Any ideas? This truck feels like it has no power band. It has the same power at 1/4 throttle as it does full throttle. No idle issues, no spitting, sputtering, and it purrs like a kitten just no power.

 

Short of rereading the whole thread. I can't remember if you talked to the people you got the engine from. If so did they have any ideas for you? Bottom line is 99% of the time the builders design and build a motor for one style set up or another.

I can tell you from ATV and dirt bike experience. There are builders that build what are known as dyno queens. But those motors lack any sort of wow factor in real life. I have 2 motors in a trx 250r chassis. They are very close in displacement. 350 & 370 CC motors. The 370 is the dyno queen and runs 77 hp consistently. The 350 is closer to 55-60 hp but has much more of a wow factor I'm going to rip your shoulder off you body acceleration.

It might be they build those dyno queen motors. Let us know why they say or at least let us know they a builder to stay away from if they have no customer service.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have talked to the engine builder and got the reply I expected. They offered no advise and talked their engine up. Only advise he gave me was a professional tune up by a professional mechanic. What the crap is that?!!! I know how to do a tune up and my way around this engine. My next door neighbor is a heck of mechanic as well as a good friend of mine. They can't figure it out either. Today I plan checking the cam making sure it's not off a tooth, changing fuel filter, check for exhaust/intake leak, change o2, change back to my old stock injectors, and that's about it. I hope I find something. If none of that works I have an extra ecu I'm gonna change it but I'm not sure what year model my extra ecu is for. Any other suggestions?

 

Update... So today I set out on this truck again. I attached my shop vac to my tail pipe and let it rip. I sprayed the entire exhaust with soapy water. I have two leaks at the manifold gasket, one of them pretty bad. I also found about a 1" crack and it's also leaking where the down pipe attaches. I called my two mechanic friends and they both said that ain't good but won't cause you to loose horse power. I changed my injectors back to the stock ones. No difference and I think it made it a little worse.
1. Will exhaust leak at the manifold gasket, cracked manifold, and down pipe cause my performance issues? I know the gasket leak isn't good for the valves.
3. What's the best brand for exhaust gasket? Yota?
2. Should I get another manifold or header?
I was looking at obx because they are a lot cheaper then lc's. Anyone with knowledge on obx?
Thanks in advance for any help...

 

An exhaust leak in these motors is very noticeable. Low HP and Torque motors tend to magnify certain problems that are insignificant on other motors. I have a leak on my 5.3 Chevy Z71. Besides just sounding bad there is not a big noticeable difference in power or millage. But when I installed my old exhaust on my 93 22re I left a clamp loose on a mock up and seemed like I lost power with a new header back exhaust. I crawled under the truck after pulling the exhaust header loose from the manifold and the hangers free. Said screw it and just welded it together. No leaks and a night and day difference.

Depending on where you are located I believe I have a good stock collection manifold and "y" pipe. that came off my 85 runner. Might be cost prohibitive to ship is why I ask where your at.

 

Thanks for the reply. I live in Oklahoma but I think I'm gonna go with a header. Trying figure out which. Which did you use?

 

The two brands that keep getting recommended are Doug Thorley or LC Engineering. That being said they can be pricey. But its one of those things, you get what you pay for. Pacesetter is consistently flagged as a stay away from. Numerous reasons are given. The common ones are poor fit and the painted finish chips off quickly. I have held on to my Old School NWOR header. Super think flange resist warping and is easy to get a good seal on. Also when i got mine in the late 90's the were made by Stan's in Auburn, Wa. and they make a great product.

Check this thread
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f120...s-22re-229228/

 

I agree with you get what you pay for. The problem I have is spending another 4 to 500 bucks on a dog of an engine. I really don't feel an exhaust leak is causing my huge power loss but I could be wrong. I looked T the nwor headers last night. I may go with them if they aren't as expensive as lce.

 

Since money always matters I would see if you can track down your leaks and fix them. Can you weld? Smaller cracks can be welded if there is enough good material left. Can you find the leaks and isolate the OEM parts you need used? Just make sure what ever header system you go with doesn't have a paper thin flange. You will have to dissimilar metals separated by a gasket. Aluminum and steel. They expand at different rates so with heat cycles the thinner flanges can be harder to maintain a good seal. I can see if I still have those parts if that would help you.

I will say this I had a 89 22re parts truck that had a bad crack in the manifold. I could barely get the thing to run. Put a spare manifold on hooked it up to the existing exhaust and she idled nice a smooth with good throttle response. So don't discount your exhaust leaks yet. I will see if I can find my spare exhaust parts and then if you want to give me a zip code I can see what it would be to ship them.

 

Thank you sir and my zip is 74733 and I can weld but with all the leaks i think it may be shot.
So I got after it again today thinking I might missed something when I adjusted the valves. So get a load of my luck... I warm the engine, kill it, get it tdc and take cover off. I get after my valves again. They were pretty well on so left them alone. I put everything back together but guess what, I forgot to get my ratchet off of the crank. Yep I start the truck and it knock the bolt loss and smack against my fan clutch. Now my ratchet is stuck. I finally get it
Loose and get under the truck. I notice my crank bolt is loose now so I stick the ratchet on it and go to cranking. Apperantly something happened now it was cross threaded. So I know I ruined the bolt but not sure about the threads on the crank. I was so mad I wanted to set fire to the truck!!!! So tomorrow luckily I'm off and I'm going to hunt a tap and a new bolt.
While doing the valves again I looked at the cam sprocket again. Everything I've read says at tdc your cam sprocket mark should be just to the left of 12 o'clock. Mine is at 12 if not a hair to the right of it. So I've read up on this. What I've found on rebuilt blocks and heads you'll loose some surface which will cause slack in the chain and retard the cam. I really feel this is my problem. They make an adjustable cam sprocket to get your cam back to where it needs to be. That along with either a manifold or header is next on the list oh and tap and die and crank bolt!!!! I'm so mad at this truck I can't stand it. At the same time I love it.

 

So I got the harmonic balancer not back in. Took valve cover off again to recheck everything. I noticed this, when crank is at zero mark or tdc the cam is at 12 o'clock. When I slightly play with crank one way or the other it seems like there is slack in the chain. The crank will rotate a bit before the cam will turn. Is this normal?

 

Yes, it's normal.

There is little to no chain tensioner action until the oil pressure comes up after starting.

 

Thanks to everyone for all the advise. I ordered a lce header today to cure all my exhaust leaks. I'll report more who I get put on. By the way I narrowed my search for header to the lce and nwor. I was actually gonna with the nwor and called them to ask some questions. Their customer service sucks!!! I was told he sold plenty and didn't need my business because I asked a simple question. So I called lce they answered all my questions were very helpful and sold me a header. I hope this fixes my issues. It was needed anyway with all the leaks I had in my manifold. Thanks again to everyone.

 

When I had lack of power issues it was due to a failing fuel pump, the pump was corroded and ethanol gas had turned the in tank fuel pump hose to nearly goo. To check EFI pressure I made a banjo fitting out of a m8 x1.25 bolt that I drilled out, then drilled a hole in a nut and jb welded a copper pipe into the side, and used it has a banjo fitting for a pressure gauge. Attaching all that to the CSI fitting. I've got a Youtube video of it up. IIRC fuel pressure should be right around 45-60 psi.
Easy thing to check and could be your problem.

Good luck.

 

A while back i found an intake leak i had no idea existed. It was a hole in the underside of the intake manifold. It appeared someone whacked it with a hammer to remove it, or just dropped it on something pointy. Had it welded back up and suddenly the timing could be set without such a problem.

Point is check things that aren't so obvious just in case. Who looks for a physical hole in a metal part like that? Mine was overlooked and stumping us for quite a while. Good luck

 

So new header installed and very little difference. I gained just a touch I would say off of idle. I haven't checked for leaks yet and will do that today. Outside of having to remove a heat shield and having to cut the o2 pipe to fit, the header from lce fit perfect and no problems.
I'm still baffled by this power issue. Today I'm gonna look for intake leaks again. If I find nothing I'm going to check fuel pressure next. If that's fine I'm going to try an adjustable cam gear from lce. If that doesn't work I'll give up and admit I got a very crappy engine from Oregon engine builders.
Thanks for all the advise and help.

 

After adding a cold air intake today, which I already had, I can notice a good difference. The hills at highway speeds still suck but truck definitely has more low end tourqe. I think I'm still gonna try the adjustable cam sprocket from LCE. I'm 99% sure I have no more intake leaks I know I have no exhaust leaks. The only thing I can think of is Oregon engines sold me engine advertised with a RV cam and it is not an RV cam. I don't know come here from sickem about cams or how to tell what is actually in it. Anyone in the market for a long block I would be leery of Oregon engines. Again thanks for all the advise.

 

And my "factory truck" came with 31s and 4.56 gearing. I've also run different sized tires on it the 10 or so years I've owned it and noted marked performance differences between the sizes.

 

So I finally have this truck running like it should. What I did;
1. Cured a butt load of vacuum leaks.
2. Cured a butt load of exhaust leaks with a new header and new o2.
3. Since this a rebuilt engine I ordered an LCE degearing cam gear. I advanced the cam to about 4 degrees and set timing to 4 over. It seems to do the best with lots of playing with this at 4 degrees on cam and timing.
5. The best noticeable power gain (this is a no brainier) was 456 gears from 410. I'm getting about 20 to 21 mpgs running 31 and can pull hills and highways speeds just fine.
Thanks to all for your advise and input.