toyotatom93

Just looking for opinions...Sorry about the novel

Well heres the situation, I'm a broke student for about a month and a broke electrician after that for about two months while I pay back loans and tame the credit cards. And my head gasket has been going since I bought the truck about a year ago. (I know I was an idiot for buying it, but I never knew.)
My main symtpoms have been steam out the tail pipe and runnier oil. Both the coolant and oil are good as far as color goes. But it is getting runnier faster these days it seems. I change the oil about every two months now just to get that runny crap out for a while, basicly to buy me some time. I just switched back from synthetic because it exposed the old leaks.

Dont get me wrong the truck runs great expecially right now since it had it's valves adjusted and new plugs and wires, but...Lately I noticed there is smoke coming out my exaust more then usual, but the same thing seemed to happen last summer, and it dident really do it untill it hit the 30 c (86 f) mark this year. So maybe it's just the heat..
I also have a problem with a rod bearing on the way out, according to my mechanic.

I also cant stop driving to school and work, so I feel like I am in a catch 22 (-re lol) and have to end up driving my truck till it dies; Or till I can afford to do some major stuff. Which ever comes first.

Since a new head gasket will be over a grand installed, and that doesent even adress the other problems, I'm basicly saving for a new engine. My plan is to get at least money saved for a stock motor, but if the truck is still running good keep saving for one of the LCE beuties or something similar.

What do you guys think rebuild in local machine shop with new head casting, or a longblock from LCE. Or just do the head gasket and see from there?
BTW it has 350 000km's (217 500 miles approx)
What else can I do to prolong the life of my current truck besides changing the oil often and trying to drive like a grandma?

just a 22re

park it and put your foot though the floor board!!!

ok now that i have gotten that out lets talk about your problem here.....

you can run thinker oil 10w30 or 10-40 or even 40w that might help the oil side as for the gasket your done with that but you can try this stuff i cant remember what its called but theres some stuff out there that clams to put a bandand on things like this or even radiator stop leak to that might help not sure about the head gasket though

hope it helps man and if your broke and need help i say rebuild her your self i can help you with this step by step as i did mine and drove it to cali with only 4k on the clock yay!! (thats after driving 120 miles freeway one way every weekend from 650 miles till then!)

toyotatom93

O would like to try and rebiuld my self, but I want this thing to run afterwards, I dont have the time, space or skills. Once I get a second yota (and cash flow) I'll try doing stuff like that.

Anyone else know the name of the HG bandaid crap?

abecedarian

Here's my book:

out of curiosity, how far do you travel in those two months between changes? what does your oil look like when you change it? is it kind of chocolate milky looking (or coffee with cream if you don't like chocolate )? or is it just dark brown to black and real thin?
it is perfectly normal for aged oil to become thinner than new oil, but milky looking oil is an indication of water contamination in the oil.
15w40 (down to 0c ambient) or 20w-50 oil (down to 10c ambient) is acceptable to use and also thicker than 5w-30, 10w-30 and 10w-40 at cooler temperatures.

Bar's Leak, http://www.barsproducts.com/bars_faq.htm. Check the 1100 and 1111 products.
As for its efficacy in sealing headgasket leaks... seams a losing battle to me though since the pressure created by the piston in the cylinder is much higher than the cooling system pressure.

Steam from the tailpipe at startup or shortly after is normal as well as long as it goes away after driving a short distance and the engine, O2 sensor, catalytic converter and muffler all warm up. Two typical causes- turning off the engine when it's cold outside can cause water in the air to condense in the exhaust system (some of which will be blown out by the exhaust when you start the engine and some of which will be evaporated) and the fuel mixture during warm up causing above normal amounts of water vapor in the exhaust gasses themselves. Consistant steam out of the exhaust regardless of engine temperature is a sign of a blown headgasket, as you already know.

It actually sounds like you have a plan in place- change the oil more frequently than you used to and save up for an engine repair / replace. If the engine holds up that long, it's a fine plan. The rod bearings are easy enough to change without pulling the engine... if you can get the oil pan off- two bolts on each rod hold it together. What I've seen is that the costs of having the average mechanic rebuild yours in their shop is about the same as having that mechanic remove yours and replace with another, parts and labor factored together in each case. A built 22RE will cost you 2-4 times the cost of a stock remanufactured long-block so factor that in to your plans if you're going that direction plus the intallation charges so... just more money. If you go the rebuild with engnbldr head, might as well get the port/polish/valve job done and throw in a peppier cam. Some mechanics won't install non-factory parts though so ask around first.

algranger

run this through it!!
http://www.midwayautosupply.com/p-11...oz-401232.aspx
i had the same situation with my 22r about 6 months ago and i ran this and it was fixed overnight its held up so far

toyotatom93

My oil is not milky, but first thing in the morning it is dripping off the dipstick really easily. So ya dark brown and thin. I put in the synthetic about two months ago, it turned almost black in that time but again it seemed to be way to thin to be doing any good. Kinda using that time frame of 2 months from that. I drive about 2000 km (1200 miles) between changes right now.

It also uses a little coolant these days, topping up the res about a 1/4 (auctually less then a 1/4) every two or three weeks. In the winter and long trips it uses alot more coolant.

It steams and/or smokes after it is warmed up. The other day I drove on a highway for 20 minutes, in a parking lot I reversed and noticed a fairly large puff of smoke. Could this be from the oil being too hot / hot ambient temp? It's hard to see the steam without it being really cold, but I definetly see a whitish exaust when I put something black behind the tail pipe.

abecedarian

how do the plugs look?
It sounds like the oil is getting diluted by fuel, likely due to worn rings or a slightly rich fuel mixture. or you need a heavier weight oil.
I'm also wondering if the auxiliary air valve below the throttle body may be a source of coolant entering the engine.

A puff of bluish-gray smoke can be an indicator of leaking valve seals or oil entering the chambers some other way such as thin oil getting around the rings, black smoke could be either unburned fuel caused by a sudden rich mixture or from detonation and white smoke / steam is water vapor.

toyotatom93

Here is a pic of the plugs, they were still laying around. They all had a coating of an orange powder like substance expect for #4 (far right) which had a bunch of oil on it from the thread being chased to fix a crossed thread. They were 3ish months old when I scooped em out.

And ya there is definetly oil burning up in the exaust, you can smell it and see it at night when lights are on it. Blueish.

abecedarian

well, so... mixture doesn't seem to be too rich. but they all look a little close on electrode gap... well at least #2 and #3 from the left (especially #3).
get them gaps straightened out to .031-.032"

toyotatom93

There was buildup on those gaps...How often should one check the gaps? I might have even dropped those when I took em out, and they have been sitting on a garage floor ever since.

And any idea of the orange crap, I'm almost thinking rust but I have no idea.

abecedarian

plugs that were in the engine when the gas additive was MTBE would have that orange-ish (reddish-brown?) build up on them. that tells me they've been in there a while since ethanol replaced MTBE at least a year or so ago (in most places).
Personally, I'd check the gap every other oil change, but once every 12000 miles should suffice.

misterzee

You can 'waterglass' the head gasket and milk some more miles that way...
increase your oil viscosity to get more oil pressure, 20-50w ... I resorted to the thick oil for the last 20,000 miles on mine before building a new engine. Another budget item, if you drop the pan and just pop a fresh set of rod bearing inserts (std), you can prolly take care of that rod noise... on IFS, its really not so much trouble to just remove the front diff so you can get in there to do the job...

its pretty crazy that if you don't do your own work, turnkey replacement of a 22r can run $3500 if its done right.

second thing, for DD, I would not put out 50% more money for imperceptable increase in power... its just a little 22re.... :-)

toyotatom93

Whats waterglass? Next oil change is going to be something thick.

You have a good point about the cost of something like the stroker, but I can see my self getting more yotas down the road. Once I find my first gen runner with a blown motor, I'll have a sweet little 22re worked in for it. I'm just dreaming about the stroker in all honesty.

abecedarian

waterglass is the sodium silicate treatment that the Bars Leak link I mentioned above (products 1100 and 1111) are supposed to do.

misterzee

I have heard stroker kits are expensive!!

toyotatom93

Thanks again

toyotatom93

Ya strokers are crazy expensive, like twice that of stock, but you get way better pulling capicity, and lots of little upgraded parts like duel chain timing set and better valves ect... but like I said before, I'm just dreaming, I will probably never afford something like that.

misterzee

heh heh, with a family and one in college.... I can't think about money pits... my money has to work for me...
how boring LOL