dumpster84

How's it going everyone. Been a long time lurker on here, just never joined. However, I am about to rebuild my 22r that I expect is in need of some new piston rings. The crankcase pressure is pretty dang high and keeps blasting oil all over everything, mainly coming from the dipstick as well as being high enough to cause the forward vent tube to pop off. When I take the oil cap off, it has so much pressure that it will blow the cap off if you don't grab it. Waiting on my compression tester to get here, but in the mean time, I am piecing together a replacement bottom end to minimize downtime. As of right now, the truck is still ambulatory, but very messy and I don't have much faith in it, so I will be sticking to my motorcycle for daily transportation.

Anyways, on to my topic. I am in the process of getting my parts list in order and can't think of a better place than here to ask for opinions on things not to forget. I have a freshly assembled short block that is machined and ready to go, locally, which saves a ton of time. I intend to use my same head that's on the truck now. My list from engbldr right now is this:

Gasket set - FGS9008 (83-84)- 69.80
Oil Pump -OP908 - 54
Water Pump - WP 948 - 35
Soft Plug Kit - 11
Sleever-N-Seal - 26
Head Bolts - 28
Timing Set - TKS948 (83-84) - 58.80

I feel like I'm missing some things. Does anyone have any other things I should add? It has a Weber on it now, but it has been working fine, so I think the smart thing would be to leave it as is and not rebuild it yet, since I KNOW it is working now, ya know? Otherwise, I would have a kit for that as well. I am tempted to replace the clutch as well, but it only has like 10k miles on it, so I will just order that once I get the old one out if it needs it. Also, any specific tools that I might be forgetting, please feel free to mention them.

dumpster84

Dang, tough crowd tonight. Haha. Still a forum with a wealth of knowledge though.

Anyways, finally got my compression tester back and ran through it. Started out pretty consistent which was puzzling, 160, 150, 150, then 90 (1-4 respectively), if 4 didn't have a low pressure, I was going to be baffled.

So, all signs lead to rings on 4, right?

Symptoms to lead me to this conclusion:
-Super high crank case pressure
-Valves are all in tolerance, triple checked
-No oil and coolant mixing
-No seeping oil or coolant leaks around head gasket (not a very good head gasket sign, but nonetheless)
-Oil speckles all over my garage floor coming from my exhaust if I pull the throttle when idling

What about you doctors? Anyone concur or have a different diagnosis?

Either way, rebuild parts are ordered and on the way. Speaking of which, Ted from engbldr.com is unbelievable. Sent him an email about placing an order and a quick question around 9pm central time and had an email back within 10 minutes and had my order shipped first thing in the morning. That is unheard of customer service. Now hopefully, all the parts are good, haha, jk, heard nothing but good things about them.

I'll post back at some point

dumpster84

Also, anyone want to recommend a good header? I have a ˟˟˟˟ty pace setter long tube on right now with the AWESOME armor coat that rusted off and leaks like crazy. What a piece of garbage.

Hooker? LCE? Any other opinions out there? Don't really want to fork out for the Thorley or LCE, but don't want another leaky piece of crap again. OBX seems shady as well, but it's stainless. Not really interested in performance gains, just reliabilty

osv

low cr could still be a valve problem, if for instance part of the valve is broken off and not sealing... seen that on air-cooled vw engines.

the way to tell is to squirt oil into the cylinder right before you run the compression test... if the oil temporarily seals up the rings, that 90psi reading on #4 would shoot up a bit.

dumpster84

OSV, hey, first of all thank you for the reply. I'm not much of a diary writing typa dude, haha.

Also, you are absolutely correct and I let it stick in my head last night when I was laying in bed and went out in the garage and did exactly that. Sure as heck, shot up to 183 with a bit of oil in the cylinder. I'm no pro mechanic, but know a bit, ya know, and when I forgot that crucial test, I couldn't sleep without doing it.....sucks because I had to take a shower again, but whatever, test was productive. Didn't think to come post the results because it didn't seem like anyone cares, but eventually someone may be having the same issues and can learn, so I should have.

Anyways, 183 in cylinder 4 with a bit of oil would lead a smarter man to rings being bad, right?

osv

that's what i would think... cracked ring, badly scored cylinder wall maybe??

if you are going to re-use the head, it'll need a valve job at the minimum, and it should be checked for straightness, and valve guide wear... new valve stem seals as well.

dumpster84

Roger. Sounds like a plan. I am planning on pulling the motor toward the end of next week, gonna be gone for work most of this week. However, I have a bunch of parts already. Freshly machined and assembled short block, engnbldr parts should be here any day now, engine stand, etc etc. Ready to get my truck back on the road.

Forced to ride my motorcycle everywhere takes the fun out of riding it, almost.

jimbyjimb

iTrader: (1)

I highly recommend the factory cast iron manifold and downpipe...

If I had to use a header it would be either NWOR's or LCE's. That being said, a header is one of the least cost effective mods on a 22R. Might help if you have a big lumpy cam with a matching large carb. On a stock engine up to about .450 lift on the cam, totally not worth the cash.

dumpster84

Oh my gosh, I'm not paying over $500 for header, those NWOR's looked promising until I googled the price on them.

I'm right there with you on going with stock, there's no dreams of ever trying to make my truck "fast" by any means. If I had the stock manifold on there now, it would surely stay. Unfortunately, it has a rusted out Pacesetter piece of junk on it that is welded at the collector as well as the muffler. More than likely, I'll just deal with it for a bit and scrounge up a stock manifold as you mentioned later down the road.

As far as progress, Ted from Engnbldr sent my parts out super quick and I will be pulling the head soon to drop off at the machine shop....FINGERS CROSSED it's not a cracked head or anything, because then I'm in trouble since it's an 84. If everything goes well with that, I'll assemble the new block and drop 'er in. Work has had me gone quite a bit and will be gone next week as well, so I gotta get this done.

fasterspider

I just took my 85 22R engine apart and found my valves were sealing just fine but, the rings weren't holding up their end of the deal.
I am going to rebuild the head myself, it gives me good therapy but, the block goes to a shop in Reseda, CA for 1st overbore since I can get inexpensive decent quality pistons and the crank is going to be polished. The rods would be getting replaced with Carillo if I could afford it but, life will still carry on with stock rods. I'll also put a new cam in the head when I rebuild it, why go with lame if I don't have to.

dumpster84

Is this on the new motor you just dropped in or the one you took out?

dumpster84

Progress has been slow and will be deferred another week because I have to go to training in Virginia all next week, but when I get back, I'm pulling the old one and assembling the new block and intend to have it in within a week or so (depending on work tempo, whether I am out or home).

dumpster84

Coolant drained, hood off, radiator out, throttle and choke cables disconnected, battery out, etc etc etc. Gotta love how roomy these engine compartments can get with very little effort.

fasterspider

The old one, I couldn't give it up as a core for only $100.00 when I am fully capable of rebuilding my original numbers matching engine. I have a good machine shop for cylinder boring and I love rebuilding cylinder heads for some reason that may have something to do with instant gratification or something silly like that.

dumpster84

Ah, gotcha. I got confused when I read your reply and then your thread. $100 for a block is shameful, especially when it was just the rings.

Do you do all the cylinder head rebuild stuff like valve seats and guides or just clean, inspect, and assembly?

fasterspider

If seats need to be cut, I can put a 3 angle cut using Neway cutters with the best of them but, I can't replace seats because I don't know how.
Guides are not going to wear out beyond spec in a 160,000 mile engine but, I have a shop that can replace them for me if need be. I have never replaced a guide but, I have cut many seats and lapped hundreds upon hundreds of valves.

dumpster84

Man, it appears that mine has no lifting points or hooks to pull this damn thing.

Anyone have any ideas? I guess I could hook a strap to it all and do it sloppy like that.

jimbyjimb

iTrader: (1)

The best way is to remove the top end and lift the block out. The aluminum heads aren't very sturdy and don't make for good lifting points. Old head bolts in the iron block are best.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

You are missing the factory lift points on the drivers rear and passenger front side. If you have a boneyard locally they bolt on quick.

Here is how I lift a headless motor. Not showing in the picture, but I actually have my chain painted for the center of gravity and I also run a long bolt and nut thru a chain link on each side of my engine hoist hook. I posted this picture for some one else just to give them an idea for a headless motor. I don't care to put any strain on the head or aluminum parts. You may need to use some longer bolts for the lifting points.

I suggest using the transmission bracket for the rear.


A motor mount bolt for the front.

dumpster84

Hey Terry, sorry I never got back to this thread, life kind of got in the way. However, that method you showed is awesome and would have worked out much better than how I ended up doing it. I used some tow straps and ran them through the motor mounts and attached them to my engine leveler. All in all, it worked, but it caused a major headache because it made the lift assembly too tall and wouldn't clear the front... I had to hop in the engine compartment and lift it over the last little bit.

I have some pictures that I'll put up to show the ridiculousness. This was my first one-man-show engine pull and install, its crazy how having an extra hand around is so valuable at times.....sucks not having friends.