im used to working on pushrod v8s.. so this is a lil different to me. and we got like an inch of straight ice today.. mother nature is trying my patience lol. i drained the oil and coolant, removed the fan, and rad, also removed the heat shield for the manifold. hopefully ill do something serious tomorrow.

 

So you know your way around the guts of an engine then. My friend broke the timing belt in his Corolla and was all stressed that it was going to be like a whole weekend job or worse and didn't know anything about setting the timing so I came over and did it in about an hour . Our chains, unfortunately aren't so easy.

It's pretty much the same as any other engine, (they all do the same thing, just have different ways of doing it) except overhead cam motors have the cam...well...over the head...duh . The labyrinthine vacuum system sucks so make sure you've got a diagram.

AN INCH OF ICE!? DAMN! That's hard core man. I don't even usually work on the truck when it's just raining, which it does a lot of here. You got a torpedo heater or something to keep warm?

 

i pulled the rad before the cold wave that came through lol, and that was in a down pour.. it literally rained for 3 days without stopping. and today nothing but a jacket and some long johns lol. really wish i had a garage. we took most of the stuff off today, we need to take the timing cover off, but after we took the water pump off, we saw alot of aluminum flakes in the coolant that i didnt notice before. wondering what that could be. i suggested it was from where the timing guide may have broken and its the timing chain wearing on the cover? idk. but theres SO much wrong lol. my egr is totally clogged up.. we called it a natural egr delete. and the intake is a PITA to get off. anyone have any ideas on taking the lower? the metal flakes worry me.. and the vacuum lines are a nightmare.. i was working with a couple of my ford buddies and they said theyve never seen so many vacuum line on one motor. lol. im thinking of saying screw it and going to a reputable engine builder and getting a fresh motor. id do the rebuild myself, but i dont have the time, tools, or garage. plus i just plain dont know that much about this motor to tear it completely down. theres 2 im looking at, one says full rebuild for 700, another is 1195. the 1195 rebuild is from a more reputable shop. itd be nice to just have everything already done and worry about anything but break in maintenance.

 

The flakes are probably from the stop-leak you mention earlier. They put them in the mix in hopes they will clog any holes.

 

FINALLY good news.. tore the head off.. its totally flat. put a straight edge to it and its fine. ALSO.. the bottom end is FRESH. hardly ANY buildup on the pistons at all.. and theres no lip at the top of the cylinder... which makes be feel better all the way around. the timing guides looked brand new, the tensioner was bad i think. it kept making a sound like it was pumping air/oil? and it was super easy to compress, like one finger. idk if its because it didnt have oil pressure or what. i have a bit of work ahead of me just cleaning and scrubbing old gaskets off. the headgasket didnt have any parts actually blown through, but you could see where oil was going between.. it was a quality headgasket, idk what brand, but it was metal. would a head gasket blow if there was just a loss of coolant in the system? i didnt put it in the red once. it did however get really close. and it was fine before..

 

for good measure im going to have the head leak tested and machined. friend of mine says he knows a good guy that the shop he used to work for used. around 110 for everything. from what ive read, most of the people who have had hg failures 10-20k after replacement didnt do as much prep work as they could have.. i dont want to be doing this again lol. atleast not till i have a garage. anyone know what the specs are supposed to be for a 22re head? i dont wana get things back together and have the pistons hitting my valves.

 

dropped the head off today. they told me 85$ for pressure testing and resurfacing. im okay with that price. but they told me 210 for that and a valve job.. that i dont get lol. valve jobs arent THAT hard... so im just gonna use some grinding compound and do my own valve job.

 

so the head is bolted back on.. i made the dumb mistake of not labeling where like each of the 8 different types of timing cover bolts go.. so i have a bit of guess work.. oh and my buddy knocked my shop light down and the bulb busted all through the head and timing cover just after we got it on. its slowly but surely coming together though.

 

Good to hear it's in the re-assembly stage. For the timing cover bolts, if I remember right, there's longer ones that go through the water pump to the block and the shorter ones just go through the timing cover to the block. Of course, there are probably more than just two different lengths so yeah, guess work, shouldn't be too hard to figure out though.

I hate it when "friends" try to "help" and end up screwing something up. That's why I do it myself unless I absolutely need help.

 

meh. i find friends are good to have around cause i dont have all the tools i need lol. someone i know usually does. but they also help keep me focused. we just blew all the chunks out with an air compressor. i wasnt mad about it, it was an accident. but yeah theres several lengths. im thinking of just going to a upullit around me and gettin a few, along with a connector another buddy ripped the wires out of..

 

Find some new buddies... Geez...

 

Or buy some tools.

 

maybe both? lol. j/k. theyve been a huge help other than those two set backs. driving me to the parts store numerous times, providing rolo wheels for block and intake gasket removal.. positioning the head lol. but yeah, im sick of all this bad weather... really hoping i dont have to do this again. degreased the oil pan, made the inside look almost new, still have yet to fully finish putting the timing cover on. i wish i had a freaking camera so i could upload pics..

 

sooo update. truck will be put together at the end of this week. got my long time mechanic to let me use a bay so i dont have to continue laying in gravel, working in 36* and lower weather, not to mention rain and snow.. its been miserable. the sensor that was broken was one of those supposedly super rare coolant temp sensors that go in the top of the thermostat housing. i managed to take it apart and solder it back together. it was a huge pita though. AND i cleaned a few parts on a rainy day, and i got to looking at my distributor, turns out the same guy who ripped my connector also took over back when i was doing my tune up, and mixed wires 3&4. i was a little aggravated. felt a little stupid, but at the same time the dude has been working on cars for 10 years and has worked at 2 shops, and currently works for lexus. didnt really figure little old me would have to look over his shoulder. needless to say no one is allowed to work on my stuff but me anymore. but yeah. what do you guys think of an egr delete? i mean mine is basically plugged up as it is, but id like to clean everything up. i know lc sells one but ive heard its over priced. all that needs done now is the intake, egr components, rad, oil pump, fan, and timing. im excited. Anyone have recommendations for after headgasket care? ive been told to change after 500 miles, and again after 1000 miles, then normal maintenance.

 

That sucks about all the setbacks, it's usually never as easy as it should be. Good to hear it's gonna be back on the road soon though. Can't really comment on the EGR, but if it's plugged up anyways I would say it's already deleted .

As far as post rebuild care, I've always just taken it easy on the motor for the first few hundred miles or so and checked to make sure everything is still torqued down properly. Fresh oil and filter and maybe flushing the cooling system certainly won't hurt, but I've never really bothered and never had a problem. I do get everything as clean as I can before putting it all back together though.

 

yeah i cleaned everything like 3 or 4 times over. the head i just got machined, sprayed with brake cleaner, wiped down with a clean cloth to get residue off and the block i put vaseline just on the lips of the passages and rags in the cylinders, razor bladed and rolo wheeled the surface, (vaseline prevents gunk from falling down the passages) and cleaned the surfaces with acetone and alcohol after i was done. also vacuumed the cylinders out with a shop vac to get any shavings i missed. the outside of the block is pretty much caked in oil, degreaser and pressure washing doesnt really even help.i used brake cleaner and an air compressor to blow all the oil out of the head bolt passages though and put anti seize on the head bolts. got all new fasteners from toyota for the timing cover. sadly i think i need some more helicoils in the head. and not many people are willing to do them IN VEHICLE. which sucks lol. but whatever. ill find a way around it.

 

my mechanic flaked out on me. fml. got it towed there for no reason.

 

so the weather was nice, i got the 4runner towed back to my place, and made huge progress today, it actually looks like a motor now, all thats left is the ps pump, the electrical connections, the upper intake, the y pipe, the vacuum lines, alternator, radiator, the belts, and some fresh gas i guess. question, does anyone know where the long, skinny, allen bolt goes? i was thinking the lower intake, but i didnt find a place for it..

 

Hey man, good to hear it's almost done. Sounds like you're down to the little stuff, which for some reason always seems to be the most time consuming part, at least for me lol. Don't know about that bolt, I don't think I've even seen an allen bolt on my truck, but I haven't torn apart the motor...yet.

 

yeah. i would have pics throughout the build but the camera i used went missing. i guess i could take a few phone pics. ill try to snap a few tomorrow.