Long story short, rebuilt 22re and now have between 1500-2k miles on engine. It runs great but is burning oil bad. Tried many different break in oils no luck. Bore scope shows outside of pistons oily. Not sure what rings were used, did not have to bore engine, still had cross hatch. Question is what rings should I get and best place to get them from? Going to pull oil pan and head to re-ring the pistons.

 

I've only torn down and rebuilt one engine myself, but you need to at the very least hone the cylinders out (not sure if you did that), that provides the rough texture the new rings need to "seat" to the cylinder walls. Just because it has a crosshatch does not mean the new rings will seat properly. Also, were the ring gaps correct on the oil control rings? its possible the gap was too big and now oil is getting past.

 

Machine shop did hone cylinders, and they ordered the engine kit for me so it would have all the right sizes. I will recheck ring gap when I tear it back down, I want to say gap is right because it runs so good, however I need to know what kind of rings to get. Rock auto is showing 3 different types and I want to stay with factory type, just don't know what that is.

 

Sometimes a moly ring set can take 4k plus to totally seal,how much oil is it burning?

 

Its burning 1-2 qts every 500 or so miles. I wish I knew what kind I had, been over a year now so Im sure the machine shop wont know.

 

Are you sure the oil consumption is due to bad rings? Does "Bore scope shows outside of pistons oily." actually mean "cylinder walls oily"? (I'm not sure how you can see the outside of the pistons with a borescope.) Do you have good compression?

 

Ok, outer edge of top of piston is oily, all the way around, all 4 cyl. I will know more when I tear down. Also back to the question I need answered what type of piston rings do I need to get, trying to stay oem without going to dealership. Thanks

 

I can't answer your specific question, as I haven't replaced rings.

By "OEM, but not from dealer," do you mean you want to find out who Toyota buys their rings from but not buy them from Toyota? I see only one part number for 22re rings, but that's not the end of the story. http://www.toyotapartsoverstock.com/...301135052.html

I haven't see what you've seen, but I might expect that GOOD rings (with, say, leaky valve guides or a leak in the head gasket) would push all the leaked oil up to the top of the piston. In fact, I might think that BAD rings would blow the oil out, at least at the side of the piston where the ring isn't sealing. But that's really just a guess.

 

generally, if it's blue smoke on acceleration, it's rings.

blue smoke on deceleration is valve guide seals.

compression check, but squirt oil into the plug hole and immediately check again; if the compression goes up, but briefly, it's because the oil is slowing down the blowby past the rings... no change in compression indicates something else.

that much oil consumption should be fouling the plugs, i'd think.

don't know about the ring choices, but there should be factory numbers for it.

 

Ok, I pulled the head today, the top of the pistons are oily, mostly towards the outside. I have not pulled the pistons yet to check ring gap. The bottom of the heads show no signs of oil coming from the valves so that leaves the rings as the only source. Now my choices as far as I can see for ring type are chrome, steel, ductile, iron. Does anyone know what toyota used from the factory? Thanks

 

I don't, other than they probably used the Toyota part. http://www.toyotapartsoverstock.com/...rimLevel=18293

Are you trying to save money vs. buying from the dealer? (Not hard to do, admittedly.)

 

Yes, overall goal is saving money, I have about $500 into engine rebuild including all machine shop work and parts. Everything worked great, using oil the only issue. Just not sure it's worth 100-150 for a set of toyota rings, just want something that will get the job done.

 

I'd spend the $ and get factory rings for peace of mind. Or spend a few nights searching google and find what most quality rebuild kits use.

How did you go about breaking in the rings?

 

<br />
You obviously know this but some may not, Synthetic oil is not recommended for older style engines like this during break in. If someone doesn't know why just Google it.

 

maybe you could do that for us. Other than (what I think are) the obvious junk sites, and the occasional site selling a very expensive "break-in oil", what I came up with is sites saying that's a myth.
http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/...Oils_FAQs.aspx
http://www.briggsandstratton.com/us/...-in-procedures

 

Dyno break in oils are generally recommended for older engines to help new flat tappet cam & lifters survive during the first 30 crucial minutes of break in.

Really all most people used before the special break in oils was normal straight 30w with a bottle of the fantastic GM Engine Oil Supplement (they even changed that and made it weaker). Then you would swap it out after the 30 min camshaft break in period and add your regular oil, then change that after 500 miles.
*I* can't tell you for a fact that regular dyno oils are better for bedding in the rings but that is what an awful lot of professional engine builders will tell you.
There is more than one take on this theory.

 

I feel lucky to have solved my own oil consumption issue so here's my story.
About 4 years ago I rebuilt a 22re using enginbuilder's kit. It ran pretty well until about a year and a half ago I verified a HG leak with the Napa HG leak test kit. While the head was off after much research I re-honed the cylinders with a borrowed hone from Oreily's and ran dyno oil for about 5,000 miles. Plus I "drove it like I stole it" to seat the rings. It went from about 1.5 quarts per oil change to about .5 or less. With regard to ring choices, what I remember from my research is that the softer iron rings seat easier but dont last as long. The harder (moly?) rings will last 200k+ but are tricky to seat.

 

Probably the only way to make sure it will run properly is to buy a new set of pistons and start over. The piston to wall spec needs to be right. Take the block & pistons to a shop that has experience with toyota. Have them size the block according to the piston spec sheet. They can gap the rings too.

NPR pistons & rings are good and don't cost much. It's an oem supplier, and they dont burn oil. Plenty people including myself have had past trouble with cheap rings from Rock, DNJ, ITM, etc. not that these companies don't sell decent stuff but the rings don't seem to last very long. Certainly they are not oem quality.

Of course An often over looked option is a new block from toyota. Get that and forget about it.

Bottom line - Doing it right is time consuming and expensive but it will save doing it a 3rd time.