HDMac07

Greetings! This is my very first post on Yotatech after many years of utilizing the vast amount of great information on here to repair Toyota vehicles. Little background.. 10 years in the automotive industry, 5 years as an ASE certified technician - 3 of which were spent at the largest volume Toyota dealer in Indiana. I have experience with numerous different Toyota engines, but this will be my very first 22RE. Dealer practices aren't always by the book, mostly due to suggestions given by Toyota engineers, so I am going to have several questions about how to properly go about this. Here's the story..

Recently purchased a 2 owner, completely rust free GEM of a 1992 Toyota Pickup with 150k miles. The second owner only owned the truck for a few weeks, and this individual is actually another employee within our network of shops. The truck started overheating on him and he assumed it was the head gasket. Given the condition I offered to buy the truck from him to repair for what most would consider an outrageous amount of money, but I have LONG yearned to get ahold of this exact vehicle in this condition so I just bit the bullet with the intention of fully restoring the truck mechanically from end to end. Anyways, I get the truck home and immediately run a compression test. Results were 170, 170, 170, 165.. all excellent readings. This was great news, but didn't explain the overheating issue. So, I pulled the valve cover and found that the chain guides were destroyed and the chain wore through the timing cover allowing water to mix with oil. A very common issue, as we all know. I pulled the engine and removed the head, only to be told by the machine shop that the head is too warped to be repaired. Not cracked, just warped. This is understandable, I know the truck got hot. I did find it a bit odd that the compression was perfect, the head wasn't cracked, and still it ended up being too warped to reuse. The head gasket definitely did not appear to be blown, and the tops of the pistons had NOT been steam cleaned. No big deal, I ordered a complete head (minus camshaft) from Yota1 Performance out in California that will be here early next week. As far as parts goes, I will list everything I've ordered at the end of this post in hope that someone will correct me if I'm missing something! Now to the questions I have:

1. Can somehow who has experienced the timing cover leak/water mixing with oil chime in and let me know if their bottom was okay after the whole ordeal? Did you leave the bottom end 'as is' and have successful results when you put everything back together and put the truck on the road? From my experience, Toyota bottom ends are ridiculously tough. I've even pulled dozens of heads in the past that were straight as an arrow and didn't even need to be resurfaced... and are still on the road, 10's of thousands of miles later with no issues. I am experienced with engine teardown and repair, but not necessarily proper bottom end measuring and rebuilding practices. The engine wasn't knocking before it was torn down, by the way.

2. Has anyone replaced a head from Yota1 or any other reputable builder with good, long term results? This sort of thing always makes me nervous.

I may be overthinking all of this, just hoping I'm going about it properly. I know water mixing with oil is obviously hard on bottom end bearings, but I'm thinking I can't be the only one out there who has repaired this issue and reused the stock bottom end. No knocking, good compression, and so on leads me to believe the bottom end is probably fine, but I bought some plastigage to at least check the rod bearings. If anyone has ANY tips, tricks, or advice I am all ears at this point. I will post pictures pictures of the truck and the progess once I get them uploaded. For reference, I will list all build parts below. All in all, I'm going to be about $7500 into the truck after the cost of a Softopper bed cover, wheels, tires, license/registration, and so on.. hoping to get it all right the first go-round!

-New cylinder head (Yota1 built)
-Complete engine gasket kit (OEM, with extra stuff from 22RE performance)
-Timing kit (OSK w/steel guide)
-Timing cover (AISIN)
-Water pump (AISIN)
-Oil pump (AISIN)
-IAC valve (AISIN)
-EGR valve (whatever 22RE performance sells)
-FIPG (OEM)
-Plugs/wires/cap/rotor (OEM)
-Radiator hoses (OEM)
-Throttle body coolant hoses (OEM)
-Injectors (cleaned and rebuilt)
-PCV valve/grommet (OEM)
-Clutch kit (AISIN)
-Flywheel (LUK)
-Clutch master/slave (AISIN)
-TPS (Adjusted per FSM)
-Idle adjuster o-ring (OEM)
-Shifter bushing (OEM)
-Bilstein shocks front/rear
-Axle boot kits (OEM)
-Front brake pads/rotors (CENTRIC)
-Front wheel bearings/seals (TIMKEN)
-Sway bar links (ENERGY)
-Trans/diff/transfer case fluids (REDLINE/VALVOLINE)
-Starter contacts
-Vision Manx 2 Overland wheels 15x8
-31x10.50R15 tires (currently Kenda MT, likely switching to BFG)
-Head bolts (OEM)

JJ'89

Hi Mac, I love 'em too, mine's an '89 2wd beater. Got it w about 155,000 miles. Chain was rattling a lot. Didn't know anything about it and git on this site and quckily figured out better take alook b4 any more miles. Lucky me, driver side guides mostly down in the crancase, and two grooves look like a 2 cutter gang cut on a mill, but npot into water. Did it all myself, left head and pan in place. 30,000 trouble-free later, I'm thinking I haer rattling again. Guess I went cheap on some parts and maybe overtorqued the tensioner a bit. Gonna' have to take a look again. Anyway back to your problem. Best I can do is refer you...

https://dannysengineportal.com/antif...hat-can-it-do/

good luck to ya'

Can you inspect and measure the cylinders? Need a good bore gauge; measuring w/ mikes not the best way to check for taper and out-of-round...Maybe a good cleanup and new rings and bearings would suffice if yer luacky

snippits

I have a 92 pickup. I bought an Enginetech cylinder head complete with cam for $250 shipped from RockAuto. It's been on there 21 months now with round about 17,000 miles or so on it. Still working good.

Don't get jacked on the IAC valve...save some money. Standard Motor Products AC141 is a made in Japan part. Exact same markings as the Toyota factory part. Comes with new gasket. Screws can be a PITA to get out.

Change the fuel filter while you have it apart.

Might want to think about getting a new set of valve adjusting screws. I used the same rocker assembly on the new cam, and it worked out. I do think I could quieten my valve train down by installing new adjusters.

thefishguy77

iTrader: (1)

I used an engnbldr head back before he retired. Been on for several years with zero issues. DNJ timing chain kit and everything else came from him as well. He did my block work and sent my crank and rods out to be checked. They were fine. The only oil leaks I have are I reused my Toyota oil pump because it was still well within spec and for reusing an older valve cover gasket and grommets for the last valve adjustment. . Parts recently got here so I should have that all fixed soon.

snippits

Throttle body/IAC plus bypass hoses way cheaper than Toyota.

HDMac07

Thanks for the input guys, really appreciate it. Everything is now torn down, cleaned up, and ready to start installing new parts. Bearings in the bottom end looked great. New head should be here Thursday and hopefully we’ll be ready to fire it up by the weekend.

snippits

Distributor cap and shaft o-rings. I think the full gasket kit has the shaft o-ring.

https://22reperformance.com/22re-ign...and-cap-o-ring

Intake manifold coolant union. If it's pitted bad, I would change it. Mine was crusted up, and some emery cloth cleaned it up good.

https://22reperformance.com/22re-coo...-coolant-union

My head did not come with any hardware, so I needed an exhaust stud nut and bolt kit.

https://22reperformance.com/hardware...t-and-bolt-kit