I have very little compression in my numbers 5 and 6 cylinders in my 3vze, so I'm currently in the process of following my Haynes manual to remove the heads because I think i have a couple burnt valves. What things should I check for/replace/do while I'm digging this deep into the motor? I'm planning on a port and polish, intake gasket match, and of course the valve job. Anything else I should do? I'm not look for a great power increase, I just want fun and reliable.

 

What were the compression numbers? How much lower were they?
I would check the condition of the cylinders and make sure its a valve before dumping a bunch of money into a motor with bad rings or something.

 

I just checked it real quick with a cheap gauge to see if I had anything and cylinders 5 and 6 didn't even register any kind of compression at all.

 

I'm really just wondering what other things I should check or replace while I'm this deep in the engine.

 

A few things first off:

• How many miles are on the car?
• Is this the original engine?
• Has normal maintenance (oil changes, ATF flushes, ect.) been done thru its life?

In all honesty, its depends on how much you want to put into it.

 

I just got the truck recently, but considering the shape it was in, I'm going to say it has not gotten regular maintenance. 229,000 miles. Original engine I'm guessing.

 

If that's the case and everything on the truck is original, you will need to spend money to fix it.


If you are going to pull your heads off, you might as well rebuilt those in addition to the short block as the engine is already halfway apart. Otherwise if this is too expensive, you might want to look at a used or rebuild engine.

 

I'm really just going along and cleaning what I pull off and even if I don't plan on rebuilding the block right now, I may end up doing it once I get down there. It's not my daily driver and I just pick parts off every couple of days to clean up and set aside as I save up some money for the heads to be done. I've just never done a rebuild and I know people usually say they replace other stuff while they're that deep in the engine so that they don't have to worry about it and I was wondering what that stuff would be. Thanks for all the input so far, though.

 

Just to update this thread, I did end up taking the heads out and having them rebuilt, costing me $750. All new valve seals, 7 valves were leaking and need to be replaced, other fancy machine shop goody actions and I'm currently in the process of reassembly.

 

Great, let us know how it runs!!