Well like they say, when it rains it pours! I just got done building my flatbed (which I now wish I had postponed until further notice). I have been noticing the past 2 time I drove the car that the coolant pressure seems high (leaking upper rad hose) and is not being released. When I would pull the cap (today 2 days after last driving) there was still a lot of pressure in the line. Pull my oil cap for fear of the worst, and there is the nasty white foam!

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So I now know it is headgasket time, in the winter, it's f*ing raining, I need a place to work. This will (hopefully not be a junk story) be a newbie auto mechanics (maybe that's being generous) journey into the realm of 22re headgasket replacement. Dun dun dun...

I know I am beating a dead horse here but maybe you can bare with yet another newbies thread, maybe not. Either way here it is.

On the first day there was rain, and a search for a place to work, and a few questions on my mind, namely, what else should I do. I've read the threads do timing chain, cover, blah blah, maybe I will, but I would rather not, looked good when I did my valve lash (last f*ing week), but hey who knows, maybe I'll get started and do it anyways. I am planning on getting a FelPro Headgasket Set and FelPro bolts, bring the head (once it's off) to a machinist to be checked (and pray), of course new oil and filter (also done last f*ing week), and some REAL coolant (not done last week, more like, 3 weeks ago), distro rotor and cap, plugs, wires, pcv (cheap so why not). Should I pull the oil pan? I suppose I should probably not buy anything until I get in there?

Well that's about all I've got right now, will update once something or other happens/I start making progress.

Bink

 

I wouldn't order anything until you drop the oil pan. Check out all of your bearings on the crank and connecting rods. Pull your head and have a look at your cylinder walls. You may find something that you don't like and you may want to just either replace or rebuild your motor.

What's your location? Maybe there is someone local who will be willing to help you out?

Also, if you don't have a covered work space maybe it will be a good time to invest in a pop-up canopy?

 

Updated my profile for the location, thanks on that tip.

My property management company will unfortunately not let me work in the drive so I am working on finding a good place to set up. If I can't find a garage a pop up canopy will have to be the solution!

 

Well... if you do nothing more than drain your oil, drop your pan, and change your head gasket, it can be done in less than a day. You can check your head for warpage yourself if you have a good straight edge and some feeler gauges. As long as your head doesn't need and machine work then you're set and it shouldn't be too expensive or labor intensive.

Seeing as you are kinda new at this I would highly suggest you download a FSM and read over the engine section page for page and get a good idea of what is involved in changing the head gasket. It is a simple task but it helps if you have a heads up on what you're doing.

 

FSMs here:
http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/index.html

 

I've got one but thank you much! I am using the 1993 online version, I've actually thought about printing a copy off so I am not contantly switching between the different pages (it's all broken down probably for quicker load times).

 

So you said to check the bearings in the lower, what should I do without pulling anything but the pan? Sorry for the novice question.

 

Look for any excess amounts of metal shavings in the bottom of the pan. See if you have any excess amount of movement in any part of the crank or lower parts of the connecting rods. If all of your bearings are good and your cylinder walls are good, then I would say you have a healthy motor. And at that point just replace the head gasket and check your head for warpage.

 

I'd pull the head, check the ring ridge, THEN i'd consider pulling the pan. If theres an excessively large ridge at the top, then yeah i'd pull it, but very small i wouldnt worry.

Otherwise, do the timing chain and guides, and just finish the HG. Don't screw with stuff that isn't broken.

 

So I have a question for y'all, do I run the truck up to temp to drain my oil or just drain it cold?

 

I'm in the same boat as you. Blew my head gasket last wednesday. Good luck.

 

Hey man, you have my story!! Easiest thing I can say to do is pull your valve cover and see if the tc guides are broken. If not, you may not need to pull the oil pan (PITA on a 4x4) to get all the broken plastic out.

I went though a lot of the same stuff you said (finding a place to work, just flushed the radiator w/ new coolant, fresh oil and filter...). Such is life.

Here is my thread, here is 22r2tuff's thread, I'm sure you already read 92 TOY's thread (very informative), also irab88 did an awesome thread that I used extensively for my job.

Overall it's not that bad, mine went way easier than I thought it would, I just have easy stuff to put back together now and plan to be up and running as soon as I have a few hours to throw at it. Have fun!

 

My headgasket blew last February when I ran out of coolant (long story).

Word of advice, get the gasket set from engnbldr. It has all the gaskets you'll need to replace if you follow the FSM manual.
Get the head checked and decked (leveled) professionally. Your headgasket popped, it's gonna be warped. You might as well have the exhaust manifold and exhaust manifold side of the head levelled as well if you've got an exhaust manifold leak.
New headbolts are cheap insurance, which can also be bought from engnbldr.
Make sure to REALLY clean out the head bolt holes. Simply shoot some brake clean in there and run an old (or new) headbolt into to each hole until it comes out clean.
Torque your headbolts in the correct pattern and do it in increments (5 lbs, 15 lbs, 25 lbs, etc...) until full torque spec.
Engnbldr is very helpful and knowledgeable about these engines.
I used a pizza box to organize all my bolts. Push them through and make note of where they came from.
Yes, the harness does go back in all in one piece. Haha.
Vaccuum hoses are a pain but just take a deep breath and follow the diagram on the inside of your hood.

 

Thank you very much Stuwy! Will check out engnbldrs kit, looks cheaper than the felpro. I am thinking about just slapping in the new headgasket and doing a more thorough rebuild in the spring since money is tight and it's getting COLD here in wisconsin. But we will see...

The question on my head is still whether to drain the oil cold or run the engine to temp and drain it hot despite the coolant. If someone could heed some advice it would be great.

 

I got the felpro gasket set for everything else, but went with an OEM dealer head gasket, it only cost 45 bucks and on something as important as a headgasket, spend the extra to get one :}

Read my thread on when I did my upper engine rebuild, link on my signature, Good luck and have fun :}

 

^^^ x2

OEM head gasket FTW!

 

I will give that some thought, seems like a lot of people here like the engnbldr stuff but oem is probably the way to go.

Either way can someone please help me with the oil, is it just such a dumb question no one will answer it?

 

draining warm engine oil is best because as it warms up and flows better (viscosity) it will drain more completely (possibly even removing more contaminate as you are getting that last little bit of old oil out also)

but its not the end of the world to drain cold oil.
its just not as complete of a flush... perhaps a half quart is still in there
just let it have longer to drain and it won't matter compaired to all of the things your dealing with....

plus if you pull the pan anyways its pretty close to irrelevant... your going to find sludge to clean in the bottom of the pan that doesn't get cleaned out in a normal oil change.


its probably overkill, but I drained my oil a 2nd time after 20minutes of warm up (post head gasket job). I figured that another 15$ worth of oil was cheap compaired to the risk of any contaminates I might have missed or introduced during the job. I'm a bit cautious and do the same thing when ever I rebuild a motor on other cars. 1st oil change after 15 - 20 minutes... second oil change after 100miles... etc.

 

+1 on the 2nd oil change after a test run/ warm up. Get rid of anything that you might have dropped into the oil galleries.

Plug in your block heater, and oil-pan heater (if ya go one). Or put a flood lamp under your engine (you know the ones that burn your arm if you touch them lights). That'll warm your engine and help the oil run easily.

Seeing as your coolant and oil mixed, your going to need to flush both systems separately, which means a couple oil changes and a couple coolant changes.

 

Re-torque your head bolts in 100 km.