i did the disassembly of the heads all except for the valves. so they could not measure the Clarance since i had the cams ans buckets. they did not inspect the valves and did not need to remove them for doing the mill work.
i just talked to the shop in person. and they said that it sounds like its almost closing and to go ahead and try to shim it. the only long term effect is it will keep pushing up further into the head and wearing out the seal. also after getting it right by just shimming it they advised me that i would need to check it again at 1k to be safe and it may even need to be checked quit often down the road.
the motor ran fine before i did the tear down i just wished i checked the compression before hand.
there are three yota's with the 3.0 slow at the local wrecking yard, ill swoop up some shims tomarrow....good idea....

 

thanks for all the input. im going to give shimming a try today, so here goes nothing....

 

OK, now i have narrowed it down to a couple of size shims that i need, that i could not find at the wrecking yard. #6 .096/#5 .094/#4 .092/#3 .090/#2 .088/#1 .086
If anyone has these that would be great and cheaper then going to the stealership and going through my machine shop.... we could trade i have allot of .102-.108's....

 

IF you put too much air pressure in the cylinders it is possible to break and or frature rings.. i've seen it happen to 2 cars when people were doing a leak doen test.... Hope this is not the same case your having...

 

You can buy after market shim kits but i've never seen aftermarket individuals.... they are hard to find and after market kits are extremely expensive... But the at the dealer you can buy the exact shim you need individually and they are about 10$ a piece i think depending on the shim... oh and toyota measures them in millimeters so your going to need to convert.

 

Lol i know i couldn't believe i said that it totally didn't even cross my mind and its sad cause i've tore apart 3.0's like alot...lol I was thinking of another engine type where that had happened and was distributorless.... You got me

 

What? You better have 20,000 PSI before you're going to hurt a motor doing a leakdown test. You're supposed to use 100 PSI on most leakdown testers, and the most you're going to have in a shop is 150, maybe 180 PSI with a crazy compressor.

Engines meanwhile, are subjected to thousands of PSI when running. I don't see how 150 PSI is going to hurt an otherwise good ring. Sounds like the ring was already broken, and the leakdown tester detected that? After all, a leakdown test was being performed, so that usually means there was a problem.

 

I'm really curious how this is possible. Leakdown pressures are way lower than the normal operating pressures of operating an engine.

 

nice, got her running and she runs very well infact... just wanted to say thanks guy's for all you input as it did help... and thanks Mike, for taking the time to help me out... after doing the valve adjustment she runs real smooth....
3.0 SLOW!!!!!!!

 

Sweet!! Good to hear a success story. I was thinking about you today while I was running irrigation pipe in my hard. Nothing better to think about when you are glueing PVC together.

Glad it worked out. Not sure why they would have moved given what you had done, but if it fixed the problem, then so be it. I would agree with the machine shop that you probably should check them again in a 1000 miles or so just to verify the clearances again. I did that on mine after I had the heads redone and had to swap the shims on three of the exhaust valves. Since then, not issues.

Did you get the right shims the first time, or did you have to go back and get a second round of shims?

 

no one could tell me why the Clarance would be off after i did everything in order and such. but now i know how adjust the valves, witch is nice and i have done all the work myself, so I'm getting to know this 3.0slow very well...
i went back to the wrecking yard and they just got another yota with the 3.0 and pulled all the shims and low and behold it had the ones i needed. know i have 15 shims so I'm set for down the road....

 

Well, Toyota thanks you for the support and keeping them in business with your purchase of valve shims. Funny how just the ones you need show up a few days late. Hopefully you will not have to do too much more work on it in the near future.

 

Acctaully one case was not really a leakdown test but on an old mazda protege a guy brought in the shop he pressuized the cylinder testing for a head gasket and or cracked head cause it was running hot and consuming coolant. I dont remember how much pressure h put on it but i was watching for bubbles in the cap and as he was pressuizing the cyl we heard a loud click. and air started coming out the oil fill cap alot... then we did a compression check and it was 53psi..... I told the guy hey man think its got a broke ring..... Started it up and black smoke everywhere.... That car i never saw again.. Another case was a leak down test on an old 350 chevy. I don't know how it happened but the car pulled in with no smoke but he wanted the compression checked and leaked down tested to see if he needed to rebuild it... (I was like W/E) So me and another guy got on it and did each cyl then we got back around to #1 cyl and screwed in the pressure gauge leak down set and turn on air and a few secs later another "click." I was like oh man.... The cyl started before the click with about 50% leakage then to 94% after the click.... I've done this test more than 100 times and i've seen this happen twice.... after we checked compression we decided to start it for a sec and sure enough black smoke puring out the exhaust and i was yellin "KILL IT KILL IT" So yea i've seen it but i know its pretty uncommon....... Never seen it happen to a toyota

 

Well i actually got all 15 for $5 bucks. Small town wrecking yard.....

 

That's crazy, what could that possibly be? Guess you guys never took it apart to see?

Sorry for the hijack.

 

That is a sweet deal. Around here they want at least a buck a piece for them.

Did you do a compression check after the valve clearance adjustment? Curious if both of the low cylinders came back to full compression or not.

 

not yet, too much work..... it fells very stong and runs very smooth... i am gonna wait until next weekend to check the compression. im going to be out of town for work all week...

 

Lol i know it sounds too impossible to be true but it happened and reading changed and it really really happened. no we did not take it apart so i don't know for 100% fact but yea....

 

If something like a ring broke from the leakdown test, then it was about to break anyway. An otherwise good component will not ever break from a leakdown. That's weird that you've seen this twice. I have never heard of this happening to anyone before.

Thanks for the info!