aalan

When I had my head shaved they really took off alot. I think I need to go with a shim and a gasket. This may sound stupid but would the shim lay on the block or the head? Does it really matter?

83

I had the same question on my engine. The shim went on the block on mine. Not sure if it matters, though.

aalan

When I had the head shaved they took off quite a bit. I tried to put the head back on with an ordinary haedgasket. What a disaster that turned out to be. When I took the head back off I had water in #4 cylinder. Not sure if I damaged the gasket trying to set the head in by myself or I needed the spacer. What is the requirement or need for the spacer? Should the headgasket that I used should have been sufficient?
Thanks
aalan

SEAIRESCUE

If its a 22R, then yes, you must compensate for the material removed from the head. The parts houses call them shim gaskets. Essentially a much thicker gasket than normal. I believe the come in 0.060 inches and 0.090 inches in thickness. Ask the dummy who cut your head how much was removed. If you don't shim, your cam timing goes retarded. For $100 you can buy an adjustable cam gear but for $20 you can buy a shim gasket, the preferred solution.

My $0.02 but been there and done that....

aalan

So should I use the shim and a normal gasket or just the shim gasket? Sorry confused? Thanks for your reply.

aalan

Same question as above still.

83

Looks like you got an answer in the newbie section. Adhere the shim to the block, then use a regular head gasket. I guess what sea air rescue is saying is that they make thicker head gaskets to compensate for shaving the head & block, but what you've got, and what I had for my engine, is a shim, then a regular headgasket. Your timing will be messed up otherwise as was stated, and as you found out, you can't bolt it down tight enough to keep things from leaking, since there now isn't enough for the bolts to thread to and clamp down tight enough. The shim should solve that.

aalan

Thanks 83. Yeah I read his reply. Great job with the pics. Do you agree with using the sealant as he suggest? Not that I don't think he does'nt know what he's talking about. I just want to get as many opinions as possable. It's going on in the morning regardless!

83

I know mine went on the block with some sealant, and I think that Ted at engnbldr.com (who knows a thing or two) told me to use something similar if I used a shim.

aalan

Well, I finally got my 84 4runner back running yesterday. I still need to do some minor tweaking, but at least it's running again. There are alot of people out there that don't know that these shims exist. And the few that do most don't know how to apply them. The shim is used to compensate in thickness, for material that was removed when the head is shaved. I never would have believed that it would make as much difference as it did with mine. Without the shim the timing will retard and it will increase the compression ratio. I didn't have any idea how much was removed from mine other than alot. So, I went back with a standard .020 shim. Some have said that they come in different thicknesses, but this was the only size that I could find anywhere. I really needed a thicker shim though. The instructions from Fel-Pro say to apply a layer of spray on sealer to the block side of the gasket. Nothing on the head side. Then use a standard head gasket on top of that. Then torque to FSM. I didn't use a spray on sealer but I went with the Ultra-Copper that Olharleyman suggested. Although I applied it to the shim instead of the block. Since my motor was in the vehicle it was just easier to do it that way. My suggestion is for anyone rebuilding one of these 22R/RE motors to always use a shim to compensate for removed material from the head. I hope that this can help someone and save you alot of time and heartache wondering why water is pouring on the ground or you just can't get the timing set exactly right. Well now you know why.
aalan