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Let me start off with the fact that this is my first wheeler, i am not a tech
i just really enjoy working/building cars and that i have some common sense so i'm not totally screwed.
(but the wiring on this truck is)
I have recently bought A 1985 Toyota Pickup Short bed from an employee of mine,
this young man had mentioned to me that he needed to sell his truck which had been sitting for the last 6 months at his
buddy's house (the friend's Mom was getting very irradiated about it) with a blown head-gasket. which he did not possess the skill or the money to fix,
so he had to sell it or he was going to scrap it. I couldn't let that happen so i took a look at it and i believed i would be able to bring it back to life (hopefully)
Im posting my story because I need everyone's input, thoughts and tips on the issues it has in order to make it a daily driver. i'm super picky about the details and
the previous owner (not my employee) did a lot of work to it but it's very sloppy and there's alot of open end wires others hacked and spiced just looks terrible. The kid i bought
it from said it was blowing CLOUDS of white smoke on his way home one day, said he drove it for less then 10 minutes before it was parked and never moved again.
I have been reading a lot of different threads and have received a lot of information that helped me so far.
So far all i have done to the truck, I sloppily did not do a compression test but i've only pulled the valve cover and exhaust manifold.
before that i looked through the wiring to try and track down what wires are going where it was already a cluster of ugliness before i touched it btw.
i do know some of the things i need to fix to get it safe to drive also ( what tires should i get that are more for street but could be used for the trails as well????
repairs such as
the knuckles and hubs need to be rebuilt, the power-steering box needs to be rebuilt,
brake calipers need rebuild or upgraded, needs rotors. carburetor has been messed with and looks like its missing some pieces.
there is coolant or water in the oil, It blew white smoke from between the head and the back left of the exhaust manifold close to the spark plug.
it has six-shooters and cross-over steering, so someone had to be in there working on the front end at some point in the past.
tires and steering box leak are the least of your worries at this point, i'd be looking for a used motor... the problem with using the old engine is that you don't know how badly it was abused, how much oil it was using, etc., so throwing $$$ at a head gasket may not pay off.
I definitely second what osv said. If you keep that engine, you'll have to do a full rebuild including machine work to make it at all reliable. The coolant and oil has probably mixed so the bearing are all dead.
Well that is a bummer but i do appricate the input before i went any further,
the truck did come with a headgasket kit that included all the main gaskets like timeing
water pump ect.. Should i just save this kit for possabily another motor or give it a shot
with the current one?
Y'know, I'm looking at the oil on the rockers again and it's pretty clean. A lot better than mine looked. The bottom end might still be ok. Did you drain the oil and if so was it cloudy or milky at all? Also, does the timing chain have some spring tension when you push it in, especially on the passenger side? If those two things check out and you have the time and knowledge to slap on a new hg, do it for the experience if you want but with the understanding that it's a temporary fix. The old hg failed for a reason.
For a long-lasing fix you want the head surface checked by a machinist cause if it's more than .015" uneven (that's 1/3 of a millimeter!), it'll blow a new gasket really quick.
The block's deck surface also can get low spots so it might need resurfacing as well. With all that being done, it would be crazy to not check the rings and bearings at the same time. That's why I suggest a full rebuild. Unless you have a precision straight edge, only a machinist can tell if it's good.
Well that is a bummer but i do appricate the input before i went any further,
the truck did come with a headgasket kit that included all the main gaskets like timeing
water pump ect.. Should i just save this kit for possabily another motor or give it a shot
with the current one?
is it an aftermarket head gasket kit? because most of those have a weak rep.
is it an aftermarket head gasket kit? because most of those have a weak rep.
at least run a compression check on it.
+1
Here's a shot of a Fel-pro (that I'll never use except to show people how inferior they are) vs engnbldr's and eb's vs the oem Toyota. My fel-pro hg failed at 40k miles, and I believe it started long before that but I didn't know better. As a side note, the Engnbldr gasket is noticeably thicker than the other two, which makes me think it's the one you want if your head and block have been machined more than a tiny little bit. I'm starting with a new head, so the Toyota should serve me well.
Head side of Fel-pro (top), Engnbldr (bottom)
Deck side: fel-pro (top) Engnbldr (bottom)
Now the head side of Toyota's hg (top) against eb's
I would never use a 'Fail-Prone' brand gasket, but I really don't like any of the 'slipperplate' design gaskets either.
They are supposed to help with the 'scrubbing' between the head and block that occurs because of their metals' dissimilar coefficients of expansion.
I like the plain dark silver-graphite gaskets as provided in the Japanese made Ishino-Stone sets. Most 22RE engines were factory built using this type gasket.
I don't live where it is eceptionally cold, and I take precautions not to run my engines hard until they have come to temperature.
The graphite gaskets have always given good service to me.
I regrettably did not do a compression test before i pulled it apart,
however the gasket is in fact fel-pro gasket kit. I did take a sample of the oil
when i drained it and its got the milky color to it. Ill add a pic of the jar its in. I did
plan on keeping the truck as a daily/wheeler in your opinion wouldnt it be worth it to do the rebuild ?
I regrettably did not do a compression test before i pulled it apart,
however the gasket is in fact fel-pro gasket kit. I did take a sample of the oil
when i drained it and its got the milky color to it. Ill add a pic of the jar its in. I did
plan on keeping the truck as a daily/wheeler in your opinion wouldnt it be worth it to do the rebuild ?
Someone with more experience than me will probably chime in, but from everything I've read, milkshake = full rebuild. At the very least you'll need the crank polished with new bearings, new rings, cylinders honed, oil pan cleaned out and the head pressure tested. That antifreeze in your oil kills bearings and rings fast. Worst case is simply buying a used running engine and swapping it out, unless you know a machinist that works for cheap.
Fyi, I just had to shell out over 2 grand on my rebuild! The machine work alone was $1000, but I had some extra work done including injectors rebuilt on-site.
I would never use a 'Fail-Prone' brand gasket, but I really don't like any of the 'slipperplate' design gaskets either.
They are supposed to help with the 'scrubbing' between the head and block that occurs because of their metals' dissimilar coefficients of expansion.
I like the plain dark silver-graphite gaskets as provided in the Japanese made Ishino-Stone sets. Most 22RE engines were factory built using this type gasket.
I don't live where it is eceptionally cold, and I take precautions not to run my engines hard until they have come to temperature.
The graphite gaskets have always given good service to me.
I've never heard anyone give a reason to not use Toyota's hg before. I thought the redesign was supposed to fix a design short-coming or just to keep up with newer/better technology.
So it turns out people just aren't being careful enough with operating temps?
I've never heard anyone give a reason to not use Toyota's hg before. I thought the redesign was supposed to fix a design short-coming or just to keep up with newer/better technology.
So it turns out people just aren't being careful enough with operating temps?
It's not the operating temps per se, it's the startup dead cold and go like hell syndrome, where the dichotomy of hot and cold between the head and block are the most extreme.
This rapid unequal thermal expansion between the iron block and the light alloy head is what 'scrubs' the gasket and eventually causes failure.
The 'slipperplate' gaskets are supposed to mitigate this scrubbing to a degree.
The problem was somewhat less on the older carburetted models, where a bit more warmup was required before drive-off.
The better fuel management provided by EFI, permits enhanced power and drivability right away after dead-cold startup and makes for more gasket scrubbing, and earlier failures.
The block deck with old gasket stuck to it looks pretty normal to me.
Gotta be made tweekishly clean before reassembly.
Mine looked about as bad only one of my pistons was destroyed and there were fresh puddles of coolant everywhere. How were the head bolt holes? Any filled with oil or coolant? Scrape the head surface down really carefully, clean it with a little solvent on a scotchbrite then you'll see what you're dealing with.
Right after I peeled the gasket off. I also wiped it down with a rag, so I don't have a true 'before' pic.
This is how clean you're trying to get it. Some of the gasket texture will stay on the block unless you get it machined. If you do that, remember to bring the timing cover!
it looks like your passenger side steering stop has been crushed, might wanna pull it out and put a nut in it or weld some caps on it.
maybe throw some vented FJ rotors on it and V6 calipers
it makes a huge difference in stopping power
08-02-2016, 07:37 AM
