I bought the Haynes manual and have read that thing and made pages of notes read tons of threads on here and will be pulling the engine hopefully this weekend! Engine only has 127k on it when i blew it up due to a brick taking out my radiator on the 99...sad day. so anything crazy i should know about before rebuild? specific piston rings i should be using? and what the hell is a "ridge reamer" and what does it do?

 

ok man i have to ask how a brick hit your radiator on the 99?

 

A ridge reamer takes the ring ridge out of the cylinder. If this is your first buid/rebuild, you might want to find a shop to talk to or take the block to for that.

 

It is exactly that!, a tool used to ream the ridges of the cylinder to prevent detonation and/or dieseling. When re-boring or honing your cylinders, a sharp edge is created on the rim (top edge) of the cylinder (where the head mounts to the engine block). You will need to "ream" or "knock it down" so as to not create a hot spot. Helpful advice, clean everything thoroughly with lint free paper towels, a little performance trick, with the heads off, index your spark plugs. Enjoy!.......

 

idk i was cruising down the road saw an orange puff and heard a thunk when it hit me. blew the engine checked it out when i got it towed..lots of orange brick chunks everywhere...

 

A ridge reamer cuts down the ridgr you may feel at the top of the cylinders. Some are worse than others. All it is is a ridge crated by the rings never going that far in the cylinder and when the cylinders wear it leaves a small ridge.
Take it to a machine shop and get all the machine work done, boring, headwork, turning crank all that stuff
Plastiguage all your bearings as you put it back together to check your clearances.
Plenty of assembly lube
Take your time and keep it clean
If you know anybody that has done a few see if they can walk you thru it and sort of supervise since it is your first

 

that sucks

 

Which motor do you have in the truck? The 4 cylinders are easier to me, but the V6's are also not that bad to work on once you get used to them.

 

Also, if you've never done a motor rebuild before make friends with someone who has....it can save you a lot of time and money.

 

I just saw that it was a 22re motor, so yeah there are a few things you need to know. First: replace the timing chain guides with the metal backed ones. The all plastic ones are crap. 2nd: Look up how to adjust valves when reassambling, It is super easy and often is done wrong by inexperienced mechanics. 3rd: don't reuse the head bolts as they are a stretch design.

The info on and the torque specs for these motors is all over the web, so you should have no problems finding the info you need. I just rebuilt mine last week and it was not too bad at all.