The cam has a fairly large seating area on the shim, so unless that chip is about 2-3mm across the cam I wouldn't worry about it. The chip in the distributor mount makes no difference at all; that's not a sealing or even bearing surface.
You SHOULD have one more valves open with heads sitting on the bench; the cam has to point somewhere! If you're concerned about it, put a wrench on the cam sprocket and gently turn it to see each valve work.
I would really be surprised if that cam had ever been re-ground since it left the factory. If you replaced the cam I doubt you could find any difference in the valve setting. But ... the cam bearings MIGHT have been line bored to assure they are straight. You can't go very far, but that's something to think about if you want to swap cams.
I don't know anything about the plugs.
By the way: note that the head has been PAINTED with aluminum paint. I was surprised when I saw that on my heads; they looked just gorgeous. I expected the paint to chip off pretty quickly (the heads get very warm), but 30k miles and a lot of years later they still look "new."
Not 100% sure, but I believe those plugs seal off the coolant chamber. Shine a flashlight into them and look on the bottom side of the head and see if you can see light inside the coolant passages.
If you can see light, go back to the machine shop.
Oh I didn't specify the plugs that I said aren't on one head because it is just cast like that with no holes and plugs. If its just a seal for the coolant passage I'm sure it's ok its cast that way. And if the chips are fine I'll just use the cams on it and the distributor cam cap too. These were 700 shipped to my house btw. I went too perfectengine.com. So I'm going to start on it this weekend with the fsm and renting a better torque wrench click style.
And yeah it's pretty nice they're painted and I was curious about how it would hold up that good to know the paint is good.
I have all my original and 4 new exhaust manifold bolts. Should I use mine or these?
A torque wrench (digital, analog, beam-type) is only as good as its calibration, but outside of aerospace you never hear of anyone doing that (forget what you see on youtube; that's just comparing one wrench to another). But I know that rental tools are rented to people who often just don't care, and unless it's a REALLY good rental shop they're not calibrating.
So I feel a little better knowing that I am the one using/not abusing tools like that.
i'd do the heads and start saving for a 3.4 swap if the car is in good shape and you want to keep it. http://toyonlyswaps.com/
Yup, what he said ^
Just get it running to buy you some time if you can do so cheaply, but don't spend much money on that motor. My buddy had one and it was a constant problem and got terrible gas mileage nomatter what we did. It had no more power than my 22RE, probably less since my was running better (both were 2nd gen 4runners).
Don't swap in another used 3.0L -- used (not rebuilt) motors are too much of a crap shoot, particularly that one. If you're going to all the effort to replace a motor, it might as well be rebuilt. Unless you just want something to drive for a little while, you can do the swap yourself, and you've got an excess of free time. But the 3.0L sucks so you might as well swap in something better.
To do a motor swap, the easiest way is to have a donor vehicle (e.g. wrecked), so get it running for now and start watching craigslist -- cheaper than going through a junkyard. Those auto donation programs for charities will take the carcass (free towing for you) for scrap metal -- my brother had a guy come out with a flat bed and take away a truck that didn't even have tires on it! Made a terrible racket!
I thought about replacing my 22RE with a 2RZ or 3RZ -- spent many hours reading everything I could find, organizing my notes, and thought I could handle it. Apparently a motor swap is not as bad as it first seems to the uninitiated, but you'll spend a lot of time reading posts beforehand. (In the end, after talking to Tim @ DOA, I just bought one of his motors instead and love it. No regrets! As my daily driver, it was nice to just knock it out quick without having to worry about smog referee and delays while I figure out how to fit and otherwise make things work. My truck has similar power to my brother's Tacoma with the 2.7L (150hp) and I'm happy with it.)
You should be able to find a good shop, although it may not be in your neighborhood. I recently found a good shop in Modesto (Sierra Truck) and drove an hour to get there for transmission help. They are 4wheelers themselves and are experts on our trucks. Maybe you can find a similar small shop in your area. I live in a big metro area, so probably drove past literally 100 shops on the way. While I was there, the tech was talking about swapping a 3.0L for a 22RE for a customer. He said it was no problem if you had a donor vehicle. So maybe ask folks here to recommend a shop to swap in whatever motor you choose, if you don't want to do it yourself. Even if it's 2 hrs away, that's insignificant to the years of enjoyment you'll get from your new motor.
Okay I can't get the crossover pipe back on. I took it off with the crossover attached to the passenger side header and I'm assuming I took the head off and then pulled it out. I'm following the fsm and I already put on the heads, did the three part torque job for the head bolts and installed the cams too. Now I have my new exhaust seal already torqued on for the crossover to passenger side header in one piece. And the water bypass tube is uninstalled.
I don't think I'm going to be able to get it in like this. I don't think its good to take the head off because of the HG if it can be reused.. and I really don't want to do that.
The fsm says to install the crossover after both headers are installed but I couldn't get to the bolts on the passenger side to unbolt them when I did the disassembly hence why it came out in one piece.
I've read that I could unbolt the transmission cross member and lower the transfer case with a jack and it may give some room in there? Is that true? Maybe I'll try this and see what happens..
I assume your problem is that you can't get a wrench back there. Here's what you need:
This particular wrench came from HF, but I don't believe they carry it any more. But Sears and just about every other place carries an offset swivel wrench.
(The offset in the handle of this one allows it work like a small "speed-wrench" when the handle is folded up. Neat!)
Will this ratchet reach the bolts on the passenger side? I got the driver side off with a regular ratchet.
I tried unbolting the transmission cross member and tried lowering it and it made the space smaller so I then tried jacking it up and it went up a little higher than where it sits normally but still not enough room. I didn't take the whole cross member off but I don't think it will help.
The engine mounts seem hard to get to too. So can I take the head back off and use the same head gasket without problems or worrying it may go bad quicker or something?
EDIT: They are the head gasket set from engnbldr.com
EDIT: I could get a new head gasket I guess too from the local orielly or autozone. They have victor reinz or beck arnley brands. I have been pretty picky about brands lately though and I'd like them to be the engnbldr brand which is DNJ (domestic n Japanese) but I've even found bad reviews for this brand online. If I did this I could still use the new head bolts too right? And it doesn't matter having two different brands of head gaskets right?
I haven't started the engine at all yet. The heads have been torqued on for three days. I've read that some people think it doesn't matter to use the same HG as long as the engine didn't heat up. But then others say no you have to replace it even if the engine wasn't ran because they 'crush' down just like an exhaust seal or crush washer and have to be replaced because it won't seal right again.
Okay I found a DNJ right head gasket by itself online and it's only 30 bucks so I guess I'll get that and take the head off then re install with the passenger header and crossover attached together just sitting down there to get into position once the head is back on. I've heard even the head bolts should be replaced after just torqueing them down but I don't think that is true and I can use mine still (which are new).
This has been a learning process for sure lol.
03-20-2015, 10:33 PM
