TurboVWguy

I got a 86 4runner recently to replace my 87 pickup that my little brother totalled a little while back (he had just gotten his drivers permit and i was teaching him how to drive, we were both ok.)anyways, The 4runner was running beautifully for about 6weeks then the timing tensioner broke, (thats why its important to use high quality engine parts and not crap from autozone and other places like that, cause the tensioner did not even look old.)So I replaced the chain, gears, and tensioner and put everything back together, The truck ran great for a day or so then i started to notice small puffs of white smoke and a small amount of coolant consumption, but no milkshaking, plugs looked pretty good too, a few tiny steam spots on the plugs but not many. Obvious symptoms of a bad headgasket. I dont know if i damaged it in some way while messing with the timing cover, or when the tensioner broke in some way it damaged the headgasket or head. I dont want to have to worry about my head now being warped or damaged I just want my truck to be back together right and reliable. So, I ordered a whole new head/cam and head gasket kit with new head bolts and even a whole new timing chain/gear kit so I have the metal guide I ordered it all from engnbldr.com.
However, I did drive the 4runner for 7 days just to work and home (lots of overtime that week and it paid for the parts so I had to do it.)maybe like 10-15miles each day. It really hardly puffed any smoke and I drained all the coolant out and just ran filtered water in there cause I figured it would be better to be getting that in the motor so it could just steam out more safely since it seemed to be only a very small amount leaking, It only consumed about 12 or so oz. of water. Up until about 3 days before i stopped driving it, at that point I topped off the radiator and I changed the oil to check on it and be sure it was not getting water in it, and it looked fine. But on the last day I drained the oil to begin the work and the oil was milkshaked. So I could have potentially been driving it for like 2 days (about 30 miles, maybe) with contaminated oil.

So I am wondering if You all here think that I could have already done damage to the rings or a main bearing?(or something else) Should I swap the bottom end from the other truck into the 4runner at this time? My truck had 210k miles and it was an auto, I got it from the original owner and he took good care of it So I am confident it has many more miles to go. My 4runner has 174,000 miles, and before all this happened it ran really good, did not burn oil and got really really good gas mileage, it even ran really good while the gasket was damaged, Idled pretty well and all and did not really get hot. So do you all think it will be okay to use the motor thats currently in the 4runner?
I want to know that the motor will be ok for at least the next year or two so I can do the other work I want to do to the runner before I have to come back to the motor, but I am planning at some point to use which ever bottom end thats not in the runner and have it totally rebuilt to put back in there when complete.
Sorry this was so long but I wanted to include as much info as possible so I could get some good advice. Thanks in advance

Luvmeye22re

Tough call... You sound like you know what you are doing so I may be an amatuer giving advice here but when doing a timing chain a bit of coolant does fall into the oilpan and it doesn't take much water to make it look milkshake-ish. Scared the living crap out of me last time. I'd do a compression check, look at the plugs, and get my antifreeze tested before I went switching blocks. And if you drove it for that short of a time and it didn't overheat at all, I'd guess that you are fine anyway, even if you need a headgasket. If you don't feel like testing, and have another block, slap a headgasket in it and run it until it throws a rod, then slap the other block in. Who knows, you may get another 100k miles out of the thing with an HG. I'd have to look it up but on Youtube I found a video of a 22re running still after throwing a rod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89AxuhEHc3oter throwing a rod and spewing all it's oil....

surf4runner

changed the cover and no oil change?

whats the compression check show?

it doesnt sound like anything happened to the bottom end.
run some marvel mystery oil for ~100 mi and change it & filter again.
if its not making any noise, in theory you should be OK.


NOW would be the time to do a proper build, if your going to.
remember: there is never enough time to do it right the first time...but always time to do it over.

TurboVWguy

To answer your questions surf4runner. I did not do a compression test i was not sure if it would really give any accurate info being that the headgasket is damaged and would probally leak the pressure from there anyways.
When you ask about changing the cover with out changing the oil, do you mean when I originally replaced the tensioner that broke? If so, I put fresh oil in when I put the truck back together and I also dropped the pan so I could be completely sure I got all the little parts of the tensioner. and it also broke a tiny piece off the timing cover and the driver side guide, so I got all that stuff outta there and then put the pan on. I changed the oil/filter a day or two later too so I knew it was nice and clean in there, and then a few days after that when I first noticed the white smoke to be sure it was not milkshaking, and twice during the short time I drove it like that.

surf4runner

yes thats what i meant, good.

is it creamy after the 2nd oil change?

if the cover didnt go on smoothly, coolant could be leaking behind it into the pan...

TurboVWguy

Yeah Surf, The oil did not become creamy till a bit after I noticed the small amounts of white smoke puffing out the exhaust. So I definately think that it is from the headgasket being damaged and only coolant was leaking into one of the cylinders first, and did not begin to leak into the crankcase till later.

TurboVWguy

Ok guys one last question, I installed the metal guide and other parts i got from the timing kit I got from engnbldr.com. So tomorrow I will get to doing the head, now when I install the head bolts should I install them totally dry or should I add some sort of anti-seize or other type of thread lube, I think I have some of the stuff that comes with arp head stud kits from the last turbo VW motor I built, so I could use that. And also I am planning on running a thread fixer down the threads in the block to clean up the threads and remove any debris. Just figured i'd throw that in there to save people from posting just to recomend that to me. And thanks for the Info people have already given me. lol

SCYOTA

I put oil on the threads of the head bolts before I install them so I get even torque readings. Run a tap down the threads in the block and a die over your head bolts to get any junk off. That way they do not bind when you thread them in. I think that the the bolts are 12mm X 1.5 but I'm not sure off the top of my head.

TurboVWguy

So I pretty much have the truck back together just have to adjust the rocker arms (backed them off during reassembly to be sure all the head bolts were exual and accurate torque settings) The only thing I am not sure of is there is a small green/yellow wire it is connected to the harness with a round white connector it has about a 8in tail from the connector and I cant seem to figure where it goes, any Ideas? also there is another connector it is like a three way connector I believe it is a single male connector on one side the other is a single round connector that I plugged in and the other is a rectangular shaped one. I can not find the rectangular side and cant recall if it was even there when i took it apart. I figured it may be for an option I dont have. anyone know whats with this one also

SCYOTA

The yellow wire with a green stripe may go to the water temp sensor on the top of the t-stat housing. It may also be a check connector that does not hook up to anything. I would look inside it and see if it looks like it was hooked up to something before you pulled it appart.
The rectangular one that you are referring to is a white female connection also?. If that is it then it is the wire for the auto tranny. If you have a manual tranny then that is why you don't have the wire.
Pic's would be great also.

TurboVWguy

Hey Scyota thanks for all the info. Its dark and I am doing this in my driveway as My VW Corrado and 2 Harleys are currently taking up all the space in my garage.(freakin Corrado has not moved in a year and a half but I guess 285+ fwhp will be worth it though) It was too dark already to take pics but Ill take em and post first thing I check on my wrecked toyota out back that was auto and the wires I am speaking of have completely different connectors and I dont see the single green/yellow either. It was handy though to have the truck to look at all the other connections both vaccum and electrical.