Some things I learned when doing my 22RE head gasket...
04-08-2018, 10:18 PM
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Some things I learned when doing my 22RE head gasket...
**PREFACE: ALL RIGHT SIDE/LEFT SIDE DIRECTIONS ARE GIVEN FROM THE MECHANIC'S POV I.E. IF YOU'RE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE TRUCK**
I just finished this whole thing up after four months of intermittent work. I wanted to write a quick blurb about some helpful do's and don'ts when performing this level of open heart surgery on an engine. I hope this will aid anyone who does a Google search for it in the future.
Vehicle: 1995 Toyota Pickup, 22RE, 4WD manual.
Uses California emissions set-up.
Here's the thread I had going for my issue(s): https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...e-help-303420/
Insanely awesome resource I used: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...ingChain.shtml
And now...the list.
Do:
-Make sure you have good tools for doing this. Cheap stuff will break at the worst possible moments. Avoid that at all costs.
-Try to have access to a cherry picker. It will make the head removal so much easier. Yes, you can wrench it out with your hands but why do that if you have access to a shop crane?
-Pneumatic tools are the best. They made this job so much quicker...until you shear off a bolt head. Go slow. Torque by hand for crucial components (head bolts, anything physically attached to the block, etc.).
Don't:
-Don't be afraid to ask questions. I feel like some dudes need a reminder of that sometimes. This forum saved my life.
-Don't try to take the crankshaft pulley bolt off any other way than what I mention. You'll just be wasting your time.
-Go slow and test fits first. There's a lot of spots on this job that can bind you up by attaching too many things at once. Leave things loose for adjustment and tighten later.
Some crucial things to remember (the juicy part of this post...):
-There's a rigid metal exhaust line that feeds off the exhaust manifold into a recirc system on the intake. Undo both sides of this before you try to remove either manifold or intake. Feel free to bend at will as long as it isn't rusty.
-That recirc line mentioned above will make removal of the intake impossible unless you snag it. If you're wondering why you can't remove your intake all the way but it seems to be hanging free of the head-check this.
-Fluid will find it's way out of everything so be prepared.
-Check your spark plugs before you pull the head. This will help you diagnose which cylinder actually went bad. You can compare your findings with the actual state of the gasket for confirmation (not necessary, but helpful).
-There are two 10mm bolts that hold in the coolant line that passes through the intake into the block. The bolts are tiny and can sheer off easily. This tube and connection are located in the middle of the manifold between the two plenums. The piece that goes into the intake doesn't use a gasket and features a rubber ring around the tube that rests inside of the intake. This is normal and DOES NOT need FIPG at all contrary to what you may thinking.
-The infamous allen bolt on the intake is a thing you need to contend with. Yank all of the bolts for the lower intake and find it unwilling to move? Check this. Located towards the front, on the top, slicing right near the thermo housing into the head.
-You don't need to replace the studs on the intake side of the head for the lower intake manifold. Use bolts. They're much easier especially for the back one on the bottom row and the two that hold in the EGR (large valve that protrudes from the back of the head on the intake manifold side).
-The EGR block off plate that goes on the very back of the head NEEDS FIPG. If you install this without FIPG, you will have a leak almost immediately. Toyota muffed this up royally with it's design. If you did install it without FIPG and have a leak, however, fear not. It can be removed while the head is in place on the engine with a 12mm ratcheting wrench and a lot of patience. Make sure you slide the plate BENEATH the hangars when reinstalling for the coolant and exhaust rigid lines that run behind the back of the head.
-Crankshaft pulley bolt is a nightmare. I used all manner of tools and literally saw nothing. What did the trick? The old "socket-on with starter" maneuver worked in less than two seconds. Simply place a 19mm socket on the bolt with your largest ratchet attached. Rotate the ratchet so the handle rests beneath the LEFT SIDE frame rail so it will catch properly. Get your hands out of the way (please, God, do this). Blip the starter very quickly. The inertia of the engine spinning will break the bolt almost immediately. Don't hammer on the starter, though, if this isn't working. You'll chomp out flywheel teeth like it's going out of style.
-When you rotate the engine to bring it to TDC, be careful not to rotate the engine to much in the opposite direction (counter clock-wise). This will put slack in the timing chain (left side, right side should be tight) and when you rotate it the right way, the slack can catch on the guides and break them [the chain and guides]. It might bind and you'll think the engine is stuck. It's not. If that happens (the guides/chain break), place an air nozzle on the bottom lip where the oil pan meets the block and blow some air through the oil pan to see if you hear any debris flying around. If you do, pull of the oil pain and clean. You don't want bits of chain and chain guide clogging up the sump intake. You could also potentially use a magnet for this as some of these aftermarket chain guides have a metal backing making them easy to remove with a magnet. This is likely not to happen even if you rotate if backwards but PAY ATTENTION.
-Essentially, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 19 are the only socket sizes you really need. 80% of the bolts are 12 so have three or four of those sockets lying around.
-Before you put the oil cover on for the last time, douse the cam shaft and cam tray with oil to prep it for operation.
-DO THE VALVE LASH ADJUSTMENT. You need to do this. Feeler gauges are cheap and this step will save you a lot of headache. I used the .008 intake and .012 exhaust measurements and I performed this operation when the engine was cold. Engine sounds great and runs perfectly. Overall, the general school of thought is to perform this when the engine is at running temp and this is correct. You want to allow room for expansion so setting them cold can be problematic. I did it cold and it sounds fine. Very contradictory advice but hey-Yahtzee. If you're performing this type of job and don't know what an engine is supposed to sound like when it runs normally, stop, open your phone app, and call a shop.
-You need to get the surface of the block nice and shiny. Provided you didn't crack your block and it isn't rusted to hell, you should be able to accomplish this with a Roloc bristle brush and an air grinder. Works wonders. Use the green pad then the white for best results. Use a razor blade to peel off the old head gasket. Go slow when using the razor blade as deep divots and scoring on the head can hinder a proper seal making all of your work for nil. This is assuming you're using a new head like I did and the head doesn't need to be worked with at all.
-I bought my head off of eBay for $210. Came ready to install with a cam, springs, retainers, etc. Works like a charm (I knocked on my wooden desk three times as I typed that). Check eBay.
-Lastly, and this is a big one, GET IT UP TO OPERATING TEMP when you're done! If you read my thread posted above, you'll see that I freaked out about that quite a bit. I had done all of my work on this and it was still smoking. The valve lash adjustment cleaned up the rough idle and letting it get up to operating temp cleaned out the white smoke from the exhaust. You WILL have white smoke and coolant spitting out of the exhaust for anywhere from 1 minute to 15 minutes depending on how much coolant escaped into the system when the head-gasket went. Use a proper manifold-to-head gasket and FIPG the coolant orifices going in and out of the head. The white smoke will clear up after about 15 minutes (provided you just let it idle) and you'll be off and running.
I really hope this helps someone embarking on this mission. I learned A LOT doing this. You will too. Best of luck and as mentioned earlier, get on here and ask for help if you need it! There's a couple of frequent fliers on that thread I shared here that are absolute geniuses and provided some great insight for me.
P.S.-Coolant pressure test and a leak down are great diagnostic tools. Use them if you have them. Rent them if you don't.
I just finished this whole thing up after four months of intermittent work. I wanted to write a quick blurb about some helpful do's and don'ts when performing this level of open heart surgery on an engine. I hope this will aid anyone who does a Google search for it in the future.
Vehicle: 1995 Toyota Pickup, 22RE, 4WD manual.
Uses California emissions set-up.
Here's the thread I had going for my issue(s): https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...e-help-303420/
Insanely awesome resource I used: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...ingChain.shtml
And now...the list.
Do:
-Make sure you have good tools for doing this. Cheap stuff will break at the worst possible moments. Avoid that at all costs.
-Try to have access to a cherry picker. It will make the head removal so much easier. Yes, you can wrench it out with your hands but why do that if you have access to a shop crane?
-Pneumatic tools are the best. They made this job so much quicker...until you shear off a bolt head. Go slow. Torque by hand for crucial components (head bolts, anything physically attached to the block, etc.).
Don't:
-Don't be afraid to ask questions. I feel like some dudes need a reminder of that sometimes. This forum saved my life.
-Don't try to take the crankshaft pulley bolt off any other way than what I mention. You'll just be wasting your time.
-Go slow and test fits first. There's a lot of spots on this job that can bind you up by attaching too many things at once. Leave things loose for adjustment and tighten later.
Some crucial things to remember (the juicy part of this post...):
-There's a rigid metal exhaust line that feeds off the exhaust manifold into a recirc system on the intake. Undo both sides of this before you try to remove either manifold or intake. Feel free to bend at will as long as it isn't rusty.
-That recirc line mentioned above will make removal of the intake impossible unless you snag it. If you're wondering why you can't remove your intake all the way but it seems to be hanging free of the head-check this.
-Fluid will find it's way out of everything so be prepared.
-Check your spark plugs before you pull the head. This will help you diagnose which cylinder actually went bad. You can compare your findings with the actual state of the gasket for confirmation (not necessary, but helpful).
-There are two 10mm bolts that hold in the coolant line that passes through the intake into the block. The bolts are tiny and can sheer off easily. This tube and connection are located in the middle of the manifold between the two plenums. The piece that goes into the intake doesn't use a gasket and features a rubber ring around the tube that rests inside of the intake. This is normal and DOES NOT need FIPG at all contrary to what you may thinking.
-The infamous allen bolt on the intake is a thing you need to contend with. Yank all of the bolts for the lower intake and find it unwilling to move? Check this. Located towards the front, on the top, slicing right near the thermo housing into the head.
-You don't need to replace the studs on the intake side of the head for the lower intake manifold. Use bolts. They're much easier especially for the back one on the bottom row and the two that hold in the EGR (large valve that protrudes from the back of the head on the intake manifold side).
-The EGR block off plate that goes on the very back of the head NEEDS FIPG. If you install this without FIPG, you will have a leak almost immediately. Toyota muffed this up royally with it's design. If you did install it without FIPG and have a leak, however, fear not. It can be removed while the head is in place on the engine with a 12mm ratcheting wrench and a lot of patience. Make sure you slide the plate BENEATH the hangars when reinstalling for the coolant and exhaust rigid lines that run behind the back of the head.
-Crankshaft pulley bolt is a nightmare. I used all manner of tools and literally saw nothing. What did the trick? The old "socket-on with starter" maneuver worked in less than two seconds. Simply place a 19mm socket on the bolt with your largest ratchet attached. Rotate the ratchet so the handle rests beneath the LEFT SIDE frame rail so it will catch properly. Get your hands out of the way (please, God, do this). Blip the starter very quickly. The inertia of the engine spinning will break the bolt almost immediately. Don't hammer on the starter, though, if this isn't working. You'll chomp out flywheel teeth like it's going out of style.
-When you rotate the engine to bring it to TDC, be careful not to rotate the engine to much in the opposite direction (counter clock-wise). This will put slack in the timing chain (left side, right side should be tight) and when you rotate it the right way, the slack can catch on the guides and break them [the chain and guides]. It might bind and you'll think the engine is stuck. It's not. If that happens (the guides/chain break), place an air nozzle on the bottom lip where the oil pan meets the block and blow some air through the oil pan to see if you hear any debris flying around. If you do, pull of the oil pain and clean. You don't want bits of chain and chain guide clogging up the sump intake. You could also potentially use a magnet for this as some of these aftermarket chain guides have a metal backing making them easy to remove with a magnet. This is likely not to happen even if you rotate if backwards but PAY ATTENTION.
-Essentially, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 19 are the only socket sizes you really need. 80% of the bolts are 12 so have three or four of those sockets lying around.
-Before you put the oil cover on for the last time, douse the cam shaft and cam tray with oil to prep it for operation.
-DO THE VALVE LASH ADJUSTMENT. You need to do this. Feeler gauges are cheap and this step will save you a lot of headache. I used the .008 intake and .012 exhaust measurements and I performed this operation when the engine was cold. Engine sounds great and runs perfectly. Overall, the general school of thought is to perform this when the engine is at running temp and this is correct. You want to allow room for expansion so setting them cold can be problematic. I did it cold and it sounds fine. Very contradictory advice but hey-Yahtzee. If you're performing this type of job and don't know what an engine is supposed to sound like when it runs normally, stop, open your phone app, and call a shop.
-You need to get the surface of the block nice and shiny. Provided you didn't crack your block and it isn't rusted to hell, you should be able to accomplish this with a Roloc bristle brush and an air grinder. Works wonders. Use the green pad then the white for best results. Use a razor blade to peel off the old head gasket. Go slow when using the razor blade as deep divots and scoring on the head can hinder a proper seal making all of your work for nil. This is assuming you're using a new head like I did and the head doesn't need to be worked with at all.
-I bought my head off of eBay for $210. Came ready to install with a cam, springs, retainers, etc. Works like a charm (I knocked on my wooden desk three times as I typed that). Check eBay.
-Lastly, and this is a big one, GET IT UP TO OPERATING TEMP when you're done! If you read my thread posted above, you'll see that I freaked out about that quite a bit. I had done all of my work on this and it was still smoking. The valve lash adjustment cleaned up the rough idle and letting it get up to operating temp cleaned out the white smoke from the exhaust. You WILL have white smoke and coolant spitting out of the exhaust for anywhere from 1 minute to 15 minutes depending on how much coolant escaped into the system when the head-gasket went. Use a proper manifold-to-head gasket and FIPG the coolant orifices going in and out of the head. The white smoke will clear up after about 15 minutes (provided you just let it idle) and you'll be off and running.
I really hope this helps someone embarking on this mission. I learned A LOT doing this. You will too. Best of luck and as mentioned earlier, get on here and ask for help if you need it! There's a couple of frequent fliers on that thread I shared here that are absolute geniuses and provided some great insight for me.
P.S.-Coolant pressure test and a leak down are great diagnostic tools. Use them if you have them. Rent them if you don't.
Last edited by toyodabro; 04-10-2018 at 07:18 PM.
04-08-2018, 10:47 PM
#2
I'll follow your suggestions, thank you for sharing your experience. 
04-09-2018, 11:14 AM
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This is crucial info. Thank you for reminding me of this. I will edit the post to include that.
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