i'm sure your rebuild will last longer than mine, so far everything is great but i imagine ill be tearing back into it around 350-400k, like i said i wish i would have done the block like you did, i had some other expenses though because i let the truck sit for a few years in California with the bad timing set before towing it to north dakota where i live now and some people had taken some parts from it battery was toast tires were dry rotted. i put about 1200-1300 into it to get it back on the road not including the fuel for the 2600 mile round trip pulling a trailer to bring it here. the woman said i could have bought another truck for everything i spent on this one and she is probably right but nothing like knowing everything every little thing about your truck and how many people can say they still own the vehicle they took there drivers test in at 16.

((edit)not trying to hijack or clutter up your thread, if you want i can edit out the info not pertaining to your build thread)

 

You're good. It's not really a build thread, its more of a progress thread and a good place to ask questions as they arise. Ha ha.

 

So I'm putting her back together and I was getting the water ready to heat up the pistons. However I checked the wrist pins and they slid in cold. I'm pretty sure this isn't right, correct? They're the Npr pistons I bought from the machine shop. They weren't sloppy but with the little bit of oil on the new pins they slid in without much fight. I'll call the shop tomorrow to see what they think but what do you guys think? My old pins wouldn't go in so I might just reuse them with new pistons.

 

Did you have to use a bit of muscle on them to get them in ? I'd say if they are still using the circlips to hold them in, you should be fine ... but check with the shop you bought them from to make sure .

 

when i did my motor i used my old wrist pins slid right in motors fine but i do have a little noise from them nothing bad though. i would say that they should at least take a little effort to get them in. but even if they are a little sloppy its not going to cause any serious problems. i would use what ever ones fit the best.

 

Thanks guys. I'll call the shop tomorrow but I think I'll probably use the old pins. The new pins fit the same in old pistons as new ones so the new pins are different, not the pistons. They all measure the same out to a thousandth of an inch so It's pretty close. The new pins weren't sloppy but I didn't have to heat the piston which the fsm says to replace both if heating isn't required. They were brand new though so that's what I don't get.

 

Alright, so I go to re-measure the new pins with a more accurate half thousandth caliber to compare with my old ones. Problem is I can't remove them from the pistons. yesterday when they were lightly lubed I was able to slide them in and out somewhat easily. I'm guessing enough of the lube got taken off to where I can't move them anymore. I called the shop and they said that its ok for them to not be tight. Hence why they have the pin clips. I'm not talking loose where they are bouncing around but if you don't have to heat piston to insert new pin, according to them that's ok. So between their advice and the fact I can't remove them easily anymore, I think they are tight enough to use them and move on. I hope to get the pistons and rods installed in next day or two.

 

I asked my machine shop about the wrist pins before I even started b/c I was concerned too. They said don't worry the just slide in and. I think he said they were "floating" wrist pins or something.

Sounds like you're getting a similar answer.

When I took mine apart. One of the wrist pins fell out when I removed the clips, one I pushed out with my fingers, and the other two would budged without heating the pistons.

When I put the new wrist pins in the new pistons all were very tight. All were heated to 80 degrees and still needed a tiny bit of persuasion with a rubber mallet.

I'd use the ones that seem to fit tightest.

 

I'm just the opposite. My old ones were hard to get out but my new ones slide in. The shop did say they're floating too, that's why they have clips. Like you said I'll just use which ones are the tightest. Thanks.

 

I too have wrist pins that were easy to push in, on my new everything rebuild kit.

I'm at 9500 miles on the rebuild, little oil loss, just replaced the radiator, and have had no signs of internal engine problems or noises from these pins:dunno

Repo

 

Thanks for sharing that. What brand were the pistons and pins? That's very strange that some are tight and others loose. Any one else have experience with this?

 

alright, i haven't got anything done this week, just as i expected. working 55-60 hr weeks is nice for the wallet but doesn't leave much free time. i did make a few trips to the dealership for some more parts. new water pump, 2 oil filters, exhaust studs & nuts, oil pan studs, and most importantly a new 22r sticker for the valve cover. that came out to about 85 bucks. the pump was 50 after tax but considering most of the decent aftermarket pumps cost around 35-40 it wasn't too bad. my goal is to have the motor completely put back together after this weekend and hopefully get it fired up next weekend. i was dinkin around last night looking at an old 22r intake i have (85 i think) and i noticed it has a threaded port right below the t-stat location. you can see it below, it has a plug in it.


i got to thinking that would be a perfect place to put my aftermarket temp gauge sensor. it currently is up by the stock sensor, and a bvsv vacuum switch. it's also maxed out it's cable length there so moving it would be nice. however i quickly realized that older manifold is different in that it doesn't have a heater plate thing on the bottom like mine has. so now i'm thinking about just drilling and tapping a hole in that same spot on my intake. as you can see it has the same flat spot, just no hole.


i already checked the clearance of the sensor and the t-stat and its all good. what do you think? is it not worth it. drilling and tapping a hole in aluminum is probably about as easy as it comes. i have a bunch of adapters too so i won't have to use some crazy metric fine tap that will cost a bunch. i can get a standard size. so thats just something i've been contemplating, wish they would have kept that hole there in later years cause it's a perfect place for that sensor. anyways... i'll get some more pictures up this weekend as i get further along.

 

Any luck?

 

no one chimed in on tapping the manifold, thats ok i decided it wasn't worth it so scratch that. so i got a bit done over the weekend. however in the hurry to get stuff done i forgot to check the bearing clearance on connecting rods so i'll be tearing it back down a little to check that. i'm stupid, always take your time! i also got a bad head bolt from engnbldr, the threads were bad and started to strip out. so i emailed him and he said they would drop a new one in the mail today. other problems i came across were his gasket kit didn't come with the gasket for the cold mixture heater underneath the intake manifold water bypass plate. i was also not very impressed with rock gaskets in general. so to go along with the toyota hg and seals i also ordered new toyota gaskets for that cold mixture heater (21995-35020), the water bypass plate (16347-35050) and the intake manifold gasket (17177-35050). it was 20 bucks for those 3, pretty reasonable for higher quality. here is the cold mixture heater gasket.


i didn't get a pic of the actual heater (lazy) but there is a good pic on this thread, post 196.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...84/index8.html

the parts guy had a hard time finding it, it's not shown under the manifold, it was shown with the carb. so if you need it just use the part number. i'll pick up the other 2 gaskets tomorrow.

the old gaskets i removed (fel-pro) had a sealing bead type thing around it, some oem gaskets have the same thing (like pic above). so that tells me fel-pro is better then rock cause its closer to oem. i also used the toyota gasket that came with new water pump. the rock set was so cheap that i'm still ok using it for the other odd ball gaskets, valve cover and such. i am going to end up with lots of extras though. every single rock gasket is the same material, i might be wrong but that doesn't seem right. i would think the different fluids and temperatures and such would result in different gasket material. we'll find out i guess. i did like his timing set and the head looks good. it's definitely a beefier casting then my stock.

 

some other things i got done were to clean and paint the oil pan. didn't paint it for looks, more for protection. some of the original paint came off when powerwashing. also cleaned the intake manifold really good, brake cleaner is magical stuff. took the crud right off. anyone else notice that brake cleaner eats thru nitrile gloves? no wonder it works so good, thats some harsh stuff. if you have an attached garage, be sure to use it outside, it stinks. i also did a quick clean of the bellhousing, between bad rear seal and clutch dust it was quite messy.

my last question that i was hoping to get some reassurance on is installing the pistons. the new pistons and rings were pretty tight in the cylinder. i used a ring compressor (harbor freight cheapy, worked good). so i used a rubber mallet to gently tap the compressor down to where it sat flush with the top of the block all the way around. then using a wooden handle and rubber mallet i gently tapped the piston assembly down into the cylinder. once clear of all the rings i removed the compressor and finished tapping in the piston. it didn't slide down, i had to continue to tap it down a little at a time. it didn't take hard hits but it was tight enough to have to be tapped all the way down. i also lightly lubricated the cylinder walls with clean motor oil. does that sound about right? i had envisioned the piston having a little more clearance. i should have asked the question at the time but i was eager to keep moving forward. once all 4 pistons were in it took quite a bit of effort to spin the crank. being their isn't much to grab onto and nothing provides any leverage i think that is normal also. correct? i put the front crank bolt in and used a breaker bar to turn it and with that it turned pretty smoothly. doesn't seem like anything is binding everything is just tight, as i would expect with new parts vs 20+ year old parts. the main bearing clearances were all good and were lubricated when installing. i'm hoping all that is normal. i'll check the oil clearance on connecting rod as i mentioned in last post, it should check out good like all the rest, hopefully!



this is about how far i got over the weekend. of course i'm going to have back track some to check the bearing clearance. i'll get some more pics up tonight.

 

My pistons were pretty snug too. Once they were in though, I was able to push them down with my hand using moderate force.

Any more progress?

 

sorry i haven't brought this to a close yet (not that there was much interest, ha ha), been really busy at work lately. well... success! got the motor in 2 weekends ago, but ran out of time to fire it up so i didn't get a chance to start it until this last saturday afternoon. again, busy at work. i took that week to tie up some loose ends, new alternator, oil pressure gauge, toyota thermostat. i also found a leak from the water pump. tightened it a little and that fixed the leak.

it didn't fire at first, had the distributor off a couple teeth. got that fixed and it fired up instantly. i idled it from 1500-2500 rpm for 20 minutes. i then took it on a 30min drive around town, varied rpm, some hard accel, some easy. no high rpms, just cruised. later in the day i discovered pools of antifreeze inside the cab under floor mats. good thing i have herculined interior. i must have knocked the crappy factory hose clamp loose on the hose that goes into cab in middle of firewall. not a big deal, new clamp, wiped up mess, done. drove about 50 miles total and then i drained the oil, checked valve lash (hot) and checked head bolts. all was good. when i first set my timing i had to fully rotate the distributor as far over as possible to get the right timing. on sunday i tried to rotate the dist. one tooth so i had some more adjustment room but i either went the wrong way or something else is wrong cause it wouldn't start. i was again running low on time. so i just put it back where it was and said forget it. timing is currently 0 btdc at idle (900rpm) and 12 btdc with vacuum advance hooked up at idle, per fsm spec. when i tried to move the tooth the valve cover was on so i'll try again next time its off, i probably went the wrong way with it, or two teeth. i used catrol gtx 10w-30 and a quart of lucas break in oil with zinc. the first 50 miles the oil looked like it dropped a little. ive got about 50 on this oil change and it seems like the oil level has stayed the same. still using gtx 10w-30. plan on doing another oil change in 300 miles or so.

so i only have about 100 miles but it seems good so far. it sounds good, more power. it still seems a little sluggish but i've read it takes a while for them to come to life. i'm still having some problems with the stock carb. sometimes it runs better then other times. choke takes a while to kick on sometimes too. i have a weber 32/36 that i will rebuild and put on there in a month or so. i'll probably do a writeup to share my feelings on the differences between the two. i have love/hate relationships with both of them. truck is fully de-smogged, and since its new i think i have a good platform to test both of them equally. then i'll decide which one i like more, performance, economy, etc.

sorry about no pics, i haven't loaded them onto computer yet. i should have some time tonight. it was a fun project, but i'm glad it's over. i added up the costs (not counting oil, specialty tools, cleaners, etc) and it was about 1400. could have bought a professional built one for not much more but at least this way i know whats in it and i have the satisfaction of doing it myself. always wanted to build a motor so it was good.

 

I noticed a power gain at around 6000 miles, MPG improved around then also....

Best tank of gas was 19 MPG, hoping for a little better once winter fuels go away and I put on the stock tire size.

Repo

 

6000 miles! I don't do that in year. Split between 3 vehicles I might be waiting a while for that power. Maybe I'll do a road trip, just to drive. Ha ha. My 4runner is about 15mpg in town where all my driving is, if my pickup is better then that I'll be happy. 20 would be sweet.

 

I did the 20 min of 2K cam break in...
change oil
40trips of idle to 4k, compression brake all the way down to idle....
oil change at 500, 3000, 8K and now every 5 K
had 4 head bolts that needed torquing at 500 mile tune up, 3 at 3K and 1 at the 8K...

still loosing coolant fluids, drop by drop some where, tiny amounts....:cry
Tiz a very small leak, but a leak non the less.

Road trips are great, bring tools

Repo