tylermx71

Hi everyone, new to this forum and had a couple of questions for people that are fimilar with the 22re. I recently bought back my 89 toyota manual 4wd with 235k from my cousin. The head gasket went out on him about two years and the truck sat in az since. He finally let me buy it back from him this week for $300. Upon tearing into the engine i found the cylinders completely full of coolant. Under the valve cover the rocker arm assembly was coated with a thick layer of rust and the cam does not move freely with my fingers. The underside of the valves have built up rust and the cylinders have some surface rust as well. This makes wonder how the main and rod bearings look. My main question is do you think i can save this engine with out having to rebuild the whole thing or should i start looking for a junk yard engine. This truck will be transporting me around for the next year or so. Im not worried about a long term fix as it will most likely become a project truck after im done driving it.
Here are some pics

AKHeathen

get yourself a bin full of solvent or diesel and use a soft wire brush to knowck everything off. so the cam can't turn easily with your cands and no rockers atatched? it may just be dry, but slide the cam out and inspect it. tear the rocker shafts apart and clean separately. put together with plenty of engine oil. you have to get the surface rust off. it was caused by the coolant. unfortunately, this means that you have to drop the pan and inspect things..... another unfoutunate theng is the oil pump runs off the crank, so you can't prime it with a drill. if the bearings are good, you can pull the caps and oil them and torque back down... unless you find a bad one or 2, but you should find rust in the bottom end that needs to be cleaned off. possibly wd-40 and a brush. you don't want a rust kernel ending up anywhere important. you may need to do a rebuild, but that depends on the condition of the bearings and cylinder walls, either you can tell, or post better detailed pics. really, the time it sat with moisture in the crank case can be the diffence of a repair or a rebuild, and there is no magic number to tell you how long. good luck, and i would start with dropping the pan and cleaning there.

tylermx71

Thanks for the response, I will most likely just pull the motor and go through the whole thing. What abrasive would you recommend for cleaning off journals? Scotchbrite or light steel wool with oil or WD ?

AKHeathen

soft wire brush.... but fine steel wool (#0000) would be fine as long as you keep any strands from getting in things. these are 1/2 mi9lloin mile motors typicaly, but it sitting through that much moisture for an extended period can kill any motor. done right you could make it as agressive as a 2.8 gm motor. 90% of any bearing damage would be done, or prevented now, though. napa has cheap ass brushes to clean this up in brass, stainless, and mylar(*plastic) for a few bucks in the bin.

nordicwargod

I blew up the pics of the block and you have some bad rust on the cylinders. Its true that the rockerarm assembly and cam may be saved with some elbow grease but that block has to be disassembled and re-bored. Rings will never seal and they may fail and cause major catastrophic damage.
Lots of machine work! Pistons and crank will have to come out so then you can inspect everything, I blew a HG and had water in the oil. I let it sit for two years and everything was fine. Who knows?
To get it running quickly I would turn to a craiglist engine that you know runs, then build up this engine the way you want it.
Buy an engine kit with pistons from engnblder and get one of their topline heads with oversized valves along with their crawler cam. Put it together right. You will never sell your truck!

AKHeathen

idk, i spent a whole bunch of mone on my display instead of going with a 3d to make sure i have the best definition...... and it's too blurry to tell anything..... hence the request for more detailed pics.

Janos01

If this is the original engine and this is going to be your primary, best thing to do would be to rebuild the whole engine. Reason being, it has rust in many main areas, engine has 235k miles on it, if doing a HG job you might as well rebuild top and bottom as the engine is halfway apart.

The second option is a used engine, junk yard could be a hit or miss as they cannot tell you exact condition or how many miles are on it.

In all, I would have the block cleaned and checked by a machine shop if you decide to do a HG job or rebuilt as before you put money out as you want to make sure your heads & block are not warped.

Best of luck with your decision.

nordicwargod

You have probably taken apart more engines that I'll ever touch but I have taken apart one like this before. You can see around the side of the piston on #2&3, the build up of major rust. Cast iron rings? Plus look at the waterline above each piston of about 2"? If there is not pitting on the walls I would be astounded!

tylermx71

I will try to get some more detailed pictures today after work in the light. It was dark out and couldn't get the camera to focus. Thanks for the help everyone, I will start tearing the motor out tonight and get back to you guys

tylermx71

Here are pics of cyl 2&3 I sprayed wd and wiped the walls clean. In the pictures there are little spots that look like rust but they are actually smooth and uniform with the cylinder wall. Its like they are almost stains and not actual rust

nordicwargod

Are those pics before or after you sprayed and wiped them down?
The rust looks kinda bad. But if you can't feel any pitting you may still have a chance.
What are your plans?

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

If it was me new loaded head from Engine Builder

Rebuild the bottom end .

The cylinders should clean up with boring hard to tell from the pictures .

My time is better spent then cleaning that rust if you have the time by all means go for it.

Although after some hours you might find some parts just to far gone no way to really know

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

With the miles on it and condition I would go with what Wyoming suggested. Any more with all the machine work and cost on a head, you can get a new one for a few dollars more then getting one fixed.

tylermx71

That's what I was afraid of. I will remove the engine and further inspect the block. I will be out of town till monday so it will have to wait. Thanks for the help. I'll post some pics next week