1988 22RE Pickup - refresh
 

1988 Pickup, Regular Cab, 4x4, 22re, 5 Spd

Ok, so I am not sure how quickly this thing will progress as I am not what you would call "employed" much at the moment, but the engine needs to be freshened up at the very least...then we can get on to SAS, rear locker and the usual crap at a later point in time, probably in the spring. I am not planning anything too crazy, it is going to stay a DD. A simple SAS though, 33"s will be plenty of tire. I don't really run that hard of stuff with it, I would like to try a little more challenging trails but without beating the crap out of my toy. lol.

Anyhow back story....


Its been running like crap for a while. I suspected that the number 1 cylinder was leaking from the intake valve. I did a leak down test and I could hear it whistling out the intake. All the rest of the cylinders checked out. The head is fairly new (8-9k miles), it was a refurb unit from Napa, nothing special.
The bottom end was rebuilt approximately 80k miles ago.

I decided that since I had to pull the head....again. I would just pull the engine and address some other issues that I wanted to attend to, such as the oil pan leak, the front diff leaks, transmission leak, torn motor mount, broken alternator bracket, etc.... basically a small laundry list of items that aren't critical but would be nice to fix. It would also give me a chance inspect the timing set and clutch/pressure plate/throw out bearing. Since last time I did the head I didn't mess with the timing set at all.
This will also give me a chance to clean the engine bay really well and paint the block.

On to the tear down:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/DSC_8757.jpg

Belts were due:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/DSC_8761.jpg

This is where reading a bit before hand would have saved me some time...I removed the upper intake to be able to remove all the wiring...I didn't know you could just pull it from the ecu. :-P

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/P1010103.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/P1010114.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/P1010106.jpg

So, here are the combustion chambers/valves on the head and this is where I was expecting to see a problem. I was expecting a bent/broken valve, or a dropped valve guide. I found neither, in fact when I removed tension on the valve train all the valves APPEAR to be sealing, but I am going to have it checked out to be sure its still legit. I am now confused as I was def getting some leak out of the number one cylinder intake valve, and this is after adjusting the valves. Twice.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/P1010114.jpg

This is something that puzzled me here...
The head gasket that I pulled off didn't have holes for all of the waterjacket holes in the head/block. It was blocking some of them, and it appeared that pressure had started to form a hole where I am pointing in the last picture here. Is it normal to have a head gasket that blocks some of the holes? I read somewhere that it was, but didn't seem right...

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/P1010108.jpg

Also cylinder #4 was far cleaner than the others:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/P1010109.jpg


VS


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/v...1/P1010112.jpg


The carbon buildup was more advanced on all the other cylinders.
The oil in the cylinders is just me being sloppy when removing the head.

Nice pics. Keep 'em coming.

Those center holes being covered is normal. I wondered about that too at first, and I agree it doesn't seem right.

I think a valve has to be pretty screwed before damage is obvious just from viewing the bottom of the head. Look at the pictures of mine (link in my sig). My #2 had a bad exhaust valve (per compression numbers and a paper being sucked into the exhaust), but it appears to be seating ok. Somewhere along the line, after my compression test, #3 exhaust got stuck open.

Yeah I was sort of concerned because it appeared that the coolant was eating through the head gasket at the blockage point, and that is with only 8-9k on it....but if that is normal then I guess I am on to other things...

I need to find a good place to take my head to have it inspected before I reinstall.
Additionally what is the best place to obtain an entire gasket set? I am aware that Fel-pro is a no go.

Then its off to go degrease the block and get it ready to paint.


Also, should I be concerned with that one piston being cleaner than the others?

Anyone have any recommendations for good machine shops in the Roseville/Sacramento area?