You should be ok. If you need more clearance with the thinnest shim, the machine shop didnt do it right. Did they replace the exhaust valves or grind them? I hope they replaced them because when you grind the exhaust valves themselves, they will burn in no time flat. Toyota learned this the hard way when they were doing the head gasket campaign. Its going to take you a long time to get everything adjusted correctly since you dont have shims readily available for you to pick through. Just take your time and do it right and the results will show

 

Uh, the ground them. Can you explain why they will burn so easily? This build is killing me, but I am learning much.

 

Did the shop put the long block together, or did you put the heads on yourself. It sounds like the heads might not be completely seated on the block (I've been there, different engine however).

 

I put the block together after getting the heads from the machine shop. How would the heads not be seated completely, especially after the ft/lbs applied to the head bolts.

 

the heads are seated just fine. Its the valves, trust me. Escpecially after his clearance findings. The exhaust valves burn easily in stock form. We do tons of valve grinds because of this. Grinding the exhaust valves removes material from the vlaves making them thinner thus making them more prone to burning. You can take your chances with them now and hope they dont burn 15K down the road or tear the heads off and put toyota exhaust valves in it and have the machine shop adjust the valves right. If you run your current valves, set the exhaust as loose as poss. (.013-.014)

 

Toytech....
Do you think the valves are burning so easily after grinding them that it may because of the restrictive stock exhaust set up?

 

No. The 3.0 is just a poor setup to begin with cylinder head wise. If you keep your valves adjusted every 30-60K you will have less problems with them. Nobody does them because its so expensive to do. Taking material off the exhaust valves just makes it more prone to burn when the clearance goes away. I ALWAYS put new toyota valves in heads when I do them. The intakes are ok to grind

 

What is it about the design that makes it okay to grind the intake and not the exhaust? And, what's different about Toyota exhaust valves as opposed to quality aftermarket?

 

I adjusted my valves before I put it all back together and it was not a difficult job. With everything back in place it's probably a tad harder, but it should cause you no problems. Heck, if you can't figure out how to get the shims out with the special tool, it's no problem taking the cams off and on a couple of times to replace the shims and check them again.

Even with the machine shop doing my heads I think I only had 4 valves out of adjustment.

Good luck.

 

Last night I went ahead and order the SST off of ebay for about $12 and a #1 shim from the local dealership. Figure I will get some experience with adjusting the valves/shims, but am still considering the advice of others to have the valves replaced. Also toying with the idea of cutting out the crossover pipe and splitting the exhaust out. This would help with the heat dissapation at the valves and HG areas. Wish I had done my homework before buying this 3.0. The 22re is so much less trouble

 

The intake valves are closed and not operating when the exhaust cycle is happening so they arnt affected like the exhaust valves are. I will only use toyota valves and engine parts when fixing a toyota. I have done several top end jobs that someone had previously used aftermarket valves and found they held up worse than toyota valves do. I have never had any luck with aftermarket engine parts/gaskets. I stick with oem

 

Any tips for getting the shims out? I've got the compression tool, but some of my shims just don't seem to want to come out. A decent jewelers screwdriver and a good magnet has work on most.

 

best way to get them out after you have the bucket held down is first, use compressed air with a rubber tipped nozzle to get air under the shim since the oil under it forms a mean suction on it. Next after you do that is use a long magnet to grab hold of the shim. Most times it wont pull out past the hold down tool so I use a long flat blade screwdriveron the backside of the shim and pop the screwdriver with a hammer and it pops the shim out

 

Ahh! Thanks.

 

Glad you're around, Toytech. I'm favorite placing this thread.

 

glad to help!

 

hey buddy help me out with this yotatech stuff... im confused as a duck in a snowstorm...lol

 

I just got done putting a ford 300 I6 together and i had a simlar issue with cyl 1 and 2 come to find out that after surfacing the heads the push rods where slightly to long and were holding the valves open.

ford 300 six has hydralic lifters and no rocker adjustment.

im betting that something similar is going on with yours that your valves are somehow not seating completely.

BTW i didnt read all of the thread cause i didnt have time so sorry if im off track by this point in the thread.

 

EB88yota2x2, aren't you the one that wanted to put that 22RE in a Prius to save on gas?

 

Alright, I got the new shims in and even bought the SST to help remove them without taking the cams off. Right! I got all but two of the shims out using the tool and compressed air, but ended up having to take the cams out in order to remove the bucket and wedge out the stuck shim. PITA!

Between the new set of shims and the old ones, I got all intake and exhaust valves adjusted to within specs. After a few minor complications, the plenum and vacuum lines are together. Tried to fire it up. I could smell fuel in the exhaust and could hear the VAF plate opening and closing sporatically, but no significant combustion. Took the distributor out and turned the crank 360 deg thinking I might be out of phase. Tried to fire it up and nothing! By this time my battery was low so I took the left side plugs out and looked at the compression to see if the valves holding pressure. Cranked it a few times and got 125 psi on the two cylinders I tried. Uggh! They were 170 before I adjusted the valves. Could this low reading be owing to the weak battery not turning the crank fast enough or did I screw up on adjusting the valves (according to the feeeler guage, I was right in specs)? Help! I want to push it out in the street and let the next logging truck move it down the road to the next house.