looking for advice from 22r experts. cleaned up my block surface surface for a fresh head gasket and found this pitting. most of it is on the exhaust side near the cylinders. what do you think, install new oem gasket and run? or have the block surfaced? or find a block in better shape?

 

Hard call to make Do you need the vehicle quick or is this a project??

just what did the head look like??

In any case you can get another engine to build .

Then you could have this block surfaced asking your machine shop if the timing cover needs done.

Depends just how fussy you are.

Put it all back together and hope for the best

 

If this were my block I would still run it, it should be fine.

 

I had a block with same condition and hasn't given me any problems. I would make sure the head is serviced and think you will be ok. If they have to shave the head, that will give you a tight fit and don't think it will be a problem.

 

I never have that kind of luck.

I hope it works for you.

 

hmm thanks guys. still trying to decide. most likely i will take the block in to be serviced. it seems like it could work as is but i really don't want to take it apart again in the near future.

ive learned that brand new oem motors can still be bought from toyota. That would be ideal. $5000+ though...

 

If I were rebuilding the whole engine....yes I would get it decked. As little as possible to clean it up.
If I was just doing a headgasket job...Id prolly run it.

 

Run it. Mine looked the same as well as the other 22re blocks i've seen and done head gaskets on. Better to have it decked it you can take it out, but I think you'll be OK.

 

Run it. Mine looked the same way. If you take the block in make sure you take the timing cover in as it will need to be decked the same amount. But like Hilux said deck it as little as possible.

 

If you have a die grinder, you can CAREFULLY AND GENTLY polish it, don't remove any material. Use a softer scotchbrite type of disc. Otherwise, clean well and put it back together.

 

Take some chalk i would use red and rub down the top of the deck and using a flat surfacing tool aka sanding block with some fine grit sand paper hit it a couple times keeping it parallel with the deck surface as much as possible and then see how much red is still left. If it's just in those small pits I'd run it. Now if you discover some significant low spots 1/8 to 1/4 in. overall Diameter I would definitely have it decked. The head gasket will take up the majority of those tiny holes when torqued down large low spots it will not and failure will occur with the hg.

 

thanks everyone for the different points of view. ended up pulling the block. I've had rough luck with this truck, don't want to hack it anymore.

upon closer inspection the cylinders are in rough shape as well. all this damage with only 20,000km on a rather pricey rebuild from a local machine shop. Grr. Any ideas on the cause of the scaring? all of the cylinders have some degree of these marks. improper piston to wall clearance??

I'm most likely going to ditch the block and source a proper one. It seems near impossible to rebuild these things with oem quality. I know I'm not the first to have problems on a low miles rebuild.

 

So I took my truck in just now for the steering rack and head gasket recall and they’re hesitant to do it because of the possible pitting to the short block. Reading this thread and others, what’s the consensus? Just ask them to surface/mill it and carry on? I get the feeling they just don’t want to do it.

I’m no mechanic by any means... is there anything I should tell them to argue that they should go ahead and do it??

thanks in advance!

 

After this block I did my own rebuild with a different block. The deck looked similar to the pictures. Had it bored 0.5mm+ but didn’t touch the deck surface.

6 years and almost 200,000 miles and one head gasket change later I’m still running the engine. Never had an issue. I never blew a head gasket just changed it to be safe.

Cabt say enough great stuff about the 22re.

 

I would say more important than the deck is the condition of the pistons and cylinders and piston to cylinder clearance.

 

That type of vertical scoring often happens when the vehicle is driven too much with a bad headgasket. The water entering the chamber steams the oil off the walls and the piston/rings don’t get lubricated enough.