Hello and Happy New Year everyone!

I've been a while in this forum, learning steadily and collecting good advice on many things from many people and past and present threads.


This is my truck "La Michoacana", a 1994, 22RE, manual, xtra cab.






I found and bought it approximately a year and a half ago, during which time I've done much work on it to restore it to good working condition. Mainly, lots of maintenance which had been neglected by previous owners:

Things I replaced:

- Coolant flush and replaced with Toyota Red Long Life
- Engine oil, filter, spark plugs. Air filter
- OEM Thermostat. Radiator hoses
- Upper and lower ball joints (OEM)
- Steering relay rod (Toyota still honored the recall campaign)
- Tie rods (OEM)
- Put on some OLD MAN EMU shocks (front and rear) and steering stabilizer
- Rear axles bearings, oil seals, retainers (OEM).
- Rear differential oil
- All engine belts (OEM)
- Rear brakes and brake fluid (OEM)
- Fixed one manual hub which wasn't working
- Alternator (OEM remanufactured)
- Original Toyota wheels salvaged from a junkyard
- Got rid of the bedliner and installed a custom built bed cargo cage (steel)



I knew sooner or later I would be facing a head gasket job (engine has over 240k miles), and that moment finally arrived a few months ago. Coolant started vanishing (no visible leaks), there were signs of condensation/contamination on the oil cap and some white smoke from the tailpipe, and a compression test showed low compression on # 1 cylinder. There was only 1 instance of overheating since I own this truck, and it happened approximately 8 months before the HG blew. So I got my hands to it.


This is what I'll be replacing:

- Head gasket (I will use OEM Toyota)
- Timing chain with metal backed guides (OSK kit)
- Timing chain cover and gaskets (LCE Engineering)
- Water pump
- All new gaskets on intake and exhaust manifold


Other things I will be replacing:

- Knock sensor (OEM Toyota) which I broke when unplugging
- New seals and pintle caps on injectors
- Fuel filter (OEM Toyota)
- Thermostat (will use a 2-stage OEM thermostat) and gasket

And I'll be replacing as well all internal gaskets and seals on the PS pump, as it began leaking months ago.




So far I removed everything: intake and exhaust manifold, unplugged harness, removed timing cover and timing chain and its components:


Here's what the old HG looked like still on the block:








And here's what the block surface looks like after initial cleaning. Still a long way to go, it seems:











Still haven't peeked at the mating surface of the cylinder head:









TIME FOR QUESTIONS! ------------------------------------------------------ (This section will continually build up as I progress on this job)


1.- Any advice for an efficient way to clean out the block's head bolt holes, WITHOUT an air compressor (don't have access to one) ?

2.- Same question for all oil and water jackets. They definitely have old gasket material INSIDE them.

3.- Any advice on what to specifically focus on, when cleaning the block and head surfaces?

4.- As can be seen in pictures above, pistons # 1 and 3 have carbon buildup, but # 2 and 4 are almost spotless. Is this normal?

5.- Any advice on what to use to clean carbon buildup on pistons and cylinder walls? I've tried WD-40 and a scotchbrite, to no avail. Gasoline? Acetone? I only have access to nail polish, which has acetone in its ingredients. No hardware stores around here carry pure acetone.




Thanks for reading and for any input! I'll be building up this thread as I make progress!

 

The shiny piston tops have been steam cleaned. A sure sign that coolant was entering those cylinders.

Do not fixate on cleaning the other piston tops as cleanly

It is not really important that anything more be done than scraping heavy carbon with a wood or plastic instrument.

It is vital though that the block deck surface and head mating surfaces be cleaned and degreased, spotless



It is important that the headbolt holes are chased out to their bottoms with a correct size tap.

Any debris might be fished out with spray brake cleaner, or diesel starting fluid.

 

Make damn sure your old cover and the new cover are the same height. If that motor has been gone through before they may have resurfaced the block. If that the case they also resurfaced the cover to match the deck height. That means a new stock cover will be to tall. They may not have resurfaced the block but I dont know how you would tell besides new and old cover back to back. And remember we are only talking thousandth of an inch so they have to match EXACTLY or they will leak. Can you reuse your old cover? If its not chewed up or leaking internally there is no need to replace it.

 

It is somewhat chewed up on some parts (internal side), there is some metal material missing around the backwards bolt housing (probably in the past someone tried to yank free the cover having forgotten about that bolt), and there are some bolt hole threads which are fubared. The timing cover was a gray silicone mess, actually. The HG portion that goes over the timing cover was missing, so all that area was heavily dabbed in gray silicone. But not only that, also all areas around the water and oil pumps, even though those had their respective gaskets in place. But it's mainly the chewed up part in some of the jackets around the internal part of the water pump housing what makes me reluctant to reuse this same cover.


I'll definitely try to compare and observe any height difference between it and the new one, but I'm afraid it will be hard to notice, it being as you say no more than thousandth of an inch in difference, if any.

.