Im about to purchase my pistons and rings from engnbldr. Also going to replace the main bearings. What else should I replace while everything is apart? Timing chain, of course. But is the oil pump worth replacing at 235k miles? What else should I replace.

Also, I just did a head job on the thing less than a thousand miles ago. Can I reuse the headgasket, or would that need to be replaced as well?

 

replace it head gaskits are not reusable ever! you may need to replace the head bolts to depending on how many times you have taken them out and torqued them back, if your doing barrings you need to have your crank polished if not taken to a machine shop if you have never done the bottom end and have 235k on it then id take it into the machine shop and have them do it for you. before you order your stuff id tare the motor down and find out how bad stuff really is.. id go timing chain water pump and oil pump while its all out and apart Ebay has cheap full kits for the 22re just about anywhere has cheap stuff for the motor if you got it out AT LEAST do a water pump. good luck at least your not rebuilding a 3.0 im 4 weeks into my rebuild!!

 

i would also get a cam from engnbldr i heard they are great

 

so you're ordering pistons and rings... has the block been honed / bored yet?
how do you know what size pistons and rings to order?

headgasket= one time use.

oil pump= replace any time the timing chain is being serviced.

 

yeah I would do the oil pump for sure and new head bolts also, good idea to take the crank in and see if it needs to be turned, are you boring the cylinders or just getting stock size pistons? might want to have the bores speced also make sure they are not out of round, get your head reworked while its off.

 

you beat me to it!

 

it's all good...

 

you would be better off just getting the rebuild kit and doing your rod bearings and have the block hot tanked and all that good stuff!

 

it seems like alot of work but it goes fast. the machine shop will do most of the "hard" stuff bring the a striped block and the crank tell them you want it as close to stock as passable they will tell you the best way to go about doing that your price is looking about 500$ total thats my guess thats about what im at right now rebuilding a 3.0 and i KNOW 22res are cheaper i rebuilt one of them to. trick is to find a GOOD machine shop not an idiot who only knows american motors. good luck again if you need anything elts holler.

 

His metal back timing chain guide would be a good idea as well so why not get the master rebuild kit if you need it it's in the kit

 

yeah get the engbldr kit and your are set!

 

I haven't ordered any of the parts yet. I was going to get the .030 oversized pistons and rings to go with those.

I wasn't planning on starting this project until winter is over. this is my only 4x4 vehicle for this season. other ride of choice is an oldsmobile. so of course, i dont want that for winter.

the headbolts i have should be fine, shouldn't they? i just replaced them when I did the head job a thousand miles ago.

I'm also considering the sports valve head from engnbldr. is it worth the $400?

 

sports valve head? never heard of it, there is an rv head, but its $500 and I have it and it was worth it considering a new stock one is $400. Once you get all your parts and have it machined you should be able to get it back in your truck in a week or so!

 

the RV head is the same thing. I've also seen it referred to as the "sports" head on other sites. So I'l upgrade to that. Reason I was asking is if I was going to upgrade to this new head, I'll just replace the headbolts too.

My schedule is all weird, so I don't have a tyupical day off to work on it. Which is why I was going to wait until winter is over. The way my schedule works, i only have sunday and tuesday off. So I was thinking I would drive it to my parent's house on a sunday and tear it down as much as possible. I think I can get the pistons out and the engine block removed on the first day. tuesday I would take the block and have it bored and honed out. That would give the machine shop a week to work on it. I'd pick it up before the next sunday comes, and put everything in on the next sunday/tuesday. so for me, this job would probably take 3 weeks at max.

3 weeks in colorado's winter is hard to deal with. so if this project is going to be done right, i want to prepare as much as possible and do it in good weather so it will b done right and not rushed.

should I take the head and the nw pistons/rings to the shop and tell them i need it bored .030 over, or do they not need the pistons on-site to make sure it matches?

 

take the pistons to the machine sho, you'll need them to install the connecting rods to the pistons anyways (your kit will come with new wrist pins aka rods and connecting rod bushings or aka wrist pin pushings)... the shop will have to install these for you since the new bushings have to be honed and fit to the wrist pins.

 

I'm thinking about tackling this project early. Maybe in weeks. I just did a compression test on 2 of the cylinders. The results were so low I didn't even bother with the other 2. Cylinder one was maxed out at 30psi, and cylinder 2 was maxed at 60psi. Did a wet test which didn't help boost the results at all.

Maybe the gauge was broken. The truck runs good, it lacks power, but it still runs with more power than my 1.6L suzuki sidekick.

 

not to insult, but you did pull all the plugs and test it at wide open throttle right? I didn't do this the first time I did a compression test and was surprised at my numbers? I only ask because your numbers are so low I am surprised it runs!

 

Yup. I went back and fourth between cylinder 1 & 2 trying different methods. I remembered some people on yotatech said you don't need to hold the throttle open, but I tried it both ways and got the same results. First I did it without, then I opened the throttle all the way and used a socket wrench to keep it propped open. No change.

 

you should hold the throttle open- it eliminates it from being a cause of low numbers: throttle closed = little air getting into the cylinders = low compression.
also, you should do all four cylinders. if all four are low there is likely some other problem. you said that some oil in the cylinders didn't change the numbers. that says to me that the rings are probably okay and the issue is elsewhere like head gasket or valve adjustments, or possibly when you did the head earlier the cam timing is off.
I'd hate to see you rebuild the engine just because the cam is indexed incorrectly or the valves need adjusted.

 

Hmm. I adjusted the valves twice after the head job. Also replaced the gasket when I did the head job, so gasket wouldn't be the problem. Also got new valves and valve seals and everything seated properly. So head couldn't be the issue. But cam timing...hmm. We adjusted he timing by ear, so it's not the best. But it's better than it was. Is cam timing the same as timing, as in timing chain/distributor cap?

It woulnt necessarily be a shame to rebuild it. One of the reasons I bought this truck was to have something to work on. I'm excited about replacing piston rings, but not during winter time and not when it's an obligation.