I wouldn't bring this up with the engine builder if I were you. Even though it sound like your stuck valves were an issue before you tried brake cleaner.

 

For sure... Plus Todd, Ted do great work AND it's ONLY the 22RE head, valves and camshaft... so for them to screw up the valve guides when they only work with ONE KIND would be ridiculous. On Monday I'll see the head and will watch him take it apart and check a few things. Those valve springs are 100lbs of pressure.. you could put marshmallows in the guides and it's STILL push them through. I'm not sure about the tolerances, but is it possible to over-adjust the valves so far that they would in fact come in contact with the piston? I didn't think you could get the piston to touch the valve... but if that happened.. it could have bent valves and THAT'S why they are now "sticking". Anyhow, we'll see on Monday. An yeah, this has been great working with everyone on yotatech... I've learned a ton in a fairly short amount of time.

 

UPDATE: So we figured out that the valves were stuck or having issues, producing very low compression which kept the engine from running. Now we know why... I have never heard of this and didn't even know it could happen but here's the end result... WARNING, this is really messed up.

After I took the engine and transmission out to rebuild and got them to the shops, I started to work on the rest of the truck. I took the gas tank off, emptied all the fuel, put plastic over the holes and rubber banded them on there. The tank sat empty for months and months while I worked on all the other stuff I did to the truck. Turns out that your gas tank builds up "stuff" over it's life which sits in the bottom of the tank. Very rarely do people run a vehicle out of gas, so this stuff in the tank stays relatively undisturbed. By me emptying the tank, it allowed this crap to DRY OUT. Furthermore, when it's warm during the day the air in the tank would expand and in the evening/night when it's cooler, new air would circulate into the tank. This happened daily for nearly a year. It's fairly humid here in the south so this brought moisture into the tank as well. I had no idea, but the tank was horribly rusting away while it sat in the garage for months. Then came time for the tank to go back on... so I start cleaning the outside, moving it all around and further disturbing all this crap in the tank. When I put it back on and got the truck all back together I added ONE GALLON of fresh gas, thinking I can just drive to the gas station and fill up after I get it started. Apparently the fuel pump was able to suck up this new soup that was created in the tank, get past the fuel filter, injectors, etc and dump this crap right into the engine. We took the head off on Tuesday and it was a horror show. Engine has to be rebuilt.... So I guess I'm buying a brand new gas tank, lines, fuel pump, etc and have to pay someone to rebuild it again. Hopefully this information will help someone down the road as to what NOT to do. If I knew this would happen I would have just bought a new gas tank. I had no idea they are only about 100-150 bucks... what a waste of time and money. Gonna be a while before it's all cleaned out and ready for another first start. Super pissed.

 

Wow, that is bad. Guess I shouldn't have blamed the machinist or assembler. I just knew engnbldr wouldn't send out an untested head with stuck valves. Ted has mentioned on forums a few years back that his son, Tod was getting so good that less than 1% of his porting and valve angle-cutting work was out of spec. And he knew that cause they measure and test it.

I pulled my tank once for a couple days to repair the fuel gauge sender, but maybe next time it's out I'll replace it and blow out the lines. Thanks for the graphic warning.

If it makes you feel any better, 5 days ago I got robbed of about $6000 worth of camping gear and tools in Ecuador. I'd love to be out 1-2 grand in machine work instead, can we trade problems? I have a PayPal account so I'll let you mull it over ;-)

 

That sucks you got robbed, humans are awesome right? Took all your stuff while you were away or something... or robbed at gun point/knife point.. something like that? Well all I can do now is pay for the rebuild and move on. Sometimes lessons cost money and sometimes they are hard, I got both on this one. And you're right, I shouldn't go pointing fingers until I have the problem figured out. I just look up information on brand new parts and it says one thing, so I assume it must be that.... wrong. I'll ease off the gas next time until I have all the info lol. Just super frustrated with this whole thing. I guess in the end I've learned that there's a lot of ˟˟˟˟ that goes into mechanics and engine building and I don't have it all figured out yet. Pretty scary thinking that the majority of people out there will NEVER know about any of this, let alone work on their own vehicles. I'll post an update with some pics tomorrow night after we get the engine pulled apart and assess any damage to the cylinders and pistons. Think I should have the injectors cleaned and re-tested after all that crap went through them?... Buy new/refurbished ones? Thanks for the input.

 

Unfortunately, I think you should replace the fuel filter, have the injectors cleaned and blow out all fuel lines and the fuel rail with something like berryman's b-12 chemtool and then compressed air. Better safe than to have it happen again after the new tank and head overhaul. Maybe there's no damage in the bottom end at all, you'll find out soon enough.

If you want a story, I got robbed camping with my girlfriend while we were sleeping in our tent up on a mountain near illiniza, on our way to isinliví. It was so windy up there I didn't hear a thing and I'm a light sleeper. We decided to take a break from all of life's troubles and just got us some badass mountain bikes to try and complete the TEMBR (trans-ecuador mountain bike route). A friendly local at our hostel told us that lots of the route was through very poor, remote areas and the people there will steal from rich gringos if you give the opportunity. In his opinion we were lucky to not have been kidnapped or brought to an ATM at gun or knifepoint.

So we got to keep our camping gear, passports, credit cards, cash and most importantly our lives. We'll live just fine without the tricked-out bikes, spare parts and tools. It's a backpacking-type trip now and we're headed to the Amazon, so we still have it good compared to the guys that robbed us. Those jerks are probably having a blast learning about 3" wide, tubless tires with puncture-proof sealant, 11 speed rear cassettes and long-travel suspension forks.

Well, onward to the Amazons and I look forward to seeing all what happened in your engine and then eventually getting it up and running. Good luck!

 

Glad no one was harmed. 3rd world countries can be dangerous. Have fun on the trip and watch out for humans... they're everywhere!

I'll be posting updates as I progress and when it's done I think I'm going to do a build thread. I learned a whole lot and have a bunch to share and even some ideas for NEW items/fabricated parts/etc. that would work so much better than when you can buy today. When it's done I'll post the link at the end of this thread. Be safe brother